Gamelover41592: Thanks.
Alright. Time to get into this. Let's get going!
"So...can we go to the races?" Jasmine asked sheepishly. Rottytops had come by, offering to help them get the dark magic shard in exchange for two tickets for the magic carpet races in Cape Crustacean. Jasmine had loved watching them as a kid and had always wanted to go in person.
"I wish we could, but we need to give these to Rotty so we can help uncle Mimic!" Shantae replied.
"I wish she could just give them to us normally," Jasmine grumbled as they walked over to go give the zombie the tickets anyways.
"What a pal!" Rotty cheered once she was given them. "As promised, here," She then handed over the dark magic shard. Jasmine took it, hoping to avoid Shantae suffering any negative effects. Her necklace shook violently for a few seconds before stopping.
"Oh wow! This is just what uncle was looking for!" Shantae marvaled, privately a little worried about where her friend had gotten this from.
"What were you doing with this anyways?" Jasmine asked, still a little shaken from the way her necklace reacted to it.
"Don't ask," Rottytops replied dismissively. "Say, why don't you join us? You two could meet Abner, Poe and me and the raceway!" Jasmine was so close to giving Shantae puppy dog eyes, before realizing that they most likely wouldn't work.
"No thanks Rottytops. It's been a busy day," Shantae replied. Behind her, Jasmine started pouting. What could staying for one race hurt?
"C'mon! Gotta enjoy life while we still can, right?" Rottytops said. This time, Jasmine clapped her hands over Shantae's mouth.
"We'll think about it, mate," Jasmine said quickly. "But we do have to get the shard to our uncle." With that, she took her hands off Shantae.
"What happened with your necklace?" Shantae asked as they walked back to Mimic's lab.
"Not a clue," Jasmine replied. "Musta been the magic in this thing reacting badly with the dark magic shard." Before they could talk about it further, they walked back into Mimic's lab.
"You're both back so soon! And with the dark shard no less!" Mimic said, sounding very impressed. He knew his nieces were miracle workers, but this was beyond impressive. "You're not still worried, are you?"
"Just take it," Jasmine said as she held it out. Thankfully, her necklace didn't react again. Mimic took the shard and put it on top of the machine.
"Two more components and our worries will be over!" Mimic said. A man then entered. "Eh? What now?!"
"Who's this guy?" Shantae asked.
"Can you keep a secret?" He asked, nervousness clear in his tone.
"Yes," Jasmine replied. She knew who this guy was. He worked for the races. Maybe she would get to go after all! He then whispered something into her ear. "A HEIST AT THE RACES!?"
"Shh!" He ordered. "I was working under a vehicle so they never saw me! But I heard the whole thing! It's going to happen during today's big race. If they find out who squealed, I'm a dead man! I was never here!"
"An act of foul play could put hundreds of spectators at risk!" Mimic realized. "Here! A map to Cape Crustacean!"
"So...we are going?" Jasmine asked.
Shantae sighed. She never understood what her sister saw in those races. "Yes, Jas. We're going. In fact, we might be racing ourselves."
"This is going to be bloody awesome," Jasmine said in the happiest voice Shantae thought she had ever heard.
After rounding up Bolo and Sky, as well as getting Rottytops once they arrived at the races, Shantae started to explain the plan.
"Listen up guys. The mystery man back in Scuttle Town believes there'll be a large scale heist at today's big race," Shantae began. "Someone's after the magic carpets and everyone's a suspect! Jas and I are going undercover, posing as pilots. Sky and Bolo, you two watch from the stands. And Rottytops…"
"I'm working the pit crew!" Rottytops interrupted before pulling off her clothes, revealing a finish flag styled tube top, a jack wrapped around her waist, sweatpants and sneakers. "Check this out! I'm a zombie pit girl!"
"I'm sure the fans will eat it up," Bolo noted. Sky just rolled her eyes. She still hated working with Rottytops.
"Not if she eats them up first," She said.
"Everyone shut up!" Jasmine snapped. She loved all of her friends, but their fighting could drive her so far up the wall, it was a wonder she was still sane. Suddenly, a horn blared.
"Sounds like you two are on deck," Sky said.
"Let's do it!" Rottytops cheered.
"Good luck mates," Jasmine said as she and Shantae headed off. They had a race to win.
"Nothing yet," Jasmine thought to herself. All her years of watching the races were a big help, as she actually knew how to steer the carpet and get them ahead of some of the others. Yeah, she knew they had a mission, but winning the race would be awesome, so who was she to turn that chance down? Besides, from what the announcers were saying, racers further up the pack were disappearing. So getting a lead could actually come in handy. Suddenly, Twitch and Vinegar flew in front of them.
"Here comes another flying carpet, Vinegar!" Twitch called out.
"Get ready to nab it, Twitch!" Vinegar called back.
"Looks like we got our thieves!" Jasmine said.
"Hey, we've got orders from up top!" Twitch replied. That meant that Ammo Baron was the one behind this!
"Yeah!" Vinegar agreed. "Surrender that magic carpet, girl!"
"Forget it!" Jasmine snapped. This was her race and she was going to win, Ammo Baron be damned!
"Fine, have it your way!" Vinegar replied. Her and Twitch did their best to stay out of range so they could shoot at the girls, but Jasmine's boomerang still let them hit the henchwoman. Shantae's fire magic also came in handy. Soon, Twitch and Vinegar were sent down.
"That takes care of those two!" Shantae said. "Now to find where they are taking those carpets!"
"Going up!" Jasmine said as she steered the carpet towards the clouds. She had seen a couple battleships over them.
"Oh yeah, this is Ammo Baron's work!" Jasmine said as she and Shanae made their way through the battleships. Why a whole fleet was needed, the girls had no idea, but if Ammo Baron was up to no good, then they had to put a stop to him.
"Hey, let's bring the fleet down!" Shantae said as she pointed to the generator powering the ships. Both girls looked at each other with grins before going to town on the generator. The ships all went down, with none thankfully hitting anyone. Ammo Baron and his men landed hard on the ground.
"Blast it all!" Ammo Baron roared. "That airship cost billions of crowd funded dollars!"
"For shame!" Shantae hissed at him. "You thought you could win the race by cheating!"
"The race?" Ammo Baron questioned. "Haw! I don't care about some stupid civilain airshow!"
"Hey! It's not stupid! Take that back, you bogan!" Jasmine snapped. Shantae had a feeling she cared more about Ammo Baron insulting the race then whatever plan he had come up with.
"And I don't care about the prize money, neither!" Ammo Baron continued.
"Huh?" Shantae asked. "Then, what do you want?"
"I'm after global conquest! Air supremacy, babe!" Ammo Baron explained. "Armored ships are good 'n all. But I need airborne troops too! But being as how the magical silkworm is endangered and also very cute...I'll just take the magic silk I need from these losers's carpets...and use them to manufacture magic carpet uniforms for my men!"
"Magic silkworms?" Shantae asked. "You can't be serious!"
"I'll demonstrate!" Ammo Baron said, an evil glint in his eyes. "Men! Deploy the M.C.U's!" Suddenly, magic uniforms appeared on Ammo Baron and his men. "BOOSH!" They then all floated into the air. "Let's show these hot tamales a nice, tight formation!" Ammo Baron didn't attack himself, but the girls had to fight through all his men just to hit him. What didn't help was that he could summon a lot of them. The men mainly just tried to divebomb the girls, which was easy enough to dodge. It wasn't hard to take him down and reduce him to his underwear for good measure.
"Those bad guy explosions are always helpful," Jasmine snarked. Ammo Baron had it coming anyways.
"What went wrong?" Ammo Baron moaned.
"You did! You're grounded!" Shantae barked.
"All that work...up in smoke!" Ammo Baron whined.
"Serves you right, race hater!" Jasmine scoffed. Twitch and Vinegar then dragged their boss off on a stretcher.
"Hello? Is this thing on?" Rottytops said through the speakers. "Ladies and gents, it looks like Ammo Baron has trashed all of today's participants! All but these two young newcomers, that is! Judges? We have a winner!"
"Really, Jas?" Shantae asked when she saw that her sister had managed to get a medal and a trophy.
"Hey, we won, mate!" Jasmine protested. "And the other prize was Techno Baron's monster chow, so let me enjoy this one mate,"
"Fair enough," Shantae said. "Now we need to go,"
Writing Jasmine as being a big carpet racing fan was beyond funny. Besides, I needed to give her some kind of interest, considering that a straight laced character is only funny if they have some that makes them not so above it all. Next time, we head somewhere perfect for this time of year!