Perhaps after the events of Crash Bandicoot: Warped and before the events of the Wrath of Cortex, Coco had been working on this machine. Coco finished the final adjustments on the device when she was interrogated by Aku Aku on the development of the machine, and thus the game's story began there. When Crash imprisons a mask, he will gain a Super Power in the process (there is one exception to this rule, as it is located in a normal level: Banzai Bonsai). Eventually, all of the hubs lead up to Cortex himself.