Chapter 4: Trans Dimensional
An embarrassing failure. That's what she was, and she knew it, too.
BG-2187 hadn't told her peers what had happened to the group of Ratcicles she had been entrusted with. As far as anyone at Evil Public School knew as of yet, she had ordered them to return to the Ice Prison from whence they had been imported… but it was only a matter of hours before reports would start coming in from the remote mutant storage facility in the far reaches of the Frozen Coast, reports saying that four registered Titans were unaccounted for, and that the signals of their NVs were no longer showing up on radar. Questions would be asked, and BG-2187 would inevitably find herself in the hot seat with her superiors, perhaps even Cortex himself. What would happen to her then? Would she be disintegrated? She was lucky to have escaped such a fate once. She doubted she would be so lucky a second time.
BG-2187 rolled over in her bed in the staff's sleeping quarters, tears running down her furry cheeks. She had wanted to prove herself to her fellow Brat Girls… and now she probably wouldn't live to see the next sunrise. She was surprised that her superiors hadn't come bursting into the dormitory already, rousing her awake and demanding answers to questions that she was terrified of being asked, that she was terrified of having to answer.
"I never asked to be created as a minion of evil," she whispered to herself. "I've been alive for little more than a month and this could already be my last night." She screwed her eyes shut and let out a fearful whimper. "I couldn't even do something worthwhile in my short time, be it good or evil."
BG-2187 then pushed the covers from her body and sat up, wiping her tear-filled eyes. She let out a weary sigh. She couldn't go out like this. She couldn't just lie here and await whatever terrible fate the morning might bring. No, she'd go for a walk, get one last look at the school building that had been her home.
The ominous, isolated school building where she'd never known a single day of happiness…
BG-2187 crept out of the dormitory quietly, careful not to wake her fellow Brat Girls, some of whom were mumbling about 'pork chop sandwiches' between snores. She began a long trek through the narrow corridors of the school, absent-mindedly side-stepping the rotating spiked cylinders that moved through the halls by means of complex mechanisms, having long-since learned their patterns. She knew the timing of every nozzle that spewed streams of fire from the walls, where every trapdoor that opened into a pit of sub-zero icy water was located, where not to stand lest a pendulum axe should suddenly swing down and cleave an unfortunate soul in two… Evil Public School took its 'no students out of bed after hours' rule very seriously - the way that only a school of villainy could. For a seasoned Brat Girl, however, avoiding the pitfalls - literal and otherwise - was second nature. BG-2187 barely even noticed as a pendulum axe swung past directly behind her, missing the tips of her bat wings by a hair's breadth. She could actually feel the breeze that the giant blade's momentum generated, but that's all it was to her - a trivial breeze hardly worth thinking about. She didn't expect to be around for much longer, anyway; would it really matter at this point if she got cleaved right through the middle, leaving only her remains to be found by her fellow Brat Girls in the morning, her blood and Mojo essence smeared across the floor—?
BG-2187 shook her head, pushing such morbid thoughts away. She needed to keep it together. After all, it wasn't a guarantee that she'd be in trouble come the dawn. Perhaps one of the other Brat Girls would be blamed for the loss of the four Ratcicles - one of the really stupid Brat Girls who was accident prone at the best of times! Or maybe Cortex would think that one of the students had set the Ratcicles free for a prank, or as a means of protesting the school's sinister ways! The cold, sad feeling in BG-2187's chest was replaced with a fleeting sense of hopeful warmth at such prospects. Sure, she didn't exactly feel good about the idea of someone innocent taking her place on the proverbial - perhaps literal - chopping block, but it was better them than her, right? Right?
Then again, maybe she should feel good about it. She was supposed to be evil, after all… even if she definitely didn't like that.
BG-2187 let out another weary sigh as she entered the school's library. She needed to get her mind off her troubles, and fast. A good book, that's what she needed. Well, an evil book at any rate, given that this was an evil library. Regardless, BG-2187 made her way over to the nearest row of bookshelves, looking for something that might interest her. In truth, she had never really given much thought to what sort of literature she might like to read, having been too focused on proving her worth as a Brat Girl from day one. Oh, she had read books before, but most of them had been about battle tactics; how to outsmart your enemy in an evil way, how to figuratively and literally stab your enemy in the back - that sort of thing. The idea of reading merely as a pastime, as a means of leisure, had never appealed to her… until now.
"A History Of Evil N. Ventions… Famous Fiends… Rocket Science For Evil Dummies…" BG-2187 read aloud the title of each book that caught her attention in a soft whisper as she browsed the shelves, looking for something - anything - that stood out to her. She had just reached the end of a long series of shelves and was about to proceed to the next bookcase when she gasped and quickly ducked back behind the shelf she had been browsing, peeking out again cautiously a moment later.
The figure was still there, asleep at one of the wooden tables in the middle of the library, her head resting on the pages of an open book, a strand of drool trailing out from behind her buck teeth. BG-2187 realised that the sleeping figure was a student, and not just any student.
It was Dr. Neo Cortex's niece, Nina Cortex.
There was no mistaking the lanky teenager with the pale blue complexion, short, spiky black hair and the metallic, lowercase letter 'n' in the middle of her forehead. The bulky, prosthetic metal hands that the bratty youth was known for rested, rectangular palms down, on the desk she was seated at.
Nina snored suddenly; a series of little grunts and snorts that were decidedly animalistic despite her being a human. BG-2187 shuddered involuntarily at the sight of the sleeping girl, for Nina Cortex was ugly. Even asleep, there was no innocent, pure beauty to be found in her form, for her sleep was not a tranquil, peaceful one. It was obnoxious. Crude. Almost primal. She was like a blue-skinned, buck-toothed Frankenstein's daughter, grunting and snorting like the abomination she was, the abomination that she had been shaped into by her upbringing. She was an ugly duckling on her way to becoming a hideous vulture - cruel and selfish inside and out.
And yet, BG-2187 couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow for Nina. The goth girl's story largely mirrored her own: A thirst to prove herself, an ever-present sense of insecurity that she did her best to hide behind a cold, snarky demeanour… The difference was that while BG-2187 only acted sinister (or at least tried to) in the company of others for the sake of keeping up appearances, Nina actually was sinister. She was hateful. Vengeful. Devious. Everything her uncle had wanted her to be… but now, Nina was not only hateful and vengeful towards the side of good, but also the side of evil. She wanted nothing more than to grind the world beneath her boot. Neo Cortex wanted to rule everything. Nina Cortex wanted to destroy everything, to burn the world to ash just to spite everyone around her, everyone who had ever wronged her in any way.
And the Brat Girls were no exception. Dr. Cortex had made it a school policy that everyone - students and staff alike - had to be especially cruel to Nina. BG-2187 had, albeit reluctantly, joined her fellow Brat Girls in contriving reasons to make Nina touch the electric fence that stood erected at the school's entrance. They'd throw Nina's belongings over the fence, forcing her to climb up and over the electrified barrier to retrieve them, her super-conductive metal hands causing her to get painfully shocked all the while. If that didn't work, they'd just push her directly into the fence when her back was turned and laugh as her entire form sparked with a brilliant blue that showcased the skeleton inside her body, the girl screaming in agony. BG-2187 had given Nina a half-hearted shove for the sake of appeasing her peers, only for Nina to respond with a punch that had knocked one of BG-2187's teeth out. The other Brat Girls had not taken kindly to this act of insurgence, having quickly surrounded Nina and subjected her to five straight minutes of obnoxious chittering through their megaphones. Nina had actually been reduced to twitching on the ground, screaming as she lay there with her ears firmly covered, but even her metal appendages could not block out the torturous sound waves. For as humiliated as BG-2187 had felt as she'd sat there nursing her jaw, blood dribbling down her chin, she couldn't help but feel a sense of pity for Nina as the niece of Cortex had desperately howled, "MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP…!"
BG-2187 decided not to take a chance with Nina and silently crept away, her back soon pressing up against the adjacent bookshelf. She felt the spine of a book pressing against her own, and she turned to see a large, leather-bound volume that looked somewhat dusty. Curious, she pulled it out of its spot between two smaller tomes and blew some of the dust off the front cover, the resulting dust cloud causing her to cough and splutter briefly. She quickly glanced back at Nina, fearful that she had woken the goth girl up, but Nina just moaned in her sleep, mumbling a very obscene profanity before letting out another loud snore.
After a moment, BG-2187 let out the breath that she hadn't realised she was holding in a low whoosh. She turned her attention back to the book she now held, reading the title:
The Villainess' Guide To Exquisite Coffee
"'Exquisite Coffee'?" the Brat Girl mused softly, finding herself mildly intrigued. She turned the book over in her hands, choosing to carefully brush the dust off the back cover rather than blow it away and risk another coughing fit, or worse, a sneezing fit. The latter would definitely wake Nina up. The back cover blurb was written in stylish cursive:
A good villainess relishes in drinking her enemy's tears, yes, but when it comes to actual beverages, even the finest of wines cannot compare to a masterfully prepared cup of coffee.
With this guide in your sinister (left) hand, you will have access to the knowledge on how to produce the most ideal coffee beans from appropriately fertile soil, the art of grinding those beans into the perfect blend, and the secret to producing the most gloriously rich creams and sweetest sugarcanes, as meticulously tortured out of master baristas by yours truly!
Don't settle for mere tea - have a coffee worthy of your wicked self! Madame Caff N. Ated has spoken! Go get 'em, tigress! Rawr!
"Madame Caff N. Ated?" BG-2187 murmured, unfamiliar with the name. She then chuckled softly in realisation. "Oh, right! Caffeinated! Heh, heh. That's actually kinda clever."
"So is this!"
BG-2187 was suddenly slammed forcefully against the bookshelf, the coffee book falling from her hands. Someone else's hand now had her pinned in place by the throat.
A metal hand.
"Thought you could sneak up on me, did you? Nice try," Nina hissed, her ugly, ugly face suddenly inches from the Brat Girl's.
BG-2187 desperately reached for the megaphone at her waist… only to realise that she had left it back in the dormitory, right there on her bedside table next to her alarm clock. Nina chuckled knowingly - a cold, malicious chuckle.
"What's the matter? Leave your little toy behind? Aw, too bad… for you, I mean," she sneered. "You Brat Girls have had a lot of fun with me over the past few months, haven't you?" she hissed, lowering her voice to a sinister whisper. "Well, what goes around comes around, doesn't it? Get the message, fuzzball? It's time for a little payback," the niece of Cortex concluded, her cold scowl slowly turning upwards, becoming a sadistic, buck-toothed grin as she began to slowly, meticulously tighten her grip around BG-2187's airway…
Neon City, The SNaXX Dimension, 3023
Garnet awoke with a gasp, sitting bolt upright, drenched in sweat. She glanced around the bedroom fearfully, her blue eyes wide and panicked. After a moment, she realised what had happened and exhaled deeply in relief. It had just been a nightmare.
A nightmare born from a memory.
Garnet reached up and felt gingerly at her throat, feeling the soft brown fur on her neck. There were no metal hands wrapped around her throat. There was no monster of a girl glaring at her with malicious intent in her eye. No, the only monster around here was in the next room, probably still asleep on the couch. A part of Garnet wanted to call out to him, to call out to North, to have him come in and comfort her, but she quickly did what she could to push the thought away. She wasn't a little girl anymore. Well, she never had been, really, given that she had been cloned into existence in the form of a young adult. In any case, she wasn't about to let some bad dream get to her. It was just a dream, after all. A dream based on something that had actually happened to her, yes, but a dream nonetheless. It couldn't hurt her… right?
"North? North!"
Adult or not, she was still… well, maybe not human exactly. She was… Garnet racked her brains for the right word. Sapient! Yes, that was it. She was sapient; she had thoughts and feelings, and even the strongest adults still felt fear, still felt vulnerable at times… and for her, this was one of those times, whether she was keen to admit it or not. A few moments later, the bedroom door opened with a gentle creak, North standing there in the doorway, letting out a quizzical grunt, one that was quickly followed by a mildly alarmed grunt when he saw Garnet sitting there in her megaphone-patterned pyjamas, trembling slightly.
"I… I had a bad dream," Garnet admitted rather sheepishly, her voice barely above a mumble.
For a moment, North just stood there, and then, without a word (not that he could speak), he crossed the room, sat down on the edge of the bed, spreading one arm wide and looking at Garnet invitingly. Garnet didn't even hesitate - she pushed the covers from her legs and scrambled over to North, soon sitting on the Ratcicle's right knee, curled up against the Titan's muscular - and somewhat cold - torso. North wrapped his arm around his friend comfortingly, not making a sound as he closed his beady little eyes and embraced her, looking almost like a parent with child.
"Thanks, buddy," the bat girl whispered gratefully, snuggling deeper into the frosty mutant's hold. "Mmm. I see you've taken our little talk about hygiene to heart. Is that Megumi's Axe body spray?"
North grunted again, sounding mildly disgruntled, as though he wanted to change the subject. Garnet chuckled knowingly before gently pushing the Titan's arm aside. She slid from his knee to land upright on the carpet, soon slipping on her bunny slippers and stretching her arms upward.
"I'm fine now. I'm gonna go get ready. I have somewhere to be today, and you're coming with me. Remember that Megumi's landlord doesn't know about you, and I'm not gonna leave you here alone for someone who doesn't know any better to discover and, well, make things complicated."
North grunted in understanding, though he looked somewhat deflated as he stood up. Knowing what was on the Ratcicle's mind, Garnet took his clawed hand gently.
"I know you don't like having to hide all the time, and I promise, I'm gonna tell Megumi about you as soon as she gets back. Then you'll finally have someone else to annoy," she concluded jokingly. North cocked an eyebrow at that, and Garnet laughed. "Okay, yeah, I'm the more annoying of the two of us. I can admit it. Tell you what: I'll make breakfast for us today. How does pancakes and whipped cream sound?"
North gave a grunting chuckle of approval before heading back out into the living room, leaving Garnet to her morning routine. A quick shower later and the anthropomorphic bat was fully dressed and busy with a frying pan over the kitchen stove, heating up pancake batter and flipping the resulting flat, round pastry with a spatula, humming the 'Encounter' theme from Metal Gear Solid to herself as she worked. Soon, she was serving up two platefuls of pancakes with sticky maple syrup and the promised whipped cream, the bat girl and Titan sitting side by side on the living room couch, watching the early morning cartoons as they ate.
"You're getting better with the utensils, too," Garnet commented as North cut into his last remaining pancake with the largest knife that Garnet had been able to find in the kitchen drawers. "Granted, that's technically a butcher knife… and that big fork is really meant for skewering whole meats… but hey, we work with what we can, right?"
After placing the empty dishes in the kitchen sink with the intent of washing them later, Garnet quickly double-checked that her hair looked presentable in the refrigerator's polished surface and then returned to the living room to find North waiting expectantly by the apartment's front door. He saluted respectfully as Garnet approached, signifying that he was ready.
"At ease, soldier," Garnet said with a smile, playing along as always, "And now…" She snapped her fingers, North turned into a green orb and the bat girl pocketed him like clockwork. Garnet then opened the front door, stepped out of the apartment and into the hallway, closing the door behind her. She reached up and traced her finger along the scanner on one side of the door frame. There was a beeping sound and the scan light turned from green to red, signifying that the door was now locked. With that done, Garnet made her way to the elevator down the hall, soon taking it to the ground floor. She greeted the receptionist at the front desk as she passed, approached the turn-style glass door at the building's entrance… and stepped outside.
Neon City. It truly was amazing to behold. The hover cars that soared through the sky, the towering buildings that were absolutely covered in electronically lit signs that advertised various products and businesses, the robotic trash cans that roamed the streets picking up litter… It truly was a futuristic utopia, and even now, just over a month since she'd first arrived in this timeline, Garnet couldn't help but be awed by the vast, technologically advanced metropolis. In truth, she was a little nervous to be venturing out into the streets unescorted, for she rarely strayed from Megumi's apartment - at least not any further than the delicatessen and adjacent coffee shop down the street.
Today, however, she would be heading over to an entire other district of the city, for she had promised that she would meet the Bandicoots and Dingodile there for lunch and to continue her story, having cut her recount short yesterday afternoon due to her tale's sheer length; she hadn't even gotten to the part detailing how she'd met North, let alone the origins of her Mojo-infused tattoo. Her story would've gone on long after the sun had set, and Megumi's apartment wasn't equipped to accomodate that many guests for a sleepover. In any case, Garnet didn't think Megumi would be too thrilled if she came home from her business trip to find that her roommate had been hosting a slew of guests; the bat girl would have her hands full just trying to explain North to the apartment's master.
"Alright let's see…" Garnet mused to herself. She had spent an hour of her evening last night studying an online map of the city so as to minimise her risk of getting lost. She knew that taking the light rail train would be the most efficient means of getting to the West District, where her destination awaited. The hover taxi fee to travel that far from Megumi's apartment would be too expensive, especially for a round trip, and the tube system only allowed for local travel within the same district.
The tube system. Just thinking about it filled Garnet with a mixture of excitement and dread. Excitement because from what Megumi had told her, tube travel was an incredible thrill ride, especially the first time… and dread because from what Megumi had told her, tube travel was an incredible thrill ride, especially the first time. While Garnet did enjoy a little thrill now and then, she didn't typically seek them out. Still, tube travel would take her directly to the nearest light rail station and save her about fifteen minutes of walking. With that in mind - and with a sense of undisguised apprehension - Garnet made her way to the end of the street, where the nearest tube awaited.
Wide, cylindrical and made of reinforced tinted glass that was a pleasant shade of blue, the transport tube stretched at least sixty feet into the sky before branching off into several adjacent tubes that twisted and turned in all directions. It reminded Garnet of the transport tubes she had seen in Futurama, having watched a few evening episodes of the show with her fellow Brat Girls back in alternate 2008. From what Megumi had described, the tube system of Neon City worked in very much the same way, and that was what made Garnet apprehensive as she approached. With the same tentativeness and caution that she used when stepping into the advanced shower cubicle back at the apartment, the bat girl stepped through the large opening at the tube's base.
For a brief moment, she was reminded of Cortex's cloning chamber from which she had been birthed and it was all Garnet could do to refrain from leaping out of the tube in a fit of PTSD. No, she'd need to remain calm… at least for the next two seconds.
"Um… East Side Station?" she uttered nervously, speaking as clearly as she could.
It was as though an immensely powerful hair dryer had been activated, only in reverse. Garnet was suddenly swept up in a great suction of warm air, rocketing along through the tube akin to Philip J. Fry himself. She let out a long, shrill scream, as she had known she would, her arms stretched upwards, feeling almost like she was being dragged along by the wrists. She reached the criss-crossing junction of tubes above the streets and was suddenly flung to the right, zipping off in a new direction in a horizontal tube rather than a vertical one.
"WHOAAAAAA!" she cried, her palms splayed forward before her. She could see the streets racing by below her and for a moment, she wanted to close her eyes, afraid that she might succumb to motion sickness, which, given her current situation, would result in her travelling through the tube in a veritable twister of her own vomit. After a few seconds, however, a look of mad glee stretched across her face and she whooped excitedly in spite of herself. Megumi had been right - this was a thrill ride! This was…
This was…!
"THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!" Garnet shouted, curling her left hand into a fist and thrusting it forward as though she were Superman. She let out a whoop of joy as the tube suddenly swung her around to the left, sending her coasting along above the light rail network before suddenly directing her downwards.
Head first.
Towards the concrete train platform.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, NOOOOO!" Garnet howled in terror, screwing her eyes shut and awaiting the impact that, given her current velocity, would surely kill her—
The impact didn't come. After a moment, Garnet dared to open one eye. The great suction's intensity had decreased dramatically, slowing the bat girl almost to a stop mere feet from the ground. It seemed to be holding her in place, making her hover just above the train platform. The section of the tube she was in then proceeded to break away from the rest, rotating in place until Garnet was upright. The suction then stopped entirely, causing her to drop neatly onto the platform, completely unharmed.
"Oh," was all she said, just relieved to still be in one piece. She looked down at herself, making sure that her clothes hadn't become too ruffled by the great sucking wind of the tube network.
"First time, huh?" a knowing and, oddly enough, somewhat familiar voice asked from nearby. Garnet turned to see a lanky teenage boy leaning casually against the wall of the train platform. He was clad in a short-sleeved t-shirt with a skull insignia on the chest, a pair of damaged grey shorts, long, black ankle socks patterned with white bones and black combat boots. He had pale blue skin, short, spiky black hair and…
No.
Surely not?
Surely Garnet was seeing things?
The boy had a metallic, lowercase letter 'n' emblazoned on his forehead.
An image of Nina's hideous face flashed in Garnet's mind's eye, the feeling of the goth girl's metal hands wrapped around the bat girl's throat coming back to her. She instinctively reached up and felt at her neck fur, a sense of fear washing over her momentarily.
"You alright there?" the boy asked, a look of concern on his face. "You look a little… I dunno… shell-shocked, I think they call it."
"Oh, n-no, I… I'm fine!" Garnet assured him quickly. "I just, uh… That is, I, um… I'm sorry, have we… met before? It's just that you look kind of familiar."
The boy tilted his head upward slightly, putting a hand - an organic hand; one of flesh and blood and not a trace of metal - to his chin and stroking it thoughtfully. "Hmm. Nah, I don't think so. I mean…" He chuckled good-naturedly. "You probably wouldn't forget someone with this little trinket on their head that easily," he said, reaching up and tapping the 'n' on his forehead. "Of course, it's possible that we met before I went through certain changes…" he went on, putting noticeable emphasis on the word 'changes', raising his right hand as he did so to reveal a bracelet on his wrist.
The wrist accessory bore five coloured stripes - the two outermost stripes being pink, the next two being blue, and the thicker stripe in the middle being pure white. It took a moment for the significance of the bracelet and its coloured stripes to click in Garnet's brain, but when it did, her jaw dropped and she was left staring at the boy incredulously.
It hadn't been a coincidence.
Garnet's first assumption had been right.
This boy - this transgender boy - was indeed the SNaXX Dimension counterpart to the Nina Cortex that Garnet had once known.
Wow, alternate realities could really be wild at times…
"You sure you're alright?" the boy asked again. "You look like… Oh," he said, his tone becoming one of dullness and disappointment as realisation hit him. "You're uncomfortable around people like me," he surmised, casting his gaze downwards, focusing on the tips of his boots. "That's what's bugging you, right? I mean, I'm not too surprised, given how a lot of people tend to treat me when they find out, but..."
"Oh, no, no, it's not that!" Garnet exclaimed hurriedly, throwing up her hands in mild panic. "It's not that at all! It's just…! Well, this is gonna sound crazy, but I did kinda know you before you… What's the word?"
"Transitioned," they both said in unison, the term surfacing in Garnet's mind just as the boy said it.
"Right, right. The thing is, I knew you in another timeline, if you can believe that," Garnet elaborated.
The boy raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Another timeline, huh? Well, I'll give you points for originality. That's the most creative load of waffle I've heard all year, and I heard that there were quantum rifts opening in every other back alley last month."
"No, it's true! Really!" Garnet insisted desperately, putting on a smile to try and reassure the boy. He must've thought she looked crazy, however, for his eyes widened slightly and he glanced around, as though looking for an escape route. "No, wait! I can prove it!" the bat girl cried as the boy started to walk briskly to the far end of the platform, clearly eager to put some distance between himself and her. "Your name is - or at least was - Nina Cortex!"
The boy froze, turning to glance back at her. "How do you know that?" he asked, though he already knew the answer. Garnet had already told him the answer: They had, quite literally, known each other in another life.
"You were the niece of Dr. Neo Periwinkle Cortex, who, like you, upheld the Cortex family's tradition of having the first initial of one's given name emblazoned on one's forehead. Am I right?"
"You really did know me," the boy, the young Cortex, realised, completely awed. "Who are you?"
"My name is Barista Garnet. I was one of Dr. Cortex's minions before I escaped to this timeline."
The young Cortex nodded, though he wasn't looking at Garnet; his gaze seemed distant now. "I've heard that my family history has ties to science. Evil science… but that was well over a century ago. We're a peaceful family now, or at least, we are in this dimension. There's not even that many of us Cortexes left. Uncle Neo died a couple years back. It's just me and Great Aunt Sharon now."
Garnet said nothing, just giving the boy a moment to process the reality of the situation.
"So, does that mean that there really were rifts opening all over the city? Like, time rifts?" he asked at last, staring at Garnet in wonder.
"Yeah. That's how I came to be here - I fell through one!" Garnet explained. "Small multiverse, huh?"
"Yeah…" the boy murmured. He then straightened up. "Oh, right! I'm Neil Cortex. Used to be Nina Cortex, like you said, but after I transitioned, I took on a new name. A boy's name. Shocking, I know," he finished jokingly.
Garnet chuckled. "So, uh, how's all that working for you, Neil? The whole transitioning thing, I mean." She then mentally slapped herself in reaction to her own insensitivity. "I'm sorry, I just don't really-"
"-Know what to say about it?" Neil guessed, folding his arms and cocking an eyebrow, a small, knowing smirk on his visage. "You're not the first to not fully understand it... and you definitely won't be the last. Short and to the point, I just felt all… wrong on a fundamental level before I started transitioning, like I was incorrect as a human being… so yeah, I'd say I'm in a much better place now," he admitted. "Still, no need to make a big fuss about it, right? Just another face in the crowd, that's me!"
Garnet chuckled awkwardly, glad that Neil hadn't let her lack of sensitivity get to him. "Right, right, hint taken loud and clear! Still, that's really great. It's good to know that there's at least one version of Nina Cortex out there who found her place in the world and is truly happy."
Neil beamed at that. "So, where are you headed today, Miss Garnet? I'm heading over to the West District myself. Gonna see if that new smoothie place is any good."
"Yeah, I'm heading out that way, too," Garnet admitted. "I have some… Well, I don't know if I'd call them friends at this stage, but I have some associates waiting for me at a Dingo's Diner in the outer sector of the West District. I promised I'd meet them there for lunch."
"In the outer sector? Ha! What're the odds?!" Neil exclaimed, grinning. "That's literally right next door to where I'm heading! I guess we can go together, then!"
"Sounds... good to me!" Garnet decided after a brief moment. "And call me Barista. Miss Garnet sounds a bit too formal."
Right then, the light rail train pulled into the station, the automatic doors sliding open. Garnet and Neil boarded the public transport and it soon set off once more, gliding swiftly and smoothly along the long, continuous metal beam that snaked all across the city. The bat girl and gothic boy found a pair of fabric-covered seats by the window and soon began exchanging tales of their experiences in Neon City as the train sped along, taking them into the next district…
Yes. Yes, I did. I took one of the most beloved Crash Bandicoot characters… and completely 'N. Verted' them in the most controversial way possible. You're welcome.
Also, yes, I only chose the name Neil for Nina's SNaXX Dimension counterpart because it sounds similar to Nina.
Those who have played Crash 4 might remember that Dr. Cortex mentioned his mother's name was Sharon. You get it? Neil's Great Aunt Sharon is Neo Cortex's mother! How's THAT for making good use of series lore?
DISCLAIMER: The Author of this fanfic wishes to make it known that the contents of this fanfic are for entertainment purposes only and that said contents are not intended as a 'statement' in regards to the LGBT community one way or the other.