Trouble at Cortex Castle

Chapter 1

Life at Cortex Castle was not all doom and gloom, as many people thought. Although the genetically mutated creatures were Cortex's minions, they were allowed to leave anytime they wanted to and make their own way out into the big wide world. Dingodile had his breeding centre, Tiny had his own Pain n' Gain exercise videos, Koala Kong became a big name in Hollywood, Ripper Roo became the Governor of a particular state, the Komodo brothers were due to appear in court for laundering and Pinstripe became a used car salesman in New Jersey.

Occasionally, the minions would come and visit Cortex Castle, just to see how their creators were getting along with their plans for world domination.

One fine morning, unaware of the danger over their heads, Tiny, Dingodile, Koala Kong, Pinstripe and the Komodo Brothers were standing in the courtyard of Cortex Castle, admiring Pinstripe's new car and getting ready for a shopping trip. Ripper Roo had not arrived yet.

"So," muttered Komodo Joe, taking a deep breath. "Koala Kong needs to buy a whole load of magazines to read the reviewsss on his latest film, Tiny wants to buy meat for the lionsss, Dingodile wants flammable gasss for his flamethrower, Moe and I want a fire extinguisssher -"

"A fire extinguisher? Why do youse guys need a fire extinguisher?" Pinstripe asked, leaning against the car door.

Komodo Joe glanced briefly at Dingodile before continuing, " - and you want your Tommy gun repaired, because it keeps jamming."

"Yep." Pinstripe entered the car and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, looking rather bored.

"And you think we're going to find all this sssstuff on an island that's been neglected for yearsss," Komodo Joe finished.

Tiny Tiger squashed himself into the passenger's seat. "TINY LIKE CAR!" he roared.

From outside the car, Komodo Joe noted that Pinstripe's bored expression was rapidly changing to one of disgust.

"PHOARR!" he yelled. "TINY - THAT'S DISGUSTING!"

Pinstripe struggled with the seatbelt, desperate to put as much distance between himself and Tiny's odious smell.

"You'll probably want to know that Tiny just cleared out the lions' litter." Koala Kong smirked. Just at the precise moment Pinstripe and Tiny stumbled out of the car, the unthinkable happened.

A group of slates that clung at the top of the highest turret of Cortex Castle decided to break free and slid down the steep roof with alarming speed. It happened so quickly that that initially the minions thought that an invisible bomber had dropped its payload on top of Pinstripe's car. One minute they were complaining about Tiny's stench, the next they were lying on the floor, wondering what had hit them.

"What on earth?" Komodo Joe picked himself up from the ground and checked to see if his brother was alright.

"Look at that! It's completely wrecked!" Pinstripe walked around the car, simultaneously shocked and amazed at his lucky escape. Embedded in the roof of the car were three enormous slates.

"We could've been killed, mate," Dingodile said reproachfully. He squinted up at the roof. This was proving to be the most expensive shopping trip so far. Not only did they need a fire extinguisher, a bag of meat and Pinstripe's tommy gun repaired, they now had to add one roof and a car to their shopping list as well.

"You know, the whole roof looksss like it'sss in danger of raining down on our headssss," Komodo Joe decided. At these words, the minions automatically took a step backwards from the danger zone. Pinstripe tipped over a low wall and fell backwards into a thorny bush with a dismayed howl.