For three months now, Shina and Alex have been traveling between worlds with nothing much to do. Its starting to get to Shina, but Alex is more frustrated by her expecting him to alleviate her boredom.
Fortunately their quest finally brings them to a new world...A second Earth. This grabs the two's attention rather eerily, but they decide they have to let it go and investigate for the next stone to the Cosmos Drive's location.
Their travels take them to an island on the outskirts of Australia called N. Sanity Island, as Shina quickly identifies from the local scenery and explosive Nitro Crates littered about.
Suddenly the trail coming from the stone has gone cold, meaning they'll have to now search by eye and foot. Alex doesn't have much faith in getting help from the locals, specifically this world's hero, Crash Bandicoot.
They find the dim-witted bandicoot lazing around his house until Shina rudely awakens him to fangirl for a bit. Meanwhile, Alex rolls his eyes and knocks on the door, awakening Aku-Aku, Crash's guardian mask.
Aku recognizes Alex as an Elemental Overlord and wonders why his duties bring him out here to their peaceful home. After explaining the situation, sadly, he knows nothing about any weird stone.
Crash then wanders off, following some strange yellow-skinned "woman" dressed like his sister Coco.
Aku follows, and reluctantly, Alex is dragged along by Shina under the guise of looking for more info on the stone. But its painfully clear to Alex that Shina just wants to have another adventure.
They follow Crash to the other side of the island where the "woman" undresses themselves to reveal the bandicoot's mortal nemesis, Dr. Neo Cortex, having returned for a "birthday party" for Crash.
And by "birthday" we mean "revenge". Having gathered some of Crash's worst foes as an audience, Cortex plans to finish him off.
Alex and Shina stay out of the fight, but decide to be wary of that strange aura popping up.
But even with Cortex being mad as heck, the aura doesn't show up. Even when Cortex summons the Mecha Bandicoot, it doesn't show up. EVEN when Cortex and Crash go tumbling into the underground, it doesn't show up.
Nevertheless, Shina INSISTS on following the bandicoot and scientist along on their little rolling, rumbling rampage of revenge through the underground.
Alex plods along slowly, getting questioning by Aku about why he's not helping a little more...enthusiastically. Alex fibs his reasons and then groans at running into basically "Wooden Alpha".
Eventually, after some degree of spanking, biting and crying involved, Cortex is freed of Crash and runs into a crystal, finally. However, a drilling machine then pops out of the ground, releasing an invasion of alien ants.
Shina tries to communicate with them through tongue clicks, no really, but then things escalate to violence as they tend to do.
After dealing with the ants, Crash forcibly drags Cortex along to climb their way out of this perilous underground. And upon exiting back onto dry land, they are encroached by a pair of demented birds called...The EVIL Twins!
The Evil Twins declare their intent for world domination, starting with the destruction of N. Sanity Island. But Cortex just laughs them off as cute little birds.
The smarter one, Victor, shows how "cute" they are by using reality-bending powers to pull Cortex's brain out and play with it like a football. Once he gets his brain handed to him, literally, Cortex runs off screaming.
Aku then tries to confront the twins but Maurice, the dumber one, starts playing with him like he's made of rubber.
Alex and Shina try to have nothing to do with this but the Twins block their way and try to have some fun with them.
After trying and failing to make Alex flinch through insults, bribery, and a show of their powers, Alex and Shina prepare to continue on their way when suddenly...
Victor uses his powers on Shina instead, turning her into a chicken. Then he threatens Alex, saying he'll keep doing bad things to Shina unless he brings them Cortex.
Alex is forced to go along with it for now, but Aku disagrees, saying they'll need Cortex to stop the Evil Twins and there's no guarantee they'll even turn Shina back to normal.
So for now its best to just catch up with Cortex and try to get him to help.
They find him admiring the island's beauty, longing for simpler days...Though karma has other plans for him, and drops a beehive on his head.
Alex wants to just ignore this for now but Shina, using her wings as a makeshift pencil, etches words with aura and aggressively pecks Alex to get him to take this seriously.
Stubbornly moving forward, Alex, alongside Crash and Aku, free Cortex from the beehive only for him to get kidnapped by the local tribesmen.
After sneaking their way into their village, they find Cortex ties up for his crimes of pollution towards the islands, and he's likely about to get executed.
Despite everything he's had coming, Alex grins and bears it as he helps free Cortex so they can make their escape.
Afterwards they pull Cortex aside and FINALLY get to explaining his and Shina's deal...for the most part, the artifacts are kept out of the conversation for obvious reasons.
Cortex would rather let the world be destroyed than swallow his pride and work with Crash. It takes Alex threatening him and Aku bringing logic to the table that convinces Cortex to help, for now.
After killing a chicken farmer for a crystal, they head up to the top of the island and have another run in with the Evil Twins.
They casually reveal they have their own artifact piece and when Alex not-so-subtly implies he wants it, the Twins try to alter the deal...Basically, give up Cortex for either the stone, or Shina's body returned to normal.
Shina wants the stone but Alex disagrees, and says he's going to get everything he wants. Victor gets furious and then reanimates a totem god to attack the group.
The totem gets that strange aura, making it harder to deal with. Alex could've helped, but he tries and fails to snag the artifact from the Twins while they're distracted.
Crash and Cortex manage just fine though, and fell the totem. The Twins then say it was fine entertainment, but they have plenty of tricks up their sleeve still. Victor then makes good on his vow by changing Shina again. She's got her body back...but is now seven inches tall.
They then leave, with Alex vowing to make them pay, while wrestling with feelings he has about being so angry about wanting to protect Shina...
Cortex then gets a brilliant idea, and directs this rag-tag group towards his new Iceberg Lab.
On the boat ride to the next island Shina wakes up and takes to her predicament...surprisingly well actually. She sort of likes being this small, as its kind of fun riding in Alex's pocket.
Alex grunts at her not to get used to it, while she continues to tease him for being a grump. She also winds up noticing the Gaia Temporis in his pocket, but Alex tells her not to question it for her own good...Which only makes her want to know more and more.
They finally get to the ice lab and Cortex guides them to the front door...Only for his key to have broken. He runs around towards the back way and Alex just decides he'll make a custom elevator to get them to the top.
Aku, however, points out that they need Cortex to get inside anyways. So once again Alex is forced to go along with the will of the world and climb a back door shaft to catch up with Cortex.
Cortex is negotiating with some rebellious rocket penguins over a bad check. Turns out Wrath of Cortex flopped in sales, who knew?
After some "aggressive" negotiations, Cortex is forced to be Crash's play thing for a while, smashing up ice and crossing gaps until eventually...Accidentally freeing the mighty Uka-Uka from his frozen prison. And immediately, the evil mask creates a body of ice and prepares to fight.
...Failing to realize that he was in the presence of an Elemental Overlord, who melts his puny body with fire and then verbally slaps him across the face.
Once Uka realizes who he's faced with, and who they are allied with, he starts railing on Cortex for being a big failure before Aku sets him straight on how bad things have gotten.
Refusing to be out-evilled, Uka decides to form a temporary truce with his brother to stop the Evil Twins. They fly off to the lab, leaving the others to take the long walk there.
Along the way Shina and Alex annoy Cortex by conversing through book metaphors regarding their secrets. Then, upon hitting the lab proper, Alex kicks down the door and they go in to find...Uka and Aku using all their power to basically give the Evil Twins a nice suntan.
The Twins get bored and then turn the masks into stiff pieces of wood to play around with. They then try to torment the group, only for Alex to casually piss Victor off.
Victor then throws another change onto Shina, knocking them both out for the moment. Victor then states he has plans for revenge against Cortex for their pain.
They also mention a treasure, but that's not important, totally.
When they leave, the masks return to normal and interrogate Cortex about his connection to the Twins. He doesn't recall anything, making Uka want to just give him up, to which Aku's starting to turn around on the idea of.
Cortex pleads to Crash like a father would a son, and Crash, simple-minded as he is, decides to help.
Alex then wakes up to find Shina's on top of him...And now suddenly a man, complete with new voice. Shina adjusts to this pretty quickly and actually kind of likes it.
Alex decides to call her...err, him "Shin" for now. They then catch up with Cortex at his new Psychotron machine, which should let them go after the Twins. However, they need a couple more crystals.
Cortex heads to a higher perch and directs them towards a ship on the briny blue where they'd be able to find their payload.
Crash, ever the genius, punts Cortex off the side and uses him as a makeshift sled so they can get down faster. Alex and Shin try to make a race out of this, but call it off when Cortex punching and kicking Crash winds up causing an avalanche.
Cortex then decides to take a rest, leaving the others to find the crystals they need. However, he also accidentally mentioned "treasure" within earshot of Dingodile, who gains that strange aura as he chuckles sinisterly...
Alex and Shin take a brief moment to think about the artifact's presence in the world, which gets them to reconsider Towa and Mira being involved.
After some tests on Uka and Crash, they decide to speed things up a little since they don't have Cortex dragging them down.
But unfortunately Alex didn't trigger the event flag, so instead he has to pry open the ship like a can of tuna to get N. Gin's attention,
After N. Gin learns what's going on he offers the crystal in exchange for a lot of money. Alex tries to make gold in front of him, but N. Gin thinks its fake.
So he pulls out a TNT Crate ready to blow up the crystal...only to see too late that Alex destroyed the supports around his platform, causing him to go flying, and Crash to snag the crystal.
...Then Alex, smug as can be, gets smacked by the TNT and knocked out by the powerful explosion. The group then plummets deeper into the ship, where a walrus chef grabs Alex's unconscious body and chases the rest of the group, using him as a club.
At the end Alex regains consciousness and kicks the walrus, then joins up with the others at the rear of the ship in front of a bunch of Nitro Crates.
N. Gin falls on top of them, causing a massive explosion that launches them to a lone iceberg in the distance.
There they run into N. Tropy and N. Brio, who received word of a treasure from Dingodile, and want their cut of the jib.
They suspect the artifact on Shin's person is a key to the treasure,and his refusal to give it up isn't helping.
A fight breaks out during which N. Tropy manages to snag the artifact up and make his escape through a time sphere, with N. Brio dragging N. Gin along with them.
Shin breaks down in frustration for not concentrating enough, but Alex passes it off as no big deal. Before Shin invokes his wrath, Alex reminds him that they'll run into N. Tropy again and can just snag it back up.
Thus, with a slight defeat on their shoulders, the group carries their crystals back to Cortex's lab.
Alex admits only to himself that he's responsible for this mistake, but also blames a weakened body for this event. It is curious as to why he's weaker here, just like he was on Spyro's world...
Once they get back to the lab Cortex is there ahead of them. And he would get the problem solved right away...If this game-errr story, didn't need more leve-CHAPTERS, so Coco comes in without warning and by kicking Cortex in the nuts literally causes the Psychotron to break.
This also paralyzes her, whoops.
Cortex is forced to take the group on a blimp ride to the Academy of Evil so they can recruit his niece Nina to fix the machine.
Once on the blimp the Evil Twins makes themselves known again, this time with more threats to Cortex and Alex. By this point Alex and even Shin are basically nonchalant towards Victor's threats by now.
But Maurice, in a rare moment of focused brilliance, gets the idea to read Alex's mind for ideas since they can't affect him directly and all.
They get a fun idea and affect Shinn again with their powers, turning him back into a her...And giving her a very crude tongue in the process.
She basically loses control over herself and starts violating the ratings board with tons of censored words and gestures, mostly directed out of frustration towards Alex.
Alex doesn't take it for long and zaps Shina unconscious with electricity, but it pains him to do so.
The Twins laughs, saying Alex always has an easy out before they leave.
The group arrives at the Academy of Evil. Alex keeps Shina on-board all tied up for her own good, but sadly for him she quickly breaks free and then punts him into a wall.
Alex then tries to remind her of their mission. Fortunately, seems no amount of bad attitude can stop her from caring about her sister, so for now, Alex has this rude Shina's help.
Shina then basically knocks Cortex down a hidden flight of stairs near the fountain, which is their next destination anyways.
Uka is amused, but Alex just finds this all...wrong.
But its not all as it seems. Shina's real self still exists, just trapped inside her mind, unable to do anything to stop her cruder self.
The crude Shina relishes in being able to let loose and not give a shit about dumb things like "memories" and "fake smiles".
She keeps swearing up a storm and Alex, throughout this endurance of misery, keeps looking her in the eye and telling her that she's not acting like herself.
The real Shina is sort of surprised by how much Alex is caring for her well-being. However, then Alex drops a stray comment about how, at the least, he's sort of glad she's finally focused on her mission.
Shina...is not sure what he means by that.
After Crash shoves Cortex through some pipes to disable the Academy's security, they run into Dingodile in the furnace, wanting to have a piece of the treasure.
Dingodile activates the strange aura and Shina goes wild on him, breaking the aura rather quickly. But she refuses to stop, wailing on the poor mutant until he's about to take a dip in the lava.
Alex then refuses to let this nonsense go on any longer and punches Shina across the face to knock her out, carrying her back to the Academy grounds.
He then demands Cortex change her back, but this is out of his control. Alex finally gets just how worthless Cortex is to them, and his patience...Is finally at an end.
He calls out for the Evil Twins and they appear from behind a nearby wall. Alex binds Cortex up in vines and presents him to them, pleading with them to fix Shina in exchange for giving them Cortex.
No fuss, no muss, Alex hands Cortex over to the Evil Twins without hesitation and they, surprisingly, hold up their end of the bargain by putting Shina back to normal.
But Alex is left with the consequences of his actions, as Aku is disappointed, and Shina quickly pieces together what he had done. She's upset at him, cause now they have no way to operate the Psychotron.
Alex reasons that he can do it himself, but Shina has zero faith in his abilities when he's so far been very un-Elemental Overlord-like.
Alex snaps at her, saying that she shouldn't have had so much faith in myths, especially since he's nothing like the original.
But Shina doesn't believe that excuses his horrible attitude up until this point.
Alex thinks that's rich coming from her, as she's been so unbelievably ditzy and unfocused, when she's supposed to be saving her goddamn sister. In FACT, HE seems to care more about saving her than she does.
Shina snaps and punches Alex across the face, grounding him. She then calls him ridiculous and stamps off, stating that she's going to find Nina and get the Psychotron to work on her own, without him.
Alex stands and crosses his arms, demanding to know what she plans to do after that, as HE'S the only way she can go to other planets. But she doesn't reply.
Alex then yells at the others, who part their separate ways, Uka has disappeared, while Aku and Crash follow Shina.
Alex stands alone, frustrated as all hell over not understanding how Shina can be the way he is. Then, suddenly, he's captured by a blinding light thanks to his Gaia Temporis and sent back in time...
He takes a bit of a journey through Shina's past, learning about how genuine her relationship with her little sister is and also just how strong yet flawed her kindness truly is.
Yet throughout it out Alex's cynicism tries to be stronger, believing that Shina's attitude is borderline nonsense...While secretly envying that he doesn't have even a fraction of the care she shares in his own heart.
He winds up very close to the present, on the day Shina left her home to be exact. There he runs across Auris, her mother, and recognizes her as the cloaked woman he fought when sent back in time a few years back.
She in turn, catches him doing this bit of time traveling and calls him out to have a brief chat. Despite all of Alex's objections, Auris has nothing but the utmost faith that she chose correctly by having Shina go to him for help. She believes that the two of them can help each other.
Alex wishes someone else had taken this job, like his clone, Mew. Auris insists that it HAS to be him, and no one else.
She wishes she had more time to chat, but the whims of the Gaia Temporis are many, and even Auris cannot fully tell what "she" will do next.
This puzzles Alex, as he's then quickly thrust back to the present day and given time to think about his partnership with Shina.
Now, at the very least though, he seems to understand that for as much as Shina's mind wanders, she does genuinely have her family's best interests in mind.
Meanwhile, Shina stampedes through the Academy and rants about Alex's behavior for a while, scaring the students.
She's then joined by Uka, who's only coming along to see if Nina might be more competent than Cortex.
They eventually make it to her room and Shina winds up setting off a trap, leaving her suspended over a pit of laser sharks.
Nina then tries to force information out of Shina, who is happy to divulge given she wants her help. But once Nina knows the scoop she plans to just hijack her uncle's blimp and take on the Evil Twins herself.
Shina stops her and then tries to cater to her evil whims with talks of world conquest and treasure. But Nina only agrees on the condition that Shina becomes her servant.
After making Shina bark like a dog for a bit, even Shina's kindness finds a limit and she breaks free from the trap to threaten Nina to help.
Nina's fine with that though, at least she's showing some backbone. Thus, the two of them quickly traverse the rooftops to get back to the campus grounds quickly.
But along the way they alert the headmaster, Madame Amberly. After Shina accidentally proclaims Nina's helping save the world, Amberly decides to punish them,
Her and Uka have a brief bickering contest about their incompetence on world domination, until Amberly gets that strange aura and slaps Uka cross the room.
Nina and Shina then team up and manage to knock Amberly into her gelatin pit, ruining her diet. Then they make a run for the blimp, where Crash and Aku wound up after failing to find Shina.
Aku decides to stay behind for Alex, leaving the rest to go after the Evil Twins. Shina barely cares.
Nina fixes the Psychotron and prepares to send them to the Evil Twins' dimension...However, an error implies that this won't be as easy as expected.
Back with Alex, he receives some council from Aku. Aku seems to have pieced together that Alex knows more than he lets on about the timeline of events.
With that in mind, Aku warns him not to let foreknowledge guide his every move, as the future can always change.
They then move onto the subject of the argument between him and Shina. Though its short, it does help Alex recognize something he missed and how now, he needs to apologize to Shina no matter what.
So strapping Aku to his chest, Alex rockets back to the iceberg lab...Only to find the lab is gone and a rift left in its place.
He uses the Gaia Temporis to bring him and Aku to a new dimension, right atop the lab. Before Alex can go searching for Shina and the others...He's suddenly surrounded by pirate dolphins.
Alex endures their shrieks for a bit and then breaks off while they're distracted. But he doesn't get far before he's knocked out by a blow dart.
He wakes up on another part of the island and starts to realize there's a sort of...pirate theme to this dimension, meaning this isn't the Evil Twins' dimension.
He's confronted by a giant pirate narwhal named...N. Arwhal, or Nefarious Arwhal for long. He leads a band of pirate dolphins in plundering the seven seas for treasure, and it just happens that his ship was crushed when Cortex's lab got the drop on it.
From there he had captured Nina, Coco (still paralyzed by the way), Shina, and is currently roasting Aku and Uka over a spit.
He's prepared to summarily execute Alex for his treachery here. But after learning what's going on, Alex uses his strength to break free and tries to confront N. Arwhal.
However, in this dimension he can't use his elemental powers, only his sword. Thus, the narwhal manages to get the upper hand in swordplay thanks to his surprising strength.
Alex then plays dirty with some gun powder to open an escape for him, where he then runs into a cave to evade their sight.
There he runs into Crash, who somehow had escaped capture. Though his presence is uplifting, Alex knows Crash won't be much help.
He gauges the cave, finding a treasure vault and a spinning door. With nothing to help him but his smarts and a sword, Alex comes up with a plan that includes the treasure, N. Arwhal, Crash, and...N. Tropy's mastery of time and space.
Alex carves a hole into the wall the shape of the artifact piece, then uses the Gaia Temporis to cause a tiny space-time distortion in the hole.
He then sends Crash out to lure N. Arwhal into the cave. Meanwhile, N. Tropy, N. Gin and N. Brio are lure to this dimension thanks to Alex's efforts. And, seeing Crash in the area, assumes this is where the treasure Cortex mentioned lies.
N. Arwhal falls for Alex's trap and joins him and Crash in his treasure trove. Right as he plans to skewer him through with his horn, N. Tropy places the artifact piece in the slot.
The trap door spins around and brings N. Arwhal to N. Tropy's group, and the artifact piece to Alex. Alex snickers and then runs off with Crash to free the others.
Meanwhile, N. Arwhal fights N. Tropy's group, quickly knocking the transformed N. Brio out and making a move on N. Tropy. Furious, N. Tropy opens a rift so N. Gin can bring in a robot to lay waste to the island.
Alex and Crash free the others, and Alex briefly reconciles with Shina. They have to hurry though, and save a longer conversation for later. Alex hands her a scimitar since the nature of this dimension seems to prevent her from using her rapier.
N. Gin starts blowing off dolphins left and right with his machine while the others scale Cortex's lab.
N. Arwhal, now with that strange aura, stabs his sword into the fist of N. Gin's robot and causes it pursue his escaped prisoners.
N. Tropy also warps to the top, furious at Crash for constantly being a thorn in his side. While Alex and Shina also fight N. Arwhal, Nina goes to fix the Psychotron.
Using N. Tropy's projectiles as ammo with Aku and Uka's help, Alex and Shina manage to knock N. Arwhal off the lab, then help Crash do the same to N. Tropy.
Right on time too, as Nina is able to send them to their true destination...The Tenth Dimension, home of the Evil Twins.
While Nina briefly works to fix Coco finally, Alex and Shina go outside and have a brief chat about the rescue. Shina thinks a liiiiiiittle better of Alex now, but Alex doesn't really care that much.
She does offer her heartfelt thanks for getting the artifact back though. And as some may say, Alex's heart...grew a tiny bit that day.
They are then called back, and recap Coco on everything that's happened so far. But at Shina's request, they have Coco stay back to do some secret things.
Alex then uses his regained powers to quickly ferry them over the island towards the Evil Twins' layer. Nina happens to notice Cortex on the ground and, despite Alex trying to speed away, Shina forces him to land and save him.
Cortex had been captured by Crash's evil counterpart in this world and was likely going to be eaten before he was freed.
Once he's freed and reunites with Nina, Cortex declares vengeance upon the Evil Twins, and his fury at Alex.
Alex isn't repentant in the slightest, frustrating Shina. Evil Crash then tries to kidnap Cortex and Nina, but Alex simply slaps him with a rock wall so they can get a move on.
They fly off to the Evil Twins' lair and after quickly passing through it, find the treasure horde they had been boasting about all this time.
N. Tropy, N. Brio and N. Gin, barely standing, have somehow gotten here before them though. Cortex plays this moment off as "morally wrong" but N. Tropy calls his bluff.
Turns out though that Cortex was just trying to act like a good guy so that Spyro the Dragon, who is here at this moment, will flame the "N." Trio for them.
They then continue on towards the Evil Twins' actual room...Huh? What do you mean its weird that Spyro's here? Whaaaaat, that's crazy, of course he'd be here, why wouldn't he be here?
The group confronts Victory and Maurice in their throne room, where Cortex reveals the truth he finally remembered.
The birds used to be his pets, but were shunted into the Tenth Dimension due to Cortex's first attempt at the Evolv-o-ray.
Victor and Maurice's minds were warped by the dimension's power, allowing them to be like gods in other dimensions. All they ever wanted afterwards as revenge on Cortex, taking notes from his playbook to torment him and conquer other dimensions.
But Cortex is surprisingly apologetic for what happened, wishing he could have done something to help them sooner.
Victor doesn't buy it, saying Cortex is a terrible man, and always has been a failure.
Alex, have been somewhat swayed by Cortex's display of humanity, stands up in his defense, saying that while Cortex may be a failure and evil...All he wants to do is conquer the world, not destroy it like the Evil Twins. Thus, they need to be stopped, and stop him they will.
Cortex tricks the Evil Twins into going into a cage, but they use this opportunity to transform it into a giant mech for one final battle. The artifact powers it up, much like the last one did the Sorceress.
Everyone puts their all into facing down the machine, smashing through the power sources. When Nina takes a hit meant for Cortex, Cortex swallows his cowardice and destroys the machine's arms.
Then, Coco drops in piloting the Mecha Bandicoot, rebuilt from scrap thanks to Shina's warning.
Crash and Shina jump on the Mecha Bandicoot to prepare to end the fight.
The Evil Twins' machine continues to undergo drastic changes under the artifact's influence, but Alex and Shina are able to help the heroes keep up against it.
Ultimately Shina provides an opening for Crash and Coco to slice the machine in half with the Mecha Bandicoot's chainsaw, causing the machine to explode.
Alex then singles out the Evil Twins as they try to escape, and, refusing to show them mercy, ends them by turning them into fried chicken.
He then helps Shina search for the artifact piece that got tossed somewhere on the arena. Unfortunately, Cortex found it forced...and its great unholy power possesses him with a black aura.
He then assaults Alex and Shina with newly gained psychic power, and prompts Uka to join him, and Nina too. But Nina refuses, thinking something's really, really wrong. As punishment, she's knocked out.
Cortex then declares how great this feel, and says that with this power, he will finally end the eternal feud against all bandicoots and then use this power to merge all dimensions into the perfect Cortex Dimension.
Everyone still standing draws their weapons to fight Cortex and Uka-Uka, corrupted by the power of the artifact.
Cortex's immense psychic powers prove to be a dreadful obstacle for the group to overcome, but through persistence and determination Shina manages to get the artifact off him and rid him of the power that came with it.
Alex then knocks Cortex out and traps Uka in a sphere just to be safe. The artifact's power doesn't seem to be working anymore so at last, they can rest easy.
As much as Alex would like to finish Cortex off, they need to get back home, and also, Shina refuses to let him kill another human.
They make it back to the Psychotron and after slapping Cortex awake, make him take them back to their home dimension.
Then Cortex tries to make one last play to sent Crash and Coco away to another dimension, only for Alex to reflect the beam back at him, making him shrink into Crash's mind...somehow.
Nina then grabs Uka and decides to cut her losses and go back to school.
With everything all settled here, Alex and Shina say goodbye to Crash and the others and thank them for their help.
Then they stick around a bit longer to have a chat over the last few hours. Alex and Shina both try to apologize for how heated their argument got, but Alex makes a point of confirming if Shina actually learned something from it.
Shina agrees that she's been a little too distracted because of how wonderful it is to be in these world she used to play all the time...But because these worlds are real, the dangers they hold are also real. She vows to take the journey more seriously, but not to stop helping people if they can along the way.
Alex, on the other hand, musters up the courage to tell her he was sorry for calling her a clown all the time, and that she did genuinely have his best interests at heart.
With that in mind, Alex, after MUCH hesitation, decides he's ok with calling her...a friend. And she accepts without hesitation, surprising him.
Now they have to head off in search of the third artifact piece. But as they leave, something bothers Alex...
Upon awaking, Cortex says he has very little recollection of how extreme he got. It was like he was himself, but not really. And there was a voice in his head, compelling him to accept this dark power...
Alex is disturbed, and worries that a powerful enemy lies in the darkness, watching...
Part 4.5 Story 2 END.