A Second Chance
Chapter 3: The Plan
The next morning, as the sun slowly rose over the horizon at the Bandicoot residence, Crash was sound asleep on the couch. As the sunlight poked in through the window, lighting up the living room, Crash slowly opened his eyes and sat up on the couch, letting out a yawn while he did so. "Well, it looks like it's going to be a lovely day again today..." Crash commented to himself, looking out the window to see the morning sky. As he jumped up from the couch to get on his feet, he had a look in the other room to see that Coco and Aku-Aku were both still sound asleep. "If they're both out, I guess that means I'm the only one who's awake." Crash commented, noticing how peaceful the two looked asleep. He then showed a bright smile and made his way over to the front door, grabbing his sneakers that were lying next to the door. "And if that's the case, that means I'll have time to pay someone a visit before they wake up." Crash added to himself, slowly opening the door, stepping outside and then closing it slowly to avoid disturbing the others while they were sleeping. He then put his sneakers on and started to make his way over to the secret cavern, where he was sure Cortex was staying.
Sure enough, over at the cavern, Cortex was sound asleep, as this was the first peaceful night he had had in a long time; he couldn't stop thinking about how much his life was going to improve for the better from this moment onward, and he was also looking forward to finding out what ideas Crash had in mind to get him started. As Cortex was enjoying his peaceful slumber, that was when he heard someone calling him from outside. "Cortex! Hey, Cortex! You in there? Good morning!" Cortex slowly opened his eyes, and showed a bright smile as he recognized whose voice that was calling him.
As he suspected, when he pulled the grass bush back, he could see Crash standing there with a big smile and cheerfully waving to him. Cortex showed a bright smile upon seeing his friend, and stepped out from the cavern to see him. "Good morning, Crash. You're up early." Cortex commented; as far as he could tell, he knew that Crash was often a heavy sleeper, so it was quite a surprise for him to see the bandicoot up and ready to go this early in the morning.
"Well, I wanted to be up to come see you before Coco and Aku-Aku woke up, so I figured it would be best if I came early." Crash replied, scratching the back of his head with a bright smile. Cortex simply nodded in understanding; that seemed to make sense to him. As Crash was happily staring up at Cortex, it didn't take very long for his glance to turn to the barrel of Wumpa Fruit placed against the wall inside the cavern. As soon as Crash took notice of that, his smile quickly grew in size and he jumped up inside the cavern while Cortex watched in surprise. "Now that looks delicious! You up for some breakfast?" Crash asked, turning his head to hear what Cortex had to say. Cortex could only stare in stunned silence for a few seconds before a smile of amusement showed on his face and he slowly shook his head; for how bright Crash could be, he certainly had his moments where he could get distracted very easily. But after a few seconds, he simply nodded in agreement before walking over to join Crash while the latter showed a big smile of delight at this answer.
A little later, the two were both sitting at the table munching on their Wumpa Fruit; as Cortex took a bite out of one of his, he couldn't help himself noticing that Crash seemed to be swallowing them whole in what seemed to be one gulp, showing a big smile all the while. As Crash was munching down on one of his Wumpa Fruits, he noticed that Cortex was staring at him in disbelief. "What's up?" he asked, his voice being muffled due to his mouthful of the Wumpa Fruit.
Cortex could only stare in wordlessness for a few moments before he found his voice again. "How are you able to swallow these down in one go? It's like you have no trouble getting whole ones down." Cortex commented, pointing to the Wumpa Fruit Crash was having; while Cortex himself only had a few on his plate, Crash's one seemed to be full of the fruit and it looked like Crash had stacked them in a pyramid shape just in front of his plate. Crash showed an expression of surprise at this comment before he showed a bright smile and plucked the three top Wumpa Fruit from his pyramid as he turned his glance to Cortex so he could answer that question.
"Can you really blame me? I really love these: they're so sweet and juicy, it's hard for me to resist them!" Crash cheerfully replied. Cortex slowly nodded in understanding and he was about to speak again, but he stopped as he watched Crash toss the three Wumpa Fruit up into the air and then lift his head up and open his mouth to let the three Wumpa Fruit drop inside before munching down on them and swallowing them after a few seconds, and then letting out a content sigh. "Ah... that really hits the spot." Crash happily said. Cortex could only let out a sigh to himself and slowly shake his head as he wondered just how Crash could be so unpredictable at times. But he figured that it would be best for him to worry about that as they had a bigger picture of have concerns about, and it seemed that Crash probably needed a little reminder of that.
"Crash?" Cortex asked. Crash turned his glance up to Cortex, wondering what was up. "Were you able to think of any ideas for getting me started on turning myself around?" Cortex asked. Crash showed an expression of puzzlement like he was wondering what Cortex was talking about and then he turned his glance up to think about for a bit of a refresher, while Cortex watched him in concern as he started to wonder if Crash had already forgotten about that.
Fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case since Crash showed a bright smile as he remembered what Cortex was talking about. "Oh, I remember now!" Crash happily stated. Cortex showed a smile of relief at this reply as he was ready to hear what idea Crash had. Silence passed for a few seconds with Cortex waiting for Crash's reply before the bandicoot shook his head in response. "I haven't really thought of anything yet." Crash said. Cortex stared at Crash in shock for a few moments before he let out a sigh of dismay as he placed his head against the table; he was afraid that he would get that kind of response, since he knew what kind of attention span Crash seemed to have on occasion. Crash looked down at his friend in concern before placing one hand on the back of his head as he showed an expression of worry, noticing Cortex's visible disappointment in the fact that he didn't really have any ideas on what they should do yet. "I'm sorry, Cortex." Crash nervously said, not really looking forward to hearing Cortex's answer to this.
However, he was met with a surprise as Cortex lifted his head up from the table and shook it with a smile of understanding. "No, it's okay, Crash. I imagine that this will be a long road for the both of us. And if I'm being honest..." Cortex then slowly showed a nervous smile as he felt his face start to turn red in embarrassment. "I haven't really thought of anything myself either." Crash stared in surprise at this comment before he felt a smile of relief show on his face upon hearing that he wasn't the only one at a loss of ideas. The two then started to burst into laughter at the realisation that they were just as clueless as each other before they calmed down after a few seconds. "But in all seriousness, I really don't know where to start. This is so much for me to think about, and I have so many things to make right from the past that I don't know where to begin." Cortex added, showing an expression of shame as he turned his glance down to the table and slowly clasped his hands together; all he had spiralling in his mind were the mistakes he had made over the years, and how he had changed so drastically over that time that he wasn't really sure how he would be able to make amends for all the crimes he had committed, and the one thing that felt like the worst mistake to him... was trying to destroy Crash, his best friend. Crash seemed to take notice of the fact that Cortex had a lot he was thinking about, as he showed a gentle smile and reached forward to take one of Cortex's hands, something that the latter took notice of right away before turning his glance up to see Crash's gentle smile.
"It's alright, Cortex. I know exactly what you mean; considering how much has happened over the last year, I can't really start to imagine how hard this must be for you." Cortex slowly nodded in agreement, as he knew firsthand just how true that was. But then he showed Crash's smile grow brighter as he continued. "But there is something I think you need to know: it's true that there are a lot of mistakes you've made, and it'll probably take a long time for you to atone for all of them. But no matter how long that takes, I'll be right here beside you. I'll help you set right all the wrongs you've made. You won't face any of this alone; I'll be right beside you all the way. We'll get through this together." Crash explained, with the tone of his voice being completely sincere to show how much he meant all of this. Cortex could only stare in stunned silence hearing all of this before he felt a grateful smile show on his face as the realisation that Crash would be here to help him all the way through this came to him and he started to feel tears start to build in his eyes.
'I think I just realised the reason Crash could never bring himself to hate me: it's because he never hated me. All he's ever wanted to do is help me regain what I once lost, and he'll never leave my side. He'll be there to help me make amends for all of my wrongs, no matter how long that takes. I don't think I could have ever asked for a friend as amazing as him...' Cortex thought to himself. He then felt the tears building in his eyes start to stream down his face as he realised just how much Crash valued everything the two of them shared in the past, and that he would be there to help him regain it. "T-thank you, Crash... I don't think I could properly describe how much that means to me. I could never ask for anything else." Cortex said. Crash could only show a bright smile at this reply, seeing just how much Cortex valued the bond they shared, even after everything that had happened. Crash then jumped up from his seat in alarm as soon as he realised just how long he had been out without Coco and Aku-Aku noticing, while Cortex watched him in surprise wondering what was up.
"I better hurry back before Coco and Aku-Aku go looking for me!" Crash exclaimed. He then stood up from his seat and stepped out from the cavern to make his way back to the house, but he turned around to face Cortex as the latter followed behind him to hear what he had to say. "I'll come back a bit later and hopefully I'll have thought of something where we can get started with helping you out." Crash said. Cortex slowly showed a bright smile and nodded in understanding, since that sounded like a good idea to him. Crash showed a bright smile with the knowledge that they would have an idea of what to do, so with this, he started to run off back to his house while Cortex watched him with a bright smile, as he was now looking forward to hearing from Crash how they would get started.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Coco had stepped outside and she was keeping an eye out for Crash as she was wondering where he could have gone off to so early in the morning. She then noticed that Crash was running back over to where she was. "Hey, Crash! There you are. Where did you head off to?" Coco asked, showing a bright smile and placing her hands against her hips. She then looked down at Crash as he bent down to catch his breath before turning his glance up to her; he knew that he had to keep the fact that he was helping Cortex out a secret until the time was right, so he knew that he was going to have to come up with something to hide where he was at. Fortunately, he had an idea of what to say.
"Uh... sorry about that, sis. I went out for an early morning run and I lost track of how long I had been gone." Crash explained. Coco showed an expression of surprise at this reply, since she knew that Crash was often a heavy sleeper and it would be left up to her to wake him up before he slept through the whole day. So it was safe to say that this was a bit of a surprise coming from him. Crash then started to show an expression of worry as he was wondering whether or not Coco would believe him, but luckily, she showed a bright smile and nodded in understanding much to his relief.
"Hmm... that's a bit of a surprise from you. But I guess that's alright. But... do you think you could let me know where you go next time? I didn't have any idea of where you went." Coco replied. Crash showed a bright at this reply and nodded in understanding to say that he would keep that in mind. With that taken care of, Coco showed a bright smile before she turned to head back inside. "I'll bet you must be hungry after going out on your run, Crash. What do you say to some breakfast?" Coco asked, turning her head to him. Crash showed a bright smile at the suggestion and nodded in agreement; even though he had already eaten while he was with Cortex, there was no way he was going to pass that up. He then started to follow after Coco as the two went back inside the house, looking back in the direction of the cavern with a bright smile showing; he was looking forward to visiting Cortex again, this time with an idea of what his first step should be.
Sometime later, Crash and Coco were making their way down to the beach; the two were planning to relax near the coast and maybe enjoy a bit of a swim. Obviously, Crash had passed on the latter option since he wasn't exactly the most experienced swimmer, something that Coco was all too familiar with. Instead, Crash found himself simply floating on the surface of the water while Coco watched him from where she was; he looked like a large orange log with eyes, a nose and a mouth. "You know, Crash, I don't think it would hurt all that much for you to least have a few swimming lessons. Maybe I could teach you." Coco suggested, shaking her head in amusement as she watched her brother's 'attempt' at swimming, namely just floating on the surface on his back like a dead fish. Crash turned his glance up to see his sister swim over to him as she started at him in amusement, before he adjusted himself so he was upright.
"Well, the thing about that is I know how to swim. I just prefer floating because that means I have less to worry about." Crash replied. Coco simply shook her head before she replied "But whenever you do that, you end up sinking most of the time." Crash could only roll his eyes in response; this was what he went almost every time he tried to swim with Coco joining him. Just then, a bright smile came to his face as an idea popped in his head and he started to make his way back over to the coast while Coco watched in surprise. "Crash? Where are you going?" she asked, wondering what had gotten into him to make him leave so early. It didn't take Crash long to arrive back at the coast, and he picked up his sneakers that were lying on the sand before turning his head to Coco to answer her question.
"I have something I need to take care of! I'll be back shortly, sis!" Crash replied. With this, he slipped his sneakers on before rushing off to head over to the cavern, while Coco watched on in puzzlement.
Meanwhile, with Cortex, he was enjoying an early afternoon nap. As he was lying on the bed and reading a book he kept to himself, he was met with a surprise when he could hear what sounded like footsteps coming towards the cavern. He slowly sat up before hopping off the bed and pulling the bush back to see Crash running over to him and he noticed that the bandicoot had a big smile on his face. "Crash? What is it?" Cortex asked, stepping outside to see Crash run over before stopping in front of him to catch his breath for a few moments. Crash then lifted his head up to see Cortex staring at him in surprise as he was wondering what was wrong, before he stood upright with a smile of excitement.
"I think I have an idea of what to do first!" Crash happily replied. Cortex quickly showed a bright smile at this reply, and he watched as Crash stepped inside the cavern before following after him to hear what his idea was. Once he was inside, Crash turned to face Cortex as he stepped into the cavern behind him before he spoke. "I had a bit of time to think about what we should do and I got an idea. I figured that maybe we should start out small, maybe like making it up to people close to you. Do you know anyone in particular that you know well that you didn't really think about in the past?" he asked.
Cortex showed an expression of surprise at this question and then he looked down to think about whom in particular he knew about, and then a smile crossed his face before he looked back up at Crash. "Actually, there is someone I haven't really seen for a while." Cortex replied. Crash showed a bright smile at this and stepped over to hear who it was, and he was met with a surprise when Cortex showed a photo of a little girl with bright blue skin and she was wearing a small dark blue dress along with matching shoes. Crash looked at the photo in surprise before turning his head to Cortex.
"Who's this?" he asked, pointing to the girl in the photo. "This is my niece, Nina Cortex. She studies at the Academy of Evil, which is the school I attended when I was young. I haven't really seen her since she was a baby, and I haven't really thought about visiting her. I wonder how she's been doing since then." Cortex replied, showing an expression of concern as he couldn't help himself thinking about how he hadn't really seen Nina since she was very young. Crash turned his glance down to think about how to handle this, before he clicked his fingers with a bright smile while Cortex turned his head to him wondering what idea he had in mind.
"Well, we can easily take care of that! How do we get there?" Crash asked. Cortex showed a bright smile upon hearing that Crash was going to help him out with finding Nina, and luckily he knew exactly how they were going to find their way to the AOE.
"We'll have to take my airship to get there, and that's over at the Iceberg Lab. Do you know how we can get over there?" Cortex asked. Crash quickly showed a bright smile and nodded in response. "Yeah! There's a port just near the coast; we can take one of the boats to get over there. But we'll need to figure out how to get there without Coco or Aku-Aku spotting you..." Crash replied, scratching his chin as he was starting to think about how to take care of that issue. After a few moments, a bright smile came to his face as he got an idea.
A little later, Crash was rushing down towards the port. As he stopped behind one of the rocks near the coast, he turned his head to notice a large bush shuffling over behind him, with Cortex poking his head out; Crash had gotten the bright idea of using a bush as a form of camouflage so Cortex wouldn't get spotted, and Crash couldn't help chuckling to himself seeing how silly Cortex looked, while the latter shot a nasty glare at the bandicoot for this idea. Crash then turned his head forward and he showed a bright smile upon seeing their destination. "There we are! There's the port!" Crash happily commented. Without a moment to spare, the two started to make their way over to the port to look for the nearest boat that would take them to the Iceberg Lab. As Crash was having a look around, Cortex poked his head out from his bush disguise to see what was going on, prompting Crash to turn his head to him with a smile of amusement. "You can come out of that bush now; we're in the clear." Crash said. Cortex nodded in understanding before removing the top half of the bush from his head and stepping out of the bottom half, since he knew that no one knew he was there.
"So what are we doing again?" Cortex asked, showing an expression of puzzlement as he needed a bit of a refresher on their goal. "We need to find one of the villagers; they just started business at the port and we have to ask him to take us to the Iceberg Lab." Crash replied, turning his head to Cortex while the latter nodded in understanding at this explanation. As the two walked down at the port, having a look around to find what they were searching for, Crash showed a bright smile as soon as he noticed something.
"Now there's what we're looking for!" Crash happily commented. Cortex showed an expression of surprise at this and walked over to see what Crash was talking about, and he could see that just up ahead, parked at one of the ports was a native boat and one of the villagers standing beside it. "Come on, what are we waiting for?" Crash asked, turning his head to Cortex as the two showed matching bright smiles. Without a moment to spare, the two started to make their way over to the port, while the villager turned his head to see them walking over, with Crash showing a bright smile and happily waving to him.
"Hey there! We need to use the boat. We're hoping to get to the Iceberg Lab. My partner here has the directions." Crash explained, turning his head to Cortex who walked to stand beside him to show who the bandicoot was walking about. The villager turned his head back and forth to the two for a few seconds before nodding in understanding and walking over to jump on the boat, while Crash and Cortex showed matching smiles of delight as they turned to each other. "All right! We're on our way to the Iceberg Lab!" Crash cheered, pumping a fist up in the air from excitement while Cortex simply shook his head with a smile of amusement watching his friend's outburst of joy.
With this, the two stepped onto the boat with the villager taking control of the piloting as the boat made its way out of the port onto the ocean to make its way over to the Iceberg Lab, with Crash and Cortex looking forward to relaxing on the way there; once they got to the Iceberg Lab, they would be on their way to the Academy of Evil, where Cortex was certain they would find Nina.