Rumbling Rivalry
Chapter 1
Mosquito Marsh, A Few Days Ago
"Zzz… Crikey… Zzz…"
Dingodile snored away as he sat in his favourite chair within the confines of his trailer, having dozed off watching TV. He'd had a busy day running his signature restaurant just down the road from where his mobile home was permanently stationed; his bulky figure no longer allowed him to sit comfortably in most conventional karts, let alone use one to move his trailer elsewhere. His 'three wall dining plan' had proven surprisingly popular, and not just because it had attracted a record number of health inspectors.
…Though it was mostly because of that.
As Dingodile snoozed, the latest commercial for his establishment began to play on the TV during an ad break, the recording of himself addressing the audience with a proud, confident smile on his muzzle.
"Fed up with being underfed? Sick of being ripped off by restaurants that charge you an arm and a leg for grub that seems smaller than an actual grub?" the dingo-crocodile hybrid's on-screen self asked. "Then come on down to Dingo's Diner - now featuring locally sourced gourmet steaks at a ripper of a price!"
"Warning: Dingo Diner's locally sourced gourmet steaks are not suitable for consumption by pregnant women or people with gluten allergies, peanut allergies, lactose intolerance or any sort of susceptibility to salmonella," the disclaimer's voice stated, speaking very fast. "Dingo's gourmet steaks are also not recommended for people who have heart conditions, skin conditions, anxiety issues, post-traumatic stress disorder, ticklish feet or an irrational fear of steaks. Consume in moderation and at your own risk."
A dull, metallic thud caused Dingodile to jolt awake suddenly, the burly mutant quickly leaping to his feet. "Huh? Wazzat?!" he babbled cluelessly, glancing around. Movement then caught his eye through the trailer's window, and he let out a low growl of anger as he saw two fat anthropomorphic bats with leathery blue skin and tiny wings lumbering around just outside, the pair carrying TNT crates and snickering to themselves, one of them no doubt having clumsily bumped against the trailer just now, waking its owner up.
Dingodile swore under his breath. Then he grabbed his vacuum cannon from where it hung on the nearby wall, held up by a lone hook. He pulled the string on the weapon's back to start it up, the device of his own design roaring to life with a powerful whirr.
"Alright, ya bastards," he murmured threateningly as he started for the trailer's door, cannon at the ready, "If you're gonna try pulling this crap again, I won't give you the chance to get anywhere near me pride 'n' joy of a diner this time."
The two bats snickered and giggled in a dim-witted way as they set the TNT crates they were carrying down before the trailer. They then shrieked in alarm as the door on the side of the trailer suddenly burst open, Dingodile standing there, his vacuum gun primed and whirring threateningly.
"Oi! You two!" he barked. The bats shrieked again and bolted, their somewhat stubby legs not allowing them to run away with any sort of noteworthy speed. "Come back here, you worthless sods!" Dingo shouted after them. "Think you can blow me trailer to kingdom come while I'm sleeping?! I'll give ya what for and then some!" On that note, he aimed his gun at the nearest of the two TNT crates the bats had left behind and adjusted a setting on the weapon. It began to whirr more fiercely, the suction increasing. A second later, the TNT crate became securely stuck to the barrel of the cannon with a light pop.
Dingodile then spun a dial on the back of the gun, reversing the force of the suction and sending the TNT crate rocketing through the air towards the fleeing bats. It hit the ground just a few feet behind them and the blast, while not being big enough or close enough to kill them, created enough force to send them flying off the wooden pier and into the murky waters below with two distinct splashes, prompting the half-canine, half-reptile to laugh with cold satisfaction.
"Heh heh ha ha ha! I told ya I'd get every last one o' yous!" he declared, powering down his vacuum gun and slinging it over his shoulder, standing there in a triumphant victory pose. "Hmm?!" He then noticed something lurking behind his trailer, crouching in the shadows. He took aim with his gun again. "Alright, mate, I know you're back there!" he called. "Come out and fight me like something with more guts than a bat!"
The bat screamed and took of at a run, following the example of its friends, but Dingodile wasn't about to let this troublemaker get away scot free, either. He furrowed his brow… and then broke into a run. Well, more of a jog, for that was the best his portly physique would allow for, but the principle was the same.
"Oh, no you don't!" he snarled, giving chase. "I'm not letting another one of you blithering bats make a stupid Aussie drongo outta me!"
The bat just whimpered fearfully, running as fast as its legs could carry it. It wasn't quite as overweight as its cohorts had been, so its movements weren't as sluggish, but Dingodile, despite his own bulk, was no slouch, either, able to keep up surprisingly well. Realising that it wasn't going to shake off its pursuer easily, the bat suddenly veered to the right, leaping off the boardwalk and onto a bank of moderately firm dirt ground that ran along the water's edge, soon pushing though the nearby brush, trying to vanish amidst the reeds.
"Hmph! If he thinks a bloke like me is gonna stay outta the reeds, then he don't know diddly!" Dingodile muttered to himself as he leapt after the bat, landing on the dirt with a heavy thud that very nearly shook the ground, such was his weight. "Oi, bat-brain!" he called into the gloom of the glades.
There was no response. No panicked shriek, no whimper, muffled or otherwise… The only sounds that met Dingo's ears were the trickle of water, the whistling of the wind and the distant call of a native bird. He frowned.
"Bat-brain?" he called again. The troublemaker couldn't have vanished that easily, surely? Dingodile stepped into the veritable forest of reeds…
…And then cried out in alarm as he completely lost his footing and went tumbling.
"WHOAAAAAA! CRIKEEEEEEY!" the restaurant owner yowled as he found himself positively cartwheeling down a surprisingly steep slope, looking like a giant, awkwardly shaped bowling ball as he picked up speed. After several moments that filled him with increasing panic and dizziness, he came to a halt as he landed face-first in the shallows of another body of murky swamp water. His vacuum gun, which he had lost his grip on when he fell, suddenly bounced off the top of his head, landing in the drink next to him.
Groaning with annoyance, exhaustion and mild pain, Dingo slowly picked himself up, trying to get his bearings.
"Where the hell am I?" he muttered bitterly, taking in his surroundings. He was in a part of Mosquito Marsh he couldn't recall ever having seen before. There was a wooden walkway as there had been back up near his trailer, but this one was lower in terms of height, only elevating the planks a couple of feet above the water, and there was only one path rather than several branching walkways. The boardwalk before him seemed to lead to some sort of fort that stood erected just a couple hundred metres away, several metal pipes extending from the structure's interior, each of them leading down to a large vat of goopy purple liquid that Dingodile could pick up on the familiar smell of even from where he currently stood.
Wumpa juice.
"Bloomin' bats and their obsession with fruit," Dingo muttered to himself as he sloshed and waded his way out of the water, soon pulling himself up onto the boardwalk, gun slung over his shoulder once again, the weapon now clogged with sludge from the riverbed. "Give me a nice bit of grilled meat over that swill any day of the week." On that note, he began trudging down the path, limping slightly, his left foot having gotten injured during his tumble. He soon reached the fort, which looked even more rustic and rudimentary up close. It was noticeably bigger than any of the other structures the bats that plagued Mosquito Marsh had ever built, at least based on what Dingodile had seen of such. The Wumpa juice vats were bigger than any he'd seen up above, and there was a plethora of metallic and plastic junk stacked all around the place. It was like a miniature junkyard, only everything seemed to be positioned and stacked with purpose - an orderly sort of chaos, if that made any sense.
Dingodile scratched his head as he gazed up at the fort, not entirely sure what to make of it. He then became aware of several pairs of eyes watching him out of the shadows.
No, not several.
Dozens.
It took a moment for the dingo-crocodile hybrid to put the pieces together in his mind. "This is your base, isn't it?" he called out into the gloom. "This is where you filthy flyers plot all your schemes to sink my diner into the drink, am I right? I oughta blow this place to high heaven, see how you like it!"
"Heh. You wouldn't get far with that idea, I promise you that," a voice said from directly behind Dingodile. He whirled around to face whomever had spoken, but was bewildered to find that there was no one there.
"What're you playin' at, whoever you are?" the burly mutant demanded, glancing around, trying to find the source of the voice he had heard. His eyes then narrowed in realisation. "Why, you're the leader of these bloomin' bats, ain't ya?"
"Leader, protector… Call me what you will," the voice said, again coming from just a few paces behind Dingodile. He spun around, holding his vacuum gun at the ready; it was still clogged with muck, but the skulking speaker didn't know that. Once again, he found no one there. He then nearly had a heart attack from fright as the voice spoke again, whispering directly into his left ear from right beside him. "But I prefer to be called—"
"CRIKEY!" Dingo positively shrieked in alarm, leaping away from the source of the sound, stumbling back and teetering on the edge of the boardwalk. He barely had time to glimpse his tormentor before he fell backwards, soon finding himself in the shallows once again, this time rear-first.
The figure chuckled coldly, their voice hard for Dingodile to place; it wasn't what he'd call masculine, but it wasn't necessarily feminine, either. A set of greenish/blue, almost cyan coloured toes then appeared at the edge of the boardwalk as Dingo looked up, each toe tipped with a black claw. The dingo-crocodile's eyes then widened as he gazed upon the figure before him, seeing them properly for the first time.
A greenish-blue anthropomorphic bat-like mutant stared down at Dingodile, a cold, sly smirk on their visage complete with visible fangs. They had the wings and ears of a bat, each frond of both wings tipped with what looked like a little black claw - identical to those on the figure's toes. A long tail befitting of a cat extended out from behind the figure, coated in cyan fur that matched the colour of the leathery skin on the rest of their body. Their yellow eyes were adorned with black eyeliner, a scar over the right eye, a little pink snout in the middle of their face. They were dressed in a black jacket that left their torso exposed to the elements, a belt with a skull-shaped buckle keeping their torn dark grey jeans up. Two metal earrings adorned the being's left ear, which had a visible indent in it. Another ring, this one black and decorated with silver spikes, was proudly worn on the end of the mutant's tail.
"As I was saying before you nearly crapped yourself," the mysterious mutant said, lifting off the boardwalk and taking to the air on beating wings, "My name…" They paused, suddenly rushing towards Dingodile with genuinely frightening speed to slam a curled fist into his already dumbfounded jaw.
WHAM.
"…Is Catbat," the mutant finished right before Dingodile succumbed to the blow he had just received and fell unconscious.
As the dingo-crocodile hybrid lay there in the shallows, unmoving, the mysterious bat-like mutant, Catbat, allowed their cold, sly smirk to grow wider, folding their arms as they continued to hover there in mid-air.
"Get him inside," they said simply, addressing the bats that had already begun to come forth from the shadows, who wasted no time in following their leader's orders…
Ooh, what's gonna happen to our boy Dingodile? Stay tuned to find out!
Oh, it feels GOOD to finally be writing a new Crash fanfic. I'll hopefully have the next chapter up before too long, and in any case, I'll see YOU on the battlefield in Crash Team Rumble, which is just over a week away from releasing at the time of writing! (: