Chapter 5 – Bitter Reunions
A/N: Hey everyone. Thanks for all the positive feedback. Before we return to where we left off, I would like to explain something. If you read "Something About You" then you probably know that I won't follow the game's story completely because a lot people had already done that and it would make the fic predictable so be prepared for unexpected twists in the future.
With that said, enjoy!
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At his tower, N. Tropy was quietly tinkering with his machines. He pulled away from his chair and rubbed his tired eyes. Maybe a cup of tea later will help him focus, but not right now. He needed to check on the progress Cortex and his minions were making with the crystal gathering. It had been a while since the last time they called him.
He walked up to the other side of the room where a large circular screen was on the wall. "Let's see what they have been doing," he murmured as he stepped on a button on the floor and the screen lit up, showing a town in the desert.
Rubbing his chin, he managed to spot some of the androids he sent among the crowds and on top of houses. Cortex and the other two men were nowhere to be seen though.
N. Tropy frowned and crossed his arms in annoyance. "Where are those three? Why aren't they overseeing the search?"
He pressed the button again and it showed him the Egyptian pyramids. It took the man a few seconds to process what he was seeing and his jaw dropped. His scream echoed throughout the tower.
"COOORTEX!"
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Crash grinned when they walked back to the hub area to find the energy field to the next place was gone. This one seemed to be Arabian themed.
"I'm so excited, guys. It's been only a few hours and I've seen more places than I have in my whole life!" Coco said, flipping frantically through a book in her hand.
Crash nodded in agreement.
"Let's see what we will be dealing with," The girl walked to a random button and pushed it to see what might be in store for them. She immediately recognized the area shown in the portal as somewhere in Egypt.
"Alright…." She began flipping through the history book in her hands.
"Summon the portal, Crash. We shouldn't waste any more time," Aku-Aku stated only find Crash playing with his yo-yo. "CRASH!"
With a yelp, the bandicoot ended up getting himself entangled in the string of his yo-yo.
"I can't believe you brought that thing with you," Aku-Aku sighed as Crash flashed him an embarrassed smile and freed himself. He wondered why these two keep getting distracted from the dangerous quest they were on.
A loud scream suddenly startled the two as Coco came running over to them, practically shoving her book in Crash's face.
"Look at what he done!" she yelled.
Confused, Crash looked down at the page she was showing him and he rubbed his eyes, unable to believe what he was seeing.
It was the picture of a sphinx with Cortex's face.
"Um, Coco….what is this?" Aku-Aku asked, disturbed by the image while Crash shuddered.
"Cortex did this! He ruined it!" Coco shouted angrily.
The mask frowned. "You mean this isn't how it always looked?"
"I don't know! I can't remember!" she muttered in frustration, lightly hitting her forehead. "It has to be because Cortex is messing up everything. Every time he changes something it gets erased from our memories. I just know his stupid face doesn't belong on that statue!"
Crash and Aku-Aku exchanged worried looks. The guardian's expression turned grim. "This is a lot more dangerous than I previously thought. We must head out now before he causes any more damage."
Crash nodded and quickly summoned the next portal.
"Crash, if you come across Cortex again make sure you punch him hard for me," Coco called out, a fierce glint in her eyes.
Crash nodded nervously under her angry gaze and jumped into it, landing in an alley behind a building. It was quite sunny, even more so than back at the islands. He could hear someone playing music somewhere.
Crash turned around and looked up to the building. Maybe if they were on higher ground they will have a better view of the city. Plus, they can't risk running into more humans of this time period and scaring them like last time.
Rubbing his hands together, he climbed onto to some wooden crates and jumped to grab onto a window. He pulled himself up and tried to balance himself. He looked about and then jumped onto another window's awning, launching himself up into the air. He reached up to grab onto the edge of the roof, but he didn't get far enough.
He fell through the air and bounced on the awning again, reaching higher this time and managing to grab on. Pulling himself up, Crash stood there for a moment, gazing around at the bustling city.
Crash glanced at Aku-Aku who was eyeing the street with an uneasy look on his face. "Aku-Aku?"
"Oh, I'm alright. It's just….I'm sensing something off here. Please stay on your guard," the mask replied.
Crash blinked, but nodded, feeling tense now. With that, the two began the search. Running over houses and jumping from one roof to another.
"Crash, look out," his companion whispered. Crash glanced around the corner to see an android with a sword. He seemed to be guarding the area, occasionally swinging his sword through the air in boredom.
Crash remained crotched and slowly snuck behind the man when his back was turned. Just as the android was about to turn around, he was sent flying off the roof with a kick from the mutant. The bandicoot then kept going, taking down every android he came across.
"Wait, the crystal is…moving," Aku-Aku said eventually, puzzled. Blinking, Crash looked around until he saw a man…flying on a carpet?
The man saw them while flying by and waved the crystal they were looking for tauntingly at them.
"Crash, stop him! He's getting away with our crystal!" Aku-Aku exclaimed.
Crash snapped out of his shock and scrambled after him, jumping from one roof to another, desperately trying to grab him from his spot on the ground. The man remained high up away from his reach and laughing at his feeble attempts.
"Look, he's heading down!"
Crash looked up ahead to see the man descending in an open area in the city where he can hear loud cries coming from down there. Confused, Crash raced to the edge of the house and looked down to see people running away.
It was the Komodo Brothers along a group of androids were standing in the center of the plaza. The mere sight of the anthropomorphic creatures alone was enough to send the humans running in fear. The thief who had their crystal was levitating down and handing it to them.
"Hey!" Crash yelled and hopped down onto some crates before landing on the ground.
"Well, look who is here," Joe said.
"Give us back that crystal," Aku-Aku demanded.
"Oh no. It's you who should be giving us the other crystals you took from us," Moe replied, pointing an accusing finger at Crash who sneered at him.
Aku-Aku scowled and opened his mouth only to be cut off by another voice.
"You're in no position to demand anything from us, brother,"
In flash of red light, Uka-Uka materialized with the two brothers. The warm air around them went a bit chilly at his presence.
"Uka-Uka…." Aku-Aku murmured breathlessly, stunned at seeing his brother again after hundreds of years. He then scowled. "Why are you working with Cortex? What are you planning this time?"
"Oh, straight to the point, aren't you. You're not even going to welcome me after being gone for centuries," his tone then turned venomous. "After all, it was you who sealed me away in that temple in the mountain,"
"I locked you away because you are a threat to all of us. Everything had been fine back then when we both guarded the island, but then you decided that wasn't enough for you!" Aku-Aku snapped back. "At very least I remained true to my duties as the island's protector,"
His twin chuckled at this, much to his surprise. "Oh, have you? Because I'm certain all those bases and factories back there weren't built by the villagers," Uka-Uka muttered sarcastically and Aku-Aku's eyes widened. "That's right. I know all about how you failed to stop Cortex from conquering Wumpa Islands,"
Aku-Aku faltered briefly, but then composed himself. "That doesn't matter. We saved them in the end, haven't we?"
"Wrong! He was the one who freed the islands," Uka-Uka muttered, glaring at Crash who flinched under his gaze. "If he hadn't showed up to you then the islands will still be under our control! You're just as much a failure as Cortex!" he stated and laughed.
Crash glanced worriedly at his guardian who was looking down in shame. Anger filling him, Crash clutched his fists and glared at the villains. Without thinking, he dashed toward them.
A guard quickly took out his sword and swung it. The bandicoot expected this and slid on the ground. One guard tried slashing at him, but Crash ducked, causing him to hit the other man. Sparks flew out of wound before he exploded into pieces. Crash immediately lunged and knocked the remaining one down.
The rest of the guards came rushing toward Crash, but Aku-Aku quickly threw himself over his face and his body began to glow. Without hesitation, the masked bandicoot charged at the androids, knocking every one that stood in his way. Some tried hitting him with their weapons, but they did him no harm. Soon he was surrounded by broken robotic remains.
It wasn't long until Aku-Aku had to remove himself from his face. Crash then turned to the brothers who drew their swords. Joe ran over and began attacking Crash who could only back away and evade his slashes.
"Alright, traitor. Let's see you dodge this!" Crash saw Moe had gathered up the fallen swords from the destroyed androids and had stuck to the ground around him. He then started throwing them at Crash one after the other.
Screaming, Crash scrambled to the side as the blades sliced through air and impaled anything they hit.
Once Moe ran out of swords to throw, Crash quickly picked up one of them and took a fighting stance. Joe rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Oh, come on! You're terrible at using swords. My brother and I tried to teach you once and you nearly cut your own ears off!"
Crash blushed at the memory. He might had been the most agile and quick witted out of Cortex's mutant team, but anything related to physical strength and weapons was always out of the question for him.
Joe lunged at Crash, waving his blade, but Crash sidestepped just in time and delivered a powerful kick to his back, sending him crashing into a store.
Moe charged at him next, but instead of fighting, Crash turned around and fled.
"Just wait until I get my claws on you!" Moe shouted as the bandicoot disappeared around a corner. When he made it there, he was surprised to find the alleyway empty. "Where did he- hey!" he cried out when a clay jar fell over him and he couldn't get out of it. Crash jumped down from the roof and knocked the trapped mutant away with a spin attack.
Uka-Uka meanwhile was watching the fight, practically fuming. "Enough fooling around," he growled and flew toward Crash.
"No, stay away from him!" Aku-Aku exclaimed, hurrying after him.
Crash sighed in relief at having survived that fight and held the crystal proudly in his hands, but when he turned around to return to Aku-Aku, he found himself facing the sinister gaze of the dark mask.
"I admit it. I wasn't expecting you to defeat my minions all by yourself, but it's about time someone put an end to you, nuisance," Uka-Uka muttered darkly, eyes blazing.
Not knowing what to do, Crash turned around and scrambled away.
"Come back here!" Uka-Uka's booming voice echoed in the air.
Crash slipped between two houses and began running across the street as fast as he could. Glancing back, he saw the evil mask flying after him, a violent aura coming off him. Anything that he came close to exploded into pieces. The clay jars, the food stands. Everything.
Fearing for his life, Crash screwed his eyes shut and forced himself to run faster, feeling the ground shaking as the dark entity drew closer and closer. He was gradually running out of breath and didn't know how long he can go one. Should he keep running? Find a place to hide in? Could he risk it?
Suddenly, Crash tripped over his foot and felt his heart skipped a beat as he rolled on the ground. Before he can pick himself up, Crash was lifted into the air where he was forced to face Uka-Uka.
"There we are. Did you really think you can escape me?" the mask asked with a malicious grin. He ripped the crystal out of Crash's hand who yelled and struggled harder. "I want to see how you will wiggle your way out of this one, little worm,"
Crash kept trying to escape, but Uka-Uka's invisible grip on him remained strong. In fact, Crash realized, it was getting tighter on him. He grimaced and grunted in pain. The mask's cruel grin then fell for some reason and he eyed the bandicoot oddly as if seeing something that he couldn't figure out.
A sudden blast of magic hit Uka-Uka and knocked him away, causing Crash to fall down along with the crystal, panting for breath. Aku-Aku came flying over to him.
"Hurry! Let's go!" the mask muttered urgently. Crash quickly grabbed the crystal and sprinted away with his guardian.
Uka-Uka soon risen off the ground and looked around for the two, but he couldn't sense them anywhere. Growling in frustration, the mask flew back to the mutant brothers.
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"We're back!" Aku-Aku called out once they returned to the Time Twister.
"Crash!" Coco came running over to them and threw her arms around her brother. "I saw what happened. Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.
Crash nodded.
She sighed in relief. "When I saw Uka-Uka capture, I was so scared. I didn't know what to do,"
Crash flashed her a wide grin and gave her a pat on the shoulder. He then look over to Aku-Auk only to notice him looking downcast and remembered the exchange the two brothers had.
Coco and Crash glanced at each other, unsure of what to do. Crash nudged his sister since she was the one who usually knew what to say.
"Don't believe what that jerk said, Aku-Aku. He was just trying to get to you. None of what he saying was true!" Coco said firmly.
"Huh? Oh, don't worry about that, children. I'm fine," he said reassuringly, but the two siblings didn't feel that was true.
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After travelling to many areas, Crash and his guardian landed in a snow covered land. The bandicoot's arm immediately wrapped around his body as cold bit his skin.
Aku-Aku gazed around. There didn't seem to be any towns or villages nearby. Just a frozen wasteland. From he could see, it was nighttime wherever they were.
He looked over to see Crash picking up a handful of snow and examining it curiously. It then struck him that this was the first time Crash was seeing snow.
"Let's keep moving. It will be bad for you if we stay here for too long," he said. As a spirit, Aku-Aku wasn't bothered by the cold, but they need to get Crash out of here as soon as possible.
As they made their way across the snowy fields, the mask kept feeling Crash sending him worried glances. He knew he was probably still thinking about what happened in that city.
"Crash, I know you and your sister are worried about me, but really, I'm fine," he stated. The bandicoot didn't look convinced.
Aku-Aku sighed. "Listen, Crash. I may have great power and protecting the people on the islands is my job, but I failed to do that when they needed me. Uka-Uka was kind of right. I won't deny that,"
Crash frowned, looking down at the ground quietly.
"I tried many times to fight Cortex's armies off, but I never succeeded. Even the people who I was supposed to protect started to lose their trust in me. I just couldn't do it no matter how hard I tried," the mask continued as they entered an ice tunnel. "But then you came along and made me fight with you even when I thought it was hopeless,"
Crash looked up at his guardian who smiled at him. "I know I wasn't exactly nice to you when we first met, but honestly….you coming to the islands was the first good thing that happened to us in years, Crash,"
Crash looked away at that and rubbed his neck before saying. "You helped too,"
Aku-Aku blinked and then chuckled. "Alright, I guess have,"
Crash gave him his usual grin and proceeded making his way through the tunnel.
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Dingodile grumbled under his breath as he wandered the frozen wasteland with his companion in tow.
"I can't believe it. How could he do this me? I worked with him for years. I helped him with all his experiments. It's not fair!" Brio huffed as he walked behind him.
Dr. Cortex had the "brilliant" idea of sending each of his assistance to oversee the search with the other mutants, but Dingodile had the feeling the man had other motives behind that decision.
It was already bad enough he was sent to this location in particular. His reptilian side was beyond irritated by the cold and snow. Every so often he would light up his flamethrower to keep himself warm. The constant complaining behind him was starting to grind on his nerves as well.
Sighing, the mutant finally turned to the human. "Look, mate. How about we quit chatting and just focus on the job, okay?"
Brio blinked and huffed before taking out his crystal detector. "According to these readings I'm getting, there might be a crystal in this location somewhere,"
"Might be!?" Dingodile muttered in disbelief.
"I don't know, but that's what the detector says," the man said, putting it back in his pocket.
Rubbing his face in frustration, Dingodile sighed again. "Alright, what do you suggest now, doc,"
"I say we split up to cover more ground," the man replied. "I'll come look for you once I'm done,"
"Sounds good to me," Dingodile said. Even though Cortex was his creator, the mutant trusted N. Brio a bit more since he was the most rational out of the two. Not to mention, he will at least be spared from the man's complaining now.
After a while, the mutant found a cavern and decided to explore it. Shivering a bit when a gust of wind came from the entrance, he headed deeper into the tunnel until he made it to what assumed be the end of the cave.
His eyes searched the place, but saw nothing except snow and ice. He then gazed up and was surprised by the sight many of colorful icicles decorating the celling. He almost mistook them for crystals for a brief moment and shook his head.
"Nothing here," he grumbled and then noticed something. A penguin was waddling by. A sharp grin spread across the mutant's face. Well, since he didn't find what he was looking for he might as well entertain himself.
He took out his flamethrower and aimed at the bird who immediately let out a frightened noise. Just before he could pull the trigger, he gasped in surprise when a snowball hit his face.
"Who threw that!?" he snarled and looked around until he saw Crash and Uka-Uka's brother. The bandicoot was grinning mischievously.
"Well, well. It's old my 'pal', Crash," Dingodile placed his hand on his hip with a smirk. Almost sensing the tension in the air, the penguin quickly fled.
Crash's face fell a little at the remark. He didn't want to be reminded of his time in the castle or the fact that these mutants he had been fighting used to be his friends. Just remembering that made his chest tighten.
Dingodile eyed the bandicoot's body with raised brow. "I see you're back to normal again," he said and then shrugged. "No matter. I'm not gonna waste time talking like before. Let's just cut to the chase," Dingodile jumped back and fired at the ceiling. "Get crushed!"
The large icicles broke off and began falling down. Crash and Aku-Aku cried out and scrambled back as massive ice shards fell all around them. One nearly got Crash if he hadn't jumped away just in time.
When Crash pulled himself up, he saw the cave had become like a labyrinth. A sudden fire blast blew through an icicle, startling Crash.
"Oh, Craaash. Come out….." Dingodile drawled. The bandicoot quickly slapped his mouth closed and got into a crouching position, slowly sneaking away from where he assumed the other mutant was standing.
This was really bad. He couldn't approach the mutant while he still had that flamethrower, but at the same time he couldn't see the tunnel he came from, so escaping was out of the question.
The sound of the other mutant's footsteps reached Crash's ears and he was forced to move around quietly to remain out of his sight. He got a glimpse of Dingodile's reflection ahead and went still. Heart racing, the bandicoot gasped when another blast tore through some icicles far too close to him. He looked over to Aku-Aku for help.
"Wait here. I'll take a look," Aku-Aku whispered and Crash nodded. The mask rose up just enough to peek over the icicle only to duck down immediately just as the upper part of it was blown away.
"Found you!"
"Sorry, sorry! That was a terrible idea! RUN!" Aku-Aku stammered frantically.
Dingodile pointed upward and launched several fire balls into the air where the two were hiding. Crash nearly slipped as he dashed out of the way, forcing himself out of hiding.
"There you are!" Dingodile exclaimed and took aim.
Crash slid on the ground to another hiding spot just as the blast nearly grazed him.
Dingodile tried firing again, but his flamethrower didn't work. "Huh?"
"Quickly, now is your chance!" Aku-Aku muttered. Wasting no time, Crash sprinted to the center of cave. When Dingodile saw him coming, he swung his weapon at him, but Crash evaded the attack and hit him with a spin attack, sending him tumbling on his belly.
Dingodile grunted and tried to get up when the sound of an alarm began coming off the tank on his back. "Oh no,"
Realizing whatever that sound was had to be bad for them, Crash turned and ran away just as the tank exploded.
He then looked back to see Dingodile laying on the ground with his fur covered in ash, but he still seemed to be alive.
The penguin from earlier suddenly raced past Crash and began jumping on the defeated mutant's back. The two barely stifled their laughter as the portal appeared behind them and took them away.
Brio had been on his way back, having found nothing when he heard the sounds of the blasts and hurried into the tunnel. Once he got there, he found place completely wrecked with a little penguin bouncing over Dingodile's back.
"You…were defeated by that penguin?"
"What?! NO!"
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A/N: Thanks for reading. The fight was Dingodile is actually my favorite one in the game so I enjoyed creating my own interpretation of it.