How Cortex Became Evil - CH. 1

I sat with my brother Justin, Crash, Coco, Crunch, Tani, and the bandigers in the family room. I was sitting in my recliner while Crash and Coco sat on the loveseat.  Justin sat on the couch with Crunch, Tani, and the bandigers, Tasha, Tackle, and Tayna. I think the bandigers found it odd that everyone would visit us humans. I don’t think they mind it too much though, just as long as we're not evil like Dr. Neo Cortex. For some reason they always liked to play with my glasses. These are already my fifth pair this month! Oh well, I don’t mind it. I love those little critters!

Today, we had a barbecue. We had steak, since Crunch and Tani love meat, Wumpa casserole for Crash and Coco since they are the complete opposite, and stuffed potatoes for the bandigers. They all loved the food I made for them.

It was 4 o’clock when we were eating in the family room. Tackle asked me, “How did Cortex become evil?”

We all got quiet.

Crunch turned with his plate in his left paw and told him, “Tackle! Never speak of him in the Professor’s house.”

I took off my glasses, massaged my temples and said, “Crunch, it’s ok, I don’t mind telling him.” Even though I get a slight headache each time I do share my horrible memories of Neo.

He turned back to face me and was already waiting for me to start. He put his steak in his mouth and had most of it hanging out. He put his plate on his lap but kept the large piece of meat hanging from his teeth. I looked at him with one eyebrow up.

“What?” He said without knowing what he was doing.

I started to laugh very hard. Everyone else turned to see what I was laughing about and they all started laughing also.

Justin gently elbowed him and said, “Crunch, mind your manners!” He laughed, just joking around. He finally realized what he was doing to make everyone laugh. He took the steak from his mouth and placed it back onto the plate.

After everyone settled down and was quiet, I put my glasses back on and began to tell my story.

Well first of all, things were different in the castle back then. Everything was clean and well lit. The factories were a lot cleaner. We didn’t generate as much toxic chemicals. The generator room was bright and full of workers. The office that now belongs to Pinstripe used to belong to Cortex. The Great Hall was full of pictures of me instead of him. The castle hallways weren’t dark at all. And Nitrus Brio didn't stutter when we used to work together. It seemed to be better when I was the owner of the castle. But enough of that let me start talking about Cortex.

The bandigers laughed as I was entering my so called flashback trance. A lot of people notice me doing this when I talk about the past. This helps me explain my flashbacks in a very detailed way.

So there I was in my research castle, sitting, waiting for my experiment results. It was six o’clock in the evening. I was sitting on the barstool in my lab coat with a thermometer in my mouth. I didn’t have anything to do at the time, so I was moving it around with my tongue. I turned to read my Ph.D. in Biology on the wall. I was too impressed to even look at my own degree.

I heard my student Neo Cortex over the intercom. "Professor Eckenrode, meet me in my laboratory, I have something to discuss with you."

I sighed. "What is it this time?" I thought to myself. I took the thermometer from my mouth and looked at it. “Hmm, 98.3. That’s about right.” I placed it in my coat pocket and walked toward the lab door.

How Cortex Became Evil - CH. 2

I walked down the ridiculously long flight of stairs to his office. I opened the door and walked inside. I waited for him to ask what took me so long. He was that kind of man.

"Professor," he said to me very sternly. "How is your evolution ray coming along?"

"Ah, yes, that old thing. Well I told you before. It's still going under some tests."

"I see. I was hoping you would be interested in skipping the tests, and using it for something I really need done."

I looked at him very confused, "For what? You’re not going to use it on my colleagues Nitrus Brio or Tara Cross are you? I originally designed it to end world hunger you know."

"No, no, no. I'd never use it on your colleagues. I, uh… wanted to help you. I have many different kinds of food that I would like to test." He said with an evil smirk I didn't notice at the time.

I sighed once again. "Ok, we'll skip the tests and I'll bring it down here with the mechanic's elevator in the generator room.”

"Splendid." he chuckled

So once again, I found myself climbing the many flights of stairs to my laboratory. I walked past N. Brio’s and Tara’s offices. They are the most wonderful assistants I’ve had since I have been experimenting in my castle. I also walked pass the Great Hall of Me and My Successful Experiments. Sorry, I do seem to be a little conceded don’t I? I walked into my office, and saw Brio is examining my machine.

"Hey Brio, stop whatever you are doing and help me get this thing onto that storage cart over there." I said with haste.

"But the tests, they're not complete!" he said without a stutter.

"Yeah, I know but Neo needs to use my machine for something."

"Yes, master. Right away."

"Would you stop calling me master? You’re just my assistant, not my slave, calm down."

"Yes, m... Professor."

We managed to get my machine onto the cart, and we wheeled it to the mechanic's elevator. We took it down. It was slower than I going down the stairs! Finally after a few minutes, my machine, Brio, and I finally got to Neo’s laboratory.

"Just bring it over here professor." his stood amazed at the giant mass of metal.

"Ok. Now, let Brio and I mount it to the ceiling over there and I'll go ahead and turn it on."

"Of course." He said, looking very irritated.

How Cortex Became Evil - CH. 3

Hours later, we had the machine mounted and powered on and connected to the control center.

"Ok, so what are you going to show me?"

"Here professor, you might want to put these on." He said as he handed me black tinted goggles. He seemed to already know what he was doing with my machine.

He had a black blanket covering something on the table.

“What kind of food are you going to test?” I asked him, trying to figure what was on the table.

“Wait and see.” He said quietly.

I stood there waiting to see what was going to happen.

“HIT THE SWITCH!” He yelled to his own lab assistant, while another uncovered the object.

I jumped from his yell. A split second later, my machine zapped the unknown being on the table. It was a potoroo, not a kind of plant or a type of meat! I saw the poor animal trying to escape the electrocuting electricity. The powerful rays  changed the animal's shape and broke the straps that were harnessing him as he grew. My machine stopped. It was a potoroo! It wasn’t a kind of plant or a type of meat! The potoroo that was lying on the table was now tall and standing up.

I yelled at Cortex, “What the hell are you doing? You just changed his molecular structure! Do you know what this can do to the future of all potoroos!?”

“Pinstripe Potoroo.” He said too low for me to hear.

“What did you say!?” I asked in a demanding way.

“His name is Pinstripe Potoroo!” he then yelled at me.

“Cortex, what do you plan to do to this animal?”

“That is what I need to talk to you about. Professor, with your Evolvo-Ray, I plan evolve these animals to help me rule the world!” He said this while his robot lab assistants took the potoroo to the room next to the control center.

Brio and I laughed, “What? You really think you are going to rule the world? Very funny Cortex. Even if you are serious, I would never let you use my machine.”

“Bring the next subject!” he said to his lab assistant, ignoring my every word.

The assistant walked over to a huge wall of cages filled with animals.

I stopped laughing. “Cortex, you will tell them to stop now!” I demanded.

He made a gesture, and more of his lab assistants came forward, trying to capture me. I searched for a weapon in my pockets. All I found was my thermometer which now read zero. I pulled it out and held it like a knife trying to threaten the robotic assistants. It was no good. They had me pinned to the wall, while the others brought out my precious Tasmanian tiger pup.

She was my one and only! It was Tani! My only family that I had left! And my evil student Cortex was eagerly waiting to put her in my, now evil, machine! I saw my other lab assistant Tara pass by the door across the room. I tried to signal her to help me while I was pinned by the kidnapping lab assistants. She did notice me, thank goodness. By the time she came to see what was going on, she saw me pinned to the wall focusing on my innocent pup being wheeled to the operator’s table. I had tears pouring from my eyes while trying to escape the assistants. Tara ran in, and tried to avoid getting caught by them also. Too late, we were both now pinned to the wall watching Tani being strapped to the table.

“You won’t get away with this!” I shouted to Cortex.

“But I already have Professor.” He said, keeping his attention on Tani.

I kicked and pushed to try and get out. I couldn’t move. I saw my machine turn to a bright red color and screamed. A bright flash once again illuminated the room. Tara and I became temporarily blind from the light, but my vision became permanently blurry because of it. We were both on the floor and looked up to see what my machine did to Tani. We gasped as my cute little pup was standing on her hind legs.

How Cortex Became Evil - CH. 4

The assistants finally released us as Cortex was laughing in his evil way. I ran over to Tani. I embraced her as tight as I could. Then I heard someone talking to me.

It was Tani! She was struggling to say something, "Father! You're squeezing me!" She said with an Australian accent.

"You can talk?" I had tears still rolling down my face, but happy tears. I couldn't believe what just happened. I only squeezed her tighter.

"Yes I can! But you're squeezing me!" She tried to say.

I was speechless. I finally released her and she immediately started gasping for air. I had my hand over my mouth which was agate. I still had tears in my eyes.

"Don't cry! You're gonna make me cry too!" She said, wiping my tears for me.

"PROFESSOR!!!" Tani was yelling trying to get me out of my trance.

I cleared my throat and looked up at her. "Yes?"

The bandigers laughed again. Then Crash and Coco started to also.

"She called you about five times!" Justin said, chuckling.

I smirked, "Yes Tani?"

"So you watched me evolve? And that's the reason why you are wearing glasses now?" She asked curiously with a tear running down her cheek.

Crunch wiped her tear for me.

"Yes Tani, I was so scared about what was going to happen to you when you evolved. I didn't care about losing my vision at that time." I said with a slight tremble in my voice.

She got up from the couch and came to sit in my lap to comfort me.

"Continue." said Crunch.

"Ok, where was I?" I asked myself but loud enough for everyone to hear.

"The part when you were hugging Tani!" Coco said, eagerly wanting me to continue with my story.

"Oh yes."

I got back into my trance as I continued to tell the story.

I stood up and tried to run for Cortex, but one of his assistants shocked me!

He laughed again.

Brio was scared. The poor man was trying to help me also. He tried to insult Cortex but he stuttered instead. Tara followed Tani to aid me. Tara helped me up while Tani was sitting on my shoulder. I was trying to keep myself awake but I ended up falling unconscious again. I felt myself hit the cold, stone floor.

How Cortex Became Evil - CH. 5

I woke up in the same room where a huge, muscular koala and the potoroo were already in. All the animals were in ugly Cortex attire. Even I would have picked something better to dress them with! Tani and Cortex’s niece, Nina, were listening to the koala as he read a book. Pinstripe was leaning against the wall. Tara was nowhere to be seen. The lights flickered. I heard some yelling, and a few moments later, the door opened. It was a cute burgundy bandicoot. He saw the others and became shy.

The koala said, “Hey little dude! Where ya from yah?” He said in a deep yet slow voice.

He saw me and ran back outside. The koala followed him, and convinced him that I wasn't going to harm him. I started drifting to sleep as I heard the animals introduce each other. I heard Kong say something but I already fell back to sleep.

"Wait, wait, wait." Crunch interrupted me. "So you were the human I saw in that room?" He asked as he tried to remember my facial features from sixteen years ago.

"Yes I was Crunch. You looked so cute when you walked into the room." I said with smile on my face.

He blushed as Tani turned to look and smile at him. “Whoa.” He replied in his low gruff voice. Tasha and Tayna giggled.

I chuckled when I saw Crunch’s confused facial expression and continued with my story.

How Cortex Became Evil - CH. 6

So I woke up and didn't hear a sound. The room was empty. It was just me lying on the hospital table and, a note placed in my hand? Where did it come from? I don't remember anybody giving to me. I opened it and read it.

Tani is with the others in the café. I'm waiting in a boat by the factory. We need to get off this island. -TaraC

Trying to escape? That would be hard since we already have Neo's security androids patrolling the outside of the castle. My head was pounding as I got up from the bed. I walked over to the other door. It led to another long hallway.

I passed 6 doors and saw the one that read, Cortex Café. What? He already changed the name of my café? I was staring at the door knowing Tani was in there, but I couldn't stay. I ran to the end of the hall and went up the stairs. I reached what used to be my office. All my things were gone. My degree was broken on the floor, my equipment thrashed, and my computers damaged.
The only thing that was left on my desk was my picture of Tani and me, taken a few years ago by Brio. I took it out of its frame and put it in my pocket without trying to damage it.

I walked outside my room and crept downstairs. I managed to get outside of the castle. I heard shuffling coming from behind me. The security androids! I ran as fast as I can to try to avoid getting captured again. I was a few meters away from the dock.

I saw Tara in the boat when I heard another voice running beside me, “Hurry! Cortex’s androids are right behind us!” It was my brother! Cortex said he had died about 10 years ago in a deadly car accident that he witnessed! He told me that horrible news when he came to my office for some more supplies. Just another reason to hate Cortex. I tried not to think about it since I was trying to escape the assistants.

We got to the boat and hopped in. We drove away as fast as possible. I saw another light come from Cortex's lab. I felt bad for the animals that were next on his list. My eyes filled with tears. I turned around to look at Tara.

My mind was full of questions. "How long was I out? How can so many things change this quickly?"

"Professor, you were only out for 9 hours, and I honestly have no idea how things changed so fast." She said still trying to get us out of sight from the androids.

We got to one of the islands that Tara liked to call X.Treme Island. She dropped off my brother and I and she drove off somewhere. I looked at her note again and it had very small print that I couldn't see clearly. I gave it to my brother so he can read it to me, it said:

I'm going back to the place where you picked up Tani in Tasmania. I have family of my own over there. I'll call you when I arrive, but it's not guaranteed since Cortex is already monitoring the phone lines. I’ll see you soon.

Justin folded the note and placed it in my hand. He told me that he had a house nearby and it was just around a big rock that hid the house from the castle.

I sighed. "Ok brother, take me home." I turned around to look at the castle I once owned. I remembered Tani and became depressed. I honestly didn't know how long I can last without her. I thought about it and kept telling myself that it will be ok living with my long lost brother. And it was.

How Cortex Became Evil - CH. 7

I finally finished my story. I noticed Crash and the bandigers sleeping. Crash had his head resting on the arm of the loveseat. Tackle was sleeping on Crunch’s shoulder. Tasha and Tayna were asleep on the floor next to the coffee table. I looked at the clock behind me and discovered that it was already 10 o’clock at night! I tried to move while Tani was still on my lap. I nudged her to see if she knew that I was trying to get up. I sat up to look at her from a different angle. She was already asleep also.

“I guess you’re all going to stay the night tonight.” I whispered to Crunch and Coco, the only ones left awake. My brother was in the restroom at the time.

Crunch gently got up from the couch and quickly placed a few pillows to prevent Tackle’s head from falling to the cushion. He walked around Tasha and Tayna and maneuvered around the coffee table. He finally reached the recliner where Tani and I were sitting without waking up any of the bandigers. Crunch picked up Tani with his right arm and helped me out of my chair with his left metallic paw.

“Brr! That's cold!” I said with a shiver. “You’ve been working out?” I added as I was impressed yet jealous of his strength.

Crunch chuckled as he took Tani to lay her down in the guest bedroom. I walked to the linen cupboard and grabbed some blankets. I came back into the family room to see that Crash took my spot on the recliner. I gave him a blanket as well as Coco and each of the bandigers. Crunch came back to the family room to say goodnight. He walked back into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.

“Goodnight Coco!” I whispered as she was falling asleep.

Justin followed me up the stairs. We reached the top and exchanged our goodnights and hugged. He walked into his bedroom which was across the hallway from mine. I walked into mine and then to the closet to change into my pj's. I staggered over to my bed and collapsed upon it. I fixed myself so that I was under the blankets and my head was on my pillow. I took off my glasses and placed them on the nightstand. I looked at the picture I took from my office sixteen years ago and smiled. I turned off the light and fell fast asleep knowing I would see my family in the morning, especially my found brother, Justin.

The End

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