The morning had changed into something different. Much more pleasant than the night. The sun was out, and the winds were calm, animals even came out to enjoy the sunlight. Soon Crunch had woken, and walked over to the nearby stream, to take a drink. He saw some deer in the distance, and sighed "Man. I'd so eat one of those whole right about now..." he thought, soon the masks caught up with him "So ready to go and train? Looks like the weather isn't so hard, but that will all change once we start up a storm!" Lo-lo said, Rok-ko and Py-ro didn't seem to like the cold still neither, Crunch shun the crystals at them and they were sealed inside the crystals, "heh heh, they couldn't handle the weather! WIMPS!" "Heh well it's good to have less loud mouths around. Let's go to this training area" said Crunch, "Follow me!" Lo-lo flew off in a direction that led into higher mountains, Crunch followed.

They were traveling through the snow. The mountain was slightly steep but Crunch seemed to be able to handle it, "Hey there, sure you can handle the mountain ehh?" Crunch looked up at Lo lo, he was slightly tired but not too much. He carried on, "I'm fine. I must learn your powers... I can't give up now" he replied. It was the fourth day, only two more nights until Crimzon was ready for the attack, if she found out Crunch was gathering the elementals, she would strike earlier without hesitation. Crunch got more worried about that possibility, but tried to stay focused on getting up the mountain... and he had arrived at the valley at last.

Lo-lo and Crunch walked over to the centre. Crunch stood there in front of the mask, "So... what's the first step?" "Heh well let's see.... me thinks I should give you a bit of a power up!" Lo-lo replied, "Well this should be interesting then..." Crunch stood there to prepare for what was the come, Lo-lo spun around Crunch several times and soon, the power up became visible. And Crunch could feel some changes, Lo-lo was done and moved back to see what happened "That should be it for now. You can change into the real form but you need to learn a bit more first, I believe" "Oh that's fine! I feel like I have a lot of energy, rivals Py-ros powers if you ask me...!" complimented Crunch, "Why thank you! Well my first lesson is, electrocuting peoples. Heh heh!" "Uhh electrocuting people for fun? Umm no offence but that's just dumb." Crunch said, with a blank face "Heh just joking. Well you see that large rock over there? Well I'll show you how to blast it with an electric shock. Just get your hand, the non-metal one.... and try powering it up" Lo-lo told Crunch, Crunch looked at his left hand and was a bit unsure what to do, but tried it anyway.... and it wasn't as hard as it seemed. He was able to control the electricity he had surrounding him "Quite cool, now how do I use it?" "I think you just throw it in the direction you want it to go... you see, It's a bit hard for me to teach these. Since you have limbs, heh heh!" replied Lo-lo, Crunch just smiled slightly and attempted to throw the power towards the object, he tossed his left hand forward and a lot more electricity sparked from Crunch's hand, and even some from the skies came down and blasted into the rock. It damaged the rock, and Crunch was amazed with the power "Man that is really cool! I'll try a few more times" Crunch attempted throwing more electricity at the rock target and each time it hit, it broke it even more "Heh! I think it's time for the next power!" "Yeah alright but this is good so far, so this is what it's like to be like Jaseo..." Crunch said, he followed Lo-lo to a new area and then stopped "It's time for an air move, I want to see if you can make a tornado. You can use it to blow the house down!" Lo-lo said with a laugh, Crunch didn't seem that interested. Not interested in blowing down a house "Ok ok! I was just joking, again. For this move you'll have to spin..." "Spin? I'm not Crash bandicoot you know, I don't think I can even do that anyway..." Crunch told him, "Just have a go. My storm powers would have increased your speed so it could work!" Crunch sighed and didn't think it would work. but he attempted a spin and was surprised at the speed he moved just for one spin "You were right! I am quicker than usual... Ok I'll try it more" said Crunch, then he tried to spin more and soon felt strong wind around him, and tried it more and more and soon, he spun for longer and strong winds were around him, he jumped back at a small tornado was formed, it moved past Lo-lo and headed out into the direction Crunch let it off. Crunch was impressed again "Wow that attack will be useful, thanks" "Oh no problem, it's fun teaching these! Not many can learn them you know..." Lo-lo told the bandicoot, "Oh really? That must be why Cortex only used me then... hah, I wouldn't want to imagine Tani with the Fire element!" Crunch said and laughed a bit, Lo-lo laughed too for nothing "Heh heh wait, who is Tani?" "Oh she's... just a really good friend of mine. Haven't seen her for days now though..." Crunch said, Lo-lo looked suspicious and smiled "Aww looks like you miss her, heh heh!" "Hey cut it out! Let's get back on with the training now...".

"Alright time for another wind attack, this one is very useful for blowing away annoyance, heh! For this one, you just use your other hand to use it to make a wind attack, I'm sure you know what to do by now..." Crunch looked at his metal hand "But are you sure it'll work with this arm? Because it's... not real" Crunch asked Lo-lo "That shouldn't matter... I think. Just try it anyways" Crunch looked at his metal arm again, sighed but held it out to see it he could control the air around him. He noticed the air directly in front of him was starting to turn to wind, "Yes I think I've got the hang of it! It's a bit weird being able to use magic..." and soon, the gust of wind got stronger and Crunch was able to move it by simply moving his position but then something caught Crunch's attention! He picked up a familiar scent... humans. "Oh this is just great! They're on to me again..." said Crunch sarcastically, "Wait what are you doing! We have to finish this off, you can't transform yet!" Lo-lo said, he was unsure of the situation but Crunch ducked down and slowly looked over the mountainside. Lo-lo looked too. And they saw very many soldiers from the army with weaponry, surrounding the area down bellow "Grrr! These people piss me off! We have to go somewhere else... but why the hell are they after me for? I'm doing the world a favor!" "We could try going to the higher mountain, but it's through the pine forest this way" said Lo-lo, he flew over to another exit and Crunch followed.

They were running down but then were surprised to see that the soldiers had blocked that area too! Crunch stopped in the path... and the soldiers stared "So this is what the killer beast looks like, that attacked the city not far from here!" one of the soldiers said, while holding a machine gun with the other men, Crunch was getting more and more annoyed "What city?! I haven't destroyed any city! Well, maybe except for the one in California but that was Py-ros fault!" the army men were surprised "WHAT! You attacked that city too!" Crunch knew he had to think of something fast, he looked up and Lo-lo and quickly flashed the gem on to him "... You people will never learn...!" Crunch then attempted to run right through the humans, they were getting spooked but knew they had a chance to kill Crunch, so they got their triggers ready but Crunch was starting to fade and his speed increased dramatically. The soldiers fired their weapons in the direction Crunch was coming but soon, Crunch had disappeared in thin air, and the people were shocked. And to their surprised, WHAM. a few were knocked instantly out of the way and others were blown away by the gust of wind that came through their path! Moments later, up the next mountain, Crunch slowed down and became visible again and was still running, he sighed in relief and thought "yes It worked! I thought I'd get at least one shot from those guns but I was too quick for those!" Lo-lo was inside the crystal, and replied "My, I have to say you are really starting to get the hang of my powers and heh! You blew them right out of their shoes!" "Thanks. Yeah I knew I could do some kind of running stunt. Am I ready to transform now? I really must get furtherer away from here, for some reason the Army is after me..." "Well you almost are, but there's one final move you must do... and you'll do it from on top of this mountain, get up there and quick!" Lo-lo told Crunch, Crunch ran up the mountainside and he knew the humans were slowly after him. He was also shocked to see that even tanks and helicopters were after him. Things weren't looking good. He needed to transform and quick. He was getting closer to the top, but had to avoid the helicopters rocket fires, he was quick though and was able to leap side to side and climb up with his claws at the same time. Some of the mountain was steep and or flat. Crunch had climbed to the top and there was a great view of the whole area. Soon storms started to come in, and some snow flakes were falling. Crunch was preparing for the final task... "What do I need to do now Lo-lo? I don't have much time!" "Well now you must fall from the mountainside" Crunch was silent for a moment, "...WHAT? I have to be suicidal?" "Nope. Be fearless and calm and It'll happen... I'm sure you'll like it" Lo-lo said, and did a sly chuckle soon after. Crunch wasn't sure about it but he had no other choice. He was being fired at by the helicopters, and soldiers were still after him. Not to mention tanks were around to get him when he goes near ground. Crunch took a huge breath, and quickly ran ahead and leapt from the mountain top!

He was falling down, he was hoping he would transform before he hit the ground, soon the storm clouds got stronger and started to flash with lightning... Crunch started to feel calm. Like he was in a dream. He was no longer afraid of hitting the ground. The thunder storms started to get strong and the lighting connected with Crunch and made him turn blue and brightened up very brightly.

The men from far away were simply puzzled with what was going on, but still believed he was the evil one. "After him!" the tank control men were told, they went in the same direction as Crunch landed as soon as the light disappeared but then, they were shocked to see what they were in for "surprise..." Crunch said, he was standing there and was fully transformed. He was bigger than normal, looked very similar to his Storm form he had back in the Wrath of Cortex days but had legs and his clothing on still. The tanks attempted to shot him, but he leapt up in a split second and was no where to be seen! "Huh?" the men inside the tanks said, but then a loud thud was heard on top, and then the sound of metal bending! Crunch was on top of the tank and had bend the cannon, eye witnesses had their jaws dropped and were frozen stiff, Crunch jumped over to the other tanks and did the same thing. He seemed really calm about the whole situation, and didn't even growl like he usually would. He looked up and saw that the military helicopters were going to go after him, Crunch didn't care and did a quick jump right up into the sky and to everyone's surprised.... he flew. He was able to fly in this form, Crunch headed towards the choppers with no hesitation, they attempted to fire at him but this form gave him no pain, he didn't even feel the fires from the helicopters, but it can harm him so he slashed right through one of the choppers! Electricity also came with his harsh attack and caused the helicopter to stand to crash land! The men on board screamed and quickly jumped out with their parachutes "WE MUST DESTROY THE BEAST!" the man in the next chopper said, Crunch just ignored him and recklessly bashed right through, and also heavily damaged it "Mayday mayday!" and it crashed down to the ground, the last helicopters did what was smart... make a run for it. Crunch just flew past it and ignored it's escape, he went on and had quickly gotten away from the army. The army were outraged and frightened with what had happened.

Crunch was still flying, he was in a calm state until Lo-lo interrupted "Crunch? Crunch? Can you hear me?" Crunch could and soon snapped out of the extreme calmness he was in "Oh yeah I can, sorry I'm just really impressed with this form! I sort of lost the plot back then and felt like I could do anything..." he replied through his mind "Oh good, I was scared you'd loose your mind to this form because you have escaped the army now, you should land and change back. If you use it too much, you may not have enough energy to battle the Demon, ya know. Heh heh!" "Oh yeah you're right... good things can't last forever! But thanks a lot for letting me use the powers. And I didn't know I could fly in this form, it's great" replied Crunch, he landed down on the ground. He had no idea where he was, but the area was still snow covered.... he appeared to be out in the middle of nowhere. No houses or settlements around at all. Only large icy hills and caves, a few scattered pine trees as well. Also a small river streamed around the area. "It looks like we're alone out here. Well, all we can do is walk around and see what we come across then".

Chapter 24