As the light began to dim and Shantae became aware of her surroundings again, she could feel herself flying backwards through the air at high speeds. Admittedly, this was nothing new for her as several of her forms could both fly and move at high speeds. However, one major problem that quickly became apparent was that she was in her base form...and was having trouble feeling - let alone moving - any of her limbs, and it was a struggle just clearing her eyes to figure out what was going on. The sounds of explosions, incredibly loud bestial roars, and screaming people didn't exactly help her focus.

A strong impact followed by the sound of shattering and sharp pains across her limbs told her she'd just smashed through something glass. An exceptionally loud burst, more pain, and the feeling of splinters told her she'd just smashed through wood. Another burst of noise and a familiar impact feeling told her she'd just gone through something stone. As painful as that all was, the fact she didn't feel like she'd slowed down appreciably from that was somewhat concerning. Still, she was able to get her limbs moving enough to turn herself around as her eyes opened to see where she was going.

Here eyes widened in shock as she saw buildings of some sort zipping by to either side as she flew through what was plainly a city the likes of which she'd never seen, the sort that made even the most technologically sophisticated cities of Sequin Land look more primitive than Scuttle Town by comparison. Of bigger concern than level of technology or architecture, however, was the rate at which she was approaching the ground. She was high enough up she had time to think, but she could tell she would not do well taking that impact in her natural form.

"Think, think..." she murmured urgently to herself, focusing on what she could do. "My mana's scrambled, so spells are out. I'll need to transform, but what? Monkey?" She thought about that for a bit, then shook her head. "No, way too fast, I'd splatter. I'd rip my feathers off if I tried to do Harpy, and I couldn't catch enough air as bat to glide..." Looking up, she saw more buildings in her path. "And even if I could, I'd just hit another building and splat. Elephant's not durable enough either, at this speed it would just be a bigger splat...spider maybe?" She frowned as she thought about her options. "It'll hurt, but maybe..." Focusing, she did her best to perform a Transformation dance despite the rate at which she was flying. Thankfully, the light of transformation surrounded her...

...only for her to nearly be the same size as she felt the extra limbs. "Arachne?" she gasped out in despair. "No, this is still way too big! I might spread the impact out more but at this speed I'll still break every bone in my body or go splat..." She frowned as she felt part of her anatomy in this form she'd never noticed wriggling. "Huh? I...I have those? ...well, desperate times and all that, here's hoping it works..."

Spinning her six legs and two forelimbs around, she managed to get so that her back was in the direction she was going and tensed. A burst of webbing launched from her spinnerets, unfolding as it flew ahead even as she slowed slightly from the reactive force. Spinning back around, she tensed again to launch several strands out to latch onto buildings to try and slow herself further, immediately cutting them the moment the tension became painful before launching another. As she did so, the wad she'd launched before finished unfolding, reaching across from one building to another in a large web. Desperately, Shantae turned to brace herself with all six legs on different strands of webbing. The web bowed inward from the force, stretching even as she slowed before finally snapping, bundling up around her as she bounced a few times across the black road.

"Ugh..." she groaned as she reverted to her normal form, rubbing her limbs as she stood up. "Not my best landing, but at least I can walk away from it..." Once she was sure she was more or less intact, she pushed herself out of the webbing to take stock of her surroundings...only for her mouth to fall open in awe.

Right before her was the tallest structure she'd ever seen, a narrow tower of metal and glass that stretched up into the sky, further than any structure she'd ever seen before, higher than even Ammo Baron's air fleet could go. She could hardly believe such a structure was real, that it could support itself and stay upright like that, and rubbed her eyes a few times to be sure she wasn't seeing things. She thought at first she'd somehow stumbled across the legendary Tower of Babel...

...until she turned and saw the even taller structure right next to it!

As she tried to make sense of her surroundings, she heard screams coming from nearby, as well as the explosions and roars she'd noticed before. Shaking herself off and making sure she was more or less in one piece, she turned towards the source. "Sounds like people need help, so that's my cue! I might not have any idea where I am, but I'm Ret-2-Go!" With that declaration to convince herself more than anything, she raced forward.

...after getting turned around three times trying to maneuver the streets, she took Harpy form and flew instead.

"It's not that funny, Rotty!"

"Yes it is! How the heck did you get lost?"

"I'd never been there before! And I had no idea where I was going, and the sounds were echoing weirdly! Even had trouble as Harpy, and almost went bat..."

"So is this where you met this big lug? What, was it his home? That why the buildings were so big?"

"Yes, no...and no..."

Shantae nearly fell out of the sky as she caught sight of the center of the ruckus, barely gripping the arch of some sort of light pole to keep from hitting the ground face first. People were running and screaming in fear as two massive beings waged battle on each other in the middle of the city. One she would later learn was Gojira, and he towered even over the buildings around him. The other, however, was a massive turtle of all things, one that was apparently breathing fire of some sort. For the moment the two seemed evenly matched - or at least neither had brought enough force to bear to truly overcome the other - and the only real damage being done was to the city and the people.

Seeing this, Shantae managed to shake herself out of her stupor and focus on the civilians. "I can figure out the giant monster battle later when people aren't in danger," she concluded firmly. "People seem to be running away from the battle, so I'll just get the people who are trapped or lost to safety." With that determination, she leapt from the light pole before taking monkey form and racing along the nearest wall to find anyone in trouble.