95: Interesting theory

Gamelover41592: :p

Matt (Guest): Hey, no politics!

Alright, finale time! Let's go!


For a few moments, everyone was dead silent, Rottytops's words still sinking in and looking over the giant hole that had just been created. Finally, Mimic spoke up.

"My word, it's true!" He exclaimed. "The city really was a ship!"

"Wait...you didn't believe us!?" Jasmine nearly shouted, giving her uncle a glare. Mimic did his best to look small.

"And not just any ship," Sky pointed out. "An airship!"

"With Risky Boots at the helm!" Bolo added in.

"Her cannon's aimed right at the island!" Rottytops reminded everyone.

"What'll we do!?" Plink nervously wailed. She had never dealt with anything like this before!

"We need a plan, and fast!" Zapple said.

"We've got to get Shantae and Jasmine inside that ship!" Vera realized. Suddenly, the siren started making noises again.

"Huh?" Jasmine asked as she knelt down. The siren got louder and more excited. Jasmine quickly picked up the meaning. "Okay, mate. Knock yourself out!" The siren contracted for a few seconds before a teleporter appeared above everyone.

"What's that?" Shantae asked.

"She's summoned some sort of transport device!" Mimic realized. The siren chirped happily.

"She's got the ability to teleport people!" Jasmine realized. Then, something else clicked into place. "The sirens must have used her powers to kidnap the others during the festival!" The siren suddenly looked upset. Everyone could tell what she was implying-she had been threatened or forced into doing the kidnapping. "Looks like she wants to help us take down the others once and for all!"

"You got all that from a few annoying screeches?" Sky questioned.

"I've always had a way with strange creatures," Jasmine said with a smile, resting her hand on the siren's shoulder.

"Lobster girl seems pretty okay," Bolo admitted.

"It's time for you two to go and confront Risky Boots!" Rottytops chimed in, reminding everyone what was at stake.

"You must do what it takes to destroy that airship before it can fire!" Mimic added in.

"We're ready," Shantae promised.

Jasmine gave a nod. "Just in case, get everyone off the island." Everyone nodded back. They had a job to do. And so did Jasmine and Shantae. With a tip of Jasmine's hat, the duo jumped onto the teleporter.


"Look how high up we are!" Shantae gushed as she looked out a nearby window. Jasmine looked out as well. The island looked to be a tiny dot. It was an incredible view. But both girls knew they couldn't get distracted. They had a job to do. So, they set off. Needless to say, the ship was crawling with sirens of all shapes and sizes. The ship itself was also a death trap. Spike traps were everywhere, as were bottomless pits. In addition to the sirens, there was also a plethora of other monsters the girls had found over the course of their adventures. But the girls pressed on, they knew what would happen should they fail.

"This is the door to the control room," Jasmine noted.

"Then we need to be ready for whatever we find," Shantae said, doing her best to hide her fears. Jasmine just smiled at her and offered her hand. Shantae took it and the girls walked in together. Inside they found...the mayor of Arena Town?!

"Mayor?" Jasmine asked. Her instincts were kicking in again. Something wasn't right here.

"Are you okay?" Shantae asked.

"Shantae! Jasmine!" He said with relief once he saw them. "Thank goodness you're here!"

"Mate, how did you get up here?" Jasmine asked. "Is Risky holding you hostage?"

"No time to explain!" The mayor said, his voice full of fear. "You've got to save me!"

"Hang on, we're coming!" Shantae promised, only for a cage to drop onto her and Jasmine. "Huh!?"

"What's going on here?!" Jasmine snapped. Her claustrophobia was already beginning to flare up. She began to bang on the bars. "Let us out!"

"You've interfered with my plans for the last time!" The mayor snapped. "Best to keep you under lock and key! Ho ho ho!" Suddenly, the mayor ripped off his head and much of his clothes, revealing Risky underneath!

"What the!?" Jasmine exclaimed. It took both girls a few seconds to process what they just saw

"Risky!" Both shouted once they realized what was happening.

"I'm good, aren't I?" Risky taunted. Both girls quietly agreed they were not admitting to finding the disguise impressive.

"What did you do to the real mayor!?" Shantae snapped.

"Heh...your mayor...doesn't exist!" Risky revealed before going into another of her trademark laughing fits.

"Wait...you were the mayor THIS WHOLE TIME!?" Jasmine exclaimed.

"It was a brilliant performance!" Risky praised herself again. "Ahh...it's the imperfections that make the character, don't you agree?" Pressing another button on the control panel, Risky moved the cage of the ground and hung it in a corner of the room.

"But why, Risky?" Shantae questioned. "Why trick everyone like that?"

"Well you see…" Risky began. "Years ago, I discovered this island. And the ship, buried deep underground. It was magnificent! A vessel fit for a queen! I simply had to have it! That's when I encountered the Empress."

"You're talking about the seventh siren!" Shantae realized.

"She'd had a run in with the genies, and robbed of her physical form," Risky continued, huffing a little at the interruption. "So, I offered her a deal! An arrangement...that would benefit both of us!" Suddenly, the girls saw a series of glowing eyes in the darkness of a nearby hallway. They braced themselves for what was coming, only to be thoroughly unimpressed by the old hag who had to drag herself into the room.

"I...was expecting something more impressive. And bigger," Jasmine admitted. Shantae burst into laughter and even Risky chuckled a little. The Empress siren merely glared.

"You were good as your word, Captain Boots," She said. "Five drops of genie life force in exchange for the ship!"

"I take it that ghost genie's spell is broken?" Risky asked.

"Yes…" The Empress trailed off. "My physical form has been restored! Like my siren sisters, I can feed on mortals once more! I will live forever and beyond! Go. Make whatever preparations you need. The ship is yours."

"Men!" Risky called out. "We captured the brats! Power down the weapons and prepare to escort the Empress back to her island at once! I will dispose of these two 'heroes' myself!" With that, she began to walk off.

"Wait," The Empress said. She crawled towards Risky. "I have an even better idea! This body lives...but it is old and weak. What would you say to a new deal? Your powerful body...in exchange for immortality!"

"Treachery!" Risky snapped. But before she could attack, the empress began draining her life force. She fell to the floor, limp, while the Empress siren restored herself to a more youthful and imposing form.

"Ahh! Now THIS is more like it!" The Empress gushed as she looked over her new body.

"What have you done to Risky!?" Shantae snapped.

"Just a little fusion magic of my own!" The Empress replied. "Well? What do you think?"

"You look more impressive than before," Jasmine admitted, trying not to let her fear seep into her voice.

"Hear me, my soldiers!" The Empress called out as a flood of sirens entered the room. "Turn the ship around! I'm going to drain the life force of EVERY LIVING THING ON THAT ISLAND! And then...BLOW IT CLEAN OFF THE MAP!"

"NO!" Both sisters cried.

"We've got to do something!" Shantae exclaimed.

"On three, use Harmony's magic!" Jasmine called out, her hands going for her necklace. "One...two...THREE!" The ship shook from the powerful earthquake, killing all the sirens other then the Empress. In addition, it destroyed the cage, dropping both girls to the floor.

"How did you two-!?" The Empress couldn't even finish her sentence. A dud half genie and her human keeper destroyed her whole army!

"Give Risky back!" Shantae demanded. The pirate had been dragged off by some sirens.

"NEVER!" The Empress replied. "It's time to take this bottom for a test drive! Prepare yourselves!" The Empress was clearly holding back. Beyond her mocking laughter, all she did was teleport around, fire energy blasts and summon swords.

"Ready to give up?" Jasmine mockingly asked.

"You two are stronger then I was led to believe." The Empress admitted. The girls were confused. What had Risky told her about them? "No matter. I'll simply use ALL MY POWER! TIME TO FACE YOUR DOOM!" Suddenly, the girls found themselves in a strange realm, fighting on floating rocks. The Empress siren had grown several stories. If the girls had to guess, she was even bigger then the ship itself, although they weren't sure. Now, the only places the girls could hit were the gems on the Empress siren's jewelry. But approaching them was difficult as they could fire more energy blasts, along with massive orbs of dark matter the Empress could fire from her hand. And there was the ever present danger of falling to your doom. But the girls pressed on. Jasmine's boomerang proved more helpful then ever before as it removed the risk of having to jump across the rocks. In addition, they would work together whenever they could. Finally, after what felt like hours, the girls destroyed the last gem that rested in the Empress's crown. She roared in pain as they returned to the ship.

"Alright!" Shantae cheered as she jumped up to give Jasmine a high five.

The Empress roared again. "HOW?! How could you two defeat me!?"

"Clearly, Risky had you fooled from the beginning!" Jasmine said. Behind them, the other half genies, along with Rottytops, teleported in.

"That's our cue!" Plink cheered.

"Uh oh," Zapple said, even if she didn't sound all that fearful.

"She looks like bad news," Vera said, actually sounding somewhat afraid.

"Everyone listen!" Shantae called out. "It's time to take your magic back! Hurry!" Moving quickly, Shantae was able to return the magic that belonged to the other half genies.

"Now, you should be able to call back the life force she took from you guys!" Jasmine explained.

"You got it!" Plink yelled. With the loss of the life force, the Empress siren returned to her older form.

"My new body!" The Empress wailed. "I was invincible! How could I be defeated!?"

"Simple, you only got four half genies...and one zombie," Jasmine replied with a smug grin.

"WHAT!?" The Empress snapped.

"Your new body was rotten to the core!" Shantae explained, now sharing her sister's grin. "No offense, Rottytops,"

"None taken!" Rottytops said.

"You should watch what you eat!" Jasmine mocked.

"The spell didn't work!" The Empress realized. "Because the half-genie life force was poisoned! Risky Boots lied about everything!"

"You kinda get used to it," Both sisters said bluntly.

The Empress continued. "Life everlasting was mine! MINE!" Finally, she collapsed, officially defeated. But before anyone could celebrate, alarms started to blare and the ship began shaking.

"That doesn't sound good," Plink said nervously.

"The ship took too much damage!" Zapple realized.

"It's going down!" Vera cried.

"Get Rottytops out of here!" Jasmine ordered. She already knew she and Shantae had another thing to do before they could flee. Zapple, Vera and Plink grab Rottytops before teleporting out, leaving only Harmony.

"What will you do?!" She asked.

"The Empress drained Risky's life force." Shantae explained. "With the Empress dead, maybe she-"

"There's no time!" Harmony interrupted. "Risky could not have survived!"

"We don't know that for sure!" Jasmine pointed out. Shantae was shocked. Why was Jasmine trying to save Risky? She hated her! "I trust Shantae on this!"

Now Shantae understood. "If there's even a chance that she's alive, we have to find her!"

"You are determined to stay?" Harmony clarified. These two had proved themselves to her, so she was going to trust them. "I understand! Go. I will see to the others. Good luck!" With that, she teleported away, while Jasmine and Shantae raced off.


Everyone watched. As soon as Harmony explained where Shantae and Jasmine were, they had rushed to the edge of the island to see if they could spot them. All they saw was the airship crashing into the water.

"Where's Shantae and Jasmine?" Rottytops finally asked after an uncomfortable few seconds. "Do you think they're…" Suddenly, the sky darkened. Everyone looked up to see a dragon in front of them. But not just any dragon, it was Jasmine! With Shantae riding on her back!

"Don't ever do that again!" Sky snapped at both of them before going in for a hug.

"I knew you guys could make it!" Bolo said as he and Shantae went in for a kiss.

"And it looks like you saved Risky Boots as well!" Mimic said. She had been in Jasmine's tail, which meant she had been dropped to the ground once she returned to normal.

"Why bother?" Sky asked.

"Because Shantae and Jasmine are the good guys, that's why!" Rottytops replied for her friends. Jasmine and Shantae raced over to Mimic, who had opened his arms for a hug of his own.

"And I see everyone is fully restored?" Jasmine asked.

"Yes. Being restored even cured the last of mine and Zapple's aliments," Harmony revealed.

"Never want to be stuck in somewhere that hot ever again," Zapple grumbled.

"Not all…" Shantae pointed out as Mimic let go of both her and Shantae. "Risky...Jas and I found her like this. But I can't tell if she…"

"Get your filthy hands off me!" Risky snapped, revealing she was still alive. Shantae hastily backed up as Risky stood up.

"Risky! You're alive!" Shantae said more cheerfully then she had any right to be.

"Of course I am!" Risky scoffed. "And all of you better back off right now!"

"Simmer down, sister!" Sky barked as Wrench gave a threatening squawk.

"Yeah!" Rottytops snapped. "Shantae and Jasmine just saved your life!"

"Even after you tried to blow us all up," Bolo added in.

Risky gave a dismissive hand wave. "The runts were just playing the part I gave them,"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jasmine asked.

"I created the half-genie festival to lure you all here, so that the Empress could feed on those other five fools," Risky explained. "I'd convinced her that the runt's life force was inferior and tainted and that she needed her sister to fight, period. Not a difficult task given her performance on stage."

"Risky, you cared about me!" Shantae realized.

"Don't flatter yourself," Risky snapped. "You and your sister were merely the ace up my sleeve. I kept you nearby in case the Empress tried to pull a fast one. But like childish oafs, you kept getting in my way! I needed to keep these fools caged long enough to drain all five in the proper amounts. Five actual drops of half-genie life force and she really would have become invincible."

"Hey! That makes me a hero!" Rottytops boasted.

"Do not flatter yourself, mate," Jasmine said.

Risky continued. "I figured once I had the ship, I'd blast the Empress and whatever's left of those sirens into quivering puddles of jelly."

"All this so you could get yourself a ship!?" Shantae snapped. Jasmine face palmed. There was convoluted and then there was that.

"And why NOT?!" Risky asked. "I'm Queen of The Seven Seas! I deserve the very best! You got rid of those sirens. I got a new airship. Speaking of...where is my airship, anyways? There had better-"

"It's at the bottom of the ocean," Jasmine said bluntly. "Our fight with the Empress siren destroyed it. Oh, and if you want to pick a fight, you'd be fighting me, Bolo, Sky, Rottytops and five half genies. And none of us are very happy with you,"

"Why do you always have to be so selfish!?" Shantae demanded. "I keep hoping against hope you'll turn over a new leaf! Then someday, we can work together as a team!"

"Silly girl. That's exactly what we did!" Risky replied, not really getting what she did didn't count as teamwork whatsoever. Three Tinkerbats then approached. "Men! Ready my bath! And make it extra hot this time! Mommy has a headache." The Tinkerbats then walked off, leaving Risky behind. "Fools! Don't you dare leave without me!" One ran back over and picked Risky up by the rear, holding her over his head. "Not like this! URRRGH Put me down!" Instead, the Tinkerbat ran off, ignoring the protesting Risky.

"With that behind us, we should make sure everyone's alright," Harmony said.

"The arena back in town is pretty much ruined," Plink pointed out. "But there's still time to host the half-genie festival somewhere else!"

"You really want to do the festival?" Jasmine asked. "Even after you learned it was a dud?"

"Why not?" Plink replied.

"We could move the festival to Tree Town!" Vera said, deciding that maybe it was time for her people to come out of hiding.

"Or Armor Town!" Zapple offered.

"How about both?" Pearl offered. "We could perform days at Armor Town and evenings by torchlight in Tree Town! Who's with me?!"

It was a unanimous yes.


"Nice ship, Ms. Boots,"

Risky jumped at the voice. She pointed her cutlass at the intruder. It was a young man with a dark cloak. "Who are you?!"

"A possible friend," He replied, pushing Risky's sword away from his face. "I have an offer for you. You see, I'm gathering an army of villains, such as yourself, in order to crush Jasmine and all of her friends, both from this world...as well as her original one,"

Risky sheathed her sword. This was interesting. "And what's in it for me?"

"You can be the one to kill Shantae and Jasmine. You have my word," The man said before he offered his hand. "Do we have a deal?"

Risky didn't even have to think about it. "Deal," She accepted the handshake, and the ship teleported away to parts unknown, unseen by everyone.


One week later


The Scuttle Town group had very much enjoyed their vacation. But alas, all good things must come to an end. And as such, they were getting ready to board the plane home.

"For a first vacation, it sure was a doozy," Shantae joked to her friends and family, drawing plenty of nods and laughter.

"You said it," Jasmine agreed.

"We'll miss you all so much," Shantae said to the other half-genies. The Lobster Girl raced over. She looked up at the older girls.

"You need to stay here," Jasmine said as she knelt down. "After all, you have a lot of work to do! Everyone needs your help fixing things!" The Lobster Girl chirped happily before running off.

"Before you go, here," Harmony said as she pulled out a wrapped item. "This is for you," Shantae could instantly tell what it was.

"Your mother's scrapbook!" She exclaimed. "I can't accept this!"

Harmony merely chuckled before walking off. "Safe travels!"

"Looks like she thinks you're worthy of it," Jasmine said with a grin while Shantae unwrapped it. Shantae looked at it for a moment before grinning and waving to the other half genies, who waved back. Jasmine waved as well. After all, it was a much needed distraction from the wrestling Sky and Rottytops behind her.


And with that, another story comes to a close! This was a lot of fun and the bonus chapter should be out by tomorrow! See you then!