Gamelover41592: Thanks
Matt (Guest): You said it best.
Now that the girls know what they are hunting, time to get going. Also, since this game started the trend of "fetch quests to get into the dungeons", I will only show some of them, but the girls will still mention what I don't show.
"Shantae? I know that we are heroes and this is what we do and all, but shouldn't we be worried about getting the magic seals?" Jasmine pointed out. Shantae had just offered to hunt down a chef's dog.
"Relax Jas! How hard can a lost puppy be to find?" Shantae replied. The girls' quest had taken them into the woods outside of town, which were hard to navigate. Either way, they quickly found themselves in front of a very familiar zombie wagon.
"Heya Snack Cakes!" Rottytops cheerfully greeted both girls. "What's shakin'? You still owe me a brain, you know,"
"Knock it off, Rottytops," Jasmine said, making sure she kept a stern tone. She never really liked Rotty, but Shanate did for whatever reason, so she did her best to stay nice.
"You just missed my brothers," Rotty said. "We've been doing a wagon tour, sampling the local cuisine. Here. You have got to try one of these!" A small dog then ran out from behind her.
"This is someone's pet!" Shantae exclaimed as Jasmine picked up the little guy. It quickly started licking her face, causing her to laugh.
"Why would you eat this!?" Jasmine demanded between laughs.
"Come on!" Rotty whined. "Just a scout's taste!"
"We'll return this," Jasmine said simply. Of course, now that she had seen the puppy, she wasn't as mad at Shantae that they had to hunt it down. After all, it was better then letting it be eaten.
"Look Rotty, we need your help," Shantae said. "Have you ever heard of a Magic Seal?"
"Not ringing any bells," The zombie replied. "I'll check the web." Before either of the girls could question what that meant, a spider formed a web in front of Rottytops, which she then sat in front of.
"What is that thing?" Shantae asked.
"Awww, he's my chit chat spider!" Rotty answered before turning back to...whatever it was she was doing. "Zombies use them to communicate across long distances via vibration. Seriously, you should see our network. It's like, world wide!"
"...Interesting," Jasmine marvaled. She had to admit, that was impressive.
"I'll just send a message out and another zombie will answer back in no time," Rotty explained as she continued to work. After a few minutes, she spoke up again. "None of my pals have heard of a Magic Seal. Sorry chicas."
"Can you find Risky Boots with that?" Shantae asked.
"Yeah," Rottytops replied as she turned back to the web. "Look, today she was spotted in Scuttle Town."
"We were there!" Jasmine exclaimed as she threw her hands up.
"That was just this morning!" Shantae said.
"After that, she traveled up the coast, shaking down locals. She's looking for the three barons of Sequin Land," Rotty continued. "Yuck, this thing's full of bugs now!"
"Barons of Sequin Land?" Shantae repeated. Jasmine had heard of them, but didn't know much. "Who are they?"
"Thieving bandits who pass themselves as artifact collectors," Rotty explained. "They mostly gather old magical trinkets and such. Oh gross, now he's got a worm!"
"Artifact collectors…" Jasmine trailed off. The answer hit her like a ton of bricks. "Risky thinks one of them has a Magic Seal!"
"The Squid Baron, the Ammo Baron and the Hypno Baron," Rotty said. "According to this, the Squid Baron lives here in the forest. If you are thinking about stopping by his place, better be on your toes,"
"Then I guess we are headed after Squid Baron!" Jasmine said as she pounded her fist into her other hand.
"Thanks Rotty!" Shantae called as the two girls rushed off.
"So how do we get in?" Shantae asked. The two girls had arrived at the Squid Baron's lair only to find the door locked tight.
"I got an idea!" Jasmine said. "Give me that meal the chef gave us,"
"But I was going to eat that!" Shantae protested, still pulling the meal out.
"We can go back later," Jasmine replied. Once she had the dish in her hands, she placed it near the door.
"What is that heavenly smell?" A voice from the other side of the door asked. "Great snap! Is that the chef's new meal? Hurry up and bring it inside!" With that, the door opened up.
"Be careful," Jasmine warned. Making sure her boomerang was still in easy grabbing range, she headed inside, Shantae following her and holding the meal. Inside the dungeon was a red ball like squid with purple spots. It was the Squid Baron.
"You two the delivery boys?" He asked. "It's about time you got here! I put my order in hours ago! I'm famished!"
"We're not boys." Jasmine and Shantae deadpanned.
"Whatever! So long as you brought me my meal!" Squid Baron replied with a dismissive wave of its tentacles. "Hand it over!" Seeing no real reason not to give to him, Shantae handed the meal to him. He hungrily devoured it. "Man that hit the spot! What do I owe ya?"
"One Magic Seal, if you don't mind," Jasmine said, hoping this would work. "We've heard you have it."
"YOW!" Squid Baron suddenly exclaimed. "Ahem! Ok! Look, no need to get worked up. Right? Let's both be reasonable!"
"Where are you going with this?" Shantae asked.
"Can we be reasonable?" He tried.
"Alright, we guess," Jasmine said with a sigh.
"Ok then…." Squid Baron began. "...DINE AND DITCH!" With that, he hurried off into the dungeon.
"Great, now we need to hunt him down!" Jasmine exclaimed.
"That guy is so dead," Shantae agreed. Much to their surprise, the girls found that the dungeon wasn't very hard to navigate or deal with. For such a feared being in Sequin Land, they found it to be rather easy. Of course, Jasmine still found one thing to be rather annoying.
"So, remind me why you can't do this yourself?" She asked as she shifted out of her gorilla form. Shantae had been riding on her back for several walls.
"I told you! I slacked off on practicing my dancing and I'm rusty!" Shantae replied.
"Lovely," Jasmine deadpanned as they walked into another room. This time, there was a strange fountain in the center.
"Who approaches my magic fountain?" A voice asked. Shantae, who was standing closest to it, took a few steps back. Suddenly, a watery(and for some reason, naked) version of a woman appeared over the fountain. "I sense a restless energy in you. Channel your passions and allow the magic to take shape!" Suddenly, something clicked in Shantae's mind and she realized that she remembered how to do her monkey dance. Quickly turning into it, she started to climb up the wall.
"Hey! Wait up!" Shantae said before quickly shifting into her gorilla form, allowing her to chase after her sister. "Crikey, I don't think I've ever seen you move so fast!"
"Well, now you don't have to hold me on your back!" Shantae fired back. Jasmine chuckled a little.
"C'mon then! I get a feeling Squid Baron is close!" Jasmine as she continued to climb.
"So, you managed to solve my labyrinth?" Squid Baron questioned as he saw the girls enter the room he had chosen to hide out in. "But it won't do you any good! My Magic Seal is staying right here! Me and my babies are ready to tussle!" With that, he dropped down from the ceiling, barely missing Jasmine and attacked. He could summon his children to attack, teleport and rush across the room after eating more food. However, he was quickly taken down by the two sisters.
"I didn't think he was going to blow up!" Shantae exclaimed.
"Didn't say he was dead earlier?" Jasmine questioned. The Magic Seal then lowered down. "Well, looks like we got what we came for!"
"One down, two to go!" Shantae cheered as she grabbed it. With that, they rushed out of the labyrinth.
Much to their surprise, Risky Boots waited for the girls outside the labyrinth.
"Risky Boots!" They exclaimed.
"Well, well, well. I see you two managed to beat me to the first Magic Seal!" Risky said. "Nicely done! Now be a good set of girls and hand it over!"
"Not a chance!" Shantae replied.
"Back off, or I'll smash this to pieces!" Jasmine said, even switching to gorilla form to prove she wasn't messing around.
"My!" Risky exclaimed. "No need to be hasty! I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of each other down the line. Ta ta!" With that, Risky jumped off. Jasmine felt that feeling of dread return, but she still had no idea why.
Ah, Squid Baron. Easily the funniest character in the series. Before I sign off, I felt like I should let you guys know that I am going on vacation starting tomorrow and I won't be back until the 4th of July. While I still will have my computer, don't expect to see a chapter for a while.