//------------------------------// // Ripper Roo, Professor of Insanity // Story: Video Game Journeys: Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy // by CrashGuy41 //------------------------------// After N. Brio finished his message, Twilight was extremely nervous. She had every reason to be. N. Brio, the man who had kidnapped her and forced her to work for Cortex, was now saying that he was against him? She had never been so confused in her entire life before. Crash, on the other hand, was busy gathering the remaining four crystals and clear gems that were available in the warp room. He had to get over many obstacles along the way, but he eventually got the first warp room completed. As soon as he received the fifth crystal, Twilight opened the glass elevator and rode it to the second floor as Crash entered a portal, containing an old foe. That foe, of course, was Ripper Roo. It turns out that Ripper Roo had become exceptionally intelligent over the course of a full year. He was in the forest reading a book with very advanced text. Still sporting his straitjacket, he now wore a red-and-white polka-dotted bowtie, glasses, a blonde wig and mustache, and a black top hat. He also had a cane sitting on top of the desk he was reading at. As soon as Crash entered, Ripper Roo became enraged that Crash was interrupting his studies. He flipped his cane off the desk with one of his feet and started bouncing on it, creating TNT panels on his brick flooring between his bookshelves. He was still as crazy as ever. Crash moved over to the bottom-left side of the arena just as the TNT panels exploded. The explosion knocked off Ripper Roo's glasses and top hat and made him laugh like his usual crazy self. He then planted green panels on the arena that read NITRO. Twilight, who was monitoring Crash's progress in the second warp room, saw this and her eyes turned to pinpricks. The word NITRO could only mean one thing: nitroglycerin. An extremely sensitive chemical that is can be dangerous if handled improperly. "Crash, look out! If you touch one of those NITRO panels, you're history!" she screamed. Crash, who was battling Ripper Roo, heard her, and moved to the bottom-ride side of the arena just in time. Once Ripper Roo was finished placing the Nitro panels on the arena, he jumped on one, detonating all of them. The ensuing explosion made him very dizzy. Seeing an opportunity, Crash spun into Ripper Roo, damaging him. The cycle continued two more times until Ripper Roo was eventually defeated. After the battle was over, Crash warped back into the first warp room and rode the circular platform in the middle to the second one above him. As he stepped off the platform, the lights suddenly dimmed and a hologram of Cortex appeared, laughing heartily. "I see that Ripper Roo failed to prove much of a challenge, yet again," Cortex said. "But back to business. There are crystals to be gathered. You need only twenty, to be exact. The planets will align shortly, all thirteen of them, and this will create a power great enough to rip the Earth apart. Properly utilized, however, the crystals can absorb and contain the energy." Twilight angrily rolled her eyes as the hologram disappeared. That had to be the most ridiculous story she had ever heard. Just then, a hologram of Coco suddenly appeared. "Crash! Twilight, is that you? Thank goodness you're alright!" Coco said. "Listen, I don't have much time to tell you this: You have to be careful! Trusting Cortex seems a little unwise, Crash. I-I-I-I-I can't keep the data path open much longer. Look, you to find..." Before she could say anything more, the transmission was suddenly cut off. Suddenly, Twilight noticed that there was a blip on the monitor. The signal was coming from the door marked Bear It. "That's weird. Why would there be an unknown signal in that portal? Unless..." Twilight pondered. "Crash, why don't you start with that Bear It door? Whatever's in there is moving really fast." Crash decided to give it a go and stepped inside the portal to Bear It. Once he entered, a cute little polar bear cub named Polar was waiting for him. Crash hopped on the little guy and started riding him with no hands. As he rode Polar through the area, he heard the sound of someone screaming on an adult polar bear. It was Rainbow Dash. "SOMEBODY STOP THIS THING!" she screamed. Crash raced to her side while getting the crystal on the way. Eventually, the two of them came to the end where the warp was. The two polar bears bucked them off of their backs, as there was a massive lake in front of them. Luckily, they landed right in front of the warp door. "That was terrifying, yet so AWESOME!" The two of them then warped back to the warp room with Crash holding the crystal and Rainbow holding the clear gem. The gems went right into their slots next to the warp door. "That was so cool! You're alright, dude. Uh, whatever you are." "He's called Crash Bandicoot, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said sternly. "No way! Twilight!" Rainbow ran up to her friend and gave her a big hug. "I've been looking everywhere for you in that frozen wasteland! What happened? Where are the others?" Twilight lowered her friend's hands and proceeded to explain. "Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity are with Crash's sister, Coco, on N. Sanity Island, where they live. A man by the name of Dr. Neo Cortex brought Crash and I here to gather crystals for reasons that we don't know about." "Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhh... That's kind of a red flag right there, Twilight." "I know, but we don't have much of a choice. Besides, Dr. Cortex enlisted me to keep an eye on Crash's progress as he searches for crystals." As she spoke, Crash entered two other levels and got their crystals. When in Air Crash, though, he took a platform marked with a skull and crossbones, much to Twilight's shock. "Crash, what are you doing?! That's a death route! YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED!" Crash, however, managed to survive, even coming back with a gem and the crystal for his troubles. Twilight, however, was not happy. "ARE YOU INSANE?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT COULD'VE HAPPENED IF YOU DIDN'T TIME YOUR JUMPS PROPERLY?!" She sighed heavily, then went back to the console to monitor Crash as he searched. "Sometimes I wonder if you're either really brave, or just incredibly stupid." She didn't know what to think, now. After all, she was the one who smashed the lightbulb back in Cortex Castle to prevent Cortex from conquering the world in the first place. If she hadn't smashed it, the world would be under Cortex's control by now, so there was that. "Honestly, Crash, I don't what I'm going to do with you. Just get into the next level and get its crystal." Crash did as he was told and came back with both the crystal and gem once he completed the level. "Seriously, Twilight, don't you think you're being a bit too hard on him?" Rainbow asked. "Maybe a little. Still, I can't help but feel like something bad is going to happen. And that Crash is the only one who can stop it."