Shantae bolted out of her bed, stripping out of her pajamas and haphazardly throwing on her normal outfit. She hissed as she accidentally pulled her hair too hard trying to get it into its golden clasp, before nearly tripping over as she slipped her shoes on in a rush.
The explosions coming from the plaza continued, causing the genie to get jittery and burst out her door while still adjusting her tiara. The harsh wind and snow nearly blew her right back in, but Shantae forced herself through it, using a light amount of magic to heat up her body.
As she ran, the purplette made a base check of everything that was out of place.
One; the snow had been continuing on for too long. It was supposed to stop three days ago, and Shantae had even felt her powers over it come to a close. Yet, it continued, and it was much, much colder than her holiday summons. She was really counting on Mayor Scuttlebutt to not fire her again – this mishap was actually out of her control.
Two; the explosions in the plaza. Risky had promised not to attack until the New Year, and it was not quite the New Year. Either she had lied once again, or this attack wasn't the pirate's doing. Shantae half hoped that it was her crush, just so she could see her, but she knew that Risky wouldn't be feeling merciful.
Three; the pier was too quiet. Usually there were cannonballs raining down from an offshore Tinkertub's mortar cannons, or even basic cannons. There weren't even any Tinkerbats flying out of the water to battle her – more evidence that it may not be Risky behind this at all.
Four; she had forgotten her earrings. Dammit.
Skidding to a stop at the entrance to the plaza, Shantae was confronted with a large mech with a blue cylinder of electricity on its back. Both arms had claws attached to them, working as makeshift hands, and looked similar to the ones she had seen at the Mermaid Factory. The machine itself stood at least Shantae's height off the ground – maybe even Sky's height. The legs of the mech were thick and sturdy, and were certainly not a weakpoint.
Thankfully, the machine was facing away from her, so Shantae was able to get a good look at the cylinder on the back, which looked like it powered the whole thing. That was certainly an easy weak point. What is it with enemies always making a massive weakness completely exposed? It's almost like they did it to be fair.
She realised she was too focused on the machine itself and not of her surroundings, snapping out her stupor just in time to hear a shriek and a crash as the mech shattered the fountain into bits. Overwhelmed with anger, (considering she was most likely going to have to fix the fountain herself) Shantae opened her mouth and made herself sound as threatening as possible.
"HEY!"
Of course her voice had to break. She had spoken only one word, and her voice just had to break.
How 'threatening'.
The mech stiffened, before turning around slowly, revealing today's special enemy – Techno Baron.
Shantae was honestly surprised by this, expecting Ammo Baron instead, since he often terrorised the town with airships, tanks, and his hat.
"Well, well, look who just arrived. The town hero." Techno Baron sneered, his sharp reptilian teeth glinting in the light. "Do you like my latest creation? I'm sure Ammo Baron would pay me billions after I prove how effective it is against you. Consider this a test run, if you will."
Shantae looked up and down the mech, now that it was facing her. Multiple thick wires were visible on the arms, most likely transporting hydraulic fluid. The chassis was very bulky, and her hair whips were not going to have any effect on it at all. Then again, she was able to easily damage and defeat Ammo Baron's tank through the hard metal. And the Tinkertub's (1.0) thick wood. Maybe she stood a chance.
"It looks as ridiculous as your hat… if you can even call that a hat," the genie spat, folding her arms.
"Oh, snap! That was… cold," a voice piped up. Turning to where the voice came from, Shantae saw Rotty giggling at her own pun while Sky shook her head in disappointment behind her. Honestly, she couldn't blame her.
"Speaking about the cold," the baron continued, though not without showing his own displeasure at the pun, "do you like my forced cold weather? I hear it's quite effective against you, considering you wear so little. It's taken me a few months to calibrate my machine at my secret base to keep the weather constantly icy."
Blushing furiously and making an attempt to cover more of herself up to no avail, Shantae wracked her brain thinking about all the colder weeks leading up to Christmas. She remembered the night where she admitted her love for Risky to Rotty being exceptionally cold, and then soon after that both days and nights were starting to drop temperatures. Uncle Mimic had predicted it was just a bad season, which would make sense, but it seemed not.
"Well, you're just going to have to tell Ammo Baron that your test run was a fa—AAH!" Shantae screamed in pain as a claw extended out and snatched one of her arms, the sharp edges of it cutting into her flesh as the grip tightened. She whacked her other hand against the contraption, but knew it was absolutely no use. "You're supposed to wait until we finish our bickering and wait for the fight music to start before you attack me! Let GO!"
"No," Techno Baron said firmly, raising her off the floor with the arm and enjoying her whimpers of pain as he increased the pressure of the claw on her arm. "I'm not taking any chances today. You will die, I will get paid, and this town will be razed and turned into a profit machine! I'm going to get a fantastic bonus for ending your annoying intrusions."
"Like hell you will!"
A mace slammed into the side of the mech's cockpit, shaking the baron around, but not enough to dislodge Shantae from the literally iron grip of the claw. He spun the mech around, keeping the genie suspended in the air, looking for the person responsible.
Bolo crouched in a stance with his mace held up, ready to strike again. Behind him, Sky and Wrench were at the ready, and Rotty was prepared to attack too.
"Let her go. Now," Bolo said, his voice dripping with venom.
"Or what?" The baron sneered again, knowing that the group would never be able to damage his machine. Then he took a second look at Bolo. "Wait, aren't you the kid who worked on one of my turrets, and completely messed up?"
Bolo didn't appear too fazed at being called out. "Nope, that was my cousin."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
"Does it look like I'm wearing some stupid glasses?" Bolo replied, pointing to his eyes.
"Ah. Well tell your cousin he's fired. Anyway, where were we? Oh, yes. Ahem. Or what?!"
"Or we'll sleigh you before you get the chance to scare the chill-dren, and there's snow way we're going to let you get away!" Rotty yelled back, before every head turned in her direction. Even Shantae stopped struggling to look at her with a face of complete disappointment. "Erm… too much?"
Before the Techno Baron could reply, a loud boom was heard. Everyone turned to look for the source of the noise, and it was Sky who noticed the threat first. She slapped a palm to her mouth in shock, wordlessly pointing at the object.
Before the baron could turn his mech to see what Sky was pointing at, a large cannonball crashed into the power source on the back, shattering it into pieces. With the mech failing, he ejected out of the cockpit, landing on the snow and rolling to a stop, away from everyone else.
The grip on Shantae's arm weakened, and she managed to pull herself free from the machine before it slumped to the ground with a cannonball lodged in its back. Wasting no time, she ran towards Techno Baron, whipping him hard and launching him into the sky with a twinkle.
Spinning around, Shantae found the reason why Rotty wasn't prematurely celebrating like always. She and Sky were staring at a certain figure, while the genie swore Bolo had the worst situational awareness, already trying to remove the cannonball from the mech.
Risky Boots stood under the archway which led back to the lighthouse, her cutlass in one hand and her pistol in the other. Glaring daggers at Sky and Rotty, she swivelled her eyes to Shantae and pointed her cutlass at the genie.
"You. With me, now," she commanded. Shantae was shocked.
"Uh, excuse me? You can't just—"
"Do you want to end this crappy weather or not? I'm freezing and I'm sure you are too. Or..." Risky smirked slyly. "…would you prefer to fight and die?"
"So you're just expecting me to come along with you and trust you not to kill me while I'm on your ship?" Shantae asked. Surely this was a joke. But then, Risky had promised not to attack until the New Year, but that was vague in itself. Was that not to attack the town, not to attack her, or both?
"Yes. You've done it before."
"But that was to help you defeat him! I know you Risky, and there's no way you would ever want to help me out, and I'm fine with that, which makes this is a little suspicious, sooo…" Shantae stood awkwardly, pressing her fingers together, but stayed alert in case Risky attacked suddenly.
The pirate sighed in annoyance. She was hoping Shantae would act on their relationship's odd status and accept, but apparently not. Perhaps because her friends were here?
"Unless you want to find and travel to that idiot's base alone, I recommend you come with me. I promise not to attack you until this is over, if that helps."
Shantae considered this. Risky never went back on her promises, plus she really did want to spend more time with the pirate. If only Sky and Rotty (and Bolo, who was still distracted by the mech) weren't here. She took a few steps towards her nemesis, stopping short of a sword's reach.
"Will you bring me back safely and give me a week to recover?" she asked sweetly, trying to look cute for Risky. All she got was a roll of the pirate's eyes.
"Fine. Yes. Whatever. Just hurry up and grab your stuff. The Tinkertub is docked on your pier." Risky stuck her hand out to shake on the deal, and Shantae began to approach.
"Woah woah woah woah woah, hold on here, wait a sec, stop," Sky interuppted, finally managing to find her voice. She squeezed herself between the two, earning a death glare from Risky. Turning to a similarly expressed Shantae, the birdkeeper glared right back.
"You do realise this is Risky, right? She'll kill you the second you turn your back," she warned.
"If she wanted to kill me she would've done it already," Shantae huffed. "Besides, if she does attack, I'll win. I've done so every time, after all," she grinned. Risky snorted in amusement in the background.
"Only because I let you."
"Yeah, yeah, let's go already."
"Wait, no!" Sky shouted, getting in between them again. "I'm coming with you to ensure your safety. So is Rotty."
"W-whaa? Why am I involved now?" the zombie asked, but was ignored.
"No. You're not. I invited Shantae, not you," Risky growled.
"And you expect me to sit here satisfied just because Shantae can look after herself? No, I am coming, and you can fight me about it," the blonde replied, standing tall to try to intimidate the pirate. Risky just stared down at her, unamused, before pulling out her cutlass.
"Very well."
"NO!" The eldest two turned to the source of the voice: Shantae. "Just let Sky and Rotty come, Risky. Save us the hassle. Save me the hassle," she pleaded. Risky scowled at her.
"So you expect me to deal with dead weight and literal dead weight on my boat?"
"Hey! I'm not that dead! Don't make me come over there and give you a proper scolding! Eh?" Rotty called. Again, she was ignored.
"Please, Risky?" Shantae put on her puppy eyes, and the pirate gave up.
"Fine," she spat, turning to Sky. "My ship, my rules. You annoy me, and I'm throwing you off, no matter what the runt says, got it?" Sky curtly nodded in response, dragging Rottytops to her house to grab some necessities.
"And what about him over there?" Risky asked Shantae, pointing to Bolo. He looked up, noticing the pirate for the first time, but seemed to immediately understand the situation.
"I'd love to join you on your adventure, but the Mayor will have my hide if I don't disassemble this and fix the fountain. Sorry!" Bolo then returned to dismantling the mech, leaving the two girls alone.
"Well, there's your answ—"
"You know I wanted you alone for a reason, brat, and then you had to just go and invite your idiotic friends." Shantae whipped her head around, frowning at her… enemy? Friend? Ally, definitely.
"If this Tinkertub is anything like the 2.0, we'll have enough room to be alone. I'll get Rottytops to keep Sky busy with something else, so we'll have most of the ship to ourselves!"
Risky smiled a little bit. "Sure. A whole ship to 'ourselves,' if you don't count the Tinkerbats."
Shantae's face immediately fell.
"Oh."
"Whatever," the pirate said, waving off the comment. "Just grab some clothes and anything else you need and I'll wait for you on the boat. Oh, and you can sleep in m—get your own bed!" Risky snapped, quickly turning heel and heading for her ship. Shantae was left there puzzled, wondering why Risky went from somewhat nice to her normal self, before realising that Rottytops and Sky were coming out from the birdkeeper's house.
"What was that about?" Sky set her pouch down, waiting for Rotty to catch up."
"Nothing," Shantae replied. "Just Risky being Risky. Anyway, I need to grab my earrings and some other stuff, so just wait for me, alright?" Without waiting for a response, the genie warped danced herself out of the plaza in a puff of smoke. Sky sighed. She wasn't looking forward to being near the pirate, but she had to look after Shantae. She wasn't there for the first time the two allied and she felt really bad for it but…
"You alright?" A soft voice asked from behind her. Rotty smiled sweetly as Sky faced her, calming the blonde down a bit.
"Yeah… Just… she trusts Risky too much. It's going to come back and bite her at some point."
Rotty cupped Sky's face and turned it to make sure she had eye contact.
"Sky," she said. "Shantae is a grown up girl now. You can't protect her forever, and she's capable of making decisions herself. We've both seen her in action and you have to agree that she is easily able to look after herself as well. I know you're afraid of losing her, but trust me when I say she'll always come back to you. To us. Besides, Risky is getting a little bit friendlier each time, and it's all thanks to Shantae. Just believe in her talent, alright?"
Rotty's little speech soothed Sky, who looked up at her zombie friend with a small smile.
"You know, when you're not being stupid or flirty or both, you're a really nice person to be around." The birdkeeper stepped forward, embracing Rotty in a hug. "Thank you."
Returning the hug, Rottytops couldn't help herself.
"So you're saying I'm really… nice to be around?"
"Aaaand you ruined it."
Hey, remember what I said about nothing happening to February?
I LIED!
Or in actual terms, I was just in a really writey mood so I pushed actually important things back to do this. 10/10
While writing this chapter, one of the outtakes I had was a good setup for another fanfic, so that might happen at one point. Not sure when, it's an idea I'll have to flesh out.
I also have a totally new fic I want to do for Shantae, but is more of a modern day AU. I'll work on it and see if the idea ends up being worthy of making.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Typo pointers, criticism, and reviews welcome!
Till next time,
-Tommycats