Chapter 7 - Stealth is of the Essence

Crash stared blindly at the ceiling of his room, not knowing what to do with himself. He had just witnessed a horrific battle, where many of his friends had been killed. This really was the end for everyone.

"How can we possibly win against such a large force?" Crash thought to himself, the anger now boiling up inside him.

Crash walked up to his window and looked out towards the ocean. The sky was a deep crimson in colour, much like the blood stained battlefield he had fought on not so long ago. He gave a heavy sigh.

"Come on Crash, this isn't like you, you don't just give up so easily, there MUST be a way to stop Cortex!"

Crash slumped himself back onto his bed and started to ponder just what exactly to do. Time seemed to drag on forever, but finally, he came up with an idea.

"I mustn't let the others know about this, I don't want them to become involved again"

As quietly as he could, Crash opened his window, lifted himself out of his room and proceeded to walk directly to the ruins of Cortex Castle, alone.

After many hours had passed, Coco grew too impatient, rushed to Crash;s room and banged on the door.

"Crash, are you ok? you've been in there for hours, why won't you come out?"

There was no reply to her questions. Coco opened the door and burst into the room, she gave a small yelp as she realised there was no one in the room.

"Crunch, Aku, Crash isn't in his room!" she yelled.

Aku Aku and Crunch rushed to Crash's room and noticed the open window, the curtains billowing in the wind.

"Man, where could he have gone?" Crunch questioned.

"There is only one place that he could have gone to, Cortex Castle!"

"WHAT," Coco protested, "we have to get after him now, he's going to get himself killed!"

"No, something tells me Crash knows what he is doing, it is best to let him do what he has to do."

"I hope you're right Aku, I really do," Crunch said with a sigh.

Meanwhile, at the ruins of Cortex Castle, a small orange marsupial was carefully making his way up the long, winding path towards what was left of the castle. The air was brimming with evil intentions as Crash clambered up onto a large heap of rubble, and nestled himself up at the top. From where he was, Crash could see the entire area of the castle, and what he saw took his breath away.Hundreds upon thousands of robotic creatures were busily constructing what looked like a huge cannon.

"So Cortex plans to destroy the entire island using the cannon? He is more insane than I first thought!" Crash thought to himself in shock.

Crash peered over to his left, and saw the menacing object of Cortex ordering the creatures to do his dirty work.

"Come on you slackers!" He bellowed, "at this rate the cannon won't be finished on time, speed up, or I will have you terminated, do you hear me!"

"Yes master," one of the creatures replied, and quickly gathered up more scraps of metal.

"Soon Crash, I will destroy you, even if it means I annihalate this entire island to do so!" Cortex let out a maniacal laugh that rang out across the rubble.

"You bastard Cortex!" Crash muttered under his breath, "I have to go and warn the others."

Crash began to descend the rubble where he was situated, trying not to make any sound, so as not to be detected. Suddenly, an entire chunk of the rubble came loose without warning. Crash looked on in horror as the debris cascaded down and collided with heaps of metal down below. The noise attracted the attention of Cortex, who glimpsed a blur of orange darting away from the castle.

"IT'S CRASH, AFTER HIM, DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE!"

"Shit, they've spotted me"

Crash ran like he had never ran before. He looked behind him and saw a group of twenty or so robots chasing after him, their claws out, their teeth bearing, they were out to kill him.

"There's no way I can keep this up for long, how can I lose them?" Crash started to panic. Then, an idea sprang into his head.

Crash made a sharp turn left and bolted down the path there, the robotic creatures hot on his tail.

"I think I'm starting to lose them" Crash hoped.

He came to a grinding halt as he came face to face with a cliff overlooking the river that flowed through the jungle. He could hear the snarls and growls of the robots coming closer, he had no choice, he had to jump. Without a second thought, Crash closed his eyes, held his breath, and jumped.