Chapter 11, Pt. 3: Menacing Misconceptions

And without missing a beat (depending on which way you look at it), we have emerged from the dark, ominous pits of uncertainty to delve… right into a dark, ominous pit… of literal proportions. Now, last we spent our quality time together, Shantae and Rottytops had joined forces to rescue their male damsel in distress (would that be, like… a bachelor in a bind… or maybe a dude in danger? Ah! Got it! Prince in Peril... or, something like that), plowing, shooting, whipping, and burning their way through a horde of hideous, ginormous, superpowered, man-eating spiders as they tirelessly traversed through the depths of the Silky Strings Lair of Eight-Legged Despair. However, we did not get to explore what exactly was happening on the other end of things with regards to our endangered serviceman from an unknown land… which, I know is a huge change in pace from what happened last time we found ourselves in this predicament. But fret not, reader! For, we will begin this escapade jumping right into things from the perspective of the fabled interdimensional soldier right… about… now!

LOCATION: EMPEROR'S QUARTERS, SILKY STRINGS LAIR OF EIGHT-LEGGED DESPAIR, SPIDER WEB ISLAND, SEQUIN LAND (quite a mouthful, eh?)

DATE: SEPTEMBER 30TH, 16 P.G.F.

TIME: 2317 HOURS

"…I definitely appreciate you agreein' t' give me one o' those chocolate bars o' yours for free, Mr. Fuzzles," Tay calmly expressed gratitude to an unknown second party as he lay on the ground in the middle of a massive, cathedral-like super dome whose ceiling and walls were almost entirely coated in gross, slimy turquoise and purple-hued spider webs. The light source in the room was a series of flaming torches lining the perimeter of the room on the ground and mounted along the walls, housed by spider-shaped lanterns to draw up the dramatic effect. What was most curious, however, was who this 'Mr. Fuzzles' was. And believe me, you're about to find out. "My condolences on the wife, though. I'm sure she was a good wom-! Er… spider queen."

"That she was, human… That she was…" Mr. Fuzzles, a monumentally gigantic, fuzzy jet black funnel-web spider that appeared to be the size of a two-story house (just telling you that sent the most disturbing chill up my spine), spoke with an alarmingly sophisticated accent. "I must apologize to thee for launching that surprise web attack upon thou after thou had soundly and fairly defeated me. Handing thee one of mine Emperor Spider Chocolates free of charge is the least I could do for all the trouble I hath put thee through. I must say, however... Thou art quite the capable warrior for a mere human… Thou hath caught me completely off-guard."

"Big surprises come in small packages, I guess…" Tay joked as he wriggled to scratch a sudden itch on his back… which he found himself unable to properly take care of, as his hands were basically glued to the ground above his head by a massive, sticky gob of web. An even bigger gob found itself plastered all over his bare torso. "In all honesty, though, I probably shouldn't have turned my back on you after you started explodin'. I'll admit; for as big as you are, I didn't know you could be so stealthy… even after the battle was over."

"'Tis a trait all mine arachnid kin share. Nevertheless, I shall release thee from thy binds. I have nary a quarrel with thee, and I must express mine sincerest apologies for attempting to smite thee," Mr. Fuzzles offered, gingerly picking himself up off the ground and limping (or, the spider equivalent of limping) toward Tay on only four of his eight legs. "I certainly paid a… nrgh…! A hefty price for it…"

"Cool. Thanks for bein' such a good sport, homie," Tay acknowledged. "I didn't mean t' hurt you too bad, but when you cornered me earlier, I… might've gotten a tiny bit desperate an' lost control o' myself…" he further explained as he momentarily looked away in a telling sense of pensive guilt.

"Thou needn't explain thyself, sir. It is wholly forgiven. I am… relieved to know that thy purpose for treading upon the deepest reaches of Spider Web Island was merely to acquire one of mine coveted candy bars…"

"Which reminds me…" Tay pondered, evidently just chilling while bonding with a massive, albeit wounded Boss Monster he'd apparently actually defeated. That certainly required some form of explanation, but... I honestly found myself distracted by the fact that the two of them were speaking so casually to each other while Tay was stuck to the ground with webs and completely vulnerable. "Of all things… Why would you be makin' candy bars from this far out o' the way of everything? I'm curious."

"Well, sir… I thought I could cope with mine loss by opening up a candy business right here on Spider Web Island like mine beloved wife and I always talked about… Alas, betwixt mine unfathomable sorrow, inability to exact retribution on her killer, and the want of creative culinary direction, I hath failed mine self and dearest Empress Spider again and again… I may at least gain some pleasure in the knowledge that someone out there harbors such a healthy desire for mine sweet, savory delicacies that they would journey through a smorgasbord of perils and life-threatening circumstances across Sequin Land to obtain some of them. It flatters me, to be candid."

"Uh... Y-yeah, that uh... That's exactly why I'm here..." Tay remarked with just the slightest hint of sarcasm, considering he found Mr. Fuzzles assumptions just a TAD inaccurate. "I was just dyin' t' know your secret recipe for research purposes an' all that jazz..." he further commented, sighing as he thought about all the grueling experiences he had to endure just to get one lousy chocolate bar; one that he wasn't even going to eat, mind you!

"Oh! Well, I would be delighted to give thee a hint or two," Mr. Fuzzles obliviously, yet happily began to share. "Believe it or not, I craft the Emperor Spider Chocolate primarily from mine own webbing. That, blended with a mix of grasshopper exoskeletons, cocoa powder, and raw Monster Egg yolks. The webbing is key in what gives them that enriching nougat texture, in addition to the richness of the Monster Egg yolks and cocoa powder that accentuates the exquisitely sweet, savory taste. All of this, wrapped up with that satisfying crunch from the grasshopper shells when they are bitten into. It is quite a treat, is it not?"

"Mm-hmm… That's uh… That's special," Tay uneasily 'agreed', resisting the urge to retch as he thought about just what such an unholy concoction would do to him if he ever found himself inclined to consume it. "Uh… Either way, whoever killed the Empress Spider, I would hope feels terrible about it an' is thinkin' about what they did," he stated, unaware of who said killer might be. "Still, don't give up hope in makin' life better for yourself. An' take it from me: Don't dwell on the past or fixate on how other people's sufferin' could bring you any sort o' consolation. It won't make you happy t' do so. I had t' learn that lesson myself not too long ago, but it's definitely been ringin' true. Just… live well. That's the greatest revenge of all, as someone once said back where I'm from."

"Duly noted, friend," Mr. Fuzzles somberly agreed as he crawled over Tay, producing the Emperor Spider Chocolate from his invisible spider pocket (don't ask) and laying it upon the soldier's chest. "Thou hath earned this." Though unable to strike a celebratory pose due to being webbed to the ground in literally the most jeopardizing position imaginable, Tay got Emperor Spider Chocolate, which automatically disappeared into his inventory.

"Awesome. I gotta say… for a giant, man-eatin' spider that was originally bent on revenge, you sure do happen t' be a stand-up guy, Mr. Fuzzles."

"Thy compliments warm me from fangs to thorax, though I assure you I harbor no taste for human flesh whatsoever. Might I also proclaim that thou art also a 'stand-up guy' for conversing with me so cordially, despite the brutal and macabre nature of our duel?" the gigantic arthropod complimented as he began using his injured front legs to dig away at the webbing on the soldier's torso to free him.

"Glad we're on the same page. Much obliged, friend," Tay acknowledged, though he remained just a teensy bit nervous about the fact that this frightening behemoth of a venomous spider, that outsized him in every dimension by no small amount, was standing over him as though to devour him. He remained as calm as he could in the wake of having just apparently befriended the Boss Monster after defeating him, which was evidently followed by him winding up being captured. How any series of events like that could've possibly happened without me having the scoop to give you is well beyond me. Makes me wish we'd tuned into the battle itself to see how it transpired, though we still got to see another adventure in the meantime. Alas, we remain forever curious about what happened between Tayshan and Mr. Fuzzles leading up to this 'bonding' experience until somebody spills the beans. However, just as Mr. Fuzzles was committing to the process of undoing the webs gluing Tay's abdomen to the floor, a sudden bout of rustling and tumbling could be heard coming from the far end of the cavernous Emperor's Quarters.

"Hm? It appears we have another visitor…" Mr. Fuzzles murmured, taking his attention off Tay and limping toward the entrance to his den. "Excuse me for a second, human, while I investigate…"

"Huh… I only wonder if that could be who I think it is…" Tay pondered as he also heard the muffled thumping noises as they grew closer and louder. The suspenseful wait wouldn't be long, however, as the thumping rapidly grew louder to the point where both Tay and Mr. Fuzzles could hear a series of pained grunts sounding out in tandem with the increasingly voluminous banging noises. Soon after that, the thumps and grunts turned into a pair of female voices screaming in terror. And, without warning, a sudden, rocky *CRASH*, the 'visitors' in question came barreling through, rolling all over each other before they landed with an unceremonious *THUD* on the ground of the lair through what could be described as a makeshift laundry chute of a pathway into the Boss Monster's secret chamber.

"Oww…" a green-skinned, red-eyed young woman groaned as she gingerly picked herself up. "Worst… landing… ever…" she further complained, twisting her head a full 180 degrees to straighten herself out.

"You're telling me… Ugh… Hopefully, that's the last time we have to bounce around these dark, smelly, foggy, spider-infested caves using nothing but your Head Warps and web trampolines…" an additional young woman, this one bearing cappuccino-hued skin, an incredibly revealing gold and blue snake-themed dancer costume, and a ridiculously long, braided purple ponytail, agreed as she stood and brushed herself off.

"Goodness gracious…! After all this time… She finally reappears…!" Mr. Fuzzles murmured in what appeared to be utter disbelief at the sight of the purple-haired girl, staring directly at her. "Mine plan hath succeeded after all…!"

"You two are cuttin' it real close this time around…" Tay muttered in a mix of relief and uncertainty as he caught sight of his allies unceremoniously arriving on the scene in… the nick of time, I guess?

"Hm? Oh, wow! There's a Stage Clear platform on the other side of the room! But how…?" the lavender-haired girl pointed out in surprise before catching sight of the Boss Monster standing before her. Upon further inspection, she noticed a familiar-looking young man lying on the ground in the middle of the room behind said Boss Monster, his hands apparently having been bound to the floor. "Tayshan!" Shantae called out, taking a few steps to rush toward him before Mr. Fuzzles moved to stand directly in her way well before she could reach him. "Hey! Let go of my friend!" she demanded, ready for a fight to save her sidekick's life. "Whatever you were planning to do to him, you can forget about it! Get out of the way now, and no one has to get h-!"

"MURDERER!" Mr. Fuzzles roared loudly enough to break the sound barrier, startling everyone in the cave as he glared squarely at Shantae with every last one of his eight beady, crimson red eyes. The volume of his voice alone seemed to cause a perilous earthquake, as the very walls of the cavern rumbled and vibrated with enough intensity that one would think it would've collapsed in on itself. "I did not have the highest expectation that thou would appear before me on this day, but at long last, thou art here! Thou actually dareth to show thy face around these parts again after what foul atrocity thou hast committed upon mine family!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Shantae asked, certifiably thrown off by the massive spider's boisterous accusation.

"Thou shalt not play dumb with me, wretched spawn of a genie! Thou art a heinous blight upon the face of this land!"

"I don't understand, Mr. Spider Monster. We just got here. What did I do to upset you?"

"And the charade continues! Outrageous, I say! It is enough to presume thou hast exterminated mine brethren in mine lair to reach these quarters! However, what ails me most is that thou exploded mine wife via obligatory Boss Battle during one of thy previous tours of mayhem and destruction wrought upon the secluded oasis of Spider Web Island, and thou art refusing to acknowledge responsibility, ye wicked djinn!"

"Whoa, what!?" Tay called out from his binds. "SHE'S the one who killed your wife!? Are you sure about that, Mr. Fuzzles? Could there be some sort o' mistake?"

"I am as certain as the sun is to rise and fall throughout the day, mine friend!" the eight-legged behemoth answered, his stance growing more hostile toward the young woman who stood before him. "The one who vanquished mine beloved Empress Spider was a rowdy, irreverent purple-haired humanoid genie fiend whose candy-colored locks of doom did her in when she was just trying to protect our old home!"

"…No way…"

"Empress Spider…? Hmm…" Shantae murmured, Mr. Fuzzles' statement causing her to reminisce about the last time she had been on Spider Web Island. She flashed through a series of vague memories of her past trip through its haunted swamps, her bid of carrying an injury-feigning Rottytops through one of the most perilous obstacle courses imaginable, and a lengthy detour through a deep, elaborate underground dungeon maze… which, now that she remembered it, culminated with her being forced to defeat a gigantic, terrifying spider monster of a similar size to Mr. Fuzzles because it had captured Rottytops with the intent to feast on her body. "Ohh, wow… Empress Spider was your-?"

"Hang on a sec… YOU'RE Mr. Fuzzles?" Rottytops intervened and questioned, revealing that she apparently knew who the giant spider was.

"Yes, I am," he answered, tightly containing his rage at Shantae to answer Rotty's question. "Thou must be that plucky young lady whose acquaintance I had acquired from the confines of mine lair entrance. Rottytops, was it not?"

"Yeah! I… guess it's great to finally meet face-to-face. I won't lie, though; I didn't expect you to be another humongous, hideous, hairy spider! Er, n-no offense. Your voice gave me a whole different impression of how I thought you'd look."

"Hmph. Such brash and ill-natured naivete…" he spat, evidently not a strong proponent of Rotty's assertion. "Regardless, I suppose it is a pleasure to finally make thy acquaintance up close and personal after the few weeks we spent talking from opposite ends of mine cave entrance, however marginal it may be. I certainly cannot say I relish the fact that thou art another one of those decrepit, repulsive shambling monstrosities that aimlessly roam through the dead woods of the island, incessantly moaning about brains…"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? You got a problem with zombies or something?"

"However, the fact of this matter is that the slayer of the love of mine life finally stands before me, ready to face her inevitable judgment!" he declared, ignoring Rotty's indignant question.

"Huh? Face my judgment…? What does that mean? Rotty, how exactly did you two get to know each other?" Shantae asked, growing concerned with how far south this discussion was heading in no time flat. "Because now that I'm connecting the dots, I'm starting to get a really bad feeling about this…"

"You an' me both…" Tay murmured, growing very uncertain of what would happen next.

"Whoa, relax, Mr. Fuzzles! Sorry I said what I said, and I hope my being a zombie doesn't offend you too badly. With any luck, we can still make our friendship work. No sweat! I mean hey, I brought Shantae here just like you asked!" Rottytops confessed to try and defuse the sudden conflict. "Granted, I thought you wanted to meet her up in that cave, not all the way down here."

"You what!?" Shantae and Tayshan yelled simultaneously, equally appalled by Rotty's statement.

"Excellent… I doth knew it to be a suitable precaution to deploy that portly wizard to lure ye here to the island…" Mr. Fuzzles confidently admitted, revealing that the wizard at Shantae's house was possibly in on some sort of plot to rope her into her doom. "And, just like clockwork, thou, Rottytops, hath finished the job by leading this unabashed killer right into mine clutches… Thou hast also done a fine job setting up mine trap, ye faithful, albeit undead assistant!"

"Assistant?" Shantae asked, her heart sinking as she listened to the vindictive spider's plot reveal before turning to Rottytops. "What does he mean, 'assistant'?"

"Don't look at me! I don't have a clue what he's-!" Rotty was about to completely deny.

"Oh, don't be so coy, dear," Mr. Fuzzles interjected. "We had been discussing this arrangement for weeks. Dost thou not remember our agreement that I would grant thee a handsome reward of thy choice in exchange for fetching this abominable genie and presenting her to me?"

"W-well, yeah, but I didn't think you wanted to see her because you had a bone to pick with her!" Rotty admitted, much to the shock of her teammates as they took in the realization that Rottytops lured them here.

"What!?" Shantae yelled, taken aback by the revelation that Rotty had been part of an elaborate ruse designed to lure her into a trap.

"What else did thou think I made mine request for? It certainly was not because I wanted to share with her mine recipe for mine chocolate bars or because I simply wanted to introduce mine self to this homicidal madwoman!" Mr. Fuzzles exclaimed, further revealing that he had ulterior motives of his own for arranging this impromptu meeting of most hostile proportions.

"You never told me what you wanted with her! You-!" Rottytops was set to counter before being cut off.

"The important detail is that she is here now, though thou could have done better by making sure she was the only one beside thyself who crossed into mine territory," he scolded. "Mine health was put in severe jeopardy when thou so foolishly allowed this human to enter the confines of mine lair unaccounted for. Thankfully, our combat ended amicably, but do be aware that thou were just a few hairs short of spoiling our agreement in its entirety. I specifically instructed thee to only bring the genie! That this human slipped through thy sights is a transgression almost too great to ignore, were it not for his desire to simply obtain some of mine delectable chocolates for himself."

"What 'agreement' are you talkin' about?" Tay tried to ask, though his question went ignored in the wake of Mr. Fuzzles revealing his true colors.

"Either way, thy part of our plan to isolate and destroy the Half-Genie Horror has been accomplished. As promised, thou shalt be handsomely rewarded with a hefty supply of mine chocolate bars for thy cooperation. I must say, however, that I ran out of the ingredients necessary to produce the 'Brains' flavor thou so peculiarly requested. Granted, I now see why thou hath requested what was by far, the least popular flavor of mine coveted treats..."

"Rewarded for her cooperation…!?" Tay repeated, suddenly very unsettled by the implications of the conversation as it transpired. "…with CHOCOLATE BARS!? You cannot be serious!" he further yelled, his discomfort quickly morphing into anger as he helplessly watched on. "You two really went an'-!?" Tay was about to question before being cut off once more.

"My cooperation for what!? I never agreed to anything like that! You said you just wanted me to bring Shantae here to meet you, not kidnap my other friend and-!"

"Rotty…!" Shantae called, glaring at the zombie girl as she found herself incredibly hurt by the revelation of her best friend's betrayal. "You tricked me again!? How could you!? I trusted you!"

"N-no, Shantae! Hear me out! I didn't bring you here to lure you into another trap! Honest!"

"Then what reason would you have to bring me here!? A supply of chocolate bars this time, Rotty!? That's no better than when Risky offered you a lifetime supply of coffee beans to lure me into the trap she set! I lost my powers because of that incident, and it took us forever to get over that! And now you're stabbing me in the back again!? Are you kidding me!? "

"No, listen! I'm telling you, that was never what this spider and I agreed on! He said he'd just give me another ONE of his candy bars if I brought you to meet him! That was it! I-I'm telling the truth!"

"That doesn't make it any less horrible, Rottytops! The fact that you did this for ONE candy bar actually makes it worse!" Shantae yelled, highly displeased with the nature of the arrangement as she glared with an inextinguishable fury at the zombie girl she'd initially believed to be her friend. "You sold me out for your own benefit! Again! After everything we went through for us to move past the first time this happened!? I can't believe you could do this to me again!"

"Shantae, listen to me! I didn't-!"

"Daargh, you no-good, greedy shyster!" Tay spat at Rottytops after hearing enough of the exchange, having no soft spot for people whose motives employed blatant disloyalty and betrayal. "You...! You almost had us killed comin' down here! An' for what? Just so you get t' satisfy your own sweet tooth!? That is ridiculous!" he further yelled, making a futile effort to escape his binds as he found himself furious with Rottytops for what she'd done. "We were warned about you, an' yet, we gave you the benefit o' the doubt! T' think that THIS is what you do with people's trust when you want somethin' for yourself. Miserable!"

"Guys, no! I-I didn't have anything to do with this!" Rotty pleaded, feeling unbelievably guilty and finding herself on the verge of tears about how things were playing out. "I swear, all I was told to do was bring you here so Shantae could talk to Mr. Fuzzles about the chocolate! I swear! He tricked me! I'm sorry that it turned out like this, and I'm sorry that I let him pull the wool over my eyes, but I-!"

"It matters not who doth said what," Mr. Fuzzles interrupted with a menacing cackle as he prepared himself for battle while not at all refuting Rotty's plea of innocence. "Thou may leave as ye please, Ms. Rottytops. In doing so, thou shalt confirm thy end of our bargain, and thy reward may be collected after this purple-haired demon is properly dealt with…"

"I'm not going anywhere, and you're not doing anything to hurt her!" Rotty challenged, stepping between Shantae and Mr. Fuzzles, arms stretched out as she grew hot with anger. "You lied to me! And now you're trying to make me seem like I stabbed my friends in the back over your STUPID candy bars! If I have even an ounce of power in this situation, then I'm gonna use it to get you back for swindling me and my friends, you giant, hairy, beady-eyed jerk!"

"Rotty…?" Shantae quietly murmured, raising an eyebrow in mild perplexity, questioning whether Rotty really betrayed her or if the impressionable zombie maiden was truly duped once again. Considering that Rottytops was putting herself in between her and the Boss Monster with the full intent to fight on her behalf, Shantae quickly deduced it to be the latter.

"Thou art the one who struck this deal with me, dost thou not remember?" Mr. Fuzzles reminded her.

"What I remember is that you said you'd give me an extra bar-a BRAINS flavored one, at that-if I brought Shantae to meet you! You didn't say anything about wanting revenge on her, nor did you say anything about wanting to give me any extra supply of your chocolate; which I wouldn't have wanted anyway, because, to be totally frank, your chocolate bars aren't even halfway decent! They're absolutely disgusting! The last one you gave me tasted like wet sawdust and rancid pork! I've had moldy cheeseburgers that tasted better than that junk! I wound up throwing it away after, like, three bites because it tasted so bad that even I, a zombie that would eat almost anything, couldn't tolerate it! If it wasn't for the fact that you promised me a brains-flavored version of your gross chocolate, I would never have brought my friends here in the first place!"

"That is crossing the line, thou impudent wraith! Thou shalt NOT berate mine delectable sweets, which I hath worked incredibly hard over a period of months to produce to the world, or thou shalt be made to suffer as well!"

"'Delectable?' More like 'detestable!'" Rotty bravely defied her former 'partner.' "I will never eat or recommend another one of your chocolate bars again after what you did just now! You totally flipped the script on me, and now you're trying to pin this whole situation on me to make me look like I'm the bad guy! If nothing else, you do understand how that's a totally cruddy way of gaining publicity for your brand, don't you!?"

"Thou shalt not lecture ME about appropriate business prac-!" Mr. Fuzzles attempted to cut in, only to find his attempt overlooked.

"What's worse is that you also roped in my new friend, beat him up, and then glued him to the floor! He was totally innocent, and you attacked him anyway! I'll make you regret what you did to him!" she vowed, ready for a fight I wasn't sure up until this point she was willing to participate in.

"...Huh. Well, color me confused now..." Tay murmured, still helplessly watching the emotional traffic jam of conflicting details that was this argument over chocolate-related traps and who was responsible for them.

"Au contraire, foolish revenant: This wandering human beat ME up!" Mr. Fuzzles angrily confessed, not at all appreciating the waves of castigation hurled his way.

"Oh, yeah!? Well for his sake, I'm gonna-! Wait, what?" Rotty was about to swear revenge of her own before she was thrown way off her game by Mr. Fuzzles' admission. "I'm not sure I heard you right… You said…?"

"That this human male thou apparently hold so dear to thee had indeed bested me in combat," he reiterated, much to both Rottytops' and Shantae's surprise while Tay could do nothing but watch on in total confusion at how derailed this conversation had become in a matter of one statement.

"But he's stuck on the floor with what looks like webs that came from you," Shantae pointed out, scratching her head. "And from the looks of it, you were about to eat him alive before we showed up… weren't you?"

"Ugh, only a barbarian as wretched as thou would conjure such boorish and grotesque ideas…" Mr. Fuzzles complained and insulted while denying the half-genie's assertion. "I do not eat humans, despite what others may say. That is an egregious rumor with no basis. If thou must know, this human and I had come to an understanding, and I was preparing to free h-!"

"Wait, wait, hold on a sec…" Rotty interrupted at the perfectly wrong time, stifling a chuckle. "You serious? After all the manipulating and trap-setting you apparently did since you met me, you really wound up losing against one random guy who's, like, one eightieth your size and has, like, next to zero experience dealing with Boss Monsters? Wow, that's sad," she further remarked, unleashing that giggle she initially stifled. "If you couldn't even beat him, then there's no way you'd have ever stood a chance against Shantae!"

"...That does it. Thou AND this despicable spider-killing genie shalt face mine unbridled wrath...!" Mr. Fuzzles VERY irritably vowed, having endured more than his fair share of Rotty's derision.

"…Grrrr, I swear, when I get out o' these webs…!" Tayshan grumbled, also insulted by Rotty's insensitive comments.

"Yeah… What? He actually DID beat you? As in, by himself?" Shantae asked, scratching her head more as she grew more and more confused with the more she listened to Rotty and Mr. Fuzzles argue. "And before we got here? I mean, we had a hunch, but…"

"…neither of us thought it could've been true," Rotty finished for her. "Or at least, I had my doubts," she added before turning to Shantae. "Whelp, I suppose I should've believed you, snack cakes, because you definitely called it."

"Huh. I... suppose so," Shantae uncertainly agreed, nodding her head as she shot a confused look in Tay's direction.

"Don't know why that's gotta be such a surprise t' either o' y'all…" Tay muttered again, just ever so slightly offended by the girls' collective disbelief. "Just goes t' show how little faith you really have in me, I guess… Hmph."

"Dost thou not see the poor condition mine body is in?" Mr. Fuzzles asked, gesturing one of his unbroken legs toward himself to point out the series of wounds covering his entire body. "We were engaged in brutal combat, fighting tooth-and-nail until this human tapped into some innate, ominous ability the likes of which I had never seen a human utilize before. After that, he decimated me in mine own lair, even causing me to Boss Battle explode. I was only able to subdue him once he let his guard down just before I exploded. Regardless, thou shalt hold thy tongue before thou dareth make any fraudulent assumptions about me! Even in mine weakened state, I assure you that I certainly have the ability to taketh thee out in a flash!"

"...Innate, ominous ability?" Shantae murmured, what little humor she found in this situation being brought to a screeching halt. As such, she momentarily looked at her entangled comrade before shooting her gaze toward the ground. "...So, my gut feeling was right... That's... not good..."

"No one's assuming anything, spider dude," Rotty countered, still grinning as she shrugged her shoulders. "But, like I said: If you found our boyfriend over there too hot to handle, then there's no chance you'll beat either of us wonderful ladies."

"Seriously, how weak do you think I am!? Also... Boyfriend!? What!?" Tay griped, continuing his efforts to rip himself free of the webbing as he found himself highly irritated with his comrade's unhelpful and rather belittling remarks.

"Whoa, wait just a second, Rotty. You need to relax on the b-!" Shantae tried to protest, having been snapped out of her distracted stupor by her best friend's outlandish proclamations.

"And now, I have tolerated far too much of this disrespectful drivel…!" Mr. Fuzzles declared, incensed as he stood as tall as he could in front of his adversaries. "Thou hast just signed thy own second death warrant, revenant! Thou shalt perish alongside thy ringleader! And soon, I shall have mine rightful vengeance!"

"No. No, no, wait!" Tay called out, alarmed that they were going to battle. "Don't fight them!"

"And why, human, should I not!?" Mr. Fuzzles questioned, making clear he had no intent to halt his attack. "Dost thou plan to tell me that thou art in cahoots with these Femme Fatales and that thou planst to turn on me?"

"No! Remember what we just talked about!" Tay reminded him. "I don't know who did what or what happened t' your wife, but tryin' t' get revenge won't do you any good! I'm askin' you not t' throw our discussion out the window for a shot at soothin' your own grief in a way that hurts so much more than you think it would help! You're injured enough as it is, anyway! For your sake, stand down!"

"Hey! Stud muffin, whose side are you on?!" Rotty yelled, shocked that Tay would be offering the Boss Monster advice.

"The side that keeps us all from fightin' each other when there's no more reason to fight!" he responded, hoping that his words would be enough to quell the tensions between his friends. "An' stop callin' me that! Also, please, do us all a favor an' stop eggin' him on! This might sound crazy, but we can talk this one out! We'd save a lot o' time an' skip a lot o' bloodshed that way!"

"While I appreciate thy sentiments, human, I am afraid… that I cannot pass up an opportunity to bring some form of closure to mine suffering…" he admitted, much to the soldier's dismay. "Indeed, it could possibly be true in some arcane respect that living well would be a better 'vengeance' than exacting retribution on the murderer of mine beloved… However, I cannot fathom the idea that this… this loathsome savage of a genie is allowed to walk this planet, finding no form of remorse for her unforgivable crime…! Additionally, I did not construct this elaborate ruse over a period of weeks for nothing…"

"What?" Shantae asked, taken aback by the harsh words spat at her by the massive arachnid. "Hey, if all this is about Empress Spider, then I'm sorry. I… I didn't mean to hurt her. But listen! I only had to fight Empress Spider in the first place because Rottytops was captured by her and dragged into the Cackle Tower on this island! I had to save my best friend!"

"Yeah, what she said! It was all a big misunderstanding that-!" Rotty confirmed, though she didn't get to finish her statement.

"What!?" Mr. Fuzzles roared in disbelief, floored by the news. "Mine dear, sweet, beloved wife was taken from me because of thy foolish zombie friend!?"

"No! It wasn't her fault!" Shantae pleaded, the reasons for Mr. Fuzzles' anger becoming clearer to her as they argued. "I was only looking to get Rotty out of a bad situation and bring her to safety! Empress Spider attacked me without even a word! I had no choice but to defend myself to save my friend!"

"That says it all, then… If thou both art guilty, then I now know I am right to maketh both of thee suffer equally. Alas, this battle holds much more at stake than I initially perceived… To find out that, of all things, this very same lowly zombie, whom I had befriended mere weeks prior to this moment, was complicit in Empress Spider's demise at the hands of the half-genie menace… Oh, how eerily well the stars align for this sequence of events to transpire…"

"Uh-oh… it doesn't look like he's gonna calm down at this point, Shantae…" Rotty warned as she braced herself.

"Yeah… but, with any luck, we won't have to deal with him long if Tay already softened him up for us…" Shantae whispered back to her as the half-genie also prepared for the second round of a Boss Battle she wasn't initially present for.

"Mr. Fuzzles, wait!" Tay called out once more, still unable to free himself from his binds. "I'm tellin' you, nothin' good's gonna come out o' fightin' them! Don't do it! They-!"

"Enough, human!" Mr. Fuzzles cut him off. "As the only real friend I have made on this entire island, thou must understand the pain I feel, confronting these killers. I must do this… for her… and for the sake of all creatures who may find themselves endangered by this pair of unruly assassins!"

"An' as your friend, I'm tellin' you not t' fight because you don't need t' get hurt wors-!"

"I am called Atracidae von Fuzzington VIII! Thou hath slain mine wife! Prepare to die! HAVE AT THEE!" Mr. Fuzzles (who, in a declaration of war, revealed a much more awesome name) challenged his enemies, forcing Shantae to take up a battle pose as Tay watched helplessly from his disadvantaged position. Rottytops, with no choice but to aid her friend in the upcoming battle, took her position beside Shantae.

MR. FUZZLES (or, ATRACIDAE VON FUZZINGTON VIII): MOURNFUL BLACK WIDOW(er)! Round... Two?

"Squish the Spider!" Shantae announced as she and Rotty braced themselves for attack.

"Should've brought the spray!" Rotty just as energetically... and rather oddly called out after the battle had commenced. Mr. Fuzzles wasted no time beginning his onslaught by turning around and firing a huge string of web at the girls, who'd hurriedly dodged in opposite directions before the funnel-web spider's webbing hit the floor with a *SPLAT*. Rottytops, thinking of a way to assist her ally in battle, considered pulling out the silver handgun she'd sporadically been using to provide some form of support while Shantae conjured up a fireball in her hand.

"Rotty!" Shantae called as she watched Mr. Fuzzles carefully.

"Yeah?"

"Go and get Tayshan out of those webs! We can't risk him getting hurt in the crossfire!" the half-genie instructed as she watched Mr. Fuzzles whisk himself toward the ceiling by shooting a web from his thorax upward.

"Heard loud and clear, but what about you?" the zombie girl asked in surprise at the task she was being given, considering that it didn't involve directly assisting her best friend in fighting their latest Boss Battle.

"I'll be okay. I'll hold the spider off until you can break Tay out! After that, we'll bolt toward the Stage Clear platform and get out of here before anybody gets hurt!" she announced, though she would soon find it unwise to do so.

"Oh! Got it! In that case, I'll get stud muffin out in a flash!" Rotty vowed as popped her head off and prepared to launch it toward their captured companion.

"So, thy plan is to escape with thy lives rather than face mine well-deserved wrath and battle me with even a shred of honor? Not as long as I am alive to stop thee!" Mr. Fuzzles announced as he dropped back down in between the girls and the soldier and sprayed a blast of webbing toward Rottytops.

"Gah! Whoa!" Rotty bellowed, tucking her head into her arms and diving off to the side to just barely avoid the grotesque *SPLAT* of the arachnid's excretions. Rotty hit the ground rolling with a *PLAP* of wet dirt, soon recovering and putting her head back onto her shoulders afterward. "What a dirty trick you just tried to pull! That was completely unfair!" She complained, though her harsh words went unacknowledged. Mr. Fuzzles crawled toward her as quickly as he could manage, hungry for an opportunity to dispatch her as soon as possible, prompting Rotty to try and create some distance while thinking up some method of defending herself.

"Get away from her!" Shantae roared, dashing toward her gigantic eight-legged enemy and flinging a pair of fireballs toward him. Noticing this, Mr. Fuzzles scrambled to hop out of the way of her surprise attack, where the fireballs hit the ground with a collective burning *PWASH*. In retaliation, Mr. Fuzzles attempted to counter by spitting an orange-hued energy ball out of his mouth. The blast immediately bulleted toward the half-genie, giving her maybe a fraction of a second to react (a fraction that didn't even allow her to think about activating her shield). Faced with no other option, Shantae tanked the counterattack by crossing her arms over her face to block the incoming blast. With a voluminous, shocking *CRASH*, the snake-garbed young woman was flung backward, though she remained on her feet as she skidded along the arena floor. "Gahh...! That hurt a lot more than I thought it would...!"

"If thou art that eager to face thy punishment, then allow me to oblige thee!" Mr. Fuzzles declared, charging up more energy in his gaping maw as he rushed toward Shantae while she was recovering from his previous attack.

"Get a load of this!" a voice called out from the side, throwing the vengeful behemoth off his game as he attempted to search for the source of the idle threat.

"Wha-?" he barely got the chance to utter before a startling series of *BANG* noises rang out. "Gaaargh!" he hollered out in a sudden, intense onset of nigh-debilitating pain as he crumpled over with an echoing *THUD* as he was knocked off his front legs. "Grr...! Gah, I refuse to be outdone...!" he vowed as he continued to be assaulted by some invisible force. In his pained state, however, he was able to identify that only his right side had been feeling the sharp stings of agony. Looking in that direction, he spotted a pair of ruby-colored irises that appeared to be hurling flashing marbles at him. "So-! Agh...! So that is where thou art hiding...!"

"Good. She's got him under wraps using the Concealer Ring and the gun," Shantae deciphered, noting right away that Rotty had been working to protect her. "I'd better hurry up and take advantage of the chance while I have it, then...!" she vowed, already thinking of a maneuver that would help them accomplish their goals of rescuing their teammate and escaping before things got ugly. She understood, however, that leaving Rotty alone to deal with this belligerent creature for too long wouldn't come close to yielding a favorable result, however. This fact was made evident by the fact that the zombie girl's invisibility had just worn off, exposing her current position as she was forced to take off running in a different direction to avoid the next energy blast the spider fired from his mouth. "No time to waste!" Shantae declared, raising her arms as she began to gyrate her hips.

"Yikes!" Rotty yelped as she hopped out of the way of one of Mr. Fuzzles' limbs as he charged toward her and took a swing at her up close. Afterward, she narrowly avoided swift slash of another of Mr. Fuzzles' legs that came in high with a windy *schwick* against the air just above her head as she ducked to avoid him. "Jeez, you're a lot faster than I thought. Gonna get out of here while I'm ahead..." Rotty quipped as she immediately pulled her head off and flung it as hard as she could toward the side of the arena opposite of her current position. As her head soared through the thick, humid air, her body took off in the opposite direction to confound and disorient her opponent.

"What...? What unruly sorcery is this!?" Mr. Fuzzles hollered in increased frustration as he found himself unable to decide in that moment whether to attack Rotty's head or to attack her body that had just run aimlessly into a wall, where it tripped over one of the spider lanterns and fell to the ground with an embarrassing *THUD*. "Thou dareth to-!" he was about to complain, before he felt another sharp *PLOCK* of pain shooting through his back. "Gaah! Insolent whelps...!" he further cursed, turning his attention upward just as Rotty's head landed on the other side of the cavernous battlefield with a wet *PLOP*. In his distracted period of looking up to spot a hovering feathered creature firing weaponized talons at him, he failed to notice the zombie maiden's headless body vanish into a portal and teleport to the location of where her head was thrown.

"Rotty! Now's your chance! Go for it!" Harpy-Shantae called out as she committed herself to firing a spray of talons at Mr. Fuzzles, who'd been struggling to keep the girls under wraps as a result of their unorthodox two-pronged assault.

"Heard! Okay... This time, I should be able to...!" Rottytops acknowledged once she was put back together, after which she caught sight of Shantae hovering around their shared enemy and shooting feathery projectiles at him as he tried swatting and spitting fireballs at her to get her to back off. With hardly another word, Rotty aimed and flung her head toward the center of the cavern where hers and Shantae's incapacitated teammate had still been struggling to break free of his webbing-based binds. Once again, her head hit the ground with another *THUD*, after which it rolled a few extra inches before her body teleported right under it.

"Huh...?" Tay grunted in wonder, mostly unaware of who or what had landed near him until he peered to his side to see none other than Rottytops approaching him.

"Don't worry, stud muffin. I'm-!" she was about to assure him.

"Not today, thou shan't!" Mr. Fuzzles declared with a mighty roar as he fired a trio of homing energy balls from his mouth, forcing Harpy-Shantae to turn and dive low to avoid being struck. One of the blasts came so dangerously close to striking her from below, however, that she could feel the scorching heat radiating from it.

"Whah! Whoahwhoa!" the half-genie yelled in fright, having been thrown off balance as a result of being grazed by the malevolent projectile. She was forced to transform back to her human form before hitting the ground rolling with a *PLOP* of her feet on the damp, rocky surface beneath her. After tucking and rolling once, however, Shantae straightened herself up enough to prepare to attack before she noticed Mr. Fuzzles turning and shooting another line of webbing from his thorax directly at Rottytops and Tayshan. "Rotty, watch out! He's shooting more webs at you!" she called, alerting her friend to the impending danger.

"Huh? Oh, shoot! Whaaahah!" Rotty shouted in complete astonishment, having found herself forced to turn and dash away from the soldier before she wound up just like him. She barely managed to escape the surprise attack unscathed, though the stray web shot wound up hitting the defenseless young man with a *SPLAT* across his abdomen, thereby undoing any of the progress Mr. Fuzzles had made with taking the webs off him.

"Gagh...! Awgh...! Ah, this is so gross!" Tayshan complained, for some reason finding himself... how do I say, less than pleased with the idea of being splattered with warm, gooey, super-adhesive spider secretions.

"Dang it! Now he's even more stuck than he was a second ago!" Rotty complained, checking to see if she'd gotten any of Mr. Fuzzles' webs on her. "How the heck are we gonna get through this mess now?"

"You can't keep us locked in here forever, Emperor Spider!" Shantae declared, rushing at Mr. Fuzzles while incorrectly addressing him. "And I can guarantee that you're not going to keep targeting my friends with your sneaky, underhanded tricks!" And with that promise of the protection of her allies, Shantae charged a supply of magic in her hands while jumping to avoid a *SWISH* of Mr. Fuzzles' limb aimed at her feet as she closed the distance. "Time to turn up the heat!" she cleverly delivered her one-liner as she clasped her hands together, extended her index fingers, and let loose a sweeping blast of flames that almost instantaneously roasted its intended target with a crackling *FWOOSH*.

"Gwaaah! Fire! Hot, hot, hot, HOT!" Mr. Fuzzles cried out in a startled panic as he was forced to shoot a line of web up toward the ceiling and whisk himself out of the reach of Shantae's magic Flamethrower attack before he took too much damage. It went without saying, however, that she burned him up something fierce, as he'd been worriedly tending to his injured, smoking limbs as he safely hung from the ceiling with his web line. "Agh...! Hah... Mine fatigue is already setting in...! However, I cannot allow these malicious tormentors to roam free...! If it is the last thing I do, Empress Spider, then I solemnly swear to thee that, by any means necessary, I shall avenge thy demise...!"

"Hah... Hah... Hah..." Shantae panted, letting the flow of magic in her hands dissipate, though she'd still been glowing with Light Magic as she watched Mr. Fuzzles beat a hasty retreat. "Gah...! Shoot, I'm... getting tired already... I... I can't give up, though. We just need to beat him, and then we're home free; chocolate or no chocolate. We need to make this as quick and painless as we possibly can," she reminded herself, clapping her hands to her cheeks and taking a deep breath to relax herself before turning her head toward Rottytops, who'd been carefully watching Mr. Fuzzles. "Rotty, are you alright?"

"Hm? Y-yeah, babe, I'm okay," Rotty offered her her reassurance with a quick smiling thumbs-up.

"Good! Tay, how about you?" she fought through a sudden bout of nervousness to call out to the incapacitated soldier.

"Could be better, but hey! Is it too much t' ask that the three o' y'all stop fightin'?" he asked, much to the surprise of his half-genie team leader and their mutual zombie acquaintance. "It might sound crazy, I know, but we seriously don't need this t' go on any further! This is pointless!"

"...Huh. Even after all this, he still thinks we can all just settle down and talk this out...?" Shantae murmured after a moment of speechlessness that she (in addition to everyone else) used to process his apparently ridiculous request. "Hm. I wonder why..."

"Umm... I hope you know it's not gonna be THAT simple, honey buns; especially not at this point. If only it was that easy that we could just use our manners instead..." Rottytops rather nonchalantly, yet matter-of-factly informed Tay, shooting him a look of confusion as she hurried toward him. Tay, however, found himself hotly enraged... or rather, embarrassed by the way Rotty addressed him. As such, he shot her a most... impactful deadpan expression as he otherwise froze in place.

"...For the love of all that is sacred on this planet, I beg you to never, EVER call me that again. Please..." he humbly (read: irritably) made his second request, looking right at a giggling Rottytops as she stood over him, visually assessing the webbing situation before her.

"Aw, does that nickname hit a little too close to home?" she teased, finding no harm in tormenting a man while he was already at the mercy of this particularly sticky situation.

"No. It blew up the home an' everything around it. Seriously, don't call me that," Tay remarked and reiterated, only adding to Rotty's humor as her giggling escalated into a bout very ill-timed guffawing at his expense.

"D'aww, you're so cute when you're embarrassed!" Rotty declared loudly enough for the rest of the battle's participants to hear it while also using THAT word that we all know Tay loved (read: hated) so much. "But, if you're that bothered by it, then I guess I could do you a solid and stick to 'stud muffin,'" she oh-so mercifully granted his wish as she shook her head before she cleared her throat. "Uh, a-anyway, let's get you up and at 'em, so you can help us take this spider creep down." At that, Tay sighed out enough hot air to melt an entire tub of ice cream in a matter of seconds before he irritably and momentarily cast his gaze elsewhere.

"Either way, there's gotta be some other method t' settle this than t' fight, ain't there?" Tay asked aloud, pushing through a waterfall of humiliation to voice his concern once more. "Despite what happened, I'm still positive we don't have t' let it carry out this way! Come on!"

"Thy concern for these uproarious little fiends is nothing short of baffling, human!" Mr. Fuzzles also voiced his disagreement as he charged up a fireball and aimed it at Rottytops before anyone could do anything about it. "Regardless, now is an opportunity like no other to tie up one loose end...!"

"Hey! What do you think you're-!?" Shantae was about to protest as she noticed Mr. Fuzzles' dastardly ploy before, with a sudden *PWOSH*, the projectile rocketed directly toward Rotty just as she was about to kneel and begin tearing at the webs. "Rottytops!"

"Hm?" Rotty hummed in wonder, not at all aware of the danger she was in until she turned her head. "Whaaaah!" the unfortunate zombie girl screamed in terror, stretching out her arms to defend herself as the sudden, crashing *BOOM* of Mr. Fuzzles' unprovoked fireball exploding upon contact sent her hurtling away from Tayshan. With her arms also being blown off her by way of involuntary detachment from the sheer force of the blast, Rotty hit the ground unprotected with another *THUMP* of her armless form on the ground before sliding a few more feet in the direction in which she'd been flung. Her arms soon joined the rest of her, landing separately on either side of her with additional *flops* on the ground nearby. "Ow...!"

"Hey! Why did you do that!?" Tay barked at Mr. Fuzzles, highly displeased with such an abrasive act of unwarranted aggression. "I keep tellin' you t' stop! That was completely uncalled for, what you just did t' her! What is wrong with you!?"

"Do not be a fool, human! These PARASITES are in need of extermination before they are allowed to cause any further harm to anyone else!" Mr. Fuzzles countered, showing no remorse for (and even finding some arbitrary justification in) his ruthless action. What Mr. Fuzzles did not pick up, however, was the intensely glowing form of the half-genie he'd made a huge mistake in angering further by attacking her friend. Full to the brim with boiling, almost inconsolable rage, Shantae locked her sights on the arachnid as she charged up a fireball the size of a wrecking ball and the intense, all-consuming heat of the sun and held it high over her head. The anger-fueled projectile crackled and sparked to symbolize the half-genie's unforgiving wrath as she cocked her arms as far back as she could in preparation to launch it.

"Haaaaarrryyyaaaaaah!" Shantae roared at the top of her lungs, catapulting the giant fireball directly at Mr. Fuzzles as he remained suspended in the air by his web. He was only alerted by the deafening *FWOOSH* of the fireball headed directly for him, at which point he panicked and attempted to block by covering himself with his legs. However, with another ear-splitting, burning, crackling *FRWIIISSSSSSSH!* of the fireball completely engulfing the giant funnel-web in a blanket of flames as he was knocked way off his web line. As he fell, the flames ripping into him at all angles dissipated after a few seconds of cooking him alive. However, what probably did the most damage was the monumental, thunderous *BOOM* of his impact with the ground as he landed flat on his back. The impact of his fall sent a startling quake ripping through the arena, even causing a substantial amount of debris to come crumbling down from the ceiling as some of the torches were knocked over and shattered as a result of the massive tremor.

"Yo, what is goin' on!?" Tay called out, mostly unable to see from his position what exactly had taken place. He could only surmise in that moment that one of his friends had just attacked another one in a nasty way.

"Hurt her again, Emperor Spider, and there's going to be PLENTY more where that came from!" Shantae further shouted, glowing brightly as she glared at the smoking form of the badly-damaged boss monster as he gingerly flipped himself over and painstakingly lifted himself up to a wobbly stand. "I've had enough of you endangering my friends! You hear me!?"

"No...! Shantae, why... why would you do that...?" Tay murmured, his heart sinking as he realized from his mentor's words toward the gigantic arachnid that she acted out of rage and a desire for revenge. "Darn it, I... This can't keep goin' on the way it is...! Haarrrrrgh...! Grrrrgh...!" he further stated, renewing his desperate efforts to break free from the webbing that bound him to the ground. "Gaahh, I can't get into a good enough position t' break myself free like this...!" In that moment, Shantae sprinted across the arena, past Tay and toward Rottytops, whom she'd witnessed dizzily climbing back to her feet. The zombie girl, though disoriented, recuperated from the energy blast that knocked her for a loop as she rose to a stand and shook her head. Shantae quickly picked Rotty's arms up and helped her to reattach them before grasping her best friend by the shoulders.

"Rotty..." Shantae called to her ally, her magic glow suddenly vanishing again as she inspected Rottytops up and down to see if she'd suffered any long-term damage. "How are you feeling?"

"Don't sweat it, snack cakes," Rotty confidently assured, pulling her best friend into a meaningful hug. "I'm still here with ya. It's gonna take much more than one cheap little fireball shot at me while my guard was down to knock me out," she further expressed her confidence as she and the half-genie hugged one another tighter. "Nice shot you pulled off right after he hit me, though. You really stuck it to him with that one," Rotty complimented as the girls separated, though Rotty's breathing was unusually heavy as though she'd not been doing as well as she was making it seem. Taking note, Shantae shot her a look of immense concern, prompting Rottytops to smilingly cup a newly-reattached hand to the worried half-genie's cheek. "You're a lot stronger than we give ya credit for!"

"Thanks... but I... I honestly didn't know what to think," Shantae replied, laying one of her own hands on the hand of Rotty's that she had pressed to her cheek and clutching it as she still worried about the zombie girl's well-being. "I thought he hurt you so much worse, so I just... exploded. Gosh, I... I'm so glad you're alright. Also, about earlier... I'm really, really sorry for-!"

"Don't waste your breath apologizing for something so silly," Rotty further assured, leaning in and pressing her forehead to her best friend's while her hand remained on her cheek. "I'd have probably reacted the same way if we were in each other's shoes. The only thing that matters now is that we're still here together, and you'd better believe we're gonna get out of here in one piece!"

"Count on it," Shantae agreed with a relieved, smiling nod as the girls fully separated from their embrace. Once they turned their attention to Mr. Fuzzles, however, they'd immediately noticed that he was in the process of shooting another web line up toward the ceiling and pulling his injured form back up to where he was again dangling in midair. "Darn... I was hoping he'd stay down longer than that," the ponytailed young woman murmured, taking a deep breath to prepare herself for quite possibly the next phase of this tumultuous duel. "Rotty?"

"What's up?"

"We're going to need to improvise from here. The Stage-Clear platform is still within reach, so if nothing else, we're probably gonna need to focus on working together to get Tay-!" Shantae was about to relay to her battle partner before Mr. Fuzzles began swinging himself back and forth to gain momentum.

"Thou hath done it now, despicable djinn! Thou shalt not be exiting the confines of mine lair without mine permission! So help me, this place shall become thy grave!" a thoroughly incensed Mr. Fuzzles declared as he, with a mighty swing, hurled himself toward the wall closest to the vacant Stage-Clear platform.

"No you don't! Stay away from that platform! Rotty, go get Tay while I handle the spider!" Shantae warned and commanded as she immediately began sprinting toward the Stage-Clear platform to keep the malicious arachnid from doing something drastic.

"On it!" Rotty complied before she took a second to clasp her abdomen in pain as she figured out how to move. From the look of it, she hadn't been entirely honest with Shantae over how much damage she'd actually taken as she winced and doubled over, wrapping her arms around her hotly aching midsection as she remained on her feet. "Hagh...! I think I'm gonna try and play it a bit safer this time. That attack really knocked me one good, and I can't really afford to take another big hit like I just did... It'll hopefully pay off to rely more on my speed and this ring than my Head Toss this time..." Rotty complied with her best friend's request while acknowledging the enormous risk factor involved with her using her Head Toss and its weakness of leaving her vulnerable to an attack she may very well have not been able to handle in her present state. Nevertheless, Rottytops used her Concealer Ring to mask her location before she began sprinting as quickly as she could toward the struggling serviceman. "Here goes nothing...!"

"Don't go near there!" Shantae called out toward Mr. Fuzzles. Desperate and in a hurry, she hastily charged up another small pyrokinetic projectile and hurled it at him. Unfortunately for her, she missed her mark as her fireball fizzled out well before it could hit its target. Meanwhile, Mr. Fuzzles hit the wall with a *SLAM* that sent a quake rumbling through the arena. In doing so, however, he'd also caused a sprinkle of dust and pebbles to rain down from the ceiling.

"Gagh…! Argh, mine injuries from the previous scuffle in conjunction with this battle are already make themselves apparent…!" the humongous spider complained, wincing as he barely clung to the wall. Regardless, he speedily turned himself around and angled a very expansive shot of web from his thorax that spread far and wide around the platform. Soon after, he detached himself from the sticky, stringy substance and affixed it to the wall he'd been clinging to, thus blocking the level-ending stand from access and trapping everyone inside his lair.

"Darn it, I shouldn't have opened my mouth earlier…" Shantae complained, further frustrated by the unwelcome turn of events as she contemplated a way to thoroughly defeat the boss monster in a more traditional manner.

"Come on, just hold out a little longer, ring...! I'm almost there...!" Rotty quietly, closing the distance between her and the soldier, though her invisibility wore off just in time for Mr. Fuzzles to notice her once again attempting to swipe the soldier right from under his nose. "Aw, come on! Dang it, this ring totally sucks!" she complained, though she had not yet noticed that she'd been spotted. As such, she picked up the pace rushing toward her target.

"Thou shalt not lay a finger on the human, either..." Mr. Fuzzles quietly declared, leaping off the wall while charging another menacing ray of bright orange energy from his gaping maw. Without warning, the arachnid behemoth spat three more tiny energy comets high into the air, whereupon two of them immediately changed direction and hurtled toward Rotty at varying speeds.

"Rotty, look out! He just spat out a bunch more of those homing energy balls! They're coming right for you!" Shantae called out, rushing toward Rottytops with all the magic-powered speed she could muster.

"What!? Oh, no, no, no, no, not again!" Rotty panicked, turning around and realizing the imminent danger she was in yet again. The undead young woman was within mere feet of the captive soldier when an ear-splitting *BOOM* rang out the very instant one of Mr. Fuzzles' attacks struck Rottytops in the back. "Gaaahhaaagh!" the unfortunate maiden screamed in immeasurable pain as she was flung forward.

"No! Rottytops!" Shantae shouted in horror, dashing toward her friend as she hit the web-littered ground face-down with a disturbing *THUD*. "Gaah, I swear you're going to regret even THINKING about what you've done to her, spider...!" In that same moment, the second of the three energy spheres came rocketing in toward them without mercy. Kicking it into high gear without a moment's hesitation, Shantae wordlessly activated her Reflector bubble and lunged toward the downed and disoriented Rottytops. The desperate half-genie landed squarely on top of her comrade, ensuring her safety as the energy ball ricocheted off the Bubble with a resounding *Thwong* before being returned to sender. Another *BOOM* rang out, causing Mr. Fuzzles to grunt in pain as he attempted to block the deflected sneak attack.

"Resist all thou might like! In the end, I shall have mine revenge!" Mr. Fuzzles declared, sending out the last airborne energy sphere as he fought through a torrent of crippling agony and crawled toward the trapped young man in the center of the arena as fast as he could. "Grgh…! Even ambulating hurts immensely…!"

"Uh-oh… Come on, Rotty!" Shantae encouraged her friend to get up, scooping her up into a bridal carry and hurrying back toward the other end of the cavernous battlefield. As she retreated, the last energy attack bounced off her shield just before it dissipated, sailing well over the advancing arachnid and exploding on the floor behind him. Mr. Fuzzles crawled to a spot where he then stood in between the girls and their male teammate, appearing keen on not letting them get to him.

"Oogh… Ow, that really stung…!" Rotty groaned, shaking her head as Shantae set her down and tended to her.

"You alright? You took another nasty hit there…" Shantae inquired, kneeling next to her sitting companion as the two recuperated from the surprise attack.

"Agh…! Yeah, I'm still okay. I won't lie, though, I'm already starting to feel like I'm running low on stamina..." she warned, reaching behind herself to rub her aching back. "Feels like sunburn...! Ow... Thanks for the save, though, snack cakes…" Rotty expressed, stretching out the kinks in her back as she rose to her feet independently.

"Anytime," Shantae acknowledged as she also rose to a stand, taking a couple of deep breaths as she continued to shine bright with magic. "But hey, if you're feeling out of it, then maybe you should take a break. I'll handle things from here on out."

"What? Absolutely not!" Rotty protested, stretching and standing tall before her best friend. "No matter how many loops we have to jump through, or how many of these gross, rampaging spiders we have to fight, I am not going to sit back and make you do all the work."

"Yeah, but-!"

"No ifs, ands, or buts about it, Shantae; I'm still gonna stick it through and do my part to make sure we pull this off together!" Rotty asserted with utmost confidence despite the alarming amount of damage she took since their impromptu adventure began.

"You sure about that, Rotty? I don't want you to get hurt any worse..."

"I'm dead serious," Rotty assured, of course making sure there was some morbid pun hidden in there somewhere. Nonetheless, Shantae smiled and nodded at her before the two of them turned their attention toward the highly agitated Mr. Fuzzles.

"I'm glad you're still willing to see this through with me," the half-genie admitted without hesitation. "It looks like this is gonna be a lot tougher than we thought, though. He won't even let us rescue Tay, much less get out of here without a fight. We'd better find some other way to wrap this up as quick as we can before any of us takes any more damage; that much is for certain. How Tay managed to defeat this thing on his own, just to wind up being captured before we got here is still a complete mystery to me…"

"Yeah, no kidding. I'm wracking my brain over that, too," Rotty agreed, thus solidifying that the girls had just joined the 'How'd He Do It?' party alongside you and me. "We should probably go over there and at least try to ask. But then, if Sir Fuzzington over here's dedicated to playing gatekeeper to stud muffin, then how do we even get close enough to talk to him, let alone get him out of there? I've tried three times up to this point, but I keep caught by surprise and batted or blasted away."

"I'm not sure, but if nothing else, we've gotta keep trying. Tay's life depends on it," Shantae urged, scanning the arena for a couple seconds before turning her attention back toward Mr. Fuzzles, who appeared to be avoiding using some of his legs as he approached them. In that moment, however, he began attempting to dig into the ground, only to stop while wincing in pain. Switching it up in the heat of the moment, he charged up more energy into his fangs and webbed the ceiling again as he prepared his next move. Unbeknownst to him, however, his web latched onto something, which caused a distant crumbling sound from above. Shantae caught sight of this turn of events and took note. "Hmm…"

"So, what's the plan this time?" Rotty queried, patiently awaiting Shantae's instruction.

"Stick close to me," she began, grabbing her friend's hand as she focused her waning energy. "I've got another idea, but it's not gonna have the best chance of working in my current state. I don't know how much longer I'm gonna hold out before I need a recharge on magic."

"Gotcha. I'll protect you if things get too serious. So, what's the idea?"

"The plan is that I turn on my Invincibility Shield, we run as fast as we can, and we get to Tay as soon as possible while the spider tries to attack. It looks to me like the spider's injured and getting weary, too, so it shows that we're definitely making our impact. I noticed that he's been trying to keep some of his legs from touching the ground."

"I thought he was walking kind of funny when we started this little party," Rotty acknowledged, pensively nodding her head.

"Right. That said, we'll hit the spider as hard as we can up close when he tries to get in our way, which should buy us just enough time for me to burn those webs off our friend to set him free. We have to move very quickly, though. Ready?"

"Just say the word, babe, and I'm there!" Rotty cheered, scooting closer to Shantae as she prepared for liftoff.

"Alright… Here goes! Bubble!" Shantae announced, summoning her magenta-hued Invincibility Shield in the same second she tightened her grip on her teammate's hand and took off. Mr. Fuzzles spat out three more energy beams from his mouth, all of which zoomed directly into the shield-protected half-genie and company. As expected, each of the fiery yellow projectiles crashed into the barrier and dissipated with hardly a fizzle as the girls powered on. Seeing this turn of events, Mr. Fuzzles quickly charged a red-colored energy into his mouth and fired it with a *PWOOM* of extreme prejudice while remaining suspended via his web. The projectile, a laser-like beam of pure frustration, hit the ground with such force that it shattered the ground where it hit, kicking up a cloud of dust. However, his onslaught did not end. He fired a speedy barrage of red laser blasts at the girls, wanting to make absolutely sure they did not reach their target. However, while the storm of lasers deterred the young women by way of slowing them down, Shantae's bubble protected them from any form of damage as they pressed on, making steady progress toward their goal.

"Agh… Ahack! Ack! Augh…!" Tay groaned and coughed, much of the debris from the action-packed scuffle finding a passage into his airways as he remained unable to move. "Darn it, they're already all goin' full speed…! At this point, somebody's bound t' get hurt…!" he lamented, a pit in his stomach forming as he also wondered if he would be harmed in the crossfire. Nonetheless, he peered through the cloud of smoke blocking his view of his allies to see the flash of a purple energy heading toward him.

"We're almost there…! Agh… Hah…!" Shantae proclaimed through a burst of sudden pain coursing through her body as the shield dissipated with a *PEW* just after the last laser blast hit it.

"Shantae! You okay?" Rotty asked, noticing right away that her best friend seemed to already be losing steam. The zombie girl took note of the flickering blue energy surrounding the half-genie's body as they neared their objective. However, before Rotty received an answer, Mr. Fuzzles dropped in with another voluminous *BOOM* of his hefty body against the jagged, stony floor. Another rain of pebbles came trickling from the ceiling as more crumbling could be heard from above. However, more concerning to the girls was the fact that Mr. Fuzzles once again stood directly in their path, preventing them from saving Tayshan as they'd tirelessly been trying to do.

"Enguarde!" Mr. Fuzzles challenged, lashing one of his unbroken legs forward in a stabbing thrust, narrowly missing the girls as they dove out of the way in separate directions. Acknowledging this, Mr. Fuzzles immediately went after Shantae, running up on her and beginning a leg thrust barrage that forced the disadvantaged adventurer to back up and dodge the incoming wave of attacks as best as she could.

"Ah! Haarragh! Hah!" Shantae grunted with effort, charging up a fireball before being struck in the abdomen with one of the arachnid's limbs. "Gahhagh…!" she winced in incredible pain, being forced back a few steps while remaining on her feet. "Hah… Hah… Darn it…!" she groaned, clutching her stomach as she did her best to keep up with dodging his relentless attacks.

"No! Get away from her, you creep!" Rotty screamed, whipping out Tayshan's Desert Eagle without even sparing it a thought.

"Huh? What are you doin' with that?" Tay asked, confused by the sight of Rottytops wielding his trademark pistol. He would get no answer, of course. Rotty began firing a haphazard series of shots, each deafening *BANG* drowning out almost all other sounds. While her shots were heavily uncoordinated, she struck Mr. Fuzzles a couple times on his side while a flurry of other rounds sailed off harmlessly.

"Gah! Haarrrrrraaaaaaaaaagh! Ye insolent swine!" Mr. Fuzzles spat with bitter hatred as he turned toward Rottytops to see her struggling to keep her aim steady. "Thou wishest to play it the hard way? Then let us dance!" he roared, preparing to channel another influx of red energy into his maw before the *THWACK* of something sharp and smacking against his back caused him to flinch in pain. "Agh! Ouch… Thou knoweth not when to lie down and die like the vermin thou art…" he muttered as the *THWACKS* of the attack he'd been the victim of continued.

"Don't count me out yet…! Hah! Hwah! Yah!" Shantae warned, also grunting with effort as she took the opportunity to wail on the gigantic spider from behind with her classic Hair Whip. She pounded away at him with all her might, ready to take him down as her body coursed with all the power she had in that moment. Rotty, stunned that her friend could be so resilient, found herself motivated to help as best as she could by widening her stance, steeling her resolve, and pressing on with slower spray of gunshots aimed at the adversarial eight-legged Boss Monster, thus engaging in a two-pronged assault that would surely have vanquished him in no time.

"N-no… At this rate, they're gonna…" Tay murmured in concern that this battle was taking an unnecessarily ugly turn. "Shantae! Rottytops! Wait! Mr. Fuzzles, stop!" Tay was about to warn all parties, at this point still swearing that Mr. Fuzzles could still be redeemed. However, his warnings wouldn't get the chance to fall on deaf ears. In that moment, Mr. Fuzzles, with a sudden tensing of every inch of his body, seemingly became encased in a dark, reflective steel. Suddenly, Rotty's potshots began to ricochet off the arachnid without doing any damage. Shantae's hair whips were suddenly met with *plinks* that alerted her that her most reliable attack had become entirely useless. Realizing this right away, the girls halted their counterattack.

"Huh? Is… he-?" Shantae was set to ask about the Boss Monster's newest trick before he spun himself around with the speed of a jet engine, one metal-shrouded leg extended. And, with hardly a fair chance to defend herself, the unfortunate young woman found herself hit with a horrifying, echoing, metallic *THWANG* across her face. Witnessing the event, Rottytops gasped in unadulterated terror, wide-eyed as she witnessed Shantae being flung far across the arena from the fierce impact of the arachnid's leg, which was comparable to her being hit with a baseball bat at mach speed. Tay, having also caught a glimpse while his ears were filled with the nauseating sound, struggled to register what had actually happened until he heard the extremely distressing *CRASH* of the half-genie's body against the floor, followed by additional tumbling noises that came to an eventual halt.

"SHANTAE!" Rottytops called out, wracked with grief as she dropped the handgun and bolted toward her injured friend. Mr. Fuzzles attempted another swing at Rottytops as she hurried toward the badly-damaged half-genie. Rotty, catching sight of the attack, slid under it just as it barely grazed her hair enough to slice off a few strands. Rotty's mad dash saw no signs of slowing down as she made it her mission to tend to her friend. Her every step was powered by her dread at the possibility that she'd been hurt beyond saving.

"Haargh…!" Mr. Fuzzles growled, relaxing his stance and removing the metal coating from his body. "Now, then… Finally, I obtain some form of respite... I am mere moments away from putting an end to thy murderers, dearest Empress… and moments away from properly honoring thy mem-!"

"WHAT PART O' 'STOP' DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND!?" hollered an incredibly furious, distorted voice from behind the giant funnel-web spider, who'd found himself startled out of his soliloquy by the sheer bone-rattling volume. Turning around, he found himself shocked to see a thoroughly ticked-off, silver-eyed soldier bathed in an ominous purple aura as he twisted and squirmed to free himself from the webs that continued to hold him down. "Arrraaaaagh! DAAAARRRRAAAH!" the infuriated soldier screamed, squeezing his eyes shut has he suddenly began taking deep, heavy, shaky breaths to calm himself down enough not to lose control.

"…Inconceivable… Again...? What… is this…?" Mr. Fuzzles asked himself in a sudden sense of apprehension as he watched the soldier twisting and breathing as though he were about to transform into a werewolf. As he observed, however, he noticed the aura surrounding the young man rapidly fade as the squirming came to a gradual halt. Although, when Tay reopened his eyes, one of them remained a bright, gleaming silver while the other returned to normal as he glared at the spider.

"I'm warnin' you one last time! Stop the fight now!" Tay angrily demanded, feeling a mix of rage at Mr. Fuzzles and deep, heart-wrenching concern for Shantae as he looked over to see Rottytops cradling her on the far end of the opaque, torch-lit arena. "There is NO point t' what you're doin'!"

"No point…? Werest thou not listening to the exchange in which these ruffians and I engaged!? They must answer for their crimes!" Mr. Fuzzles indignantly asked, not at all receptive to the trapped human's assertion.

"An' I told you that doin' it this way won't solve anything!" Tay yelled back. "No matter what way you wanna spin it, those are my friends over there! An' I thought we became friends after what we just went through! Hurt them even a little bit more, an' you'll be dealin' with me in a way you couldn't even begin to imagine! I swear!"

"How dare ye!? What sort of 'friend' finds it appropriate to threaten me in defense of two cold-blooded killers!?" Mr. Fuzzles demanded to know, appalled by Tay's rather vicious change in demeanor.

"The kind that wants you t' do right, like we were talkin' about!" he reasoned, struggling to reel himself back in as every inch of his body burned with a VERY tightly suppressed desire to harm the spider for what he'd just done to Shantae. "I had no idea they fought your wife an' were the ones t' defeat her, an' I apologize for your loss! But believe me when I say they're not the villains you're paintin' them out t' be!"

"And how, pray tell, wouldst thou know that, human!? And who art thou to tell me what is right from what is wrong!?"

"As somebody who knows what you're feelin', like we talked about earlier, I implore you t' hear me out!" Tay reasoned as he relented on his struggle to break free. "Trust me, I know where the line between right an' wrong is! Or at least, I crossed it enough times t' know what it looks like. That aside, Mr. Fuzzles, those girls are my closest friends! It honestly surprises me that they could ever be the ones t' have done your wife in, an' I agree that you deserve some kind o' justice or closure! But goin' out an' doin' the same thing t' them that they did t' the Empress Spider is not gonna bring her back, nor is it gonna grant you the closure you're lookin' for!" Tay pleaded, shocking Mr. Fuzzles silent as the arachnid opened his proverbial ears to the testimony.

"…Not… going to bring her back…?" he quietly repeated, seeming to be haunted by the revelation. At that, the young man went silent alongside the enormous arthropod as each of them contemplated a way to progress their conversation. In the moment of silence, however, Mr. Fuzzles took a mental step back, breathed a huge sigh, went silent for another moment… and eventually, he came up with something to say. "I... I do not understand... Why dost thou care so dearly for these despicable reprobates, human?"

"What you see as 'reprobates,' I see as my allies," Tay explained, taking another deep breath to try and further quell the unsettling manifestation of malicious intent lingering within him. "I know them as people who'd be willin' t' help each other, an' anyone they came across that happened t' be in trouble or call out for help. I say this with the basic knowledge that they did somethin' t' hurt you an' your family at some point. I can't speak for what happened then, but I can say that they're much better than that otherwise."

"Hmph. I know not whether to call thee overtly forgiving, or woefully naive," Mr. Fuzzles dismissively shot back, not really in the mood to hear someone tell him that the ones responsible for the loss of his wife were not bad people.

"A fair statement t' make about me. Fine," Tay conceded. "But then, if they were so bad, then why do you think they're so determined t' break me out o' your webs, rather than try t' escape an' leave me in here with you? Especially after all the trouble you put them through?" At that, Mr. Fuzzles flinched in shock, though he did not offer an immediate reply. "They've had plenty o' time t' try an' get past you, get t' the platform at the end o' this cave, an' escape with their lives. Yet, they didn't. Instead, they've been spendin' this entire time riskin' their lives t' free me by any means necessary. Would a pair of emotionless, cold-blooded killers really go through all that trouble if they thought only about themselves an' had no ability t' feel compassion or concern for others?"

"...Well... N-no. I suppose there is a point to be made there, but thou art human. Thou beareth an appearance similar to them in a general sense. Of course, they would think to rescue their own kind, while tearing through hordes of mine arachnid allies and mine self to save thee."

"Also fair. But then, you haven't given them a chance t' explain themselves about what happened. An' believe it or not, I've seen Shantae interact very well with people an' monsters alike who look nothin' like her with my own eyes. That said, you can't ignore that they at least tried to apologize t' you before this mess got started," Tay explained, making it his purpose to get Mr. Fuzzles to view the situation from a different lens. "I'm not sayin' that you have t' accept their apology, nor am I sayin' that their apology is gonna mean squat in regard t' helpin' you soothe your pain. What I will say, though, is that in the end, you have the power t' address how you feel. You have the power t' make a decision that will help or hurt you in the long run. Whatever that decision is, Mr. Fuzzles, you need t' understand for yourself what you'd gain from it versus what you'd lose..." And as Tay's sentimental lecture came to a thought-provoking end, Mr. Fuzzles cast his dissonant gaze upon the incapacitated soldier, contemplating his every word. Surely, he had an opportunity like no other to finish off the half-genie responsible for the demise of Empress Spider dangling right before him. However, as he thought deeper about how much... or rather, how little of a favor it would do him personally to attempt to end the half-genie's life, he brought up one last point.

"...What if I confessed to thee that I would be doing this world a favor by destroying the genie menace and her undead lackey, thereby preventing them from putting other innocent monsters' lives in jeopardy?" Mr. Fuzzles dared to ask.

"Then I'd tell you that you'd be makin' a VERY ill-advised choice," Tay sternly remarked, his silver-hued eye glimmering at the unbearable thought. "Regardless of what you think o' them, they are NOT the irredeemable savages you see them as. I'd also flat-out tell you that, even for what you suffered through, you have no business takin' that kind o' justice into your own hands in your state."

"How?"

"Because, even if you SAY you'd try t' dispatch them an' justify it by sayin' you're doin' it for the sake of all the other monsters out there, I know you'd be tellin' yourself an' everybody around you a bald-faced lie; a bald-faced lie based on a selfish personal vendetta that you were too weak t' overcome on your own. Your acceptance o' the loss of your wife does not have t' come at the expense of harmin' somebody else. At all," Tay laid into him, causing the gigantic spider to go silent in deep, agonized thought once again. He did not know what to say, but he did acknowledge that, in some arbitrary sense... the human had a point.

"I... cannot deny these assertions of thine, human," Mr. Fuzzles eventually conceded with a heavy sigh. "Thou art correct in more ways than I care to admit. But then… What dost thou suggest I do? I cannot bear to deal with this pain… the pain of loss… the pain of never being able to see the love of mine life anymore… the pain of knowing that Empress Spider's assassins roam free to do as they please… I... I arranged for this genie to return to this island, hoping that I would obtain a chance at avenging mine beloved's demise..."

"I get that, Mr. Fuzzles. I really do," Tay validated, calming his tone further as he saw Mr. Fuzzles opening up. "Trust me, I've been in a similar spot before, minus the 'stagin' a meetin' under a set o' pretenses with the intent t' kill somebody out o' revenge' part. But take it from me; lettin' that pain rule your every decision will keep you locked in this cave of regrets, unfulfilled ambition, an' hatred for the rest o' your life, however long that is for you… whether you involve the idea o' revenge or not. I had t' learn that the hard way."

"…Thou appeareth well-versed in the realm of bereavement, human. Tell me, then. What dost thou knoweth of coping that grants thee such inner peace?"

"…I'm not sure I'd call it 'inner peace,' as much as I call it acceptance. But if you want some pointers, then I suggest you start with figurin' out how t' process your loss in a less violent an' short-sighted way than this…" Tay began, initiating an important discussion between himself and the grief-stricken Boss Monster.

Meanwhile...

Rottytops had made it over to the badly injured Shantae on the other end of the battlefield, kneeling beside her and lifting her up.

"Agh… Wow… That last hit really got me…!" Shantae groaned through labored breaths, blinking her eyes and attempting to stand, only to find every limb in her body practically screaming for her to remain still. "Ahagh! Ohh… my head is killing me… and so's everything else…"

"Try not to move too much, hon…" Rotty nurturingly advised, propping her wounded friend up with one hand while reaching into her pocket for something. "I've got just the thing to take care of you."

"Rotty… Is… Are you alright?" Shantae weakly asked, more concerned about her friend's safety than her own. "And... I'm... I'm getting a bad feeling... Is... Tay...?"

"What kind of question is that, snack cakes? I'm fine!" Rotty cheerily answered, finding some fleeting humor in the half-genie's first inquiry while not quite getting the chance to hear the other. "I wasn't the one who got smacked halfway across a cave by a giant, metal spider leg coming in like a cannonball. Now, hold still; it's time I pulled out my trump card. At this point, we're both gonna need it," she hinted, pulling out a giant, fleshy pink object from a pocket that it should not have been able to fit in. Shantae, noticing the strange object, blinked her eyes a few times to focus her vision enough to get a clear image of it.

"Ew… Is… Is that a brain?" Shantae asked, finding herself just a tad put off by the appearance of a live, disembodied vital organ resting in the hand of her zombie best friend.

"Not an authentic one. I swear," Rotty assured. "This is a human brain substitute, made from different pieces of other animal brains after they were processed for meat. And… there may be a tiny bit of Flesh Pop in it. It's a common food for zombies on anti-brain diets."

"That… doesn't make it sound much better…" the half-genie weakly pointed out, groaning as she struggled to keep from becoming overwhelmed from the frequent and unforgiving surges of agony ripping through her body. "Ack…! What…? Are you gonna try to get me to eat that…?"

"No, it doesn't work like that," Rotty explained, taking a deep breath as her heart began to beat once more and her stomach tightened a bit. "The way these fake brains are made, they're designed specifically to curb zombie cravings. So, only zombies can feel the direct healing effects of them. But, on the bright side, they can heal all injuries almost instantly. Plus, as I figured out from my time inside your mind, eating one of these can heal us both…"

"Oh… Well, that's… kind of relieving…"

"Yeah… heh… uh, except that just eating it healed me and your other friends in your mind. It… doesn't quite work like that in the real world…"

"It doesn't? So… how is it gonna work in that case…?" At that, Rotty breathed another nervous sigh as her cheeks grew warm with anticipation.

"It's… er, it's better to just go through with it before you pass out. I'll explain in a second…"

"Alright, then… I trust you, Rotty," Shantae gave her vote of confidence, bringing Rottytops a mild sense of relief that barely did anything to calm her rampaging nerves.

"Good. I'm gonna need it… and, fair warning: This'll be quick. I promise."

"Do what you've gotta do. I think I can look past you eating brains in front of me just this once…" At that, Rotty nodded in nervous agreement.

"Okay. Down the hatch!" Rotty announced, opening her mouth wide and chomping on the Fake Brain. In a matter of about two seconds, she devoured the life-size organ substitute in a few bites. Before she swallowed the remains of the brain, however, Rotty shifted Shantae to where she was cupping the weary ponytailed adventurer's cheeks. "Okay… This is for you… One… Two… Three…!" Rotty counted before doing what she had to do. With a swift, yet powerful seconds-long peck of her lips on Shantae's, both girls found themselves totally reinvigorated as they flashed emerald green for a split-second. Afterward, Rotty barely managed to swallow the remains of the Fake Brain whole before returning her gaze to a newly healed, albeit totally dumbfounded Shantae.

"…Uhh… Wow… I uh… Wow…" the flabbergasted half-genie stammered, staring blankly at her friend as they remained in the same position. To say poor Shantae's cheeks were burning like she'd eaten a ghost pepper whole was a miserable understatement. To say Rotty's cheeks weren't highlighted sea algae green as compared to the grassy green of the rest of her skin was a devastating underestimation. Suffice to say, this made for a very… VERY awkward moment for the young ladies as Shantae eventually got the idea to pull herself out of Rotty's grasp and rise to a capable stand. Rottytops, very much understanding the discomfort in the air, rose to her feet as well.

"…So, yeah. I uh… I can do that…" Rotty sheepishly admitted, scratching her head as she bashfully lowered her head.

"…Healing kisses, huh?" Shantae remarked, instinctively rubbing her lips with the back of her hand before stopping herself mid-wipe. Not wanting to offend her friend, she reluctantly pulled her hand down.

"Not exactly… More like Symbiotic Brain Chomp, but with the added condition that anybody else who needs healing needs to be kissed by me before I swallow the Fake Brain for it to work for them…"

"…And it… has to be on the lips…?"

"Um…"

"Y'know what? Forget I asked," Shantae hurriedly dismissed as shook her head and waved her hands in front of her, utterly unable to deal with the awkwardness of having to kiss yet another friend to be saved from certain doom... again.

"Sorry, Shantae… I… wanted to tell you sooner, but…"

"No, I… I can see why you kept that one under wraps. I'd bet you weren't expecting to need to use that move… But then, I'm guessing that was the move you said you didn't want to share with me earlier?"

"Yeah…"

"Hm… Well, sorry for making you have to use it," she apologized with a nervous sigh that only did but so much to relieve her of any unwavering discomfort. "But, as long as we're back in fighting form, we might as well keep working together to wrap this up, right?"

"Of course," Rotty agreed, breathing a sigh of relief, though her heart continued to beat slowly in her chest as the awkward energy continued to flow between the two of them. "And trust me, I'm hoping that's the only time we have to use it, too. Plus, I only get to do it once this time around, because that was the only Fake Brain I had on me when I came here. I was saving it for if I ran out of food before I found a way off this island, but this was clearly way more important. Essentially, it's for emergencies only."

"Er, y-yeah. Emergencies only," Shantae agreed with a thumbs-up and a grin of questionable confidence. "Either way, thanks for having my back, Rottytops. I'm glad I could count on you. I don't know what I'd do without you here."

"Anytime! I'm so glad you're so understanding about this, though," the zombie girl admitted. "I totally didn't do that because I have a crush on you or anything odd like that. You know that, right?"

"Of course!" Shantae laughingly agreed. "I wasn't thinking that at all. It was just a bit surprising for me. After a little while of not talking about it, I'm sure we can both eventually look back on this and laugh."

"Absolutely. Gotta say, though; I expected you to be much angrier about having lost your first kiss to me…" she innocently suggested, still feeling a bit unnerved about the experience itself. She certainly didn't want Shantae to resent her for something that had to be done, but she internally acknowledged that the method could potentially cause a rift in their friendship if they didn't come to an understanding.

"Oh, well there's nothing to worry about there, because that wasn't my first kiss," she admitted rather nonchalantly before she realized just what she'd said. "Oh! Er, I-I mean…" Shantae stammered, her face growing hot as she attempted to find ways to backtrack on what she just revealed to the wrong person.

"What!? Not your first!?" Rotty reacted in total shock, her previous discomfort already gone in the wake of such a grand discovery. "No way! Are you serious!?"

"No!" Shantae nervously denied.

"Come on, Shantae, I know you better than that…" Rotty urged, eyeing her best friend up and down with the suspicion that she had been hiding something.

"…Yeah…" she hesitantly admitted with a sigh that communicate that the jig was up.

"Interesting! Then, who was…?" Rotty was about to ask. Shantae, however, knew what the question was going to be, and as such, she bowed her head and pointed in the direction of the soldier who'd appeared to still be trapped and in the clutches of the malevolent giant funnel-web spider that had strangely not been doing anything to try and harm their mutual teammate... yet. "Tayshan, eh? Ha, I had a hunch, but I really should've figured…" Rotty remarked with a chuckle and a shake of her head. "I knew there was something else you weren't telling me right off the bat. So, you're even closer to him than you let on."

"N-no, it's not like that," Shantae protested, doing her best to keep from losing her composure as she instinctively began nibbling on her finger. "It wasn't like it was... intended for it to happen. It uh... It just did. I-it's not important right now. We need to save him from that spider monster before it attacks him while he's vulnerable," she tried to dismiss as she turned her attention toward Mr. Fuzzles and prepared to get a move on.

"And you'd better count on it that we'll get him out of there, no matter how many dirty tricks that spider has up his sleeve for us," Rotty agreed, also preparing to rescue their teammate from the diabolical, maniacal, poorly nicknamed Mr. Fuzzles. "You do know you're gonna need to cough up the details on that situation later on, though, right?"

"Aww... Do I have to explain that? I don't really want to relive that experience again... I'm pretty sure you can just use your imagination and leave it be, can't you?" Shantae suggested, losing her focus and she and Rotty momentarily turned toward one another.

"Snack cakes, as you know, my imagination is a very, VERY unsavory place for those who aren't prepared to explore it with me. You do NOT want me to give you my idea of what happened between you two if you're not prepared. You don't have to tell me what really took place, but your refusal is at your own risk," Rotty unnecessarily shared with a mischievous wink, though this was as close to a 'fair warning' as we were ever gonna get from a woman with a thought process like hers.

"...Good point," Shantae reluctantly agreed, indeed confirming she knew just how debauched Rotty's mind could get. Poor Shantae... The things she puts up with...

"I knew you'd understand. That said, you'd be MUCH better off giving me the scoop on how you and Tayshan wound up locking lips with each other. The excitement over what happened alone is killing me all over again! Besides, after everything that's been going on today, I need to be brought up to speed, don't I? You can't drop a juicy knowledge bomb like that and expect me not to pester you with question after question about it! I mean, come on! Your very first kiss ever was with stud muffin of all people! I'm so proud of you! You're growing up so fast!"

"Eh… s-sure, but... It… was also an emergency," Shantae clarified to try and curb Rotty's boundless excitement and hopefully nip this loose end in the bud. "And uh… it was a lot less romantic than you're thinking. At least, that's how it started out. I was poisoned by a scorpion monster in the Kitschy Quilt Desert when he stung my bottom lip. The antidote could only be applied by direct and extended mouth-to-wound contact... which translates to mouth-to-mouth contact in this case. Tay found the only antidote in existence at the time after we got separated, and once he found me, he uh... v-volunteered to help me out. It started out innocently enough, but then after a minute, it got way… WAY more… um…"

"Intimate, I'm gonna guess?" Rotty finished with a sly smirk, growing even more inquisitive as Shantae tried to sink into herself. "Aaaaaah~!" she hummed with an upward inflection, further embarrassing her closest friend.

"…That's… one way of putting it…" she shyly admitted, blushing hard as she turned her head away, took a deep, shaky breath, and began twirling a finger through her hair.

"Oh, really? Well, now you HAVE to let me know how the good part carried out. He beat me and basically everyone else ever to the goal of getting to kiss you on the lips! Er, n-not to say that it was a goal of mine in particular or anything. Heh... But still, he had to kiss you to save you in basically the same way I just had to? That's incredible! From the sound of it, though, he left one heck of a first impression if just the thought of it's got you THIS hot and bothered... I'm a little jealous of the two of you now~!"

"Rotty, stop!" Shantae pleaded, at this point about one more humiliating comment away from being totally overwhelmed with embarrassment over the tumultuous memory of her tumultuous first kiss. "You're focused on the wrong thing right now! Let's shelf this discussion until later, alright?"

"Oh, fine, fine... I want you to tell me everything later on, though, and I won't take 'no' for an answer! No skimping on details, either!"

"Ah… F-fine…" the half-genie conceded before prepping herself for the next round of the Boss Battle. "We'll see. Now let's hurry up and save Tay," she further suggested, now dreading an impending conversation that she most certainly did not want to have. "Ready?"

"You didn't even have to ask!" Rotty assured with a smirking fist pump. "Together, we'll get him out of there in no time!"

"Alright, then. My magic's still a bit low, though, but I think I can manage from here."

"Right. Sorry, that's the other drawback of my Symbiotic Brain Chomp; my technique only works to restore health, not magic," Rotty confessed.

"That's fine. It's more than enough of a revive for me, either way. Anyway, I'm thinking the plan will be for me to distract the spider long enough for you to get over there and rescue Tay, like we've been trying before. We were really close last time, and I'm confident that we wore him down enough to where I can realistically handle him much better than earlier. There's no doubt that the spider's taken a ton more damage at this point if he hasn't outright attacked us while he had the chance. I'm thinking that he's probably trying to recover while he plans his next move."

"Interesting that you should say that, because, from the looks of it, he's not even in a position to attack at all. He's just standing there, staring at stud muffin. I mean, I can definitely see that he's much worse off now, but this is weird... What do you think is going on over there?"

"I'm not sure, but we can't risk Tay being injured when he can't defend himself. If this spider wants to play rough with us, then we're gonna play rough right back," Shantae vowed, pumped full of vigor and a splash of vengeful intent as she rubbed the cheek Mr. Fuzzles smacked moments earlier. "If I can help it, I'll fight the spider with everything I've got. If nothing else, I'll wear him down even more, if not outright beat him. After we regroup, we'll all be able to finish this fight for what would apparently be the second time. You might wanna go invisible before you make your move this time, though, so move slowly behind me here until I can lure that spider far enough away from Tay, okay?"

"Sure, but... are you positive about that plan? That spider cleaned your clock pretty hard, snack cakes…" Rotty commented, worried that Shantae would potentially get seriously hurt again if she took on Mr. Fuzzles by herself once more. "Plus, like I said, if you get hurt again, I don't have another Fake Brain to kiss-slash-heal you with."

"I've taken much harder hits from much bigger opponents," she assured with utmost confidence, though her cheeks grew slightly rosy at the mention of Rottytops kissing her again. "Like I've been saying, this outfit is the only reason I'm so much more sensitive to damage, but it doesn't mean I don't know how to dodge or that I can't still hold my own. I can adapt. And now that I know his special trick, he's not gonna catch me off-guard again. I can at least guarantee that. If things really go well from here on out, I might just win this thing for all of us."

"Aw, yeah! The woman with the plan! I love it! You're always so confident!" Rotty cheered, remaining hopeful that they would prevail in the face of this most challenging Boss Battle.

"Right. Now then… Here we go!" Shantae announced, sprinting at top speed toward Mr. Fuzzles with the full intent to stop him from potentially harming hers and Rotty's third teammate further. At the same time, Rottytops approached at a much slower pace, patiently waiting for Shantae to reengage the gigantic arachnid while activating her Concealer Ring to turn herself invisible.

Meanwhile (Again)...

On the other side of the battlefield, the spider and the alien(ish) serviceman were wrapping up a rather civil conversation of their own.

"…So, thou art certain that seeking professional help and pushing forward with a revamped version of mine chocolate bar business shalt grant me the relief and tranquility I seek?"

"I can't guarantee anything, Mr. Fuzzles, but nothin' works unless you give it a try. Just remember t' do it for you first."

"Hm… Indeed. Then, as thou request, I shall-!"

"Get away from him! Haarrrraaaah!" a feminine voice roared out from across the battlefield as its owner came charging in with reckless abandon.

"What in the name of all that is sacred!? How is she-?" Mr. Fuzzles prepared to ask himself as he turned around to see Shantae charging at him with new and refreshed determination. Just as his eyes were filled with the sight of her, however, a wayward fireball came crashing with a *PWOSH* on his back, causing him to thrash and writhe in agony. "GAAGH! ARGH!" he screamed, stumbling backward and narrowly avoiding stepping on the defenseless soldier.

"Have another one!" she shouted, tossing another fireball in Mr. Fuzzles' direction. Thinking quickly, the alarmed arthropod spun a web and latched himself to the ceiling and pulled himself upward just enough to avoid being struck. Afterward, he swung himself to the side, landing with a *BOOM* that caused more debris to rain from the ceiling. Shantae would have no further regard for him at this point, however. She displayed her agility by immediately changing directions and bulleting toward him, glowing with magic energy once again. "You won't get away!"

"Gah! Wretched genie! Thou possesseth no honor!" Mr. Fuzzles spat in contempt, doing his best to defend himself as Shantae engaged him in another rush of hair whips. "I was ready to concede in good faith, but thy senseless aggression in the wake of a negotiated truce has changed mine thinking! Prepare to die, demon!"

"Stop calling me that! YOU'RE the bad guy here, not me!"

"Shantae! Wait, stop!" Tay requested, seeing that his team leader had committed to going all out on a Boss Monster who'd already was about to surrender. "He was about t' call it quits! You don't need t' fight him anymore!" His pleas, as expected, fell on deaf ears as he watched them engage in combat once more. "Dang it, I should've asked him t' get these webs off me before we had that talk…!" he complained as Shantae chased Mr. Fuzzles around the arena. Just then, he felt something land squarely on his stomach with a heavy *THUMP* that almost knocked the wind out of him. "Oogh…! Ow… What was that…?" he murmured, gazing downward to see that nothing was there… except for a pair of floating eyes with crimson irises. "What the heck is—?" he almost asked before, with a sudden *POOF*, the rest of a certain zombie girl's head suddenly appeared, conveniently facing Tay's eyes. "Whoa… It's you!"

"In the decaying flesh, handsome! Now, for the rest of me to show up… right about now!" she announced, at which point a swirling purple vortex formed under Rotty's head… and directly in Tayshan's stomach as he felt his insides begin to twist and warp like someone had stuck a blender inside him and turned it on.

"Grgh! Awaagh, Gaaaaaahhaahahahaaaaahaagh!" he suddenly screamed in unrelenting torment, twisting and fidgeting in extreme discomfort as the purple portal widened. "Wah! Aah! Agh! Gaaagh! Agh, Aaarrraaaaahahaaaaaagh!" he continued to yell in panic and unbelievable anguish, unable to even twist himself around to at least get more comfortable as the rest of Rottytops' corporeal form emerged from the confines of the soldier's stomach, reattaching itself to Rotty's head to make her whole again. Shortly thereafter, Rotty found herself seated comfortably, straddled over the tortured young man she'd been tasked with RESCUING, NOT KILLING. "Agh! Awh! Ah! Ow…! Wha…! Hoh…! Hooh…!"

"Um… You alright there, sweetie?" Rotty questioned, raising an eyebrow at the soldier, who'd been panting heavily after having just been used as a teleportation device of most… disquieting proportions. "You sound like you're in a LOT of pain right now… What did that awful spider do to you?"

"Not the spider...!" he choked out, still processing the astronomical physical torment he had just been subjected to, still grunting and panting heavily as Rotty... simply sat on him and watched.

"Oh. Uh... Are you just that excited to see me, then…?" she curiously asked, still not really quite grasping the concept that maybe it wasn't a good idea to teleport directly out of another person's stomach.

"Agh…! Hah…! Aw, man…! How… did you do that?" he barely managed to ask, his abdomen still feeling as though it had burst open.

"Do what?"

"You just... appeared on me out o' nowhere... I didn't even see or hear you approach me...!"

"Oh, right, you don't know about my special abilities! So, one of the two things I used was this nifty little invisibility ring we found while we were on our way to rescue you," Rotty cheerfully explained, showing off her new bling as Tay continued to suffer the devastating aftereffects of serving as Rotty's personal portal. "That way, I could get over here without that spider seeing me. Granted, it makes everything but my eyes disappear, and he spotted me anyway because of that earlier, but Shantae's thankfully keeping him at bay this time. The other ability I used, I call my Instantaneous Head Warp!" she further educated. "I detach my noggin and give it a toss, and wherever it lands, the rest of me pops out from under it after dipping into a portal through a mysterious pocket dimension. Neat, huh?"

"S-sure, but… pocket dimension…? I… I felt you comin' inside me…!" he groaned, shuddering at the recent memory of having Rottytops emerge from his stomach like a horror movie monster. "Awrgh…!"

"Whoa! Okay, then! That's a bit of an odd thing to say to a girl, don'tcha think?" she not-so-innocently asked, her cheeks flushing dark green as she smiled at him. "We hardly know each other~!"

"Wh… What?"

"Plus, I'm pretty sure it doesn't work quite like that. Just sayin'," she... suspiciously joked with a grinning shrug as she got some sick kick out of this conversation.

"What… are you talkin' about…?" he dared to ask, regaining his composure once the feelings of extreme intestinal pain and nausea simmered down to a mild stomachache.

"You're silly. Well, if I have to explain it, then… uh, considering certain factors about our body types, stud muffin..."

"What...? Body types?" he asked again, a sinking feeling hitting him right in his violated gut as Rotty's inappropriate grin grew wider.

"Yeah," she confirmed with a giggle. "So, like I was saying, based on our body types, you're the one who's supposed to be c-!"

"WOW," he bluntly and flatly remarked, cutting Rotty off at the exact moment she needed to be cut off as he realized exactly where she was going. And reader, I am obligated to tell you, just to abate your rampant curiosity, that she was headed nowhere good.

"What?" she 'innocently' asked.

"You are trippin'. Again."

"I am? What, did I say something weird?"

"…Really?" he retorted, raising an eyebrow at her to communicate that he knew better. At that, the reanimated woman drew in a sharp gasp.

"Hey, are you accusing me of something~? Because I'm not sure what you're implying, Tayshan," she teased, stifling a childish laugh.

"Oh, don't give me that. I really enjoy how you tried t' be slick an' answer my question with absolutely NONE o' the context involved!" he shouted, causing the rambunctious young revenant to burst into a fit of giggling that demonstrated that she knew exactly what she was doing. "I can't believe I almost let you set me up for that one..."

"Alright, ya got me. Can't get much past you, can I?" she teased as she studied the webs binding his waist and his hands to the floor.

"Short answer: No. Anyway, sorry about callin' you a greedy shyster back there," he brought it in himself to apologize, immediately (and thankfully) changing the subject. "I almost thought you were gonna sell us-!"

"Oh hush, darling. I've been called much worse things in the past, and it wasn't your fault. 'Mr. Atrocity van Fuzzbomber' or whatever his name is, was apparently just playing us all for fools. I can't blame you and snack cakes for getting upset, but as long as we know I didn't stab you in the back, we're good."

"I'd bet, all things considered. An' thanks for your forgiveness. But hey, not t' rush you, but could you please get me out o' these webs? I need t' end this fight right now before it really gets out o' hand."

"That's what I'm here for!" she agreed, sliding herself down to where she was sitting on his lap as leverage to begin tearing off the webs surrounding the soldier's waist. "Hrrrgh! Hah! Wow, these webs are tougher than they look… No wonder you've been stuck here…! I got it, though…"

"Good, good," he sighed with relief as he watched Rotty rip off two handfuls of webbing like she was opening a holiday present.

"Gotta ask while we're here, though, stud muffin… Why are you so concerned about what happens to that spider? He's clearly in the wrong here."

"Yeah, but he was actin' out o' grief over his… Ow…! …Lost spouse," Tay explained through surges of pain coursing through his abdomen as Rotty continued tearing handfuls of the thick, sticky webs off him. "Hah…! Agh…! Ah… I can't say I… don't… Haagh…! Understand his pain…"

"Well… Hrrgh! Yah! I guess that's fine, but… Hrrrrah…! It's obvious he's… not gonna let up at this rate…! He's bent on trying to kill me and… Hah…! Shantae…!" Rotty countered, finding it increasingly difficult to rip the webs off her teammate as she was forced to stretch her legs, planting the heels of her feet into the ground on either side of the soldier as she wiggled her hips to get settled in. "Nrrrrgh…! Gosh, this is WAY harder than I thought… I might need to put more of my back into it…"

"Oorgh…! Gah, you…" Tay murmured, fighting through surges of physical discomfort as she continued trying to help him. However, the reanimated young woman quickly found herself visibly distracted by the soldier's frequent grunts and bouts of gasping for air as her cheeks heated up. "Ah…! You're bein' so rough…" he alerted her through another pained grunt, causing her to pause as she bit her lip.

"…Aw, jeez…" she muttered, suddenly awash in nervousness as she reached for another double-fisted handful of webs and thrust her hips while pulling the substance back toward herself. "…Do you have to put it like that…? You're drivin' me nuts over here…"

"Gaahah! Ah…! Awgh…" Tay groaned in reaction to the forceful nature of his rescuer's attempt to rip more web off him, squeezing his eyes shut as he endured the immense discomfort caused by her maneuver. In response, Rotty suddenly paused again, shooting him a look of flustered perplexity as he panted like he'd just gotten done holding his breath underwater. Noticing that she'd stopped moving, he reopened his eyes to catch a full glimpse of her watching him as though she'd seen tiny gremlins dancing on his forehead. "Er… Why are you starin' at me like that…?" At that, Rotty sighed away some of her tension.

"Okay, I'm gonna have to ask you to stop making all those alluring noises while I'm getting you up," Rotty nervously admonished as she leaned back and, with all her might, attempted to pull yet another gob of webbing off her friend's waist. "Haaaaaah…!"

"Gaaagh! Hoh! I-I can't help…! Guagh! …it!" Tay complained, squirming as Rotty suddenly began a most effortful game of seesaw in the form of repeatedly rocking back and forth while tugging on the webs to loosen them up. "And… ow! What's… Ah… S-so 'alluring' about any of-! Gagh…! This…?"

"Hah! Yah! Rrrah…! Hmph! Ah…! Almost… There…! Come on, just… a little… more…! I'm… getting… close…! Ahn...! Hah…!" she grunted through her statement while not acknowledging his question, pausing between words to perpetuate a system of leaning in, grabbing two huge handfuls of webbing, and throwing her upper body backward while digging her feet harder into the floor. Mind you, she was also thrusting her hips forward with every time she forced her upper body backward like she'd been rowing a canoe. Her 'strategy' caused the unfortunate young man immeasurable discomfort as he writhed and squirmed under her with her every forceful thrust that caused her to inadvertently grind into him. After what had to be at least two solid minutes of her employing her unusual strategy…

"Agh! Aw, for the love of-! Ugagh! Stop, stop, stop, stop, sto-ho-hop…!" the unfortunate young man begged, having been flinching in pain and discomfort with every time Rotty reached forward to tear chunk after chunk of the webs off with her raw power. "Ahagh…! You've got enough o' th-! Urgh… Hah…! Ow!"

"Dude! If you want me to help you out faster, I need you to stop distracting me with all those racy sounds you're making and all the squirming you're doing!" she blushingly complained, finally ceasing her web-ripping efforts to shake her aching hands as she remained seated. "I get it if this is the first time you've been in a position like this, but come on! I can barely focus!"

"Wh… What? How is that my fault? I can barely even move!" Tay complained, uncertain of why she'd been so upset with him for something he couldn't necessarily control.

"Because! Don't you think it's hard enough for me, seeing a hot, sweaty, muscly, shirtless guy all tied up and vulnerable under me like you are now?" she brazenly and accusingly asked him as she pouted, panting as she also took the moment to catch her breath.

"What!?" Tay shouted, completely blindsided by the unusual comment.

"You heard what I said," she brazenly remarked, causing the soldier's heart (in conjunction with his expectations) to sink dramatically as he stared at the equally hot, sweaty Rottytops as drew in slow, deep, labored breaths.

"…Oh, no. Oh, no, that is not where this conversation needs t'-!" he tried to protest.

"I can't have you all grunting and wincing and groaning and squirming like you are when I'm trying to save you! You're causing… 'urges' to come up in me, and I don't want to lose control and hurt you. So please… Ease up on a lady, will ya?"

"...I now question why Shantae would EVER let you volunteer t' help me in this situation..." he murmured, thoroughly discombobulated by Rotty's unabashed (not to mention unwarranted) forwardness. "She should've done this herself..."

"Beggars can't be choosers, stud muffin, so watch what you say," Rotty shot back, having heard his comment. "She chose to do the harder of the two tasks, in case you don't hear all the effortful shouting and fighting going on around us. She's committing herself to keeping that giant chocolate-peddling spider off us long enough for me to save you. Either way, the fact that this is so hard for me is all your fault, with your naughty noises and your wiggling into me."

"You're blamin' me? And... naughty noises an' wigglin'!? Yo, you kept pressin' int' my achin' stomach every time you went t' grab for web, an' then you kept doin' that exaggerated heave-ho move, which is makin' this as painful for me as it is apparently uncomfortable for you!"

"…I mean, I never said I was uncomfortable…" she slyly murmured with a hidden giggle as she momentarily shot her gaze somewhere else.

"An' for that matter, what 'urges' are you talkin' about that would make this such a challenge for you?" Tay dared to inquire, though he probably shouldn't have.

"Oh, you really wanna know? Wow, I… huh, that's a first… Most guys I tell that to, tend to run away screaming…"

"Until you get me out o' this bind, I ain't goin' nowhere. Runnin' ain't exactly an option for me right this minute. Explain away, please."

"Well… as a zombie, certain situations tempt me to eat a human's brain, simply put. Namely, situations like this, where you're injured and stuck in one place with no way to escape, and I have free rein to act on the temptation if I wanted to. It's not something I'm proud of, and it's a bit of a problem I've had since I got turned into a zombie…"

"Well, that doesn't scare me senseless at all," Tay commented, his heart pounding in anticipation of Rotty's intentions as she revealed one of the 'perks' of her status as a corporeal consumer of cranial contents.

"I won't do it, though. Ever. Promise. I've been trying to get rid of that quirk for the longest time, because I would prefer that my friends not worry about me preying on them under any circumstance. I assure you, stud muffin, I'm here to help; not harm."

"Oh. Well, that makes about as much sense as I think it could," Tay plainly replied, accepting Rotty's explanation as he relaxed just a tiny bit, reading the sincerity in her plain facial expression enough to believe her statement.

"I hope it does. Though, I WILL throw it out there for your knowledge and admit that I'm also referring to the 'other' kinds of… er, more 'normal' urges a girl gets when she… Ah, never mind… I'll just keep that one to myself… Heh…" she wisely, albeit blushingly chose not to fully voice the thought, sparing us all a trip into her entirely enigmatic and moderately inappropriate subconscious. "Either way, you've been warned. Be careful how you react the next time you find yourself in this scenario, okay? You never know who might get the wrong idea…"

"…An' just when you give somebody the benefit o' the doubt… I appreciate the blunt honesty an' the unusual advice… but on the real, that's T.M.I., yo…" Tay regretfully informed her with a most uncomfortable sigh, having unwillingly learned about how 'normal' his zombified acquaintance was and how their abnormal interaction in this situation affected her… in both zombie-related and in 'normal' ways. Whatever that's supposed to mean. Beats me.

"Sorry. I don't have much of a filter, as you'll come to know about me. But on the bright side, once you get used to being friends with me, you'll almost never be surprised by anything I say or do!"

"Hm. Good t' know, I guess… An' here I was, thinkin' you hated me for what happened before we even got dragged int' this cave..."

"Oh. Right, I guess I should clarify that I don't actually hate you, Tay," Rotty confessed. "Not even close. I know I came across as a bit harsh, but I was uh... just trying to protect Shantae," she rather cryptically informed him, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "I didn't mean to make you upset with me, but... like... A girl's gotta look out for her bestie when she's in peril, y'know?"

"That right...?" he questioned, though he tried not to let his mind wander too deeply into the implications of Rotty's confession regarding her outburst aimed at him earlier during their adventure. It was safe to say, however, that he got an idea.

"Yeah. We... can probably save that discussion for later, though. My point is that I uh... I'm not sure how to put it, because I'm not that great at telling people how I really feel about them. So, I guess I'll just say it. Even though this is the first time we've met, I actually like you quite a lot, Tayshan. As a friend, I mean. Well, maybe it's partly because you're a smokin' hot guy, but mostly because I think you'd make a pretty good hang-out buddy. Honest," she bluntly admitted, causing Tay's face to heat up a bit as he locked eyes with his supposed 'savior.'

"Oh. Well, I like you as a friend, too," Tay reciprocated Rotty's offer for friendship as plainly as he could manage as they, in a sense, started fresh (if not a bit awkwardly). Hearing him voice his acceptance brought her a simultaneous sense of relief and anticipation as her heart thumped ever so quietly in her chest. "Even for what a rambunctious, unpredictable ball o' crazy you are, I can respect that you own it."

"Crazy? Hey!" she complained... sort of. "That's totally true!" she gleefully accepted his 'compliment' after feigning offense. "It's something you'll grow to adore about me, no less."

"I'm so sure. I suddenly find myself almost overwhelmed with the urge t' ask you t' tell me more, but I'd like t' also 'urge' you t' finish helpin' me out o' these webs first," he offered a friendly reminder to her.

"Right! I've gotta finish this up! Although, that reminds me…" she trailed off, curiously turning her head and peering downward behind herself and shifting a bit before turning back to face him with a most… suspicious grin on her face. "Speaking of 'urges,' stud muffin, it seems to me like you know exactly what I meant a second ago…~ Any chance you're somehow enjoying me being on y-?"

"There's no time for that! Get me out o' here now, please!" the flustered young man demanded, at this point desperate to escape the predicament for the simple purpose of at least getting Rottytops off him.

"Your wish is my command!" she cheerfully obliged. Taking this as something of a small victory for herself, Rotty mischievously giggled as she cracked her knuckles and committed herself to tearing off the remainder of the webbing that bound Tayshan's torso to the ground. After a few more... unsavory thrusts and pulls of webbing that I no longer felt like describing, she eventually got enough of the webs off him that he found himself able to lift his back and hips off the ground. Just as she concluded part one of her mission, Shantae glanced in their direction and noticed that her allies were still planted in the middle of the arena. Growing concerned in the middle of her arduous battle against Mr. Fuzzles, she called to them at the risk of notifying Mr. Fuzzles of their plan.

"Hey! What's taking you so long, Rotty?" Shantae called from across the arena as she dodged another swing from Mr. Fuzzles before running in to counter with a couple of coordinated hair whips, causing him to huddle up and harden his body again. "Are you almost done?"

"Oh! Yeah, snack cakes! I just got done the first half! Moving up to the second part now!" Rotty informed while Shantae was busy, hurriedly scrambling to reposition herself to where she was standing above the soldier's hands. She immediately squatted down, looking for some form of leverage.

"What?" Mr. Fuzzles remarked in surprise, halting his relentless assault to notice that the zombie girl had been well into the process of setting the human male free. "No! I hath grown careless in mine time of desperation...!" he reprimanded himself, thoroughly unsatisfied with the way the tables were turning against him. "Remove thyself from that human, wretched-!" the infuriated arachnid was about to threaten Rottytops before a *PWOSH* of another fireball struck him right in the face.

"Eyes over here, spider! You want me? Come and get me!" Shantae bravely taunted, driving her enemy's temper through the roof.

"Gaarraaagh...! Gah...! Miserable genie! I shall exterminate thee posthaste!" he declared once he recovered from the surprise attack, more determined than ever to dispose of the young genie girl he declared to be the bane of his existence. Ravenously, he chased after her while shooting lasers left and right in her direction. Adapting quickly, Shantae continued her strategy of dancing and spinning around his projectiles and gracefully dodging his web sprays and leg swipes as she also countered with the occasional hair whip to keep his focus on her.

"Alright, I'm gonna pull as hard as I can. Hopefully, my arms don't pop off. Wish me luck," Rotty informed Tayshan as she settled herself into a comfortable spot from which to begin yanking at the webs.

"Got it," Tay acknowledged, using his newfound leverage to tear himself away from the remainder of the webs stuck to his waist. Finding success, he flipped over while his hands remained tangled up in spider excretion.

"Neat! You're finally able to stand!" Rotty cheered as she watched her newest acquaintance climb to his feet and settle into a comfortable position while his hands were still ensnared.

"We should throw a party t' celebrate, right?" Tay joked to the zombie girl's amusement as she chuckled. "Anyway, I should be able t' make it easier on you this time around," he added, shuffling to where he was able to plant his feet onto the ground in a low squat to accommodate. "Okay, I'm ready t' pull when you are."

"Okey doke!" Rotty acknowledged, settling in and preparing to put her back into ripping the webs off her teammate's hands. Tay lined up in front of her, facing her as he also focused his strength into his legs. "In that case, get ready… set… go!" the eager young zombie girl commanded, commencing a full-fledged effort to set the young man free.

"Haaaaaaaaaagh….! Hrrrrrgh!" Tay grunted with considerable effort, leaning back and pulling his arms upward with every bit of strength he could muster. Within seconds, his body began to glow white as he put forth more effort to wrest himself free from his arachnid-made shackles. The webbing stretched like dough as the two tugged on it in opposite directions. "Gaaaah…!" the serviceman growled some more, digging his feet harder into the stony surface of the cavern floor as he felt the sticky substance beginning to loosen. Rottytops had also put in a considerable effort, though she soon found herself looking up toward her ally.

"Whoa…! Holy cow! You…? Wow…" she asked, losing her focus as she spectated her friend's escape effort. As she looked on, she took note of the ferocious aura of Light Magic circling the young man as he squeezed his eyes shut and poured all his concentration on breaking free. She also watched on as every muscle in his body seemed to become engorged with a mix of magic and his own willpower. Beads of sweat formed across his brow as more of it drenched his half-naked body. His bare arms and chest appeared to harden to the texture of meaty stones as he continued to pull. Numerous veins protruded from his forearms and shoulders as the magic surrounding him grew brighter. The definition in his muscles shined through with the longer she scanned him up and down while he tore himself away from the viscous nets of spider web. And just when Rotty thought she'd seen everything, Tay had made more progress in the form of regaining the range of motion necessary to pull his arms outward and back, giving her an unintentional full show of his physical form. "Oh, boy… I… it's getting a little stuffy in here…" she murmured with an instinctive gulp, unabashedly gluing her eyes to the soldier's scar-riddled abdomen as the bulges of his glistening, rock-hard muscles became more pronounced in the opaque shading of the dungeon in contrast to the magic illuminating the immediate vicinity. Before the 'show' could go on, however….

"Ghhhhrrraaah!" Tayshan shouted once more, giving it one final, effortful thrust of his body backward. Finally, the moment of truth came when the webbing around his arms tore away with a wet *SCHLLLRRP*. "Wuwaah!" he further bellowed, stumbling back a few steps as the magic suddenly vanished. Though he found himself entirely out of breath and just a tad disoriented in the moment, our one and only resident alien soldier finally found himself free from Mr. Fuzzles' incredibly adhesive webbing. "Whoo…! Man, that stung a lot more than I thought it would… Ow… I feel like that ripped the hair off my arms…"

"…Huh… Whelp, that was just about the hottest thing I've seen in a while…" Rotty barely found it in herself to mutter, still staring intently at him as he massaged his wrists and turned his gaze toward her. "Who… IS this guy…?"

"Hey. Thanks for gettin' me out o' this, Rottytops," he expressed in response to her helping him. "I owe ya one. Or… wait, you… didn't want me callin' you by name, right?"

"Huh? O-oh!" Rotty began her eloquent remark, shaking herself out of her bout of gawking at her comrade. "Oh, no, don't sweat it. You've uh… been sweating enough as it is," she quipped, causing him to chuckle a bit.

"Clever."

"Er, y-yep! Clever. Definitely. Also, you can call me 'Rotty' for short. Like I said before, I was never actually upset with you at all, Tay. I was just protecting Shantae. I owe you an explanation," she replied as she cleaned the remains of webbing off her hands and rose to a stand. In that moment, Rotty found herself growing nervous and apprehensive as a result of his passive mention of the point at which she yelled at him to bail Shantae out of an awkward explanation of her own shortly after their impromptu footrace.

"Don't worry about that. It… probably wasn't my place t' say anything t' her when whatever y'all were talkin' about wasn't even meant for my ears," he shrugged as he scratched his cheek, though the mere mention of the precipitating event leading to their underground spider-themed dungeon rescue quest sent a monumental tsunami of dread and uncertainty ripping through his stomach as he turned his gaze toward Shantae, who'd still been locked in fierce combat with Mr. Fuzzles off to the side. "Er, a-anyway, I'm gonna go try t' bring this to an end," he alerted her, not waiting for a reply as he took off.

"Wait!"

"Huh? What's up?" Tay asked, stopping and turning to face his newest ally.

"Aren't you gonna take your gun?" Rotty asked, pointing toward the firearm lying on the ground nearby, where she'd previously dropped it.

"Not at the moment. I'm not goin' in t' fight, so that won't do me any good at this particular point. If anything, I'd ask you t' hold onto it in case somethin' bad happens. I notice you picked up on how t' use it."

"Begrudgingly, but I don't want to use it anymore. I hate guns, and using yours was a one-time thing for Shantae," she rebuffed to his surprise.

"Oh. Well, then. In that case, just leave it there, I guess," he suggested, his sense of urgency compelling him to intervene in the battle between Shantae and Mr. Fuzzles, though he found himself taken aback by Rotty's outright refusal to use his weapon further. "Wouldn't want t' make you uncomfortable."

"I appreciate your concern, stud muffin, but why aren't you going to take your gun back? And for that matter, why don't you want to fight after what that spider did to us? You're aware that he's very likely going to keep trying to kill us all, aren't you? You'd better protect yourself."

"I hear you, but he's not as bad as y'all are seein' right now. Without sayin' too much, I was in the middle o' talkin' him down before Shantae swooped in an' attacked him again."

"Talking him down?" Rotty remarked in abundant surprise. "How?"

"Long story, but the gist of it is that he was gonna change his mind on this whole 'gettin' revenge for his wife' plot an' consider goin' about more productive ways t' heal his broken heart." At that, Rotty raised an eyebrow and scanned the soldier up and down to see if he was pulling her leg or if he was being serious. "I can tell by the look you're givin' me that you probably think I'm insane, but I'm tellin' you the truth."

"No, it's not that I think you're COMPLETELY insane to try, much less succeed at convincing a ginormous, homicidal, bloodthirsty spider monster to stop trying to destroy the people he thinks are solely responsible for his wife being beaten in a Boss Battle," she bluntly admitted. "It's more that you don't seem the type that likes to go about having casual conversations with monsters in the first place. I'm... just a little surprised."

"Oh. Well, all I can say is that what you see ain't always exactly what you get. Mind you, he wasn't tryin' t' hear anything I had t' say when I first got dragged down here, an' I had t' beat him int' submission before he stuck me t' the floor with webs as he was explodin'. Only after that, did he an' I get t' talkin'. Either way, Rottytops, I can definitely assure you that I ain't always the kind o' guy t' shoot first an' ask questions second. I will, however, do whatever is necessary t' defend myself or somebody else if my hand is forced. I'm no pacifist, but I don't always like t' fight if there's no point."

"...Huh. Interesting," Rotty acknowledged, still staring at the shirtless young man as he grew self-conscious due to her unwavering, scrutinizing gaze. "Very, very interesting... That said, how do you expect to stop Mr. Fuzzles from attacking Shantae when you won't take your gun?"

"I don't know, but with the way things are lookin', Shantae ain't exactly the one in danger," he pointed out, glancing over to see a sweat-bathed, battle-damaged Desert Princess outfit-adorned Shantae in the middle of hounding a badly injured Mr. Fuzzles down with another onslaught of hair whips. What immediately alarmed him, however, was the fact that Shantae's hair appeared to be on fire despite the fact that she'd long since lost her Elemental Hair Tie. "Shoot, she's gonna kill him if I don't hurry up…!" he murmured in concern, turning to race toward them before he realized something. At that realization, he paused and turned back toward Rotty. "Hold up. She... she wasn't in such a good condition after Mr. Fuzzles smacked her across the room. An' for that matter, neither were you. How did y'all spring back up so quickly? Did you two stack up on extra healin' items on the way down here?"

"Nah, I've got a special ability that lets me gobble down a makeshift brain made from non-human animal brains to heal myself up," Rottytops casually explained. "I can also pass the benefits onto anyone I kiss just after I've eaten the Fake Brain," she also casually explained, causing Tay to nearly jump out of his skin. "Unfortunately, I only had one Fake Brain with me at the time, so I can't do it again for either of you until I get my hands on another one."

"Fake Brain, huh? Interesting... But then... if I'm hearin' you right, you... had t'...?" he was all but compelled to ask for clarification.

"I had to kiss her on the lips to share the healing effect with her, yes," Rotty finished for him, shrinking into herself a bit as her cheeks heated up. "That's the only way my Symbiotic Brain Chomp works on other people outside of the world of someone's dreams."

"Huh. Alright, then... I'm not sure where t' begin wrappin' my head around that, so I'll... just agree an' offer you my gratitude for lookin' out for her."

"No need to thank me... I didn't think twice about doing it, and I'd basically do anything for her to make sure she was okay."

"Right, right... So, not t' jump t' conclusions, but... does that mean...? That... you an' she...?" he dared himself to inquire, his heart pounding for some odd reason as he suddenly began making some very poorly-timed speculations about the nature of the relationship between Shantae and Rottytops.

"Whatever it is you're thinking, no. No, that is definitely not the case," she hurriedly denied, her heartbeat speeding up to a snail's pace (which, trust me, is pretty fast for a zombie). "She and I are strictly best friends, stud muffin. Besides, you're the one we want to-! Or, I-I mean, you're the one she has the cr-! Uhh... Ooh, I'd better not say that now..." she stopped herself, not wanting to make a bad situation worse.

"Say what?" Tay questioned, tilting his head.

"Nothing," she swiftly deflected. "A-anyway, you apparently know from experience what it's like to kiss her out of a need to keep her safe and healthy, and no one's making any weird suggestions about you and her being in a relationship."

"Nobody except everybody," Tay countered, though it pained him greatly to find out that even Rottytops, whom he had basically just met, knew about the Kitschy Quilt incident. "An' I mean EVERYBODY; Risky Boots included."

"Oh. Jeez, that's rough..." the flabbergasted zombie woman voiced her sympathy. "Er, e-either way, it's probably because word on the street is that you totally made out with her to save her," she nervously stammered as the air grew thick (well, thicker) around them as they got sidetracked. Nonetheless, Tay's eyes widened and his jaw nearly hit the ground. "I only had to give her a friendly, non-romantic peck on the lips, which is totally normal for some friends to do. Your situation was much more intense than mine was, without any room for comparison," she added, thereby vindicating herself while completely hanging Tay out to dry.

"...She told you the details on that, huh?" he uneasily asked, his heartbeat quickening enough to rival that of a pygmy shrew as his skin grew hot enough to incinerate a pot roast. "...ah, jeez..." he sighed, never feeling quite so humiliated in his life up to this point.

"Yep. So there, we both have something in common relating to her," she rather abruptly confirmed. "Now, before this gets more awkward for the both of us, go on and do whatever it is you were about to do to bring this situation to a close!" she further instructed him, flicking her hands at him to tell him to get moving. "I don't know what you plan on doing without your gun, but I'll be right behind you in case things go south."

"I'll leave it where it is an' come back for it once we finish. In case this goes too wrong, though, is it possible for you t' go an' tear off enough o' the webs around the Stage Clear platform at the far end o' this cave instead, so we can slip through an' get out o' here?" he politely suggested, at least thankful that they shifted gears.

"Now, that's a lot more doable," she agreed, a smile plastering itself on her face. "Granted, Ol' Marble Eyes over there probably isn't gonna let me get too close without attacking. I'll go invisible and try to work as quick as I can," she informed him, walking over and picking up his gun to place into her very own inventory within the confines of her shirt.

"Oh. You're takin' the gun now?"

"Not to use. Just holding it for a friend," she clarified with a smiling wink. "Now go on and do whatever it is you're planning to do, stud muffin! If you can keep snack cakes from getting hurt again, that would be much appreciated!"

"Ain't gotta tell me twice. On my way, Rotty," Tay assured, flashing a quick thumbs-up before he turned and sprinted toward the ensuing climactic battle raging on nearby.

"Alright, then. Stealth mode: Activate," Rotty announced to no one in particular as she raised her hand high and activated her Concealer Ring to turn herself invisible. "Okay. So, as long as they're all just far enough away from it, I should be able to snatch down the webs quickly enough to where they don't have to deal with that creep too long…" she theorized, noticing that the genie-versus-spider Boss Battle was happening maybe just a few yards away from the hole in the wall where the Stage Clear platform was located. Unfortunately, she appeared to have her work cut out for her, as the webs blocking off the coveted level-ending structure were especially thick and sturdy. Wasting not another moment, Rottytops detached her head once more and, with a strong toss, lobbed it from the center of the arena toward the wall of web within which the Stage Clear platform was located. Within a couple seconds, she teleported to the designated area undetected and spared not even a moment on beginning her attempts to rip down the web. As one might expect, however, she found much resistance in the form of the webbing hardly budging when she grabbed hold and tugged on it. "Whoo…! Aw man, my fingers are gonna be aching to the bone after this... Well, now or never…! Haaaap!" Rotty grunted, giving it a little more elbow grease as she refused to give up digging out the escape route.

Meanwhile, Tayshan had FINALLY bolted toward Shantae, fully intent on drawing the conflict to an early end if he could help it.

"Yah! Take this!" the half-genie valiantly shouted, whipping away at Mr. Fuzzles as he crawled backward, webbed himself up from the ground and spat a spray of red lasers from a safe enough spot to where she wouldn't be able to keep attacking him all-out like she had been. Wise to his attack patterns by this point, Shantae sprinted to a safe distance, avoiding every incinerating blast as they collided with the ground and left smoldering scorch marks in the ground. None the wiser to Rotty's position at the moment, Mr. Fuzzles used his webbing advantage to swing toward a wall, where he pushed off and launched himself toward the center of the battlefield. Another *BOOM* ripped through the torch-lit cavern, causing another suspicious rain of debris to trickle down from above. "Run from me all you want! You're still going down!" Shantae challenged, racing toward the endangered arachnid as he prepared to defend himself. Within a few feet of her launching her next attack, however, Tayshan suddenly slipped in front of her from seemingly nowhere, holding his arms out while facing her. "Whoa!" she yelled, skidding to a halt to avoid crashing into her sidekick. "Tay! You're free!"

"Yes. It took forever, but I'm free," he confirmed through labored breaths after working so hard to catch up to them.

"Great! Now, what are you doing?" she asked, confused as to why he was blocking her path as though he was protecting Mr. Fuzzles from her.

"Keepin' an unnecessary fight from carryin' on any further…" he answered, more to Shantae's confusion.

"What?"

"Thou art quite magnanimous, friend," Mr. Fuzzles commented, evidently pleased to see Tayshan coming to his aid. "While I remain enormously frustrated that the zombie tore thee free of mine binds, I feel fortunate knowing that thou art protecting me from this genie-born menace. Now, then. Let us unite our power and vanquish this blight on our planet!" Mr. Fuzzles assumed without really even asking the soldier. Mr. Fuzzles took the opportunity to charge up three orange-yellow homing energy balls and spit them into the air.

"Wait, no! What are you doin'?" Tay yelled, turning around with his arms still stretched out to face the arachnid Boss Monster.

"That's not fair! I was distracted!" Shantae griped, running to the side and performing a couple of spinning backdashes to avoid the incoming surprise attack. Mr. Fuzzles, not slowing down to miss a beat, leapt high into the air, clearing Tay over his head before landing with another frightening *THUD* in front of his infernal adversary. "Tay, we'll be able to take him down faster if you shoot at him from a distance!"

"Absurd!" Mr. Fuzzles denied, engaging Shantae in another series of furious, razor-sharp leg swipes as he did his best to chase the nimble heroine down. "Dost thou not see that the human has joined forces with me?" he again assumed as he continued trying to cut Shantae down to size. Again, Tay stepped in between them, facing Mr. Fuzzles as he held his arms out. "Human? What is the meaning of this? Why doth thou stand in mine way!?" he angrily questioned, halting his counterattack in that moment.

"Because like I was sayin' earlier, you don't need t' fight her! No matter what happens, you're only gonna hurt yourself worse if you keep goin' like this!" he warned, his stance not shifting.

"Good work, Tay! Now watch this!" Shantae announced, rushing from behind Tay and catching Mr. Fuzzles off-guard with another slew of Fiery Hair Whip attacks that seared and burned the weakened Boss Monster with every successive strike she landed.

"Shantae, stop!" Tay demanded, lunging toward his team leader and grabbing her by the wrist before pulling her back toward him.

"Ack! Hey, what do you think you're doing!?" Shantae shouted, never a fan of someone stopping her from capitalizing on an advantage she held on a dangerous opponent. In a knee-jerk reaction, she snatched her arm away from her comrade as she glared at him in a mix of anger and confusion.

"Listen! We don't need t' keep fightin' him! He was gonna relax before you-!" Tay tried to explain before Mr. Fuzzles picked a perfect opportunity to attempt to get the drop on the half-genie.

"Excellent diversion, human!" Mr. Fuzzles praised the soldier for reasons he completely misunderstood. "Have a taste of this, foul djinn!" he further announced, lifting his thorax upward and firing a thick, fine line of web upward to a certain length before twisting his body to swing it at Shantae while she was distracted.

"Oh, for-! Yo, I said chill, didn't I!?" Tay yelled, pulling Shantae out of the way and turning around to be hit square in the back with a wet *THWAP* of a web-made whip cracking on him. "YEOWWWCH! Why!?" Tay very angrily demanded to know, glaring wrathfully at the giant funnel-web spider as he felt the full sting of Mr. Fuzzles' sneak attack.

"Oh! Sorry. That was meant for the murderer. Alas, thou hath stepped in m-!" Mr. Fuzzles tried to explain, though Shantae would stand to see none of it.

"Don't you dare lay another web on him! You'll pay for that!" Shantae vowed, rushing past Tay once more as he tried to tend to his aching back. Mr. Fuzzles shot another web at the ceiling to reel himself up before she was able to start up another onslaught, charging up another supply of glowing red energy in his mouth as he dangled in the air from the web line. Seeing that the fight had little to no chance of slowing down at this rate, Tay continued his efforts to stop his allies from tearing each other apart as he chased the half-genie while she was sprinting toward the airborne arthropod.

"Taketh this!" Mr. Fuzzles announced, firing another spray of lasers directly at Shantae, who'd grown familiar enough with his attack that she danced and dodged her way out of each blast with hardly an effort. However, the lasers' impacts with the ground kicked up a wall of smoke and debris as each *CRASH* sounded off like grenades detonating. Tay was forced to hop backward, shielding himself to avoid taking unnecessary damage in the wake of the influx of explosions.

"Nice try! Now, why don't you take a little something from me!?" Shantae challenged, focusing hard to summon up just enough energy to conjure up a small fireball in her hand. "Agh…! Magic's really going dry by this point, but I should be able to end it with this…!" she assured herself before stepping back from under the suspended Mr. Fuzzles and flinging her projectile high into the air. The fireball sailed well above the Boss Monster, seeming to miss him completely… until the pyrokinetic projectile scored a direct hit on the web linking Mr. Fuzzles to the ceiling in the center of the arena. With a sudden *SNAP* as a result of the web line going up in flames, Mr. Fuzzles was sent hurtling down from a considerable height without having enough time to brace himself. The massive arachnid landed with a hard, ground-shaking *SMASH*, causing yet another shower of pebbles to rain down from above.

"Gaaahhahhrrraaaagh…!" the unfortunate widower spider cried out in unbelievable pain, though he fought through it to rise to a weary stand on three of his eight legs. "Gah…! Hahh…! Thou art most despicable…!"

"Now, time for me to finish this!" Shantae declared, rushing in with the full intention of beating the wounded spider into submission. "Hyaaaaah!" she further roared in determination, preparing to whip Mr. Fuzzles into oblivion with her Fiery Hair Whip. However, she was suddenly stopped mid-dash by something forcefully grabbing her by the wrist from behind. "Wha? Hrrrah!" she shouted, turning and wresting her arm away from the unknown assailant hidden in the smoke before preparing to attack.

"Shantae, wait! I keep tellin' you we d-!" the voice of the 'attacker' spoke out before being cut off with a sudden, fiery, crackling *SPWISSH* of the half'genie's flame-bathed ponytail tearing across his face with such speed that just blinking would've been enough for one to miss it. "Gagh! Awwwaarragh! OW!"

"What the…?" Shantae began to ask, turning toward the dispersing smoke clouds and staring intently as the figure of someone became steadily clearer. Within a few additional seconds, however, it became abundantly clear whom she'd attacked in her panic. At that, the half-genie exhaled in disbelief. "Tayshan?" she called to him, seeing him standing while hunched over, panting as he clutched his cheek with both hands.

"What did you go an' do that for!?" he yelled at her, highly displeased with her impulsive action as he glared at her.

"It was an accident! Sorry!" she apologized, though she wasn't terribly fond of his accusatory tone. "But why did you grab me like that out of nowhere!? You scared me!"

"Scared you? Homegirl, you knew I was behind you!" he argued back, still covering his burning cheek as he straightened his stance. "That aside, I keep tellin' you not t' engage! Why won't you listen t' me for once!"

"What!? You're getting mad at me for fighting a monster that was just trying to destroy you now!?"

"No! I'm tryin' t' get you two t' understand that this fight is pointless!" he yelled back, having lost his patience with the ordeal as it continued to unravel. "If you'd take just two minutes t' step back an' understand what this was even all about instead of assumin' things about the situation an' chargin' in like you always do, you'd save yourself a lot o' time an' effort!"

"Excuse me!? Making assumptions and charging in 'like I always do'!? Are you kidding me right now!?" she hollered back, also having lost her patience with the situation as it unfolded. "I told you this before, and I'll tell you again: Do NOT tell me how to do my job! You're walking on very thin ice with that, and I'm letting you know now that I won't tolerate it! Rotty and I came in here to save you! This gigantic spider would've chewed you up and spit out your bones, for all we know if we didn't get here in time! Why are you so fixed on protecting someone who'd just had you bound to the floor at his mercy!?"

"Hmm…" Mr. Fuzzles hummed, pondering as he was reminded about Rottytops in the wake of Shantae and Tayshan's heated argument. As such, he took the opportunity to look around to find out where she went.

"Because, like we already made clear, the fight between me an' him was over well before y'all got here! Spider dude an' I were havin' a casual chat while he was workin' on gettin' me out o' that web trap before you popped in! The entire fight from that point was because he's mad at you for beatin' up his wife! I don't know all the details, but come on, Shantae!"

"Oh, so you're taking HIS side when he was the one who attacked me and Rotty first?" Shantae bitterly asked back, unreceptive to being reminded of why Mr. Fuzzles wanted her dead. "I said I was sorry for fighting Empress Spider, but I certainly hope you're not really gonna stand there and justify what he did to us since we all got down here! He's trying to kill us, remember!? Not everyone we meet is gonna be open to talking it out, Tayshan! You can't always expect to solve a problem like that, when he clearly prefers to try and take us out while he has the chance!"

"At this point, I'm not on anybody's 'side'," he clarified, growing increasingly frustrated with the fact that neither Shantae nor Mr. Fuzzles would listen to him. "As far as I see it, nobody's in the right here! An' no, I ain't tryin' t' justify anyone's actions for anything! I told y'all already how this could be settled without the pointless squabblin' over who did what! My objective at this point is t' make sure nobody gets hu-!"

"There thou art, sniveling cur!" Mr. Fuzzles shouted, having turned toward the wall where the web-blocked Stage Clear platform was located. There, he of course spotted Rottytops in the midst of tearing down the webs to claw her way through. "Thou thought I would not catch thee in the act of attempting escape!? Thou shalt not pass, wicked creature of the night!" he declared, webbing himself up and swinging toward Rotty, who'd at this point been alerted that he knew what she was up to.

"Ah! Aw, man, this is bad…!" she murmured in worry, turning and bracing herself as she watched Mr. Fuzzles web swing over to her location. "Shoot!" She cursed, popping her head off and flinging it toward the center of the arena, where she'd spotted her teammates. Just as Mr. Fuzzles landed with another startling *BOOM* while charging a flow of orange energy in his mouth, Rotty's headless form sunk into yet another pocket portal. Soon enough, she found herself warped and reformed near her allies, who'd braced themselves for the arachnid's next dangerous move.

"Thou shan't run from me forever!" Mr. Fuzzles challenged, spitting another trio of orange homing blasts into the air as he climbed onto the wall up toward the ceiling to the best of his ability with his injured limbs. Two of the projectiles zoomed in on Rottytops, who'd been forced to run immediately. The other one hurtled toward Shantae, who was forced to run in the opposite direction, which limited her ability to help Rotty.

"Yo! Mr. Fuzzles, stop!" Tay pleaded.

"I shall not!" he refused, reaching the ceiling and aiming his thorax toward the frantic zombie girl as she hopped, skipped, rolled, and sprinted to avoid the double dose of danger headed her way. Yet, with a sudden *SPLAT* on the ground in front of her, Rotty found herself suddenly unable to move her feet.

"Ack! What the…?" she trailed off before she was hit with both of the projectiles. Each explosive *SMACK* of the energy spheres against her back nearly sent her flying across the arena, each one of them feeling like she'd been hit with piping hot, speeding baseballs. "OW! Agh, that really hurt…! Ow…!" As for why she wasn't actually sent flying? Well, let's just say that she found some good anti-air protection in the form of the webs binding her feet to the ground, which she only noticed when she tried once more to move, only to realize her feet wouldn't leave the ground. "Aw, dude! You webbed up my shoes!" she complained, unhappy with the fact that she was immobilized. Wasting not even a millisecond, however, Mr. Fuzzles stretched a line of web down from the ceiling just enough to where he wouldn't hurt himself too badly upon leaping down to the ground in front of Rotty with another thundering *BOOM* of his body against the floor. He once again found himself in the center of the arena, where another, louder rumbling noise could be heard from above. Nevertheless, Mr. Fuzzles approached his target, hardening his body up as he lifted a front leg up and stretched it high across his body.

"And now, to finish the job on thee, repugnant corporeal reanimate! This is for Empress Spider!" he solemnly swore, ready to strike the immobilized Rotty down with one decisive strike while she was barely able to defend herself.

"Rottytops! No, don't you dare! I won't forgive you if you even think about hurting her!" Shantae very angrily demanded, narrowly avoiding the last projectile that forced her to one of the far corners of the arena. With utmost urgency, she began to involuntarily glow bright blue with magic yet again, her hair changing back to its lavender hue in the process. At this point, it was all or nothing. Rotty was on the verge of being seriously hurt the same way the half-genie was moments earlier. If she didn't get there in time, Rotty was doomed. Yet, even with as fast as her bare feet could carry her in that moment, it seemed like she wouldn't make it in time to protect her best friend. She never gave up charging in, throwing her own safety to the wind. In the midst of giving it everything she had in her to get there in time to intervene, she watched on as if the event played out in slow motion: Mr. Fuzzles' steel-coated, spiky, bristly tendril racing across the front of his body with nothing but an innocent undead teenage girl in its unforgiving path. Poor Rottytops' panicked expression as she put her arms up to protect herself. Mr. Fuzzles showing no form of restraint as he eagerly awaited the opportunity to grievously injure one of the individuals he felt was responsible for the loss of his spouse.

Yet, what really caught Shantae by surprise as she continued to race toward the gigantic spider was the flash of white coming in from behind Mr. Fuzzles. It took almost no time at all to recognize the glow encompassing a shirtless figure wearing orange camouflage pants and onyx-colored metal boots that looked like a knight's greaves. Tayshan, without a doubt. Even more apparent, however, was the fact that he had dashed out in front of Mr. Fuzzles without warning, lunging forward and wrapping Rottytops up in his arms and huddling over her to protect her.

"N-no…! No, no, no, not again…!" Shantae pleaded to herself as she never stopped running. However, she found herself to be too late, as Mr. Fuzzles' razor-edged leg struck Tayshan square across his side as he just barely managed to pull Rottytops out of her shoes and wrap her up. One could only imagine the sense of utter dismay that ran through the ponytailed heroine's abdomen as she heard the frightening metallic *SHWING* of Mr. Fuzzles' leg against the otherwise-defenseless Tayshan's bare skin.

"Haaawwwgh!" he wailed in agony as he and Rotty were sent spiraling through the air before the two landed with a collective *THUD* on the rocky ground nearby. Shantae, witnessing every moment of the brutal exchange, gasped in inconsolable horror, wanting to scream in a mix of terror and rage as she came to a screeching halt. However, as she watched her friends tumble to the ground, her mind and body hit a sudden, temporary disconnect as she processed the entirety of the event as it played out in her eyes. Internally, she was roaring with unforgiving wrath like she'd never experienced before. However, on the outside, she was quiet… Eerily quiet. Her thoughts were mostly oriented toward the compromised position her friends found themselves in. However, as she took in the harrowing image of a freshly-injured Tayshan cradling Rottytops as he lay on the ground, she immediately thought about what to do to draw the fight to a suitable end before either of them came under the threat of further harm. And, as soon as she spotted another smattering of rubble crumbling down from above, she had her clue. It was then that she looked toward the ceiling directly above Mr. Fuzzles' position and spotted what looked like a giant stone slab on the brink of snapping off.

"That's it…" she whispered to herself, developing an idea on how to stop Mr. Fuzzles from making further attempts on her friends' lives. "If my regular attacks won't put you down, then maybe that will…" she further theorized, engaging in a quick, stealthy belly dance to morph into her Spider form. Wasting not another instant, Spider-Shantae speedily crawled her way toward a nearby wall and scaled it to get up to the ceiling, seeing that the ceiling was far too high for her to shoot a long enough line of web. Meanwhile…

"Oh, no… Oh, dear!" Mr. Fuzzles bellowed in horror as he froze in place, evidently having instantly regretted his move. "No…! Human! Art thou alright?" he called out to Tay as he took in the sight of the soldier lying on his back, tightly hugging Rottytops.

"Wooh… Wow, am I… Am I still here…?" Rotty murmured, having temporarily lost total awareness of what was happening. In one moment, she was at the mercy of Mr. Fuzzles as he prepared to assassinate her with one decisive, merciless strike. The next few seconds were a blur to her as she attempted to move, only to find that something was holding her down. As she blinked her eyes a few times and craned her head to look down at what she thought was the ground, her gaze was instead met with the pained, wincing facial expression of a familiar young man who'd been looking back at her with a squinted silver eye. "…Tayshan…? How… did I wind up on top of you?" she asked, prompting him to release her from his grip. Rotty sat up, peering around the arena as it seemed to go totally silent. After a few seconds of trying to get an idea of what happened, she looked back down at the serviceman under her, who'd motioned to get up. Rotty compliantly rose to her bare feet, immediately feeling the damp, rocky texture of the ground against her feet. "What the…? My shoes came off, too? Gosh, I'm so confused right now… How?" she continued to quiz, glancing at her feet before turning around to notice that, in front of a dazed and stationary Mr. Fuzzles was a pair of brown shoes with frilly purple socks languidly hanging out of them, glued to the floor with webbing.

"Agh…! That… was way too close…!" Tay commented through pained, labored breaths as he picked himself up while tightly squeezing his side for dear life.

"Way too close…? Wait… Did you… Did you save me?" Rotty asked, turning to face the shirtless man and observe the pain he appeared to be in.

"Barely…" he muttered, wincing as he staggered toward her. "You alright, Rotty?" he further asked, laying his free hand on her shoulder as they locked eyes.

"I… I guess I am," she answered, though she remained mildly confused. "I thought that was the end for me. And yet, you swooped in before I even had a chance to get a picture of what was happening… either way, uh… Th-thanks, Tayshan… I'm… honestly surprised you'd go that far out of your way for me…"

"If I'm bein' led t' believe the right thing, then you're my friend. Right?" he asked, removing his free hand from her shoulder once he was sure she was okay.

"Of course! No question about it," she confirmed, grinning a bit.

"Cool. In that case, you can count on me t' help you out of a bind, just like you helped me."

"Awesome! Glad to hear it," she happily accepted his suggestion before her eyes trailed down to the spot on his side that he was clutching with a hand. "Still, I'm… sorry that this happened to you… You look like you're really hurt, stud muffin…"

"Eh, it's just a scratch… Don't worry about it."

"Just a scratch? Really?" Rotty incredulously asked, raising an eyebrow as she reached over and grabbed the wrist of the hand he was pressing to his side. She then pulled the soldier's hand off of his injured side to notice a massive glowing gash stretching from his waist to his upper back. "Ooh!" she reeled back, quickly putting Tay's hand back on his wound. "Dude, that is clearly NOT 'just a scratch'! It almost looks like someone tried to slice a chunk out of a holiday ham! And this is coming from the girl who was raised from the dead and can remove her own limbs at will! How are you not curled up on the ground, screaming like a baby right now?"

"I would imagine him to be mortally wounded, yet he stands and converses with this deplorable revenant as though I barely grazed him…" Mr. Fuzzles pondered in complete bafflement at the soldier's lack of an appropriate display of suffering. "Intriguing…"

"…Magic?" Tay uncertainly answered Rottytops, shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh, right, you have that…" she realized, almost letting the issue go… before she realized that she also didn't understand how he had access to magic. "Wait a second, how is that even possible? You ARE just a regular human, right?"

"As 'regular' as I thought I was until I came t' this complicated mythical dreamscape of a planet…" he replied, knowing that he had a long, grueling seminar of an explanation to give her to even begin cluing her in on how he got here. "Long story short, magic apparently helps numb the pain from wounds like this… Granted, it still hurts like a shark was bitin' right int' my torso, but it could—and should—probably feel worse. That would also kinda-sorta explain all the other scars on my face an' all over the rest o' my body that I got since I started goin' on adventures here."

"Whoa… All those scars are seriously just from adventures you had with Shantae?"

"Not all of 'em. Most o' the scars on my face were from an adventure I went on without her, where I was partnered up with Sky an' Twitch instead. I got slashed up good by some random gargoyles in the middle o' some tower that used t' exist high up in the clouds. The rest of 'em are either from me gettin' stabbed by Tinkerbats t' spare Shantae the pleasure, or gettin' stabbed in the stomach an' beat up by a Boss Monster that I tried t' fight by myself last week before Shantae came in an' saved me… Oh, an' if you're wonderin' about my one eye bein' this spooky gray color, that also became a thing in the middle o' that same field trip where I got stabbed by the Boss. If I'm lucky, then the cuts I got from Mr. Fuzzles are gonna add t' the collection o' battle tattoos I'm unwillingly buildin'."

"Goodness gracious…!" Mr. Fuzzles murmured, listening in on Tay's explanation for all the residual wounds littered across his body. Suffice to say, he was horrified.

"Wow… That's so hardcore…!" Rotty complimented, astonished (and apparently impressed) that someone who still lived and breathed could have suffered as many wounds as he did and lived to tell about it.

"I… Agh…! I'd bet it sounds that way…" he agreed with a nod, wincing as a jolt of pain shot through his back as a result of his wound. Without another moment's hesitation, he turned his attention to the flabbergasted Mr. Fuzzles. "Yo… Mr. Fuzzles… Can we please stop fightin' now?"

"By the stars…" the giant funnel web spider observantly mumbled, taking in the full view of the dimly glowing soldier as he and the zombie girl he'd just tried to destroy stood before him. "Why? Why dost thou continue to protect these heartless killers? After everything that hath happened? I do not understand…"

"Because they're not the people you keep paintin' them out t' be, bro," Tay explained, taking a shaky breath as he stretched and attempted to ignore the burning sting in his side. "I keep tellin' you that, an' I'm... agh...! I'm gettin' tired o' repeatin' myself. What did we just talk about?"

"…But thou must understand; thou hast watched as the disreputable genie assaulted me with nary a warning after we had reestablished our accord…" he replied, acknowledging the point the soldier made.

"Right, which is why I tried t' get y'all t' stop fightin'," he countered. "If either one o' y'all would've just heard me out, we wouldn't be here right now… Either way, that's no excuse for what you just tried t' do t' Rottytops, Mr. Fuzzles. If we really are friends, then I hope you understand why I can't let you hurt these girls any more than you already have; even with the circumstances o' the situation."

"Thou doth have my apologies for injuring thee, human. And… maybe thou art right," he admitted with a pensive sigh as he relaxed his stance. "It is… extremely difficult to be brought within inches of those responsible for mine wife's demise, and I hope thou doth understand that the burning contempt I harbor for these cretins will never fade as long as I live…"

"Right… but I wasn't tellin' you t' get rid o' those feelings, homie," Tay explained. "Only you can control how you feel toward them, an' that's your right. I'd suggest findin' a way t' let go o' that, but that's… That's not my business t' tell you how you should feel. My main point t' you was that tryin' t' hurt them the same way they hurt you won't do you any real, meaningful favors in the short term or the long term. All you're doin' is hurtin' somebody else t' make yourself feel better for a while before the feelings of grief come surgin' right back int' you. It ain't worth it; just like I was sayin' before."

"…Hm… I… suppose that is true," Mr. Fuzzles lamented, sighing once again as he tempered his undying anger at his adversaries to listen to the one humanoid creature he deemed worthy to call a friend. "Thy words, however difficult to internalize, ring far too true not to be considered. Very well, then, human. Thou hath swayed me once again."

"Wow… So, does that mean you'll finally stop trying to kill us for beating u-!" Rottytops felt all but compelled to ask, surprised by the nature of the conversation being had post-murder attempt.

"Rotty…!" Tay interrupted her, holding out a hand to signal her to stop before she finished her inflammatory question.

"Thou wouldst be wise to never mention that tragedy in such an irreverent and trivializing tone again, corpse woman," Mr. Fuzzles contemptuously spat, showing that he still hated Rottytops with a passion.

"My bad!" she offered her apologies, grinning and holding up a pacifying hand. "Just, as long as we're done fighting, I'll be the bigger person and say I'm… sorry for your loss."

"Hmph. I would prefer not to speak to thee further, though thou… art conditionally forgiven."

"Conditionally?"

"Correct. The sole 'condition' is that when thou make thy departure from this island, make it a veritable point never to return. That goes specifically for thee and that despicable genie, zombie," he warned, though he was brought to wonder just where Shantae was in that moment. "I do not ever want to see thee anywhere on or near these grounds again. If I do, then there will hardly be a thing stopping me from identifying thee as an active threat."

"Trust me, you can count on that, Spider Dude," Rotty agreed while finding herself less than appreciative of his venomous tone. "Not like anyone comes to this boring place that often anyway, so you're not hurting me by 'banning' me," she remarked with an uncaring shrug.

"I had better be able to count on that," Mr. Fuzzles dismissed, still tightly containing his fury. "Human."

"Yeah?" Tay answered.

"Thou hath taught me a valuable lesson that I hope to implement on mine road to recovery… and in all honesty, I acknowledge that this is the first step on a long, rocky, and tumultuous path to becoming a stronger spider. I bestow mine gratitude upon thee, in addition to the profuse apologies I offer for roping thee into a situation in which thou hath bore no responsibility."

"Oh. W-well, no problem, man," Tay acknowledged the arachnid's words with a thumbs-up.

"Indeed. However, I do believe our time here is done. I humbly request that ye take these 'allies' of thine and vacate mine presence, so that I may be granted some much-needed alone time," he stated at the same time a sudden rocky *CRACK* rang out from above.

"Hm? What was that noise…?" Tay asked, looking around to try and identify the source of the sound. Rotty, also looking, soon spotted a heavy flow of debris raining down near Mr. Fuzzles's position. Prompted to look up, she spotted what looked like a gigantic, dense mass of damp, jagged stone plummeting toward an unsuspecting Mr. Fuzzles. Realizing right away that they might get hurt as well if they didn't move, she sprung into action.

"Tayshan, watch out!" she shouted, dashing toward the unaware young man and wrapping her arms around his waist before he knew what was happening.

"Hey, wha-! Whoawhaaaa!" he yelled in shock as Rotty, using as much strength as she could muster, hoisted the soldier off his feet and dove toward the ground with him in tow. The two of them hit the dirt with a voluminous *THUD*, though they both quickly sat up to watch the next scene unfold right before their eyes. While shocking indeed for Rottytops, she was not even a smidgen as horrified as Tayshan was when he noticed a gigantic, heavy chunk of rock drop onto Mr. Fuzzles with the speed of a nosediving airplane. As such, his eyes went wider than satellites as the crushing, stony *SMASH* of the boulder onto his unsuspecting friend before anyone knew what hit him. The crash of the boulder was loud enough that it rivaled the sound of a building exploding. The tremors it caused seemed to last close to a full minute.

"Haaaarraaaaaaagh! Ahaaaaagh…!" Mr. Fuzzles choked out in extreme agony, most of his entire body smushed flat as several of his legs poked out and twitched as he suddenly lost feeling just about everywhere without the awareness of understanding what just happened to him.

"NOOO! Shoot, are you alright!?" Tay called out in absolute panic, taking in the terrifying sight of Mr. Fuzzles being crushed under a boulder as he climbed to his feet and rushed toward the gravely injured spider. "Mr. Fuzzles! No, no, no, this… Oh, no…!" he continued to frantically murmur, trying and failing to assess a proper method to employ to get the giant spider unstuck.

"Urgh…! H-human…!" the mortally wounded spider choked out through a fit of coughing that made it evident that he was severely hurt.

"Speak t' me," Tay urged him, using nothing but the bare strength he had left to try and push the boulder off. "Can you move? Can you stand? Please, tell me you're-!"

"I am… afraid this is, without a doubt, where my path ends, it seems…" he weakly groaned, not even attempting to move as he coughed more, feeling his sense of awareness rapidly fading as he tried to at least hold on.

"No, this… This can't be it! Stay with me! I'll do whatever I can t' get you out!"

"Do not waste thy strength, friend…" he advised, his tone growing more strained as his breaths grew ragged and uncoordinated. "I… am… at peace… I cannot even feel the pain anymore…"

"What…? N-no, Mr. Fuzzles! Hang on!" Tay pleaded, growing increasingly frantic as he tried and failed to even nudge the monumental slab a single inch. "Shantae! Rottytops! Come on, gimme a hand! We-!"

"I… would have preferred for mine candle's flame not to be extinguished quite like this… Alas, there is a silver lining to this cloud in that mine suffering shall come to an end…"

"…Jeez…" Rotty murmured, looking on in total shock at the unexpectedly tragic scene of Mr. Fuzzles struggling in what appeared to be his final moments while Tayshan tried desperately to help prevent the impending event from occurring.

"Human… Please, cease thy efforts… Thou art already hurt…" Mr. Fuzzles requested of him, prompting Tay to unwillingly relent on trying to pry the dying arthropod. Helpless to stop what was happening, Tay felt his arms go limp as he stepped back and looked Mr. Fuzzles directly in his eight red eyes.

"…N-no… We… I… This… wasn't supposed to…"

"One cannot… urgh… always defy fate, human… and, even though mine preferred outcome was initially to destroy the ones responsible for Empress Spider's departure… Ah… I-I may know some satisfaction in knowing that we… will rejoin in the next world, where I know she eagerly awaits me…"

"…" Tay went silent as he heard his friend's dying testimony, though it also served as a painful reminder of what he'd already lost. Tay could only watch on, petrified as the spider slowly slipped away.

"…D-do not lament mine passing… For it is not the fault of thee… And I am not in despair, despite the grisly nature of this… agh… turn of events…"

"…"

"Thou art worthy of high praise, human… Despite mine original misgivings… I am certainly… glad to know that all was forgiven… between us… and that I… made thy acquaintance… The only regret I latch onto was that I did not get the chance to… to apply thy life lessons… but that does not mean they hath gone to waste… It is… because of thy lessons that I am at least… able to leave this world in peace, regardless of mine contempt for the genie and the zombie… and I at least hope that, with thy intervention… that they do not victimize another as they had me and mine beloved…"

"…I… uh…" Tay stammered, still unable to find anything close to an appropriate combination of words to address his dying friend with.

"Mmph…! It… it draws near…" he choked out with a wince as his body slowly shut itself down. "F-Farewell, friend… and, as thou hath instructed me… Live well…" Mr. Fuzzles spoke for the final time.

"…Y-yeah… Rest in Peace, Mr. Fuzzles…" the soldier barely managed to respond with a saddened nod, prompting the spider to nod back one last time before he drew his last breath. Within an instant, Mr. Fuzzles' body glowed a bright white before a *POOF*, a splash of glittery sparkles dispersing all around the vicinity as Tay and Rotty speechlessly watched on. They both spotted a glimpse of an astral projection of a totally uninjured Mr. Fuzzles rising from the position where his body formerly was. Before long, however, the image of the Boss Monster vanished without a trace. At that, Tay sighed, his shoulders sinking as a knot welled up in his throat. "…I… couldn't do anything…" he regretfully murmured, clenching his hands into fists at his side as he hung his head while staring bullets at the slime-spattered boulder that was responsible for ending Mr. Fuzzles' existence. "It... It happened again... an' I couldn't do anything...! Of all things t' take you out, though… a fallin' rock…? What kind of end is that...!?"

"Whew… I was almost worried we'd never get through that awful fight," a certain half-genie spoke up, landing beside Rottytops in Spider form before immediately changing back to her humanoid self with a *POOF*. "Glad that's over…"

"Uh, Shantae…?" Rotty uncertainly called over to her friend.

"Hm?" Shantae responded, looking toward a worried Rottytops as she stood before her. "What's wrong, Rotty? You look like you've seen a ghost…"

"Y-yeah… You could say that…" she hesitantly confirmed, causing the half-genie to raise an eyebrow. "And… so did he…" she quietly added, pointing toward the motionless soldier, who remained frozen, facing the giant rock that crushed Mr. Fuzzles to death. Immediately, Shantae took note of the wounds he'd suffered during their battle, highlighted in a faint magic glow as he remained still, his fists balled up as his arms hung limply at his sides. Certainly, she found herself uncertain of how he was doing, but something in her compelled her to speak.

"Tay?" Shantae called out, prompting the serviceman to relax his hands and turn his head toward her and Rottytops.

"Yeah?" he answered, his tone notably morose.

"You alright there, bud? You seem a little down…" she inquired, growing more concerned as she wondered why he was in such a low mood.

"I… I guess," he answered after a brief pause. "I mean, I'm fine. I wish I could say the same for Mr. Fuzzles, but… I… can't believe that he's gone…" he admitted, returning his gaze to the earthen slab in front of them.

"Oh. Well, I mean… it's pretty rough, but at least we're safe," she tried to console, though it did nothing to address his grief.

"We would've been safe, even if this rock didn't randomly fall on him," he countered.

"What do you mean? He was clearly about to attack Rottytops before you intervened. Thanks for saving her, by the way. I mean, I know you took another nasty hit because of it, but…"

"Of course. I wouldn't want either o' y'all t' get hurt if I could help it. But… I couldn't do the same for him…"

"Who? The spider?" she asked, surprised that Tay remained so concerned about a Boss Monster who'd just tried to kill them. "How come you're so torn up about him, after what he just tried to do to us?"

"It ain't that I'm 'torn up' about him. It's more that I'm just… shocked t' see that he went out like this before he even got the chance t' make his life better."

"Yeah, by trying to wipe us out, remember?" she remarked, wanting to remind Tay that Mr. Fuzzles was the bad guy.

"No, he wasn't," Tay firmly denied, a sudden sense of frustration in his tone.

"Yes, he was," Shantae countered, unsure of why he'd seemed so angry out of nowhere. "Tying you up in this cave, challenging Rotty and me to a battle, nearly knocking me out cold before Rotty saved me, and then almost slicing you into pieces after he tried to take out Rotty? If that wasn't him trying to kill us, Tay, then I'm honestly curious what your idea is." At that, Tay let out an irritated sigh before he thought up his reply.

"And, like I was sayin' earlier, he was workin' on takin' webs off me before y'all came in," he began. "Right before that, we had a chat about what his intentions were, an' he explained them to me. We talked about why we were fightin', an' he came clean in the sense that he told me he was tryin' t' cope with a loss he suffered an' saw me as a threat at first. I… connected with him an' gave him advice on how t' get past his loss. Little did I know that the loss in question was in the form of you apparently fightin' an' killin' his wife a while back."

"That's not a good reas-!"

"Hold on," he requested. "Even after he dropped the bomb on us that he set up this elaborate trap an' tricked Rottytops int' bringin' us here t' get his revenge, he was still considerin' stoppin' after he hit you an' I yelled at him for it. He could've done whatever he wanted to us from that point, because we were all vulnerable. But instead, he listened t' me. We talked again. He seriously considered givin' up an' lettin' us go. He even went t' try an' take the webs off me again before the fight picked back up. Everything that happened from that point could've been handled differently on all angles, so I won't point any fingers. I want t' make clear, though, that he was one or two steps away from givin' up on the revenge plot, an' even closer after he tried t' attack Rotty… He was ready t' try an' move on, provided that we never came back here t' bother him again. And then a giant boulder falls on him, an' that's the end of his story. That's… just… unbelievable…" he spat, confused and distraught at the unfortunate turn of events.

"Well, how do you know that those were his real intentions?" she dared to question.

"What?" he asked back in disbelief, turning all the way around to face Shantae and Rotty.

"If he was capable of convincing some wizard to go all the way from here to my lighthouse to tell us to come here with the promise of some chocolate bar, all the while lying to Rottytops about wanting to meet me to trick her into believing he was interested in talking to me about whatever, and then roping you into his lair alone and sticking you to the floor after you beat him the first time, then how could you believe he'd be convinced to change his ways after he clearly showed he had a grudge against me that he planned on settling in the most aggressive way possible?"

"Because he had many opportunities t' take us out, but he didn't."

"No, he had every opportunity to take you out, Tay," she rebutted, much to his shock. "I'm not sure what it is you said to him that made him not want to attack you, but clearly, he wasn't that concerned with you in the first place. As you saw, he was constantly on the offensive with me and Rotty. He had as many chances to stop as you tried to give him, and before I got the idea to drop the boulder on him, he attacked Rotty when she wasn't even fighting him just because she tried to get to the Stage Clear platform," she revealed, causing him to reel back as his eyes widened. "This isn't like you to defend a bad guy so fiercely like you are, when they clearly had no foreseeable intention of changing their ways. What's going on?"

"…You… You didn't…" he barely found it in himself to ask, stunned to have heard the words come out of her mouth as he fixed his gaze directly on her.

"I… didn't what?"

"You're… You said YOU did this?" he asked for verification, gesturing a hand toward the humongous stalactite behind him.

"Well… Yeah. I mean, I had to do it to save you," she admitted, still unsure of why he appeared to be so bothered. "That's why I keep telling you…?" she was set to further explain, though the second Tay heard her confirm that she dropped the rock that squashed Mr. Fuzzles, the serviceman had heard enough. His head dropped, hanging low as he sighed in a mix of total disbelief and complete disappointment. "Um…?" Before Shantae could utter another word, Tay dejectedly shook his head before he silently turned toward the web-covered Stage Clear platform, hardly even noticing that much of the webbing had been ripped off. Shantae and Rottytops watched in concern as he wordlessly marched toward the webbing, stopping only when he was right in front of it. The soldier then tensed up every inch of one arm, causing it to glow with some of the vestiges magic he had in him that weren't making certain that his spider wound remained manageable. Soon after, he reached upward and grabbed a handful of the stringy, viscous substance without a care in the world about its gross texture on his hand. With one violent, twisting tug, he tore a colossal chunk out of the webbing-based barrier and carelessly threw the webbing to the ground. Afterward, he proceeded to step onto the platform.

"Hey, hold on! Wait for us!" Shantae called, though Tay did not respond. Regardless, the half-genie and the zombie girl (without her shoes) joined the soldier on the platform, signaling that their adventure was complete. However, no one struck any celebratory poses. Tayshan merely stood, head bowed while his arms were crossed. A sense of sudden and irrefutable uneasiness radiated around the girls as they glanced at one another before looking back at their disgruntled teammate. Before long, the three of them vanished with a *POOF*, declaring their adventure complete. However, there was clearly something in the air that needed to be addressed between our heroes. As such, we press on.

Later…

LOCATION: SCUTTLE TOWN LIGHTHOUSE (OUTSIDE), SCUTTLE TOWN, SEQUIN LAND

DATE: OCTOBER 1ST, 16 P.G.F.

TIME: 1247 HOURS

Immediately, our unusual trio of adolescent heroes found themselves warped back to the outside of Shantae's home, where they were greeted with the image of a moon-bathed peninsula that, as always, rested in midst of the low tides as the sound of the ocean waves brushing along one another filled their ears. However, as they stepped off the platform that sent them back home, a certain shirtless, wounded soldier made it an immediate point to approach the sleeping yellow-robed wizard as he rested against the outer wall of the lighthouse.

"Wake up," Tay rather bluntly ordered, holding an object in his hand as he nudged the magus awake with two forearm taps on his shoulder. The wizard soon stirred awake, stretching and yawning before rubbing his unseeable eyes. Once he oriented himself enough to notice a dark shadow looming over him, the wizard looked upward to see a silhouette of a man with a glowing silver eye glaring down at him.

"Whuhuh…?" he tiredly grumbled, still not aware of what was happening. Tay took the initiative to speed the interaction up by kneeling to meet the sleepy magician at eye level, holding the Emperor Spider Chocolate in front of him.

"Here's your chocolate," he impatiently informed the wizard, who'd finally recognized the man in front of him as he jumped to his feet with a fright. Tay calmly rose to his own feet, though his frustrated glare remained locked on the wizard as he continued to hold out the candy bar.

"W-well I'll be dang ol' darned, I'll tell ya what…" he murmured, staring intently at the candy bar as he reached for it. Tay instinctively pulled it back, knowing that there was a price to pay for it.

"Super Slugger Spell Reversal. Now, please," he irritably remarked, holding out his other hand. The wizard, picking up on the intense vibes of enmity permeating the air, looked upward at the young man and became hesitant to move.

"Whoa, easy, Tay…" Shantae advised as she approached them. "I get it if you're upset that-!"

"Well? Do you have it or not?" Tay asked again, cutting his mentor off as his glare grew more intimidating. Wordlessly and hurriedly, the wizard reached into his robe and pulled out a golden-hued papyrus scroll tied up in a neat scarlet ribbon. Without a word, Tay got Super Slugger Spell Reversal. In the same moment, he handed the Emperor Spider Chocolate over. "Thank you. Also, you'd better savor that thing. It's the last one anyone's ever gonna get, an' we almost died gettin' it after we found out we were set up t' be lured into a trap over there; a trap that you apparently helped set up."

"Oh. W-well, dadgum, I'll tell ya what, I said I tell ya what, I done diddly had nothin' ta do with no little ol' fishy swishy ruses or no hoodwinks, I verily dang ol'… tell ya what, man, I just wanted this li'l ol' savory, nougaty candy, man, swear on my magic spells, man."

"Hmph. Well, I hope you're tellin' the truth," he dismissively replied. "Either way, the person that makes those things is gone. As in, he's no longer alive."

"Aw… Shucks, man, that's just about dang ol' heartbreakin', brother, I say that's heartbreakin' ta hear that…" the wizard lamented, evidently saddened by the news that he would no longer have access to his favorite junk food. "From the sound of it, y'all done had y'all selves a rootin', tootin' hootenanny of a time gettin' this here treasure o' chocolate man, but now I don't feel like I should eat it now, on account o' good ol' Emperor Spider kickin' the bucket…"

"Yeah… It's a shame…" he murmured, holding in his hidden anger at the reason behind Mr. Fuzzles' demise. "Anyway, it looks like our work here is done. Enjoy the chocolate in whatever way you see fit, but don't expect us t' be the ones t' help you satisfy your next sweet tooth craving. That trip wasn't worth what it cost."

"Ain't gotta tell me twice, now, big fella, dang ol', thanks anyway an' pleasure doin' business," the wizard acknowledged, taking Tay's words as a cue to exit stage left. And, without another rambling word, the wizard raised a hand, which glowed plum in color before he, with an electrified *POOF*, vanished from his spot. In the immediate moment of deafening silence that followed, Tay glanced at the scroll. Too frustrated to even feel like attempting to open it, he merely stashed the coveted Super Slugger Spell Reversal in his pocket before turning to walk away from the lighthouse. In the process, he walked right past Shantae and Rotty, who'd remained concerned at his change in demeanor.

"You're not gonna stick around and hang with us?" Rottytops spoke up after he'd gotten a few paces over the wooden plank bridge. Tay stopped in his tracks, though he did not turn around.

"No. There's no reason t' do that right now," he coldly stated, taking the girls by surprise.

"Hey, what's that about?" Shantae stepped up to ask, surprised at him for his despondent reply. "Why are you so mad all of a sudden?"

"If you have t' ask, homegirl, then I don't know if talkin' about it now is gonna help any of us," he retorted, still refusing to turn around. At such a brazen remark, she scoffed.

"Excuse me? If I have to ask? Tayshan, you're being really unusual right now, and I don't think I like how you're addressing us. What's the problem?"

"I don't want to talk about it," he refused to comply, taking one more step away from them.

"Well, I do!" she yelled, quickly losing her patience with his attitude. "Now stop walking away and talk to us!"

"Oh, so it's only okay t' talk about things when you want to, but not when I want to?" he asked, turning around and shooting her an irritated sneer that caught her off guard. "Yeah, alright. That's one issue right there."

"What!? And what is that supposed to mean!?" she demanded to know.

"You should know! Every time we get into it like this, I'm the one who's always tryin' t' address things right away, only for you t' shut me down an' shut me out! And now, when I'm the one who doesn't feel like talkin', you're demandin' that I open up?"

"So, you're mad at me because we don't always agree on when it's time to talk? And what else could there be for you to only say that that's 'one reason'?" At that, Tay took a deep, pressured breath as he shook his head.

"It ain't that we just disagree on when t' talk, Shantae. It's more that every time we need t' smooth somethin' out, you always end up bein' the one who controls when the conversation happens."

"No I don't! That's ridiculous! Where's that coming from?"

"There's plenty of examples, but I'm not sittin' here an' drawin' 'em all out for you," he fervently declined to answer. "Besides, that takes a huge backseat t' the other problems we've been goin' through lately."

"Problems like what!?"

"Like us not coordinatin' as a team, even after we've spent close to a month workin' together, first of all!" he challenged, his tone growing more agitated as they continued to argue. "Almost every time we go on one o' these crazy trips, there's always a disconnect that leads t' the same old thing: We get separated, you rush ahead an' leave me in the dust, we wind up in trouble because we ain't linkin' up like we should, an' then one of us gets hurt before we barely manage t' survive t' the end o' the quest. Lather, rinse, repeat! I'm tired o' that pattern!"

"And again, we go back to this same topic!" Shantae pointed out, also getting irritated with Tay for bringing up something she'd heard time and again.

"Whoa, you guys… chill," Rotty tried to intervene, worried about her friends as they were off to the races.

"I constantly tell you that if you're always sweating the small stuff, you're going to slow yourself down! I said that I get it that sometimes, it's rewarding to be careful, but if we're repetitively checking corners and anticipating enemy attacks at all times, our adventures would take forever! I understand if that's a bit difficult to get used to, but you know way better by now! Blaming me because you're still not used to the pace is not gonna help you get any better at adventuring!"

"An' yet, you say that while you have run blindly int' the vast majority o' the traps we've hit on almost every adventure! That, or you speed right past 'em, only t' leave me t' wind up fallin' into 'em myself! How is that fair t' me that you do so much at your own pace an' on your own wavelength that you disregard me when things get heavy!? Especially with how many times I've been shot, stabbed, or otherwise left hangin' for your sake!?"

"I do not disregard you! I've clearly been there for you every step of the way! I won't say I don't appreciate you sticking your neck out for me, but we can't operate at our best if I need to constantly hang back and hold your hand! You want to make things easier on yourself? Pick up the pace and stick by me! It's that simple!"

"Of course you'd say that, even after the likes o' the Naga Mountain, the Kitschy Quilt Desert, the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth, an' even this trip; durin' ALL of which you left me the dust or did somethin' so reckless that blind luck an' last-second thinkin' saved our skins," he pointed out.

"Wow! You've got some nerve!" she yelled, fuming with anger as she glared at him. "You're so quick to point out everything you think I did wrong, when you've clearly got a lot to learn yourself! Naga Mountain was our first real trip, and that should've been the one that taught you about how to navigate the landscapes we explore and how fast you need to move to explore them right! If you still haven't picked up on that by now, then clearly, you're missing something. We already went over the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth last week, so I don't know why you're bringing that one up again. Either way, if you want my honest opinion, Tay, then you could've done much better to cooperate with Aash and me instead of trying to work on your own before we got separated! And if you ask me, then Spider Web Island was a prime example of why it's important that we maintain a consistently quick pace instead of dragging our feet! Most of the monsters there can't be taken out by normal means and can regenerate when you defeat them! Doing things exclusively your way would've had us there for at least three times as long as we were! And… we know the Kitschy Quilt Desert was a different story, but I already warned you about trying to tell me how to do my job when you don't have anywhere close to the same experience that I do!"

"Hmph. See, this is exactly why I didn't wanna talk about this now. You're not listening; which, since we're on the topic, is somethin' I've been practically BEGGIN' you t' do since we became partners!"

"Everything I just said, and you think I'm not listening!? Are you serious!?" she bellowed, her frustration teetering toward flat-out rage as her glare grew more intense. "I've listened to everything you've ever had to say, and either made my own suggestions or took your words into consideration! And you want to tell me I'm not listening!?"

"No, because there's a difference between hearin' me and listenin' t' me! Hearin' me means you received what I said, whether you remember it or not. Listenin' t' me means you took what I said int' consideration, remembered it, an' at least said or did somethin' in acknowledgement! Most o' the time, you hear me, but you hardly ever listen," he explained. "I make a suggestion or raise a concern, an' what I usually get from you is that you tell me that you received the message, or you've got an answer for anything I have t' say! But listenin' t' me? As in, takin' in what I have t' say an' applyin' it, so we can work together better as a team? That's where we fall off! I've listened t' every suggestion you've ever made t' me, an' I've done my best t' apply it t' my practice t' get better as your partner! I trusted you enough that applyin' your advice has made me that much stronger! I'll be the first t' say that! Even with that, though, it has its limits!"

"What limits!?"

"The whole 'beating up all monsters as we go along' thing? Yeah, that didn't always work. Simply talkin' t' some o' the monsters you said we were supposed t' fight has made things much easier on us, for one. Then there's this idea o' yours that we need t' constantly blitz our way through every landscape like we were tryin' t' outrun explosions from start t' finish. Yet, when you take a step back and look at all the times where runnin' wildly int' danger without a plan has set us back, you'd come t' find out just how many compromisin' positions we could avoid just by takin' things a little bit slower."

"And, if you took a look at how many times going too slow has caused a problem for us, you'd also see that we wind up burning up a ton more of our magic and items because of all the damage we have to worry about taking!" she countered. "And, as you also know by now, talking to the enemy isn't always going to work! You're not exactly batting a thousand with convincing bad guys to stop fighting, Tay, so don't act like your approach is any better than mine!"

"Fine, but as far as takin' lumps goes, what's worse? Conservin' our energy over the longer term by takin' out or negotiatin' with enemies an' learnin' about our surroundings as we go along? Or recklessly dashin' in, guns blazin', hopin' that whatever comes our way ain't too much for us t' handle? Oh, an' that right there? The 'convicnin' monsters t' stop fightin' us' part? Yeah, let's talk about that," he started off, wanting to address the major elephant in the room. "I never said that it was possible t' talk t' every enemy we meet out there. You're makin' me sound real naïve right now. That said, it's clearly worked in the way of us bein' able t' work with Twitch an' Vinegar, or some o' the monsters on Naga Mountain, some o' Hypno Baron's minions in Genie's Hem, or even Melody in the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth! We got a lot more out o' talkin' them down than we did by tryin' t' beat them all up! I mean shoot, if you were listenin' t' me at all on this point, this trip wouldn't have ended with you KILLING Mr. Fuzzles!" he shouted, his anger getting the best of him as he outright accused her.

"Wh-what…?" Shantae asked as she gasped in shock at his revelation.

"Who, I might remind you, was already about t' surrender an' let us go before you-!"

"Alright, hey, that's enough!" Rottytops cut in, stepping between them. "You'd be wise not to bring that up after we just got done with that, Tayshan," she further warned. "It's bad enough that it even happened, don't you think?"

"Wait… Rotty, is… that true?" Shantae asked, puzzled by Tay's assertion, which appeared to be corroborated by Rotty's claim.

"Well… um…" Rotty stammered, realizing that her phrasing did her best friend no favors.

"There's no use sugarcoatin' it, Rottytops. If we expect t' learn anything from this, then she should know that Mr. Fuzzles was fixin' t' let us go without another issue if Shantae stopped attackin' him on impulse. That's what I was tryin' t' explain in the-!"

"Dude, shut up!" Rotty screamed at him, turning and glaring at him with such intensity that he froze almost instantly. "No matter how it happened, you don't need to put it like that! I'm not gonna sit here and tolerate you yelling at her about an honest mistake! I also don't like that you're harassing her over a bunch of minor things that happened in the past, so stop!"

"Honest mista-!?" Tay was about to utter, suddenly stopping short as he appeared to realize that there was no use in combating them over the semantics of the phrase. After breathing an exasperated sigh, he continued. "A grief-stricken spider lost his life tryin' t' find some way t' either avenge his wife or bring himself some closure! I already told the both o' y'all that I beat him an' then had that conversation with him t' find that out! Yeah, he lured us there with the intent t' get his ill-advised revenge, an' yeah, he attacked y'all again, but we still had chances t' at least make amends! Chances that were lost!"

"Yeah, well it's too late to change it now, so-!"

"Rotty, hang on," Shantae suggested, tapping her friend on the shoulder to stop her from yelling at Tay further.

"Hm? You sure?"

"Yeah. Thanks," she expressed her gratitude before turning her attention back to Tay. "Anyway, Tayshan… is that what you're really mad at me about?"

"Among other things, yes," he replied with utmost honest, causing her heart to skip a beat as she resisted the urge to totally lose her temper.

"Okay. I… wasn't expecting you to say that, but…" she began, though she wasn't sure exactly how to address his frustration with her. "…fine. Clearly, you cared a lot about that particular Boss Monster, which I won't pretend I don't understand. But what I don't get is why, even after you watched him go to the lengths that he did to hurt Rotty and me, you could ever find it in yourself to defend him…?"

"Because, unlike other monsters we fought, who were either hypnotized, workin' against us for their own personal gain, or lookin' t' conquer the planet, Mr. Fuzzles acted solely out of grief. You took somethin' away from him, an' even though it was dangerous an' misguided, he fought his hardest t' try an' find some way t' move on without the thing he lost. I gave it everything I had t' convince him t' stop tryin' t' hurt y'all, an' in the end, all I have t' show for it is this giant cut stretchin' across my side. I won't say he was innocent, because his actions make that idea impossible t' accept. But it wasn't up t' you t' decide what should've happened t' him by the end o' that fight. It wasn't up t' you t' decide when he should've gotten over his wife's loss. Those were his choices. And in crushin' him with that rock, you effectively robbed him o' the chance t' make those decisions; a chance he was willin' t' take, even in his final moments."

"Hm. I guess that's true…" she acknowledged with a nod, a tinge of guilt creeping up in her gut. "…and I'll take that. But Tayshan, you do understand that I only did what I did to protect you and Rotty, don't you?"

"How?"

"The last thing I saw was him getting ready to attack Rotty while she was stuck in the web he shot on the floor to stop her from being able to run. And then, out of nowhere, I saw you lunge in and tackle her out of the way, only to get hurt yourself. At that point, I made a decision to protect you guys in the best way that situation would allow. So, I'd appreciate it if you didn't make me look like the bad guy by bringing it up like I dropped that rock just to squash a spider, because I didn't. You know full well that's not the kind of person I am, and it infuriates me that THIS is how you're seeing it. After everything we went through to get into that underground cave just to save you, and for it to end with you accusing me of doing anything like that with a bad intention? It honestly makes me wonder if you really know or trust me at all."

"Don't do that, alright?" he warned, a pang of guilt shooting through his own heart as he found himself becoming more agitated with her statement. "Look, I… I appreciate that you were lookin' out for us, an' you'd never hear me tell you t' stop, nor would I ever stop tryin' t' do the same for y'all. I'd only hope we know each other well enough t' even be talkin' about this. But the fact is, we came out o' this situation with a lot o' hard lessons t' learn, an' one less spider in this world that, from an objective standpoint, should still be walkin' around Spider Web Island as we speak. That much has nothin' t' do with how much we know or trust each other."

"Then what do you expect us to do from here, huh!?" she yelled, her anger returning with a vengeance. "I get it! The Emperor Spider wanted to get over losing Empress Spider! And you tried to convince him that killing me wasn't going to help him with that, which he fought tooth and nail to keep believing before I finished the battle! If you're just gonna hang this over my head like someone's gonna magically turn back time to fix it, then what's your point!?"

"I'm not hangin' it over your head," he retorted. "I'm tryin' t' explain t' you that we didn't need t' go that far t' win out in the end. I want us t' understand that sometimes, might doesn't always make right. Most of all, I want-!"

"Don't you think you've beaten this dead horse enough?" Rotty cut in, protecting Shantae from further harm. "I think she gets it by now that things could've played out differently for all of us, so if you don't mind, can we just move on without you trying to force-feed us 'lessons' about how to behave better the next time we're fighting for our lives?"

"Okay, now you're pushin' me," Tay replied, his temper flaring as he turned his frustrated gaze toward Rottytps. "I've been real patient with you since we met, but at this point, you're crossin' the line. Stop cuttin' in an' tryin' t' get in the middle. You're not helpin'."

"Not helping!? Dude, we've been standing here forever after we just saved your butt, and all you've been doing is complaining about all the bad things you've experienced since you became partners with Shantae while she's clearly trying to tell you what's what! What's your problem!?"

"Yo, don't go there with me," he sternly warned, getting worked up to the point of trembling to contain his burgeoning anger. "It's none o' your business what we talk about, so stop instigatin' an' throwin' in these obnoxious side comments like you're doin' anything t' contribute! You think you're helpin', but all you're really doin' is makin' it worse!"

"Hey! Don't talk to her like that!" Shantae stepped in on behalf of Rottytops. "She's just looking out for me while making sure we're not just going in circles because you're upset about this adventure not going the way you wanted it to! And she's right! We've been standing here for who knows how long, trying to figure out how to get you out of this funk you're in, and you're not giving us anything to help you with!"

"Oh, an' once again, it's all MY fault when somebody else does somethin' that clearly adds fuel t' the fire!" he sarcastically spat, on the verge of utterly losing it. "Sure, let's go back t' this little game o' push-an'-pull!"

"Push and pull? What are you talking about!?"

"Oh, you know, the game where you tell me somethin' I'm doin' wrong, only t' shut me down when I try t' explain myself, which follows up with us disagreein' t' the point where we stop talkin', only for us t' turn around, make me admit I was wrong all along, concluded by us repeatin' the same tired old cycle again an' again! Don't you remember!? We only basically do it all the time!"

"Watch your tone, Tayshan. I'm not going to tell you again!"

"No, I'm not gonna 'watch my tone,' Shantae!" he exploded, much to her surprise and ire. "I've been doin' as much o' that as humanly possible on my own since we met, so I'd prefer that you didn't bark that order at me like I'm your servant! You want me t' behave in a way you deem acceptable at this point? Then treat me like a person who deserves at least a shred o' consideration!"

"Consideration!? Tayshan, how have I not been treating you with consideration!? We have been together the entire time you've been in Sequin Land, and through thick and thin, I've treated you with all the respect and consideration that you've treated me with!"

"Sure, right up until we get into an argument about something; anything at all! Because then it turns into me bein' the fall guy, or me bein' the one t' pick up the pieces, or you bein' able t' pick an' choose when we make up, only for the process t' repeat when I get fed up with you tryin' t' control how I act, think, or speak in the presence o' you or any o' your friends!" he yelled, his glare growing so hot that his other eye began to glow a dim silver before anyone noticed it… well, almost before anyone noticed it. "I'm done bein' forced int' this hamster cage o' learned pattern behaviors that gets shaped up how you see fit!"

"Huh…?" Rotty curiously hummed to herself as she looked into the soldier's changing eyes while he was scowling at Shantae.

"THIS is how you really feel?" she dared to ask, appalled by the accusations levied against her by the serviceman she thought was her faithful sidekick as a sinking feeling hit her stomach like she'd swallowed a shot put. "Even with all the things we've been through!? The adventures, the talks, the body-swap, our kiss, and all the time we spent together!? You seriously think it's all just about me 'controlling' how you behave as a person!? You asked me to be your teacher! You asked me to help you become a better person and a better hero! You asked me to let you tag along with me on my adventures! How dare you even think to turn around and tell me that I've just been trying to control you!? You know full well that that's as far from the truth as can be! But fine! If that's what you really think, and if you're really gonna be that ungrateful, then maybe we should call it quits from this point on! You're free to go! Leave! Clearly, you're not enjoying working with me anymore, so why are you still here!? No one's begging you to stay!" she screamed, her heart pounding as she let the words fly out of her mouth. To say that Tayshan was stunned was an understatement.

His eyes widened like he'd seen yet another ghost as his expression changed from frustration to complete blankness as he kept his eyes fixed on the half-genie who'd apparently no longer considered him her ally… or, quite possibly, her friend. His heart sank so hard, he could practically feel the organ hit the pit of his stomach like an unforgiving gut punch thrown with the force of a rocket. He nearly felt himself completely snap out of reality as he stood there, staring at her as though she'd turned into a polka-dotted, seven-legged zebra.

Meanwhile, Shantae felt much of the exact same pressure as she realized what she'd said as soon as the words left her lips. She was upset with him, but she didn't really think she'd ever utter such a statement to him. Then again, she didn't think he'd say such awful things to her, either. It was at this point where her mind began to race, rapidly drifting between questions of how they got to this point and who really meant what. In that moment, she physically went blank. She returned the same deer-in-headlights expression that he was giving her, which told her more than enough to notify her that… well, maybe they'd gone too far this time. She instinctively gulped, her next words catching in her throat for a moment before it opened up enough for her to attempt to speak.

"…Um… I…" she stammered, but she found herself freezing when she saw Tay's expression change from distress to a low and dejected anger that presented hardly a fraction of the temper he'd let loose moments earlier.

"…Hmph. So, this is how it all comes to an end for us, huh? Fine, then. I never thought in a hundred years that it would get t' this point between us, an' it surprises me t' see that I was wrong… You're just like the rest of 'em… Keep me around when things are good, then give up on me and toss me aside like garbage the minute I'm no longer useful t' you… So be it… I know enough about myself now t' know that I don't need your approval, or anybody else's anymore," he flatly commented in a low tone with a seemingly nonchalant shrug that hid the fact that he had been deeply hurt by her comment. He could only liken it to the physical wounds he'd sustained throughout his time in Sequin Land; yet, all the cuts, scrapes, and lacerations he endured seemed to pale in comparison to his so-called 'friend' telling him in harsh words that his services were no longer required as a result of their continued disagreements with one another. Holding everything in, he dejectedly turned around and began walking off, squeezing his eyes shut as he did so. "Peace out, y'all. One way or another, I'll figure the rest o' this pirate problem out myself…"

"Tay…" Shantae tried to call, though the shout she imagined in her head came out as barely a whisper as she found herself unable to even move in the wake of the fact that her friendship with the soldier had apparently reached its end. Rottytops, needing only to glance at Shantae's devastated facial expression as she watched Tayshan storm off, took it upon herself to try and salvage the broken bond. Without a word, the determined zombie maiden took off her head and, with a mighty effort, flung it as hard as she could. And, with a stroke of luck, she managed to land her head directly in the dejected soldier's path in a patch of tall grass a few yards away. Though startled, Tay stopped his trek just long enough to watch the rest of Rotty's body emerge from under the spot where her head landed.

"Tayshan, wait," she implored him, stretching her arms out in an attempt to block his path. "Look, it just sounds like everybody's a little frustrated right now, but we shouldn't end things off on a note like this. We just became friends, so this is a super messed-up way of starting things off."

"No. We were only friends as long as she an' I were friends. Your actions since the minute I met you showed that. Now that that's not the case, there's no use tryin' t' pull that card on me. Now move," he demanded, trying to step around her. Rotty persisted, however, moving to continue to block his path once more.

"Rotty, wait…" Shantae called as she hurried over toward them. "It's… It'll be fine… Let him go."

"No, it won't," Rottytops shot back, declining her suggestion. "Not like this. You guys were great before all the spider nonsense came up, and that's no reason for you two to stop being friends. Come on, don't let it end like this."

"I told you before, it's none o' your business. Step aside," Tay reiterated, trying again to step around her. This time, Rotty shoved her hands into his abdomen, causing him to flinch as he stopped, glaring at her again.

"It's my business when my friends are at odds with each other!" Rotty countered, keeping her hands pressed into him as she looked up at him. "Stop being so stubborn and apologize to each other already! This is not a reason at all for any set of friends to call it quits!" At that, Tay closed his eyes and breathed a hot, heavy, shaky sigh.

"From the looks of it, the only 'friends' around these parts are you two," he coldly spat, his eyes squeezed shut as his tone remained calm. "Keepin' me here will not accomplish anything, an' there's nothin' else t' talk about. Now, I'm gonna tell you one more time before you really get on my nerves, Rottytops…" he forewarned, his tone growing lower and more… dare I say, macabre right as he uttered his next request. "Get out of my way… NOW!" he demanded, reopening his eyes as he angrily growled the last word of his statement in a frightening tone that doubled over itself like a deafening echo. The sound of it alone scared the daylights out of the unsuspecting Rottytops, who flinched as she jumped back. Although, what she immediately noticed was the drastic change in his eye color. Shantae, on the other hand, felt a bone-rattling chill run through her body as her former friend made his demand.

"Hey! Leave her alone! She's only… Oh, no…!" she was about to scold, marching toward him before he turned and glared at her… only to confirm that her chill came with good reason. When Tay craned his head and looked at her, both of his eyes were glowing that same haunting silver that she hoped she wouldn't see for herself. "No, no, no… This… can't be…!"

"What are you starin' at?" he irritably asked through that same haunting tone, unappreciative of the prolonged look he was getting.

"Dude… your eyes… they changed out of nowhere," Rotty mentioned, surprising Tay enough for him to stop glaring at Shantae as he became worried and confused by her assertion.

"What? My eyes…?"

"Yeah. Here, take a look for yourself," she suggested, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a mauve pocket vanity mirror. Flipping it open, she held it high for him to see… and what he saw scared him senseless.

"No… N-no, this…! Grgh….! Daaaaargh!" he shouted, overcome with a tidal wave of agony as he collapsed to his knees, clutching his head with his hands. Breathing heavily, he momentarily felt as though an enormous weight had been placed onto his shoulders as he struggled to bring himself under control. "Ahagh…! Gaagh…! Haaaaaah…!" he continued to grunt and wail in pain, prompting the girls to circle around him to inspect his condition. Soon enough, however, he appeared to come to. The agonized shouts came to a sudden halt, though he appeared to still be out of breath. Nevertheless, he propped himself up on his knees, covering his face with his hands as he took a moment to recompose.

"Are… you alright?" Shantae hesitantly asked him, which prompted him to immediately uncover his face and turn toward her. And, the second she locked eyes with him, they both received nonverbal messages from one another. Shantae noticed that one of Tayshan's eyes had returned to its normal brown hue, but that the other one was glowing a brighter silver than it had before. However, whatever anger she witnessed him exhibiting moments ago, appeared to no longer exist. In place of this, however, was a look of distress and unbelievable sadness as the two of them gazed at one another. On his end, he saw the immensely worried expression of a… well, not necessarily a friend… but someone who may have been worried that something was wrong. A stranger witnessing another stranger in a compromising predicament, perhaps? It's… not much of a comparison, but it's the best we've got at this point. However, as soon as he regained enough of his awareness to remember that he and Shantae had basically declared their friendship dead, his heart sank once again. Nevertheless, he stared intently into her wavering blue eyes, growing oddly… timid and uncomfortable as she attempted to reach out and touch him.

"…I'm sorry, Shantae…" he spoke, barely above a whisper as he pulled away from her touch in what one might identify as apprehension as he shifted his gaze between the two worried young women. "Y-you too, Rotty… I… I didn't mean what I said… I…! Aargh…!" he repeated, frantically climbing to his feet and taking off full speed into the wilderness sandwiched between the lighthouse and Scuttle Town while clutching the open wound running down his side.

"No! Tayshan, wait!" Shantae called out, utterly astonished to see him take off the way he did in the midst of apologizing for what he'd said. "I… I'm sorry, too…" she whispered as she let out a defeated sigh.

"Gosh… What the heck happened there?" Rotty asked, uncertain of what she'd just witnessed as she also watched the distraught young man disappear into the shadows of the night.

"…It's getting worse…" Shantae frightfully identified, staring deep into the grassy wilderness of the trail leading into Scuttle Town.

"Hm? What's getting worse?" Rotty asked, turning toward her best friend to receive the expression of horror plastered on her face. "Whoa… Uh, is… what's wrong?"

"It's the Dark Magic I was telling you about before," she informed Rottytops, turning to look at her. "It's getting stronger inside him… I can sense it… and at this rate, I don't know what to do to keep it from completely taking him over…"

"Jeez… It's almost like he really IS terminally ill, when you put it like that…"

"No. We can fix this. Somehow," she disagreed with Rotty's comparison, holding out hope that there was a way to save the soldier before it was too late. "I had a feeling something was off when he flipped out on us like that…"

"Should we go after him, then? I mean, all things considered, we could probably at least hash things out a little more…"

"…I… don't know if that's a good idea right this minute," she uncertainly answered after a tense, tumultuous moment of silence as a knot welled up in her throat. "I don't know… if I… um… I-I just… I don't know…" she stammered, losing her train of thought in the aftermath of the post-adventure argument.

"Then, what do we do? Are you sure it's okay to just let him wander off with nowhere to go?"

"He has a hotel room in Scuttle Town," she assured with some relief. "With any luck, he's probably going there to clear his head… uh… Maybe after the night passes, we can try to patch things up," she added, though she sounded more as though she was trying to convince herself. "In the meantime, maybe you and I can hopefully get some rest after this disaster of a trip to what is now my least favorite place on the map."

"Make that OUR least favorite place on the map," Rotty agreed. "If we can help it, let's make sure to never set foot back on Spider Web Island for at least a couple more months."

"You can say that again."

"And you can bet I probably will…" the undead young woman assured. "Especially after what that spider put us through. Clearly, we've got a bad rap over there when it comes to the eight-legged folks over there now..."

"...Yeah..." Shantae murmured, the very mention of spiders causing her heart to sink a bit as she was reminded of an... unfortunate event. "Uh... Rotty?"

"Hm?"

"...Do you think...? Um... Did I... Er, w-was I wrong to drop the rock on that spider earlier?" she asked, much to Rotty's surprise.

"What? That's a weird question. Since when have you not been sure about the way you defeated a Boss Monster?"

"I don't know. I've... never had the experience of necessarily getting to know anything about any bosses besides the Barons and Risky Boots before I beat them," Shantae shared, still thinking as she was going along. "But it's like... everything that kept being said about why the Emperor Spider was fighting us... and what Tay kept saying about him wanting to avenge a loss we caused... and... if it was really true that he was going to reform before I...?"

"Hm. I won't lie, Shantae, it's... a really complicated issue to mull over," Rotty remarked with a scratch of her head as she also got to thinking. "I mean... I got to hear some of what our old spider friend was so angry about through some of the conversation between him and stud muffin, but... I wouldn't tear myself up too much if I were you."

"No?"

"Definitely. I mean... both times we went to Spider Web Island, some giant spider monster-or a few dozen at this point-have tried to wipe us out; not the least of which were Empress Spider and the husband we only recently found out she had. It certainly isn't a good thing that we had to ax them both, but let's be real; if they didn't attack us first, then... I dunno. I don't wanna make it sound bad, but..."

"I think I know what you're getting at," Shantae acknowledged with a pensive nod. "It... was conditional, in a nutshell. Things could've definitely played out in a different way than they did with both of them, but I guess it's harder to sort of... separate ourselves from the situation when we meet someone who didn't like us, and... in a sense, had a justifiable reason for it; even though the reason Emperor Spider hated us was because I saved you from Empress Spider, who was going to turn us both into her next meal if we let her."

"Yeah, but as we remember, Empress Spider was FAR less talkative than Mr. Fuzzles was," Rotty clarified. "I don't think we could've ever convinced her not to devour me whole after she captured me. Believe me, I'd have tried that myself if I got the idea back then and I thought it'd be that easy."

"That's a good point. Huh..." Shantae remarked with a heavy sigh. "I mean... I sort of feel bad for what I did to Emperor Spider now, but I swear up and down that I needed to protect you and Tay. I didn't just do it because I wanted to."

"We both definitely understand that," Rotty immediately agreed. "I'm positive stud muffin understood that, too. Only thing is that, for some unusual reason, he actually made friends with Mr. Fuzzles, which is why he was so upset when spider dude took the big dirt nap after being crushed by that rock. Looking back, I can understand what it's like to lose a friend pretty much right after you've gotten to know them from that end, but it doesn't really speak to why our battle with Mr. Fuzzles ended the way it did. Either way, Shantae, I wouldn't worry too much about it. We went in there to protect our friend, and then it turned into us desperately needing to protect ourselves and each other while trying to save said friend. No matter what anybody says, Mr. Fuzzles tried to kill us to get revenge after he tricked us, and only when it was basically too late did he change his mind and get the idea to at least TRY talking it out. Nobody can tell you that you didn't make a reasonable choice after he tried to slice me to bits before stud muffin came to the rescue. It makes even more sense in our defense after everything else he did to all of us. So, don't beat yourself up over it. What's done is done, and for better or for worse, we need to move on from that."

"Yeah... Yeah, you're right, Rotty," Shantae agreed, perking up a bit. "I suppose I've... got a lot to learn from this, but you're right. Dwelling on it won't get us anywhere."

"Glad you see it my way. Also, I'm gonna go out on a limb and presume that what you're gonna learn is that we're probably gonna come down with debilitating cases of arachnophobia after this last trip, right? Because that's DEFINITELY what I'm thinking right about now. I know I said I didn't mind spiders before, but after what we just went through, I ABSOLUTELY mind them now," Rotty remarked, prompting Shantae to smirk for a moment before the ambiance of the whispering wind and the flowing waves in the distance filled the otherwise silent atmosphere. "…So… not to push the envelope, but… are… you sure we should just… y'know, not go and track Tay down?"

"…No, but from experience, we've had a really bad track record for trying to talk things out right after a bad situation happens," Shantae hesitantly admitted after a tense, gripping silence, her heart pounding hard enough to where it felt like it was leaping into her throat with every pump. "And… um… I'll be honest… I'm scared that, even with the Dark Magic being a thing, he's genuinely angry at me for what's been happening between us… I don't want to make things worse," she admitted, choking up as a stream of tears began to run freely down her face. "And… and after what I said… I… I can't believe I could ever think to say those things to him… Rotty… Am… Am I a bad friend?"

"What? Don't be silly!" Rotty assured, approaching her dissonant friend and laying her hands on her shoulders to comfort her. "It isn't like you really meant what you said. You were just mad at each other, and people tend to say hurtful things when they get mad at the ones they love. The important thing is to not let it hang over your head. I'm sure this whole thing will blow over, and before too long, we'll be back on track in no time! I'm still in the dark on what the finer details are, but it sounds to me like you're both a little confused on who's feeling what."

"You think so?"

"I know so, babe," she confidently concluded. "No couple fights like that unless they really know and love each other."

"Rotty!" Shantae scolded, wiping her eyes and sighing to recompose herself. "He and I are not a couple! This is no time for jokes like that! I'm being totally serious!"

"So am I, snack cakes," the zombie girl clarified, looking her friend directly in the eye. "You've got a lot to learn, but I'm glad to be here to help. And couple or no couple, I can tell you care a lot about each other. I can also tell you know each other better than I expected you to, which is why I'm certain this'll wash over much quicker than you're probably thinking it will."

"...I guess I see your point, when you put it that way."

"Exactly. And, seeing as I'm technically part of this little three-way lovers' quarrel, I'll stop at nothing to make sure we all kiss and make up, and then get right back onto the grind of saving the day!" Rotty inappropriately joked with a bold, yet mildly (and somewhat ironically) flustered grin. At that, Shantae found it in herself to chuckle a bit as she cracked a momentary smile.

"I'm... just going to translate that to mean that in one way or another, we'll fix this," Shantae wisely clarified, taking her best friend's joke as a genuine, honest vow to offer her assistance and guidance.

"You know it! Still… You're absolutely sure we shouldn't go and find stud muffin right now? I'm all for an after-midnight hunt if it's absolutely necessary," Rotty suggested.

"No, no. I'm positive he's on his way to his hotel room to cool off. Plus, I… honestly haven't got a clue what to say, even if we did find him."

"If you say so, but if you want my advice, I'd say we pop in right after sunrise to nip this problem in the bud. If not for the whole Dark Magic thing, then at least so we can let him know we're still his friends."

"…Y-yeah…" Shantae glumly agreed, her head lowering as she found herself ruminating on what she said to him prior to him storming off. At that point, she'd begun to reflect on what he'd said to her. It was a heavy blur of intense emotional upheaval, but her mind independently flashed through the highlights of the argument…namely, his assertions that she 'didn't listen' to him, that she 'tried to control' him, that she 'forced' him to take the majority of the blame for any of the spats they got into… and that she dictated the flow of their adventures to where he said she left him behind when he needed her, and dictated their conversations to the point where she shut them down when she wasn't in the mood to talk, and then tried to make him talk when she felt like it and he didn't… at which point, she thought deeper about the possible implications.

Growing more distraught at the very notion as her eyes became locked on the ground below her like she'd been staring into a mirror, she silently pondered how their conversations went… and within seconds, she also began to think about how her last conversation with Sky went… and even how her last conversation with Bolo went before that… Soon, her mind drifted into a sadness-riddled tangent of intense self-scrutiny regarding their adventures, some of her interactions with her friends and other acquaintances, and even with the likes of the late Melody in the defunct Siren's Requiem Labyrinth, and the impressionable Aleaqarab toward the beginning of their encounter in the arid sands of the Kitschy Quilt Desert, among others. She hardly even needed to think about the implications of her battle with the unpredictable Emperor Spider A.K.A. Mr. Fuzzles and the thoroughly discouraging argument she'd gotten into with Tay over the whole ordeal. Her eyes began to well up yet again as she appeared to draw an internal conclusion that served caused her more distress.

"…um… I-I…" she tried to speak more, but an overwhelming guilt all but silenced her entirely as another stream of tears began to stain her cheeks.

"Aww, chin up, honey," Rotty advised, moving a hand to cup the half-genie's chin and lift her head up to where they were locking eyes again. "Trust me, everything's gonna be fine. Whatever it is that's going through your head, we can sort it out together. You know I can't stand it when you look like this; like someone stole your genie powers all over again."

"Sorry… It's just… I've… I'm just thinking about what Tay and I said to each other, and that maybe he was right about some things…"

"Right about what, exactly?"

"I can't really put it into the right words right now, but…" she paused, sighing as she recomposed herself. "…it's just, a lot of things I thought I improved on since the last time we stopped Risky, I'm starting to understand that I still need to figure out… to make myself a better hero… a better friend… and a better person…"

"Oh. Well, nobody's perfect," Rotty assured with a comforting smile. "I wouldn't pressure myself to change as fast as possible if I were you. Besides, I love you just the way you are now!"

"Oh… Heh, thanks, Rotty…" Shantae expressed with a warm grin, her spirits lifted a bit as she absorbed her friend's encouraging statement. "I love you just the way you are, too. Still… I'm… starting to see some of the ways I feel I should've changed by now… and I'm kind of kicking myself for not catching it sooner to avoid situations like this…"

"Well, things change whether we want them to or not, but it's also true that we can't always control how soon a change happens. But hey, if you're really that concerned about the changes you've made or that you're looking to make, we can talk about them together while we figure out what to do next with stud muffin. Take full advantage of it, because you have me all to yourself; at least, for tonight~!" she offered with her usual flirtatious flare.

"Hm. In your case, I'm inclined to believe you're thinking of it the other way around," the ponytailed young woman pointed out, causing Rotty to let out an innocent chuckle.

"To-may-to, to-mah-to," she dismissed with a casual smiling shrug as she let go of Shantae. "Besides, I don't hear you saying you don't want to spend quality time with me~! You know we both need it, too."

"Well… the circumstances could be a ton better, but… fine," she conceded with a sigh, cheering up just a bit. "We'll probably be out cold before we get to do anything other than wash all the gunk, webbing, and sweat off our bodies and get ready for bed. I apologize in advance if I doze off in the middle of us getting into the deeper stuff with each other."

"Ah, that's fine. In that case, let's switch it up a little. We'll clean up and rest our gorgeous bodies tonight. First thing in the morning, we'll dig into each other, maybe fraternize a little, after which we hit the Bathhouse together, grab a hot, fresh meal at the local breakfast joint, catch up and hang out a little more, and after we've gotten all that out of our systems, we go ahead and win our boyfriend back. Sound good?"

"Except for that last part, yeah. That sounds like a perfect way to unwind and go about clearing the air," she mostly agreed. "I'd really enjoy that…"

"Last part? What, you don't want to spend time catching up after we get breakfast?"

"No, I meant… Ah, never mind. Everything sounds great as it is."

"Great! So, it's a date!"

"…If you wanna call it that, then sure. Alright, then. Come on, let's get cleaned up," Shantae beckoned, turning and strolling toward her lighthouse. "I don't have any shirts in your size this time around, and, now that I remember it, I haven't gotten around to doing my laundry. So, you're gonna have to settle for that oversized blue tank top you're wearing."

"Fine by me. This thing's super cozy, despite how loose it is," Rotty nonchalantly acknowledged, adjusting 'her' top as she followed her friend into the lighthouse to get prepared to tackle the next day. "Do you at least have a spare pair of shoes, though? I... kinda-sorta left my best-slash-only pair in the deepest reaches of Spider Web Island," Rotty half-joked, sticking up a bare foot and wiggling her toes. At that, Shantae giggled a bit.

"Considering that shirt wasn't originally yours, I guess I can understand that struggle. Also, yeah, I've got a few pairs lying around. You're lucky we wear the same size. If we're super lucky, though, we might find out you actually left a pair of your own here from one of the other times you've slept over."

"Sweet! It's always good to know you've got me covered, babe!" Rotty cheered, walking up and slinging an arm around Shantae's shoulders.

"Without a shadow of a doubt, Rotty," Shantae delightfully confirmed. "Still, we'd better also be prepared for anything else adventure-related that might come up," the half-genie warned, shifting topics as she displayed another wave of worry. "I hope we can all come together before too long, because I get the feeling that things are probably gonna pick up real soon. I won't lie, Rotty; I've also been a little nervous about how quiet things have been regarding Risky Boots this past week."

"Right, you did say she was up to her old tricks again," Rotty acknowledged, perking up as she was reminded about the looming threat the Pirate Queen posed once more. "No matter what happens, though, I'll have your back. You've taken her down a bunch of times before, so there's no reason to believe this time will be any different."

"Yeah, that's what I'm hoping. She's been completely under the radar lately except for a few random squads of her Tinkerbats showing up to ambush me here and there, but I'm on my toes about when she'll pop up again."

"We'll just have to be more prepared for when she does. We know what she's capable of by now, so I'd honestly be surprised if she could really get the drop on us again," Rotty naively stated, figuring they had the scheming buccaneer pegged after so many times doing battle with her.

"Anything can happen," Shantae remarked with a sigh as she opened her door and invited Rottytops into her home. "Let me go and grab us some towels and such. I'll give you the details of what's been happening over the last few weeks as we get settled in," Shantae suggested, prompting the girls to go on ahead with preparing themselves for whatever the next day had to throw at them. And here, we end off on a rather bittersweet note. Our heroes found themselves separated from one another yet again, and as it appeared, reconciliation would potentially be more difficult than ever.

At this point, it was clear that the tensions between our energetic belly dancing crusader and her 'former' sidekick had boiled over and caused a massive rift between them that, if handled improperly, would never be mended. One could only hope they made up and got their act together before it was too late. However, with the threat of the otherworldly soldier succumbing to the burgeoning influence of the evil energy stirring up inside him being salient as the clouds blotting out the moon, the circumstances grew dire. And above even that, an entire week went by with hardly a sign of Risky Boots. Where had she been? What was she plotting? Who even knows? Clearly, there continues to be loads of complicated questions that demand answers... answers that unfortunately could not be delivered here (as usual). Fret not, however, as we'll continue to dig in and uncover as many mysteries as we can. As always, keep your eyes peeled. Catch ya on the flip-side!