Then next day, Tiny was really popular, apparently.
"Dude, you made sidekick history!" N. Gin told him.
"I don't know about THAT, but..." Tiny said.
"No, seriously! From now on, people will mess with us at their own risk!" Joe said.
"You're proving that we're not just heroes, or sidekicks...just people!" Nia said.
"Super people!" Joe corrected her.
Ripper Roo laughed in agreement.
Tiny turned around, and noticed that Dingodile was silent. "Hey, is everything okay?" he asked him.
Dingodile looked up. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said. He went back to being silent, till finally, Tiny noticed the bruise he had on his neck.
Tiny gasped. "Oh my gosh...yesterday...are you okay!?" he asked.
"I'm fine; I went to the nurse, had everything straightened out. It's nothing, really," Dingodile told him.
"This is all my fault..." Tiny said.
"TINY," Dingodile said angrily. Tiny looked at him. "I'm FINE, okay? It's not your fault," Dingodile said.
"I'm sorry," Tiny said.
The bell rang, and Cortex came into the room. "Good morning, class," he said. "Before we begin today's lesson, though, it seems you won't be joining us today, Tiny."
"What? Why?" Tiny asked.
"It seems you've been put into the hero class now," Cortex told him.
Tiny was surprised, and looked at everyone. "What about them?" he asked.
"We'll still see you on the bus," N. Gin said.
"Yeah, and at lunch, too," Nia said.
"Well, you best not be late," Cortex told Tiny. Tiny hesitated, but walked out the door.
He walked down the hallway, then found the hero classroom. He knocked on the door, and Brio opened it.
"Ah, Tiny! They told me you were coming," he said.
Tiny walked inside and Brio said, "Unfortunately, all the lab partners have been taken, so I suppose I could pair you up with my assistant."
Tiny looked at the back row, where Scarlett—the girl he had drooled over on the first day of school—was sitting. He froze, and just stared at her.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Brio asked.
Tiny snapped out of it, and finally earned enough courage to walk over to her.
"So...how's this?" Tiny asked, holding up part of a ray gun he assembled.
"Great; if you were building a heat ray. You're supposed to be building a freeze ray," Scarlett told him.
Tiny sighed, putting the piece of the gun down. "Well, I have no idea what I'm doing, heh heh..." he said.
"D!" they suddenly heard Brio yell at a group next to them. "I would give you an F, but that would mean I'd have to see you in summer school!"
Scarlett turned to the ray gun Tiny made, and made all the parts disassemble and put back together in the correct way.
Brio walked over to them. "And what do we have here?" he asked.
"Uh, I wouldn't know...I didn't make it..." Tiny said.
"You're far too honest, Tiny..." Brio said, taking the ray gun from him. He blasted it at Pinstripe, and he froze instantly. Brio turned back to Tiny. "...But perhaps not honest enough. Miss Scarlett, in the future, please allow the students to succeed or fail on their own," he said to them. He walked away.
"How did you do that?" Tiny asked Scarlett.
"I control electricity, so that also allows me to control technology," she said.
"Wow...and all I can do is punch stuff," Tiny said. They both laughed.
"You know, I can totally help you out with all of this science stuff," Scarlett said.
"You can?" Tiny asked.
"Sure, I can like your...private tutor," Scarlett told him.
"Okay!" he said.
Later that day, Tiny was walking over to his locker, when he noticed Dingodile. Feeling a little stupid about before, Tiny walked over to him.
"Listen, Dingodile...about yesterday..." he began.
"What about it?" Dingodile asked in his most innocent voice.
"No, you know what happened...I didn't even thank you for helping me out or anything—" Tiny began.
"Please, it's not a big deal," Dingodile said.
"No, it is," Tiny said. "I feel bad, so let me make it up to you. Maybe tonight we can do something, like go see a movie or something..."
Dingodile thought about that for a moment. "Around 8?" he asked.
"Sure," Tiny said.
"TINY!" a voice suddenly screamed. Tiny turned around and saw N. Gin running down the hallway and around a corner. He followed him, then saw Crash with Pinstripe, who was shoving N. Gin inside a locker.
"Hey, come on, guys!" Tiny told them. Pinstripe let go of N. Gin.
"Thanks, Tiny," N. Gin said.
Crash and Pinstripe leaned against the lockers casually. Tiny heard muffled laughing coming from one of the lockers, so he said, "Ripper Roo too."
Pinstripe rolled his eyes, and opened the locker. Ripper Roo came out, and hopped away.
"You think you're so big and bad, don't you Tiny!?" Pinstripe yelled.
"No, I don't..." Tiny said.
"Please; Tiny can totally take you!" N. Gin said.
Joe was walking by, and he happened to hear the conversation. "You saw what happened to Crush! You wanna piece of that!?" he yelled at Pinstripe.
"You better watch your mouth, Tiny!" Pinstripe yelled.
"I didn't SAY anything!" Tiny yelled back.
"Why don't we settle this in gym class?" Pinstripe said.
"Right on! If Tiny beats you in "save the citizen", you lay off the sidekicks for the rest of the year!" N. Gin told him.
"Yeah, and if YOU win, you can dunk N. Gin's head in the toilet every day until graduation!" Joe said.
"Yeah! Wait, what?" N. Gin said, shocked.
"You got a deal!" Pinstripe told them, then he walked away. Crash growled at them, then walked away, too. Everyone shuddered. Even though he was mute, he was still pretty intimidating.
"GUYS! Are you CRAZY!?" Tiny yelled at Joe and N. Gin. "Those guys are the CHAMPIONS of "save the citizen"!"
"Not to mention you don't know how to use your powers very well," Dingodile said. Tiny gave him a look. "Sorry, not helping..." Dingodile said.
"Tiny, you have no choice; you can't let them dunk N. Gin's head in the toilet. Not again. The dunking must end," Joe said.
Tiny sighed angrily, then walked away.
"DUNK N. GIN'S HEAD IN THE TOILET...?" N. Gin growled, turning to Joe.
"Heh heh...COMING TINY!" Joe screamed, following Tiny.
"Coco, Deann! Your citizen has just been destroyed because you failed to defeat your villains!" Tropy yelled. "Get out of here!"
Coco and Deann left the gym, grumbling to themselves.
"Alright; next round! Crash and Pinstripe, you want to be heroes or villains?" Tropy asked.
"Villains," Pinstripe said, like it was obvious.
"Ooh, there's a shocker," Tropy said sarcastically. "Who do you want to beat next?"
"Well...we'll take Tiny Tiger here..." Pinstripe said, pointing at Tiny. Crash elbowed him and pointed at another person.
"...And we'll take Crush Bandicoot!" Pinstripe finished.
Tiny nervously got out of his seat.
"You can do this, Tiny!" Nia assured him. After he left, she turned to everyone else and said, "I don't think he can do this..."
Tiny and Crush walked to the center of the gym. "Alright, Crush and Tiny, you're the heroes," Tropy told them.
Tiny looked up at the bleachers and saw Scarlett waving at him. He waved back happily.
"Hey! Get your head in the game!" Crush yelled, snapping him out of it.
"You have 3 minutes to defeat your villains and save the citizen!" Tropy told them. "Ready...get set...BATTLE!"
The first thing Crash did was use his super speed to bounce off the walls of the gym, knocking Tiny and Crush over. Crush got up and shot a nearby piece of wood, bringing it to life. He sent it after Crash, but then Pinstripe shot it with spikes, breaking it into pieces.
Thinking that the villains were distracted with Crush, Tiny tried sneaking over to the citizen, who was hung on a rope right above a pit of spikes. Crash ran in front of him, causing him to fly back, though.
Pinstripe tried shooting spikes at Crush, but Crush brought them to life and fired them right back at him. Pinstripe ducked at the last second, causing the spikes to hit Tropy.
"HEY, WATCH IT!" he screamed. Everyone in the crowd laughed.
After about the 4th time of Crash hitting Tiny when he was trying to save the citizen, Tiny was starting to get very annoyed. He looked around, and also noticed that Crush was having a hard time fighting Pinstripe. Tiny growled, then finally jumped into the air and punched the ground—HARD. It caused the whole ground to shake, making Pinstripe trip and fall, but it didn't seem to affect Crash.
Tiny ripped off a piece of metal surrounding the gym, and grabbed Pinstripe. He held him next to a pole, then wrapped the piece of metal around him, tying him to it. "Not so tough now, are you!?" he told him.
"HEY!" Crush yelled, trying to get his attention. "SAVE THE CITIZEN!" Tiny looked at the clock, which only had 40 seconds remaining. He ran towards the citizen as fast as he could.
Crush tried to help out by distracting Crash, but that didn't work out so well. Crash started running in circles around him, faster and faster. Crush tried to escape, but then he realized he was slowly losing his breath. He fell to the ground, looking like he was about to pass out.
Tiny was still trying to get the citizen, until he noticed Crush. He looked at the clock again, which had 20 seconds left. He looked at the citizen, then back at Crush. Even though he and Crush weren't exactly the best of friends, he knew it was best to help him out, so he ran over to him.
He grabbed Crash, aimed him at Pinstripe, then let go, causing Crash to run directly at Pinstripe, knocking them both out. Tiny helped Crush up, then lifted him and aimed him towards the citizen.
"5...4...3...2..." the crowd chanted. Tiny threw Crush straight at the citizen, which he grabbed right before time ran out.
Tropy blew his whistle. "HE'S ALIVE!" he screamed.
The whole crowd screamed and applauded with joy. "You both win!" Tropy said.
Tiny walked over to Crush, offering to help him up, but Crush got up on his own and ignored him, walking away. Tiny was confused, but the crowd didn't seem to notice, because next thing he knew, he was surrounded by the whole school, practically.