Chapter 14 – The Future

 

That familiar feeling around them all came back… though it was a completely new and strange feeling to Tani and the bandigers. Crunch was still feeling very nervous and tense, and to him… it felt as if his heart was racing 1000 miles per hour. It was that much tension, Crash and Coco felt almost the same way, but no where near as much as Crunch. As this was a future his elemental companions would have helped him form. So many thoughts rushed through his mind, and it felt as if it were forever in this time warp… thoughts of hope, fear, nervousness… and a lot more.

 

And then finally, the magical feeling around them stopped.

 

Crunch was expecting to feel the metal plated floor in a few seconds so he opened his eyes. At first, he felt somewhat relieved. His family was next to him, and so were his sibling-like bandicoot friends… and he could even see the sky and clouds…

 

Wait… the sky?!

 

What seemed like forever, was actually only a few seconds. They were not in the ship, they were in midair!

All Crunch heard around him was yells and screams from his friends and family around him, he was very surprised! They were falling down; rather fast too… he tried to move over to grab the hand of Tani, who was seen falling down while holding Tayna in her arms… Tasha was seen wailing her arms about near Crash and Coco, but then she grabbed onto Crash for comfort, and he screeched!

Tackle was quick to cling to Crunch and as more seconds went by, the mass of furred anthros hit the water, with a huge splash.

Crunch was under water, after hitting the water and he quickly swam up to the surface, after losing his grip with Tani, but Tackle still clung on tight to his back fur. He arrived at the surface with a gasp for air, as well as his son behind him. Crunch was relieved to see that Tani and Tayna were fine, but looking very startled and surprised.

 

 

“What the… bloody hell was that!!!”

Tani said, under her breath as she was in the water in front of him. Crunch wasn’t sure what to say, he was wondering where Tasha was!

But he was quickly relieved when he saw her near Crash and Coco, and she looked fine. But Crash and Coco were panicking in the water, since they both hated the water and were unable to swim,

 

“Hold on guys! I’ll help!”

Crunch shouted, as he started to swim over towards them… who looked as if they were struggling.

Out of the blue, the sky that is… came something else that fell! Crunch stopped swimming for a moment to look up; he was nothing but completely stunned, and confused.

 

5 more figures with wailing arms and legs were falling! As well as another 2 box like shapes, Crunch quickly moved out of the way as they came crashing down into the water. And it wasn’t long until he heard even more splashing about in the water, and gasps for air after coming to the surface…

 

“OH MY GOD THIS WATER IS COOOOLD!!!”

 

“Goodness gracious! Is THIS how we are to be greeted in the FUTURE?”

Another female screamed, and Crunch looked to see who it was. Then his eyes widened, they were his sisters!

Tawna and Chayenne.

He swam up to them and they suddenly looked relieved, to see their big brother. He also saw that Collide was there, looking shocked as he swam up to his mother. He checked to see if Crash and Coco were ok, and they were… as they seemed to have been rescued by their animal companions… Pura and Polar, who were both naturally graceful swimmers… but he was confused, what were they all doing here?

“I… don’t know why you guys are here but… I think we better all swim to the shores to dry up and talk about this!”

Crunch said, his sisters nodded. Both had a strange smile. They all started their swim to the shorelines… as Crunch lead the way with his family swimming up behind him. Pura and Polar were long ahead and already at the shores.

 

Everyone else finally arrived at the shores of the beach, and their fur was soaking wet, even their backpacks and the parcels which dropped out of the sky with Chayenne and Tawna. Crunch shook himself dry, as much as he could as he walked over to see how Crash and Coco were doing with their pets, but as he got even closer to the 4 of them… he couldn’t help but notice something very odd. Coco and Crash were not even focused on Crunch at all. They were both looking down, as if they were spooked about something.

Crunch walked up to the group of them

 

 

“Uhh Crash… Coco, what is wrong with you guys? What happ….”

Then he noticed. He took a better look at Polar and Pura… they did not look like ordinary animals anymore. They were, evolved! Crunch’s eyes were as wide as Crash and Coco’s, and then he let out a roar of laughter.

“Hah! Oh man that is… sorry but I just can’t help but laugh about that! They’re Anthros now!!!”

 

Crunch seemed to be in stitches now. Crash and Coco looked up to see Crunch, who was laughing about it. Polar and Pura were confused, as they were but they also stared at Crunch, and didn’t know why he laughed. Polar was now a huge, evolved polar bear. His anatomy was almost the same, but he was able to stand upright properly, and sit like an anthro. And he had facial expressions. Pura however, looked even more anthro. He was quite large as well, with a medium build, as tigers as naturally muscular. His eyes could only stare at Crunch, as he started to finally slow down with his laughter. But both Polar and Pura, now had the minds of an anthro… and could learn to speak within time.

 

“This isn’t THAT funny Crunch! I mean, how on earth did they get here anyway!?”

 

Coco said, and Crash nodded, before giving off a glare to Crunch as well.

 

“Oh come on guys, no need to get hasty now heh. And to be honest, I have no idea… Chayenne, Tawna and Collide are here too! So come on, we’ll go and talk about it with them!”

“Huh? They came too… this is so crazy! But seriously now, Polar and Pura need some friggen PANTS!”

Crunch stopped in his path, and started to giggle to himself again. Coco frowned and got annoyed, and then Crash started to smirk as well. Then Crunch turned around to look at Coco,

“Alright fine, we’ll see if there’s any clothes they can fit when we go to the group, now come on…”

Crash and Coco stood and walked over towards Crunch. They both gave gestures to Pura and Polar, to follow them but they still felt a bit strange walking upright. However, they followed behind Crash and Coco and headed to where Tani and the other anthros were.

As soon as they got there, everyone did give their surprised expressions to Polar and Pura, and Tani was quick to go through one of the backpacks to try finding something that could fit them. She found 2 pairs of shorts, which were Crunch’s. He looked slightly annoyed at her choice…

 

“Right, these should fit them! Very… odd to see them as evolved animals though, I mean… what the hell’s up with that?!”

“We don’t know Tani, but it appears they either got evolved in the past by Brio or someone, and then came through with Chayenne and Tawna!”

“But they didn’t come with us! Just me, Tawna and Collide went through… Aku-aku was telling us to come here because you guys went through a few weeks ago… and that we should take everything we need from the past to move here…”

Chayenne explained, after Coco finished off her sentence.

Crunch was still very puzzled about everything, the shock of falling out of the sky into the water, the surprise of seeing his sisters arrive. Along with Polar and Pura.

 

“Hold on… Aku-aku told you guys to follow us, and take all this clothing and items, why? And you all came into the time machine a week after we went in? That’s very strange, because we only just came out of the portal, a few seconds after you, Chayenne!”

 

“What the… seriously? That is very odd then!”

“Oh that makes sense, it’s because the time machines settings would have still been set to the exact same time zone as we left!”

 

Coco said out aloud. And everyone seemed to understand the oddity of that happening now.

 

“But… why did Aku-aku tell you all to follow us? We were going to travel back first and…”

“Brother… it’s because, you can’t travel back”

“W-what? Oh man… but how? Grrr…. It must have been that damn N.Tropy!”

 

Crunch was now aggressive, sort of startling Chayenne and some of the others around them. He was upset, because he wasn’t expecting any of this. Crash and Coco looked very shocked as well, and worried.

Chayenne was quick to respond though…

 

“No, it actually wasn’t him! Aku-aku said that the Time Machine displayed a message, saying that the portal was a ‘one-way’ path now, because the time machine got destroyed somewhere between the 8000 years from then, until now!”

 

“This is insane though! We weren’t planning to stay here permanently, without checking it out first! What about everyone else in the past!? How could we ever get to see them again?”

 

“Crunch… you don’t need to worry. Aku-aku is helping as many of them to go through the portal as possible, and I am hoping our brother and his family come through too, and the Professor…”

 

Chayenne said, with a sigh of breath. Crunch still felt concerned though, but also hopeful of everyone else’s arrival to the future, especially once the elementals start their ‘work’.
Hold on… he was forgetting something.

 

This is the future.

 

He had a better look all around him. He didn’t notice much before, because he was so focused on his friends and family. He was quick to feel a lot less stress now.

He noticed the seawater they fell in was clean, much like the sea at their Island home. It was crystal clean, with a pleasant blue green colour. And the sun was even seen, shining out in the horizon, showing that it was during the hours of the morning. Some clouds were about, but in this future, he couldn’t smell the pollution he sniffed last time. It smelled far cleaner, as if there was no cars or other vehicles around at all. He smiled for the first time since his arrival here… this must be a better future.

 

He looked over at Tani, and she looked back at him as well…

 

“Please don’t feel so much stress Crunch… like I would, heh. Just look all around us, this part of Australia looks beautiful. Nothing like the first time you saw the future, aint it?”

“No, of course not. This future looks far better… but, I am worried about the others who didn’t come. I’m hoping they do end up arriving here”

“I’m sure they’ll all arrive eventually, once they realize how boring it is without us around!”

 

Tani gave Crunch a smile of hope, and he reacted by smiling back at her as well. Everyone else seemed to be in awe with their surroundings. They looked all around, and admired what they saw, as much as Crunch and Tani did. The bandigers seemed happy as well, and didn’t even realize how major the situation even was.

Tasha was the first to say anything,

 

“Where are we anyway? It looks almost like… home, but different!”

“Well Tasha, we’re in the future! Along the Eastern coast of Australia. And you’re right, it does look a lot like the beaches at the Islands! A much nicer future this time round… and if my calculations are right, this is actually where the city of Brisbane once was!”

“Huh, Brisbane? Is that another big city like that place called Sydney we visited years back?”

“Yeah Crunch, and it was right along this coast… it seems to be almost gone, but look up the hill a bit…”

 

 

Coco told Crunch. He got curious, and tried to look up the hill a bit, but all the taller trees and shrubs were blocking the view. He walked back a bit to have a clearer look, and he still couldn’t see much, just more large Gum trees and other types of trees… until he finally saw a few structures, that looked odd…

 

“Wait, I see something… it’s, buildings! I think they’re supposed to be the tops of those huge skyscrapers, but they look different!”

Crunch jogged back over to the group of marsupial anthros, and now had a feeling of adventure in his mind. Tani stood up and looked as eager as himself,

 

“I suppose we can’t just sit around here all day! Let’s go and see what kind of civilizations live around here, and then maybe we can finally find our home islands again!”

 

“Good idea honey, ok kids… get your stuff ready! I know they’re still a bit wet, but they’ll be dry soon”

Crunch told his children. They all got their backpacks ready, which were still slightly soaked from being in the water. Tawna and Chayenne got ready as well, as Crunch came over to them and the packages they had. They had brought along 2 large packs, looked as if they were heavy to pull along, so Crunch got out some of the rope Tani had in her packet and tied them all up, so he could drag them along with much more ease than his sisters.

 

“Ok, we’ll go along through the forest to where those buildings are. And see if there is any humans, or even anthros that can help us... but it would be much easier if the elementals and Aku-aku were nearby”

Said Crunch, as he went towards the mysterious looking forest, looking for a clear enough path to go through. He found one several metres from the area they were all in, and he peered through. It looked clear, and very silent… with only a few sounds of small birds and some insects. He could even sense some animals… but not a scent of bandicoot yet, besides his own group. He still remained very cautious and curious, but also proud that the elementals seemed to have made the environment a lot nicer. Seeing all these trees and plants around was already a very good sigh of relief for him, and the clean seawater.

 

But for now, he had to find out how the inhabitants were all doing. There was no going back now… so whatever he could find, was what it was. And that was that. No second chances. He had faith in the mystical masks though, and hoped that that his species and many other endangered ones made it through.

 

 

Chapter 15...