Outcast Bandicoot 4 – Finding a Future

Volume 1 start

 

Chapter 1 – Time gone by

 

Quite a fair amount of time had gone by.

Since last time, we had seen any evil forces lurking within the world, both mad scientist and demon… of whom end up defeated. These days, it seemed to be quite strange that there was no disturbance, nothing that was a major threat in need of desperate heroic action.

Five years had past.

But some things had happened during these past five years, though these years gave Crash, Coco and even Crunch, the much needed time of peace they much deserved, for all their efforts. No mad scientists giving them grief, no evil demons trying to take them down, just peace. For Crunch, his mate Tani and his newly born daughter Tasha, it was a very pleasant and much needed break. As their daughter grew, she became a lot closer to her parents, especially Crunch. She wanted to be a great fighter like them both, one day. But Tawna had a baby too…

 

***

“Crunch!”

 

Yelled a familiar, high pitched, female voice. It was obviously Tawna, Crunch’s half sister who is also the sister of Chayenne. It was only about two months after Crunch had defeated Crimzon, and at home to relax peacefully with his partner. Tani was heavily pregnant at this time, and was relaxing on a couch, as she heard Tawna’s high voice outside.

“Oh Crunch, Tawna’s here… again. Suppose you can’t keep ignoring her though, her voice is deafening me and I can’t get any sleep!”

Tani said out loud. Crunch then yawned and came into the lounge where Tani was

 

“Sorry honey, you’re right. I better just go and see what she wants…”

 

He replied to her, and sighed. He opened up the door and was looking right at Tawna, but something seemed odd about her. She really didn’t look the same, she was wearing much less revealed clothing, but it wasn’t just that. She looked rather similar to what Tani did… pregnant. Crunch was shocked.

“Tawna…? What are you doing here and… what happened to you?”

He said, still looking puzzled.

 

“Crunch… I have left the Moulin Cortex. Actually, I was kicked out because of how I was starting to appear and act. And I just found out that I’m…”

 

 “You don’t need to say more. I think I can already see what’s happened…”

Tawna nodded, before replying back to him

 

“Yeah, I am having a baby. I… I honestly don’t know how this happened…”

 

“Well, that’s what you get for sleeping around with lots of guys at that place!”

 

“But I didn’t! I honestly didn’t! Well, I don’t remember because I just woke up and there was no one there, so I don’t know who it was!”

 

Crunch just sighed, and rolled his eyes,

“How could you NOT know though? Unless.. hmm, you were probably drunk, something stupid. Well, I’m not sure what more to say… it is a real shame that you haven’t got a partner though…”

 

Crunch said. He was feeling really annoyed at her, but he also couldn’t help but feel sorry for her as well, as she is with no one and doesn’t appear to have any friends neither. Tawna looked down and looked even more upset, before looking up at Crunch again,

 

“Crunch… please, help me. I have no one or nowhere to go to… I’m afraid of having this baby alone, I don’t know if I can do this, alone…”

 

“Well you can’t live here! Tani is having a baby too”

 

“What, she is?”

Tawna said, looking very surprised

 

“Yes… we’re a pair. But… I’ll be able to get you a home built, not far from here if you want. Especially if there is nowhere for you to go, and I’d prefer you not to be near that Moulin Cortex place again, especially with a kid…”

 

Tawna took a bit of time to think, and then she simply nodded while looking up at Crunch,

 

“Ok, yes. I’ll never go back there… of course I never will. I want to be part of the family again… brother. I don’t want to be so alone, and I’ll try and make sure my baby I’m having will grow up and have a good life, better than mine anyway. I wish I knew who the father was but… I do hope it was Crash”

 

she said, while still looking slightly down.

 

Crunch felt slightly less hopeless after hearing Tawna, though he was still unsure. But he didn’t want to abandon her, that’s for sure. So he decided that he and some of his friends around the islands will help with building a home. And eventually they built one within a few days, about two kilometers away from his own home. This was when Chayenne decided to live with Tawna as well, to help with raising her baby once it was born.

 

***

 

More time had now gone by since then, including the birth of baby bandiger Tasha, who brought a lot of joy and new things into Crunch and Tani’s life. They had time to relax and experience new things in life, such as raising their daughter. Both Crunch and Tani never knew what it was like to have parents, while being anthros… and they wanted to make sure Tasha would have what they never did from their start in life.

 

 

It was also not long until Tasha’s life started to grow along side someone else’s… her cousin, Collide. Tawna’s son, which was born about a month after Tasha. Tawna named him Collide, as she wanted to believe Crash was the father, though she was never completely sure if he was or not, but Collide did have a lot of things in common with Crash.

Both Tasha and Collide spent time together, when Tawna was allowed to visit now and again, and when Tasha was able to go to Tawna’s home for the day. Chayenne was now living with Tawna as well, to help with raising Collide. And as more months went by, Tasha and Collide both grew rather quickly. Around twice as fast as a human baby. But they could already walk once they were only 3 months old, able to eat solids at 4 months, though it wasn’t until more than a year they started to say their first few words.

But as Tasha got older, Crunch and Tani wondered if they should have another bandiger, just so Tasha could grow up with a sibling by her side. But since Tani wasn’t in season for a long time, it wasn’t possible…probably due to having to dedicate her motherly instincts to raising Tasha, with Crunch.

Though when Tasha was about two years old, Tani started to act ‘oddly’ again, like a few years ago around the same time of the year…

 

“Crunch…”

 

Tani said simply, but in a calm and soft tone of voice. She seemed to be in a cheerful and calm mood, and highly active as she kept moving around and coming up to Crunch to nuzzle him affectionately before waltzing off slowly towards their bedroom window. Crunch shook his head for that moment, and then smiled back at her

 

“Tani… what are you up to now? Hmm…”

 

He asked, while sitting at the bedside of their room, smiling. It was late in the afternoon, with the sun going down slowly and slightly shinning on the outside of their house.

Tani suddenly smirked, and unexpectedly took a leap outside of their bedroom window, Crunch just smirked a bit in return, and quickly dashed to jump outside towards her.

Tani landed down gracefully, despite it being almost 25 metres above the ground, with Crunch landing down just as swiftly. However, Tani had taken off into the darkness of the forest. Crunch eagerly sprinted off after her.

They were both taken deep into the depths of the dark of the forest, which was dark to our eyes, but to Crunch… he could see all of course, as his night vision appears to him as shades and hues of reds and blue. But he suddenly lost sight of Tani, as she dashed off into the thickness of the plants and bushes.

 

Crunch stopped for a moment to listen to any rustling. It was completely silent, with only a faint sound of the wind and some insects surrounding the area, until he heard a faint growl, which he recognized straight away. He took a leap into the bushes to his right and dashed until he finally saw the light orange fur of Tani again, who he went to tackle… which came as a sort of surprise to Tani.

 

They now went rolling down a slightly steep part of the forest, with Tani giggling as they rolled before they both came to a stop, on a flat surface of the forest floor, covered with the autumn leaves fallen from the trees above.

Tani was pinned down gently, and not showing any signs of shoving Crunch back, as she lay there feeling clumsy and silly. Crunch just smiled at her, and moved his muzzle close to hers to nuzzle her affectionately.

 

“Heh, what has gotten into you… do you like this sort of rough treatment, hmm?”

He asked and smirked after lifting his head up, to look down at her again.

 

“Hmm, I didn’t think you’d need to ask…”

 

She said and laughed. Crunch moved back a bit to allow Tani to lift herself up, to sit up on her knees in front of him.

 

“Really now? Well, maybe I do know what time of the year it is then… it has been a while since then, heh…”

 

“Yes, it has. Remember when we... umm discussed Tasha’s future of growing alongside another sibling?”

Tani asked Crunch, he suddenly looked a bit surprised

 

“Oh uh yeah, of course I remember… I think it’ll be really nice if she gets a sibling... so, you really don’t mind that? Last year it didn’t work but… are you sure you want to try again this time?”

 

“Yes, of course… and this time, I know it’s the right time… and you should know that too”

Tani told Crunch and smiled a bit again, before quickly nuzzling him back as well.

 

“Hmm yeah… I think so too; well that is what my instincts are telling me, heh…”

 

He replied, and slowly moved closer to give a gentle lick on her muzzle and face. Tani giggled a bit again, and closed her eyes while she felt calm, as he groomed her for a bit around the face and upper body. Tani moved herself closer to him to groom him for a moment in return as well, but also stroked through his fur around his large arms with her clawed fingertips, which Crunch enjoyed and made him feel very relaxed, as he sat up with her, then he slowly placed both his pawhands around her waist.

After a while, he opened his eyes to look at Tani… and asked,

 

“Sure you want to now? Tasha might start to worry since we’ll probably be gone for long…”

“Aww don’t worry, your sisters will take care of her at home but as for us…”

 

Their convocation almost ended right there, as Tani moved up close to him and licked his muzzle affectionately, and let her pawhand run down his chest and Crunch felt very calm again, until her fingertips reached his belt, which made Crunch flinch a bit,

Tani noticed… and asked,

"Hmm? You don't want to yet...?"

"Oh uh no, it's not that... I'm just a bit… excited, that’s all, heh..."

 

Crunch told her, with a comical kind of smile. And as Tani was still looking at him with a slightly unsure expression about his answer, she was surprised when he suddenly went to gently, bite her neck. Tani’s eyes closed and she felt at ease, which took her mind away from everything else, and soon Crunch himself went into the same kind of feeling… as she lay down onto the forest floor, with him above her.

 

And from then on, there was no talk. Not for a few hours anyway.

 

 

***

 

A good few days, weeks and months had gone by since their certain night together, and this time it was a lot less stressful for both Tani and Crunch. As now Crunch knew what was coming, and why Tani would be behaving a bit out of the ordinary, with the pregnancy. Everyone else knew about the new bandiger coming, and even Tasha was very excited to hear that she will have a brother or sister soon.

 

Then that day finally came, and Tani was in labor again, much like last time. Except this time she wasn’t yelling out angrily… but Tasha was afraid, and stayed out of the room, to sit with her aunts and cousin, as they left both Tani and Crunch in their room as it was happening.

Crunch was there with Tani the whole time, and Tani tried hard to stay calm, and she did rather well. And as soon as it was finally over, Crunch was eager to go and see the newborn, but was quickly startled when Tani screamed out to him that it wasn’t over! He stood back, for a while longer and just a few minutes after that… she stopped struggling, and went quiet, to catch her breath. Crunch was now even more curious, and he was even more surprised to find that there was two newborn bandigers underneath the sheets. He gently retrieved them, and was smiling the whole time, as he came back to Tani, to show her their new additions to the family. And soon Tani was smiling, just as much as Crunch himself.

 

“Hmm… I knew you were a bit ‘bigger’ than last time you were pregnant…”

“Shut up”

 

Tani said, and gave Crunch a playful whack across the face while he smirked in a cheeky kind of way.

 

***

 

Even more time went by now, as Crunch and Tani spent even more time raising their two new young, which they named Tayna and Tackle. Tayna’s the female, who was mostly a light burgundy with some of Crunch’s beige fur. She shared lots of similarities with her mother, and even seemed to have some of her aggression. While Tackle was the male, who is also light burgundy, but had some of Tani’s light yellow fur around his muzzle and belly. But he has a unique personality; he is a lot shyer than anyone else in the family, somewhat like when Crunch was first evolved. And he had physical similarities to his father too, and even loves to exercise.

 

But through all these good times with the family, Tani was told of some bad news about her brother, Tiny Tiger. Dr Nitrus Brio discovered that Tiny isn’t even related to her, after all. This made Tani feel somewhat upset, as she always thought she was related to him, and even Tiny always thought she was his sister… but the good news out of it was that it means there should be more thylacine bloodlines out there.

However, Tani still would visit Tiny sometimes, and she even told Tiny they weren’t brother and sister… but of course, Tiny wouldn’t believe it and he would keep protesting that Tani is his sister. Though once Crunch found out, he seemed a bit silent at first and even was sympathetic to Tani about it.

But he also started to feel slightly aggressive on the inside, his primal instincts were telling him that Tiny must have been a potential rival, trying to take his mate away from him… but Crunch was more intelligent than that, and he didn’t take to it too seriously and soon his feelings settled.

 

 

But on one rainy day, about one and a half years after the twin bandiger birth, Crunch was on a boar hunt in the forest… but he was slightly surprised, when he saw Tiny Tiger come out from the bushes and into his area…

 

“What, what the hell are you doing here? This is my territory, so get out!”

 

Crunch said, with a slight snarl of warning. But Tiny didn’t budge. He stood there, looking content at Crunch, in a defiant kind of way.

 

“You not boss of Tiny… you try to stop Tani from being Tiny sister! But Tiny don’t believe that, Tani IS sister!”

 

Tiny shouted out aggressively, and growled loudly after his sentence. Crunch just rolled his eyes, and replied

 

“For goodness sake Tiny, it’s not my fault she’s not your sister! And I didn’t say it, Brio told her the news! So stop trying to cause trouble, and get lost!”

 

“You be quiet!!!”

 

Snapped Tiny, while he let off a louder roar than before. Crunch wasn’t intimidated at all though, and stood his ground. His temper was rising now, and he was starting to feel very tense, but tried not to cause trouble

 

“Please Tiny, I don’t want to have to fight! Tani gets upset whenever we fight, and do you want her to get upset? No, so hurry up and get a move on! I’m trying to find something for dinner, for my family”

 

 

Tiny suddenly went quiet for that moment. His family? Now Tiny had completely lost the plot…

 

“TANI IS TINY’S ONLY FAMILY!!!!!!”

 

He shouted and quickly charged for Crunch with his jaws wide and claws going right for him. Crunch was quick to move and he now had his fangs barred as well, meaning he was going to fight. Whatever the costs.

 

Tiny went to go for several more slashes at Crunch with his huge claws on his fingertips, Crunch moved to avoid the paws, and he suddenly let off a kick at Tiny’s chest, and sent the big thylacine moving backwards a few metres.

Crunch let off a grow as well and went to leap for Tiny, in an attempt to pin him down, but Tiny moved to his left and managed to punch Crunch at his side, and cause Crunch to almost to lose balance and fall over. He regained his footing and went to strike Tiny with a sudden Punch to the chest with his right metal fist, causing Tiny to suddenly growl in annoyance and slight pain. Tiny was quick to move back though, as he threw himself in Crunch’s direction in an attempt to bite at him savagely. Crunch quickly moved his head to the side to avoid the jaws, and then he used his own weight to knock Tiny over to the left… both beasts went crashing into some bushes and trees, with both quickly trying to regain their footing quickly, Crunch got up first but then snarled in anger when he felt a clawed hand grab him tightly by his back fur and skin beneath it.

He turned himself around with a bit of pain to quickly bite Tiny on his muzzle, causing Tiny to roar in agony as well as Crunch bit very hard and firm onto his snout area. He released his grasp from Crunch and used his clawed hand to release Crunch’s bite from his muzzle, which worked and Crunch bounced back, ready to avoid any counter attacks. Tiny stood up from the bushes and took one step towards Crunch.

Both marsupials stood there. With some signs of blood on them already, they were so tense and vicious that neither could even speak at the time, so they stood there… waiting for someone to make the first move. Crunch suddenly remembered that this is his land after all, and then he made the first move, coming for Tiny with his metal fist ready to punch and the thylacine prepared to avoid it, but was completely taken by surprise when Crunch used his left paw instead, to slash right down at Tiny… which got him down the left side of his chest. Tiny stood back as far as he could and placed his hand on his chest, where the deep wounds were. He got even more angered when he noticed a fair amount of blood all over his pawhand. He ignored the pain and ran for Crunch again and leapt for Crunch… throwing all of his weight onto him to pin him down, which he did successfully. Crunch was snarling viciously and had both of his hands up against Tiny’s neck, to make sure the thylacine’s dangerous jaws didn’t get too close to him. Tiny was trying with all his might to bite Crunch, at his neck… he was completely out of control and only had one thing on mind, which was to kill.

Crunch then managed to bend back one of his legs and kick the huge tiger, to try and get him off. The first attempt didn’t work, so he tried again and then was successful, as Tiny was finally losing his grip but Crunch then suddenly lost his placing of pawhands pushing Tiny’s neck, and then Tiny’s muzzle came down and Crunch suddenly moved his face out of the way, but Tiny had his mouth open, ready to bite at any opportunity and he did…

 

“Gargh!”

Yelled Crunch aggressively. He quickly moved his clawed hand to Tiny’s neck and tried his very hardest to squeeze, while his metal paw was still trying to push back the sheer weight of the bigger anthro. Tiny had Crunch’s neck, but since the bandicoot has a very thick and short neck, it wasn’t fatal for him. But still dangerous and somewhat painful as well. Then Crunch managed to move his head around and use his own set of jaws to bite onto Tiny’s own neck, which made Tiny quickly let go and Crunch was finally able to push him back, and they were both separated again.

Staring at each other with vicious glares, they now were even bloodier than before. This was by far their most serious fight, and none looked as if they’d back down anytime soon. Tiny made a dash for Crunch again with a loud roar and tried to punch this time, and Crunch moved… but didn’t quite avoid the attack, as he was punched to the side, he regained his footing though and made a leap for the tiger, but Tiny quickly turned around and slashed down at Crunch… which ended up surprising Crunch, as one of his claws managed to slash down the right side of his upper chest, deeply.

Crunch almost fell to the ground but held himself up with his large hands, and panted for a moment, while Tiny himself… also looked tired. Crunch was gritting his teeth from the stinging of another deep wound on himself, and it made him even fiercer. He pushed himself up and suddenly threw himself at Tiny next to him, who was caught off guard from being slightly worn out… now this time Crunch had the upper hand, as he tried an attempt to bite his face but missed his actual target and ended up tearing off half of Tiny’s right ear instead!

Tiny yelped in pain and struggled to pull off Crunch, who was clinging to him roughly with his clawed and metal paw digging into his skin firmly. Crunch spat out as much of the blood he could, as it didn’t taste too good to him and he tried to stay clawed to him, as he wanted to make sure Tiny was hurt as much as himself, or more. But Crunch was feeling a bit worn out now, and he loosened his grip for a moment, and Tiny threw Crunch forward.

Crunch was there, standing up on his knees, as he looked on at Tiny again, and watched as Tiny lifted himself up onto his feet as well… both beasts were panting now, and both were unsure of what to do next. But one of their minds was taken off the fight, as a voice from a few metres away was heard screaming…

 

“No! Stop this… NOW! Both of you!!!”

 

Shouted Tani’s voice, she ran to the scene and Crunch turned his head and was now feeling less aggressive, but this only gave a chance for Tiny to lash out towards Crunch! Crunch suddenly caught hold of Tiny’s big pawhands, which were trying their best to reach for his neck, but Crunch used his strength to hold him back firmly, and he could feel that Tiny was becoming worn out. Tani got very tense as she saw this and dashed towards them, to pounce onto Tiny and push him away from Crunch…

Tiny was thrown to the ground, along with Tani. But Tani was the first to stand up, and she looked down at the male thylacine, as he finally started to snap out of his fury…

 

“S…. Sister?”

He mumbled, but Tani didn’t look too pleased. She was staring down at him in content, thinking of what to say,

 

“Tiny… I told you not to start anymore fights, I told you not to come into this land but, you just didn’t listen! And now look at what has happened!”

 

She yelled, and Tiny’s ears drooped. As he was staring up at her… Crunch finally stood up to speak, he shook his head as the rain was still pouring down from the clouds onto all of them, then he spoke,

 

“Tani… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have fought him but, he did strike first and I couldn’t just stand back and do nothing…”

“Hmm… I suppose it is ok, but… I feel so angry! I hate it when you two fight and… just look at you both! You’ll both have some scars, for sure!”

 

Tani said, and started to appear upset… Tiny was still looking up at her, feeling down and unsure about what to do next.

“Tiny… Tiny sorry, sister…”

 

Tani then snapped,

“I am NOT your sister, Tiny! Please, just cut it out! You hurt my partner, my mate, my love! After I told you not to come here and purposely cause fights! So Tiny, please… GO AWAY! I NEVER want to see you around here, ever again! YOU GOT THAT?!”

 

She yelled. Tiny could only stare back, with wide eyes… feeling dreadful and awful for his actions. He backed away slowly, while sitting there and started to lift himself up from the now muddy ground. He was too shocked to say anything, and in an almost instant, he took off into the forest.

 

***

From that cold and rainy day, Crunch and Tiny never fought again, and Tiny was not even seen again by neither Crunch, Tani or anyone in the family. But Tani still did feel sorry for him, but knew that she had to let him know that they really aren’t related after all… with a bit of tough love.

Crunch was left with two scars though, one down the right side of his upper chest, and also one going down the left side of his neck, which was usually covered mostly with his thick burgundy fur, especially in winter. But in summer, it was easily noticed.

 

And now it was not far, from when Crunch and his whole entire family would make the biggest change in their lives… the biggest change which will not only have an impact on their lives, but on the lives and very existence of all evolved animals which are or will come into existence…