Chapter 17: A Spike In Mutuality (Part 2)

The path had turned from a grassy jungle floor to a carved walkway of stone, the trees and plants having thinned out as Barista and Coco made their way to a higher point on the island. The wind here was strong, making the hair on each anthropomorphic girl's head billow about.

"It's a lot cooler up here," Barista commented as they made their way to a large clearing in this somewhat mountainous area, a stone building that had clearly seen better days erected before them, an inactive display screen over the entrance, a giant telescope protruding out from the roof. The bat girl gazed up at the latter with a mixture of curiosity and mild wariness. "What is this place?"

"It's the old observatory," Coco elaborated, putting her hands on her hips as she stood there, following Barista's gaze. "A remnant of a civilised race that once settled here on Wumpa Island. It's been abandoned for as long as anyone can remember." She relaxed her posture and smiled. "I'm hoping to turn it into my personal tech lab one of these days. No point letting a perfectly functional telescope go to waste."

"Okay, but why are we here?" Barista asked uncertainly. "Is astronomy gonna be a part of my training?"

"Hardly," Coco replied, smirking at the idea. "Look around, Bermuda."

"Barista!"

"We're up high, there's a sizeable amount of open space, a building for us to take a breather in when we get tired…" the bandicoot girl continued, gesturing to their surroundings with one hand. "It's a pretty decent place to get in some combat practice, wouldn't you say?" she asked knowingly, raising her fists and developing a battle-ready stance as she stood there.

"Combat? A-Already? Oh, wow," Barista said, taking a step back warily. "I mean, I figured you'd start me off with a training dummy or something, not just throw me into the deep end like this."

Coco rolled her eyes. "Relax, I'm not gonna hit you that hard. Not yet, anyway. We'll start off slow, see how you can give and take a basic punch and kick. I mean, if you can't even handle that much, you've got no business wanting to learn the Mojo arts."

"Gee, thanks. I needed that confidence boost," Barista declared bitterly, her tone ripe with sarcasm. Coco chuckled… and then suddenly threw a punch straight at Barista, aiming for the spot right between the bat girl's eyes. Barista yelped and leapt back, wide-eyed. "Oi, hang on! I'm not ready!"

"A formidable opponent will not wait for you to be ready!" Coco declared, already sending another punch Barista's way, forcing the bat girl to back up several paces, stopping with a gasp of alarm when she felt her heel teeter on the edge of solid ground, the former minion of evil having been driven to the edge of the stony plateau.

"W-Wait a sec!" she pleaded desperately, holding up her hands in feeble defence, but Coco wasn't backing down.

"And make no mistake," the tech-savvy marsupial said very seriously, lashing out with a roundhouse kick that swept Barista's legs out from under her, causing her to start to fall backwards with a panicked yelp, only for Coco to suddenly grab her arm and hold her up, only her strong, surprisingly firm grasp preventing the bat girl from tumbling into the abyss, "Here, you face a super formidable opponent." On that note, she yanked Barista towards herself, pulling the terrified mammal away from the edge. "You need to give it your all, for if you falter…" She shoved Barista back towards the ledge, causing the bat girl to yelp in alarm again, once more finding herself teetering on the literal brink of disaster, but the bandicoot's grip on her arm did not slacken. "You will fall."

"Y-Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, I get it!" Barista babbled very fast, her voice unusually - but not uncharacteristically - shrill, the bat girl not daring to glance behind her. "Can we both get away from the ledge now, please?"

Coco pulled Barista forward again, this time doing so more gently. "Relax. I wouldn't have let you tumble down the side of the island," she assured her now very jittery student. She then smirked deviously. "That'd be a waste of good meat."

"Coco!"

"Oh, I'm kidding! You know I'm kidding!" Coco exclaimed with a short, jovial laugh, playfully punching Barista in the shoulder, albeit just a little too hard. She then started back over towards the observatory. "C'mon, lets go a couple rounds over here. I'll even let you get the first hit in because I'm nice like that… and stuff."

"That last part added nothing to your sentence," Barista muttered, trying to steady her racing heart as she started over to join Coco.

"And again!"

Barista lashed out rather clumsily with a slap, putting as much force into it as she could muster. She smacked Coco right across the face, leaving a visible hand-shaped mark of bright red underneath the bandicoot's orange facial fur.

"Again!" Coco barked, having barely even flinched in response to the bat girl's attack.

Barista hesitated. "I don't feel good doing this," she admitted. "I mean, I'm smacking somebody - a kid, no less - who's not even fighting back."

"You let me worry about that," Coco stated firmly. "Now hit me again, and this time, give it all you've got!"

Barista let out a little moan of anxiety before pulling her arm back as far as it would go, hesitating for just a fraction of a second… and then letting fly with the full extent of her strength.

Coco very suddenly lashed out and grabbed Barista's arm before the bat girl's hand could strike her, yanked her opponent towards herself, twirling Barista around in the process, and then—

"Yeowhowhowww!" Barista yowled as she suddenly found herself trapped firmly in Coco's hold, her own arm twisted painfully behind her back. It was all the bat girl could do to whimper repeatedly, stricken by pain and terror.

"You telegraph your attacks too much," Coco hissed in her ear, twisting the bat girl's arm some more, prompting a yowl of pain from her opponent.

"Stop!" Barista yelped in a desperate plea. "P-Please stop! It hurts!"

"You're panicking," Coco told her, not relenting her grip in the slightest. If anything, she seemed to be slowly but surely tightening the painful hold she had over Barista. "When you panic in a bad situation, you just make it worse for yourself."

"It hurts! It hurts!" Barista whined, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"You need to breathe," Coco told her, the bandicoot's tone no less curt, her grip no less tight. "If this were an actual fight to the finish, you'd already be out cold, if not worse. A split second decision can make the difference between victory and defeat. If you find yourself in a hold like this, what do you do, Barista?"

"I… I…" Barista struggled to say something - anything - that might make Coco relinquish her hold, the bat girl's eyes wide with unbridled terror.

"What do you do?!" Coco barked, twisting Barista's arm more painfully than ever.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Barista screamed, tears now flowing down her cheeks. "YOU'RE BREAKING MY ARM!"

Coco let out a sigh, sounding disappointed. She released Barista's arm, the bat girl immediately taking several hurried steps away from the bandicoot, rubbing the aching part of her arm, softly weeping as she stood there, occasionally letting out a small sob.

"You use your legs," Coco said curtly, not showing Barista any sympathy as she walked over, shaking her head in disapproval. "You lash out with a backwards kick. You do whatever it takes to break free of that hold and turn the tables on your foe. You don't panic. An opponent who grabs you like that wants you to panic, Barista, because when you panic, you're not thinking straight. When you can't think, you can't fight, and an opponent who can't fight back is no threat."

"Of course I can't fight back!" Barista snapped tearfully. "I don't even want to fight you! I just want to learn how to better defend myself so I'm not so…" She sniffed, turning her head away. "…Pathetic."

Coco bit her lip at that, feeling a slight pang of guilt. 'Maybe I was too tough on her,' she thought to herself. She placed a hand on the bat girl's shoulder. "Losing a pretend fight doesn't make you pathetic, Barista. Regardless, you only lost because you're inexperienced. You Brat Girls rely too much on your megaphones and Titan bodyguards to defend yourselves. That's why I had your Ratcicle buddy stay behind with Crunch - to get you out of your comfort zone." She sighed again, beginning to gently caress Barista's shoulder reassuringly as the bat girl continued to sniffle. "It also probably doesn't help that I don't have a lot of experience trying to teach others. I'm an inventor first and a martial artist second." She gazed out over the valley that stretched into the distance below the nearby cliff face. "Aku Aku would probably be better in that regard. He's got a lot more patience as a mentor figure than I do, I'll say that much… but he's off adventuring with Crash on the far side of the island; something about gathering some magic bones for something or other…" She then put her arm around Barista. "Come on, settle down; tears do not win a battle. Courage and persistence do." She then scoffed at her own words. "Oh, Ancients, I think Aku Aku might be starting to rub off on me," she muttered, causing Barista to let out a little amused giggle in spite of herself.

"Y-Yeah, I… I saw Crash in action a couple of times out on my patrols," Barista admitted, reaching up and wiping her eyes, "Almost always with some mutant or other at his beck and call. I thought it was crazy how he could tame them like that."

"Yeah, he and I used to rely on Aku Aku to bend Titans to our will - mind jacking, if you will," Coco said, "But now we've reached the point where we can read their behavioural patterns, get on their good sides and have them aid us willingly."

"What about Crunch?"

"He prefers to rely on his own fists."

"Say, how does Crash do that thing where he stores a Titan in his pocket?" Barista then asked. "Is that some kinda secret Mojo magic technique?"

"Yeah. Aku Aku taught us that neat little trick among others," Coco confirmed, nodding. "Doesn't half come in handy, let me tell you."

"Heh. Yeah, I'll bet," Barista said, a smirk forming on her muzzle as a thought crossed her mind. "Can you imagine what it'd be like if I could do that with North?" She then chuckled. "Yeah, like that'll ever happen."

"Well, you never know," Coco said, giving Barista a playful slap on the back. "I didn't think I could do it at first, either, but now…" She raised her free hand and snapped her fingers. In a flash of green light, Barista was gone, a glowing green orb of energy hovering in mid-air where she had been. Coco gently brought her palm up under the orb, not quite touching it, but feeling the aura, the tingle of magic against her fur-covered fingers. She brought her hands together, cupping them around the orb. "…It's like second nature," she concluded before suddenly flinging her hands forward, thrusting the orb away from herself. There was another flash of green light and in an instant, Barista was back, looking quite bewildered.

"Wh-Whoa…" she exclaimed, taking a shaky step forward and stumbling slightly. "That was weird. Warn me before you do that next time, will you?"

Coco chuckled. "Sorry. Just wanted to show off, and I didn't have a Titan on standby, so…"

"Yeah, well, I'm no Titan," Barista said, but she was now grinning in spite of herself.

"C'mon, let's get out of the sun for a few minutes," Coco said, starting towards the observatory. "Crunch told me you can pull off a half-decent Norris Roundhouse. Once we catch our breath, how about you show me?"

Red Rover, Red Rover, you're on!" Barista said, still grinning. Coco glanced back at her with a raised eyebrow and the bat girl blushed, realising how odd her little quip must've sounded. "It's a Brat Girl thing," she said.

"Not even gonna ask," Coco replied simply.

"Sheesh, this place is a mess," Barista murmured aloud as she gazed around the interior of the observatory, noting the overturned file cabinets and the sheets of paper strewn all over the floor. "Looks like someone tried to set up an office in here, but then a hurricane hit."

"N. Gin's handiwork," Coco stated, following Barista's gaze with her hands on her hips. "He was squatting in here not all that long ago, trying to do reconnaissance for Cortex. At least, that's what Aku Aku told me. Crash chased ol' rocket head away, though. Good riddance to deranged rubbish."

"N. Gin? Doctor N. Gin?" Barista asked. "I never met him, but I heard the other Brat Girls talking about him."

"What'd they say?"

"Nothing flattering, that's for sure," Barista said, and Coco laughed.

"Yeah, I'll bet they didn't," she said, nodding. "Such a creep. Look at all this," the bandicoot girl went on, indicating the eyepiece of the telescope, around which several small monitors were set up. "I bet he was spying on Crash's house, trying to get the drop on all of us. Hmm, let's see…" She took a seat in the swivel chair before the telescope and started fiddling with one of the monitors. "Ah, would you look at that? Still works," she confirmed as the little screen flared to life, showing security footage of the observatory's interior, in which N. Gin, Crash and Aku Aku were present.

"What're you doing here?" the on-screen recording of N. Gin demanded, addressing the bandicoot hero and magical mask. "Get out of my special place! I haven't cleaned or shaved! You weren't supposed to see it like this!"

"N. Gin, what're you even doing here?" the recorded version of Aku Aku asked, sounding both surprised and a little exasperated.

"When Doctor Cortex escaped, he left me here," N. Gin admitted, "But I have brains!" the deranged robotics expert suddenly barked. "And desires! And will NOT be ignored! I have been watching you," he went on, brandishing a finger at Crash, "And your… delicious sister!"

"Blech!" Coco and Barista exclaimed in unison, revulsed by N. Gin's comment.

"Delicious?" the recording of Aku Aku repeated, the mask raising a decorative eyebrow.

"PRECIOUS! I meant PRECIOUS!" N. Gin shrieked, donning a lobster patterned bib and snatching up a plastic knife and fork as he spoke. "Heh, heh… I'm gonna eat her…"

"Ugh. I've seen enough," Coco declared, switching off the monitor.

"Tell me about it," Barista said, shuddering. "And I thought Screwball was a real head case…"

A low growl suddenly rent the air, causing Barista and Coco to freeze in place.

"…That was your stomach, right?" the bat girl asked after a long moment. Her words were met by a great metal scraping from somewhere behind her and the two girls turned in time to see something big and burly pick up one of the overturned filing cabinets, the monster lifting it over its head, the creature's form hidden in shadow.

"RAWWWWWWRRRRRRR!"

"RUN!" Coco shouted, grabbing Barista by the wrist and dragging her out of there right before the monster threw the filing cabinet in the girls' direction, the object landing with a great crash right where Barista had been standing just a second before.

As Coco and Barista burst out of the observatory and into the midday sunlight, they turned to glance back in time to see a figure with beady, feral red eyes in the shadow of the doorway… and then the Spike stormed out of the building, its clawed hands outstretched, the thorns on the mutant porcupine's body bristling in every sense of the word.

"It must've made the observatory its home after N. Gin left!" Coco summarised. "We must've awoken it from hibernation while we were in there!"

"What do we do?!" Barista cried fearfully, trembling at the sight of the feral Titan's thorn-covered biceps.

"I think I'm gonna have to—! LOOK OUT!" Coco suddenly screamed, leaping at Barista and tackling her to the ground, knocking the bat girl out of the way just in time as a series of large, thick and razor-sharp thorns suddenly erupted out of the ground, their only warning being the Spike's raised arms and a few telltale cracks forming in the rocky ground a split second before the thorns had burst forth.

"Oh, man! Oh, man!" Barista gasped, hyperventilating as she stared, wide-eyed, at the dangerous brambles that had very nearly impaled both her and Coco.

"Stay down and out of the way!" Coco told her cohort as she got to her feet, the bandicoot girl raising her fists at the ready and turning the face the Titan. "Spikes can't use their namesake like that for a little while after firing them off! I need to take him down before he recharges! Hyah!" She leapt at the light brown, quill-covered monster in a flying karate kick, only to be swatted away by the beast's powerful appendages, sending Coco rolling across the ground, stopping just short of the cliff face. She struggled to get to her feet, seeming a little dazed from the impact.

Barista looked from Coco to the Spike, panic gripping her once again. If only she had her megaphone. If only North was here. If only she herself wasn't so useless in the face of danger…

I think your Mojo is awakening, and if so, that comes down to your conviction to your goals, to your courage in the face of turmoil…

"Some courage," Barista muttered woefully as Carbon's words echoed in her mind while she lay sprawled there on her belly, only able to watch the scene before her. "I can't even hold my own, always having to rely on others to bail me out…"

The Spike stepped up to Coco, having closed the distance between itself and her as the bandicoot girl struggled to get up. She gasped when she realised that the monster was nearly on top of her, and so close to the ledge; she had nowhere to go.

The way you screeched at that orca yesterday… I've never seen a Brat Girl unleash sound waves like that. You nearly peeled the fur off my body with that little cry of yours!

Barista's eyes widened in realisation. "Wait, that's it!" she cried. She hurriedly scrambled to her feet, the Spike raising its clawed appendage even as she did so, about to bat Coco over the edge and into the abyss. Barista focused her gaze on the Spike, took a deep breath… and screeched as loud and as fiercely as she could.

The Spike roared out its frustration and pain as the deep purple sound waves pounded against its body. It stumbled backward, its clawed hands over its ears. Coco had her own ears covered, letting out shrill yelps of discomfort as the sound waves sailed over her head, which she was wisely keeping down. The Spike tripped over one of the brambles it had spawned before and fell backwards, howling in agony as the thorns pierced its thick hide; the Titan wouldn't be sitting down for a week.

Seeing that her foe was downed, Coco didn't hesitate; she leapt up, hands still over her ears, and leapt at the Spike in a karate kick formation once more, her foot striking square and true against the monster's lower body. It let out a veritable wail of agony and despair before succumbing to its injuries and passing out.

Barista broke off her supersonic bat screech, doubled over and gasping for breath as she stood there. Coco, on her part, cautiously lowered her hands and gazed at Barista not with awe or admiration or any sort of gratitude… but with a stern, wary glare.

"What was that?" the bandicoot girl demanded after a long moment. "Whatever it was, it positively reeked of Dark Mojo."

Barista didn't even know what to say to that. Dark Mojo? As in, dark magic?

Evil magic?

"I should've known," Coco declared coldly as she stormed into her pink cottage, Barista pausing at the doorway, afraid to step inside. Coco had been furious with her when she had told the tech-savvy marsupial about her time with Carbon. "Of course not just any Brat Girl would come skulking around here looking to learn the Mojo arts; this has that renegade bandicoot written all over it."

"He's not a renegade!" Barista insisted as Coco rummaged through her fridge, grabbing a fresh stick of butter, unwrapping it and cramming the whole thing into her mouth, some of the greasy yellow dairy dribbling down her chin. "He found me when I was lost in a blizzard! He saved my life!"

Coco swallowed her butter and turned to glare at Barista. "Carbon was banished from the jungle, Barista, and he was banished for a reason. He was abusing the power of the Mojo, doing things with it that no one should be doing… and now you're here in his stead, armed with the very power that Uka Uka himself prizes! The very power that Aku Aku has spent centuries trying to keep at bay!"

"I… Well, I don't know anything about that, alright?" Barista insisted. "Carbon's life was in danger when I first discovered I could do that super screech thing, and you were in danger when I used it again for only the second time ever! Doesn't that tell you something? How can a power that can save lives be bad?"

"Because the power of Dark Mojo can destroy lives just as easily!" Coco snapped. "That dark screech of yours, it's a force of pure destruction! Left unchecked, you could level entire settlements with that screech!"

"But I couldn't! I… I wouldn't!" Barista insisted. "Coco, I… I never asked for this. I didn't ask to be brought into this world for the sole purpose of serving an evil scientist. I didn't ask to be gifted with some freaky power that now has you totally on edge. I didn't ask to be a Brat Girl, Coco Bandicoot!"

"Zip it!" Coco barked, the look on her face genuinely scaring Barista, so much so that the bat girl fell silent and took a step back, averting her eyes. After a moment, Coco's expression softened somewhat, but that wary look in her eye didn't completely go away. She sighed, turned back to her refrigerator and pulled something else out of it before closing the fridge, turning and starting towards the cottage's front door, soon stepping outside to join Barista, who was turned away, looking crestfallen.

"I just wanted to help…" the bandicoot heard the bat girl say quietly, a little sniffle following her words. Coco sighed again; this Brat Girl sure knew how to make her feel guilty.

"Here," she said more gently, pushing the wrapped rectangle she held into Barista's left hand. Barista slowly lifted up the food item, expecting it to be another protein bar, but was surprised to see that it was, in fact, a chocolate bar - one whose label listed as containing a coffee-flavoured filling. "I was saving that for later, but you can have it. Might make you feel a little better."

Barista said nothing, silently unwrapping the candy bar and taking a tentative bite out of it. She then closed her eyes and moaned in satisfaction; it was just like a cup of mocha, only crunchy… and chilled.

"Thank you," she said quietly after having swallowed her mouthful of chocolate. Coco put a hand on her shoulder.

"Look, I don't know how or why you're able to draw from Dark Mojo, but…" She sighed yet again. "I'm sorry I nearly bit your head off back there just now. Whatever's going on, I'm sure Aku Aku can help us make sense of it when he and Crash get home. Until then, just, uh… try to keep your mouth closed indoors, okay?"

That did it - Barista burst out laughing at Coco's bad joke, and after a moment, Coco joined in, the two guffawing and chortling like old friends. Coco put her arm around Barista, the two just enjoying the more relaxed mood between them.

"You know, you're okay, Coco," Barista said before taking another bite of her chocolate bar. "Mostly, anyway."

"Heh, heh. Feeling's mutual, I guess," Coco replied, reaching up with her free hand to lightly ruffle Barista's purple and red hair, earning her a small chuckle from the bat girl. The bandicoot girl then turned her gaze to the house with the orange roof just down the path, Crunch doing a seemingly endless series of push-ups just outside the front door, North the Ratcicle sitting with his back against the outer wall of the little cottage, the frosty Titan fast asleep.

'I hope Crash and Aku Aku make it back soon,' Coco thought to herself, her mind abuzz with a number of concerns…