Disclaimer: Crash Bandicoot was created by Naughty Dog, not me.
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Amusement Park Racers
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Having come to the theme park, Ebenezer Von Clutch's MotorWorld, by chance alongside his sister, Coco, their fellow bandicoot, Crunch, and the trio of enemies calling themselves Team Cortex, Crash Bandicoot and the others agreed to participate in Von Clutch's race to decide who would be MotorWorld's new owner. While the mutant bandicoots had mostly signed on to keep their archfoe, Doctor Neo Cortex, from converting the park into a new base of operations, Crash had to admit that MotorWorld had some charm to it.
'Kind of makes me wonder why it's supposed to be dangerous,' Crash thought to himself while sipping on the energy drink unique to MotorWorld, Wumpa Whip. While Coco and Crunch declined drinking it themselves for whatever reason, Crash found the taste rather soothing to himself, and, while walking through the center of the park referred to as Midway, enjoyed seeing the numerous memoirs of his past adventures that Von Clutch had on display throughout the area.
Crash's eyes soon took notice of the seventh contestant in their race, a mutant opossum named Pasadena O'Possum, who openly announced earlier that she would be racing to maintain Von Clutch's ownership of MotorWorld, standing about. Having not talked with her before, and honestly liking how loyal she was to her employer, Crash then made his way toward Pasadena for a conversation.
"Hi," he greeted with a wave of his free hand.
Pasadena turned her head towards Crash's direction with a genuine smile as she replied in her Southwestern American drawl, "Oh, hey, cutie. What brings you to these parts?"
A bit off guard from Pasadena's flirtatious line, Crash soon enough answered, "I just figured you and I could talk friendly enough before we raced."
Pasadena's smile widened considerably while saying, "I'm always eager to make friends, Crash," then, while placing a head to scratch underneath the bandicoot's lower jaw, added, "Of course, I think we can do more than just 'talk' about stuff."
Forcing a chuckle at how brazen the opossum was, Crash said, "I've met a lot of mutant animals in my time, especially since I'm me, after all, but where did you come from?"
Shrugging at Crash's "playing hard to get" response, Pasadena answered, "Von Clutch is a genius, Crash. It's not that hard fetched to believe he would know how to make his own mutants, like me and Willie."
"Right," Crash replied in understanding and then said with a smile of his own, "Then I guess you guys and Von Clutch must have a better relationship than I ever did with my creator."
Pasadena's positive expression decreased a bit at that, saying, "Well, me and the boss are pretty close, but Willie often feels a bit letdown with how everyone else reacts to him, if you know what I mean."
Thinking about Cortex's initial response to seeing the mutant Wumpa Fruit, Crash could see where Pasadena was coming from and actually felt some sympathy for the park's mascot.
Before he could comment on that, though, Pasadena then redirected the conversation, saying, "Anyhow, can I trouble you to do some favors for me, boy? I'll be mighty grateful, if you do."
Grinning eagerly, Crash answered, "I'll help you out for free, Pasadena, no matter what."
The opossum, however, deadpanned at Crash's response in apparent disappointment. "Aww, and I so wanted to show my gratitude to you."
Getting frantic, Crash said, "Well, you can still do so, I was just being nice." Thinking it over, he then asked, "What did you have in mind, anyway?"
Showing a flirtatious smirk, Pasadena wrapped her long, prehensile tail around Crash's waist and pulled the surprised bandicoot closer to her, asking, "Is it that obvious?"
After a moment of thought, Crash then finally shrugged with an excited smile, replying, "Alright, but you're so darn clingy."
The two then kissed each other deeply to their hearts' content.
[APR]
Thought about exploring Crash Bandicoot/Pasadena O'Possum as a ship, so I did.
I also thought about depicting a twist in Mind Over Mutant's story, but I decided to limit how many stories/one-shots I wanted to do for the sake of argument. Basically, I was thinking that when Nina Cortex demands Crash and Aku Aku to kiss, they would find a loophole in her demand and instead plant kisses on her cheeks and/or forehead much to their amusement and her annoyance.
I did consider Crash doing more than that as a kind of prank, but I asked Talyllyn the Iron Warrior from FanFictionNet for advice on that, and I saw their points about Crash being a young adult to Nina's teenager at the time of that game, which is why I changed it. In any event, if anyone wants to give what I described a shot, they are more than welcome to do so.
