3-2 Dile D for Dingo
I think once a month is a good schedule for chapters. Do you?
Anyway, one week left till E3, meaning one week left till Crash (hopefully) gets to Crash Smash. And also a few days left till we find out what that secret project is that they've been teasing us about. Wumpa League's the name, and our only clue.
Anyway, enjoy the fruits of my labor.
The elevator doors parted ways, revealing Mario and Coco standing bravely and at the ready, Aku Aku floating between them. The other two, Luigi and Crash, peaked out from behind the two, trembling in fear. Mario simply walked without noticing Luigi's state, while Coco did notice her brother's state, rolling her eyes and shoving him forward.
The 10th floor Museum of Unnatural History was eerily empty, with garbage strewn about from the residents' escape. Some scuff marks and stray bits of ectoplasm marking the walls and floors showed signs of a struggle, of ghosts resisting their kidnappings to no avail. It was a sight right out of a horror movie.
"Whoever's hunting these ghosts must be ruthless. Look at all this damage." Coco took in the scene, shuddering at the sight of it all. "I didn't think ghost hunting would be this violent. At least not as violent as with King Boo."
"Yeah, it's like someone just threw them around without concern. Luigi would never do that, right bro?"
"Oh! Oh, yeah, definitely, hehe." Luigi answered his brother's question, neglecting to mention all the times he had slammed the ghosts around like ragdolls during his third time rescuing his bro. Which, memory served him, was the entire adventure. So, it was a lot.
The quintet of heroes walked through the museum, their search for the elevator button leading them right into the main hall of the floor. They investigated every nook and cranny, kicking away trash and shifting tarps and covers. Mario and Luigi used their jumping ability to look in the rafters and gain a bird's eye view of the floor, while Crash and Coco messed around with the exhibits, seeing if things had been hidden within them. All they could find was gold and cash. In their situation, it was all tantamount to nothing.
Crash smushed his face on the glass of a display case, staring intently inside for anything shiny and round and button like. Unfortunately, it only had a nice looking vase, worn with time and depicting a positive message about love or friendship or whatever that he couldn't be bothered to read. He simply removed his face from the glass, walked towards the next display case, one with a skull of an unidentifiable animal inside it, and repeated the process, the only evidence of his search being the imprint of his face left on the glass cases.
Coco, being the genius gadgeteer she was, went about the search with the aid of her high tech tablet. Her personal gadget had plenty of uses, ranging from long range communications, potent hacking abilities, and a personal, fully automated back scratcher installed witnin it. What she was using right now was what she had dubbed "The Missing Stuff Finder" (Patent Pending,) a functionality added after too many incidents of losing the tv remote and yoyo's rolling under the sofa without their knowledge. She used it to scan the area, awaiting the ping sound that would signal the button's location. But it never came.
"Let's hope we didn't pass the button over in one of the previous floors. We still have at least four more to look into." Mario lifted a hat off one of the benches, finding a gold bar, but no button. "Oh, why didn't we add stairs to the building designs? A staircase would be so helpful to us right about now."
"Who designs a giant, 15 story building without adding a stairway? That's like making a death laser without adding a self-destruct button. It makes no sense." Coco complained, looking up from her tablet to stare at the red plumber incredulously.
"I mean, the hotel is run mostly by ghosts for ghosts. They don't really need stairs, what with the whole phasing through matter and flying aspect. We'll just have to deal with it, and find that elevator button." Mario said.
The group continued their search of the area. With the floor so empty, there wasn't much concern about being attacked suddenly. All the previous floors had been searched without any kind of interference, so it would go without saying that the pattern would repeat itself here as well.
Until it was broken when Crash and Coco's ears picked up the sound of the elevator doors parting open, followed closely by the sound of footsteps.
"Uh oh." Crash muttered, getting Mario, Luigi and Aku's attention. The stomping sound reached them soon after, and they all reacted accordingly.
The newcomer came trudging into the hallway, clawed feet scraping the floor and a green, crocodilian tail dragging behind as they prowled the floor. They examined the area, taking note of the many, many display cases displaying, among their usual contents, the face of a familiar to them marsupial. They loudly sniffed the air, just to make sure.
"I smell bandicoots."
The half crocodile, half dingo, all Australian diner owner, better known to a duo of bandicoot heroes as Dingodile, decked out in E, Gadd branded ghost hunting equipment, and a mind control helmet fitted on the top of his head, scanned the area for his targets. His new master had ordered him to hunt down a group of intruders making a mess off his big brainwashing plan of planetary proportions, and his brainwashed brain made him feel damned if he didn't fulfill that order to the best of his abilities.
He looked at an array of haunted masks lining the wall, all with spooky expressions on their faces. One of them stood out from the others, however, with the simpler design, colorful feathers, and nervous expression. He decided that it was worth taking a closer look, and maybe even to sniff it a bit. There was something very… familiar about it that he couldn't put his finger on.
…
Nah, it was probably nothing. He shrugged it off, gave the area another cursory glance, and went further into the hallway.
Once he knew that he had left the area, Aku Aku let loose the breath he had been holding. "Oh, thank goodness. One wrong move and I would be nothing but wood shavings."
Crash slid out of the nostril of a dinosaur skeleton, face planting on the floor. He looked in the direction where Dingodile had left. When Coco slid out of the other nostril, also face planting onto the ground, he pointed out the hybrid's presence to her.
"I know, I'm surprised he's here. Isn't he running a diner now?"
"Oh, you didn't hear? It closed down a few weeks ago after several lawsuits regarding his Braised Bat Tacos causing, according to what scientists call it, Nuclear Grade Diarrhea." Aku Aku revealed.
"Oof. Also, ew."
"Wait, who's this guy?" Mario poked out of his hiding spot under the bench, having derived underneath it. Up on the rafters, Luigi tried to get down, then fell down, face planting for his troubles.
"Dingodile. He used to work for Dr. Cortex. He retired a while back to run a diner, it got blown up, he ended up helping us in our multiverse saving adventure, yadda yadda yadda, and now I guess he's back to being evil now." Coco gave the rapid rundown.
Crash was quick to point out something, however. He tapped his head, pointing in the direction where Dingodile left.
"Right, the mind control helmet. He was wearing one, like the other ghosts. He must have been captured and brainwashed into working for N. Trance." Aku Aku said.
"Yeah, and did you see the stuff he had? That was all E. Gadd stuff. I think the doctor's been brainwashed as well." Luigi pointed out. He knew very well how powerful E. Gadds tech could be in the right hands. And Mario knew how they could be in the wrong ones. That was definitely going to be a problem for them.
As the group tried to brainstorm a plan, Crash decided to see what Dingodile was up to. He snuck his way through the hallway, making sure to not make a single sound, or to clumsily trip and break any of the exhibits and cause a bunch of loud noise. He had been kicked out of several museums for such incidents, and been crushed by roaming guards on other occasions. He just had to be very careful to-
"Where are you going?"
Crash jumped into the air, bumping into a vase and toppling it over. Some very wild flailing from Crash was required to catch everything before it crashed onto the floor, catching the vase with his arms and holding the podium it was sitting on with his foot. He sent a glare Luigi's way, struggling to hold everything.
Luigi let out a "sorry," before helping him out and carefully putting everything back in place. "Believe me, if I was in your place, I'd react the same way."
Crash simply nodded along, going to wipe some sweat off his head. The sweat droplet flew through the air, the entire world slowing down as it ever so slowly fell to the ground. And when it made it's landing with a small, imperceptible "plop" sound-
"Oi! Who's there!?" Somehow, the ridiculously small noise of a sweat drop hitting the ground, rather than the chaotic tumbling of a vase nearly being knocked over, was what called his attention to the area. Crash and Luigi held each other in fear, before the former started carrying the latter back to the other's in his arms-
Dingodile peaked his head into the hallway, noticing Crash and Luigi standing around, staring at him in fear. And then the screams happened. But the first to scream wasn't who'd you expect it to be from.
"AHHHHH!" Dingodile screeched like a woman who had just found a french speaking rat with dreams of being a chef in his kitchen, jumping in the air and dropping the nozzle of the device he was holding.
"GYAAAHHHH!" Crash and Luigi screamed.
"AAAAHHHH!"
"EYAHHHH!
The screaming called in Mario, Coco and Aku, who ran in, saw Dingodile, and screamed.
"GAAAAHHHH!"
"EEEEAAAAHHH!"
"AAAAHHHH!"
And so on and so forth, until finally, after about a minute of back and forth screaming, Dingodile reacted with a different exclamation. One that was equally confusing as his first one, actually.
"Ah! Get away! I don't wanna look at you guys! You're all too ugly!" He covered his eyes, apparently terrified.
"Uhhh, what?" Coco asked, completely confused, and maybe a bit perturbed.
"I'm guessing he doesn't act this way, usually?" Mario asked her.
"He's a fairly brash and battle thirsty type. He's not someone who would screech like a woman at the sight of us. I think the helmet might have messed up his personality in some way." Aku Aku said.
With their enemy cowering in fear, Crash decided to be the braver man, approaching Dingodile to see if he could be helped in any way. The big guy was shielding his eyes from the world, so he got his attention by poking him in the stomach, causing him to jump in fear, flailing his arms wildly, trying to swat the bandicoot away.
"Ah! A rat! Kill it!" The burly australian turned tail to flee, but stopped in his tracks when an electrical current suddenly surged from his helmet through him, freezing him in place. Out of the helmet, the voice of N. Trance came through, sounding angry and displeased.
"Ugh, you've gotta be yolking me. I try to send a cool and intimidating gator monster thing after you, who's terrified all of the stupid ghosts in this hotel into submission! And then this happens? Embarrassing, right?.. I'm asking you guys, by the way."
" I mean he was doing pretty good until he started screaming and crying. You gotta give him that." Mario said.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Alright, jimmy this, alter a couple variables, aaand…"
Dingodile jolted again, this time with a grim expression on his face. He picked up the firing part of his ghost hunting equipment, leveling it at the heroes. "Now, which a yous is ready to be turned inta some finely grilled steak dinner?" He growled out, all the fear and scaredy-catness gone from his voice.
The heroes tensed up, some in fear, hugging each other while trembling in their jeans/overalls, others to ready themselves up for another fight.
"Yeeessss, beat each other up! The sooner I get rid of you, the sooner I can rub it in Cortex's face how great of a brainwasher I am!... Brainwasher doesn't sound right. Mind-controler? Braingod? Hypno- Yeah, hypnotist! Yeah, that makes sense."
No one bothered to pay attention to N. Trance's ramble on proper titling, choosing to continue their cowering/glaring, waiting for someone to make the first move.
Dingodile fired a beam of concentrated electrical energy at them, his targets barely dodging it on time and letting it strike the wall behind them, cratering a hole into it. The heroes stared at the smoldering hole, then at the burning hair of Crash's mohawk, which failed to dodge the blast on time, then back at Dingodile's weapon, sizzling with energy and heat. Yeah, they didn't have any way to combat that.
"Run?" Mario was the first to suggest.
"Run." Everyone agreed.
Dingodile gave them no chances, firing a barrage of lasers at them as they scrambled out of the hallway, hopping and ducking at random to dodge their fate of flash grilled marsupial/humans. They were trying to make a beeline for the elevator, with the brainwashed hybrid hot on their tails.
Mario and Luigi managed to get ahead and reach the elevator first, the bandicoots sticking back to dance around and distract Dingodile while they ordered for the lift. Luigi went about it by repeatedly and rapidly pressing the button while quaking in his boots.
"Come on, come on, come on, come on." His frantic button pushing grew faster. Even Mario had lost his usual confidence, bouncing on his heels. Dingodile was fast approaching, and Crash and Coco's well choreographed dance performance was slowly losing its effect.
Finally, to their relief, the elevator arrived, parting open and letting it's holy light bathe the two brothers. Inside that holy light, Polterpup was sitting in the center of the elevator, licking himself.
"Polterpup, what are you doing here!?" Luigi moved to shoo the ghost dog away. "It's too dangerous for you here! Stay in the elevator!"
Polterpup took his owner's frantic shooing motions and worried tone as an invitation to come and play with him. And of course he was going to play with him. This was the perfect situation for it!
Luigi was knocked onto his back by a vibrating ball of undead cuteness licking his face. "Polterpup- ack! Not now!"
During this bout of affection, Crash and Coco came around the bend, dancing and twirling their way towards the elevator as energy shots flashed by them. Dingodile came around, hot on their tail. "Quit yer dancin'! It's so beautiful, the tears in my eyes are messin' with my aim!"
Crash looked him right in the eye, and ballerina twirled into the elevator, causing Dingodile to burst into further tears. "Oh, it's too majestic!"
Their distraction had worked better than expected, and they took the australian's moment of awestruck weakness to dive into the elevator. Luigi had managed to pry Polterpup off of him in order to move, but his panic continued to plague him as the ghost pup simply sat down in front of the elevator, staring at him as if he expected that play time was going to continue.
'Polterpup! Come here, boy. We gotta get out of here!" Luigi whistled for his dog to come over, the others joining in with their own attempts to coax the pup inside.
He rolled over onto his belly, no intent to cooperate visible in his eyes. That was a problem. Especially now that Dingodile had recovered from his adoration of the bandicoots performance. He glared down at the dog, who tilted his head in curiosity at the new person.
"Alright, mutt, roll over and go play dead somewhere else, I'm here to murder you're owner." He shoved the pup away with his foot. Or at least tried to. His foot just fazed through Polterpup, who just kept staring at him.
"Shoo. Shoo. Git, come on, git!" He tried a few more times, only succeeding in getting the ghost pup excited, vibrating as he chased after the dingo/crocodile's foot. Finally, Dingodile was fed up.
"Alright, ya asked for this, mutt!" He aimed his weapon right at Polterpup, who stared at the glowing thing in front of him with interest. The weapon fired, blinding the elevator residents briefly. When the light dimmed, there was a scorch mark where Polterpup was sitting, implying his complete annihilation.
Next to it was Polterpup, most certainly not annihilated. He didn't seem to register the fact he was attacked, in spite of somehow dodging it. Dingodile looked flabbergasted, along with the heroes, before he got mad.
"Stand still!" DIngodile started firing wildly, trying to hit the ghost dog. Somehow, he was able to dodge each blast almost perfectly, disappearing right as the beam struck a crater into the marble floor, and reappearing next to it. It was all a playful game of "Don't Get Blown Up" in the pups mind, and he was all for turning this new fellow into his unwitting playmate.
This chaos was just what the group needed. Luigi slammed the closest button he could reach, and watched his pet successfully distract their enemy with his playtime. He couldn't help but be proud, and express that pride with some encouragement. "Good boy, Polterpup! Keep it up!"
Oh, how much of a mistake that was. Polterpup skidded to a stop, turning to his owner, and, to everyone's abject horror, jumping into the elevator to sit in front of his owner. They all screamed in panic, Crash desperately mashing the chosen floor button desperately as Dingodile recovered from the confusing turn of events to rush towards the elevator, before the doors closed-
A groovy tune played in the elevator, as the heroes calmly waited for it to reach its destination. Luigi checked his mustache for any dirt that may have ended up on it, and sniffed loudly.
Mario clapped along to the music, before slowly starting to sway his hips to the beat, and humming the tune under his voice. A shove and a glare from Coco made him stop, now just awkwardly humming the tune in a much lower volume.
Crash was busy picking his ears, pulling out a rubber duck that had somehow wormed its way in there in the past week. Or month. Or perhaps it had been there since the beginning of his existence, and he never noticed. He didn't know, and he didn't much care to know.
Dingodile was picking at his teeth. He could swear a piece of lettuce from an earlier lunch had gotten stuck in there at some point, and the sensation was driving him nuts. He turned around to look at himself in the mirror, apologizing to the others when he nearly knocked them over with his tail.
Coco seemed to be zoning off, doing mathematical equations in her brain to pass the time. She'd sometimes hum out an "oh" under her breath, probably realizing something that would be lost on everyone else.
Aku Aku looked himself over in the mirror, checking for any scuffs on his wooden body, or if his feathers had somehow gotten misaligned.
And polterpup sat next to his owner, nibbling on his leg to get to an itch.
All of this was done as they waited for their awkward elevator ride to be over. The almighty moment killer.
The elevator's destination was the pirate themed restaurant of the hotel, The Spectral Catch. Yes, the most common and popular haunted location trope of them all, the novelty theme restaurant with indoor sandy beach. It just wouldn't be a ghost hotel without one.
Regardless, the elevator doors parted open, welcoming the restaurant's newest customers inside. Said customers showcased their lack of customer etiquette, a good chunk of them running past the empty receptionist desk, slamming the door open and closed, and leaving behind their pet to harass another customer currently destroying the decor with a laser firing contraption.
Down in the lobby, the owner cringed in pain, feeling as if his precious restaurant was being defiled, and despairing when he realized there was nothing he could do about it.
Anyway, back with our villain of the hour.
Dingodile kicked the door into the restaurant area open, letting out a deep, echoing growl. "Alright, ya wankers. You made ol' Dingo mad. Pray I don't find yous and make you regret it fer the rest of your life."
He prowled around, making his way through the dining area, examining every nook and cranny he spotted. He flipped over barrels, looked into holes in the restaurant walls, even looked up to the roof, in search of his prey.
Said prey had hidden inside one of the kitchen areas, carefully peaking out to watch Dingodile zap a table into ashes out of anger. Coco shuddered at the sight, before ducking back down and turning to the others.
"Well, what now? I don't want barbecued bandicoot to be part of the menu!" She whispered harshly.
"Well, we just have to knock the helmet off, right?" Mario suggested. "If we can distract him long enough, I can maybe get up to the roof and smash it with my hammer."
That was a good idea. But how were they going to go about it? Crash examined the area around them for anything that could make an idea happen in his brain. Many would have chalked up that event as impossible, but today was full of weird events. And when his eyes landed on the kitchen wear hanging on the other side of the room, he wound up proving the naysayers wrong once more.
He tapped Luigi on the shoulder, pointing out the clothing with a sly smile on his face. That told Luigi everything he needed to know about the plan. "Hey, bro, I think we can help with the distraction."
[hr]
Dingodile's stomach growled. He was hungry, and it was clear that his search was going to go nowhere. Hunting down and terrorizing the innocent was never fun to do on an empty stomach after all. Maybe one of the brainwashed ghosts was still manning the kitchens, making some grub?
Come to think of it, where were the other ghosts? N. Trance had clearly ordered them to strengthen security. Where were they?
As it turns out, they had had a smart idea, in spite of their addled, brainwashed brains. Instead of spreading themselves out across the hotel in small groups, making themselves easy pickings for any would-be ghost hunters roaming the place, they had decided on a better form of security.
"I'm not gonna lie, this is way better than anything I could have come up with." N. Trance was all for the idea, admiring the sight in front of him. A hammer casually threw himself at the large wall of ghosts that had decided to pile themselves up in front of the elevator door, creating a wall of ghostly matter that was ready to drop upon any would-be heroes entering the floor. It was pure genius.
The elevator doors opened, and the pile fell inside, crushing the poor member of the brainwashed cleaning crew inside.
"... Still a good plan." N. Trance took it in stride.
Eh, probably nothing to worry himself about. Now, to deal with his dinner problem.
The australian made his way to what he could assume was the food delivery part of the restaurant. He couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of the place's decor, with its chairs and lights and actual, not made out of rotting wood cutlery. And the water didn't smell like swamp, but like actual water. Maybe he should take some notes?
His eyes landed on a Health-Inspector poster, a large A visible for all to see..
Nah, these people didn't know a real restaurant didn't bow down to a health inspector. He served his tacos with real, free range bat meat, even if they kept saying "It's not fit for human consumption."
Still, he was going to give them the benefit of a doubt. He could see two chefs working in the kitchen. He approached them, and caught their attention with his loud voice.
"Oi, you fellas got some food cooking up in there? The quality kind?" He asked.
The chefs turned around, and his hunting instincts immediately flared up. The two looked very familiar, one being a green clad human, the other a bandicoot, both clad in the standard chef ware of white aprons and chef hats. They looked extremely nervous too, like they were hiding something from him.
"Uhhh… I mean, arrgh, we be the chefs, matey." The green one said in the worst pirate accent he had ever heard in his life. The bandicoot didn't say anything, opting to man the grill in the back of the kitchen while still looking at him. His sleeve was starting to catch fire, but he didn't notice, and Dingodile didn't care.
"Hmmm…" He glared at them. The green guy had a mustache, if he remembered correctly, and this one…
Had a very different looking mustache. "Hehehe, you remind me of some guy I'm supposed to kill. Crazy how people look alike, eh?" He chuckled at the terrified gaze the chef was giving him. "Anyway, gimme whatever's fresh. Like, very recently killed. It ain't food if you didn't find it run over on the streets, as I like to say."
"It'll be done in a minute, matey." The chef told him. "Let me take you to yer table, while me associate makes a yer food." Said associate was now on fire. Still, no one seemed to be noticing him as the chef led Dingodile over to a table.
What the dingodile didn't know was that hidden above the rafters, gazing down at his helmet-clad head, were Mario, Coco and Aku. They were waiting for the right moment to strike. One hammer blow to the nogging would do the trick.
"That is a terrible pirate accent. I've heard better from Hollywood movies and reenactment performers." Aku Aku complained, making sure to not be too loud as to be heard by their target down below. "Hopefully, Dingodile's brainwashing will make him more susceptible to the ruse."
"Okay, so when he's in position, you'll jump down and smack him with a hammer right on the braincase, right?" Coco asked Mario.
"Yep. So long as nothing weird and crazy happens, we should be able to get this done." Mario explained. Then, a thought came over him. "Where's Polterpup?"
"We lost him again? How can a glowing ghost dog be so hard to keep track of?"
"Oh, hopefully he won't be getting us into trouble."
Back down below, Luigi was moving on to step two of their plan. "May I take yer doohicky off, matey?" He asked, pointing at Dingodiles ghost hunting pack.
"Oh, this? Nah, I'm good with it. Never know when yer gonna get ambushed in some sort of elaborate, Scooby-Doo style trap, amiright?" The australian chortled, ignorant of the sweat beads rolling down the disguised Luigi's face.
"Oh, please, si- matey, I insist you take it off. We want to make sure our crew is as comfortable as they can possibly be in our establishment." He went up to remove the pack himself, causing Dingodile to get up.
"Oi! Watch it, wanker." He yelled out. Luigi refused to let go, hanging on to the pack while Dingo tried to get him off of him. The plan was already falling apart. Until Crash came in to save the day.
After managing to douse the flames by throwing himself in the sink, the bandicoot had managed to stumble upon an already covered meal prepared in the kitchen. He didn't need to uncover the plate to know that food was under it, a covered plate always equaled food, according to science. All he had to do was deliver it.
He walked out of the kitchen, ignorant of the chaos going on as he was laser focused on keeping his disguise. He just walked up to the trashing duo, set down the plate, and cleared his throat to get their attention. Once the two stopped their struggle session, Dingodile sitting in an awkward pose reaching over his back, and Luigi hanging on to the backpack by one hand, the bandicoot presented the plate to them, lifting the cover.
Under the cover, decorated with an apple stuffed in his mouth, and a salad bowl sitting next to him, was Polterpup. Why he was in this exact position, presenting as a nicely roasted pork dish, was beyond knowledge. Why he refused to move was even more befuddling, as if he was playing double dead on purpose.
Still, the scenario did work as a distraction. Dingodile was looking at the dish in complete befuddlement. Luigi too, but he wasn't relevant to the situation. All that mattered was that Dingo was sitting stock still, underneath the spot they all wanted him to be in. This was their moment!
"Now, Mario!" Aku Aku commanded. The Mario Bro nodded, twirled his hammer, and jumped off. The world slowed down, the hero aiming his hammer for the helmet.
Luigi gaped in awe, watching the majesty of his bros jump.
Coco looked ready to cheer for when the blow would be dealt.
Crash was still in his chef persona, waiting for anyone to compliment his handiwork. Even with the knowledge that he had done nothing.
Dingodile was still being distracted by polterpup, leaving him exposed to Mario's attack…
Until a glance upward showed him what was in his future. He started reaching towards the nozzle of his pack, to the horror of everyone. Luigi couldn't reach towards it on time, and Crash was not going to be of any use right now. Who was going to save the day?
The nozzle of the machine began charging up with energy, aiming to take Mario's life if no one were to stop it. Until, someone did.
Polterpup had decided to take a peak of the outside world, saw Dingodile holding a big stick, clearly ready to throw it. It was too exciting for him to wait for it to be thrown, he had to have it! He leaped out of his plate, swallowing the apple in one fell swoop, and dove right for the glowing stick. His intrusion was enough to throw Dingodile off course, bellowing out a slow motion "Crikey!" as the nozzle was yanked off his hand.
And then a hammer was slammed onto his head, squashing the helmet and breaking it to pieces. The remains clattered on the floor, followed later by a discombobulated Dingodile, cross eyed and unconscious.
VICTORY!
N. Trance's eye twitched as he saw everything happen on the camera feed. "Seriously?" He said in disbelief. "That's how he gets taken out? A Scooby Doo trap? And not even one of the good ones! Gyahh!"
He stomped around the office, E. Gadd watching him with a dopey smile on his face, as he muttered a bunch of alien curses under his breath. He stopped suddenly, took a deep, cleansing breath, and walked back to the cameras after he had sufficiently freaked out.
"Okay, okay, this is still not an issue. So long as they don't find the elevator button, they won't be able to make it to the roof. We'll just, yeah, we'll send the ghosts down after them and get rid of them for good. Yes, that's a good, genius plan. No need to scramble my eggs over a failure." He chuckled at his pun, before addressing the doctor. "You, where did we hide the elevator button again? I keep forgetting."
"The elevator button has been hidden on the 13th floor, your majesty."
"... Okay, still not a problem. The place is huge, and there's a beach in there somehow. There's no way they'll find it on time."
"Excellent work everyone." Aku Aku congratulated.
"Yeah, we did great! But no one did better than the best ghost doggy in the world. Isn't that right, polterpup? Oh, whoosh the best doggy. Whoosh the best!" Luigi rewarded Polterpup with belly rubs, quickly joined in by Mario.
Crash, meanwhile- oh, he was still doing his bit. He was standing stock still, not reacting to anything, still waiting for that compliment.
"Crash, it's over, you can drop the chef act." Coco said, standing over Dingodile's unconscious body. She was trying to take off the backpack off the dingodile, wanting it for herself. "Besides, we still haven't found the elevator button. We need to keep loo- Woah!"
Turns out, Dingodile hadn't unleashed the blast he had been charging up. All the jozzling Coco did, however, did the trick, firing it, thankfully, into the rafters, where it broke a lamp of its chain. The lamp just so happened to be hanging over where Crash was standing, resulting in the bandicoot getting a faceful of light fixture to crash on him.
The others gathered around him to see if he was alright. He was, if a bit dazed, taking the lamp of his head. He came out with just a few cuts, some missing fur patches, a dazed expression, and most importantly, the elevator button to the 15th floor shoved up his nose.
"... E. Gadd. How long until the satellite array is finished charging."
"One more hour, your prettiness."
"Good. I'm going outside for a bit. I want to prepare a surprise for our visitors. A surprise that will get rid of them, guaranteed.
Next time, the final confrontation with N. Trance!