Chapter 4 – Into the Depths
A/N: Hey everyone, it's been a while. Sorry this took some time, but I was busy with many things including my exams. Anyway, thanks for all the great reviews you left me on the previous chapter. A lot of things happen in this one so I hope you enjoy it!
Also, I want to let you guys know that I'm not going to cover all the areas that appear in the game because it will make the story way too long and will be very tedious for me to write. I'll try to include as many as I could though.
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In a bright flash, Crash landed in the middle of a forest. For a moment, he thought he was sent back home, but he soon realized this wasn't the same forest in Wumpa Island.
He got up and dusted himself. He could smell the sea so there must be a beach nearby.
"This way," Aku-Aku said as he led him through the forest and went to hide behind a tree when they heard some voices nearby. They peeked around it to see some humans on the beach. Two men seemed to be talking together near a hut. Based on the way they were dressed, Crash could assume he didn't travel very far back in time, but then again they might be android too for all he knew.
The two men picked up some items that he couldn't identify and left.
Once he deemed it safe, Aku-Aku came out of hiding. "Alright, they're gone,"
The two soon began searching the beach. Aku-Aku was inspecting the hut when he sensed a tug in the air. He got out and flew closer to the water, where the feeling grew stronger. It was then it finally dawned him. "The crystal isn't here on this beach. It's somewhere in the sea," he stated, much to Crash's surprise. "We need to find a way to get down there,"
Crash's mind came to a screeching halt. Go into the sea? His eyes lingered on the blue waves. The very idea of diving into there was enough to make him dizzy.
"Ah-ha! These should do!" Aku-Aku exclaimed when he found some scuba diving gear. Those two men probably forgot them. "Come on, put them on. They will help you breathe under water,"
Hesitating, Crash did as he was told and began putting the gear on. Once he was done, he shuffled to the water, but when it moved closer to him he scurried back.
"Crash?" Aku-Aku called out, confused.
Crash shook his head frantically, refusing to go in.
"What's wrong? It's just water,"
Crash glanced at the sea and felt his stomach churn. In all those times he went to the sea in the past he had been drowning. He didn't want to risk that again.
Frowning, Aku-Aku tried to reason with him. "There is nothing to be afraid of, Crash. Look, I'll prove it," he said and dove into the water. Several seconds then passed without him coming out, which made Crash start panicking and worrying that something down there got him, but relief filled him when the guardian finally returned.
"See? I'm fine and I've checked to see if there is anything that could harm you down there. Trust me, you have nothing to be worried about," he said, hoping that will be enough to reassure him.
Nervous, Crash stepped forward into the water until it reached his chest and began swimming away from the shore. Crash spent several minutes getting used to moving with the diving gear on before finally deciding it was time to search for the crystal.
Steeling himself, Crash dove into the water with Aku-Aku following him suit. Crash blinked and flailed around in panic momentarily, but then calmed down eventually.
His eyes scanned the surrounding area and then swam further down. Still getting used to moving underwater, he had a hard time getting himself to go in the direction he wanted.
"It's somewhere down there," Aku-Aku murmured, showing him the canyons below.
Even though he wanted nothing more than to find that crystal and go back to land as fast as possible, Crash couldn't help be awed by the sights underneath the ocean. He could see many coral reef colonies and colorful fish everywhere, leaving him breathless for a moment.
"Crash…"
He turned to his guardian's call and blushed at the look he was giving him. He was clearly not planning on letting him get distracted this time. The mutant dove toward the canyons and began exploring them.
Just then, one fish in particular caught his eye. It was red and round, swimming in an odd way. Curious, he made his way over to it and tried to touch it. As soon as his hand got close to it, the fish doubled in size and sharp spikes shoot up from its body, startling the mutant and causing him to scramble back from it. The fish then somehow deflated itself and slowly swam away.
Crash heard what sounded like a stifled laugh and his face burned, glaring at the mask behind him. Crash then came across a cave and hesitated to enter it. It was quite dark inside, so he couldn't see much in there.
"Hold on, I think I can help," his guardian flew over and his body began to glow, lighting up the path. Grinning behind his scuba mask, Crash sent him a grateful glance and then slipped into the cave.
The bandicoot shivered, feeling uncomfortable with being confined in such a tight space. For a brief second, he thought he felt something slither around his leg and pushed through faster.
Finally, the two came out on the other side. Some ship wreckage was not far from where they were, but something else caught their attention.
There was a yellow barrel covered with red spikes tied to a chain. They were many others like it ahead now that he paid attention.
He turned to Aku-Aku who shrugged. "I don't know what those are either,"
Even more curious now, Crash was about to go over to check it out when a small fish suddenly rushed past him and came in contact with the barrel, causing it to explode and knock the two back a little. They stood there, staring at the space where the mine had been stiffly.
"Oh dear," The mask murmured shakily, knowing now that they will have to move past the rest of the mines without getting blown to pieces.
Gulping, Crash began to swim forward through the mines, heart hammering in his chest. He felt completely on edge the entire time. His blood ran cold when he noticed one of the mines moving closer to him and he forced himself to swim faster, his guardian sticking nervously to his side.
Finally, after several tense moments, he was out danger. Crash could have melted in relief if it had been possible.
"The crystal is somewhere in that ship over there," Aku-Aku told him, staring at an old ship stuck between rocks.
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Meanwhile, Cortex was sitting on a crate in the middle of a desert town with his two assistants were standing right next to him. People kept giving them weird looks whenever they passed them by.
"Wow, he has such a big head," he heard a teen murmur, causing him to fume.
"This 'big head' has a brain three times bigger than yours!" Cortex snapped angrily. The teen stared at him with wide eyes before scurrying away.
Cortex sighed and slumped against the wall as he took out a napkin and whipped away the sweat from his forehead. It's hotter here than I imagined. He thought in annoyance. The fact that the two men next to him were bickering like children didn't help.
"Of course I'm the right one for this job. I have an entire fleet of battle ships back home under my command. Do you have any idea what I can do with that!?" N. Gin argued, shrieking the last part.
Brio scoffed. "Well, I am the one who created the Evolvo Ray, the very machine that Cortex used to create his mutant army and I won that science contest that our class held back at the evil school!" he added smugly and N. Gin bristled.
"What!? That's not fair! You can't use that!"
Cortex groaned and rubbed his temples. I'm going to have headaches for days, are I?
Just then, an android came over to them and Cortex hopped off the crate. "Finally! So, did you find any crystals?"
"No, sir," the android said, shaking his head.
"Then why are you here!?" he snapped and turned to his assistants. "Let's just find the portal out of here. I can't stand this place,"
He took out a device from his pocket and pressed a button, but it didn't show him where the portal was. "Ugh, what is wrong with this thing?"
"Let me take a look at it, Dr. Cortex," Brio said and walked over to take it from him.
"No, I'll do it!" N. Gin muttered and hurried over as well. Both snatched the device from the man's hands and glared at each other.
"Let go, I had it first!" N. Gin snapped and Brio growled.
"No, I'm Cortex's main assistant and I should be the one to-"
The device suddenly slipped from Brio's hand and hit the android on the head before falling on the ground. They stared at the dark screen in stunned silence.
"Great, if Uka-Uka had been here to see this, he would have set us on fire," Cortex muttered.
"It was his fault!" Brio and N. Gin shouted simultaneously.
"Enough! You two both will get that fixed right now so we can leave this place!" the doctor exclaimed and turned away from them. He was really starting to question why he agreed to bring them along in the first place.
Gazing around the area, Cortex spotted the pyramids far in the distance and the wheels in his head began turning. A mischievous grin spread across his face.
Well, since they were stuck here for now, they might as well make use of their time.
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Crash hurriedly swam away from the wreckage, grinning from ear-to-ear at their finding.
Despite being left there among the wreckage for what could be decades or more, the crystal still managed to maintain its beauty and captivating glow.
"Good work, Crash," Aku-Aku said over his shoulder. "Now let's get out of here. It's not just you who wishes to go back to the surface," he added with a grin and Crash nodded, his grip on the crystal tightening ever so slightly…
The mask then extended his senses to locate their exit out of this time period. "Alright now, let's see. I believe the portal is….somewhere beyond those reefs,"
Wasting no time, Crash began heading in the direction he was told, but he stopped almost immediately.
"Crash, we still haven't gotten there yet," Aku-Aku stated in confusion.
The mutant ignored him and swam downward, having spotted something. He began digging in the sand until he found it, a white gem. Crash eyed it with awe and immediately showed it to his friend who blinked in surprise.
"Well, that's a wonderful find, Crash," Aku-Aku smiled back. "I wonder if it had fallen off that ship...?" the mask trailed off and his expression quickly became one of terror. "Crash, look out!"
Confused, the bandicoot turned around just in time to see a shark coming their way. Panicking, Crash cried out and swam as fast as he could.
"Hurry!" Aku-Aku screamed as the shark grew closer to them. Crash couldn't imagine his heart beating any faster. He was moving on pure adrenaline. He could almost feel the predator's sharp jaws right behind him.
They were suddenly caught in a bright flash of light and the feeling of water all around him disappeared. The next thing he knew, he landed on the floor back at the Time Twister with his scuba diving gear gone.
Coco quickly rushed across the bridge to greet them. "Crash, I'm so glad you're- ahhhh!"
Coco's scream startled Crash and when he followed her gaze, he screamed as well at the sight of the shark lying on the floor right behind him. The bandicoot scrambled away in terror as it squirmed forward, still intending on getting him.
The shark was suddenly lifted into the air by Aku-Aku's magic and Coco hurried over, slamming her foot down on the button. The portal appeared again and the shark sucked back into it.
"Why…" Coco panted. "is that a thing that could happen?" She took a deep breath and placed her hand over her chest, sighing in relief. She then walked over and helped her brother up. "You okay, big brother?"
Crash nodded, still trying to catch his breath.
Aku-Aku then asked him to give him the crystal again. Crash bit his lip and clutched the crystal tightly in his hand. A part of him wanted to argue or come up with an excuse to convince Aku-Aku to leave it with him. He managed to keep safe all this time, right? It wouldn't hurt to let him keep them all with him.
However, Crash quickly forced himself to hold it out before that feeling could spread further.
"Thank you," Aku-Aku said. "Hey, what about that gem you found?"
Crash blinked, having completely forgotten about that. He took the gem out and smiled. It wasn't as beautiful as the Power Crystal, but it still looked amazing to him.
"It's a good thing that you found this, Crash," the mask said.
"Why? I thought we were supposed to look for Power Crystals," Coco asked.
"Well, while they are not as powerful as the crystals, they can still work as energy sources. Cortex will no doubt try to make of use of them if he found any. If you find more gems like this one during your travels then please bring them to me," he requested.
Crash nodded and didn't feel as reluctant to hand it over like the crystal, which was a relief. Aku-Aku and Coco then turned to discuss something while Crash stayed there.
Still, the fact that he found both a Power Crystal and a gem made quite him giddy. He couldn't help it. He began doing a celebration dance on the spot.
Coco laughed when she spotted him doing that. "What was that weird dance all about?"
Crash rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and shrugged. Not wanting to waste any more time here, he pressed another button. He ran over and jumped into the portal, but to their surprise he fell right through it and landed on the hard floor.
"What happened?" Coco asked, worried that something was wrong with the Time Twister. Just as she got closer to her brother, she felt herself being pulled toward the portal and screamed as she was sucked into it.
"Coco!" Aku-Aku gasped, flying right after her just before the time portal closed.
Crash sat there, stunned. He hurried over to the screen to see his sister fall somewhere in the middle of a road of some kind that was being constructed, looking around in confusion.
Well, this was…unexpected.
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For the next hour, the two siblings proceeded gathering every crystal they found in each area. After Crash came back from the last one, he went to rest in the control room while Coco asked Aku-Aku to take her back home to get something.
Crash had been lying on the floor taking a nap when he suddenly heard a sudden noise. He tilted his head slightly to see his sister have returned with Aku-Aku, carrying some books with her.
"I don't see why you would want to bring these here," Aku-Aku said as she put them down on the floor.
"Hey, if we knew more about the place we're going to then it could help us get around it easily," she replied firmly, waving a book in front of him.
"Alright, alright," Aku-Aku muttered tiredly, obviously not happy to have gone home and back just for books.
Crash cracked a small smile and was about to go back to sleep when Coco spoke up again. "Hey, Aku-Aku? I've been meaning to ask you something,"
"What is it?"
"What exactly are these Power Crystals we're collecting and why are they so important?" she asked.
This got Crash's attention. He had been wondering about that too actually.
"Well, if you haven't realized it yet when Crash went to that place with those giant lizards-"
"Dinosaurs," Coco corrected.
"Yes, those. Power Crystals have existed for a very long time and contain mystical energies within them. I don't really know what they are made of or where their powers come from. People back in my village used to believe that they are remains from the spirit energy of the people who used to live on the islands, but that's what they believed anyway. While it's very difficult to find one nowadays, they used to be many of them in the past, especially in mountains and caves," he explained wistfully. "But we always warned everyone to stay from them," he added, which surprised the two mutants.
"Why?" Coco asked.
"Some believe these crystals can bring harm and disasters to people. I can't really say if the powers they have are good or evil, but strange things often happen whenever a Power Crystal is around. Sometimes catastrophic even,"
Crash's mind wandered back to that night when Cortex captured him and his sister. When he forced him into the Vortex while it was being powered by that crystal and the aftermath of that. The bandicoot found himself shivering.
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Crash and Aku-Aku later were standing in front of the energy barrier blocking their way to the next area.
"Did you find anything, Coco?" the mask called out.
"No, I can't find anything in here on how to turn those barriers off," the girl pulled away from the keyboard in frustration and walked over to them. "I don't get it. How are we supposed to get there now?"
Crash rubbed his chin and then had an idea. He turned to the barrier and without a warning, he charged to toward it only to get zapped and knocked away.
"Are you alright?" His sister asked in concern. Crash gave her a dazed look and a thumbs-up.
"Crash, that was very reckless of you! You could have gotten yourself hurt!" Aku-Aku scolded firmly.
"That just crosses out another way for us to get in," she said with a frown.
"I could try removing this door with my magic," their guardian offered.
Coco winced. "I don't think breaking a part of the machine is a good idea,"
The mask frowned. "But we need to continue our search for the crystals-"
"Hey!"
The two turned to see Crash back in the first area waving for them to come over. Confused, they hurried over to him and were surprised.
The buttons there were all gone. There was only one left now.
"Is…this supposed to happen?" Coco asked, inspecting it. There were a lot of things about this machine that confused the girl. The way it rejected Crash earlier and accepted her only further made her question how that man "N. Tropy" programmed it to work.
"I guess we should press it and see what happens," she concluded, seeing as they had no other choice. Nodding, Crash stepped on the button and a new portal opened. Glancing back at her unsure, the bandicoot and the mask quickly jumped into it, landing in the middle of a colosseum.
His ears were immediately assaulted with the sound of cheers coming from everywhere. There were countless people watching him from their seats.
"Where are we?" Aku-Aku asked confused while Crash was obliviously waving back at the crowds with a grin.
"Well, how strange for us to meet again here,"
The two froze and looked up to see none other than Cortex sitting on a throne. He wasn't wearing his lab coat, but some strange clothes that Crash didn't recognize.
"When I first got those reports from those androids, I refused to believe it. It didn't make any sense. There was no way for you to follow us through time, but now I see how wrong I was," Cortex said.
"Cortex, what have you done here?" Aku-Aku exclaimed, glaring at the man.
Cortex smirked. "Simple. All I had to do was show them my mutants and they were quick to let me rule over them. Fitting, isn't it?" he said. "So, Crash. Tell me, how you've been? Having fun messing around with your friends after you destroyed everything I spent years working for?" Cortex asked bitterly.
Crash sneered at him.
"Actually, I'm glad you two joined us today. Seeing you get obliterated on these grounds will be the perfect revenge and entertainment for us!" he stated, grinning. He then snapped his fingers and it was in that moment Crash noticed the creature tied to the wall. It was Tiny.
The large mutant's sharp eyes snapped open and he roared, tearing the chains off his hands. Glaring down viciously, the mutant grabbed a trident and jumped down.
Crash cried out and scrambled away as Tiny swung his weapon and nearly impaled him with it. Swinging his leg, Crash managed to kick him in the jaw. Tiny rubbed his face and snarled at him.
The bandicoot began running across the arena while the tiger chased after him.
"Come back here!" Tiny yelled. Crash shook his head frantically and continued running away.
"Enough! It's time to release the lions!" Cortex exclaimed. Tiny looked back at him and then grinned knowingly at Crash before jumping back with Cortex.
"Release the what?" Aku-Aku muttered as he flew by Crash's side.
Suddenly, the gates opened and the bandicoot's hairs stood on end when low growls echoed from them. Eyes glared at him hungrily before several lions emerged from the darkness.
Crash backed away in terror as they stepped toward him, baring their teeth viciously. Lunging at him, Crash quickly moved out of their way. One tried to grab him, but he jumped on its head, landing behind it.
The lion shook its head and growled at him. Teeth chittering, Crash was pushed back into a corner as the lions circled him. The crowd's cheers grew louder.
"Stay back!" Aku-Aku shouted and his body burst into light. The lions cried out as it blinded their eyes and were forced to return to their hiding places.
The crowds booed at this.
"Hey, we're trying to survive here!" Aku-Aku muttered back at them.
The ground shook once more as Tiny fell into the hole with them. He jumped into the air and tried to crush the bandicoot under his feet. Crash fled and watched as the large mutant kept trying to squash him.
Finally growing tired of this, Tiny aimed his trident at Crash and dropped only for Crash to roll out of way, causing it to stick into the ground.
Crash was immediately reminded of the man with the sword and grinned. He rushed over and knocked Tiny away with a spin attack. The tiger stood there dizzy for a moment before collapsing on the ground.
Crash stood there stunned and was even more surprised when the crowd began cheering for him.
"Seriously?" Aku-Aku said, raising an eyebrow at them. Weren't they rooting for their demise just seconds ago?
Crash stared at the fallen mutant questioningly before looking up and immediately noticing that the throne was empty. Cortex was nowhere to be seen.
Frowning, Crash decided to ignore that for the time being and waved back at the crowds until the portal finally appeared and took the two of them away.
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A/N: Thanks for reading. I hope to get the next chapter much sooner than this was. As always, I appreciate all your feedback and support.