Aftermath, Pt. 3: Rumination

LOCATION: RISKY BOOTS'S SHIP, OUT AT SEA SOMEWHERE, SEQUIN LAND

DATE: OCTOBER 6TH, 16 P.G.F.

TIME: 2039 HOURS

As her badly damaged, hastily patched-up vessel waded along the unpredictable evening currents of the Sequin Land Sea in the days following her most brutal loss yet, the greatly diminished crew of minions belonging to a certain self-proclaimed Queen of the Seven Seas were hard at work keeping their ship afloat and looking for a suitable shipyard to dock at. With her reputation, of course, no one was exactly chomping at the bit to help the likes of Risky Boots get back on her feet. Such is the life of the most violent war criminal this side of Sequin Land. As such, the Tinkerbat crew and their leader found it extraordinarily difficult to gather resources without needing to pillage them from the faraway towns they visited since their defeat at the hands of Shantae. With their numbers and resources so diminished, however, even the simple crime of theft was made more perilous for the Pirate Queen's crew.

However, Risky herself was nowhere to be found on the ship's deck, or even the crow's nest atop the mast. Many of her Tinkerbats were instead manning the deck independently while a couple of them squabbled with one another in the crow's nest for control of a spy glass. It was difficult to tell where they were headed at such a late hour, and there was no sign of land anywhere near their position. One particular trio of Tinkerbats, however, could be spotted carefully carrying a tray with a full banquet of finely cooked meats and vegetables into the cabins of the ship. Certain not to spill any of the tray's contents as they put on their best bellboy impressions, the Tinkerbat trio eventually found the captain's quarters. Opening the door, they found none other than Risky Boots herself, looking far less… energetic than she usually was.

"Hmph…" the dejected pirate captain grunted as she rested on a velvety bench near a window she was staring out of. She'd hardly paid her visitors any attention as she miserably peered at the crescent moon hovering above. Risky Boots appeared to be almost completely rejuvenated from her extremely challenging battle against her arch enemy. She was in her usual, fully restored pirate gear minus her hat, which had been resting on her bed nearby. She didn't even have her bandana on, as her long, silky curtain of wavy purple hair hung freely around her face and shoulders. The other big difference was that her arm was in a makeshift sling crafted for her by her crewmen to account for the utterly agonizing shoulder injury she suffered in the titanic skirmish. Nevertheless, the Tinkerbat delivery boys carefully approached their leader, though one of the three halted the other two and ordered them to hold the food tray. "What is it now?" Risky flatly asked, turning toward the Tinkerbat and revealing the bags under her weary eyes as she looked at her minion from the side.

The Tinkerbat, choosing its words carefully, gestured toward her with a few concerned flails of its arms and a rub of its stomach to communicate its concerns about recent her eating habits. It followed up with another series of gestures that communicated that the crew was wondering what they'd be doing next.

"I don't need you checking up on me every hour on the hour, but thanks…" Risky made her best attempt at conveying gratitude. "And… I suppose you're right. I haven't eaten much since that awful, grueling battle. I'm just... not hungry, nor have I been able to sleep," she further admitted, though she made no move to retrieve the food tray. "And unfortunately, we're back to a drawing board that's been wiped clean in terms of plans. We lost our Tinker-Portal, most of the crew has been vanquished, and all of the weapons from that other dimension are completely gone… So, not only do we come out of this with no base, hardly any crew, and next to nowhere to land for a proper restock of supplies, we're also left picking up the pieces of this total disaster."

The Tinkerbat responded by making a series of hand gestures meant to communicate that it wasn't a total loss, because they still had a chance to make a comeback, as long as they were still alive.

"Right," she again flatly remarked with a tilt of her head as she turned her attention back to the window. "I'm already aware we can still bounce back from this embarrassing failure. If we didn't, then I'd never be able to live it down. That doesn't help me deal with the fact that we lost outright yet again, despite how close we were to finally taking over Sequin Land… I was so close this time, too…!" she growled, clenching her fist as her dejected stare turned into a spiteful sneer.

The Tinkerbat, still wanting to cheer its leader up, communicated that they still had some things to appreciate, because while she didn't manage to take Shantae out of the picture, she at least dispatched the Tinkerbat-murdering menace that was the genie's boyfriend. At that, Risky turned and glared hot death at the Tinkerbat, causing it to frightfully stiffen up.

"He wasn't supposed to be the one on the business end of my blade, you INCOMPETENT BUFFOON!" she shouted with such a blaring intensity in her voice that her minions could hardly comprehend it. "That pathetic genie brat got lucky once again, but never would I imagine that someone would basically FORCE me to kill him in her place when the opportunity to finish her off was right there! It's absolutely ridiculous! It's more frustrating than ever! It's…!" she ranted before trailing off before taking in a huge rush of air and blowing it back out to try and calm her nerves as she turned and glared out the window again. "Never mind… The fact is, we can't take pride in that. What happened there was an accident, and as far as I'm concerned, I've accomplished nothing by killing him… Not a single, solitary, miserable little thing… If anything, Shantae's only been made stronger because of his paltry little 'sacrifice,' which doesn't bode well for any of us. That aside, we still lost, we're still in serious need of reconstruction and recruitment, and I don't even know where to begin this time…" she theorized, revealing that she was contemplating the consequences of the battle on her end. Wanting to converse with her minions no further, however, she spoke again. "…Listen. The rest of the crew on the deck could use your help far more than I could right now. Set the tray on my bed and go help them locate a new place to set up camp. You're wasting time badgering me, and I'm not really in the mood for it. Now beat it," she irritably commanded, pointing toward the door while keeping her attention focused on the crescent moon above.

Reading the message loud and clear, the Tinkerbats followed her orders by leaving her food tray right where she requested it and skedaddling out of the captain's quarters. And so, Risky Boots was once again left to her rampant, cycling thoughts about what went wrong with Operation: Bombardment of Artillery Rainstorms. She pondered about every loss they suffered, starting with the Prickle Stitch Valley. She contemplated her encounters with the likes of Shantae and her friends; namely her personal encounters in the Kitschy Quilt Desert and the Thimble Canyon, in addition to the run-ins her men had in the Sheared Spool Shrine, Yarnball Heights Town, and the Siren's Requiem Labyrinth… She even ruminated on the total, nonstop bullet frenzy that was the war on the waves against the half-genie, her friends, the remnants of the devastated Ammonian Army, and that giant mermaid. Heck, she even thought about how it was even possible for her to fail, even after employing the coerced assistance of that cowardly Hypno Baron, that low-down, double-crossing turncoat Ammo Baron, and that worthless, slimy little bell-headed gecko Techno Baron. Need she even mention that she also managed to capture and totally corrupt Shantae's actual BOYFRIEND of all people into working for her? She should've been unstoppable with that team… Heck, she even captured two of that brat's other friends for good measure while Shantae herself was subdued in a surprise attack she never saw coming! Yet, none of it stuck for her.

Hypno Baron weaseled out of his end of the deal and got beat. Ammo Baron followed orders, but then turned against her in a last-second show of ill-advised defiance. Techno Baron… well, it's Techno Baron, so nothing but unavoidable miserable failure was expected from him. But Tayshan… Who, much like Alsumu and that little blue-haired pervert Shantae bafflingly called one of her friends, had been forcibly handed a Dark Magic gem that turned him evil… still wound up opposing her and siding with Shantae. Worse yet, she'd only had the gems on the child and the scorpion man hidden in their clothes. She made the soldier SWALLOW the gem, ensuring that he could NEVER escape its influence… Yet, he turned around, pulled a dirty switcheroo trick on her that led to the rescue of her prisoners… and even though he actually destroyed what was left of Ammo Baron's base, he still learned how to control that very same magic while Shantae somehow recovered from the ambush, turned him back to her side… And then he eventually used that magic to help a revitalized Shantae win the war… and he died for it at the end of it all, which was another reflective slap in the face, because she saw something like this coming a mile away…

"I don't get it…" she mumbled, clenching her fist hard enough to crack a walnut. "So much careful planning… So much of an investment… So much potential for this plan to have worked…! Yet, I'm still left crawling away from the battlefield like an injured cougar in the jungle with nothing to gain from my efforts. This is completely preposterous…!" she further complained with another hot, heavy sigh as she remained seated, not even attempting to partake of the enormous food tray still idly sitting on her bed. She went silent as she thought deeper about what went wrong. Should she have been more aggressive? Or more covert, perhaps? Should she have found a way to silence that foolish alien soldier sooner? Should she have paced herself more slowly? Or maybe she should've moved faster? Or should she have done a better job manipulating those Baron buffoons into doing her bidding? Maybe it was possible she could've utilized those interdimensional weapons a bit more conservatively? So many different ways things could've played out… It gave the pirate captain a migraine as she continuously pondered on it. Whatever the case, Risky would not soon forget this most recent and most extravagant humiliation suffered at the hands of that awful halfling twerp and her idiot friends. It was then, however, that something came swirling into her mind.

"The most disturbing thing is how that brat actually threatened to KILL me this time…" she recalled, harkening back to the moment a supremely outraged and grief-stricken Shantae stood before her with a massive, swirling sphere of fire in her hand. Risky remembered the half-genie's golden-eyed, wrathful glare as she pointed that fireball, which could be compared to the size of a truck tire, at her face. "Didn't think she had it in her… Can't say I found out in the best way, but I've got to tread carefully around her from now on. That much is a guarantee after what happened…" she further pondered, taking note that even someone as oblivious and hopelessly naïve as Shantae… had her limits. "No doubt that our next battle, whenever that should be, will be a lot more grueling than ever. She should count herself lucky that I didn't get back up and beat her into the ground for daring to put me of all people in a humiliating position like that…! Yet…" she trailed off as her mind wandered in a slightly different direction.

"…you're… not as untouchable as you think you are… not even close…" a certain statement rang in her head, causing her nothing but frustration as she scowled through the window of her sleeping quarters. Why that particular statement resonated in her mind, she couldn't begin to explain.

"That miserable fool…" Risky cursed as her thoughts involuntarily shifted toward a certain deceased soldier... or at least, she presumed him deceased, considering she never actually saw him die. Considering how badly he was hemorrhaging by the time the battle was over, however, there was hardly any doubt that he was dead. Nothing could've possibly saved him. Yet... speaking of saving... "Shoot… That brat would've been history if it wasn't for him…!" she further griped, growing more frustrated with how things played out. She struggled to understand it for herself. She struggled to internalize the idea that someone could simply throw his life away just to protect that stupid brat… What was the point? Who in their right mind would give up their own life like that? What was there to gain from dying because someone else was too weak to protect herself? It was then, however, that Risky flashed back to that pivotal moment in the battle… or rather, a few moments after she impaled Tayshan… She could see it as though it had just happened again. The disheveled, partially flooded, bombed-out cave… That obnoxious genie in her raggedy little dancer outfit, staring bullets at her as tears streaked her bruised-up, dirt-smeared face… and that foolish man, standing while hunched over, pressing a hand to the gaping, profusely bleeding abdominal wound illuminated with magic right after he so grotesquely tore her scimitar out of his own stomach…

"You have no idea what it's like, knowin' you're not gonna survive a fight like this, yet goin' in anyway t' protect someone you love at any cost… an' you never will... but… I'd… agh… I'd do this again for Shantae as many times as I had to…" she remembered him preaching to her in that sickening 'heroic' flair as he glared at her, however laden with intermittent grunting and coughing his statement was. The fool said it himself that he'd irresponsibly throw his own life away to protect that pipsqueak. What a pointless way to go, Risky thought. Yet, something about that statement resonated with her… and it resonated deeply.

"…'Knowing you're not going to survive a fight like this,' he says," she ruminated, getting up from her seat and breathing out a defeated sigh as she paced around her captain's quarters. She went silent for a few moments as the ocean's ubiquitously crashing waves filled the atmosphere from outside. It didn't take her long, however, before she spoke again. "If it's true he knew he would die in the conflict, then what would possess someone like him to keep fighting? Odd… Yet, maybe not so odd, when I consider his approach to putting himself on the line before ever thinking about letting one of his precious friends get hurt, as well as his background… Hmph. Whatever…" she dismissed with a shrug as she turned and looked at the scimitar hung up on the wall near a few of her numerous war trophies from battles past. She hadn't even needed to approach the gleaming weapon before she noticed that, despite her best efforts to clean the blade, it…

"…Still has blood on it," she murmured, an odd waviness evident in her tone. She then looked at her hands to see that they were entirely clean of any battle-related grime or stain. Rather than be satisfied with that, however, Risky Boots found her face twisting into a contemplative frown as she shook her head and trudged toward her bed. Within seconds, the pirate captain kicked off her footwear and carefully laid her curvaceous form onto the comfy, silky surface of her blanket. Unable to keep the whirling cyclone of thoughts about her lost battle from completely overwhelming her, she let out a thoroughly frustrated, growling sigh of… dare I say, regret? "Hmph…" she further grunted, raising the arm that wasn't in a sling high above her face as she examined her hand like it was going to come off and attack her. "Truly baffling how someone could go from irksome meddler, to potential crew member, to just another obstacle in my path that I was forced to remove, thanks to that obnoxious genie brat… especially after the night we had following the ambush in the Inseam Municipality. What a mystery…" And with that, Risky lost herself in thought once more as she stretched herself out across the bed, ignoring the food tray as her thoughts wandered elsewhere yet again…

"I'd have thought that the conventional approach to forcing that Dark Magic shard to work would've been enough… especially after three or so straight hours of trying to beat him into submission. I mean, I'm not surprised it didn't work, but still…" she pondered. "That genie brat's friends turning her back to normal after I converted all her Light Magic to Dark Magic was one thing… And even before that, when I sucked the magic out of her, turned it dark, and forced her to destroy it… which, of course, led to me persuading her to collect the Dark Magic from those abominable Cackle Bats and then use it, only for it all to be purified and absorbed back into her… Maybe there's something I'm missing about how magic works…?" Risky further theorized, reflecting on past experiences with manipulating the magic in others to her advantage.

"I'm not sure… but then, Shantae is part genie, so I suppose there's always some obnoxious deus ex machina to be expected when trying to turn her evil. Doesn't mean I won't eventually find a way to permanently corrupt that filthy little runt, so she'll either join my side, or simply destroy everything she once loved. Only a matter of figuring out how to accomplish that. That doesn't explain Tayshan, though… He was, to my knowledge, full-blown human. There was no way he should've been able to resist the influence of that gem long enough to eventually take control of it and get such a massive power boost from it that he… that he actually bested me in combat… ME of all people… Absolutely absurd…!" Risky continued to rant as she glared at the ceiling of her cabin. "I hadn't lost to ANYONE other than Shantae and the Pirate Master himself before… Shoot…! It burns me up that I could be put in such a spot after all I went through to ensure my undeniable victory… and to be put in that spot by someone I'd previously had no problem destroying and humiliating when we first met…! Oh, how I've never wanted a rematch more than I do now… Hmph. Oh, well… He's dead now, so that chance won't come. That aside, I still can't figure out how he did it… How he managed to gain control of the Dark Magic in his body, somehow make it work alongside whatever Light Magic was in him, and then continuously use both forms of magic without completely ripping his own body apart in the process… I've never even seen a FULL-FLEDGED GENIE pull that off. If anything, I figured that they'd cancel each other out. For a simple human to accomplish such a thing as mastering both forms of magic simultaneously, whether he was from a different timeline or not? That requires further study, no doubt," Risky continued to soliloquize as she rolled over onto her side to get as comfortable as possible. Breathing another sigh as she did her best to avoid aggravating her shoulder, she continued to think.

"Yet… What gets me even more is how it could be possible for anyone in his position to ever turn against me after what I did with him…" she continued to contemplate, though she began to step into a dark place that we… might not be able to explore in its entirety as we listen to her. "I mean… It started out so rough, with him resisting so fervently and pathetically clinging to the hope that he'd somehow outlast me or find some way to escape my clutches. Oh, how close I was to just giving up and going the other route of torturing those miserable friends of his and that brat's before he eventually came to his senses. And even after I… convinced him to stop fighting the temptation and give me what I asked for, it still took another solid hour before the Dark Magic shard finally took hold… You'd think that after that massive thing was inside, he'd have stopped his complaining sooner once we really got moving…" the pensive lady pirate ruminated, instinctively bringing her hand to her waist and rubbing her abdomen before setting it back down on the bed. After doing so, however, her cheeks suspiciously grew warm and rosy for a moment. "After that, though, he was putty in my hands… Anything I told him to do, he obeyed without question. Anything I wanted… any way I wanted… and he gave it to me as hard and as hungrily as he could, like he'd known no greater pleasure… I'm honestly surprised he lasted the entire night along with me, all things considered. It was such a wild rush that I hardly remember the last time I got to indulge myself so intimately and with such intensity…~ Hmm…~ I can't say I'd ever try such a thing again as far as corrupting someone to the Dark side goes, no less. It was such a hassle at first and the corruption process didn't even stick. Buuuut… I do have to say that, for such a hot, racy, enthralling, hours-long experience that felt like we'd been going at it for days, I'd certainly be lying if I wasn't incredibly tempted to… indulge myself again sometime for the heck of it… Shoot, I hardly realized how pent-up I was before then. Hmm… It was like a dam crumbling and bursting under extreme pressure once we got into it… Gotta be sure to mind that from now on, for my own sanity…" Risky murmured, though I refuse to give any context to anything she was saying. Not because I thought you couldn't handle it, mind you. It's simply because I was not interested in what she was talking about. Like, at all. Nevertheless, it appeared that even at this point, her perception of that experience was still very different from anyone else's.

"Still, though… To think I went that far this time around, only for it to still not work in the long run… I mean, it wasn't for nothing, but still… Maybe I didn't try hard enough… Nah, who am I kidding? I gave him the works and had him totally hypnotized to the point of completely forgetting about that miserable brat once he started cooperating. Naturally, of course… After all, no one can truly resist me. Maybe the Dark Magic shard I made him swallow wasn't big enough, then…? Hmm…" …I'm sure it's… abundantly clear what she was thinking about. I can't say I'm terribly inclined to go into further detail from here, either. Jeez… Anyway, Risky breathed another frustrated sigh, shaking the depraved, lurid thoughts out of her head as she remained planted on her bed. "Ah, whatever…! The fact is, it didn't work, and it eventually resulted in that foolish dog being skewered in that genie's stead. Never have I seen such an atrocious spectacle before the other day. What a waste…" she dismissed, though she could hardly shake off the welling feelings of resentment and displeasure as she grasped her forehead with her uninjured hand while she lay flat on her back. "Gahh, that pathetic genie's to blame for this at the end of it all. I swear this is the last time I'll lose to her. The LAST…!" the Pirate Queen vowed, pounding her fist so hard on her bed that she caused the food tray to go springing off her bed, after which it landed with a clattering *SPLAKLANG* as the once-edible morsels went scattering all over the floor. Immediately, Risky jumped back to her feet and saw the mess she created. "D'oh, for goodness sake…! Lousy Tinkerbats leaving this food here! Ugh, what a mess…!" she complained, blaming her minions for leaving an item exactly where she told them to leave it earlier.

Nevertheless, Risky committed herself to angrily picking up the contaminated food items, gathering them back up onto the tray in nowhere near as organized a manner as they had been previously… and then flinging the entire platter, tray and all, out of the nearest open window. It went without saying that at least some of the unseen creatures of the sea would be getting a free meal. Not even bothering to check to see if she'd gotten all the food up off the floor, Risky plopped herself with a *POMPH* back onto her bed, glaring up at the ceiling of her cabin as she failed to dispel any of the swirling frustration that had been resonating from her very core. Nevertheless, she reoriented her thoughts to the battle she'd been so bummed about losing. Remaining silent, Risky continued to repeatedly run each major encounter of the weeks-long war in her head. She continued to obsess over every obstacle she'd run into from beginning to end. She found herself almost ready to go on a dissatisfaction-fueled rampage that could very well have leveled an entire continent if she had the chance. Alas, as she once again thought about the main reason she'd always seen a rousing lack of success in her schemes, she could only clench her fist and just barely resist the urge to punch a hole in the ship's wall. The only thing stopping her there was that she at least knew that the ship had enough holes in it as it was.

However, as she tossed and turned in her bed out of pure frustration, her thoughts were once again brought back to that last fateful encounter… at which point, she thought specifically about her one-on-one battles against Shantae. Every punch thrown, every kick landed or blocked, every magic attack used… Every pitifully lucky submission hold locked in place that eventually wound up badly injuring her shoulder… It utterly stunned the lady pirate on how such a battle that should've been one-sided in her favor… wasn't.

"…She made a fool out of me…!" Risky practically growled, raking at her face as she ruminated on the battle some more. "She pulled out all the stops, and she made a complete fool out of me! Darn it!" she huffed, pounding her fist on the bed once again. "I should have been able to crush that pompous little minx without breaking a sweat! Yet, she gets one or two lucky shots here and a pathetic little power boost there, and suddenly she's outclassed me in hand-to-hand combat, where I should've had the edge…! What a total joke!"

"…you're… not as untouchable as you think you are… not even close…" that infuriating statement rang in her head yet again. Only, this time… "Y-you should be so lucky we… we didn't kill you or take you t' the… the proper authorities like you know you deserve… Had you not stabbed me, you'd better believe you'd be in chains the same way you locked me up before… but you know what…? Hah… Agh…! It's alright… for now. We still won… Only thing, though… is that my blood… is on your hands…! As well as the blood of all the people whose lives you ruined… Remember that the next time you think about hatchin' another one o' your greedy world domination schemes…"

"Hmph… Not untouchable… How absurd…! And to think he had the nerve to suggest they could ever kill or capture me, much less think that I'm supposed to be deterred by the fact that he got himself killed for that stupid brat's sake…!" she remarked in response to the intrusive thought, wishing to brush it out of her head. However, her attempt at stifling the thought only brought more of them to the forefront of her mind. And before long, she was made to think about the brutal close quarters scuffles she'd engaged in with the soldier… and in conjunction, the unusual power boost even he got while fighting her. "…He made a mockery of me, too…!" she bitterly acknowledged, feeling as though she wanted to pull her hair out from the burgeoning anger that came with being left alone to reflect upon her monumental loss. "No way in the world should he have been able to keep pace with me… No WAY! I can at least acknowledge that Shantae can get so lucky, but for some random, amateurish alien to do the same, when he wasn't even a genie!? And to do so using magic that I granted to him!? I CANNOT stand for that!" she continued to rant, pounding her fist on her bed repeatedly to the point that one might've feared she'd punch right through it. She of course stopped long before that could happen. Nevertheless, Risky suddenly found herself thinking about another critical moment, where she'd been brought to her knees as that foolhardy soldier stood before her, triumphantly looking down at her while having the GALL to preach to her about strength and technique. Just the thought made her want to vomit.

And then her thoughts carried onto various points during the final phase of the encounter. The fact that she and her enemies were fighting at full power. The fact that it took her using as many of her special moves as she could manage, just to try and earn something of an advantage, only to be caught off-guard at nearly every turn. The fact that, even with Tinkerbats that were heavily armed with weapons that would've annihilated anyone else on the spot, she still couldn't do it. She couldn't defeat Shantae. She COULDN'T DEFEAT Shantae; a weak, impressionable little girl who wasn't even a full-fledged genie. The sour thought was made even harder to tolerate when she considered that her former captain, the Pirate Master, had almost enough power to take on EVERY full-fledged genie in existence at the time of his demise… Yet she, despite being far better than her arrogant, self-absorbed late former boss, couldn't beat a HALF of ONE genie. And this kept happening over and over and over again. And just to add insult to injury, right when the moment arose to finally do away with that little brat for good despite the fact that defeat otherwise appeared imminent for Risky this time, someone else took the decisive blow in her stead. To make things worse, Shantae and a badly injured, dying Tayshan still somehow managed to pull together and collectively wipe the floor with her. It was maddening that it could've ever turned out like this… Oh, and let's not even mention the fact that after she torched the base to erase any physical reminder of this miserable failure from history, what little of those weapons she had stashed away had suddenly turned to sparkling dust and vanished within minutes of her making her escape.

"No doubt that the weapons disappearing was that wretched halfling's doing…" Risky correctly asserted as she tried to calm herself down by taking a few deep breaths. At this point, however, the irritated Pirate Queen began to grow tired of thinking about this terrible situation. There was hardly a thing she hadn't considered in the battles she engaged in with her enemies. Yet, she could find no peace of mind. She received no closure. Heck, she hadn't even get a good night's sleep since the battle concluded. As such, and despite how very tired Risky was, she continued to roll around in her bed, being mindful not to aggravate her undisclosed shoulder injury. She was far from done trying to figure out how to conquer the world next time she tried, of course. However, even one as stubborn and relentless as Risky Boots knew that overthinking every last little detail did more harm than good. She couldn't help but replay that last scenario in her head again and again, no less.

Beaten down by Shantae despite her best efforts due to nagging injuries and overuse of magic, followed by her getting an opportunity to turn the tables by flinging a flashbang at the half-genie while she was distracted. The flashbang goes off. Rushing Scimitar Charge that would forever change the fate of Sequin Land as everyone knew it. She's getting closer and closer to achieving her malicious goal by the millisecond. Shantae is dazed, blinded, confused, and entirely vulnerable. Victory is at hand. But then, a blur comes racing in from the side as Risky thrusts. Shantae goes flying out of the way while she was still in a daze. The grisly sound of the sword penetrating flesh rings throughout the entire cavern. Risky's momentum comes to an almost instantaneous halt, only for her to see a tall, shirtless, magic-bathed man in Shantae's place. It's Tayshan. And Risky's sword is jammed into—no, THROUGH his stomach all the way to the hilt. The lady pirate's hit with a sudden, powerful mixture of total astonishment… and a modicum of regret as she sees the pain-addled look in the man's glowing golden eyes as they stare at one another. Tayshan, with what little strength he has left, knocks Risky to the ground with a fist before ripping the sword out of his gut and dropping it before falling to a knee…

"…It shouldn't have played out like that…" Risky murmured, massaging her forehead with a hand as she found herself lying on her back again. "This is all that brat's fault…" she further asserted, seeming not to feel entirely responsible for the death of the extraterrestrial soldier. "Hm… This entire situation was completely warped in more ways than I care to count. Gahh…! Whatever. Tomorrow's a new day, and I refuse to lose another night of sleep wondering how things could've been different. All I know at this point is that if I plan on conquering Sequin Land at SOME point in my life, then I'll have to start from scratch yet again… Mark my words, Shantae… The day WILL come that I'll destroy you and anyone else who dares stand in my way. The day WILL come that the entirety of Sequin Land will bow down to me and recognize me as its undisputed queen… I swear, it will. And if it has to come down to me permanently erasing you from the picture next time, you can guarantee that NO ONE will save you then…!"

And with that obstinate statement, Risky Boots did her best to get herself ready for bed. I couldn't really tell you whether she got a good night's sleep or not, all things considered about what was on her mind. What we could definitely infer, however, is that the self-proclaimed Queen of the Seven Seas hadn't at all learned her lesson. That much, I'm sure anyone could've guessed. Truly, it makes me wonder how the scenario of yet another attempt at a hostile takeover of Sequin Land would look when we consider just how much more heated and more bitter her rivalry with a certain Half-Genie Hero became. It truly went without question that, as mentioned before, Shantae had given Risky Boots many chances to mend her ways and give peaceful living a try. And every time, Risky would toss the chance out like she did that tray full of food she stubbornly refused to eat despite how hungry she was. Yet, after Risky flat-out killed one of Shantae's best friends, who even knows how the heroine and the villainess would interact during future encounters. And when we consider Shantae's state of mind this time around shortly after defeating Risky once again, I get a strange feeling that they… wouldn't exactly greet each other very warmly the next time they crossed paths. Regardless, Risky Boots had made it abundantly clear that she wouldn't back down from the challenge. And with that, Risky's ship continued its lonesome, nigh-aimless trip through the turbulent waters of the Sequin Land Sea as we're left to ponder just how she planned on pulling herself forward from here...