Crash and Spyro, A Friendship Across Lifetimes

Chapter 8: Journey to Cortex's Castle

UPON reaching his island, Cortex became aware through surveillance that his former general had returned. Oh good, he though, one last loose end to tie up before departing these useless islands. Cortex had seven Power Gems, which meant he could finally act out his grand plan and take over this world. It was important that he unified the world under his leadership. He was the only person smart enough to do so. He needed to acquire control through force, quickly and with no resistance. He would use the power of these prophesized Gems and enslave millions of lives instantly. Use of these Gems energy's had yielded some of the greatest inventions in mankind's history: the Evolve-O Ray and the Cortex Vortex. And legend had it that those who wielded the "magic" of the seven Colored Gems could gain immortality and complete, willful control over the energy that surged within these stones. It all sounded like fairytales until he discovered a Power Gem in his adolescence. He studied that Power Crystal intensely, until he discovered that the sheer amount of energy held within the crystal was incomprehensible. However, he couldn't extract the energy at all. He later learned that by having multiple crystals within close vicinity of each other, did the incredible power locked within the crystalline structure become easier to access. He observed this when he had three crystals onboard his zeppelin earlier. If only he knew more about who had control over the seven gems all those millennia ago; he would need to consult N Tropy about this. Their work with the Power Gems on time travel has produced some interesting results.

Cortex had left several of his mutants behind on N Sanity Island to keep the island secure and to hunt down any of the surviving Budakans who didn't die in the fire. Those mutants Crash took care of first. It wasn't easy, but he fought them on his terms. Singling them out or a surprise attack from atop a tree did the trick. However, a mutant named Dingo-Dile gave him the most trouble. He was the current leader of the mutants left on Budakan Island and primary cause the Native Fortress burned down in flames. He carried a flame thrower with him at all times; apparently arson was his favorite pastime. He stood in the ashes of Budakan, setting random things on fire that had not been scorched earlier. He turned around to find Crash standing behind him.

"Aye, if it isn't the prodigal son? He has returned, at last. Or should I say you've finally decided to crawl out of hiding and be put out of your misery, eh?"

Crash stood there, staring down his enemy and planning on how to defeat him.

"Don't talk much, do we? Cortex told me all about you and your babe, Subject C2; quite the looker, too. Maybe I'll take her off your dead hands once I'm through with you."

Dingo-Dile activated his flame thrower and a corkscrew of fire blazed from the nozzle of Dingo's gun and made its way towards Crash. He slid to the right to avoid the fire and continued to run towards a semi-destroyed house for cover. Dingo-Dile then torched the house, and it soon turned into an inferno.

"Idiot" Dingo said in joyous success. Crash had climbed his way to the top of the hut and got onto the roof. Before Dingo-Dile realized where exactly Crash was, he leaped from the top of the building, double jumped in midair, and slammed onto Dingo-Dile from the air. Crash got off of him, ripped a tiny hose loose from Dingo-Dile's flamethrower, and ran away as Dingo-Dile angrily picked himself up from the ground.

"Alright, mate. I'm going to roast you now." Dingo-Dile pressed the trigger on his flame thrower; the activator fluid made its way from the combustion fluid tank to pilot flame towards the nozzle of the gun, but leaked out from where the hose which Crash had removed used to be. "What the hell?" Dingo-Dile asked in confusion, as his back and liquid storage tank began to be drenched in lighter fluid. Crash picked up a stick, allowed one side of it to catch on fire, and then threw it at Dingo-Dile. In an instant, he burst into flames and screamed in agony. He ran around in a panic before the liquid storage tank on his back exploded violently. N Sanity Island was now clear of Cortex's presence. Crash made his way to the second island.

The ruins of the second islands were a dangerous and ominous place. That didn't seem to bother Cortex or his minions. They set up a massive investigation of the place in order to find his second Power Crystal. The lives of most of the mutants Cortex had made after Crash were expendable, and for those that had died exploring the treacherous caverns and temples of this abandoned civilization, others just replaced them. Crash saw plenty of dead corpses on his way to Koala Kong. On his way, however, a delusional and failed experiment who Crash remembered as "Ripper Roo" confronted him. His skin was dark blue, and his eyes were bloodshot red. It was a very disheartening sight. Ripper Roo was probably abandoned here to set off any traps that were in this area. He wasn't expected to live. Crash actually remembered this mutant as one of the first rejected experiments he saw while still loyal to Cortex all those months ago. Whatever Ripper Roo was saying, it was incomprehensible. He leaped forward in an attempt to attack Crash, but Crash dogged fairly easily. This area wasn't lit very well, and there were un-sprung traps still around the area, along with several dangerous pitfalls. Ripper Roo continued to pursue Crash and spoke unintelligibly. They made it outside before Ripper Roo tackled him from behind and they both plummeted into a river below. Crash swam to the edge of the stream, dealing with the racing current as he did so. He reached the shore and turned, only to notice that Ripper Roo was franticly waving his small arms and struggled mightily to keep his head above water. Crash ran across the shoreline, trying to think of some way to help the deranged creature. It wasn't until Crash saw what was up ahead that he stopped. Ripper Roo disappeared upon reaching the end of the waterfall; when Crash made it to the edge, he peered over the side and spotted a lifeless blue kangaroo drifting down the current. He must have struck one of the rocks at the base of the waterfall. Though Crash was a mutant, he was fortunate to be alive and well, he took pity on the creature, and moved towards Cortex's mineshaft.