Gamelover41592: A little too late on the warning.
Matt (Guest): Um, spoilers!
Now that they got pass Mimic, it's time for the girls to begin exploring. Also, this arc is finally going to explain the origins of Jasmine's necklace. Let's go.
At first, Jasmine and Shantae were at a loss. They couldn't find any trace of the girls on the top of the island! However, it didn't take long for them to find someone who spelled trouble wherever they went: Risky Boots and her Tinkerbats.
"It's Risky Boots!" Shantae exclaimed. "What in the world is she doing on this island?"
"Something tells me we're about to find out," Jasmine said while ushering Shantae behind some bushes. While Risky hadn't noticed them yet, she could at any time.
"Men!" Risky announced. The Tinkerbats looked up at her. "Place the explosives! If those Arena Town fools won't open this hatch willingly...I'll simply blast my way in!" The Tinkerbats proceeded to cover the hatch she wanted to open with explosives. "No one defies Risky Boots, Queen of the Seven Seas!" With a laugh, she then jumped away. The Tinkerbats stood still. "Well? Move it before it blows, you fools!" Now, the Tinkerbats ran for it, just in time for the bombs to go off. Risky then ran back over. "That did the trick! It won't be long before absolute power belongs to me! Ho ho ho!" With that, she jumped into the hatch.
"Risky Boots is behind this!" Shantae concluded. "We should have known!"
"Let's follow and make sure that she doesn't kidnap anyone else," Jasmine agreed. She had a feeling that Risky would be up to her old tricks on the island. Jasmine jumped down first, with Shantae following closely behind. While she was a little worried to be going underground, Jasmine was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was the tunnel rather spacious, but also well lit. She realized that she would most likely be fine. Only the glass tubes would really cause any problems for her.
"I don't remember seeing this place on the maps for the tour," Shantae said as they continued to search for Risky. The place was way bigger than the people above had made it sound.
"Tell me about it," Jasmine agreed. Finally, the two found themselves at a bunch of blocks that were most likely a makeshift wall to keep tourists out. Shantae turned into an elephant and quickly smashed through them. Much to their surprise, Mimic was on the other side!
"Uncle!" Shantae called out. Mimic turned around to face them. "What are you doing down here?"
"I might ask you two the same question!" Mimic replied before turning to Jasmine. "You said you were going to go after her!"
"I did. I never said anything about bringing her back," Jasmine said.
"But we haven't found any trouble!" Shantae quickly chimed in. Jasmine and her both shared a smile, hoping that Mimic wouldn't push any further. Thankfully, he didn't.
"Well, I figured since we're stuck here for a while…" Mimic began. All ships, planes and any other form of transportation going to or leaving from the island had been stopped until the girls were found. "Why not enjoy the Sunken City tour? Yessir, I'd sure like to see the rest of this place. It's a shame that so much of it is sealed off! But I suppose safety must come first, after all. The tour guide said that removing even a single stone block could be enough to cause a cave in!" Jasmine and Shantae both went pale. Shantae had just smashed a bunch of stone blocks!
"Uhh…" Both of them said, trying to convince themselves that the tour guide was just exaggerating.
"Could you imagine that?" Mimic asked with a laugh. "A cave in?"
"We…" Shantae tried to explain, only to be cut off again.
"With the entire town right above us!" Mimic said, still acting like he was telling a funny story. "Removing even one block!"
"Uncle, we-" Shantae began to say, only for the ground to start to rumbling.
"Now what's all this?" Mimic asked. Suddenly, the ground under Shantae collapsed, sending her further underground with a scream.
"Shantae hang on!" Jasmine called out as she shifted into a condor and flew down after her sister. Thankfully, Shantae was fine and the place was still open enough so that Jasmine wasn't having a panic attack.
"Ooof, I think I bruised my bum," Shantae grunted as Jasmine helped her to her feet.
"Just glad to see you're not a smear on the floor," Jasmine said with a sigh of relief. "I don't think anyone will find us. We're gonna have to find a way out of here."
"What is this place?" Shantae asked as she started to look around.
"Must be an older part of the city," Jasmine guessed as she looked around. The place was way leakier and plants and moss had started to grow, but it was clearly part of the city above.
"Risky must've used these tunnels to spirit the other half-genies away!" Shantae realized. Jasmine nodded. She had just reached the same conclusion. "We need to search high and low for clues!"
"More like search low and lower," Jasmine joked. Shantae giggled. Within a few minutes, the search had led the girls to a strange door.
"This looks really out of place down here," Shantae noted.
"Then it's a good place to explore," Jasmine said as she pulled her boomerang off her belt. She had wanted a good monster fight since the half-genies went missing. She knew that she probably needed help with the whole love of beating down monsters, but hey, it helped her let off stress. Like Shantae possibly getting captured. Either way, the girls headed in to find a strange sight. Now, the city had practically transformed into a temple. It was unreal.
"What is this place?" Shantae asked.
"Something tells me we're gonna find out," Jasmine said. The monsters the girls found were nothing surprising or that they couldn't handle. What was a surprise was when Risky herself showed up to greet them.
"Risky Boots!" Both exclaimed, getting ready for a fight.
"Ho ho ho! The heroic runts! Fancy meeting you two here!" Risky said, almost sounding happy to see the girls.
"We know what you did, Risky!" Shantae snapped out. "You'd better release those girls, or else!"
"Oh my~!" Risky said in a singsong voice. "You just have all the answers, don't you? Heh...think what you like. You won't live long enough to interfere with my plans!" With that, the fight began. And was also over a few minutes later. Shantae and Jasmine were off course the winners, but even they could tell that Risky barely put any effort into fighting them.
"Mate, are you sick or something?" Jasmine asked. All Risky did was summon Tinkerbats and shoot at them.
"As if!" Risky scoffed. "That's enough fun for now. If you want to know who really captured those girls...you won't have to look very far. Ta-tah!" Risky then fled.
"So...is Risky behind this?" Shantae questioned.
"I have no idea," Jasmine admitted as she rubbed the back of her head. "She's not a very trustworthy person, but there could be another force at play. Let's keep looking." Much to both girls's surprise, they found an unconscious Plink locked in a strange cage.
"Plink!" Shantae called. "Are you alright? Who did this to you? How did you get down here?" Plink did not wake up.
"Mate, wake up!," Jasmine said as she looked over said cage. It must have been keeping her like that. Suddenly, Plink began to stir.
"Huh?" Plink groaned as she slowly got to her feet. "Where...where am I?"
"Are you okay?" Shantae asked.
"I...think so." Plink replied.
"Hold on," Jasmine said as she cracked her knuckles. "I'll get you out of there!" Using her strength, Jasmine was able to force the cage open. "Crikey, this cage is strange."
"Nevermind the cage…" Plink said before turning Shantae. "Here. I've got something for you." She then handed Shantae a strange token with a picture of a lizard on it.
"What's this?" Shantae asked as her and Jasmine looked over the coin.
"That is a magical fusion coin!" Plink began to explain. "It will allow you to transform instantly into a new form! This one bears the mark of a Dash Newt."
"A what?" Jasmine asked. She had never heard of that kind of animal.
"Dash Newts are rare creatures that inhabit the island," Plink explained. "Using it's abilities, you should be able to locate the source of evil in this labyrinth!"
"Leave it to us!" Shantae exclaimed.
"Do you need our help to get out?" Jasmine asked.
"I think I should be fine," Plink said. Jasmine gave a nod as she followed Shantae, who had already mastered the new power.
"I think this is like my monkey form!" Shantae exclaimed.
"But nice to see you understand that lizards are the best climbing animal," Jasmine said, already in her gecko form.
"I still say the monkey is better," Shantae jokingly replied. Both girls raced up the shafts of the temple, laughing all the while. Finally, they came across an imposing door.
"This looks like a place for an evil creature," Jasmine said. "Be careful."
"Same to you," Shantae replied. Entering the chamber, they narrowly dodged a vine strike from a large plant woman waiting inside. "WHAT IS THAT THING?!"
"Don't know, but I doubt it's a mate!" Jasmine called back, reading herself for a brawl. The strange creature didn't seem to care much about actually fighting the girls. She only threw out seeds, which either turned into plant monsters or large spiked vines. However, this came with a trade off: the girls could only hit her when they exposed her to the sunlight in the arena. Even then, it didn't take very long for the girls to make the overgrown seaweed wilt.
"You made it...good," Plink said with a sigh of relief once she saw Jasmine and Shantae exit the dungeon.
"Boy, you sure were right about that newt magic!" Shantae exclaimed. "I never knew I could transform like that!"
"Harmony says that when we work together, we can do anything!" Plink exclaimed before turning somber. "I hope she's okay…"
"We'll find her mate," Jasmine assured the young girl. Plink gave her a warm smile.
"Oh!" She suddenly exclaimed.
"Huh?" Shantae grunted. "What is it?"
"She said work together, right? So what if we combine our magic?" Plink asked.
"Combine our magic?" Shantae repeated, wanting to make sure she heard that right.
"That's possible?" Jasmine asked.
"Look…" Plink began. She had a feeling that these two were going to need an explanation. "Those fusion coins…they're forged from fusion stones."
"Okaaaay…" Shantae said unsurely.
"Fusion stones come from right here on the island." Plink elaborated. "A tiny amount, like what's in the coin, gave you the abilities of a newt. But if we had an entire fusion stone, I bet I could give all of my powers to you!"
"What?!" Shantae and Jasmine both exclaimed.
"No way!" Shantae cried. "You can't just give your magic away!"
"Why not?" Plink asked. "It would only be temporary! We'll merge our magic into one big...powerful...SPECTACULAR SUPERSTAR SUPER GENIE! We'll trash these monsters, find our friends, and you can give the magic back when you're done!"
"Um…" Shantae wasn't sure what to say. Jasmine wasn't exactly sure either. She had read about magic sharing in the past, but never that it was this simple.
"Think about it," Plink requested. "Find a fusion stone and meet me in Arena Town. I'll be waiting for your answer backstage!" Plink then teleported away.
"So is teleportation just a natural genie power?" Jasmine asked. Shantae had been able to teleport, but she rarely used it.
"Should we look for the stone?" Shantae asked, not bothering to even guess an answer to Jasmine's question. "I don't know a lot about the genies, but I know that their magic was super important to who they were!"
"So if she's giving to you, she clearly thinks you can do it," Jasmine said with a smile. Shantae took a few seconds to think about what Jasmine had just said. That actually made a lot of sense. Not to mention that Plink was most likely still weak from her captivity.
"Alright...let's go find that stone!" Shantae declared.
A fusion stone surprisingly wasn't too hard to find. A visiting researcher offered them one for helping her with her studies.
"You're back!" Plink cheered when she saw them come in. "Any luck finding a fusion stone?"
"Here," Jasmine said as she pulled it out and tossed it to Plink.
"With it, we'll be able to combine our magic and save Harmony and the others!" Plink exclaimed once she caught it. "Are you ready, Shantae?"
"Let's do it!" Shantae replied.
"Ok...hold still! It's time to combine our magic!" Plink announced. Jasmine took a few steps back. Using the stone, Plink began the transfer process. Much to her confusion, Jasmine noticed her necklace glowing.
"Incredible!" Shantae exclaimed, not noticing her sister's confusion. "I feel like dancing!"
"Our powers have combined!" Plink cheered. "My magic can reveal things that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye! Hey, I know! Why not try testing it in this room?"
"Okay!" Shantae replied. She began to dance and after a few seconds, she saw a bunch of crates, as well as a platform to help her reach them. Of course, to Jasmine and Plink, it looked like she was floating in mid air and making gems rain from her hair. Raising an eyebrow, Jasmine decided to test something. Tapping her necklace, she was shocked to find that she could now see the platforms.
"Uh, mates?" Jasmine began. "After Shantae got the new magic, my necklace started glowing and well...I can see the crates and platform."
"Why would my magic cause that?" Plink asked as she looked over the necklace.
"Yeah Jas. That's never happened before and it's not like the necklace lost magic when I lost mine!" Shantae said, trying to think about how that could be possible.
"Harmony might know about it," Plink said. "She knows a lot about the genies."
"So we've heard," Jasmine said.
"Then we better get looking," Shantae said. Bidding Plink goodbye for now, the girls headed out.
So Jasmine's necklace has a strange new side effect: she gets the same magic as Shantae! But one half-genie down, four to go!