Spyro and Coco, A Love Forged by the Loss of Loved Ones

Chapter 10: A Monster or a Slave?

His protégé N-Gin, his colleague (and uncle... a long a dragon out of time story) N-Tropy, his nephew Nina, and his best friend N-Brio all stood behind Neo Cortex while he stared down the carnival owner who was responsible for his parents death.

Uka-Uka, however, lay prominently draped across the doctor's neck.

"Do you remember... do you remember why you murdered my parents?" Lesly's wife and kids were bound and gagged, tied down and helpless to help their father who was also tied to a chair. Lesly, the former owner of N' Sane Carnival was nearly in his seventies along with his wife. His two kids were in their late twenties and were abducted and brought to N' Sane Carnival along with their mother and father. Everyone was currently in the center of the grand entertainment tent with a dirt stage circumscribed by rows and rows of empty wooden seats. This carnival was where Neo Periwinkle Cortex grew up. It's where he lost his parents. He thought it'd be fitting Lesley lost his life here as well. Cortex's allies were under the assumption this mission would not lead to any casualties. The "N-Team," as N-Gin had humorously nicknamed the group, was lead under false pretenses.

Uka-Uka had different plans for his slave; this was Cortex's initiation into becoming the monster he could use to destroy this world.

"I don't even know who the hell you are! I've never murdered anyone in my life. Just take whatever you want and escort your ugly gang of thugs out of here."

"Lying in front of your wife and kids, that's not very fatherly of you. Course how would I know, I lost my parents because of you a long time ago."

"I've never..." Lesley breathed intensely as he struggled against his restraints, "killed anyone in my life."

"I'm not surprised to hear you don't remember me. How could you, it was nearly thirty years ago when I was born here in this carnival. My parents, they had worked here as performers for almost their entire lives. They ended up having two sons, one of whom is standing before you right now, and the other is the father to my niece over there. Say high why don't you, we'll get to her story in just a moment." Nina stood to the right and a few yards back of her uncle, wearing her Madam Amberley's Academy issued uniform, with her metal hands to either side of her. Her face was expressionless.

"I've... had a lot of performers work for me; you're going to have to be... [grunts] more specific." Lesly still visibly struggled with his restraints, trying to free himself.

"Keep struggling, you're making this even more enjoyable for me." Cortex whispered sadistically in Lesly's ear before retreating to just two feet in front of his captive and spoke normally for everyone to hear. "Now I spent most of my childhood here at this circus, sometimes acting as free child labor for you as I fed the animals here, sometimes as an acrobatic performer, other times as a freak to display to shocked audiences due to the shape of my head. As abnormal and grotesque as it appears, it turns out my brain is something not to be messed with. I was 'gifted' with a genetic condition my bastard grandfather so kindly caused me to have. Yada, yada, yada it made me a smart person. So much so that my parents for years begged for, worked hard for, and reluctantly stole a large sum of money in hopes that they could send me to the premier Academy in Austria when I turned eighteen so I wouldn't be doomed to a life of mediocrity here at this circus. So how woeful was I to hear ten years ago that my parent's tragically 'died' in an explosion caused by faulty equipment. My loving parents, who sacrificed so much to better my life."

"I... know who you're talking about. How the fuck am I responsible for your parents death's if they died in an accident? Not as bright as you claim to be, are you?"

Cortex rested a concealed gun against the former ring master's head, drawing muffled, panicked, shrieks from his family, silencing Lesly, and drawing some cornering looks from N-Brio and N-Gin.