1-3 Potion Commotion
Ugh, I'm feeling sick as I'm typing this Author Note (It's not that, no worries).
But the show must go on, with the final part of World 1. Enjoy.
Super Mario and Crash Bandicoot belong to their respective companies.
Inside the clock room of Peach's Castle, converted into N. Brio's personal laboratory, with machinery, computers, and two display cases containing some strange looking flowers, the titular doctor was swirling his newest potion in preparation for his encounter with his friends.
He had taken quite the shine to the many strange objects in this reality, specifically regarding those power granting flowers and mushrooms that could be found practically everywhere. He couldn't help but chuckle malevolently as he imagined the creations he could make with these flowers.
Suddenly, the doors to his lab were flung open by the body of a lab assistant being kicked through it. The heroes of this world, Mario; Luigi and Peach, along with his two friends and their father figure mask rushed inside, ready to fight him.
"Good, you've arrived!" He greeted them with a grin on his face. "I'll admit, avoiding my obstacle course of doom almost put a damper on my mood, but these strange flowers and their endless potential has me incredibly excited! Gahahaha!"
"Well get ready to get your mood ruined again when we beat you and kick you out of this castle!" Mario threatened.
"Oh, we can't have that. I need this army, otherwise Dr. Cortex won't get the gift he oh so rightfully deserves!" N. Brio jumped onto a platform that rose into the air, giving him the perfect vantage point for his fight. "Now let's stop wasting time, and get on with the final t-t-test!"
Boss Ti-
A squeal coming from somewhere in the room rudely interrupted the fight, with everyone stopping to see where the noise was coming from.
N. Brio already knew what that sound was about, however, as he lowered the platform he was on and made his way to one of the nearby rooms. "Hold on, everyone." He said as he entered the room.
He walked out of the room with the source of the sound, which caused everyone to coo at the sight. An adorable, green baby pterodactyl creature nestled in N. Brio's arms.
"Awwwwwww, who's that little cutie?" Peach said, mesmerized enough by adorableness to have forgotten what exactly they were doing.
"Ah, yes, I should introduce you to them." N. Brio raised the little reptile child in front of him, the baby squeaking as it examined the world in front of him. "This is Nitrus Junior. Crash, Coco, you two should remember them, right? The egg laying incident."
"Yes. I very much remember. No matter how much I don't want to." Coco said through gritted teeth,remembering every detail of the incident at Tranquility Falls. Whoever said childbirth was beautiful had never witnessed it in the first place.
Crash, who was not traumatized by the incident, either due to ignorance, or because he had somehow seen worse visuals, happily greeted the baby, as the good godfather that he was.
"Yes, the egg hatched a while ago, before I entered this reality. Ah, fatherhood is hard, but it is so rewarding." N. Brio said as he pulled out a bottle of mashed worms, and little Junior ate up their meal.
"I know one guy who would definitely agree with you on that." Mario chuckled, he along with everyone politely waiting for the scientist to finish being a father.
When Nitrus Junior finished his meal, letting out a cute burp, N. Brio took the baby to a crib that he had put in the room for this very situation. "You all don't mind if I let them stay here to watch. I want them to see their father do their work."
"Oh, we don't mind." Luigi waved off N. Brio's worries. "We all know that children learn from their parents."
Once Junior was put in his crib, the little reptile child cheering for their papa, N. Brio returned to the platform, and let it rise back into the air. "Now, where were we?"
Without missing a beat, everyone was back in position. Heroes poised for battle, glaring at the evil scientist, and N. Brio holding his potions threateningly.
"Oh right. Our test! Muhahahaha! MUHAHAHAHA!"
Boss Time
The heroes waited for N. Brio to make the first move. For posterity's sake.
"You'll like my first potion. I find it to be the bomb!" With that terrible pun, the scientist downed one of his potions.
Everyone saw as he convulsed a bit, before being engulfed in a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, N. Brio had transformed into a pterodactyl, though red instead of the usual green. He took off into the air, circling the arena.
Coco shuddered at the sight, already having a bad feeling about the scenario. "Please don't tell me you're laying another egg!" She yelled at him.
"Nonsense, young lady!" N. Brio's cheeks suddenly bulged, glowing red, and he spat out a fireball right at the girl. It was Crash's diving save that saved her from becoming Bandicoot Barbecue, leaving the fireball to simply explode harmlessly on the floor. "I went for something much more practical this time."
Mario and Luigi were very familiar with the situation. Fire breathing monsters were pretty much a requirement for any adventure of theirs. And if n. Brio's claim of using the flowers was anything to go by…
Mario jumped over towards the Bandicoots, who were currently getting off the ground. "He's using a fire flower to breath fire." He said to them.
The two stared at him in confusion, not understanding what he meant by that. Before Mario could elaborate, N. Brio separated the little gathering with another fireball. He began bombarding the arena with fireball after fireball, keeping everyone on their toes.
Outside of the arena, where Peach and Aku Aku were overseeing the whole battle, the princess turned to the mask, knowing what Mario was planning. "Fire flowers aren't permanent. A single hit usually removes the power."
"Just one hit?" Peach nodded affirmatively to his question. "Then let's find our opening, then."
N. Brio continued taking potshots at the heroes, who were running around the arena like chickens. He hovered in the air, taking in a deep breath for a powerful fireball attack.
Crash took note of that attack, his brain making the connection that a charged attack meant it could be reflected, according to evil science logic. He stopped in his tracks, and made himself as attractive a target as possible.
N. Brio took notice of Crash posing seductively, beckoning him to shoot at him.
He may have taken that train of thought a bit too literally.
Regardless, it worked, and N. Brio fired his charge attack at the bandicoot. Exactly what Crash planned for, as he spun the fireball, reflecting the hit into the mutant scientist.
"Gah!" The fireball made contact with him, sending him flying into the air and onto the raised platform. His skin color changed from red to green, signifying that he had lost the fire power.
"Good job, big brother." Coco complimented her brother's cleverness, turning to look at him, and losing her admiration in him the moment she saw. Her brother shot her a thumbs up, thanking her. While he was on fire.
Then he noticed he was on fire, and began panicking, running around trying to put himself out.
Luigi took off his hat and rushed to help the marsupial put out the flames. "Stop, drop and roll. Stop, drop and roll!"
The others left the two to their thing, moving their attention to the dazed N. Brio.
"Aku Aku, can you help me get Mario up there?" The princess asked the mask.
"With pleasure."
As the mask flew over into position, Mario quickly figured out what Peach needed him to do. Repeating their combo move from back in the foyer, Mario jumped into the air above Peach, with the princess pulling out her parasol and opening it to propel the plumber into the air.
He zoomed through, and with the help of Aku Aku, used the mask as a platform to jump again and reach the scientist. Pulling out his hammer, he slammed the scientist on his reptilian head, hard.
"Why!" N. Brio whined as he kicked the plumber off his platform back to the ground. He shook his head, somewhat dazed by the hammer strike, and glared at the heroes. "Well then, you seem to be dealing with this better than I expected. Well don't be surprised if I start giving you all a cold reception!" He grabbed a blue vial from his belt, and downed it in one go. His skin turned an icy blue, and he took to the air once more.
"I'm guessing this is ice powers?" Coco asked Mario as she helped him up.
"Yep. It's the same principle with fire flowers. One hit and it's gone."
"Alright then." She said with a grin on her face.
N. Brio began firing into the arena once more, although this time, his attacks were different. The ice balls he was firing added a layer of ice on the ground where they hit, slowly transforming the arena into an ice rink.
Back with Crash and Luigi, the burning bandicoot's flames were finally doused. Crash thanked Luigi for the help, cleaning up his charred fur back to it's orange color. They went to rejoin the fight, only to nearly fall over due to the ice.
"Hah, slipping up, are we?" N. Brio mocked them, and readied up another charge attack.
Coco saw her chance, and did her best to regain her footing and skate her way to Crash and Luigi, ready to do what Crash did and reflect the attack back. Since it wasn't a fireball, Coco wouldn't catch fire when she spun it back, avoiding the same fate her brother had suffered. Foolproof genius.
N. Brio spat out the giant blue fire ball, sending it at the prone duo, only for Coco to intercept it. The scientist winced as he braced himself for the ice ball to come flying at him.
That's what would have happened if the attack wasn't a ball of freezing ice, though. Since it was one, all that happened was Coco being frozen in place in a block of ice, stuck mid spin.
Crash had to stifle his laughter under his sister's frozen glare, as she slowly slid across the battlefield like a DVD screensaver. N. Brio was less polite about it, laughing up a storm at the sight.
"Hah! I definitely knew that would happen!" He boasted, and got back to firing off ice balls onto the field, now much more keen on aiming for his targets.
"So touching them is a bad idea." Luigi pointed out to Crash. They were both now skating on the ice, rather gracefully, might I add. "How are we going to hit him then?"
Crash shrugged his shoulders, no ideas coming to mind.
Mario skated towards them, grabbing Luigi and holding him above his head. "Easy. We use our hammers."
N. Brio, unaware of the secret plan the brothers had concocted, prepared another charge attack, aiming it right for the two brothers, mocking him with their gracefulness on the ice.
When the shot was fired, Mario suddenly began spinning, Luigi pulling out his hammer. The duo spun towards the ball of blue fire, striking it with the hammer and sending it flying into N. Brio.
Struck in the face by his own attack, the flying mutant was sent back to his platform, skin green and his head encased in ice.
"Mario! Come over- Oh!" Peach skated into position, only to notice that Mario's plan didn't work as well as expected, since Luigi was now also frozen in a block of ice, Mario struggling to hold him up.
"Crash, it's your turn!" Aku Aku called to the bandicoot.
Crash skated towards them, letting Peach propel him into the air, Aku Aku to give him an extra jump in the air, and letting him land right on N. Brio's platform. One spin, and his head was slammed into the metal floor, breaking the ice and damaging him a second time.
The bandicoot was kicked off the platform as N. Brio got up again, now extra mad, and with a potential concussion. "Why don't people take me seriously?" He complained. He grabbed both the red and blue bottles from his belt, and downed them both. He took to the air once more, now his skin a greyish color. "I don't know what joke I can make with this. Just know that I now have fire and ice powers! Muhahaha!"
Now he was firing fireballs and ice balls, swapping between them at random. One fireball struck Coco's ice block, freeing her from her prison and sending her sprawling on the floor.
N. Brio was getting wise now. Realizing that freeing the Mario Bros was a bad idea, he made sure to avoid shooting fireballs at them, focusing most of his fire on the bandicoot siblings. Without their trusty hammers, there was no way they could reflect his ice fireballs at him, which he was using exclusively as his charge attack. Devious.
"Well this has gotten complicated." Aku Aku and Peach joined up with Crash and Coco. "We'll need a new plan of attack."
"And one that doesn't get us frozen or on fire." Coco complained as she wrung her hair back into shape. "Any ideas, anyone?"
Peach hummed as she thought a bit, and looked at her parasol. "I think I can send you flying at him, as long as he doesn't attack us before I can get you there."
"Yeah, I think he's being kept busy pretty well." Coco said as she looked at the Mario Bros currently being chased around by N. Brio, desperately skating along the ground and dodging his ice balls. "Strange that he hasn't noticed us, though."
"Gahahaha! Yes, scurry around like the little rats you are!" N. Brio mocked the Mario Bros as he chased after them. He was feeling pretty darn confident about things now. He had a foolproof strategy, super powers, a foolproof plan…
Okay, so perhaps all those hits to the head weren't doing his brain too well, or something along those lines. And now he felt like something was missing now. He was ignoring something important. But what...
N. Brio suddenly stopped spitting and turned around to the thing he had forgotten about. Thankfully, his child was still in the room, cheerfully waving at his father. He was also out of the crib and by the computer console that controlled the room. That was probably not a good thing.
"Now Crash!" Someone yelled behind him. Oh right, the others that weren't the Mario Brothers. He forgot about them for a second. Weird.
He turned around and was greeted with a flying bandicoot spinning in his face, sending him flying back to his platform.
"Excellent work, Crash." Aku Aku complimented the bandicoot, right as he splattered face first onto the ground with zero grace. "Now let's get you up there!"
The mask flew to get into position, only to be nearly hit by a surprise fireball. N. Brio had gotten back up, reduced to his fire form by the strike. "Hah! Don't expect it to end that easily. Now, time to taste my reptilian wra-!" He stopped mid sentence when something caught his eye. "Wait, don't, Nitrus Junior!"
To the horror of everyone, the baby had gotten itself on the computer console, and was pressing buttons at random. The horror.
"Yeah, that's gonna end bad for us." Coco deadpanned.
In front of N. Brio's platform, a bunch of electric gates popped up from the ground. Laser turrets appeared from the ceiling and started firing wildly, at least one shot striking and freeing the Mario Bros. And a literal morning star popped out of the ceiling, swinging between the electric gates.
"Nevermind, keep pressing buttons for father!" N. Brio went from worried to prideful, and smirked evilly at the heroes. "Try getting past this little obstacle course. You definitely regret not taking my obstacle course of doom for the experience now, huh!"
The heroes gulped at the sight. They could see no way of actually making it through. Not to mention N. Brio had outright given up on bothering with charge attacks. He was just shooting fireballs at them, and combined with all the laser fire, it was almost impossible to even get near.
If only there was someone out there who could help save the day.
Toadsworth hummed as he made his way to the clock room, feeling well enough to get up and walk on his own. His muscles felt very sore, but not in the old man way. It was honestly quite refreshing. And nice too. This must be what bodybuilders felt like all the time!
Regardless of the wonderfulness of being utterly jacked, he was making his way upstairs in order to do his royal duty of helping the princess. And his new transformation would be a massive help with that.
He went to open the door, breaking it off its hinges with a slight tug. Toadsworth simply shrugged it off and entered the room. "Princess! Are you in here?"
He apparently entered at an awkward time. Everyone in the room stood still and stared at him, apparently in the middle of an epic battle with a strange pterodactyl creature.
"Toadsworth! Help us!" His princess yelled at him.
"No, t-t-test subject, help me instead!" The pterodactyl beast, N. Brio apparently, called out to him instead.
Toadsworth considered his options. Should he help the princess he had literally raised as a baby, or the scientist that had given him his new, ultra ripped body to better protect her?
Oh, who was he kidding, of course it's the princess!
Toadsworth looked at the door in his hand. He swung his arm back, and threw the door at N. Brio, sending it flying at an incredible speed thanks to his strength.
N. Brio blinked slowly, having only enough time to stare at the incoming projectile, and to utter a few words that perfectly encapsulated his feelings in the situation.
"Ah, phooey."
Everyone winced in pain when the door collided with N. Brio's skull, sending him flying off the platform onto the floor. The hit was hard enough that not only did it depower him from his fire form, it also knocked him out of the pterodactyl form outright. He was defeated.
The heroes would have started celebrating with dances and victory poses, basking in their glory.
But that didn't happen, since the baby was crying. Turns out conking someone's father in the face with a metal door was guaranteed to scare their child into a crying fit. And with most people present in the room being heroes, they were all very sensitive to the sound of a distressed child.
Crash and Luigi quickly rushed over in order to help calm down the distressed child, making various funny faces in an attempt to calm them down. The baby just kept crying, the faces ineffective.
Crash dug through his jean pockets for his yoyo, thinking it might help if he showed the baby some cool tricks. He struggled to pull it out for a bit, but managed to yank it out by the string. The momentum sent the toy flying out of his pocket, and smacked Luigi right in the nose.
At the very early stages of a child's life, other people's pain was something they found hilarious. Nitrous Junior was no exception, as they began giggling at the sight.
Crash and Luigi looked at each other, sighing as they realized what it was they had to do. Something they were very familiar with.
Back with the others, they were walking up to a dazed N. Brio, who was clutching his head as he stood back up on wobbling legs.
"Oh, my giant head." He muttered in pain. "Well, congratulations I guess. You beat my final test. What do you want now, a star?" He asked the heroes mockingly.
"What we want, N. Brio, is answers." Aku Aku replied with a strong glare that made the scientist flinch at first. "Where is Dr. Cortex?"
N. Brio blinked slowly, realizing what it was they were asking of him. "How should I know where he is?"
That answer confused everyone, but especially Coco and Aku Aku. "Because you're working for him again? You keep talking about how you're going to make an army for him as a gift to send to him, and stuff?" The bandicoot girl pointed out.
"That was a euphemism you dolts!" Now N. Brio was mad. "How did you not know that? It's evil science 101! I've been using them for years, talking about "rewards", and "tests" and "gifts." I at least expected you to notice." He pointed at Coco. "You're supposed to be the smart one!"
"Supposed?" She said, incredibly offended. If Aku didn't fly next to her and told her to stay calm, she would have gone ahead and decked N. Brio in the face.
Mario, meanwhile, asked the obvious question. "But Coco said the only way you could come here was if you came with Cortex?"
"Well, yes, I did come with him. Let me explain."
"You see, the doctor had called me up, asking for my help in invading this new dimension he had discovered."
N. Brio mockingly mimed Cortex talking while he listened to his former master talk on the phone, having to answer it while making dinner for his child.
"Apparently he still didn't know that I betrayed him twice, and planned to kill him twice. But who was I to let another chance at revenge pass me by."
N. Brio chuckled to himself as he began plotting, only to stop when he realized he hadn't hung up, and Cortex was still listening in on him. Luckily Cortex assumed he was laughing about the idea of invading another dimension, still unaware of his subordinates revenge plot.
"When he brought me through to this universe, I found out he was busy having a war with a resident conqueror called Bowser."
N. Brio was humorlessly feeding his child as he saw lab assistants explode left and right, bored out of his mind.
"I was wondering why I was needed here at all. And as I found out, Cortex didn't know either."
He looked around the field where Cortex had parked their base operations, pizza's in hand, to find that there was no base of operations in sight.
"They left me behind on this planet more than two weeks ago. Those jerks! Not to mention the other lab assistants they left behind as well. And so I began plotting an even grander revenge scheme!"
"I had found this town and decided that everyone here was the ideal set of test subjects for creating an army of super soldiers to vanquish Dr. Cortex with, and therefore I would save this reality and become it's saviour!" He said with some grandiose arm gestures, then crossed his arms and frowned. "Of course all of you people had to be so uncooperative. Seriously, how hard does it have to be to forcefully mutate a bunch of innocent townsfolk into an army of mutant monsters. People should be rushing in to volunteer for such a fate!"
"Dude, no one likes that stuff." Coco pointed out.
"Really?"
"No, they don't."
"... Well that sounds stupid." The scientist scoffed. "Besides, I haven't figured out where Cortex is yet. There's still time for me to perfect my potion and hunt him down."
"Oh no you're not." Peach grabbed him by the scruff of his lab coat. "I am not going to allow you to experiment on my subjects anymore."
"B-b-but, how am I going to beat Cortex? What other way is there to defeat an enemy other than raising a mutant army to tear them apart?"
"You could, I dunno, work with the actual good guys who have the best track record of beating up super scientists?" Coco sarcastically suggested. "You might not have noticed, but every time we have to deal with you people, we always come out on top. Isn't that right, Crash?"
Crash turned around when Coco called him out, and gave a thumbs up, probably aware of what the conversation was about. His head was smashed in by Luigi's hammer, the owner hurriedly apologizing while the baby laughed hysterically.
"Hmmm, that does seem to make sense." The scientist considered the idea. "It all still seems odd to me."
"Hey, think of it this way." Mario cheerfully began. "By helping us out, you can see what it's like to be on the good guys side, and maybe even make up for the whole "trying to experiment on the toads" thing."
"Hmmmm." N. Brio hummed as he thought. Doing things the heroes way did seem like an interesting prospect. The amount of people the good guys experimented on, if he was right, was none. That was not something he was used to. Then again, the whole supervillain job wasn't really safe for a single father. The responsibility of taking care of a child was very difficult to uphold when someone had to spend their time in prison for evil science crimes.
After thinking it through, N. Brio smiled and extended a hand. "Well then, I accept this little alliance idea. Let's see where this good guy thing takes me."
Mario happily grabbed the hand and shook it, sealing the deal. Ah, it was always fun to get your enemies to work with you. Even if they terrorized your home on a daily basis.
Crash and Luigi returned to the group, the latter handing over Nitrus Junior to their father. N. Brio grabbed a bandicoot toy out of his lab coat, giving it for the little reptile to chew on.
"Well, I guess you can begin this little alliance by cleaning up my castle, and undoing what you did to Toadsworth." Peach ordered the scientist, pointing to Toadsworth as he bench pressed a random piece of machinery.
"Oh, that will wear off in about..." N. Brio checked his watch for the time. "Right now."
Right on cue, Toadsworth's massively jacked body suddenly deflated, returning the retainer to his original size. The machinery he was bench pressing nearly fell on top of him, the old codger dodging it right on time. He couldn't help but sigh depressedly when he realized what happened.
Peach led the scientist out of the room, planning to supervise the cleanup just to make sure he wasn't planning anything malicious. The others remained in the room, now considering what to do.
"So, we don't know where Cortex is." Mario began summarizing. "But we do know he's fighting Bowser. How are we going to find them now?" He thought for a bit, and turned to his brother. "Hey, Luigi, you think E. Gadd has anything that can help with this?"
Luigi hummed as he thought. "No, I don't think so. He's mostly been busy with ghost stuff as of late… Hey, Coco, you're a scientist, right?" He asked the bandicoot girl.
"I.Q. of 164." She boasted. Crash popped up next to her and tapped his head, confirming his sister's genius.
"Isn't there a chance that you might have some kind of gadget that can help out in this? Some sort of super villain detector?"
"As a matter of fact, I do." Coco pulled out her tablet, tapping away at it as she spoke. "I was actually working on a Super Scientist Locator for a few years now. It's back at our house, in my lab."
With the press of a button, Coco opened up a rift between realities in the center of the room, spooking Luigi a little into jumping into his brother's arms. Mario simply admired the portal as the bandicoot genius walked up to it.
"We just have to take a quick trip back to our house, grab it, and come back here. Then we can find out where Cortex is and clean up the mess they've caused."
Crash hopped in front of the portal, enticing the Mario Bros to hop through first, clearly excited to show them his island home.
Mario was excited by the prospect. He turned to call out to Toadsworth, who was currently lying on the ground bemoaning his loss of his muscles. "Hey, Toadsworth! Tell Peach we'll be back soon. We have to go pick something up in another dimension!"
"Of course, Master Mario." He ended his response with a wistful sigh.
With that said, Mario turned to the portal, and with a high spirited "Yahoo!", he jumped inside.
Crash joined him, jumping inside, Aku Aku following close behind him.
Coco turned to look at Luigi, who was shivering at the sight of the giant, pulsing tear between realities he was supposed to jump through. "No need to worry, it's perfectly safe. Nothing bad has happened to us when we jump through these things." She turned to jump into the portal, a nervous look on her face as she whispered to herself. "Yet."
"Hoo boy." Luigi sighed as he shook his head. With fearful confidence, the green plumber jumped into the portal, following his brother into yet another adventure, the rift closing behind them.
Meanwhile, back at N. Sanity Island.
"Let go, you stupid crab thing!" A female voice yelled out from within the brush of the forest. Coming out of the forest was a tall, attractive looking blonde bandicoot, trying to shake off a giant crab that had grabbed onto her leg.
Once the crab was sent flying with a well placed kick, the bandicoot woman turned to look at where she was. She was standing before Crash and Coco's house, the lights still on, and activity visible through the window.
"Okay, Tawna. You were gone for way longer than you expected, but that's alright." Tawna started to psych herself up. "Just go in, explain everything to them, make them some dinner, and maybe they'll forgive you for disappearing on them for 2 years."
She looked through the window, seeing the silhouettes of things being thrown across the room. Probably the siblings fighting over the remote again. "Oh, I missed those three."
She walked to the door and knocked. The noise coming from inside stopped, meaning that they had heard her.
"Here we go."
Tawna opened the door and yelled. "Guess who?!"
Her excitement slowly faded away when she realized that who was in the house was not the bandicoots she was looking for. "Uhmmm?"
A bunch of screams could be heard across the entire island, as it was bathed by the light of the full moon. A round shadow flew past it, and a malevolent laugh joined in on the cacophony of terror.
It was going to be a spooky night at N. Sanity Island.
I know that egg is going to come into play in the next Crash game, hopefully as part of a Heel-Face Turn for N. Brio. I feel it in my bones.
I'm gonna be taking a week break from the story, mostly to work on a request that I've been ignoring for far too long. Luckily for all of you, this chapter was going to be far longer, so I chopped it off and will be posting that as an interlude chapter next week to tide you guys until the next chapter.
The next world of the story is the spooky one, which I'm posting right after Halloween. Lovely irony, eh?
Remember, reviews and criticisms are heavily appreciated.