Again it was a familiar scene for Cortex and Brio. They were busy with searching and evolving animals for Neo’s ‘world domination’ plans. Cortex was actually a bit pissed from everything that happened the weeks before. And all that only cos of one of his minions. Crunch bandicoot.

Cortex had great plans with him, but later he noticed that Crunch would probably never do what he wants, cos he wasn’t loyal to him. And as Crunch even attacked the little scientist, he decided to sent him with Tani over to a nearby island. But Cortex couldn’t stop thinking about Crunch. Everything went well with his evolution and he would be the perfect one for his plans in the future.

The madman walked up and down in his lab, waiting for Brio. He looked on the clock every minuted and then finally Brio came in “Have you done what I’ve told you ,Brio?” Cortex asked “Y-y-yes Master. And I had s-s-success. I’ve found an other b-b-bandicoot. He’s even related to Crunch. They’re probably b-b-brothers.” Brio stuttered “That’s great then. So there are finally good news too! Prepare the evolvo-ray and bring him in here. I want to evolve him as fast as possible.” Again Brio went out of the lab, and again Cortex started to get annoyed with waiting. But Brio came soon back, with a cage. “Why the bandicoot is still in there? How should we evolve him then?” Cortex asked pretty annoyed “H-h-he’s evil m-m-master. He tried to bite me!” “Sounds actually good. But now stop this nonsense and evolve him!” Cortex commanded to Brio, and Brio did as he was told. He took the little bandicoot out of his cage, and tied it on the table under the evolvo-ray.

As Brio was a few steps away, Cortex pressed the button and the ray powered up. It hit the little bandicoot and soon he started to evolve. The process was quickly over and Cortex and Brio stared on their new creation. He looked pretty much like Crunch. There were only a few differences. The just evolved bandicoot had a bit of blonde hair and he had one green and one blue coloured eye. But besides that, he seems to be pretty much like his brother. “I expect you can speak?” Cortex asked “What is this? Of course I can!” the bandicoot replied sightly confused from the events that just happened. “Did you set the values for him like I’ve told you Brio?” “Yes, m-m-master. They were the s-s-same as for Crunch.” Brio replied to Cortex “Then we can just wait. Bring him to his room and show him everything what he has to know. And give him a name by times too” Brio didn’t say a word and followed Cortex’s command. He took the young bandicoot with him and showed him the castle and introduced him to the other minions as well.

The next day. Cortex just walked to the room of his newest creation to teach him one or two things. As he opened the door the yelled in anger “BRIO! WHERE IS THIS DAMN BANDICOOT?” A few moments later Brio appeared on the scene “H-h-he’s in the café with the other minions, m-m-master.” “I can’t remind that I allowed him such a thing.” Cortex replied still angry “I allowed it.” Brio said “Who gives you the right to decide what he’s allowed to do and what not?” “No one is s-s-supposed to be alone!” “But I don’t want him to be together with others. He shouldn’t have any feelings to others. And you ruin it already!” “B-b-but I don’t w-w-want Steve to be like that!” “So, you even gave him a name. Well at least you did what I’ve told you. And now he’s getting your punishment! I have my plans with him and no one will strike them!” Cortex yelled and walked off with two of his robotic assistants following him.

Arrived at the café, Cortex saw Steve sitting there and talking with the others. He seemed to be already befriended with them. Everyone went quiet as they saw Neo “Time to say goodbye to your new ‘friends’, Steve.” he said with an evil smile on his face. Steve then was taken by the two assistants. He struggled to get free, but wasn’t able to. Neo then took him to back to his room. As he was in there, the two assistants held Steve up in front of him “You’ll never see your ‘friends’ again! From now you’ll stay in this part of the castle and if I ever see you in the other part, then you’ll regret it to went ever in it!” Neo shouted to him. Then he turned around and gave the assistants a sign as he left the room. A painful scream was heard as the robots shocked the young bandicoot. The robots left the room then too and Steve laid there and didn’t move. He wasn’t dead, just exhausted and very tired.

It was midnight as Steve finally woke up. He went out of his room walking around in the castle, as he just realized what he was up to. He was in the part of the castle he wasn’t allowed to be in. Steve ran back as fast as he could, and was soon back in the part he was allowed to stay in. He went bored after a while and explored his part of the castle. Steve soon noticed that there was no one else except him around. There were different rooms like a room with different kinds of weapons, an old unused office, some of Neo’s labs with different experiments and an exercise room with some various weights. There wasn’t much around and so he went back to his room. But not for long. He got frustrated from doing nothing and that no one was there. So he went to one of the labs, and damaged a few things. After a while he felt better but everything around him was now destroyed.

What Steve couldn’t know was, that Cortex was on the way to the lab he was in. As the scientist opened the door, he went mad and pulled on his hairs “Are you responsible for that?” he asked really angry “Of course you are! No one else is here anyway! Assistants, get him!” he yelled. Again two of the robots grabbed him and again they shocked Steve. He fell down to his knees and was knocked out then.

As Steve opened his eyes again, it was already day outside. It was a rainy day suiting perfect to his mood. Steve was just sad. He wasn’t allowed to do anything fun or even to talk with others. He was isolated from anyone except Cortex and Brio. He also hated the lab assistants, but he was too weak to fight against them. He couldn’t even resist to their shocks. The more he was thinking about his situation, the more his mood changed from sad to angry. He knew what Cortex actually want from him and decided to do exactly what Neo wanted from him now.

Two weeks passed and Steve accepted how the things were. He couldn’t change them either. I was still boring for him and so he spend each day in the exercise room, working out. He also seemed to like it. It was the same today as suddenly two lab assistants came in and took him out to Neo who was waiting in the hallway. He looked angry again and shouted over to Steve “I thought I’ve told you not to enter my labs anymore? How comes that one is totally destroyed again?” “I…I don’t know. I don’t was in one of the labs…” Steve replied. But Cortex cut him off “Enough of this. No one of my other minions ever did such a thing, so it must be you. Assistants, give him what he deserves…” Neo spoke and soon Steve ended up being punished again.

It was the same on the next day. Neo, again, Incriminated Steve for what happened. Again he said he didn’t do anything but Cortex didn’t believed him.

It was exactly the same the whole next month. Steve got punished whenever one of the labs was destroyed again. He knew that it was not him and he wanted to find out who really destroyed the labs all the time. One night Steve hide in one of the not destroyed labs and waited some time. Suddenly he could hear someone. But as the door opened, it was just one of the assistants, controlling the labs now.

About an hour passed and noting was heard. But then he could hear some steps. “It must be one or more then…” Steve thought. Suddenly the door opened and he could hear two voices. One must be from a girl and the other one was a lot deeper. Kinda like his own voice too. They were talking about Neo and made fun of him. Steve had to back off himself not to laugh. A while later they destroyed the lab again and Steve went out of his lair, as suddenly one of the assistants came in. “We have to get outta here!” the girl said and both went quickly out of the lab, even destroying the robot in their way.

Steve knew that he was in trouble again cos of what happened. Neo probably wouldn’t believe him and so he went quickly out of the lab, but only to get caught by Neo’s two guardians. “Caught you red handed!” Neo said as he came around the corner. “What kind of lies will you tell me know?” “Those are no lies! I saw two others and wanted to stop them!” Steve replied “I don’t believe you! Not enough of destroying always my labs, now you even start to tell me lies and even destroyed one of my assistants!” Neo yelled in anger “That’s IT! You’ll regret it that you’ve ever done such a thing!” “But, I… don’t…” “Enough! You’ll see what you have from your actions.” Neo said and gave his guardians a sign. This time Steve was shocked like never before and was immediately knocked out.

Steve was slowly waking up. He must be knocked out for hours. Slowly he realized where he was. It was a small room and there was some noise too. He looked out of the window and could see a huge forest under him. He was in Neo’s airship and there was nothing around expect for the forest. The airship was also going down. Here, in the middle of nowhere. A window in the wall opened and Steve could see Neo behind it “As I see you’re awake. Just in time. I took you here as your punishment. If you’re still alive by then, I’ll take you exactly at this place. By the way, we are currently 30m somewhere over the Australian forest. Well then, have a nice death! Ta-ta!” Neo said and pushed a button in front of him. Suddenly the ground under Steve moved beside and he could see the forest under him. The ground was still moving as there was no more place he could stand on. Steve was falling down from the airship in the forest. Neo had just his devilish grin again.

Steve’s fall was stopped by a large tree he fell in. But the branch he laid on broke off and so he fell down to the ground. His whole body was aching but he went quickly up again. He looked up to Neo’s airship which was getting smaller and smaller and disappeared finally in a little point on the horizon. Steve was now alone somewhere in the Australian forest. Cortex didn’t even mentioned when he’ll come back, if he ever would. It was obvious that Cortex wanted to get rid of him. Steve was still a kid and never learned how to survive in wildlife. In this time, he really wished he had a family, but Cortex told him, that he was the last one who was left from his family. Steve’s world broke in pieces. He was lost. Lost in the middle of nowhere with much of dangers for a young bandicoot like him.

The time went by. Days passed as well as weeks, months and even years. Four years had passed since the evil scientist dropped him in the Australian forest and Steve was still alive. He was now a teen and sightly marked from the passed years and his wild-life. He looked vicious all the time and got a scar from a fight against some wild dogs, over his right eye. He was also a lot bigger and stronger than he was in the past. Thanks to his strong will and his instincts, he managed it to survive all the time. He learned pretty quick how to ‘catch’ his food and that only the strong survives. Steve really had the hope that Cortex forgot him, cos he never wanted to go back.

Meanwhile at the castle. Of course Cortex forgot about Steve cos he thought, the once young bandicoot won’t even survive one day. But how things are, not everyone forgot him. Brio still believed that Steve was alive, and he waited all the time for a good moment to search him.

As Cortex was in space, building up his station and taking minions with him, the time had come. Brio took the airship and flew over to Australia. The autopilot was set to the position where Cortex dropped the Bandicoot.

Steve was just hunting some prey for his ‘dinner’ as he suddenly heard some noise. As he climbed on a tree and looked up in the sky, he could see an airship. It had a large ‘N’ on its tail fins and Steve then knew it was Neo’s. “So he really didn’t forgot me… Well I better take a look what he’s up to now.” Steve thought and followed the airship til it landed.

Steve was hiding in a tree as he saw someone coming out of the blimp. It wasn’t Neo, It was Brio. Steve was a bit confused and surprised too. Suddenly he fell of the tree and landed a few meters away from Brio. Brio turned around in shock “W-w-who is t-t-there?” he stuttered “Is it y-y-you Steve?” “Of course it’s me. Or did Neo dropped any other anthros here?” Steve replied a bit annoyed. “I can’t b-b-believe that you’re still alive after all those y-years. You’re so much bigger now, and s-s-stronger.” “Why are you here Brio?” “I want to t-t-take you back with me to the c-c-castle. That’s why I’m h-h-here.” “I had something like that in mind. But I don’t want to go back to Cortex! Everything what waits for me then is more punishment for nothing!” “I k-k-know that you hate him, b-b-but he isn’t even there. He’s in s-s-space now, planning world domination.” “If that’s really true, then I’ll come back with you. But only if you don’t tell me to do anything there!” “D-d-don’t worry. I won’t.” It was already pitch dark and Brio got scared of the animals he could hear “C-c-can we go n-n-now?” “We can. I don’t want you to die in fear.” Steve replied, smirking a bit.

Steve was finally back at the castle and it was really true, Cortex was in space. It was hard for Steve to get back in a normal life and so he stayed in the castle islands forest for the first time. Slowly he was getting back in his old life and really thought it would be peaceful from now. But the fate had other plans with him.

One day Steve was just entering the castle as suddenly a spaceship landed in front of the castles main door. Steve went over to it, curious like he was. The ramp of the ship opened and a small man came walking out of it.

Steve knew immediately who it was “Cortex!” he growled over to the little scientist who noticed the angry bandicoot then. Cortex screamed like a little girl and soon his guardians came out too “Get him!” cortex yelled in fear. Steve knew what the robots were up to. They both grabbed him and tried to shock him, but it doesn’t really work. Steve went up again but only to get shocked again. But the robots couldn’t take him out. Steve then got free by ripping the robots arms out. He smashed them both to the ground and then he turned to Cortex. Growling and snarling was heard from the bandicoot and just whimpering from the madman as he was slowly walking backwards with his whole body shacking. Cortex then remind to his laser gun. He took it out quickly and shoot a few times on Steve. The Bandicoot broke down then.

Cortex wanted to make sure that he’s really dead as suddenly Brio came running out of the castle stopping Cortex. “Why you interrupt me Brio? He tried to attack me and he has to pay for that!” “P-p-please master. L-l-let him alive. I’m sure he c-c-can be of good use in the f-f-future.” “Maybe you’re right Brio. But I have to do something that this won’t happen again. Take him to the Cortex Vortex!” Neo commanded to Brio, and he did how he was told.

A while later Steve woke up. Sightly hurt from the laser beams that had hit him. He was held up by two other assistants and Neo and Brio were in the room too. “Good that you’re awake. Then I think we can start. Take him in the Vortex!” Cortex commanded to his assistants. One moment later Steve could find himself in the Cortex Vortex. There happened strange things and a loud voice in his head tried to show cortex to him as the ‘good’ one. Steve didn’t believed anything from what he saw and heard.

After a while he was suddenly out of the Vortex. He didn’t knew how long he had been in it. But soon he was caught by the two assistants again. “Well then, I think you’re ready to be taken in space now for my world domination plans.” Cortex spoke over to him “I’ll never go with you anywhere nor I’ll be part of your dumb plans!” Steve replied and struggled to get free “That’s… that’s impossible!” Cortex yelled. It was obvious that the Cortex Vortex didn’t worked on him, but why? “He’s not of any use for me like he’s now! It’s a too big risk to let you alive!” Cortex said and let the assistants take the struggling bandicoot to the termination-ray. They tied the bandicoot on the table under it and removed then. Cortex was behind thick glass on the control panel, setting the ray to the slowest and most painful death that was possible. He pulled the trigger and the ray slowly powered up. Steve was still struggling to get free as suddenly the ray was released and hit him directly in his chest. It soon stopped, but that was what cortex wanted. The deadly energy was now in Steve’s body. He could feel the pain slowly rising, getting stronger and stronger. Steve was just screaming in pain and Cortex enjoyed what he saw. After some more time, the poor bandicoot was finally taken out of his misery. Cortex knew it was over then and left the room.

As soon as Cortex had left the room, Brio came in. He saw Steve ,not moving anymore. He became sad at this moment. But his mood changed to happy as he saw Steve moving. He survived somehow the termination. But Brio was suddenly serious. “If Cortex ever finds out that he’s still alive, then he’s in great danger. He probably wouldn’t have a chance til he’s not grown up.” Brio thought. He was thinking how he could avoid that Cortex ever sees him again. Then he had suddenly an idea. He would take Steve to Cortex’s secret base on Tasmania. Cortex never was there. The base just exists for N.Gin and to maintain and supply the space station. Steve would be safe there til he’s old enough. And the next day Brio did what he had planned. He took Steve to the secret base on Tasmania and stayed there for a while.

Two weeks had passed and Steve was still in coma. Brio stayed all the time at the base to care about Steve. Brio was just scanning him again to see if the deadly energy hurt him in a way, as Steve suddenly opened his eyes. Brio then went quickly over to him “Steve! You’re alive! How are you?” Brio asked. The first time in his life he spoke normal. For at least a while. “I’m… I’m alright thought. I just feel still the pain from the beam. But why Cortex shoot it on me?” Steve replied slowly as he was getting up. “Well it seems like you can’t remember to everything that was before, and trust me, it’s better now. And you feel only the pain, cos the deadly energy of the laser is still in you. You’ll probably feel this pain til the end of your life. It also damaged your nerve system. From now you can only feel pretty strong pain.” “Well then there’s a good site too, heh.” Steve said with a weak smile. Brio let him rest for the rest of the day.

It was early in the morning on the next day as Brio went up. He looked after Steve and found him already awake. He was doing push-ups in his room “You really s-s-shouldn’t do that in your c-c-condition.” Brio said and looked on him. “I have to do something to the pain and this helps me.” Steve said continuing with his work out. “Well you have to decide on your own. And if it really helps you, then it must be ok. Now that you’re alright again, I should better go back to the castle. I’ll get in problems with Neo anyway. Everything you have to know is, that you’re on Tasmania now. In Cortex’s secret base. You’re alone here, but I think you’ll find something to do. You’ll see that it’s a beautiful place too! If you still like to be outside, you can go out if you want. I’ve put your information in the computer system of the base too. The lab assistants wouldn’t hurt you and you can go wherever you want too. Just try to avoid the control room. I think Cortex could see you if you ever go in it. I’ll even try to tell Cortex that you’re dead too.” Steve stopped exercising and went up “Thanks for all Brio. If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead now.”

On the following day Brio left the base and returned to the castle. Steve then decided to explore the base. He soon noticed that it was a big complex. There were a lot of workshops and storage room for all kinds of things. He even saw a hangar with two spaceships in it. Later he found the arsenal where a lot of weapons and ammunition was stored. He was soon interested by the weapons and even tried a few of them on the shooting stand. He was pretty talented in using them and so he continued practicing with them.

It were now 8 years since Steve was evolved and he was almost grown up now. He liked his new life. But he didn’t liked it to live hidden in Neo’s base. He thought that the time had come now, to get revenge on Neo. He was a lot bigger now and from all the training he did in the past, he became pretty muscular and strong. He also could handle pretty much every kind of weapon now, but still preferred to fight without guns.

Steve was going straight to the control room well knowing what will happen then. As he entered the room, he could already see Neo on one of the screens commanding the assistants. He pushed one assistant beside and stood in front of the screen. Neo noticed him immediately and even remind on him “I already thought that you’re not dead, like Brio always told me. It was too obvious. And now that I see you grown up, I have to say, it’s good that you’re not. You’ll be of good use for me.” Cortex spoke to him a bit surprised. “Never I’ll do anything for you!” Steve replied “We’ll see about that! I’ll come down now and I’m pretty sure you’ll do exactly what I want!” Neo cut him off and then the screen went black. Steve knew that Neo was coming and he would probably take a lot of his guardians with him.

A few minutes later, there was a loud noise outside as Neo’s spaceship was landing in the hangar where Steve was waiting for him. The ramp opened and dozens of lab assistants came out. Steve managed it easily to fight against them and even the electro shock’s didn’t had any effect on him. But suddenly he felt two times a stinging pain in his neck. Two small arrows just had hit him and soon the bandicoot was getting tired. Steve fell down to the floor and the last thing he saw, was Neo “Well, I win, and you loose!”

Some time later. Steve was getting up. He felt dizzy and soon noticed a metal ring around his right arm. “It must be some kind of device.” Steve thought as he tried to get it off. But it was impossible, it was unbreakable. Neo soon went in with some kind of remote control in his hand. Steve went angry as he saw the mad scientist “What do you want from me?” he yelled over to Neo. “Well I just have some tasks for you.” “I’ll never do anything for you! Just give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you know!” Steve growled in reply “This is the reason!” Neo said with his devilish grin and pressed a few buttons on his remote control. Steve held his head as it was suddenly aching. But then he just stood up and turned to Cortex “What can I do for you, master?” he asked “Seems like you’ve changed your mind, thanks to my new mind control technology! Muahahahahahah!”

From now Cortex had the full control over Steve and forced him to catch animals for his experiments and also to get rid of those, he couldn’t need. Steve had also to do everything Cortex wanted from him and he couldn’t do anything against it. In the following year he did more bad things than he could ever imagine in his life before.