"Is it time?"

"No."

"You sure? It looks ready to…pop!"

"It's not going to pop. I got another month to go."

"You sure?"

Shantae looked down at her enlarged stomach area. At this point, her belly button stuck out and her belly hid her feet. She looked up back towards Rottytops and stated. "Pretty sure."

Rottytops let out a happy little giggle before patting Shantae on the back. She then lead her friend into the baby shower being held in the town hall. Shantae felt pretty pleased that the people were Scuttle Town were celebrating her, but annoyed that it's for her baby and not for saving the town. This is the first party they held for her honor and it is for this puke-inducing, pee-pouring, hormone-rising, crazy hunger paining baby?

Speaking of hunger, she practically stampeded over to the concessions table and grabbed a green apple slice and dipped into a bowl of queso.

"I'm never getting pregnant." Sky commented on as she watched Shantae repeated her process of taking various other handfoods and dipping them into the bowl of queso.

"Well, I can't." Rottytops talked as placed a small peck on Sky's cheeks. "I'm dead after all." She looked away with a curious smile. "I'm pretty sure my equipment would fall off…"

"Enough." Sky playfully pushed Rottytops away. "And how would we even have a kid?"

"The same way Shantae and Risky did it?" Rottytops pointed towards the walking balloon that is the town's half-genie defender, who just stolen a bowl of tortilla chips…and was walking over to the chocolate fountain. "I've been pestering Shantae about she and Risky pulled it off…and she's going to tell me one day."

"And you want to be the father I'm guessing?" Sky sighed as she stirred her drink while motioning her eyes towards a guard to go and keep Shantae from devouring the entire bar. "I can imagine there's a way for you to do that…"

"Oh yeah." Rottytops nodded. "Plenty of dark magic spells for me to use to further our relationship…" She then hopped behind Sky so she could lay a hand on Sky's rump and play with it. Sky tensed up and clenched her teeth, but let Rottytops have her fun as she toyed with her bubbly ass. At one point, she just accepted that Rotty was going to do her thing and it's better to let it go on. Afterwards, Risky would be more accepting of punishment.

…and honestly, Rotty did have a unusual touch about her. A cool if slippery touch.

"Do you want to say a few words?" The mayor walked up to Shantae and pointed to a podium with a microphone.

"Uh, sure." Shantae let out a breath before walking over to the podium. She rapped on the microphone and out came some reverb, causing some of the elderly in the audience to wince and fall to the ground while holding her heads like that was going to pop. "Sorry." Shantae squeaked out. She cleared her throat…away from the mic…before properly speaking: "Thank you for everything, everyone!" She chimed out loud before the crowd cheered out. "I hope that everyone is having a good time!"

"You got booze!" Bolo shouted from the back. "Why is there booze at a party for a pregnant woman?"

Shantae didn't have a answer, but a quick look over to her good zombie friend and it came clear. Rottytops looked over to the side. The one good thing about being undead is that any sort of tell could be removed. Twitching left eye? Find a eyeball that has the same size and same color. Shaking her hands for a second? Tighter stitches. Had a habit of looking off and whistling? Well, you had to go and see a doctor to fix up your brain as that's mental behavior rather than a physical quirk tied to mental behavior. Seems like Rottytops paid good money as she just looked over to the side at the food table.

"Now I don't know why you're holding this a month early…" Shantae said while patting her stomach. "…but maybe we could this a month from now?" Shantae put on a cheesy smile to punch up her delivery of that half-assed joke, gardening a few chuckles from a few of the folk. "Thank you for everything, again!" She repeated before steeping down with a small blush on her face. "I'm not a fan of public speaking." She admitted to Sky.

"I figured." Sky shook her head.

The rest of the party went like any other party. People talking, eating, drinking, farting in a private corner…Shantae wondered why Bolo even bothered. But Shantae had to go home early, as her energy had ran out. At least she could take the gifts home, open them up, and indiscriminately comment on them. Sky easily lowered Shantae into her chair while Bolo and Sky dropped the gifts off into a corner.

"Let's start with the mayor's gift." Shantae asked. Sky reached for the package with the most expensive wrapping paper on it and handed it to her friend. The wrapping had little genie lamps on it! But despite the impressive looking cover, under it laid a shoebox with…shoes. Purple slippers. Shantae took one look at the shoes and stated: "These won't fit me, pregnant or not pregnant."

"Can I have them?" Rottytops asked. "They look nice. And I have been meaning to get smaller feet for a while…"

"She thinks that having smaller feet will make her quieter while moving." Sky shook her head. "But I'm pretty sure those shoes are for someone in elementary…I believe that mayor's granddaughter just passed the fifth grade."

"Hey, Bolo, what did you get me?" Shantae asked, while turning towards said friend.

"Kid's shoes." Bolo simply stated. Everyone looked at him with annoyed looks. "Just kidding. Some of that lotus flower lotion you mentioned some time ago." Shantae flashed him a quick smile before tearing open the package and retrieving the bottle. Shantae gave a quick thanks before going into the next gift; going by the fact the wrapping paper had previously used and taped back together, it's Rottytops.

"A collar and chain." Shantae blankly stated as she held up said item.

"Yeah, it's Risky Boots' kid after all." Rottytops nodded. "You're going to need to keep it on a leash."

"Right." Shantae put the collar down before turning towards Sky. "So, what did you get me?"

"I considered giving you a bird as a pet…" Sky started. "But given that you're taking care of a baby…and your past record with handling birds…I opted to give you something that you could actually use." And inside of the cartoon bird-wrapped package laid a thick book titled 'How To Be A Parent Without Really Trying'.

"Oh, thank you!" Shantae got up, with some difficulty, and went over to hug Sky.

"You sure you're not going to drop Nina right now?" Rottytops turned her head. "Or is it going to get bigger?"

"I have another month." Shantae repeated.

"Regardless, we have everything ready once it's time." Sky explained. "We have a cart with all of the necessary supplies nearby."

"I really couldn't ask for better friends." Shantae sighed, returning to her seat. She remained still for a bit before adding, "You're going to have to give me the rest of the presents. I can't move."

"You sure you're not ready to drop?"

"Oh, enough!"