Crash Bandicoot

Chapter 1: The Experiment

This was it. This was the moment he had been waiting for so long.

It was the year of 1996. Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex, who was fresh out of the Academy of Evil, already had sinister plans in mind. He gathered various animals throughout the island that could be used as potential minions for his team of villains, simply known as Team Cortex. He already had a few colleagues, namely N. Gin, N. Brio, and N. Tropy, all three of whom he had met years ago at the academy.

N. Brio, who was assisting his master while the other two scientists were tending to their own duties elsewhere, had recently built a contraption known as the Evolvo-Ray, which he claimed would be capable of giving animals anthropomorphic traits. Such a contraption would perhaps assist Cortex with world domination.

The evil scientist smiled at that. It wasn't a smile of happiness, no. It was a wicked, devilish grin, one full of pure evil. Once he took over the world, no one would be able to tell him what to do. He was sick and tired of being ridiculed. He already had to deal with all the malarkey when he was in school. Even his own parents had despised him, calling him names such as "bumbling idiot" and "hideous".

But now, all that was about to end. Cortex's dreams were about to become a reality at long last. He would conquer the entire world, and there was not a thing anyone could do about it.

It had taken hours, but the majority of the animals he had captured - or rather, his colleagues had captured - had been successfully mutated. Well, one of them wasn't such a success. A gorilla and a kangaroo had been merged together during one of the experiments by mistake, thus creating a peculiar hybrid. Cortex was tempted to keep him around, but he was afraid that the mutant would be too incompetent, so he threw him out of the castle, never to be seen again (hopefully).

Another one of the mutants was a hybrid as well - a mix of a crocodile and a dingo, to be more precise. Feeling that be couldn't afford to get rid of any more experiments, Cortex chose to keep this one. He named the hybrid Dingodile. A proper name for such a hybrid, he thought.

After mutating all of the animals, he subjected them to a separate contraption that he called the Cortex Vortex, which could be used to brainwash the animals and make them obedient to him. He chose to go with one of the two bandicoots he had captured first, particularly the one he wished to make leader of the Cortex Commandos.

As the bandicoot was forced into the seat of the machine, N. Brio stammered, "B-But Doctor Cortex, the Vortex is not ready! We have no idea what it could do!"

Despite all of N. Brio's protests and warnings, the impatient Neo Cortex wanted to go through with the experiment. He needed to conquer the world and would let no one, be it animal or man, stand in his way! And so, the newly evolved bandicoot was rushed into the Vortex.

Cortex should have listened to his colleague. He really should have. The machine was not ready, just as N. Brio had stated. Cortex could not believe his eyes as he stared up at the large monitor. His eyes darted a little further up at the words "BANDICOOT 1.0 REJECTED".

"Damn it," Cortex growled. "Failure again!"

Now was his chance! The bandicoot, who Cortex had named Crash - short for Crashworth, really - quickly made his escape. The evil scientist pursued the marsupial, who perhaps was not watching where he was going, for he crashed through a window, falling to the ocean far down below.

All Cortex could do was look down at where Crash had landed, as did N. Brio. "W-What now?" N. Brio asked.

"Now...we wait," Cortex responded. Although he was indeed enraged, he wanted to hold his anger in. Save it for a better time.

"You r-really think he survived that f-fall?"

"You can't be too careful. Now come. We have more important things to worry about."

"You are n-not worried about losing the bandicoot?"

"That's why I captured two bandicoots. As long as we still have one...no one can stop us."

In the next room, a group of lab assistants was present. One of them had just been knocked out by the newly evolved female bandicoot who was also present. Eventually, another one of the assistants grabbed a hold of her arms, keeping a firm grip as Cortex entered the room.

The evil scientist snickered as he stated, "Prepare the female bandicoot..."