Chapter 2 – Returned
A/N: Hey everyone, sorry for the wait. Got busy with my exams. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this.
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Crash sprinted through the forest with his sister right behind him, eyes searching for the source of the screams.
Soon enough, the two reached one of the old temples in the jungle. They ran past the stone gate and stopped in front of the temple. There were broken and crumbled pillars everywhere.
What happened here? Crash looked around the area and suddenly spotted an old man hiding behind some rubble, shaking in fear.
Crash quickly rushed over and knelt down next to him. The old man jerked back at seeing them, but then relaxed slightly when he recognized the mutant who came to their village months ago. He pointed at the bandicoot and mouthed something in his language. Crash didn't understand what he said, but nodded at him anyway.
"Um, Crash?" Coco suddenly called out, her voice shaking. Crash looked up from behind the rubble to where she was pointing at and saw something standing in front of the temple gate. A statue.
It was massive in size and was somehow….walking. It picked up a large rock and flung it about, knocking over a nearby stone pillar.
"W-what is that? How is it moving!?" Coco muttered in disbelief.
"Cool!" Crash exclaimed, grinning.
"Crash, no! This is serious!" she gaped at him.
The living statue suddenly paused and turned to them, making the two siblings freeze up. It let out a low growl before picking up a piece of rubble and flung it straight towards them.
The old man screamed and scrambled away in terror.
"Look out!" Coco screamed and the two mutants quickly jumped out of the way before they were crushed beneath it.
Coco gasped when the giant colossus turned to her and swung its arm at her. The girl dropped on her belly and clutched her head as the creature's arm passed over her head, barely missing her.
Crash snarled at this and punched its leg, which in hindsight was a terrible idea. "Ow!" he winced and backed away, clutching his throbbing hand. That got the giant's attention on him though and it turned to loom over him. He smiled nervously before screaming and scrambling away with the giant hot on his heels, shaking the ground with every step.
Panting, Crash suddenly stopped in front of a pillar. While he was out of breath, the stone creature didn't seem to be tired at all. Just when the giant charged forward, he jumped to the side to avoid getting crushed, causing the statue to crash into the pillar and fall backwards as it broke.
Pulling himself up, Crash saw the statue collapsed on the ground. He took a wary step closer to it and he gasped when black mist began coming out of the statue before vanishing.
Once it was gone, Crash walked over to the statue and kicked it lightly, but it didn't move. He gulped. He had seen this before. Memories of the monsters that used to roam the islands flashed in his mind and he shivered at the implications behind this.
"Crash, are you alright?" Coco came running over to him, concerned.
He gave her his usual grin and nodded, but yelped when the old man suddenly came over and grabbed his sore hand, shaking it frantically and muttering words of gratitude in his language.
Winging, Crash smiled at him weakly, but casted a worried look to the mountain, feeling a knot form in his stomach.
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Dr. Cortex gulped as he stared at the being before him. He knew that voice. It was the one that spoke to him in those strange dreams. For a moment, he was at a loss for words. "You're….Uka-Uka-"
"So, this is where you've been. I've been wondering where you went for the past couple of months," the mask said causally before giving him a dark glare. "Mind telling why you haven't come to free me?"
The man stuttered. "I-I'm sorry, Master Uka-Uka. I-we've tried to look for you everywhere, but we had no idea where that fool Aku-Aku had you locked up. We tried everything we can to get him to talk. W-we even threatened to destroy one of the islands, but he wouldn't open up."
The mask's aura flared at the mention of his traitorous brother. "I don't want to hear any excuses! I've seen the state of the islands and I know you failed!" he snarled and the man flinched.
"W-well, yes, but-"
Just then, someone knocked on the door and stepped inside. It was Brio, carrying some plastic bags in his hands. "Doctor, I brought dinner…." The man trailed off and shrieked at the sight of the demonic mask in the center of the room, pressing himself against the door in fright.
"And who is this?" Uka-Uka asked, staring down at the nervous man.
"That's N. Brio. He's my assistant," Cortex muttered and Brio gave a shaky wave.
Uka-Uka glared at the short man for a moment before turning to Cortex. "In that case, where is that army you mentioned?"
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Dr. Cortex grumbled under his breath as he trudged through the snow covered street, shivering in a grey winter coat. Brio was right behind him, rubbing his hands together and looking slightly anxious. People who passed by gave them weird looks, but he paid them no mind.
Making their way through an alley, they reached a large old storage house at the end of it. "Is this the place?" the voice in his head asked.
"Yes, we're here," he looked around briefly and deemed it safe. "You can come out now,"
Uka-Uka appeared in a flicker of red and eyed the building for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Seriously? This is your hideout?"
"Well, it's not like we have a choice considering that everything I own is in the bottom of the ocean!" Cortex huffed and rolled his eyes before asking. "Say, you still haven't told me how you were freed."
The mask ignored him and turned to look around, causing the scientist to groan and walk over to the door, grumbling.
Uka-Uka gazed around at the buildings towering over them. He knew it had been centuries since he had been sealed away in the mountain and would be lying if he said he wasn't taken aback by how much the world had changed. There were buildings of stone and metal everywhere. Not to mention all the strange machines he saw on his way here. It's true he used to manage to get brief glimpses of the island through his prison sometimes, but never saw anything like this before.
He suddenly caught Brio whispering furiously to Cortex and the two seemed to be arguing about something. "What are you two chattering about?"
"Nothing, nothing!" Cortex stammered nervously and quickly unlocked the door.
The two men and the spirit mask made their way inside the storage house. There were crates all over the place among other things. The mutants were scattered around, some playing cards around while others were just lying about. They all turned at the sound of the door opening and were surprised to see the two humans weren't alone.
"Oi, who's that?" Dingodile muttered, sitting up and tilting his head to the side curiously.
"Hold on, you look like that mask from the islands!" Pinstripe noted, to which Uka-Uka responded with a glare in his direction.
Cortex cleared his throat. "Everyone, this is Mighty Uka-Uka. He is a powerful being capable of great evil and destruction. He has inspired some of my evil plans in the past too."
A bark of laughter suddenly filled the room and Cortex turned to the source of it. "What? You can't be serious!" Pinstripe said, followed by more murmurs of agreement from the other mutants in the room, causing the mask to scowl darkly.
"He doesn't look that tough," Dingodile huffed, arms crossed.
"As far as I remember, the other mask wasn't even that strong," Joe muttered.
Koala Kong nodded and gave an unimpressed smirk at the mask. "Yeah, I bet I can crush him with my two fingers," he said, holding his fingers up for emphasis.
Suddenly, the lights in the room flickered and a chilling feeling ran through the mutants' spines. They cried out when gravity fell and they were pulled into the air.
"W-what's going? What is this!?" They thrashed around in confusion before their limps went rigid all of a sudden.
Koala Kong then founded himself face to face with the mask whose eyes were blazing orange. "Would you like to say that again?" he said and the mutants felt their limps begin aching.
"N-no," the mutant wheezed, causing the mask to drop him and the rest of his companions to the ground.
"Pathetic," Uka-Uka muttered and turned to the doctor again. "So, what is your next plan now?"
"Umm….well….Brio and I have been gathering as much money and equipment as we can, but it's not enough to get us back to where we used to be…or even close to that," he added with a wince.
Uka-Uka growled. "This isn't acceptable, Cortex! We haven't even begun yet and you are already disappointing me!"
"I'm sorry, Master Uka-Uka, but we are in difficult spot right now. Maybe if we had more resources or energy we would have been able to fix everything."
"Why not just gather some Power Crystals then?" Uka-Uka asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We can't. Those have become quite rare unlike in the past. I only managed to find two during the years I spent in Wumpa Islands," Cortex answered hesitantly and closed his eyes, expecting another outburst, but was surprised when that didn't happen.
The mask seemed to be thinking deeply about something.
"Master Uka-Uka?"
A long sharp grin suddenly stretched across the mask's face as an idea hit him. "Well, I guess I have to find another brilliant mind to fix this," he turned to glare at Cortex. "I'll be back soon. Don't do anything until I return, understand?"
"Y-yes," Cortex stuttered in surprise.
With that, the mask disappeared, leaving the villains in their confusion.
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Somewhere far away, in a place filled with clocks and cogs, a tall man was standing over a desk, looking over some blue prints in thought. The sound of him shuffling through the papers and the ticking of the clocks was the only thing that filled the silence.
The man picked up a cup of tea and took a sip from it before setting it down and returning to his work.
Suddenly, he heard something behind him. At first he thought it was just exhaustion, but then he stiffened when he heard it again. He quickly reached for his staff which looked like a tuning fork and took a fighting stance. "Who's there?" he called out, narrowing his eyes warily.
Something moved in the shadows of the room before coming out into the light. It was a floating wooden mask. The man blinked and tilted his head in puzzlement, but quickly regained his composure. "What are you? How did you get in here?"
The mask smirked. "You're the one named N. Tropy, right?"
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A/N: Thanks for reading!