Bunnyloverforever: Hey, my first Crash Bandicoot fan fiction. The pairing is Crash x Cortex. If you don't like it, then don't comment. When I saw that I couldn't find any such pairings, my sister and I had to make one. The time of this fiction takes place after the game Mind over Mutant. CRASH HAS THE LOOK OF CRASH OF THE TITANS! I gladly accept critique through private messages and reviews. Thank you for taking time to read this.

Chapter 1: Weeds

"Hey, Crash, little bro, mind pulling out them weeds for me in the back? They're starting to bother me, you know, like how an itch goes un-itched? How - never mind, can you just do it?" Crunch ordered while lifting an inhumane amount of weights at the same time.

Crash was amused, but wondered why Crunch rarely helped around when he could do more than lift weights all day long, or bake delicious treats, and teach valuable moral lessons. Nodding and without annunciating any real words or evincing tenacious behavior, Crash turned on his heels and ran out the door with a content smile. To his misfortune, there were many weeds nestled between the vegetables and other various plants they - Crunch gardened. It was all the more reason why he should be taking care of the task. Without thinking any more of it, Crash bent over and started pulling out the weeds that would begin to slowly malnourish the rest of the plant life if left unattended. No more delicious treats for months to come if such a thing were to happen! Coco would be put in an unpleasant mood for the destruction and Aku Aku would be utterly disappointed in him. He could continuously fight evil, save his siblings, and the world, yet he couldn't pull out weeds to keep the vegetation hearty?

There's no telling what Crunch would do to him. Crash did not want to think of it.

Now down on his knees, he overlooked the garden and sighed silently through his fake smile. Within the next twenty minutes, he was working well into his third pile of weeds. His hands paid the punishment of the unforgiving weeds. While working his fingers to the bone, he saw great improvement with the appearance of the garden. It looked approachable and less repulsive than it did before. Crash felt his hands flashing with an incessant burning sensation. He winced involuntarily each time he felt the strong burst of pain travel from the tips of his fingers to his wrists. Crash glanced quickly at his hands and saw nothing particularly wrong with them. He saw that he was almost done. Adrenaline pumped through his veins.

He skipped happily over to the last pieces of weed in the garden. With a few good pulls and yanks, the weeds popped out of the soil. Though, Crash knew he was making it look a lot easier than it really was. When he made his way back to his three neat piles, he prided himself. A few moments later when he had just sat down to rest his burning hands; he spotted another small patch of weeds near the roots of an old tree that looked as though it had been around since the beginning of time. It engrossed most of the backyard and provided adequate shading for the bandicoots.

Huffing out of annoyance, Crash dragged himself up to his feet. When he finally reached the weeds, Crash noticed that he'd never seen these kinds of weeds before. As he squinted, he found red spikes, like a small salient protruding from the yellowish body of the weed. If he was discovering new types of weeds, then they were amiss to be growing in their garden.

As he looked around, he realized that this was the last patch of weed left. Thankful to the gods above and possibly Aku Aku, he confused his already pained hands with the new pain of the curious red spikes. He progressed on. Weeds didn't pull themselves! As he gripped the weeds and pulled up, he suddenly felt the thorns cling and rip through his skin. Yelping, he recognized the newfound pain making its way through his hands and arms. He jumped back, clearly startled and baffled by the unfamiliar weed. Crash turned around to run back to the house where one of his siblings or Aku Aku could give him the proper succor. Then he would ask about the strange looking bush of weeds near the tree.

His aid was put off by another stroke of misfortune hitting him as if he had broken a mirror that day by simply looking at it. Crash's left foot was captured under the thick root of the ancient tree, causing him to trip. Pain lanced through his left leg as soon as it made contact with the uncaring root. Thinking fast, Crash knew that the thorns in his hands would be near impossible to take out without plucking through his fur and skin if he stopped himself by landing on them. The second wave of pain lanced up his left leg once more when turned his torso to the right to fall on his shoulder, soundly cracking his foot once more.

His yells of unknowingly, self-inflicted pain decreased to mere whimpers when he landed on his shoulder. Wallowing in self-pity, he laid there for a few moments, taking in all the pain. Only when he heard a strange voice resonating just a few yards in front of him did he force himself to sit up. Though he was completely vulnerable, he had to be alert for when the villains announced their methods for world domination. Crash's hands twitched painfully with what felt like a gnawing pain all over his palms and fingers from the thorns. He had pulled his foot from under the tree which he vowed to crazily saw down as soon as he recovered. His entire left foot was awkwardly facing the left direction instead of pointing up, correctly. He hadn't taken his left foot with him when he jerked his body leftwards. It looked as horrible as it felt. The sharp pain continuously lanced up his leg relentlessly.

After he noted the degree of his injuries, he looked ahead to see a short, stubby body forming before him from what looked to be a black portal with purple swirls. If a plastic stick was projecting out of it, it could have been mistaken for a lollipop instead of an outlandish portal. When he recognized the metal salient clearly sticking out of this person's head, he mentally matched up the body type and face with a name.

"N. Gin?" Crash just barely pronounced, perplexed. His expression of confusion was distorted by the pain his body was enduring at the moment.

Seconds passed until the body was fully formed to reveal the questionably homosexual sidekick of the greatly, notorious Cortex. Crash's pupils and iris dilated significantly. He was in the worst possible state, and for N. Gin, it was the best possible timing on behalf of his unpredicted misfortune. He really should have told Aku Aku that he was interested in hearing a story etched in his memory from centuries ago instead of standing idly, observing Crunch which led to the incidents in the garden.

N. Gin cocked his head from the reaction he got out of Crash. He was also surprised that as soon as he stepped out of the portal, he found his target, Crash, sitting before him, trembling in fear. A rehearsed, evil laughter erupted from his throat.

"Hah! At last! You cower in fear at the sight of me! I didn't even have to threaten you! This calls for a raise in my salary…" he paused in thought of the increase. "Anyways! It is now Cortex's evil plan to permanently put you to sleep and work against Aku Aku. Now that I have you at my feet, we'll be going back to Cortex's lair! Night night, Bandicoot!" N. Gin spoke with the usual crescendos and decrescendos in his speech including the occasional excrescence of volume to add intensity to the details of the evil plot. After he finished performing his evil laughter again, he pointed a ray gun at the bandicoot and pulled the trigger.

The level was set at the picture of a fainted person. As soon as the green beam hit Crash and embodied him in the lime-like bubble, he fell backwards, unconscious. Only when the green disappeared, N. Gin dared to step towards the faint bandicoot. He noticed the odd angle Crash's leg was pointing in.

"Man, now I'm no doctor, but I don't think that's how a foot should be pointing," he said aloud. A thought occurred. Could Crash have not been intimidated by him at all? Was it merely his condition and his abrupt appearance that made him afraid? "No! I will not believe it! I am evil! I deserve my salary increase!" he exclaimed angrily.

N. Gin lugged Crash over his shoulder. He walked back into the portal he formed from with the bandicoot, successfully completing his mission. When he stepped back into it, the portal disappeared behind him without a trace.

"Hey, yo, Crash? What's all that racket outside? I heard screaming and then a questionably gay voice said something about getting a salary increase. Crash? Crash? Boy, haven't you had enough hide and seek?" Crunch yelled from the window. He made his way outside and found three piles of weeds.

"Crash! You did the work! Good job! I'll just pack them up and throw them away. No weeds are going to invade this garden, baby!"