Mafia POV
It was good day in Mafia Town. Sunny day, perfect weather for catching fish and punching seagulls who take fish. However, today was different from normal day. Mafia instead speaking with fellow Mafia at shipping docks about incident from previous day.
"Did fellow Mafia hear about what happened to Boss."
"Boss explode into Jelly, yes? Mafia doesn't recall fellow Mafia exploding into Jelly…"
"Perhaps that is why Boss was Boss."
"If Mafia no longer has Mafia Boss, who will tell Mafia what to do?"
"Mafia need to find new Mafia Boss, but Mafia not sure how to get new Boss."
"Perhaps Mafia try Democracy?"
"No, no. Democracy not work according to man on television."
"Then Mafia need to find new Boss, but how do Mafia find new boss?"
"Mafia not sure. Boss has been Boss for as long as Mafia has known Boss was Boss."
"Mafia speak with fellow Mafia then. Perhaps fellow Mafia has idea about replacing Boss."
"Hmm? Does fellow Mafia hear strange noise?" Fellow Mafia look towards sky.
"Mafia see shooting star."
"Odd. Shooting star not usually happen during da-"
KABOOSH!
Risky's POV
The cannonball landed right in between the two overgrown goons, creating an explosion of flame that launched the fools into the air, where they then crashed into the sea surrounding them.
"Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho! What a shot, men! Did you see the way those fools went flying?!" I called out with mocking enthusiasm.
"..."
Typical. My men were never much for talking, but no matter. The tinkerbat at the helm spun the ship and sailed into the docks, where I then leaped from the bow of the vessel, planting my boots on the ground. The crew piled up on the front of the ship, where I spun back around to face, my hands on my hips.
"Alright, you lubbers! Listen Up!" I barked at my men, and not a single pair of eyes dared to look away.
"I want this entire island under my boot and heel by nightfall. You got that?"
"..."
"Good." I turned back around and shot my finger towards the mainland.
"Now get moving, and make sure you grab whatever treasure you can find!" At my word, tinkerbat after tinkerbat leaped from the ship, drew their blades and charged toward whatever unsuspecting fool they caught sight of first. Cannons fired one after another, smashing into buildings and sending whatever man they could across the sky. The Island turned black and red as my men began to fill the land, driving these "Mafia" away, yelling and running in fear,the sounds of cannon fire and crumbling structures, and the smoke and flame corroding what lied here before us filled my ears with joyful bliss, a sinister grin growing on my face.
"HAHAHAHA! Oh, how I've missed this!" I cheered to myself, before drawing my own blade and dashing into the storm of my own creation.
Mustache Girl's POV
"Ugh, I can't believe them!" I muttered out loud. That moment has insisted on repeating itself in my head ever since I left the Mafia HQ. I just… GAH! Everything about it just made me so sodding angry I could barely think straight! The way they just… threw me out like that, I mean, was wanting to get rid of bad guys not good enough for them or something?! Did they seriously just want to take all that power for themselves?! I hated just thinking about it! I… I really wanted to do this together. I could only imagine what we could do if they just saw things my way. Hat Kid pushing me away was bad enough, but her! I felt my fist tighten itself as her stupid face plastered itself in my head. "Sunday" or whatever her name was. The way she kept jumping in every time I tried to say something, making such a big deal about everything, insisting on always being there, like we couldn't take care of ourselves, not letting us make any choices on her own-in fact, I bet she was the reason Hat Kid turned me down! It was her, wasn't it!? We could have gotten rid of all these bad guys together if she would've just gotten lost! I…"
I sighed. I guess there wasn't any reason in making a big deal about this anymore. Best friends or not, I'm gonna get rid of these stupid Mafia for good! They did help me get rid of the Boss, at least. That'll teach them a thing or two! Even better when I show them their bosses mangled up body after I finish shoving what's left of it into this jar. Weird that he's made of jelly, though. The rest of them just popped out of existence whenever they died. Eh, whatever. Probably best I don't think about it that hard. I was hiding on the roof behind that big purple pillar on the building where the cannon to launch up to the HQ was, so I don't think anyones seen me yet. I chuckled to myself as I finished up, pressing the cork of the bottle into place and lifting it up in front of me. I couldn't wait to the looks on their dumb faces when they see this!
"Wha- where am I…" Wait, hold on. What was that voice? It sounded like… but that can't be right. I looked around to see if anyone found me, but I didn't see anyone, before my eyes moved back towards the jar in my hands.
"YOU! Mustached child!" The voice shouted again. A gasp escaped me when I realized exactly whose voice it was.
The boss was talking to me, from within the jar.
"What the-You're alive?!" I questioned, baffled by the very idea of him still talking to me.
"Of course I'm alive, and I've got some unfinished business with you and your friends." He declared with a laughable attempt at an intimidating voice.
"Those losers aren't my friends, not after they threw me out like that." I corrected him, still upset with them, but hid my disappointment under my cold tone.
"Bah, no matter." The jar spat. "I'll deal with them soon enough, but I'll take care of you first! I made a grave mistake letting you go when we first met, and now it is time that I crush you myself! Once I get my hands on you, I'll-"
"What hands exactly?" I wondered out loud sarcastically.
"My… my…" The boss looked down and around himself, only just now realizing that he was nothing but a pair of eyes and a brain floating in a bunch of purple slime. (Although, I couldn't help but wonder how he was still able to speak without a mouth.)
"WHAT! What have you done with me?!" He shouted in horror.
"HAHAHA! Now that's a good look for you!" I mocked proudly, unable to hold back my laughter..
"How dare you make a fool out of me!" He yelled. "What have I ever done to you?"
"Excuse me?" I snapped back, my grip on the jar tightening. "You're the one who took over our home!"
"You think I haven't dealt with the same?" The boss rebutted. "Our business was going bankrupt, we were about to lose everything. We had no choice but to jump ship."
"And what? You think that's good enough to barge in and take this whole Island for yourself."
"It's not my fault! This Island is prime fish estate!" He was really arguing about this.
"I can't believe we're arguing about this right now…" I muttered in defeat, my hand rubbing against my forehead. Before I had the chance to say anything else however, I suddenly heard a loud 'Boom' before the building started shaking, causing me to lose my balance and fall over onto the ground, the jar dropping from my hands and rolling over towards the edge of the roof. Realizing where it was going, I hurried to jump back up to my feet and made a mad dash over to where it was headed, but just before I could reach it, it fell over the side of the building and right past the reach of my arms.
"No!" I shouted in a panic, as I watched it land in the river below, where it then was carried off into the ocean surrounding us. Darn it! That was my one shot of scaring them off! Now what was I supposed to do!? I almost considered jumping in after it, but my thoughts were interrupted by more loud noises. Looking up, I was shocked to discover that the noises… were cannonballs.
It was a pirate attack?!
Everywhere I looked, they were there. Chasing around the Mafia, blasting holes into every building they would, and lighting everything else on fire! At the rate they're attacking, they'll end up tearing apart the whole island! This was exactly what I was trying to get those two jerks to understand! I wasn't going to let them destroy my home, but what was I supposed to do about this? That's what I thought at first, that is, until I caught a glimpse of the faucet attached to the side of the town lighthouse, which gave me a fantastic idea.
Risky's POV
One of them actually tried to fight back against me. It's a shame his sad attempt at throwing a punch was so easily predictable. Stepping to the right and dodging it with ease, I struck him in the face with the handle of my pistol, forcing the man to stumble backwards before taking my blade and slashing it across his stomach, but rather then what I expected to happen, the man was send flying backwards where he then exploded into dust, vanishing from existence. How peculiar, but it wasn't important.
"Move your feet, men!" I shouted, pointing my blade ahead of me. "Don't stop until not a single one of them is left!" These miserable excuses for the Mafia were in shambles, their island was crumbling around them, my men were grabbing everything in sight…
And I was relishing in it all. How I missed this feeling. Still though, I couldn't help but feel like something was missing. There must be something valuable on this hunk of rock, and I was determined to take it for myself. Walking past and basking in the destruction around me, taking in the sights and smells of incineration, I eventually found myself in front of a pair of large red doors with gold frames. When I went to open them, they wouldn't budge. I attempted to force them open with my shoulder, but these ones were being stubborn.
"Men!" I hollered. "Bring in the battering ram!" I didn't have to wait anymore than a couple of seconds before a pair of tinkerbats ran up to my side, each holding the end of a large, curved wooden log. Getting into position, they reeled back and slammed it into the doors, knocking them wide open for us to see what was behind them. I grinned with delight.
Jackpot.
So these crystal caverns on the underside of the island are where they've been hiding their treasure? Interesting. Such a shame it wouldn't be sticking around here much longer. With a simple snap of my finger, an entire legion of tinkerbats began to swarm inside the caverns, and as I walked through, my eyes were treated to the sight of the vast piles of golden coins, jewels and other various objects of values began to slowly grow smaller and smaller. Satisfied with our findings, I was about to turn back until something caught my attention past the continuous geyser of water in the middle of the caverns. Resting on one of the many piles of treasure, laid a single, golden colored vault. Normally, such a thing would be just another inconsequential object for me to take, but I felt a strange feeling flowing through me, almost as if some mysterious force was… calling me towards it. Intrigued, I decided to investigate, loading my pistol with a single bomb shot and blasting the vault door wide open. I was, however, initially confused when I looked inside to find nothing, save for a single, sparkling hourglass. Reaching for it, I let out a small gasp when I found it floating just above my hand, even as I removed it from it's containment. I simply stared at it as it shined and spun around in midair.
"What force could have compelled me towards something so underwhelming?" Even as I thought this, something about this hourglass seemed to captivate me. Whatever force urged me towards this hourglass clearly wanted me to find it. Perhaps there is more to this than it first appears to be.
"How fascinating…" I spoke softly to myself. But before I could proceed further with my thoughts, I was snapped out of my trance as the caverns began to start shaking uncontrollably. I stumbled back, but was able to keep my footing, and I looked towards the center geyser to discover that the water had begun changing color from blue to orange and red, the caverns had suddenly gotten much warmer than it had just previously, and worst of all, from the center of the room, it had began to start filling the room.
Drat, looks like this will have to wait.
"Forget the treasure for now! Get moving, unless you'd rather get fried!" I yelled towards my men, who immediately dropped whatever they were holding and made a run for it. As much as I hated to leave this behind, I knew better than to deny what was happening, so I took the hourglass with me and ran out of the caverns.
Sayori's POV
I wasn't sure how much time we spent inside of the building because by the time we came back outside, it was already sunny again. We originally tried going after Mustache Girl after she ran away after our argument to apologize, but by the time we got outside, she was already gone. I'm still not entirely sure what I said that got her so upset, but either way, I really wanted to say that I was sorry, but we weren't able to find her, I was really bummed out about the whole thing. Not knowing what else to do, and since the whole building was empty since all the Mafia guys ran out after we, um… anyway, it was empty, so me and Hat Kid agreed to start searching through the building to see if we could find her Time Pieces, since she told me that the boss had one, and after some searching, we stumbled across a secret passage next to the bar that led to a large open room, filled only with oversized chairs with red cushioning and golden frames, and in the middle of them was a huge, red and gold, circular table, covered with playing cards, poker chips and coins. I shook my head. I never liked the idea of gambling, and this didn't change my mind at all. However, on the other side of the room, was a massive, metal vault. Hat Kid knew for sure that her Time Pieces were in there, but there was just one problem.
It was locked, and there was no one left to open it for us.
With nothing else to do, we ended up looking through the entire building up and down, even getting the help of a really nice, orange cat who walked on her back legs and apparently did all the cooking for the Mafia. (She also could speak, which was really surprising at least to say the least), but no matter how hard we all looked, we couldn't find a single trace of a code anywhere. Bummed out by this, we found ourselves headed back outside to figure out what to do next.
"Oh man, we must have searched every room in that whole building and still no code." I muttered out loud, a bit upset about everything. "Now what are we gonna do?"
I could Hat Kid was feeling down as well, but she tried to shake off, pondering what to do for a moment, before her expression brighten for a moment, turning around and pointing up toward the massive cardboard sign hanging across the building, featuring a pair of the Mafia guys smiling alongside of bunch of cute sea animals.
"I don't know." I sighed in doubt, admitting it to her. "I don't think we could just ask them for the code, considering, um…well…"
Hat Kid looked down in disappointment, but then shrugged it off, turning back around and going back to thinking. Guessing she figured it was a long shot. Before we could get very far in our brainstorming, we suddenly started hearing a bunch of loud 'Booms', coming from below.
"Woah, did you hear that?" I asked Hat Kid, who nodded in agreement before we both quickly ran over to the edge of the platform, being careful not to fall off, as we looked down to see what was going on.
What we saw though, was a terrifying sight. Buildings were on fire, smoke was rising from everywhere, pieces of the buildings were getting blown off and fell to the ground, were they smashed into tiny pieces, Mafia were running away in fear, being chased by these little, big eyes guys with swords, and they were all coming from a single ship from the far right side of the island that was launching cannonballs everywhere. But that would mean-
"There pirates?!" I shouted in surprise. Hat Kid seemed a bit confused at first, but the second we both realised where we've seen this before, we cried out in pain as those horrible flashes and sounds from the robots started attacking us again. As soon as they appeared however, they vanished, leaving us with our hands to our aching heads. We both stepped away from the edge just in case, but right as we did so, the whole platform we were standing saking. I gasped in shock, freezing in place until the shaking stopped after a second. The horrible realization then hit me. If I remember correctly, this was only able to float up here because a big wave of water was keeping it in place. That water was shooting up from a pillar in the middle of the town. If those pirates started hitting that pillar…
I didn't know how much longer this platform was gonna stay up here for. I quickly turned to Hat Kid, who was also just recovering from the sudden shaking.
"We've gotta get out of here!" I yelled to her, and she quickly nodded her head in agreement, clearly worried about the situation. She hurried over to the edge of the platform and unfolded her umbrella, gesturing me to grab on, which I wasted no time in doing so, before we both leaped off the platform. My feet still froze up upon leaving the floor, but the umbrella was still able to slow our fall. As we descended, all we could do was watch as the island quickly became overrun by the pirates, the Mafia running away in fear. Even after everything that happened, I still felt really bad for them, and I really hoped that Mustache Girl was alright as well. However, something else caught my attention.
"Wait! Look, the water!" I called out. Hat Kid turned to look and saw exactly what I did. Slowly, but surely, the water was turning from blue to red and orange, and when we finally landed on solid ground again, we discovered it was also rising up, flooding most of the mainland, and it was getting a lot warmer too, like, a lot warmer.
It was l- lava…
"Oh god, what's going on here?" I said out loud, overwhelmed by everything happening all at once.
"This is big mess! Mafia trained for pirate invasion and lava flooding, not both at same time!" A clearly frightened member of the Mafia standing on the same roof as us exclaimed. This member had a higher pitched voice compared to the others, and had on a pair of spiral glasses.
"We're doomed!" He yelled, his hands pressed against the sides of his bald head.
"Woah, woah, hang on!" I quickly ran over to his side, hoping to calm him down. He turned over to us, who seemed very confused by us being there.
"This has happened before?" I asked him.
"Oh yes." The man replied, suddenly seeming no longer worried about anything. "Lava flood happen at least once a month, maybe twice on bad day."
"Then, do you know how we can stop them?"
"Well, Mafia don't know about Pirates, but faucets around town control town volcano. Mafia thinks he saw little girl turn on faucets. Maybe if faucets all turned off, then lava stop flowing." My gaze fell back down towards the flooded island. Well, that sounds pretty simple, but with how much the town already looks to be covered, along with how hot it was already getting, I'm not so sure if we could help him, but I at least had to try, right? Hesitantly, I reassured him.
"Alright, we'll see what we can do." I don't think heard me though, because when I looked back up towards him, he was running away screaming, his hands above his head.
"AAAAHHHH!"
"Wait!" I yelled to him, but he didn't listen. Instead, he just started running around in circles. A pair of Mafia men behind him didn't react at all to this, rather they each held up a piece of cardboard that each read "OH NO" and "YIKES!" respectively, while doing a little dance. I wasn't quite sure what to make of what I was seeing, but the heat was starting to get to me, so I looked back down to Hat Kid, who was fanning herself with her hat.
"Alright, let's see if we can turn those faucets off." I said to her, who quickly agreed, and we took off towards the first faucet we saw.
Risky's POV
The Tinketbats and I made a break back towards the main area of the island, looking behind me to see that not only had the lava began flowing out from the caverns we came from, but the entire sea surrounding us had also been converted, meaning… wait a second!
"My Ship!" I exclaimed, and sure enough, I looked towards where it was, only to see it, along with everything we had gathered, sinking into the molten rock. Curses! Who would dare defy me!? A question that would have to wait, as the lava began inching closer and closer to where we stood. Without a means of escape, our only course of action was to move up.
"Climb up to the rooftops!" I yelled, pointing up towards the top of the buildings. Like clockwork, my men sheathed their blades and began to scale the walls. I pulled my grappling hook out from my belt and fired it up towards the top of the nearest structure, using it to pull myself up to the top of it. From there, I could only watch as the lava rose higher and higher, stopping before it could reach where we were thankfully, but before it could not only devour the caverns we had just escaped from, but also the majority of the island, consuming both the treasure, and healthy supply of both the Mafia and my Tinkerbats!
"What sort of magic could do this!?" I furiously questioned out loud, looking around us for any clues as to the source, and while my search mostly ended with finding those Mafia clowns being launched from the top of the lava by their behinds, I was able to catch the slightest glimpse of what looked to be a young girl, who appearance stood out amongst any of the goons I've seen so far. I could feel my teeth gritting and my hands clenched into fists. I've had my fair share of situations like this, and I've had my fair share of brats like them that have gotten in my way. I loaded my most powerful rounds into my pistol.
What's one more?
Sayori's POV
The two of us agreed right away that we had to be extra careful as we started working our way towards turning off those giant faucets the guy told us about. Not just because the entire bottom level of the island had been almost completely covered up by the lava, but also because of the pirates. Even though I haven't heard any cannon shots in a while, we were fairly sure they were still around. Although, when we did catch sight of them while we worked together to scale the buildings as we headed for the first faucet pouring lava, I was surprised to see that the pirates… weren't really all that scary looking. In fact, they were actually kinda cute. They were all pretty short and skinny, with completely black skin and little claws for hands and feet. Their heads were basically a circle with big, yellow eyes and while they were all shirtless, which showed they had a pair of spikes on their backs, they all had on the same red baggy pants and had a big, red bandana wrapped over the top of their heads. The weirdest thing though, was they seemed just as scared of the lava as both we and the Mafia members were, running around in circles with their hands in the air. I always imagined pirates being these big, ugly looking men, so seeing these huggable little guys did confuse me for a moment. They also seemed too scared to be looking for us, so hopefully that will make our job a bit easier.
We turned our attention back towards the faucet, which was connected to a bell tower just across from where we started. I didn't have a way to reach it no matter where I looked, but Hat Kid was able to jump on the white and blue lanyard banners to spring herself over. I gasped when she landed as she nearly slipped off when she landed, but thankfully she was able to stumble back until she stood right next to the faucet handle. She tried to turn it normally, but she couldn't move it very much by herself. Annoyed, she then smacked it with her umbrella, and suddenly, it started spinning without an issue until it stopped, the faucet shutting off and the lava ceased to flow as a result. Thank goodness, we might be able to do this after all. After Hat Kid jumped back over to where I was, we quickly looked around and started heading off towards the next one we saw. Thankfully, both the Pirates and the Mafia were too worried about the lava to really notice us running around them, and besides a few angry crows, we were able to take care of the next four faucets in generally the same way. One down past the bridge on a building by a now submerged boat full of shipping containers peaking above the lava. We went back across for another one where we had to scale down some houses next to a large wooden framework of a building, until we were standing right above the lava, the heat from it was getting increasingly intense by the second, but we had to be extra careful with this one since one misstep would be it for us. I could tell that Hat Kid was nervous about this, but she still managed to do it. Hurrying to distance ourselves from the lava, we used her umbrella to float across towards the center of the Island, since the paths were now slowly becoming submerged, and found ourselves on a wooden desk, acting as the roof for some of the houses. Another faucet was hanging from a building near the main plaza near where we first landed, and after taking care of that one without any problem, we floated over the plaza and landed on the grassy rooftops of the restaurants, looking down to see one sitting in the middle of the lava ocean.!
"What?! How are we supposed to get that one?" I asked out loud. I looked around for some sort of way towards it, and I did see a group of… wait, where those platforms… floating in midair? They looked like something straight out of a video game, with big footprint symbols and everything!
"Hmm" I heard Hat Kid thinking, before holding up a finger towards me to wait there before floating down towards the faucet, landing on a large piece of equipment. I didn't know what it was, but it had an exhaust pipe on it, so it had to be something. Hat Kid shut the faucet off, then stepped back, and with a running start, leaped over to the first of those platforms, stumbling a bit on the landing, but when her feet touched it, it started shaking!
I gasped in horror, powerless to do anything but watch. Hat Kid realized it too, and was able to jump away from it before it fell into lava! The next one she landed on did the same, and she was forced to keep moving from each one until after the fifth one where she finally jumped onto some barrels somehow floating on top of the lava, before reaching the rocks next to the main and using them to climb back up the buildings and back up to where I was.
"How did you do that?" I asked her, flabbergasted to see her scaling the buildings with nothing but nothing but her bare hands!
Her response was a simple shrug.
"Um… well, there should just be one more to go, right?" I awkwardly said, trying to change the subject. Guiding back over to the wooden desk under the nearby clock tower to get a better idea of where we should be going, The two of us looked over towards the lighthouse past where we rescued Mustache Girl and next to the docks. We floated over to another series of white buildings with grassy rooftops and saw a chute of water (yeah, water, not lava this time!) which lead to a series of three gray, circular platforms hovering in midair by mini propellers on the undersides of them, before seeing the faucet hanging off the lighthouse. I was sweating like crazy at this point, but the end was finally in sight!
"There's the last one!" I called out enthusiastically, pointing towards it. "We'll be done in no time!"
"Now just where do you think you're running off to?" I heard a voice coming from behind us. I turned around, only to gasp sharply, my breath getting sucked from my lungs and taking an involuntary step back, tensing up when I saw the pirate gun aimed directly towards us, the person holding it had a terrifying grin on her face!
"Wh-Who are you?" I struggled to recover my breath from the shock, trying to control my body's shaking. The person's grin dropped into a scowl, seeming offended by my question.
"Haven't you heard of Risky Boots? Queen of the Seven Seas?" She spoke with an agitated tone. She definitely sounded a bit older too, probably around her early 30's. Her skin had a faded purple color, and she was wearing a series of pirate clothes on. That must have meant she was the captain of all of those little guys we saw before. Her red and purple hat was almost twice the size of her head, the top shaped like devil horns with a skull and crossbones in the center and the ends of a red bandana hung behind her. She had on a pair of red and purple cufflinks despite not wearing a shirt. In fact, her entire chest was exposed save for a purple eyed skull bra covering her boobs, the lower jaw of said skull acting as a waistband for her dark purple, skintight leggings. She also had on a pair of dark purple leather boots, a leather belt that was too big for her hourglass figure, a pair of golden earrings and a dark purple choker with a gold pendant. Even with the distance between us, just looking at her sharp, menacing blood red eyes was sending chills down my spine. I could tell she was quickly getting impatient though, and I wanted to say something, but the words just wouldn't leave my mouth.
"Well, since you're obviously confused, I'm more than willing to make you learn!" She growled, pulling back a part of her pistol that clicked into place, her finger sitting on the trigger.
"L-look, we don't want any trouble." I nervously spoke, my hands raised themselves up unconsciously. " We're just trying to-"
"Come on now. Don't think I haven't you running around all over the place." She snapped at us, dropped her firing arm and gestured around to visualize her point "In case you haven't figured it out yet, this island belongs to me now, and the last thing I need is some Half-Genie brat like you making a mess out of things!" Upon saying that, she whipped her pistol back at us, a furious, piercing glare in her eyes.
"No, we're not… What?" Half-Genie? What did she mean by that?
"Don't play dumb with me. You have something to do with this flood, don't you? I should have you know that I don't take kindly to having my property being trashed like this, and I'm losing my patience. So you'd better clean up this mess and scram, if you know what's good for you!" Her words were drowning in frustration. It was frighteningly easy to tell she was getting increasingly annoyed with us.
"Ok, we'll leave." I told her, holding my arms in front of me to assure her I was complying. "Just please don't hurt anyo-" Before I could finish my thought, Hat Kid suddenly jumped in front of me, holding her umbrella out towards the pirate.
"Hat Kid? What are you doing?" My eyes went wide as I yelped in surprise. The pirate however, burst out laughing.
"HAHAHA! Oh, how cute." She spoke in a mocking tone. "The little worm thinks she's a match for me. In that case…" She put her pistol back into its place on her belt, before drawing her sword in response, pointing it back at us.
"I suppose I can play with you for a bit." She uttered with a malicious tone.
"No, wait!" I yelled, but it was no use. Hat Kid leaped at the pirate, holding her umbrella above her head, before swinging it down at her, but she easily blocked it with her sword, before throwing Hat Kid off to the side. She was able to land on her feet, before she started swinging wildly at the pirate. Risky, however, was able to parry her attacks with ease, almost effortlessly, then she spun the blade around in her hand before slashing at Hat Kid, who was able to jump back to avoid. Before she could even get the chance to recover though, the pirate leapt at her, her blade ready to swing down. Hat Kid was only barely able to dive away to the side before Risky brought her sword down where she was just standing, cutting through a nearby palm tree like it wasn't even there! The tree tipped over and fell off the side of the building, crashing onto the buildings below. Hat Kid quickly pulled herself back onto her feet, but by the time she was up, Risky was already on top of her again, gripping her blade tightly with both hands before swinging it at Hat Kid's side. She was just able to block it with her umbrella, but it was too weak and the force of the attack sent her flying off the ground and onto another nearby building, landing hard on her back. I gasped in horror, clasping my hands to my chest, unable to do anything but watch as Risky leaped from the roof, bringing her sword up, ready to plunge it down onto her! Thankfully, Hat Kid noticed this quick enough, and she was able to roll to the side, dodging the downward thrust and jumping back up to her feet again. She tried to swing her umbrella at the pirate again, but she was able to yank her sword from the ground, spin around in a 270 degree motion and caught the umbrella in a sword clash just before it reached her. She forced the clash upwards, causing Hat Kid to stumble backwards and lose her grip on her umbrella. Before she could regain her balance, Risky snatched the umbrella out from the air, spun it around in her left hand, and with a hard swing, slammed it right into the side of Hat Kid's, knocking her into the side of the building I was standing on, hitting her head hard against the wall before falling to the floor.
"Hat Kid!" I yelled, dread filling my chest. Risky just watched as Hat Kid struggled to pull herself back up, a devilish smirk burned onto her face, before spinning in place and launching the umbrella from her hand straight towards where Hat Kid was. She yelped in fright, barely moving her head out of the way before the pointed end stabbed itself into the wall. Hat Kid pulled it back and scrambled up the wall, back onto the roof where I was, before turning back towards the pirate. She simply chuckled to herself before bending down and leaping into the air, completely eclipsing us, and landed behind Hat Kid, who was only able to turn around before Risky's boot was slammed hard into her face, knocking her away and back onto the ground. I ran over to her side, helping her back up.
"What a waste of my time. This runt can barely put up a fight." The pirate sighed in boredom, sheathing her blade back into her belt before pulling out her pistol and aiming it at Hat Kid.
Another gasp escaped me.
"NO!"
A single shot roared out…
I tensed, shutting my eyes from the sight. I didn't want to look, but I already knew what happened. My tears still broke free and they started rolling down my face. This couldn't be happening. This was all my fault, wasn't it? I was too weak, too pathetic to do anything to stop this. Why can't I ever stand up for myself? Why can't I ever do anything? Now my worthlessness just got someone killed! How could I ever forgive myself for-
"W-what?!"
Wait, huh?
I slowly opened my eyes, and a gasp of delight, followed by a smile returned to my face. I- I couldn't believe it! Sure enough, Hat Kid was still there! She had her umbrella opened up, which she was hiding behind like a shield. My widened eyes shot rapidly between her and Risky who, on the other hand, was busy twisting and studying her pistol in her hand. I'm guessing she was trying to figure out what just happened as well. She let out a frustrated growl before out of anger, took the gun and quickly shot four more rounds towards Hat Kid. I yelped, stepping back in response, but to my utter disbelief, every shot was blocked by Hat Kid's umbrella, the bullets bouncing off and falling powerlessly towards the ground.
"Impossible!" Risky spat out, looking completely baffled by this revelation. Her grip on the pistol tightened in resentment.
"This is your doing, isn't it?!" She angrily snapped, before she suddenly whipped her aim back towards me, fury in her eyes! My hands shot up in front of me as my eyes went wide with fright.
"No, wait, I didn't-" My words were suddenly cut off by the sounds of explosions, catching both of our attention.
"What the…?" Risky questioned, looking behind her towards the source of the noise, before letting out a gasp of her own.
"Hey, where do you Bilge Rats think you're going?! Get back here and fight!" She shouted down towards the place where the barrels were stacked, and sure enough, those pirates we saw earlier were starting to run away! The Madia were starting to fight back as well, sending them flying into the air with their punches and throwing explosive barrels at them!
"How dare you ignore your queen! Come back here this instant!" Their captain continued barking orders, but her men weren't listening. I looked back over at Hat Kid, who was still tense from what just happened. I silently nodded over towards the last faucets still running lava, and she quickly understood, nodding in response before the two of us quickly slipped away from the pirate captain and began hurrying towards the lighthouse.
"You cowards! I'll keelhaul the lot of you for this!" We heard her shouting from a distance, but we keep on running, not waiting to find out when she'd noticed we left. Climbing down until we were on the lowest roof we could be on, we ran over to the lighthouse, and Hat Kid jumped through another obstacle course, this one involving balloon and more tightropes, until we could reach and shut off the final faucet. I looked back up towards the center of the island. The water! It was changing back! Just as the blue returned from the center pillar, so did the lava begin to disappear from around us, and the heat finally, FINALLY, began to vanish along with it. The pirates, still running from the Mafia hot on their heels, starting grabbing whatever things they could find, from boxes, half broken barrels, giant wheels of cheese, and massive hunks of meat on the bone straight out of a cartoon show, and started throwing them into the ocean, climbing on as they began to float away, Risky, jumping into a barrel herself with functioned as a makeshift boat alongside her men, spun back around towards us
"Don't think this is the last time you'll see me, Brat!" She yelled as she sailed away. "I'll be back for this island soon enough, just you wait!" Looking at the cool, blue ocean again, a sigh of relief washed over me.
Hopefully that's the last time we'll ever have to see her again.
I saw Hat Kid running back over to me, clearly worn out and breathing heavily after having run around so much during this whole situation. I did feel really bad for her basically doing all of the work, so I got an idea.
"Hey, how about a piggyback ride?" I asked her. Her expression instantly lit up in excitement. I bend down for her to climb up onto my shoulders, and carefully holding her feet so she didn't fall off, I started the walk back up to the floating platform where the Mafia HQ was, thankfully not needing to go such a roundabout way anymore now that the water was back to normal. The water level even lowered back down so the Island wasn't submerged anymore as well. It was really refreshing just being able to walk around again after everything that happened here, really being able to take in the sights of the island, and as we walked, we caught glimpses of the Mafia starting to patch things back up after the pirate attack, and others were bringing things up to their HQ, like tables and food. I couldn't help but wonder what that was all about, but as it turned out, we wouldn't have to wait long to see. Once we made it back to the top, I set Hat Kid back down, who jumped back into the cannon again, and I followed close behind, only to find out when we reached the top, a whole bunch of Mafia members were already up here as well, including that one guy with the glasses we spoke with earlier. It looked like they were setting up for a big feast to celebrate too!
"You did it!" The glasses member declared. "Big and little girls saved Mafia Town!"
"Oh!" I responded a bit suddenly, not expecting the praise. "Well, you guys did a lot too!"
"Nonsense!" He replied. Mafia's punching and throwing barrels at tiny pirate men would mean nothing if girls didn't turn off lava flow." He then gestured over towards a table with a large plate cover, where another member placed his grip on the cover. "Here, Mafia have gift for you." The man lifted up it up to reveal-
"Woah, is that all the time pieces?!" I asked him.
"Yep. Mafia knew girls were looking for shiny hourglasses, so Mafia borrowed vault combination from Boss to open vault."
"Thanks! But wait, isn't your boss…" Before I could finish, Hat Kid zipped over to the table, scooping up all the time pieces into her hands, and stuffing them into her pockets
"Thank you!" She said. Aw, I almost forgot how adorable her voice was. But then, I noticed something else amongst all the time pieces.
"Hey, what's that?" I asked the man, pointing towards the weird stone tablet sitting on the plate. The man seemed just as confused as I was.
"This thing?" He stated, picking it up and looking at it in his hand. "Mafia not sure. Mafia find it sitting in vault one day, but Mafia not know from where. Girl can have it if she wants." He passed it over to me, which I awkwardly accepted.
"Um, sure, I guess." I told him, but just as I grabbed it from him, it suddenly began glowing light blue, and before I could even register that much, a beam of light suddenly shot from the ground below me and blasted into the air. I had to shut my eyes as the wind pelted my face, and I felt my hair and my shirt being thrown about, but it only lasted for a moment, quickly vanishing as fast as it first came.
"Woah… what was that all about?" I muttered to myself, able to see again after that, noticing the stone wasn't glowing anymore. Hat Kid came over to me with a worried expression.
"I'm alright, Hat Kid." I bent down slightly to reassure her. "Should we be heading back home now?" She nodded happily before I lifted her up into my arms, and she used one of her newly acquired timepieces to send us back up to her ship.
Risky's POV
"You and I have a lot of talking to do."
"..."
"We were pillaging just fine until you decided to run off!"
"..."
"What do you mean, "the lava scared you"?! Every fortress I've ever had you build for me was full of nothing but lava!"
"..."
"Well, if I didn't chase after you, you'd all be dead out here!"
"..."
"Gah, whatever! Just keep rowing! I've got to start thinking about our next course of action!" I can't believe this! In the course of a single day, I went from being on the top of the pecking order to sitting in a half broken, rotting barrel with no ship and half a crew! Those stupid Mafia, and those irritating girls! Considering my luck today, I'm willing to bet the latter wasn't even a half-genie at all! Just some run of the mill brat who thought it would be smart to get in my way! No matter, this was just a setback was all, and far from the first time I've had my victory taken for me! I'll recover from this soon enough, and next time, I'll be sure they won't get away from me again!
"Still, at least we won't be leaving empty handed…" I muttered to myself, pulling the hourglass out from my belt and staring at it in my hands. Now what did those fools call it again? A time piece…? Time…? A sinister grin grew onto my face as a chuckle escaped me.
"This trip just might have been worth it after all…"
