Author's Note: I decided to churn out one last update before school restarts tomorrow. Oh well, reviews would be nice so please give them.

Chapter 4:

Quest for Power

Crash, Jak, and Spyro seated (or perched in Spyro's case) themselves upon mismatched chairs surrounding a circular table. Other's at the table were the rest of the Heroes' group along with N. Brio, Kendra (who was smiling at Crash in a way that made the bandicoot feel strangely happy), and surprisingly Nina Cortex. However, Crash could already tell that this Nina was not the chipper and almost too friendly girl that had helped him and Dr. Cortex defeat the Evil Twins. Nina was (as he had always known) the same age as Coco maturity wise but now she acted much more like that age. Upon questioning of the reason for her change of heart, she replied that her uncle had finally "gone off the deep end in his planning."

"I mean, Uncle Neo's always been crazy, but that Erol is twice, no, three times crazier than he is by far," Nina shrugged. Crash was simply glad that they had Nina on their side as he had noted that she was a big help in defeating the Evil Twins.

N. Brio called the meeting to order after a few minutes of it being not in order. Everyone turned their attention to him and once it was given to him, he then commanded it to be turned to Kendra. The bandicootess cleared her throat, gave Crash another smile, and began.

"I've found what everyone wanted me to," she announced to satisfied looks from N. Brio and Nina, "the records from Crash's evolution." Crash and Coco looked at each other confusedly as Kendra continued. "It shows that Crash was extremely sensitive to the energies given off the Cortex Vortex which caused a state of panic making it impossible for him to be controlled by that device. However, an unexpected side effect was Crash's ability to home in on the locations of Crystals. The only other person with this ability so far is Coco, seeing as they are related it seems to be a family trait."

"The point?" Coco sighed, already extremely tired from the fact that each sentence was punctuated by another smile, wink, and sometimes a giggle in her brother's direction. Kendra pouted at Coco before continuing.

"The point is that one of you can lead an expedition after the Gems while the other leads one after the Crystals," she said sourly. Brio smiled approvingly in Kendra's direction.

"E-excellent, now we can p-power this ship's l-laser and make sure th-that Cortex can't p-power his. Now to s-split up the teams," he mused. Crash spoke up.

"I'll take Spyro, Sparx, Aku-Aku, Crunch, and Kendra." Kendra giggled at the mention of her name and gathered along with the others mentioned towards Crash. Meanwhile, Nina, Cynder, Jak, Daxter, and Keira closed in around Coco.

"We'll handle the Crystals, Crash," Coco promised. Crash nodded and smiled.

"Good, and Jak," he directed to the man (elf?) turned bandicoot, "you'd better look after her." Jak nodded a promise. Both teams walked out to the hanger to see the Hellcats got a bit of a remodel. The back part was expanded to hold more people so that each group could fly together in one ship. Crash's group took his Hellcat while Coco's took Jak's (with Jak piloting despite Coco's protests). Each Hellcat lifted off and headed out in a different direction depending upon the navigator's direction. Crash piloted his Hellcat west towards the middle island which some called Wumpa Island for the abundance of fruit trees in the island's forests. Meanwhile, Coco directed Jak south towards N. Sanity Island, her home island among the three.

With Crash's team, when they landed on a plateau of Wumpa Island they all leapt out and looked to Crash for direction. After focusing for a moment, a familiar tingling feeling began emitting from the area to his right. Crash opened his eyes and led the team in that direction, down a narrow path leading into a set of caves in the Cliffside. At the cave's mouth, everyone paused to peer inside the dark maw. Kendra latched her arms around Crash and peered around his shoulder.

"You don't think there's anything dangerous in there do you?" she inquired in a whisper.

"Oh it's guaranteed," Crash replied, "but don't worry, we got Spyro with us." Spyro smirked despite his increasing desire to bury his face in his claws from exasperation. Kendra beamed at Crash and kissed him on the cheek.

"Come on, let's go then!" As everyone else pressed forward, Crash just stood there with an even stupider grin than usual. Spyro looked back, this time giving in to his desire to face-palm, and backtracked so he could push Crash in front of him. As they walked forward, it steadily got darker until it was pitch black save for Sparx.

"I can't see a thing," Spyro growled in a worried voice.

"Hey, at least we haven't walked straight into the middle of an ambush!" Crash replied in a chipper voice. Suddenly, lights turned on all around them so that they could see several troops of yellow armored Elite Krimzon Guards. It was Crunch's turn to do a face-palm.

"You know Crash, sometimes I really, really hate you."

Meanwhile, Coco's team had to take a longer route to get to N. Sanity Island due to an air patrol of several more powerful looking fighters than those previously encountered. Eventually they made it to a clearing on a cliff above the native village, or at least that's what Coco thought. Jak's eyes widened as he saw what was before him then turned back to warn Coco.

"Coco, you might not like this," he whispered.

"What is it Jak?" she asked as she clambered out of the Hellcat. She froze in place as she looked down at the area that used to carry the house she, Crash, and Crunch lived in. Instead of the tropical paradise that used to be there, it was a ruin with several troops of Elite Krimzon Guards patrolling. Coco sniffed a couple times then wrapped her arms around Cynder as the dragoness rubbed up against her. The sound of metal sliding made both look up at Jak.

"So they decided to ruin your home? Let's ruin their faces."

Author's Note: Well, Crash is screwed and Jak's being a bad ass again. Can Crash get himself and the others out of this situation? Is Jak enough of a bad ass to save N. Sanity Island? Will more than one person review this story for once? Only time will tell, so how about a few reviews to pass the time? Geek out.