The secret passage lead out of the building and to a thin metal bridge that lead to the castle section of the base. It was quite foggy, so the bandicoots and Sora couldn't see the castle all to well, but it didn't really matter.
Soon, they approached the end of the bridge and there sat an elevator, ready for use.
"Phew." Crash says as they get on.
"Indeed. It would have been unfortunate to do it all over again." Aku Aku agrees.
"You've climbed the tower?" Sora asks.
"Yes. And crossed the bridge, but at the time it was an unstable wooden bridge." Aku Aku answers.
"Ohhhhh, that does not sound fun." Sora says. Then, a giant robot flys up to the elevator still going up and smashes the shaft just above it causing the elevator to stop and shine its warning lights. The robot has large bulky arms and short legs with its torso also serving as its face. Its colour scheme was red with an accent colour of grey.
"Its N. Gin!" Coco cries. The short man with half his face replaced with metal with a missile end sticking out must be N. Gin then.
"Indeed! Cortex told me not to engage, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to use this new mech." N. Gin replies as the robots arms grab the castle, causing the whole mech to hang off the side. "Now, lets see how you deal with this mech in an enclosed space."
"He's right! We're sitting ducks!" Crunch cries.
"I'm not." Sora says, hopping out of the top of the elevator.
"Cortex says you're dangerous. Lets see so." N. Gin taunts.
"Sora! By me enough time! I might be able to hack into one of his mech suits systems and do something!" Coco calls out to him.
"Okay." Sora replies back. The robots face opens up to reveal a triple barrel laser launcher. One of the barrels fires a green energy ball at Sora who casts reflect, sending it back and destroying the barrel it came from. The face closes, hiding away the guns.
"Oh, lets see you fair against thing you can't send back." N. Gin says before two small compartments on the arms, still clutching the castle, open up and release multiple live mines at Sora, who jumps and nearly throws himself of the building trying to avoid the mines. N. Gin lets out a sound of glee as he opens the face again and fires at Sora, who yet again reflects it back to its source.
"Your gonna have to do better than that." Sora taunts.
"Poor choice of words." N. Gin says as a giant laser comes from the mechs back, takes aim at the elevator.
"We ain't gonna survive that." Crunch braces himself and prepares for the end. Luckily, that doesn't happen. Sora quickly casts a blizzaga at the lazer and uses his shotlock to dash over to it and perform multiple combos on the frozen weapon until it explodes. After this, Sora glides back to the top of the still stagnant elevator.
"Very impressive, but you won't survive much longer." N. Gin says before opening the mine hatches on the mechs arms and releasing more mines. Sora dodges them much like before as N. Gin laughs at the difficulty Sora is having. Without even realizing he was doing it, N. Gin opens the face plate and fires again. While in mid air, Sora spies the laser ball and reflects it back much like before, destroying the barrel it came from. N. Gin frustratedly grunts.
"Give it up! Your defeated!" Sora demands.
"Oh, you wish, boy. That was me having fun, and now that you've ruined it I shall now delete all of you!" N. Gin exclaims before the mech grabs onto the elevator and slowly begins squishing it.
"Woah." Crash whispers. Then, the mech stops.
"What!" N. Gin exclaims.
"I've hacked the mech suit and stalled its main commands. He'll get complete control back soon so that thing needs to be destroyed now!" Coco exclaims.
"How?" Sora asks.
"The weapons systems are usually N. Gin's mechs weak spots." Crunch explains. "I think he might have one more."
"The mines!" Sora realizes. Focusing on one of the mine dispensers as it opens, Sora casts all the firaga's he can in the hole. The result was greater then expected. The entire arm of the mech blew up, leaving just the one to hang on.
"No! Not again!" N. Gin cries. Sora turns his attention to the other arm and fires yet more firaga at the weak point, causing the other arm to explode. With nothing to hold on to, the mech begins its descent. "Fire engines! Fire engines!" He cries as he falls, but nothing happens. They must have been damaged when the laser blew up or Coco hacked them. Either way, nothing stopped N. Gin as he fell to the bottom of the castle. After this, Sora hopped back into the elevator.
"Its broken, its not going anywhere." Coco states. Crunch then pries the door of whatever floor they were still on open.
"We'll, We have different plans than waiting here for a repair crew. Lets go." Crunch says.
The group makes their way out of the elevator to find machinery and conveyer belts and pipes all at work doing... whatever Cortex was having them do.
"This is the castle machinery! Just past this is Cortex's lab. He's got to be there." Aku Aku exclaims.
"But we got to get up to that door." Crunch points at a door to high to jump to from their current position. "The only way to get there is go through the machinery." Crash shakes his head before looking like he's about to throw up.
"Crash! Are you okay!" Sora exclaims. Crash then pukes out, off all things, a green gem. "Huh?"
"Oh! I see!" Coco exclaims. Crash nods before taking the gem over to the closest point he could possibly get to the door. When getting there, the gem grows to the size of a small platform. Crash then hops on it and it takes him to the door like an elevator.
"Good thinkin little buddy." Crunch smiles before jumping on next. After a few runs, everyone is up to the door.
"Now everyone, be extra cautious. Cortex is not only dangerous with the keyblade, but with Uka Uka's help he will not be easy to defeat." Aku Aku says.
"I'm ready." Sora says, to which the Bandicoots nod in agreeance.
"Very well. Let us go and stop this evil." Aku Aku declares.