C.T.K: Revised edition.

"OW," The orange-furred, anthropomorphic, marsupial voiced. "My head."

The creature known as Crash Bandicoot stood up. He brushed off his jeans before his green eyes glanced at his surroundings. Expecting to be in the lush tropical setting of Wumpa Island, he eyes widened when the surrounding area was anything but.

"Where am I?" Crash asked softly. His eyes scanned the unfamiliar landscape

Lush, green, grass replaced the dense jungle he was used to. Palm trees swung in the gentle sea breeze as peculiar flowers danced to a tune he couldn't hear. The ground was covered in a peculiar checkerboard pattern and in the distance Crash could make out the landmasses forming loop-de-loops and spirals.

Almost like a race track, Crash thought.

"Well, how did I get here?" he asked himself as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

What was the last thing I was doing? he questioned. As memories of the last few days began to surface, his eyes snapped open. "That's right!" he declared with a snap of his fingers. "I was fighting Cortex for the Master Crystal."

Over the years Crash had matured to a certain extent. While still prone to a few pranks and a little stupidity every now and again, he certainly wasn't as crazy as he used to be. His growth in maturity was also accompanied by a growth in skills.

Aku-Aku, after the incident with Crunch and the Elementals, had discovered that bandicoots seemed to have a natural ability to channel magical energy. With this knowledge, he had immediately started training Crash in some of the mystic arts he had utilized as a human shaman. The tribal tattoos that ran from underneath the fingerless gloves on his hands to his elbow helped him focus magical energy. Initially, Crash could only use Mojo as it was the most abundant and easily controlled form of magic energy. Gathering Mojo into the tattoos allowed him to buff his strength, speed, and stamina, but he needed Aku-Aku's help to perform more complicated actions.

The training had been difficult at first, as his focus wasn't held for very long. However, just as he had adapted to the various adventures he had been on, he eventually began to get better. The magic energy flowing through his body had actually repaired most of the brain damage initially caused by the Evolv-o Ray, which attributed to his rise in intelligence and maturity on top of just generally growing older.

Since the incident with the mutants, Crash had moved one from just using Mojo. He was currently learning to utilize the magic of the Power Crystals that he had so often collected. While Aku-Aku had locked most of the Power crystals and Time Crystals in an alternate dimension, Coco had kept a few for experiments, as well as the Master Crystal, which was too powerful for him to transport. Coco, being his ingenious little sister, used the Master Crystal as a power source for their house, garage and underground control center. Coco was also working on converting one of the crystals into a battery for her laptop, as Crash had refused to ever bring her the extra after what happened last time.

While Coco was using the crystals scientifically, Crash was using them for their magic properties. Using one crystal, he could increase his power or speed. However, he had to be careful as using anymore than three would start sapping his own life-force.

But just as the Bandicoots were revisiting the crystals, Cortex decided to go back to basics. Using a stealth suit, he snuck into the Bandicoots control center and stole the Master Crystal. The Bandicoots had intercepted him, but in the resulting fight, Cortex's stealth suit blew up after a magic imbedded punch from Crash. The explosion, spiced with magic, shattered the Master Crystal into thirty separate pieces. After lots of searching, (and a rather humorous situation involving, 2 armadillos, an aardvark, a cream pie, and a box of fireworks.) the group managed to gather all but eight of the shards. Cortex held five of them so the Bandicoots split up to gather the other three. Cortex, meanwhile, broke into their home and took the collected shards. Combined with his own five pieces, he created an incomplete yet still powerful Master Crystal.

With the remaining three shards, the group confronted Cortex on a new space station. The group separated to take on various task while splitting the crystal shards between them for safety. Coco went to shut down the weapon drawing power from the Master Crystal, Crunch fought to distract the guards, and, Crash and Aku-Aku took the fight straight to Cortex. Eventually, Coco and Crunch convened on their brother just as Cortex seemed to be done for.

But before the family could celebrate, Cortex pulled out his secret weapon. The weapon on the station had merely been a decoy and the real weapon revealed itself, charged and pointed straight at the Bandicoots. As Cortex hit the trigger, Crash remembered grabbing his sister, and pulling her towards him as Crunch's massive frame draped over them. Crash, in a desperate move, called on the power of the shards to try and shield his siblings. However as the beam hit the shield, the Master Crystal reacted. All Crash could remember was Cortex's curses before he felt the sensation of falling. Slowly, he felt Crunch's body leave them before he lost his grip on Coco and lost consciousness.

"That sort explains it," He frowned. "kinnda."

As Crash thought over his last memories before being knocked out, a single thought pierced through to his brain. They're not here.

His eyes widened as he began quickly looking around, a look of panic on his face. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "COCO! CRUNCH! AKU-AKU!" Crash shouted.

As his words echoed across the grassy hills with no reply, his body drooped and a frown forming on his face. He ran hand through his hair. "I sure hope they're okay."

Crash shook his head before taking off his backpack and opening it. "A Master Crystal shard and some wumpa fruit," he said, frowning. With a sigh, he put the backpack back on. "Not much."

The only upside Crash could see was that he still had one of the shards, which meant he could actually use it. When broken the shards function the same as a regular Power Crystal. Crash jogged ahead.

"Need to figure out where I am."

He looked at a sign at the top of a hill with a raised brow. "Green Hill… huh. Pretty straight forward."

Crash's eyes followed the path down the hill, his frown growing as it proceeded up a straight, vertical cliff.

"Man, I'll never be able to climb that," he groaned as his body slumped again. A quick glance at the area around the cliff left him mumbling. "And it doesn't look like there's any way around it."

He put his hands in his pockets and sighed. As his fingers touched something smooth and square, his expression went blank. He raised his brow as his fingers clasped around the object.

"Oh, hey," he hummed as he looked at the square objects he pulled out of his pocket. The objects had rounded corners. Various images sat in the center of a blue back drop with gold borders. "I still have my ability tablets."

He scratched his neck while looking at one tablet in particular. "Would that even work?" He looked at the sky while humming in thought. "Maybe if I… yeah. I've never tried it but they are magic."

Crash had used the ability tablets before. However, these were different. The tablets in the past had always worn off after his adventure was through, but Aku-Aku had made these permanent. In gathering the shards, Crash had forgotten he had them and hadn't needed the skills, so he had yet to activate them.

Picking out a tablet, one with an image of winged shoes, he pocketed the rest. He flipped the tablet like a coin, catching and gripping it tightly.

"ABLITY TABLET: DASH!"

Light poured from between his fingers. When it died, he grinned. He started jogging down the hill, gradually gaining speed, his shoes kicking up dust. As he leveled out at the bottom, his eyes narrowed.

"Hope this works!"

His tattoos glowed as he focused on channeling the shard's power into his legs. Just as he began to go up the hill, he took off, a dust cloud in his wake. His face broke into a large grin as he went straight up. Reaching the top, he was launched into the air. A tornado spin in mid-air allowed him to land at the top of the cliff.

He pumped his fist before glancing to where he started.

"That was awesome!" he cried as he looked at his hands. "Think I'll call that a Power Dash."

Crash let out a chuckle before dashing down the path. He stopped as he came to a loop rising out of the ground.

"I could just go around it," he said before smirking. "But where would the fun in that be?"

Crash took off again easily surpassing the obstacle with his speed. He continued running across the land, surpassing every obstacle with his enhanced speed, until coming to a dead end.

He raised his brow as he looked at the wall in front of him. "No way over or under and no way around. Maybe if I…" He pulled out his remaining ability tablets and picked out one with a tornado on it. "I'll just go through," he said activating the tablet. "ABILITY TABLET: DEATH TORNADO SPIN"

He rapidly spun in place, his tattoos glowing and surrounding his spinning form with a slight orange aura. Rocketing forward, he slammed through the wall. Small bits of rock and dirt flew through the air as he drilled through. As he came out the other side he stopped.

"So that's what happens when I power it up," he said grinning. "Moves even faster than a Power Dash. How bout I call it Death Tornado Dash?"

Repeating the move, he took off, spinning along before settling into a Power Dash. A spring with a rubber top sat in front of him. Crash did a small hop and landed on the spring.

"WAHOO!" he cried as he was sent skyward by the spring. Coming to a long stretch of land, he kept running, grinning as the landscape blurred past him. "This is a blast!"

"Don't I know it."

"Huh?" Crash looked to his left.

The owner of the voice was a blue creature. He had a large head with big green eyes. Quills covered his back and head. His form was lanky with long arms and legs. He was covered in blue fur save for his stomach which showed tan skin. The only clothing he wore was a pair of white gloves and red shoes with a white strip horizontally down the middle.

Crash's eyes widened as the newcomer ran beside him, backwards.

"You're pretty fast," he said, smirking. His hands were placed behind his head, his body seemingly relaxed.

"Uh, thank you…"

The blue creature turned forward. "But not as fast as me, I bet."

Without another word, the blue creature took off ahead, a strange blue aura surrounding him and a trail of dust forming in his wake.

Crash hauled to a stop, his jaw dropping. "No way I can keep up with that, unless—" Crash paused. "I've only been using a fourth of the shard's power. What if I use more for the Dash?"

Crash's tattoos glowed even brighter. As he ran forward, orange energy seeped out of his tattoos and surrounded him and propelling him forward. He let out his manic laugh as his tongue lulled out of his mouth.

Sonic stopped abruptly, a smile on his face as he rubbed a finger under his nose. If he was honest with himself, he would say he somewhat enjoyed showing off. He may have always been the fastest thing alive, but he had had to work hard to keep that title. The new comer he saw had been pretty fast, but he hadn't expected Sonic's Chaos Boost.

Though he couldn't quite remember when or where he learned it, he was sure it was a self taught skill. By drawing in Chaos Energy in the air, he could boost his speed as well as form a sort of barrier around himself, so long as he kept moving. In the past he had needed to gain speed first, yet reacently he had mastered using a Chaos Boost at a dead stop. He called it a Rocket Start. However, the Chaos Boost required a burst of stored Chaos Energy and drained his reserves, though he didn't need it to live at least. Plus he could refuel his Chaos Energy with rings, which were essentially physical forms of Chaos energy.

Sonic thought back to the encounter with the orange guy and frowned. He had never seen that guy around before.

"Maybe I should check that guy out," he said turning back around. "Just to make sure he's not causing trouble."

Suddenly an orange blur flew past him. "Hey, how you doing, see yah!" it said in one breath.

Sonic blinked. That was the orange guy he saw before and it looked like he was doing something similar to a Chaos Boost. He smirked. "Oh! Now it's on!" he said as he did a Rocket Start.

Crash slowed to a stop, panting slightly.

"Woah," he said in a breath. "That really takes it out of the Crystal."

While he was running, he had decided to call the dash Power Dash: Level 2, as it was essentially just a more powerful form of the Power Dash. However it seemed to drain the Master Crystal shard's power faster. The crystals were essentially self-sustaining batteries so Crash wasn't worried a bout draining the shard. It would recharge in a small bit of time.

"Better not use that wildly." Crash said. He raised an eyebrow as he looked forward. "The heck is that?"

A row of five gold rings floated in front of him, spinning slightly. They were about two inches thick and a foot in diameter. Each of them spun in sync with the others.

Crash was no stranger to floating objects. The Crystals, Gems, and even wumpa fruit, tended to float due to the magic energy in them. (Though wumpa fruit only contained enough to make them float.) He had never seen ring though.

As he grabbed one, his tattoos lit up for a second. The ring vanished from his grasp.

"What," he said with a gasp. However, as he sensed the shard's power, his jaw dropped. A chunk of the crystal's energy had returned. Crash knew it wasn't natural and looked at the rest of the rings.

When he had thrown out his magic sense for the shard, he had also felt the energy of the rings. They weren't magic, which through him off, but some sort of similar energy. Though his sense of magic wasn't nearly as good as Aku-Aku's, Crash had enough of a grasp of the ability to sense the power of the crystals, and a few other things. Strangely, the same energy that made up the rings could be felt in the air. It was miniscule and if he hadn't been looking for it he would have missed it.

This, combined with the rings and general landscape, made him wonder. Where was he? He had never felt this kind of energy on earth.

He shook his head. Find Coco, Crunch and Aku-Aku first, then figure this out. He smirked as he looked at the remaining rings. "I don't know what these are, but they recharge the shard. So if I collect them…"

With a Death Tornado Dash, he charged through the rings. Just coming into contact with one seemed to collect them. He took off with Power Dash: Lv. 2.

Sonic launched of the red ramp. He used a Chaos Boost in air to land on top of one of the shuttle loops. Walking to the edge, he shielded his green eyes from the sun as he looked around.

"Now where did you get off to," he said to himself.

Eventually he spotted the orange guy near a row of rings. From what Sonic could see, the orange guy seemed confused by the rings.

"Shesh," Sonic said raising his eyebrow. "Guy acts like he's never seen a ring before."

He watched as the strange person reached for the ring. The marks on his arms glowing slightly before the ring disappeared.

Sonic's eyes widened. "Wait," he gasped.

When the orange guy reached for the ring, Sonic had felt something odd. While he wasn't as attuned to Chaos Energy as, say, Shadow, Sonic could at least sense certain changes in it. When the marks glowed, the Chaos Energy from the rings disappeared.

No, Sonic thought. Not disappeared. More like it was converted into something else.

What it was converted to, however, he didn't know. The energy he sensed hadn't been Chaos Energy, similar, yes, but ultimately something off.

He sensed the strange energy again as the mysterious person preformed a spin and dashed through the rings. Sonic idely noted that it was similar to Blaze's version of a Spin-dash.

He smirked as he jumped off the shuttle loop. "Things just got interesting," he said as he gave chase.

As Crash dashed through another set of rings, he caught a flash of blue in the corner of his eye.

"Wow. Your faster than I expected," the flash said, revealing it to be the hedgehog he had met earlier

Crash smiled. "Thanks, you too"

"Still think I'm faster."

Crash's smile turned into a smirk. If there was one thing he loved it was a challenge. "Wanna prove it?"

"You challenging me to a race?" Sonic asked, a smirk toying on the edge of his lips.

"I am," he said, his eyes narrowing.

"Alright," Sonic said as his eyes narrowed too. He pointed to a white sign in the distance. "To the end of the Green Hill zone. First to reach the sign wins."

"You're on!"

The two marsupials charged ahead. As they launched off a ramp, Crash noticed a strange rail in mid-air. While he elected to hit the ground, his opponent decided to land on the rail. His jaw dropped as Sonic began grinding on said rail.

Crash smirked. "I got some tricks, too."

He went Level 2 and rocketed up an incline, meeting a dismounting Sonic at the top. As the two began running down hill towards a shuttle loop, Crash jumped. He used the Death Tornado Spin in the air, launching himself forward onto the top of the loop.

"Clever," Sonic said as he boosted through the loop.

He caught up just as the two launched off another ramp. Crash decided to take a page out of Sonic's book as two rails sat suspended in the air. He landed on one rail, coping Sonic and grinding along. Though tricky, with a bit of magic in his shoes to keep himself balanced, he was doing as well as Sonic, said hedgehog grinding next to him on the other rail.

When the rails ended, they both dashed off. A large stone totem poll stood in front of them. Crash was going to stop, but since Sonic was making no move to, he wasn't either. He went Level 2 as Sonic did a Chaos Boost. The two crashed into the stone totem, knocking a section away.

Crash noticed the long straight to the sign. He smirked before hearing the sound of rock grinding against rock. A quick glance back told him the stone totem was falling and in their direction. He gulped and pulled more power from the shard. Sonic noticed the falling totem too and sped up. As it crashed down behind them, the two reached out their hands, the brush with death momentarily forgotten with the finish in sight.

"First" They both yelled coming to a dead stop, their hands on the sign. Both glared at each other before suddenly smiling and bursting into laughter. As their chuckles ended, Sonic put his hands behind his head.

"I haven't had a race that close in a while." Sonic closed one eye "You're good."

"Thanks." Crash put his hands in his pockets. He grinned "Call it a draw then?"

Sonic nodded. He then held out his hand. "Name's Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Crash took it. "Crash Bandicoot," he said as he shook it.

When Sonic got his hand back, he raised his brow. "Your not from around here are, yah?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that," Crash said as he looked at the ground. "Not even sure where here is."

"That energy you use," Sonic said with crossed arms. "It's not like Chaos Energy. Don't think I've ever felt anything like that anywhere in the world." His head tilted. "You from another dimension or something."

"Maybe," Crash responded rubbing the back of his head. He looked at a cloud in the distance. "I know for sure this isn't my home. Home doesn't have that strange energy in the air."

The hedgehog nodded. "Chaos Energy, the whole planet's drenched in the stuff." He smiled and put his hands behind his head again. "So why don't you tell me how you got here? Maybe I can help you get back."

Crash raised a brow. "You'd trust me?"

Sonic smirked. "You out to destroy my planet?"

He shook his head.

"Then your fine," Sonic said. "Besides, I'm considered a hero around these parts, and what kind of hero would I be if I just left you hanging."

"A hero, huh," Crash hummed. He laughed. "Alright, then."

Sonic crossed his arms as Crash finished giving him the abridged version of his journey. Sounds like chaos control. He looked at Crash. "I guess we should find your family."

Crash nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty worried about them."

Sonic put his hand on Crash's shoulder. "Let's check out Station Square first. It's the nearest town. Follow me."

With a nod from Crash, the duo dashed off in blue and orange blurs.