"CRASH!" Aku -Aku shouted to the previously snoozing bandicoot. Crash, for the most part, was up and walking, albeit the drool that was falling from his mouth; once he wiped it off, Crash looked to his floating companion for an explanation to his shortened rest cycle.

"We don't have time," Aku said to Crash. "Listen, I just found a disturbing area probably belonging to Cortex." Aku looked back out to the treeline. "I'm sorry, but I need your help in shutting it down before we head to the castle." Although wearing a frown, Crash nodded.

"Alright, I'll lead the way." Aku then turned around and slowly began reentering the patch of woods, with Crash traveling not too far behind. Maybe it was just the exhaustion, but at this point, Crash was starting to hallucinate various things, like non-mutated creatures of the forest and a couple of birds. The most interesting (or disturbing) one to him, however, was one of a few innocent bandicoots. Naturally, Crash's curious behavior drove him to follow them, even if they were hallucinations. After pursuing them for a while, Crash stopped in his tracks at what he saw: the two bandicoots were playfully fighting over a piece of wumpa fruit; that didn't surprise him as much as how familiar this situation was to him…

"Crash?" Aku shouted to the spaced out bandicoot. At the call, Crash shook his head to clear his head of any more distractions and turned back to the path Aku was leading him to. After a near eternity of walking, both Crash and Aku-Aku were standing in front of the giant lump of metal that was discovered by Aku the night before, with the distinctive words "Cortex Power" hanging over the entrance. Crash looked back to Aku as he pointed to the door.

"Yes," Aku replied. "In there. I sense some great presence in there that makes me a little uneasy." Crash nodded, and without hesitation rushed inside the building, with Aku not too far behind, but once inside, something that Crash saw made him stop in his tracks: a trail of wumpa fruit.

"Ooh," Crash cooed. Having had little to eat since last night, Crash innocently began picking up piece after piece, even if it led him out of the main hall.

"Crash, what are you doing?" Aku asked, but once he saw what Crash was picking up, his eyes widened. "Crash, stop picking those up." Normally, Crash would've obliged, but his hunger had pretty much taken over at this point. Even when the trail led him into a walkway with toxic goop under his feet, Crash just kept up his pace, at least until Aku pushed him onto a platform right as a barrel rolled its way into anything in its path. Crash looked to Aku with grateful eyes.

"Just be more careful, Crash," Aku added. "We don't know what Cortex has in store for us. Crash nodded and, after popping a few pieces of wumpa fruit in his mouth, Crash looked to the door they entered from, which was closed and presumably locked, leaving them to walk further down the hall. Another barrel began coming their way once more, but Crash jumped over it with general ease, as he did with the next few barrels before coming face to face with a giant rat standing on two feet and dressed in a suit and top hat, but he was no match for Crash's spin attack which sent him sinking into the green goop.

"I hate having you do this," Aku said, "but there was no saving him. We need to find who's in charge of this facility." Crash nodded, and continued down the seemingly endless corridor.

CB CB CB CB CB

"C-Cortex?" Brio stuttered as he entered his companion's lab once more; it looked like Cortex had stepped out, but Brio wasn't too sure about that considering how determined Cortex was about the plan. In addition, the lights were on, as were many various machines. Regardless, Brio moved over to his partner's computer, which was one of the many machines that remained on, and after a few minutes of browsing, he found a file regarding the plan.

Although mixed with some code, Brio determined that once the female bandicoot is under their control, Cortex's army will be transported to nearby Australia, where the local population will be enslaved, then once Australia is taken over, his influence recognized, other nations will have no choice but to bow down to Cortex.

But Brio didn't feel this would work quite as well as Cortex would imagine, so Brio decided to return to his own lab to find his own solution.

"What are you doing in here, Brio?" Cortex demanded as he opened the door.

"O-Oh, I was j-just making sure t-t-the machine is finely tuned for the bandicoot, s-sir," Brio stuttered, hoping Cortex'll be satisfied with this explanation.

Cortex nodded, wearing a sinister grin on his face. "Very good, Brio," Cortex replied. "I knew I could count on you after all!"

"Y-Yes, boss. I-I've got somewhere to b-be for now."

"To prep the bandicoot, no doubt. Always thinking ahead like me, Brio. I like that!"

"O-Of course. S-See you then, b-boss." Once Brio left the room and closed the room behind him, Brio began to breathe heavily, as if he'd just gotten away with a crime, which he might as well've just did.

CB CB CB CB CB

Crash and Aku were hiding behind a downed chair inside the main office of the plant while what Aku could assume was the one in charge of the plant wildly shot around the room with a tommy gun.

"This must be my lucky day!" the maniacal rat shouted. "I never dreamed that the one my boss was talking about would just waltz right up to my establishment like this."

"Don't get too happy, you filthy rat!" Aku taunted.

"W-What was that?! I'll make you PAY for that little comment, punk!" On cue, the rat continued to fire, with Crash only peeking out periodically for an opening. But considering the rat's pattern of attack, trying to find an opening was near impossible, until its gun jammed.

"Get him, Crash!" Aku shouted, which Crash responded to by running up to the rat and spinning him around, leaving the rat in a daze.

"Grr..." the rat growled, surprised that a lowly little marsupial was able to connect an attack with him. "You'll pay for that, punk!" He then proceeded to shoot wildly once more, almost as if he were mentally insane. But once more, after a few rounds of shooting, his gun jammed up, which Crash took advantage of by spinning the rat around again, leaving it even more bamboozled. Regardless, he continued his barrage of bullets until, like clockwork, his gun jammed once more, and with that final attack, the rat lost control of his aim and unwittingly shot up the reactor core that was separated by a single pane of glass. Once the deed was done, the rat fell down, sprawled out on the ground and defeated.

"Great job, Crash!" Aku congratulated before moving over to the rat's unmoving body. "Now riddle me this, you slippery eel..."

"FYI," the rat began, eyes bloodshot, "my name is Pinstripe, capiche?"

"Whatever. Would your so called 'employer' be that of Doctor Neo Cortex?"

"None of your..." This was all he could get out before Crash began to dance on Pinstripe's body.

"Feel like talking now?" Aku mocked.

"Guh… never." Pinstripe was cut off once more by Crash's dancing, which resulted in a shortness of breath.

Pinstripe laid there moaning for many moments before he finally had enough. "Guh… Alright, dammit! I'll talk!"

"Crash, stop dancing," Aku ordered, to which Crash obediently obliged by moving to a nearby corner and snacking on many pieces of wumpa fruit in celebration.

Pinstripe, unable to stand at the moment, finally began to talk. "Yes, my boss is the great Neo Cortex. Happy?"

"Just one more question: does he imprison another bandicoot like Crash?"

Pinstripe laughed maniacally. "You mean that RAT that I caught weeks ago?" Suddenly, Crash froze in place, wumpa fruit half eaten in his hand, and turned his head to Pinstripe.

"Ohh, did I hit a nerve?" Pinstripe's smile only widened. "Don't tell me she's your girlfriend." Crash's expression just grew angrier as he proceeded to walk nearer to Pinstripe.

"Crash, relax," Aku pressured before facing Pinstripe once more. "So the answer is yes?"

"I even handed her off myself. She was so easy to catch exhausted. After all, of all things I could've done to her..."

His breaking point was reached. Crash began his rapid succession of delivering punches to Pinstripe.

I'm back, baby. That's right, I'm here, I'm alive, and I've just delivered a brand new chapter. And honestly, I hope you've been enjoying the darker tone I've been employing to the Crash Bandicoot story, which I hope is part of the reason you've stuck with the story, even though I've only put up 11 chapters in just over a year.

And I feel bad that I haven't delivered as many Crash Bandicoot chapters as I wanted to, but if you follow me as a writer, things shouldn't be too bad for y'all. Anyways, I'd best not waste much effort on author notes that few people read, so until next time, read on!

-rjm324