It was an average, partly sunny day on Seaside Island. The sun hung low in the sky and there was a slight breeze in the air.
Crash and his friends were spending the day playing a game of soccer, they were halfway through their fourth game when Crunch suddenly called for a time out.
"What's up, Crunch?", asked Crash.
"Can we take a break? I'm getting pretty hungry", replied Crunch.
Coco looked down at her communicator to see that it was around 2:30pm, meaning it was about time for them to get something for lunch. "Crunch is right, let's all go get something to eat now", she said.
The group of friends soon walked into town, discussing what they should have for lunch.
"Anyone wanna get something from Eggman Burger?", asked Crash.
"Um, if I'm being honest, I'm kinda tired of having Egg Burger for lunch almost every day", complained Coco.
"Oh for goodness sake, you're not gonna try to open up your own restaurant again, are you? Remember how well that went last time?", said Jessi.
"No! I'm just saying that I wanna try something new for once", replied Coco.
Just then, Crunch suddenly stopped walking and stood as still as a board. "Woah, Crunch! You okay there?", Crash asked in concern.
Crunch lifted his head as he smelled the air, a wide grin slowly appearing on his face as he breathed in a heavenly, euphoric scent; it was a tantalizing smell that caused his mouth to salivate. "Do you guys smell that? Its amazing!", he said excitedly.
The others took a whiff of the air and suddenly realized what he was talking about, they immediately picked up on the smell and what it exactly was. It was the powerful scent of bread, pies, cookies, and all other kinds of delicious baked goodies.
"Man, that smells awesome! Where's it coming from?", said Crash.
That was when Coco looked around and spotted something she had never seen in the village before, it was a medium sized building that sat in the middle of the village square. It had a mahogany, white and green awning, a big clear window in the front, and written in a big cartoony font on the window, it said "The Neo Bakery. The Best Bakery on all of Mobius!".
Cash and his friends eagerly walked inside, but stopped dead in the doorway, paralysed by the onslaught of pleasant scents caused by the freshly baked goods just coming out of the oven. After they snapped back to reality from their momentary bliss, they looked and saw that the bakery wasn't very busy.
There were a few customers at the small tables, seemingly entranced by the sheer deliciousness of the pastries in their possession. The four heroes walked up to the counter and were greeted by clearly dr. Neo Cortex wearing a red neckerchief around his neck.
"Welcome, friends! Welcome to the Neo Bakery!, it's a pleasure to have you here!", said Cortex. "What may we treat these lovely Mobians to today? I've just finished baking a wonderful chocolate chip cookie cake if you are interested!",
"A Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake? That sounds great, I'll take a piece!", said Crunch.
"Excellent choice, my big bandicoot friend! And what will these two lovely ladies be having?", said Neo.
Coco and Jessi looked up at the menu boards hanging on the ceiling above the counter, thinking about what they wanted. "I think I'll have some "Buttermilk Bar Donuts", please", said Coco.
"Eh, surprise me! This place is new, so I wanna be surprised by whatcha got!", said Jessi.
Victor smiled before looking at Crash, he paused for a few seconds before he finally spoke. "What about you? What would you like?", he asked.
Crash could feel himself drooling, not just from the already pleasant smells from within the bakery, but also at the thought of this delicious tart. "Oh yeah! I'll totally have a piece of that tart, with the ice cream!", he said. Doctor Cortex smiled at the four heroes, "Good! Why don't you people take a seat, we'll have your orders done in a few minutes", said Cortex.
"Wait! How much do we owe you for the pastries?", asked Coco
"Well, considering this is our grand opening in this town, we'll give you all a discount and charge you only ten dollars for all your orders. Not ten dollars each, ten dollars to cover all four dishes. We'll also give you some tea to have with your pastries", said Cortex.
Crash and his friends were surprised but nonetheless happy that their orders were so inexpensive, "$10? That's amazing! You guys are a welcome addition our village! We might just ditch Egg Burger and make this our regular lunch hangout!", said Crash. Coco handed Cortex the ten dollars and the group went to sit at a booth to wait for their orders.
[Time Skip]
In ten minutes, a female Squirrel who looked pretty small and young, she was almost as young as Tails; she had red eyes and light brown fur, and she had a forlorn look on her face.
The Squirrel placed the team's orders on the table and they were surprised to see they were given large, almost plate sized portions of the pastries they asked for, along with cups of hot tea; Sticks was given a plate of Sticky Toffee Pudding, a dense cake-like pudding topped with a warm toffee sauce and whipped cream.
"Here you go, I hope...you all enjoy them", Sally Acorn said before heading back to the kitchen. The group was a bit perturbed by this but they shrugged it off and turned back to their orders. Crunch was the first to pick up his fork and take a bite out of his tart, he let out a "Mmm" at the amazing taste of it.
The others all picked up their forks and took bites out of their dishes, except for Crash who just decided to pick up his with his hands. They were all met with an explosion of flavours, sending them into a blissful wonderland of deliciousness. The team soon finished their meals fifteen minutes later, washing it down with their tea and sitting back with content smiles.
That was when they were approached by Cortex, "So...how was it?", asked Cortex.
"That was awesome!", said Crash.
"Absolutely delicious!", said Coco.
"Amazing!", said Jessi.
"I feel like I took a bite out of Heaven!", said Crunch.
Cortex smiled, "Glad you all have enjoyed our baked goods! You guys are more than welcomed to come back here any time you want to fill your bellies!", said Cortex.
With that said, Crash and his friends thanked the twins for their delicious baked goods and got up to leave. Just then, Neo walked towards them with a camera, "Would you mind if I took a picture of you all? It's for our "Best Customers" wall that we're going to hang up here in the dining area", he said.
Crash and his friends just shrugged as they posed so he could take a picture, then they left as Cortex waved goodbye while smiling.
