A Hero's Blood

Chapter 4

Two Years Later...

It had been a very difficult two years for everyone after Crash's murder. Not only did Cortex create a new bandicoot named Coral, N. Gin and Coco had become a couple. Coral was Crunch's older brother and Coco's cousin as well as a doctor. She has light orange fur, long brown hair that was pulled back into a long ponytail, green eyes, wearing a doctor's lab coat, rose colored shirt, blue jeans, and white shoes. Not only that, several creations returned to the islands. Returning first was Cristaen Ponderoo, Pinstripe's younger sister. Cristaen had long blonde hair, green eyes, wearing a light blue shirt, purple jeans, and purple shoes.

Also returning was Johnny Ponderoo, Pinstripe and Cristaen's step brother. Johnny has short brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a green shirt, blue jeans, and black shoes. Returning with Johnny was Selma Ponderoo, Pinstripe and Cristaen's step sister and Johnny's younger sister. Selma has long brown hair with one piece of it blonde, green eyes, a pink shirt, pink jeans, with blue shoes - which has roller skates in them. Also returning was an old schoolmate of Cortex's, Cynthia Crest. Cynthia had long brown hair, hazelnut eyes, wearing a pair of crystal earrings, turquoise dress and white shoes.

Cortex's magic was exposed and soon he taught it to everyone he knew. Aku-Aku was impressed with the firepower that they had gotten since Crash's death. The team now comprised of: Cortex, N. Gin, Tiny, Coco, Crunch, Coral, Cristaen, Johnny, Selma, Cynthia, John, and Pete.

"Let us just hope that it is enough to defeat my brother and avenge Crash," Aku-Aku stated to the team.

Coco was in her lab, studying a specimen of an unusual origin. As she looked through her microscope, someone entered her lab, quietly and snuck up behind her, wrapping their arms around her waist. Coco gasped from shocked as she turned her head a tad and saw her boyfriend, N. Gin, holding her.

"Nicholas," she scolded, "You scared me!"

"Sorry," N. Gin replied, even though he didn't sound sorry.

Coco smiled a bit as she turned to him. N. Gin smiled at her as she leaned down to his level and gave him a gentle kiss. N. Gin happily returned it. He still couldn't believe that he had landed the beautiful genius. Coco broke the kiss too soon for N. Gin's liking as she went back to her microscope.

"I might have found the critical element to the mutants' strong powers," Coco reported to the rocket scientist.

"What is it," N. Gin asked, curious.

"What do you and Cortex know about nitrogen," Coco questioned.

"Nitrogen," N. Gin repeated, "Nitrogen was what we used to stabilize the mutants' bloodstreams. Why?"

"Well," Coco replied, "The blood sample I took from Arachina two years ago has TRIPLE the doses compared to Ee-Lectric."

"You mean that Nina might've drugged Arachina," N. Gin asked, a bit surprised that Nina would go that far to defeat – and kill Crash Bandicoot.

N. Gin always thought that Nina wanted things to be fair and square. Coco nodded, sadly. N. Gin was in pure and utter shock. Arachina...drugged... Coco laid her head on N. Gin's shoulder and started to cry. N. Gin held her in his arms, rubbing her back in ordinary to try and calm her down, a few tears surfacing on his end.

Meanwhile, Gus was going through the old records, curious about something. He usually would never question Nina's skills, as seeing that he had a crush on her, but he had to know. That's when he found something...a report on Arachina. Curious, Gus opened the report and started to read it. When he read the part where Arachina had more nitrogen in its system compared to the others, he knew that it might've been possible that Nina drugged the mutant spider – which probably explained its quick death only a few months after Crash's.

"It all makes sense," Gus whispered, "Nina drugged Arachina to defeat Crash Bandicoot. His death was probably just a sweet twist."

Gus was now torn. Should he approach Nina about this or try to find a way to get the news to the heroes...? He knew that none of the heroes knew him personally but he knew that there were two Pokemon that he could give this to: John and Pete.

Back on the island, everyone gathered at the make-shift grave for Crash. They had created a park and a tombstone for the hero, honoring him. Coco placed a piece of Wumpa Fruit at the foot of the grave and stepped back. The tombstone read: 'Here lies Crash Bandicoot, hero of N. Sanity Isle. He will be missed. October 14, 1990-September 11, 2007.' Coco started to cry as N. Gin comforted her.

AK1028: Okay, the last part of when Crash died was in honor of September 11, 2001. Anyways, 2007 was the year that "Crash of the Titans" was released. Hope that clears up any confusion. Please read and review! And always think outside of the box!

Amie: Also on a personal note, make sure you honor those who died today on September 11, 2001. May we never forget what happened eleven years ago today.