Quantum Masks

The Quantum Masks are a group of masks that first appeared in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, who are all siblings. Throughout the game, Crash and Coco can use their powers to avoid obstacles and cross specific areas. Whenever Crash or Coco use their powers, their outfits change to match the corresponding Quantum Mask.

Pre-series history
Not much is known about Quantum Masks' past history. At some point at time, they were hibernating for hundreds of centuries.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
When Aku Aku feels a strange power coming from N. Sanity Peak, he warns Crash to go with him to investigate this power. Crash arrives in N. Sanity Peak to investigate the great power who has awoken. He passes through several obstacles within the peak until he finds Lani-Loli, one of the Quantum Masks. Just as Lani-Loli awakes from his slumber, a hole opens below Crash and Lani-Loli and they fall. Upon landing, they encounter the guardian of the Quantum Mask as it starts to chase Crash and Lani-Loli, but they manage to escape the guardian and meet up with Coco and Aku Aku. Lani-Loli then discovers a dimensional rift before explaining the whole dilemma to Crash, Coco and Aku Aku as they go through it, transporting them to the Hazardous Wastes.

Crash, Coco and Lani-Loli begin their quest to find Akano, but N. Gin appears in front of them using a jetpack. Lani-Loli believes that N. Gin was the "aforementioned putz" that he mentioned, but Coco tells him not to worry as N. Gin always loses to Crash or Coco. N. Gin warns them that he will not lose this time and tells them about his preparations for his heavy metal show with his Weapon of Mass Percussion. The second Quantum Mask, Akano, is used as a power source of W.O.M.P., but is accidentally thrown through a quantum rift into Salty Wharf after the battle, prompting them to go through the rift to find him.

After the bandicoots defeat Louise, they find Akano. Crash gets him and accidentally drops the mask in his foot as Lani-Loli warns him about Akano being heavy. Eventually Akano awakes and thinks that Crash and Coco were a threat. Before he started to intimidate them, Lani-Loli interrupts him saying that the bandicoots come for help and Akano guides the trio to Tranquility Falls.

When they come into Tranquility Falls, The quantum rift spat out Coco and Crash and he crashes into a gong, after making a tremendous noise. Coco asks for Lani-Loli where is the next mask, The mask tells to the bandicoots that they are in the wrong dimension to find the next mask. But then N. Brio appears in front of Lani-Loli and he gets scared, N. Brio tells to the trio that they must pass through his challanges in the way until they arrive at his battlefield and get a reward, then N. Brio escapes. Eventually, the bandicoots arrived at N. Brio's battlefield and they confront him. After that, N. Brio is defeated, accidentally transforming into a pterodactyl and choosing to launch one last assault. Unexpectedly, he lays an egg and flies off. Coco is also mortified by this, but Crash claims the egg before getting dragged out by his sister and they are transported to the Mosquito Marsh. After Crash and Coco face off the enemies and the challanges of the swamp, they find the third Quantum Mask Kupuna-Wa, the Time mask awakes from her hundreds of centuries sleep and she greets the Bandicoots like old friends, kisses Crash and tells him and Coco about their future before Lani-Loli interrupts her before she reveals how they all die and they travel to the 11th Dimension in the year 1954. When they arrive at the 11th Dimension, Cortex (via a holographic message) warns them not to freeze while they try to find him on the mountain. Lani-Loli asks to Coco how many times they beat Cortex, Coco answers three and the mask gets surprised.

When Crash and Coco arrive in the mountain at Cortex's airship, Cortex tells to them that everything will be just like the old times and will going according with his plan and they confront the mad scientist. After Cortex is defeated again, he laments the cycle of endless fighting between him and the Bandicoots seems to last forever. N. Tropy interrupts by saying how Cortex couldn't handle this simplest of tasks. Cortex decides to quit, while N. Tropy admits he doesn't need Cortex anymore, because he found a new partner and a new plan. N. Tropy says that the Rift Generator is too powerful for simply conquering the multiverse and decides to use his generator to rewrite the history of the multiverse completely, ensuring that Cortex, the masks and especially the Bandicoots will never exist. Realizing they now have a common enemy, Cortex makes an alliance with Crash and Coco to defeat N. Tropy with Crash happily giving the doctor a hug, after that them are transported to Eggipus Dimension.

After Crash and Coco escape from the T-rex in the way of find the next mask, they find the fourth and final Quantum Mask Ika-Ika. After he awakes from his hundreds of centuries sleep, he is happy to see Lani-Loli, but then Coco interrupts this moment and he flips Crash, Coco, Cortex and Lani-Loli to down and then they are going to defeat N. Tropy in Bermugula's Orbit. After the others defeat the N. Tropies and Dingodile does an oxtail to send them for another dimension, all four Quantum Masks reunite to close all the Rift Generator quantum rifts and they decide to celebrate the victory by going to Neon City in The Sn@xx Dimension. When they come into the dimension, Crash, Coco and Aku Aku appreciates the futuristic city. They explore the entire dimension and then Cortex is the last one to arrive at the others, after Cortex reached Crash, Coco, Dingodile and Tawna, he realises that with Kupuna-Wa's ability to control time, that there is another way to end his constant feuds with the Bandicoots. Cortex then captures Kupuna-Wa using his ray gun and runs for his airship. With some assistance from Tawna and Dingodile, Crash and Coco give chase. When Crash and Coco reach Cortex, he uses Kupuna-Wa to open a quantum rift to go back in time to 1996, in order to undo his greatest failure. The wind pushes Crash and Coco off the airship roof and they grab the edge of airship door.

After Crash and Coco grabbed the edge of the Cortex airship door, they followed him back to 1996. Cortex communicates with his past self using his "super secret personal frequency", as the two bandicoots watch over, in an attempt to convince him(self) to abort the experiment which lead to the creation of Crash. This comes to no avail as the past Cortex grows confused and distraught, believing the present Cortex to be an imposter before ordering N. Brio to alert the Lab Assistants in panic. Following this, Crash and Coco must make their way through a massive manufacturing facility that appears to create the explosive substance stored within the unstable Nitro Crates. All through out, the protagonists are confronted by numerous rat henchmen, electric roaches and explosive green sludge creatures, all the while listening to the two Cortexes argue over the intercom.

Other hazards include massive spinning cog wheels, water streams that power bladed turbines and substantial amounts of liquid Nitro flooding the lower areas, with lava platforms until they finally arrived at Cortex Castle. Coming inside of the Castle, Crash and Coco face several enemies and challanges and they come into the Cortex Command Center area to defeat the mad scientist again, after Cortex is defeated for the second time, a few crates fall on his head and he passes out. Crash frees the past Cortex who goes to his lab to subject the past Crash to the Cortex Vortex, stating that his first order of business will be to dispose of the future Cortex. Crash rests on a eject button which causes the Cortex Vortex to break down, with Coco realizing this being the reason why the experiment failed in the first place. Akano drops on Cortex's back and the other Quantum Masks send Cortex to the end of universe. Cortex, now stranded in a desolate land with absolutely nothing, is a little bit sad for being alone but then is happy for getting peace and quiet. Dingodile reopens Dingo's Diner, while on N. Sanity Island, Crash, Coco and Tawna are playing video games.

Lani-Loli
"Alright! Two masks down, two to go! Feeling a little less panicked. I was at a 10 before, now I'm at a solid... let's say 9.78888."

- Lani-Loli Lani-Loli is the Quantum Mask of Phase and the tritagonist of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. With him, Crash and Coco can phase various objects, crates and obstacles in and out of existence. Objects that can be affected appear with ghostly blue wisps floating around them. Objects that are already phased out can be identified by an intangible blue replica in its place. He was the first Quantum Mask to be recruited, found by Crash within N. Sanity Peak and escaping the guardian of the peak.

Physical Appearance
Lani-Loli is an hourglass shaped, light-blue mask. He has two points at the bottom of him, and a wide fan-like crest on the top. There are two round parts on either side of the middle of his face, resembling ears. He has round pure white eyes with purple rims, small purple eyebrows and a mouth with purple lips and bright white teeth. The top half of him is solid, seeming to be made of a sky blue stone, while the bottom half is phased out at all times, being a translucent icy blue. The four prongs of his crest each have one or two arrows, each prong's arrows pointing in a different direction.

Personality
Lani-Loli displays a skittish and anxious personality, seeming to be in a constant state of panic throughout the game. He is almost always worrying about the other Quantum Masks and the fate of the multiverse, until both Dr. N. Tropies are defeated.

Akano
"Ban-di-coot. ...hmm. Follow."

- Akano Akano is the Quantum Mask of Dark Matter. Using his power, Crash and Coco can spin violently after a jump to hover in the air and glide from platform to another. This spin can also be used to break Locked Crates and knock back certain colored projectiles. The spin lasts until the power is turned off again. While spinning, Crash and Coco move automatically, making the player have very little control while moving. Originally meant to be obtained after defeating N. Gin's robot drummer in the Hazardous Wastes, Akano bounced away until Crash and Coco caught up with him in the next world, Salty Wharf, making him the second mask to be recruited.

Physical Appearance
Akano is formed from multiple dark purple rocks, held together by pure force. He is shaped a little like a beaker, with a thinner top widening out into a large chin at the bottom. He has a small mouth that is entirely white on the inside, and pure white eyes with thick eyebrows that extend outwards, curving down on either side of him, almost like handles. There is a strange glowing white glyph on his chin, and a similarly glowing triangular marking on his forehead. Small pieces of rock constantly float around him.

Personality
Akano is a brooding mask who exudes an intimidating aura, one that initially frightens Crash and Coco. He is monosyllabic and says very little in general. He is also much heavier than he appears, heavy enough to cause Crash to accidentally drop him on his own foot. Despite his intimidating demeanour, Akano is a good person at heart, if a little blunt. Even his bundle of nerves of a brother, Lani-Loli, is completely at ease around him. Akano seems to be very fond of food, especially nachos.

Kupuna-Wa
"Wah? What time is it? Oh goodness, I ought to know... Crash! Coco! C'mon, give old Kupuna-Wa a kiss, eh?"

- Kupuna-Wa Kupuna-Wa is the Quantum Mask of Time. With her, Crash and Coco can slow down time, which makes it easier to jump across fast-moving platforms and avoid fast enemies. She was the third mask to be recruited by Crash and Coco, found in Mosquito Marsh.

Physical Appearance
Kupuna-Wa is a round mask, with main part of her face made of a pale beige material. Her lower jaw and eyelids are gold, as well as a golden headpiece around the top of her. The headpiece has turquoise markings on it that resemble the phases of the moon, and it also has the hands of a clock poking out at the top, resembling hair pins. Two hourglasses hang on either side of her face, resembling earrings. A gold line goes down between her eyes like a nose, and her eyes are pure turquoise. The inside of her mouth is whatever colour of what is behind her as there's nothing behind it.

Personality
Kupuna-Wa's nature is reminiscent of a grandmotherly figure and exhibits a very carefree attitude. Given her complete knowledge of all time, her omniscience has made her comfortable with talking about dangerous future events with no concern of the impact such knowledge might have. She has a rather dark sense of humour, and likes playfully teasing Lani-Loli from time to time. Kupuna-Wa is the first female mask to appear in the Crash Bandicoot series.

Ika-Ika
"When's existence ever done anything for anyone, anyway?"

- Ika-Ika (pessimistic) "Oh, don't mind grumpy gus, he's always a downer."

- Ika-Ika (optimistic) Ika-Ika is the Quantum Mask of Gravity. Using his power, Crash and Coco can flip the direction of gravity to walk on the ceiling to solve puzzles and avoid certain hazards. He was the fourth mask to be recruited, found by Crash, Coco and Cortex in the Eggipus Dimension.

Physical Appearance
Ika-Ika is shaped like a double-sided arrow, with one face being on either side, upside-down to each other. The upper, optimistic half is a more turquoise colour, with round, pure yellow eyes, markings resembling mountains, and long curly markings for a moustache that extends down into the other half. The other, pessimistic half fades into a blue colour, with the curls of the other half's moustache resembling puffed cheeks. This side is themed more like the ocean as a contrast to the other half's mountains. This half has a dark blue triangle attached to the tip of the point at the top of it. Ika-Ika flips over depending on which half is in charge at the given moment, with each side sharing the same mouth in the centre, yet still having their own unique voice.

Personality
Ika-Ika has a split personality, visibly demonstrated by opposing faces on his upper and lower halves; one side is refined and optimistic, while the other is gloomy and nihilistic. The two halves are aware of each other, and will often comment on what the other has said. Ika-Ika is the least developed of the four Quantum Masks, being discovered last and having the fewest cutscene appearances.

Notably, the only times both sides are active at the same time is when he gets a proper scare, such as when Lani-Loli screams at him when he's sleeping.

Appearances

 * Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

Trivia

 * The names of the Quantum Masks each refer to a Hawaiian term:
 * "Lani-Loli" derives from "lani", meaning "sky" or "royalty"; as well as "loli", meaning "change" or "transform".
 * "Akano" derives from "'akano", meaning "substance".
 * "Kupuna-Wa" derives from "kupuna wahine", meaning "grandmother".
 * "Ika-Ika" derives from "ikaika", meaning "strength".
 * Kupuna-Wa can be seen in the PlayStation "It's Time To Play" commercial released months before the game's official reveal, though she is dark blue instead of gold.
 * Despite being male in the original English and in all other localisations, Lani-Loli is portrayed as female in the Portuguese dub.
 * The concept of elemental masks was previously used in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, with the Elementals, who also (ironically enough) appeared in the fourth installment as cameos.

Quantum-Masken Máscaras Cuánticas Máscaras Quânticas