Shantae: The Eternal Spirit Chronicles

by IllusoryNomad

Following Shantae's latest crusade against the forces of evil, a new Relic is revealed that has the power to LITERALLY change (or even DESTROY) the lives of all who come into contact with it! Added to the emergence of a rogue, vengeful half-genie, as well as the unwelcome return of a certain marauding Pirate Queen, the Half-Genie Hero and company must spring into action once again!

16. Lethal Leading Ladies

Chapter 7: Lethal Leading Ladies

Aaaand welcome back to the exciting adventures of Shantae and the Sequin Land Anti-Pirate Squad! See, I was prepared for you THIS time. Heh… Eh, d-don't mind me. I'm still just trying to get used to this role as things continue to get more and more unpredictable around here. Anyway, we last left off with our main heroes regrouping and debriefing after Bolo and Sky's latest quest to the Capricious Titan Shrine… which, as you may remember, didn't exactly end all that favorably for anyone involved. Among other… rather spicy developments, our heroes were down two pieces of the Spirit Fuser thanks to the unexpected intervention of the wild card Hashanah. And to make matters more daunting, there were only two remaining Spirit Fuser pieces left to collect, and unless they banded together to clean up shop soon, Shantae and company would be staring down the proverbial gun barrel of total disaster.

Despite the unfavorable odds, however, each of our indomitable adventurers remained mostly determined and composed, ready to take on any and all challenges that would come their way. It was just a matter of how quickly they could get the jump on the next fragment… or at least, how quickly they could get the jump on their competition before things got way out of hand. Either way, they were aware of the stakes, and they planned on doing everything in their power to protect the world from potential devastation at the hands of the forces of evil. This time, we join the main heroine herself and her best undead zombie friend as they got set as the pair of active participants for the next quest…

In Tayshan's house…

"Hm… Ah…!" groaned a certain wraith as he stirred from his slumber within the confines of his nearly pitch-black bedroom. As it appeared, the sun had barely begun to rise, and the only reason there was any light at all… was because of the halo that ubiquitously floated over his head. Careful not to disturb his bedmate, he carefully slid his arm out of her grasp as she quietly snoozed. Climbing from the bed they were sleeping in, the ghost man stood tall and stretched off his sleepiness. "Whew… Day two o' my workweek, an' I already wish we were at the end of it…" he whispered to himself as he fought through his reluctance to get himself ready for his next work shift. Evidently, we rejoined our heroes two days AFTER the Capricious Titan saga reached its conclusion… Yet, as Tayshan approached his closet across from the bed to grab a change of clothes, he took a moment to gaze at the slumbering young lavender-haired woman he was spooning mere moments earlier…

"…Wait…! No, don't go…! Come back…! I-I didn't mean to let it happen…! Please forgive me…!" the woman could be heard sorrowfully mumbling in her sleep as she tossed and turned. "I'm sorry…! I'm so sorry…" she apologized in her sleep, tears streaking her face as she wrapped herself up in her arms. "I'm… a failure…"

"Shantae…" he somberly murmured, stopping his preparation process after slipping on a pair of pants and fastening a belt around his waist. Frowning in immense concern, the undead young man approached the bed once more on the half-genie's side. There, he worriedly watched her as she continued to sporadically squirm and clasp her head into her hands, sniffling all the while. "Hm… You're still holdin' onto so much guilt… No matter how many times we keep remindin' you that what happened wasn't your fault…"

"They're right… I… I don't deserve you… I… I hate myself… for letting you down… for letting you die… I promised you I'd protect you, and I failed… I broke my promise… I'm sorry… Tay…" she continued to murmur, further catching her boyfriend by surprise. Saddened by her heart wrenching confession, Tayshan clenched a fist at his side and squeezed his eyes shut. Taking a quick, albeit heavy breath, he relaxed himself just enough to shake off his grief as he kept his eyes locked on her just a bit longer.

"…If only I knew a way t' pull that awful idea out o' your head…" he murmured, leaning forth as he reached a hand toward her. He brushed her hair out of her face and gently swiped his thumb across her cheek to wipe away her tears. Soon after, he leaned further ahead and planted a tender kiss on the half-genie's lips. Surprisingly, her lips puckered up in response to his nurturing touch… and within the next half-second, a bright flash of a bluish light flickered between the lovers' lips, followed by Shantae settling down as her body radiated a faint, glittering aura. The concern-addled kiss Tayshan shared with the sleeping Shantae lasted a mere two or three seconds before he ended it with a quiet *pop*, though he didn't immediately resume his previous task. Instead… "If you can hear me right now, Shae-Shae, then let me tell you that you've gotta stop puttin' blame on yourself for somethin' that was out o' your control. An' no matter how certain people try t' tell you otherwise, you an' I both know the truth. A sacrifice needed t' be made for the safety o' you an' the entirety of Sequin Land. An' even after what happened, I'm still here for you. You didn't let anyone down. You didn't break your promise. Keep your head in the game an' stop trippin', alright? You're better than that, an' you know it. I love you…" he urged her through a whisper as though she would respond. Yet…

"…I love you, too, Tay-Tay… Thank you…" she muttered back with a slight smile as though she were awake, though it was quite evident that she hadn't even opened her eyes to acknowledge that he was speaking to her. Immediately afterward, the magic glow surrounding her faded. How… peculiar…

"…Okay… I really need t' get movin'," Tayshan acknowledged with a sigh of relief as he hesitantly pulled himself back to a capable stand and resumed his preparations to return to work. "It is still early, though, so maybe I'll do somethin' special for her an' Rottytops before I set out," he proposed as he finished getting dressed, complete with him putting on his Inhibitor Vambraces. Afterward, he walked past a shoe rack and toward a towering dresser at the corner of the bedroom to grab a pen and paper. He then pulled up a chair and sat down at the work desk situated next to a bedroom window, and began to write…

A few hours later…

"Hrrmmph! Mmmmh…" hummed a rested Shantae as she stretched and rose from beneath the comfy blanket on the sizable circular bed within her boyfriend's bedroom. Sunlight peered in through the window at the back of the room as she wiped her eyes and yawned. "Wow… Hm. Even though we didn't do anything too crazy yesterday, I didn't think I'd still sleep in. I feel great, no less. Still, it looks like it's well into the morning…" she murmured as she searched the bedroom with her eyes to find herself alone. "Ah… I suppose he left early again…? Darn…" she further acknowledged in mild disappointment as she scanned the room until something next to the bed caught her attention. "Hm? What's this note here?" the half-genie asked herself, reaching across the silky royal blue sheets to the nearby oak nightstand to grab a piece of paper taped to the lamp that rested on said nightstand. Eager to discover its contents, Shantae read the note…

"Morning, babe. Sorry for leaving these messages instead of sticking around until you woke up these last couple days. I was hoping we'd have more time to spend together this week, but I've still got a lot of catching up to do before I get another break. Following that trend, I had to hit the road pretty much as soon as the sun came up once again. I left you and Rottytops some breakfast and supplies for your adventure today, at least. Best of luck out there, and make sure not to overwhelm yourself. Oh, and I saw that you've been mumbling in your sleep again. I presume that means you're still having nightmares about that day… I also get the feeling you're still under a lot of stress that we haven't hashed out. Let me know what's on your mind, so we can talk about it, okay? And in case it needs to be said once again, I want you to know that I love you with every fiber of my being, and through thick and thin, I'll always be here for you. Don't ever let anybody tell you any different, Shantae. Not even yourself. Again, be safe. Love ya. -Your Faithful Genie Forever and Always, Tayshan

P.S.: Tell Rotty to chill out with the gym equipment, too. Not to snitch on her, but she's torturing herself with extra workouts to deal with her anger like I told her NOT to do. If she asks why, I ain't said nothin'."

"Ah… Man, I guess I haven't been sleeping as peacefully as I thought… Shoot," she murmured, nearly brought to tears as she climbed out of bed and placed the note back onto the nightstand. She was wearing a pajama set consisting of white, frilly capris and a white, midriff-baring, equally frilly tank top. Her long, lush, voluminous lavender hair loose, free, and a bit frazzled, Shantae appeared every bit like she was just waking up for another day on the job as well. "I'm… glad he's looking out for me, though. We'll hopefully get another chance to talk soon. But… What did he mean about Rotty torturing herse-?" she was about to ask before…

"HRRRRAAAH! Ten! YYYYAAAH! Eleven! Hah…! Hah…! HAAAAARRRRAGH! TWELVE!" another young woman could be heard shouting from another room, followed by the dense, metallic *PRAPLANG* of some heavy object being dropped onto the floor.

"Oh, THAT'S what he meant. She's up and working out THIS early? Hm. Alright, I'd better make sure she doesn't hurt herself…" Shantae committed herself to the task as she walked out of the bedroom into the hallway and opened the door on the parallel side of the hallway to reveal a miniature gym. Weight benches, a weight rack loaded with dumbbells, other racks loaded with barbells of varying sizes, a wall of mirrors at the far end, foam matting laid all across the floor… even a stereo resting on a table near a minifridge! Man, this room had it all! That's not exactly what caught the half-genie's attention, however. What she instead focused on was…

"Okay… That was set number three at 315…" a certain zombie maiden could be heard murmuring to herself as she performed some post-workout stretches near the squat rack. "Alright, that SHOULD complete my leg day… or maybe I'll hit the punching bag for another half-hour to really burn off the steam…" Rottytops further pondered, dressed in a different, much more eye-catching set of workout clothes consisting of hot pink spandex shorts, a bright white sports bra, and a mauve set of sweatbands on her head and her wrists. She'd also been wearing pink workout gloves and black sneakers to really nail the avid gymgoer look. N-not that I was ogling her or anything, but man did she look… like she really took her workouts seriously. Y-yeah, that's it. And as she approached the punching bag hanging from a hook in the ceiling…

"Good morning, Rottytops," Shantae greeted with a wave, causing the zombie girl to stop in her tracks.

"Oh! Morning, snack cakes! Sorry, did I wake you?" Rotty greeted and apologized as she approached the pajama-adorned half-genie.

"Nah, I got up on my own," the lavender-haired young lady assured. "I'm just surprised you'd be up so early to exercise. Outside of us hanging out, you've pretty much holed yourself up in here since yesterday morning. You sure you don't need to squeeze in a rest day or two?"

"No way," the undead maiden denied with a fervent shake of her head. "I just want to be prepared for our adventure today, and there's no sense in not putting the time to good use."

"I get that, Rotty, but you've REALLY been turning it up in here. Not to say I'm not proud of you or amazed at how much stronger you've become, but overtraining your body can be dangerous. Besides, I… get a feeling your 'motivation' isn't all about today's trip…"

"Of course, it is! Why else would I be pumping the iron so hard?" At that, Shantae cut her eyes toward the punching bag… which had a crude, crumpled-up drawing of a certain blue-haired young man's face taped to it. It was worth note that the drawing featured said young man with a goofy facial expression, stink lines, drool coming out of his mouth with missing teeth, and the phrase 'Im A sToOpId CheEtInG dUrT bAg, PlZ hIt Me LoTz Uv TiMeZ' scribbled all over it. Following her best friend's gaze, Rotty glanced over toward the punching bag, after which she turned back to Shantae and flashed a guilty, toothy grin at her.

"…Care to explain, girlfriend?" Shantae requested, a hand on her hip as she deadpanned at the other young lady.

"…Okay, so I may still be a LITTLE bit… absolutely TICKED OFF at Bolo," Rotty admitted with a sigh and shrug. "But I promise, I'm not going to waste energy beating him up the next time I see him. I'm pouring all of my anger into my exercise, like Tay-Tay taught me to."

"I'm… fairly certain that Tay-Tay only meant that you should use your anger to get a better workout on days you're actually supposed to train, not torture yourself until your entire body gives out while also pretending to beat up someone you're mad at. And before you ask, NO, YOU CANNOT GO BEAT UP BOLO."

"What? Aw, come on, Shae-Shae, I was NOT going to go find Bolo to beat him up… yet…"

"How incredibly convincing. Okay, we clearly need to do more to help you get your mind off the situation. Come on, let's get ourselves together and eat breakfast before we head out," Shantae suggested as she turned and walked out of the weight room, turning and heading toward the living room with Rottytops following suit. "Or rather, did you eat before you hit the gym?"

"Nope. Why? Also…" Rotty trailed off, taking a second to sniff the air. "Why does it smell like pancakes in here all of a sudden?"

"Apparently, Tayshan left us something to get our day started with, on top of some supplies we might need," the half-genie informed as she and her zombified friend stepped into the living room, where they were greeted with the sight of two gigantic stacks of fluffy pancakes on a plate with a cover on top of it, accompanied by another covered plate with scrambled eggs, a third plate with assorted fruit with toothpicks stuck in them, a fourth covered plate with various breakfast meats on it, two giant glasses resting next to two big empty plates with silverware lined up on them, a bottle of Bombasta-Bee honey, a jug of orange juice, a jug of milk, and a roll of paper towels all neatly set up on the coffee table. "Oh. W-wow, he made so much… This must've taken him at least two hours to prepare. How did I not hear him?"

"YES! SCORE!" Rotty cheered, wasting ZERO time dashing toward the morning feast, somersaulting over the sofa and landing with a firm *PLOPH* of her body against its velvety surface as she got set to dig in. Taking note of the zombie girl's enthusiasm, Shantae chuckled as she took a much more casual approach in walking around the sofa and softly taking a seat before digging in. As she and Rotty got set to consume the catered meal, the half-genie noticed a healthy array of supplies stacked up near the television stand in front of them.

"Goodness… He… he went all out for us…" she murmured in surprise as she packed a stack of pancakes, eggs, and sausage onto her plate. She couldn't help but wind up taking note of all the food rations, potion vials full of grape-colored liquid, twin Bikini Armor sets, and even weaponry that included a scimitar, a set of Pike Balls, and a shield. Not so quick on noticing by comparison, Rottytops quickly stuffed her face full of food like it was the last meal she'd ever have. Shaken out of her pensive stupor, Shantae turned to the other young lady as she got set to eat her breakfast. "Slow down, will ya? You're gonna choke if you keep that up!"

"Shorry, brt hr RARELY coorks frr meh!" Rotty exclaimed through a mouthful of pancake and sausage as she kept on devouring everything she could get her hands on. "Rnd I'm nrt lertirng a shringle birt orf it gor to warshte!"

"I only wonder why," Shae remarked with a giggle as she took her first few comparatively sophisticated bites of her breakfast. "You're inhaling everything like a starving Giga Lummox! He'd never have enough time in the day to make meals for you if you eat like this on a regular basis. By the way, you should see how totally ladylike you look right about now."

"Lerdylirke, schmerdylirke!" the zombie girl dismissed with a flick of her hand, still chewing on a gigantic mouthful of egg as she grabbed the jug of orange juice and… drank directly from the jug itself instead of pouring it into a glass to wash her food down… Goodness gracious, the table etiquette on THIS one… Impeccable, if I do say so myself.

"Ew, Rotty! You're getting your germs all over that orange juice, taking it to the face like that! No one else is gonna want it now!" Shantae complained, opting to have a glass of milk instead of the orange juice that was now contaminated with zombie backwash.

"Ahh…" Rotty sighed in relief after downing at least two glasses' worth of orange juice in one sitting… after which, she-! "URRRRRRP!" …loudly let out the single most disgusting belch I'd EVER heard come out of such a cute girl… Ugh…

"Nice… I can smell that from here," Shantae complained some more, fanning the meaty burp fumes away from her nose as she did her best to keep enjoying her own meal.

"Sorry, I let that one slip…" Rottytops bashfully apologized as she set the juice jug down and stacked another massive portion of food onto her plate. "That aside, what's the issue? It isn't like I'm contagious or anything," she further defended herself. "If anything, you should consider it an indirect kiss if you plan on helping yourself!"

"Ugh… Seriously, could you NOT be gross for a second while we're eating?" the mildly perturbed genie oh-so-humbly requested. "I'd like to enjoy my breakfast without the idea of having to see it come back up, thanks."

"Now THAT just stings, snack cakes. Are you saying you DON'T like the idea of sharing an indirect kiss with me? I mean, we've done it directly once before, and I don't remember hearing you complain back then…~" the salacious zombie teased in a VERY forward manner, smilingly nudging the other young lady with her elbow. Wait, wha-!?

"Aaaand just like that, you start trippin' before we've even hit the road," Shae protested and punned to Rotty's endless amusement, though she continued to modestly enjoy her meal. "Kissing you directly is different from having you slobber chunks of pancake, egg, fruit, and prechewed meat into a jug of orange juice while expecting me to drink from it. HARD pass," she further remarked, though… I wasn't clear on what she meant about kissing Rottytops directly. Uh… Now, I don't wanna jump to any weird conclusions, but… ah, never mind. I'm sure she was just joking… R-right? "And before you mention anything about Fake Brains, let's finish our breakfast and get ourselves ready to meet up with Uncle, shall we?"

"Hm. Suit yourself, Shae," Rotty remarked with a giggling shrug as she completely DECIMATED her next portion of breakfast, cleaning up half of what was left out before finishing the jug in its entirety… which, as I may point out, was FULL before she got her hands on it. Meanwhile, Shantae took her time finishing the other half of the food, helping herself to another glass of milk to wash it down. Afterward, the girls took the liberty of cleaning up their dishes and reorganizing the living room setup before getting themselves ready to embark on their journey…

A little while later, at Mimic's Workshop…

"Morning, Uncle!" Shantae greeted, strolling into her surrogate parent's laboratory decked out in her iconic scarlet red belly dance costume complete with her hair tied into that legendary ponytail that looked silkier and smoother… not to mention more fearsome than ever. Rottytops strutted in beside her wearing a much more casual purple tank top, fog-gray short shorts with a skull buckle, skull earrings, and yellow headband fixed into her hair. What caught MY attention, however, was the stylish black-and-purple high-top sneakers on her feet that matched her tank top. She certainly seemed prepped inside and out to make a memorable impression this time around, that's for sure.

"Ah! The ladies of the hour have arrived! Just in time, too!" Mimic cheered as he removed himself from his workstation to greet the pair of adventurers.

"In time for what, gramps?" Rotty rather impertinently asked.

"Well, I believe I've pinpointed the location of the next Spirit Fuser piece!" he announced, much to the girls' astonishment.

"Whoa, really? Already?" Shantae contained her excitement enough to inquire.

"Yes! Although, there ARE a couple of big catches…"

"Uh-oh… What are we in for?"

"The first thing you girls should know is that the location of this piece does not appear in full for at least another week or two. Maybe three, if my calculations are correct," he informed, though he was quick to follow up. "As of right now, it has been showing signs that it's about to make another rare appearance, but it's still no guarantee of how soon it will all be on full display."

"Ah, I figured…" the half-genie lamented with a sigh as she nodded in acknowledgement. "Well, knowing where to scout it out is better than nothing. What have you figured out about this next place? What signs should we look for?"

"If you're in the right area, then the ocean surrounding it will more than likely be discolored. Particularly, the ocean surrounding it should have turned a bright, sparkling seafoam green. Additionally, the air should be unseasonably warm… and, if I'm not mistaken, then it should smell sweet like cotton candy. Overwhelmingly so, at that. I… also heard that the place snaps, crackles, and pops like it was plagued with a never-ending hailstorm."

"Glittery green water, sweet smells, and snaps, crackling, and popping?" Rotty queried with a curious tilt of her head. "What, are we about to infiltrate an underwater candy factory or something?"

"It is not entirely outside the realm of possibility, though this temple won't emerge from underwater," the elderly scientist remarked with a shrug of his shoulders. "It HAS been rumored that this particular temple was known to have appealed to the tastes of many a child back in its more active days, so there's that. You'd have to let me know yourselves if anything you find there is edible."

"Oh, good, another reason to be tempted to completely go off my meal plan…" the undead maiden complained, momentarily batting her gaze elsewhere.

"That shouldn't be an issue if you don't actually try to EAT the temple," Mimic joked. "Knowing the appetites you kids have, I'm sure the place would be gone in an afternoon if all five of you went together."

"Maybe if Rotty went there with Tay instead of me, you mean," Shantae remarked with a joke of her own. "My appetite is big, but it isn't quite that big for candy. I'm more of a cake and pastry kind of girl when it comes to sweets."

"I agree. Only way I'd pig out on this place is if it was made of pop rocks and/or chocolate," Rotty added with a nonchalant shrug. "Otherwise, I could take it or leave it."

"Duly noted. The other concern you should be aware of, however, is the fact that, according to Sky, there's a… suspiciously large Ammonian presence collecting in the area…" the Relic Hunter warned, souring his guests' moods as they took in the unwelcome development.

"Ah, because OF COURSE there would be…" Shantae grumbled with a groan. "There's only a few reasons I could imagine as for why they'd be there."

"Chances are, that Hashanah girl has Nila casing the joint," Rottytops additionally theorized. "Looks like one of our biggest goals will be to clear them out before the temple appears, and then get in there once it does show up before either one of those psychos has a chance to figure out what's going on."

"My thoughts exactly," the half-genie agreed. "I would hope that isn't the case, but as I said, there aren't many other reasons I could think of for why the Ammonian Army would be anywhere near there."

"I would elect to hope that it's simply them trying to reestablish some sort of foothold after recovering in the shadows for as long as they have been," Mimic offered his opinion. "It's very much also possible that they don't even know what they've stumbled upon."

"Also true, but how likely is it that they'd reemerge THERE of all places instead of anywhere less coincidental to rebuild? Like, literally ANYWHERE else?" Shantae posed another inquiry.

"An excellent question, cupcake, and one I'm certain we'll need to answer soon. Regardless of their reasons for being there, it appears you'll inevitably be crossing paths with the Ammonian Army if you choose to venture out to the potential location of the Crackling Crystal Castle today."

"Crackling Crystal Castle, huh? Its name even SOUNDS like it belongs to a candy brand…" Rottytops pondered with a pensive nod.

"We'll be ready for whatever they may throw at us," Shantae assured with a pump of her fist, though she still had one more unturned stone to address as she moved to change topics. "Have you seen Sky today, by the way, Uncle? We… may need a ride…"

"I had a feeling, so I told her to hang around until you two arrived," Mimic readily replied with a shrug and sigh. "I must say, though, Shantae, that I'm a bit perplexed that you haven't tried to find your own way around the country. It's unbecoming of a hero to always need to be bumming rides!"

"Ugh… I get it, Uncle," Shae irritably shot back with a roll of her eyes. "You've lectured me about that enough as it is, and I'm still trying to figure something out. Trust me, though, I'll have another form of reliable transportation before you know it."

"Well, make sure 'before I know it' doesn't take too long. I am fully aware how you get with procrastination sometimes, and I'd at least like to live long enough to see such a wonderful milestone happen. Who even knows how much time I have left in this world…?" he remarked, eliciting a chuckle out of Rottytops while Shantae gasped in shock and ire.

"UNCLE!" the genie girl shouted in vexation.

"I know, that was a bit harsh. Sorry," Mimic offered his repentance as he held his hands up to pacify his niece. "Still… To this day, you still haven't found a convenient way around Sequin Land that doesn't involve overusing that poor girl and her bird. And after all she's been through in recent times, you can't always expect her to pick up your slack. Sky has a life of her own, too."

"I know, but it isn't exactly like I can just up and get a pilot's license and a new plane by tomorrow," the half-genie retorted, just a TEENY bit incredibly bothered by her surrogate father's relentless nagging.

"Then, you should make time instead of waiting for the opportunity to come. Tayshan already has his pilot's license now, so I figured you'd be on that track right with him. You don't exactly have an excuse by this point if he can earn a license in as little as two months."

"Sure, but he doesn't own a-! Wait… WHAT!?" the flabbergasted genie girl shouted her question loud enough to potentially wake the neighbors. "Tayshan has a PILOT'S LICENSE!? As in, he's legally allowed to FLY AN AIRPLANE!? You're KIDDING! He never told me that!"

"I suppose that means you should probably have thought to ask," Mimic plainly countered.

"Yeah, snack cakes, I thought you knew that already," Rotty added in mild surprise as she raised an eyebrow, only further confusing her best friend in the process.

"No, I didn't know! And why are you coming across like YOU already knew!?" Shantae incredulously questioned the other young woman.

"Because at least one of the adventures we went on together while you were on vacation involved him and me flying a rental plane to the place we needed to investigate," the zombie maiden explained with a nonchalant shrug. "He said it was part of his requirements as a member of the Palace Guard to learn how to fly a plane, if I remember right. He… also mentioned getting his training directly from Twitch and Vinegar in exchange for a favor he did them, which was why he was able to earn his license as soon as he did…"

"Oh… I-I see… Huh…" Shantae very wordily remarked, her gaze falling to the floor for a moment as she pondered the implications of her ghostly boyfriend learning the oh-so-easy skill of operating an airplane before she did. She wouldn't be thinking about it long, however before the Workshop's front door opened up with a *click* to reveal everyone's favorite blonde bombshell bird tamer.

"Ah! Morning, girls!" a chipper and newly refreshed Sky greeted as she strolled on in with Wrench perched on her head as usual.

"Morning, Sky," both of the other young women greeted their companion with waves.

"You're just in time, lass. I was just filling Shantae and Rottytops in on what to expect on this next venture," Mimic shared with the bird trainer.

"Ah, alright. I hope you explained it better than I could," Sky remarked with a nod of acknowledgement before turning to the adventurers in question. "And girls, I'll have to let you know that while I can fly you over there, I won't be able to join you on the adventure."

"Wha? Aw, why not?" Shantae asked, her disappointment written all over her face.

"I've got a bit of catching up to do on caring for my birds, and business has been picking up on courier services recently. Also… I went on two of the last three big trips with the boys, and I think I've had more than my fill for a little while," Sky candidly explained. "In fact, I'm already pushing myself further behind schedule by taking you two for this ride, so we'll have to make it quick."

"See what I mean, Shantae?" Mimic interjected, putting his niece on blast.

"Cut it out, Uncle! You've made your point already!" the highly annoyed half-genie barked back at her parental figure, making him snicker in a mixture of triumph and general amusement. Little did she know, Sky and Rottytops also got a bit of humor out of it as each of them stifled their own giggles.

"Anyway, are you ready?" Sky recollected herself just enough to ask.

"Yeah," the half-genie affirmed with a nod and sigh, shaking off as much of her frustration as she could in the moment.

"Yuppers," Rotty additionally confirmed with pep in her step. "And… while your presence will be sorely missed once you drop us off, Sky, feel better in knowing that two's company and three's a crowd anyway," she teased the falconer with a grin. At that, Sky scoffed.

"And already, I can tell you're especially excited about the idea of getting Shantae all to yourself for a few hours. Just try not to be a burden to her this time…" the bemused blonde advised with a sigh.

"Excuse you, Queen Caws-A-Lot," the undead maiden derisively shot back. "I'll have you know that I've grown and matured since the last time we all had to gather up and play superhero. If you were to join us on this quest, I'd show you up and make you question how useful you really were to the team."

"Yeah, well as your ONLY consistent mode of transportation to and from adventuring fields, I think you'd have a pretty tough time proving that in any meaningful capacity," Sky teased right back, chuckling as she did so. "That is, at least until Tayshan gets himself his own airplane. Only then, will I question my usefulness to our little hero squad. That, or I'll finally be able to take a load off when you start pestering HIM for rides all over the place instead of me."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a sec… YOU know Tayshan has a pilot's license, too, Sky!?" Shantae interrupted the bantering session to query.

"Yeah, he told me all about it before we went on vacation. You didn't know?"

"No!" the disgruntled genie yelled, her frustration with being left out of the loop growing. "I find it really weird how I'M the only one other than Bolo who didn't know that until today."

"Eh… Bolo knew before any of us did, actually," Rotty interjected, however uncomfortably she did so. This revelation did VERY little to soothe Shantae's agitation, of course, as she huffed and puffed, groaned, and rolled her eyes.

"…Okay, sure. Fine. MY boyfriend is a pilot all of a sudden, and somehow, EVERYBODY in town knows it but ME. Hmph," the genie complained, crossing her arms and pouting to the amusement of her companions.

"You can yell at him for it later, I'm sure," Mimic laughingly suggested. "In the meantime, you girls should head out sooner than later. We really don't want those Ammonian goons discovering something they shouldn't have any business dipping their paws into, and you'll want to find out what they're up to as soon as possible."

"Right…" Shantae acknowledged, shaking off her previous displeasure to refocus and turn her attention to her best friends. "Okay, I'm Ret-2-Go when you girls are."

"Still sticking with that childish catchphrase, are you?" Sky remarked with a laugh as the trio began to approach the front door, sending Shantae RIGHT BACK into a state of disgruntlement. "I figured you'd have long outgrown that by now."

"Well, excuse YOU, Sky! I'll have you know that that 'childish catchphrase' has caught on all over Sequin Land!" the half-genie made absolutely sure to inform her comrade.

"As I'm painfully aware. So many kids and teens are spouting it nonstop, no matter how far I go to try to get away from it." At that, Rottytops let out a humored giggle at her friends' silly bantering.

"And soon enough, I'll get you to start saying it, too. Just you watch," Shantae offered her challenge as the girls reached the door. She opened it, allowing Sky and Rottytops to step outside into the clear, sun-bathed town street. Before she herself stepped out, however… "See ya in a little bit, Uncle! Oh, and let us know what you found out about that Spirit Fuser fragment and the Astral Enhancement Tonic when we come back!"

"Sure thing, sweetheart! Best of luck on your quest!" Mimic bade with a wave as his guests departed, leaving him to continue his research as he resituated himself at his worktable. Meanwhile, Sky fed Wrench some of that magic bird seed that made him transform with a sudden, astonishing *GWAVWOOOONG* into his Giga Form. Climbing aboard, all three girls settled in on the avian behemoth's saddle and took off for the Crackling Crystal Castle's potential emergence site…

About an hour or so later…

The flight to the grounds of the Crackling Crystal Castle was long, though it would hardly be silent. Right as soon as they took off, the girls engaged in some much-needed girl talk about what had been carrying on within their group over the past couple of weeks. And judging by the agitation on a certain zombie's face, it appeared the girl talk was hardly pleasant…

"So, if you had a feeling things would go so poorly between you two, then why would you even bother giving him a chance?" Sky asked Rottytops as they soared through the cloudless skies on her giant sherbet-colored transport bird. "Even if you just wanted to make his 16th birthday more special, you could've saved yourself a lot of trouble by letting Bolo down easy and offering him something else as a 'gift.' Something less… extremely heavy on the emotional scale."

"I'd rather not spend this ENTIRE time talking about him, if you don't mind," Rotty rebutted, pouting as she held onto the saddle, seated behind Shantae.

"I get that, but I'd just like a little more context. You've been avoidant about the issue since the other day."

"What more do you need? Like I said, it was just a weird little instance of us indulging ourselves out of curiosity and nothing else," the irritated zombie retorted. "HE was the one who wanted to turn it into a relationship. And then when I give that no-good, rotten, two-timing sap a chance, he gets all in his feelings at every opportunity out of jealousy, and then he goes and shacks up with some mangy Leopard Gal the first chance he gets simply because he had a bad day that was somehow MY fault."

"Yeah, and he's never gonna hear the end of it for as long as any of us lives, but if it really WAS the case that you and Bolo were in the talking stage the past couple months, why did you spend so much of that time bullying him? You know how sensitive he is."

"I wasn't bullying him. I was treating him like I treat anybody I get closer to, and I thought he knew that," Rotty defended.

"With the track record you have, Rotty, you MAY want to think about changing your approach to making friends, much less scoring yourself a boyfriend," Sky offered her suggestion, though it was clear that the zombie maiden didn't take it well.

"And what's THAT supposed to mean!?" Rottytops hollered her question, glaring at the bird tamer as she did so.

"I mean that most people you get comfortable with, you do it so quickly that it makes the other person uncomfortable because they're not fond of how… overzealous you come across at times."

"Nuh-uh! Shantae wasn't uncomfortable with me when we became friends! Right, snack cakes?"

"Eh, I just kinda took it for what it was," the half-genie offered her input. "I had a feeling we'd make great friends, so there wasn't much to be uncomfortable with from the start."

"Exactly! See, Sky? Shantae agrees!" Rotty proclaimed as though she'd won the entire argument.

"Shantae is ONE person, Rottytops," Sky countered. "You started off on the rocks with everyone else in our group, and outside of us, you've found some pretty creative ways over the years to get people to avoid you like you have some form of incurable, contagious disease."

"Jeez, Sky, isn't that a little harsh to say?" Shantae queried, uncertain of how the remainder of the discussion would play out. "It isn't necessarily Rotty's fault that some people don't have the right idea about her. Most of the people who avoided her in the past didn't even give her a chance. And even those she may have hurt, she has gone out of her way to apologize to some of them, only for them to turn her away."

"I don't mean it that way, girl," the bird trainer assured. "And I totally get where you're coming from. But I have to be honest and impartial in this case, considering it's friend versus friend."

"How is telling me that I've been driving people away and making them uncomfortable enough that they avoid me like I'm sick with a contagious disease being 'honest and impartial,' Sky?" asked an increasingly agitated Rottytops. "I thought we were friends!"

"We ARE friends, Rotty. That's why I'm addressing this with you now instead of sitting on it until something worse happens," Sky assured to the best of her ability.

"Yeah, well I didn't exactly ask for your advice. And to be quite frank, the only one I started off 'on the rocks' with in our group is you. You don't speak for anyone else."

"Maybe not, but experience sure does," the falconer countered. "You and I have a PRETTY lengthy history of being at odds with each other, as you already know, but we eventually climbed over that mountain once we actually gave one another an honest chance. As for Bolo, you barely even talked to him until just a few months ago, and even then, all you did was make fun of him. Or rather, all you do is make fun of him. And then there's Tayshan…"

"Wh-what? What about Tayshan?" Rotty asked, suddenly tensing up as she anticipated Sky's follow-up statement.

"Um… Sky, I… I don't think you need to… er…" Shantae tried to intervene, though she couldn't exactly find the worlds as she found herself growing anxious. Seems she wanted to steer her friend away from a potentially sensitive topic, though the conversation continued…

"Well… You remember what happened when we saw him right after Risky Boots brainwashed him, don't you? The things he said to you?" Sky inquired with a twinge of uncertainty, immediately sending Rottytops's temper through the roof.

"Ugh, why do you have to bring THAT of all things up again!?" Rotty shouted, all the way disapproving of the broaching of the topic. "He only said those things because he was under the influence of Dark Magic and because he was mad at us at the time! He didn't mean any of it, and he apologized as soon as he got the chance, remember!? You really need to stop dragging that memory out of the dumpster you keep digging into to find it!"

"I don't like thinking about that day either, but the point still stands, Rotty."

"The point being…?"

"You've treated him WAY differently since that day," Sky pointed out. "You've been far more considerate and… dare I say, especially affectionate toward him, and you've been specifically seeking him out for hangouts A LOT more often than any of us would've expected, wraith status or not. Heck, you're even LIVING with him part-time now! That tells me that something he said to you back then really stuck with you and still sticks to this day… among other things, but I'll have to save my other questions for later…"

"That's not the entire story, but sure. Fine. I treat Tayshan like he's my one of my best friends because he is. What's the problem there?" Rotty demanded to know, not deflecting Sky's point as she… blushed through her angry frown.

"The problem is that when it comes to the boys, you're generally WAY nicer to Tayshan than you are to Bolo. The fact of the matter is that Bolo eventually picked up on it, and he got upset with you over it because he had the idea that you're basically treating Tayshan more like a boyfriend than you were treating him. And while Bolo's decision on how to deal with his frustration was absolutely AWFUL and completely inexcusable, we've gotta at least bring things into perspective to understand why things carried out this way. Mind you, I'm still FURIOUS at him, but you see where I'm coming from, no?"

"…Hrrmph…!" Shantae grumbled, wincing in stark discomfort as she… peculiarly looked away with something of a displeasured scowl on her face.

"Hmph. Well, Bolo should learn to suck it up, stop drawing conclusions, and stop being such a jealous crybaby simply because I have close friends other than him!" Rotty ranted on, only growing more agitated as they went along… despite the blush on her face deepening. "He's not getting an apology after cheating on me, Sky! I don't know what he told you for you to hold your stance, but he should have the guts to say it to my face instead of going through you!"

"Okay, Rotty, cool it," Shantae shook herself out of her stupor to intervene, patting the zombie maiden's leg. "And Sky, I think we've talked enough about this. If you don't mind, can you tell us more about what you saw of this Crackling Crystal Castle place instead?"

"We're already just about here, so there won't be much I can tell you that you won't see for yourselves once we make landfall," Sky informed as she pointed ahead to a small, vibrant archipelago isolated in the Sequin Land Sea. As soon as the girls took a gander at the incoming landing spot. At a glance, it became immediately apparent what they were looking for…

"Wow, the water surrounding this entire area is so glittery!" Shantae was the first to observe. "And just like we were told, it's… a very interesting shade of seafoam green…"

"Yeah, and it smells like soda pop and cotton candy out here, too!" Rotty additionally pointed out as she sniffed the air. "And check out all these giant bubbles! They're so thick! Makes me wonder if we can bounce off 'em…"

"I personally wouldn't be surprised," Sky remarked. "Of course, if you take a peek all the way at the other end of the archipelago here, you'll see a not-too-friendly looking blue battleship," she further warned. "On top of that, there are smaller ships and speedboats lined up along the perimeters of the other islands that seem to be doing patrols. For fear of there being snipers or other surface-to-air threats in the area, I can't get you girls too far in without risking Wrench's safety. I hope you don't mind getting to that ship on foot…"

"Nah, don't sweat it, girl," Shantae assured. "With as heavy as the Ammonian presence here is, I don't blame you one bit. And with most of it being sea-based, there's NO doubt in my mind that this is Nila's doing as opposed to Ammo Baron's…"

"Thanks for understanding," Sky offered her gratitude as she instructed Wrench to land on the sandy shoreline of the first of at least five compiled islands. As soon as the gigantic bird made his landing, the half-genie and her zombified sidekick hopped off with twin *PLOMPHs* of their feet in the sand and stretched to get themselves ready.

"We've got this. We should hopefully be done by the end of today, should we be fast enough," Shantae assured.

"I don't doubt that for a second. Alright, I'm off," Sky acknowledged with a salute as she got Wrench ready to take off once again. "Be careful out here, girls. And don't be afraid to whistle me back in for a pickup in case it gets too tough."

"No sweat, Sky," Rottytops assured with a determined pump of her fist. "This'll be easier than making Flesh Pops for zombie kids."

"Yyyeah, how about we DON'T explore that comparison any further. Best of luck, you two!" the bird tamer half-joked as she ordered Wrench to take flight. With a *FLOOOF* of his massive, multicolored wings, Sky's trusty avian partner achieved liftoff, carrying them across the horizon in a flash. And just like that, our indomitable dynamic duo of Shantae and Rottytops switched gears and looked ahead toward their goal.

"Alrighty, then… Back at it again," the half-genie casually remarked as she adjusted her ponytail to make sure it was in peak baddie-beating shape.

"That we are, snack cakes," the undead maiden agreed as she did a quick set of jumping jacks to get herself nice and pumped up as well. "How do you suppose we go about this one?"

"The same way we always do, though we should probably do our best not to draw too much attention to ourselves. One way or another, the Ammonian Army is gonna know we're coming, but we've gotta keep ourselves moving to avoid getting bogged down by their troops before we get to the big blue battleship. And if it turns out they ARE here waiting for the Crackling Crystal Castle to appear and they don't want to play nice by leaving it be for us, then we'll have no choice but to force them out of here. Chances are, that'll end up with us destroying the battleship."

"Sounds like a plan to me. And in case things get too hairy along the way, don't be afraid to ask a girl for a lift," Rotty advised as she confidently pointed a thumb toward herself. "I think I'm strong enough to carry you along, and… I'd venture to say I'm now the fastest of the two of us after all my intense training and my recently discovered new ability."

"Oh, is THAT a fact?" Shantae incredulously asked, taking the suggestion as a challenge.

"You sound like you don't believe me, snack cakes. Shall a footrace for old times' sake be the first phase of our little 'date' today?" Rotty teased, grinning with utmost faith in her skills. After a moment of thought…

"…As a matter of fact, yes," the genie girl smilingly agreed, evidently intrigued by the wager. "I don't mind mixing things up a little here, and now's a perfect opportunity. It's been a long time since we last raced each other, and I MAY need to remind you of how fast I can be."

"Okey doke! First one to the battleship wins! And just to sweeten the deal… If you win, I'll let you have my laminated, mint-condition copy of 'The S.U.G.A.R.S.', issue 147 with the original writer and artist-signed scripts for the first five issues in the back of it." At that, the half-genie's eyes glimmered with excitement as she gasped.

"Ooh-hoo-hoo, I've been trying to get my hands on THAT treasure for the last three years! You're on!" the ponytailed maiden accepted the challenge as she smirked and clashed her fists together.

"Ah-ah-ah~!" the zombie girl admonished with a wag of her finger. "Don't be so quick to assume I'm just gonna give such a priceless piece of history away, even to you. You haven't even heard the other half of the wager. Speaking of which, if I win…"

"What, you get dibs on my genie brain?" the genie flatly tried to guess.

"Of course not. I'm WAY past that by now," Rotty rebutted to Shae's surprise.

"Oh? Huh… Interesting… So, what do you want as a prize?"

"If I win… Then…" the zombie girl began, though she nervously hesitated for a moment as she glanced elsewhere. After some intense contemplation and a heavy sigh, she returned her attention to her friend. "Then you have to let Tayshan be my boyfriend for a day."

"WHAT!? Are you crazy!? No way, I'm not wagering that!" Shantae fervently refused, violently shaking her head to emphasize her point.

"Come on, don't be like that! I KINDA need the favor, and… he's the only guy I can trust to take up the task of making me feel better about you-know-what."

"That's what I thought THIS was for! What are you saying!? That I'm not good enough for you?"

"No way, babe! It's just that I want to have at least one great experience with both of you individually! Trust me, you're the girl of my dreams! In some senses, literally…" she admitted, though the nature of it threw Shantae ALL THE WAY off. And to be honest… I was right there with her. Such a confession is just… Way forward, y'know?

"…Oh. Uhhh… Ooookay…? Are… Are you about to confess something to me with the way you just worded that?" Shantae warily asked, tensing up as she anticipated her friend's answer. Reading the apprehension on the genie girl's face, Rotty… mischievously grinned as she seemed to conjure up an idea…

"Heh… Maybe…~" the zombie girl confirmed with a smiling wink as she locked her eyes on the object of her affection…

"Oh. Oh, wow, Rotty… um… I… huh…" Shantae stammered as she made an assumption, blushing furiously as she was caught off-guard by Rottytops's admission. "I… didn't think you'd let the rumors get to you like this… Are… Are you sure you actually feel that way toward me, even after everything we discussed about not letting other people's opinions change the way we see each other?"

"Heck yeah, I am! I couldn't be more certain, Shantae! Rumors or not, I… I can't hide my true feelings toward you anymore, and I'm glad we're FINALLY alone with each other for me to lay it all bare for you~!" Rottytops unabashedly answered as she grabbed the other girl's hands and held them. In response, Shantae grew even more flustered.

"…Uhhhh…" the poor genie droned as she gawked at Rottytops, silently questioning herself on if this was REALLY happening.

"But… just so there's no room for confusion, I want to actually put it into words while we have the chance… This is the perfect once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to get this off my chest after so long, so… Okay, here goes…" Rotty prepped herself as she took a deep breath before locking gazes with the other young woman as they stood mere inches away from one another, their fingers interlocked with one another. Uh-oh… Looks like things are about to take a MAJOR turn for the dramatic if this is going where I think it's going… I just wonder what'll happen when the others find out about this…

"Rottytops, just… slow down for a second, alright?" the thoroughly befuddled genie tried to request. "I get it that this is a really important moment for you, but you're really throwing a lot on me here… Um… A-and as flattered as I am that you're coming out to me, I-!"

"Shantae, I have finally come to terms with it after all the special times and wonderful experiences we've had together since we met. And I can't continue to lie to myself or keep my feelings a secret anymore… So… I… I confess…" Rotty finally gathered up the nerve to reveal, nearly causing Shae to freeze on the spot as her blush deepened to the point where she was liable to have the nastiest of nosebleeds if she wasn't careful… Nevertheless…

"…Confess what?" she anxiously asked, her heart thumping in her chest as she tried to process the impending declaration of love from her best friend… that possibly hinted that said 'best friend' wanted more…?

"Isn't it obvious? I confess that you are absolutely, totally beyond the scope of the universe, and with every single inch of my barely functioning heart, my bestest, best, BEST friend ever, and I could never imagine any other girl being in your spot, and I love you unconditionally!" Rotty finally came out in… uh… huh. Wait, what? That… wasn't what I was expecting. Hoo, boy… I… think I might've misinterpreted something here… Oh, my goodness…

"Okay, girl, I get it, you have feelings for me, but I-!" Shantae was ready to reply, though she was stopped dead as soon as she processed her best friend's statement. "…Wait. What?" she asked, evidently just as confused as I was. Glad to know I wasn't alone, or else that would've been TOTALLY embarrassing…

"I said you're my bestest best friend ever, silly! Jeez, did you SERIOUSLY think I was gonna drop a bombshell and admit to being IN LOVE with you? Hah! You're hilarious!" Rottytops teased, letting go of her bestest best friend's hands to guffaw in total amusement. Meanwhile, the mildly (read: extremely) embarrassed genie girl let out a highly disquieted groan, sulked and pouted.

"…Jeez… Way to jump to an awkward conclusion, Shantae… Ya walked RIGHT into that one…" the perturbed genie verbally reprimanded herself through her self-deprecating mumbling as she slapped a hand to her forehead.

"Come on, snack cakes, don't let people's speculations about us get into your head, too! You DO know I'm usually only joking when I suggest you and I actually become a couple, right?"

"No, you're not."

"Okay, true to a degree, but only because that's the only direction we COULD go in if we ever wanted to get any closer. I'm generally not into other girls, though, so we'd have to find some way to manage. We'd probably have to settle on like… some sort of Platonic Marriage-type of deal if we ever did want to put our connection on the books," Rotty ACTUALLY admitted this time, though Shae wasn't nearly as surprised. Didn't help much on the confusion bit, though…

"Uh-huh…" was all Shantae could think to reply with as she took a deep breath to calm her racing heart.

"Of course, there's also the fact that I'm not a two-timing homewrecker like a certain someone, and I would never want to mess up what you and stud muffin have together as ACTUAL romantic partners."

"…Which is why you figure that your 'threesome' suggestion is a good idea? Because like we've said to you time and time again, the love Tayshan and I have for you DOES NOT have to be romantic for it to be significant."

"No, I get that. The 'threesome' idea was actually a joke anyway… kind of," Rottytops clarified… or so she tried as she seemed to repent for her prank, though it only confused Shantae further. "Like I said before, two's company and three's a crowd. Tempting as the idea would be, and as much as I adore Tayshan, I know neither of you would realistically be on-board with it. Despite my teasing, I know where my boundaries are. Buuut, while we're on the topic, I… MAY have something else to share… I… just hope you don't get mad at me for this…"

"…At this point, Rotty, I think I'm too confused to be mad at anything else you have to throw at me. So, go ahead. What is it?"

"…I… um… I MIGHT er… have… a… um…" she tried to confess once again, though she found herself surprisingly nervous. Before too long, and after breathing out a heavy sigh, she tried again. "I… I admit that I genuinely need major support here because of how bad this situation has hurt me, and I'm just… like, I dunno, I just feel like you and stud muffin are my only consistently reliable sources of that support. As much as I appreciate Sky, I don't like that she's so darn preachy at times when I just need someone to listen to me instead of trying to 'fix' everything before I'm ready to."

"Ohh. I see…" the half-genie acknowledged with an understanding nod. "She means well, Rotty, so I hope you don't read her efforts as her not liking you for who you are. Sky's just trying to help."

"No, I totally get that. I just don't find myself fond of her approach. I'd strongly prefer to talk to you and Tayshan. On that note, though… Come to think of it, maybe I should've worded my wager a little bit better. I meant to say that if I win our race, you would have to… let me borrow him for a day, just as you and he agreed to let me 'borrow' you for today…?"

"Ah. Well, why didn't you say that at the start?" Shantae remarked, her previous discomfort melting away almost instantly as she breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "I could never be mad at you for having your preferences for who to talk to in a time of need. If there's anything that comes to mind that you wanna hash out, Rotty, then don't be afraid to tell me."

"Absolutely. Thank you, Shantae…"

"Yep! Of course, I'm still not gonna make it easy for you to win a date with my boyfriend, so I hope you don't mind making your peace with that comic book once I'm done making you eat my dust…"

"Ohh, now THEM'S is fightin' words, girlie," Rotty accepted the challenge, the fire igniting in her core as the girls got themselves into position next to each other like they were ready to begin a track race. "Fine, then…! Let's get this show on the road…"

"You said it. Now, then… Ready…"

"Set…"

"ZOOM AND BOOM!" both young ladies announced in unison as they took off sprinting like racecars ready to seriously BURN some rubber. Kicking up the sand like their feet were the propellers on speedboats, the hyperactive heroines DASHED ahead, eager to see which one of them would truly hold the title of the fastest woman alive… or at least, the fastest woman in general in Rottytops's case. Speaking of whom, the zombie maiden took an early lead, handily outpacing her teammate.

"Whoa…! Shoot, she's a lot faster than she used to be…" Shantae was quick to notice as she did her best to adjust to the surprisingly difficult task of contending with her racing rival.

"What's the matter, snack cakes? Feeling a little sluggish today?" Rotty taunted, immediately growing comfortable as she steadily created distance between them. Shantae, however, wouldn't take the insult lying down.

"Grrgh…! Don't count me out so soon! HRRRAAAH!" the half-genie hollered as she really put some juice into those capable legs of hers. And just like that, Shantae managed to start closing the distance as she remained absolutely determined to win.

"Hah! If you're already struggling to keep up THIS early on, then I've got this in the bag! Buh-byeeee~!" Rotty taunted once again, clocking it up another notch as she put all her focus on getting to their designated goal with as little issue as possible. The indomitable Half-Genie Hero would not be outdone so easily, however, as she pushed even harder to get an early advantage. It was at this point that the apparent rivals REALLY started blazing trails as they went zipping across the first island… which, mind you, had to be at least two miles long from where they started. And at the pace they were running, they were going to cover the distance in under three minutes. THREE MINUTES, I tell ya! The average person runs a mile in TEN minutes, just to give you a frame of reference. A seasoned athlete? FIVE. Take that as you will, but also take my word that these ladies were clocking some SERIOUS speed. And as they zipped by and dedicated themselves to completing this impromptu marathon, the girls quicky caught the attention of some Ammonian soldiers scoping the place out in wading speedboats.

"H-hey! We've got contacts!" one of the soldiers could be heard yelling to his comrades as he spotted the girls blasting across the island at speeds rivaling cheetahs on caffeine. Upon taking a look through his binoculars, however… "It's the Half-Genie! She's onto us! Activate Operation: L.A.M.P.!" he further commanded, prompting a LARGE multitude of other seacraft to converge around the first island in preparation for an invasion they had evidently expected. With various *VROOOOMs* and *VWEERRRRRRs* of boat engines firing up and revving like no tomorrow, the Ammonian faction prepared themselves to take a solid stand against their unwelcome visitors. They also wasted ZERO time setting up all kinds of firepower from rifles to bombs to MACHINE GUNS mounted on the bows of their boats.

"Shoot, it looks like they already know we're here…!" Shantae noticed, hearing the commotion as she and Rottytops reached the end of the first island in the blink of an eye. They were immediately faced with what had to be a mile-long, watery gap between the first island and the second that was plugged up by Ammonian seacraft with firearms galore aimed squarely at them. The other thing they were faced with… was a series of shiny, colorful floating bubbles that, interestingly enough, remained stationary instead of floating around anywhere. "Rotty! Be careful! The Ammonian Army's gone on the offensive!"

"No sweat! HAAAAH!" the zombie maiden confidently acknowledged as she, with a MIGHTY push of her legs, leapt off the edge of the impending cliff. Seeming to be expecting something other than a watery grave down below, Rottytops purposely aimed her jump toward a bubble she spotted. "Here's to hoping this works…!" she prayed as she braced for impact… which came in the form of an INCREDIBLY bouncy *BWABWOOORF* of her back against the bubble she landed on that sent her zipping upward and forth. This was followed by her being bounced off of a second bubble that sent her even higher, but in the opposite direction with another *BWABWOOORF*, and then once more where she was propelled forward with one more *BWABWOOORF* that sent her ROCKETING ahead with more than enough hangtime to clear the gap and make it to the second island. "WHAAAHOHOHOHOOOOH!" she cheered, having been propelled upward and VERY far forward as she went somersaulting through the air. Her trip wouldn't exactly be the safest, however, as the Ammonian seacraft in the area immediately opened fire with rapid *RATTATATTATs* and *PLAKOWs* of their firearms.

"Wha-! Darn it! YAAAH!" Shantae cursed as she pressed a finger to her tiara's gem to activate her Crimson Laser attack. Meanwhile, she charged up two sizable fireballs and flung them with *FWOOORSH* after *FWEEEESH* at the Ammonian soldiers trying to shoot Rottytops down from the air. And with two mountainous *KARPWOOOORSHes*, Shantae set two of the boats ablaze, causing their passengers to jump overboard to avoid being caught up in the flames. Meanwhile, she fired a stunning *KAKWAAAAARSH* of her Crimson Laser attack at another Ammonian boat just as she made the same leap of faith that Rottytops did moments earlier. With a deafening *KRABWOOMBLOOOOM*, the unlucky vessel she aimed at EXPLODED in a blaze of chaos that saw its passengers flung from it and into the sparkling, discolored waters below. Rather than marvel at her small victories, the half-genie kept her attention on the race. Bouncing off the bubbles with *BWABWOOORF* after *BWABWOOORF* after *BWABWOORF* herself, Shantae was flung high and far, somersaulting all the way before landing with a solid *PWOFF* of her feet against the sandy ground on the second island.

"Took ya long enough to get here, snack cakes!" Rotty remarked, having been running in place as she awaited her partner.

"Sorry, I got a little distracted back there," Shae remarked, however sarcastically as the girls kept on running alongside one another. "I'm surprised you stuck by long enough for me to catch up, though."

"Yeah, because these blue-coated bozos are totally mag dumping on us!" the undead maiden pointed out as more shots could be heard ringing out from multiple directions. The urgency of the matter for the girls became more apparent when *Pwiings* and *Pwocks* of bullets hitting the sand around them kept on popping up. "Much as I want to win this race, I think it's just as important to be in one piece when I do!"

"Hm. Well, we're just gonna have to mix it up between keeping our friendly competition going and keeping Ammo Baron's goons off our backs. That is, unless you want to postpone it and stick by me for protection."

"No way! I don't need you holding my hand for this!" Rotty rebuffed to Shantae's surprise once more. "I'm also not going to quit when I was winning. Oh, and let it be known that this'll be the ONLY time you get a freebie from me, Shae-Shae. Next time you fall behind, I'm totally SMOKING you," Rotty teased.

"Wow, you sure are confident in yourself. In that case, fine. Don't be afraid to holler for me if you need me for an assist, though. Seriously."

"That's exactly what I'll try to avoid doing if you don't mind it. I can't expect you to come to my rescue all the time, and it's about time I show you what I learned while you were away." And on that note, the girls nodded at each other before turning forward to keep on sprinting into a modestly vegetated, rocky field of grass as their trek took them up a zigzagging trail. They would quickly find opposition in the form of Ammonian soldiers popping up from bushes and trees alike trying to light them up with further *RATTATATs* of gunfire from all sorts of firearms.

"Looks like they're not just out at sea… In that case, BUBBLE!" Shantae observed and announced, channeling her magic just enough to summon an azure force field with an arcane *VWOOM* that blocked every bullet that had a chance of hitting her. Meanwhile, she and Rottytops did their best to avoid all manner of obstacles that included suspicious bottomless pits with crumbling floating platforms hovering over them, tree stumps, and the occasional firebomb thrown at them that, with haphazard *KAPWAAAARSHes*, burned away grass that the girls had to jump over as they neared the top of the massive hill they were sprinting up. One particular worry for them, however, was yet to come until…

"WAH!" Rottytops bellowed as she snagged her foot on a suspicious bit of conveniently placed tripwire tied between two bushes. Barely keeping her footing, she stumbled forth and pushed herself back up while the bubble-protected Shantae raced ahead of her. "Shoot…! She's getting away… Huh? What is-?" she was about to ask before a deafening *KRABWOOOM* of a bomb going off behind her startled her nearly into stopping. She needed only to glance back as she kept her pace to recognize that the bushes, in addition to a tree next to them, had been turned into a pile of smoldering ash in an instant. "Trip mines? Wow, you creeps are playing EXTRA dirty…!" she complained as she looked ahead and hopped over another bottomless pit onto a floating platform. With a most predictable *KRAKRAKRUMMMBLE*, the platform disintegrated almost immediately, forcing her to hurriedly hopscotch her way over the next three before her feet met solid ground again. There, she would be met with a swath of Ammonian soldiers rushing out of the bushes to stop her. Some of them tried going after Shantae, but they were quickly dispatched with a *KRAKAZAAAAP* of a lightning bolt she fired from her fingers as she kept on charging forth.

"Get the zombie! She's the easy target!" an Ammonian affiliate was heard commanding his platoon as they formed a blockade in front of her with their guns drawn.

"Oh, is THAT what you morons think? In that case, I'd better prove you all DEAD wrong!" Rottytops challenged, reaching into her top and… pulling out an enormous, circular, metallic black shield with a silver outline that sported an image of two dragons, one ruby and one sapphire, circling around each other. Wow… That is one FANCY shield… E-er, anyway, Rotty slipped her hand through the handle of the shield and… "COMING THROUGH! ZOMBIE ZOOM!" she announced as she was suddenly encased in a *SHWEEERSH* of Light Magic. And in that exact moment, the zombie girl DOUBLED her speed to where she could realistically rival a speeding SPORTSCAR! And despite the numerous *PLICKs*, *PLANGs*, *TWOOOMs*, and *PLACKPLACKPLACKs* of the soldiers' bullets against her shield, they had no hope of stopping her. Before any of the gunmen could even protect themselves by moving out of the way once they realized the danger, Rotty went SMASHING into them with a most DEVASTATING *KAPLAAAAANG* of the shield's surface against the face of one particularly unlucky soldier. Others were knocked flat on their behinds from the sheer, unadulterated force of the shield bash. Undeterred, Rotty carried on as the glow around her body dissipated, at which point she lifted her shield over her head to fling an Ammonian soldier off of it.

"GWAAAAaaah…!" the soldier screamed as he was sent hurtling away behind his would-be target.

"Hmph. Serves you right…!" the determined young Olympic sprinter that was Rottytops remarked as she finally reached the end of the second island… to see Shantae already bouncing across the sparkling, multicolored bubbles while flinging more fireballs at the ships trying to shoot her down. *KAFWEEEERSH* after *FWOOOOORSH*, the half-genie set more of the besieging ships ablaze as she pinballed her way over to the next island. What especially caught Rotty's attention, however, was the monstrous *KAKWAAARSH* of a light-speed laser beam her best friend fired that went RIPPING through a larger ship in the distance. The resultant fiery *KRABWOBLOBLOBLOBLOBWOOOM* of the ship nearly stunned the zombie girl stiff before she recognized she had to keep moving.

"FOR GOODNESS' SAKE, KEEP THESE FREAKISH FEMME FATALES AWAY FROM NILA'S WARSHIP!" a female Ammonian officer could be heard shouting in frustration as a fusillade of *RATTATATTATs*, *KAPOWs*, and *KRATWOOOMs* of all kinds of guns continued to go off with the rounds completely missing their airborne target at every angle. Shantae, not at all hindered, gracefully twirled and somersaulted through the hurricane of bullets without so much as being grazed by a single round.

"She's as amazing as ever… but I'm not gonna let her keep treating me like deadweight! HYAAAH!" Rotty hollered in determination, sprinting off the cliff and swan diving onto a particularly huge bubble that sent her BEAMING upward and forward with another *BWABWOOORF*, followed by a second *BWABWOOORF* that sent her hurtling backward, a third that sent her upward and forth again, a fourth one that… would've sent her bulleting toward the surface of the third island before the *KRATWOOOM* of an explosive being fired he distance sounded off. And with the subsequent *KRABWABWOOORSH* of the fourth bubble exploding upon the projectile's impact with it, Rotty was immediately blown off-course. "WHOAWAAAAHAHAHAAAAAAH!" the understandably panicked young woman hollered as she found herself lobbed through the air with naught but the shield to break her very, VERY lengthy fall.

"She's vulnerable! FIRE AT WILL!" the same Ammonian officer commanded. And on command, they LIT the air up with a MASSIVE storm of bullets that rang out with an extensive series of *PAPLOWs*, *RATATTATs*, and *BANGs* that should've spelled the end for everyone's favorite zombie… were it not for the shield she instinctively put under herself as she tried to figure out where to land. *PLACK* after *TWOOM* after *TINKTINKTINK*, each of the soldiers' rounds found themselves ricocheting off the shield in various directions.

"Thank you, thank you, THANK you for this Draco-Steel Shield, stud muffin…!" she thanked her absent, equally undead friend as she clung tightly to the defensive device and gauged her trajectory. "I'll make it at this rate, but they definitely did NOT make it a smooth landing for me…! At the very least, the next area slopes downward. Here's to hoping this works…" she murmured as she crouched, tucked herself in, and held the shield under her knees as she began to rapidly lose altitude. The Ammonian soldiers hadn't stopped firing, though their angles made it difficult for them to land anything but *TWANG* after *TWAK* of ricocheted bullets on the shield. Mind you, she'd begun to fall so fast that as she cleared the gap to the next section, it became apparent that she was beginning to lose her head… literally, as she had to plop her hand into her hair to keep from coming apart. Nevertheless, and with what had to be PURE LUCK on her side, Rottytops survived the flight over to the next island… if only just barely, as she hit the sandy ground with a DENSE *PAPLAWWNG*, sending her toppling over herself with the shield being flung up and over her.

"Hm? Where's Rottytops?" Shantae asked as she looked around, already sliding down the hill as though she was simply riding a slide at a playground. She occasionally leaned side to side as she kept up her momentum, weaving through heavy traffic to avoid incoming boulders, more bottomless pits, and a smattering of suspicious glowing spots in the sand that looked like they had no form of good result if interacted with. She'd additionally jumped over some of the obstacles when she didn't have enough time to dodge them, though she cost herself speed with each jump. Shantae wouldn't have to wait long to get her answer regarding Rotty's whereabouts, of course…

"GWAAA-! OOF! GACK! AHAWGH! OUCH! Gobologoblobloblogh!" the danger prone Rottytops grunted, groaned, and hollered in pain as she rolled and tumbled down the extremely long, extremely steep hill, somehow keeping from falling apart as she tucked and rolled. She would be spared an ENTIRELY painful trip, however, when the Draco-Steel Shield landed facedown with a soft *Plawng* in front of her at JUST the right angle to catch her. "WAAH! OOGH!" Rotty grunted once more, having found herself plopping on her behind ON THE SHIELD as it careened down the obstacle-heavy mountainside. "Ooh… Man, what a heart-stopping ride THIS is…" she mumbled as she took the moment to recollect herself and recognize where she was going. As soon as she did so, she spotted Shantae sliding down the hill just ahead. "Thankfully, I didn't fall too far behind… Come on, shield, don't fail me now…!" Rotty urged herself as she carefully rose to a stand and balanced herself to ride the shield like… L-like a SNOWBOARD as she held her arms out from her sides for further stability. Immediately afterward, Rotty leaned ahead and began hurriedly steering the shield/board past a plethora of pits, boulders, and glowing spots as she rapidly picked up speed. It took no more than a few seconds for her to catch up to her purple-haired opponent… and then ZOOM past her in the blink of an eye.

"What the-!? HEY!" Shantae complained, both surprised and displeased to see that she lost the lead.

"Yes! Rotty's back on Top…s! See ya~!" Rottytops punned with a grin as she turned around and blew a kiss at her rival. Immediately afterward, she focused herself as she gunned it (no pun intended) the rest of the way down the hill.

"D'oh, you…! There's no way I'm losing to you! You hear me!?" the half-genie yelled with a shake of her raised fist as she tried to figure out a way to gain speed without a shield of her own. She would receive something of a saving grace when an incoming Ammonian biplane approached from above with a *WHIRRRRR* of its engine. It went without saying that the plane's operators had no form of good intention for her, as one of them took aim at her with a mounted turret. "Hm. I have to act quickly on this, but I just might have an idea on how to even the playing field…" Shantae murmured as she pressed her fingers to her tiara gem once more to activate its charge with another ominous *Ooooowweeeeeeeeeessssh*. Meanwhile, the plane's passenger tried to gun her down with a startling *PAKAPAKAPAKAPAKAKPAKAPAKAPAKA* of the turret aimed directly at her. Adapting almost immediately, Shantae bobbed and weaved through the gunfire while also hopping over another pit and sliding through a congregation of giant boulders along the way.

"Consarn it, this ornery genie is harder to catch than an oil-soaked snake in an ice rink!" the turret gunner complained as he quickly ran out of ammunition and had to reload. They wouldn't get the chance to do so, however, when…

"Now's my chance! CRIMSON LASER, GO!" the determined genie announced as she locked her gaze on the plane. With another astonishing *KAKWAAAARSH*, Shantae fired another beam of concentrated light at her assailants. She managed to strike the wing of the plane with a *PWATAAANG*, slicing it clean off as it separated into chunks on the way down.

"Shoot, we're hit! Eject! EJECT!" the pilot shouted as she pulled a lever and was immediately propelled out of the plane, seat and all. The passenger followed suit, also pulling a lever to be shot out of the smoking airborne vehicle just before it began to careen to the side, spiraling toward the mountain at breakneck speed. The would-be aerial assaulters were quick to activate their parachutes to float to safety while the plane smashed right into the top portion of the mountain with a glorious *KRABWOOOOOM*. Shantae's attention was not on the plane itself, however, but the rectangular fragment of the wing she shot off of it that landed near her feet as she continued her haphazard slide.

"Alright…" she murmured to herself, snatching the wing fragment from the sand before jumping high over another collection of boulders. As she sailed over the crags, she adjusted herself by sticking the apparent makeshift snowboard under her feet and bracing herself before she landed with a *PLOPH* onto the sand mountain's surface. "Yes! Now, we're moving!" she cheered as she leaned ahead while instantaneously getting used to her new board. Weaving, hopping, and slipping past all manner of obstacles, Shantae totally shredded this mountain as she put all her effort into catching up to Rottytops. The girls showed nothing but grit, valor, and ingenuity as they also kept this red-hot competitive streak going between them. Shantae, through no small amount of effort in narrowly avoiding the obstacles, eventually began to close the distance as the two of them neared the base of the mountain.

"Oh! About time you caught up, slowpoke!" Rottytops excitedly taunted as she glanced back to see her best friend gaining on her.

"Keep that same energy up when I blast past you, Rotty!" the motivated genie shot back as they both were sent hurtling through the air over one final, MASSIVE trench in the mountain that served as the final obstacle… or rather, the penultimate obstacle of this section, as there appeared to be a MASSIVE assortment of flashing yellow spots waiting for them at the shoreline below. "Oh, no…! There are landmines ALL OVER the beach! We've gotta be careful on how we land!"

"Shoot, you're right…! Here, grab my hand! I've got an idea!" Rotty offered as she reached toward Shantae. The half-genie quickly abandoned her board and stretched forth to complete the connection as they began to lose altitude.

"Gotcha! Alright, what do you have in mind?" she asked as the zombie girl pulled her onto the Draco-Steel Shield with her.

"You'll see!" Rotty suggested as she used her free hand to pull her own head off with a *POP* and fling it forth as hard as she could across the mine-infested beach toward a section that appeared to have no glowing yellow spots.

"W-whoa, hey! Why are you trying to teleport now!? We're not on solid ground!" Shantae pointed out in notable shock as she nearly began to panic. Yet, as soon as Rotty's disembodied head landed on the spot she aimed for, a swirling purple portal emerged from within the shield… and from the portal, a series of skeletal hands came spewing forth to grab both girls. "Wait, WHAT!? Her Head Warp wo-!?" she tried to ask before the hands pulled them in and dragged them through! The shield was left soaring through the air.

Down Below…

"It worked! Okay, here we come!" Rottytops's head spoke as she prepared for landing… I think? Within an instant, the crafty zombie's body emerged with a *WHISHOOW* from a second portal that spawned beneath her head alongside the entirety of her flabbergasted genie teammate.

"Whoa…! How… How did you do that!?" Shantae questioned in awe as she shook off her disorientation from the sudden interdimensional trip. "I thought your Head Warps only worked when you were standing still on solid ground!"

"I've figured out that as long as there's something under my feet to warp through, even while it's airborne, I can get it to work. Of course, we've only got a few seconds before that shield comes crashing down onto this mine-filled beach! Got any ideas of your own on how to get us to the next island?" Rotty shared, pointing toward the rapidly descending shield.

"Wha-!? You should've mentioned that BEFORE we teleported!" Shantae admonished before hurriedly putting on another show of rapidly and captivatingly gyrating those bodacious hips of hers as she stretched her arms out to her sides. "TRANSFORM!" she further announced as she morphed into Harpy-Shantae with a *POOF* and crouched. "Climb on!"

"Roger!" Rottytops obliged, taking her spot on Harpy-Shantae's back as the hybrid genie flared her wings and hastily achieved liftoff with a *FLOOF* of her wings. They had BARELY managed to get far enough away from the island as the abandoned Draco-Steel Shield landed on the beach with a metallic *PLANG* against an equally sturdy surface… that wound up exploding with a deafening *BABWOOOM* that caused a chain reaction of other mine detonations across the increasingly gnarled beach. *BABWOOOM* after *BABWOOOM* after *BABWOOOM* after enormous *BABWOOOOOOOOOM*, the lush, sandy shore of the third island's beach was momentarily turned into an on-the-ground fireworks display, smoke, chunks of rock, shrapnel, and sand kicking up everywhere. The explosions only lasted a few seconds, but they did YEARS' worth of irreversible damage to the beach all the same. Interestingly enough, the Draco-Steel Shield was sent RIPPING through the air toward the next island without anyone noticing. The girls' troubles wouldn't end just yet, however…

"Uh-oh… They're upping the pressure! I can't stay in this form for long if we expect to get out of this unharmed, so be prepared to use these bubbles to get to the fourth island!" Harpy-Shantae warned as she quickly took notice of a brigade of Ammonian ships congregating across either side of the fourth island of the archipelago to let out droves of Ammonian foot soldiers with weapons. And man, oh, MAN did it look like they meant business.

"Wow, they are NOT kidding around now…" Rotty observed as she gripped her teammate's shoulders tighter. Her point would be further proven when a *DWOORSH* of a long-range rifle being fired caught their attention. The following *Fweeerzh* of a high-caliber bullet whizzing past them further alerted our heroes that they were as far from safe as possible in the air. "Yow! Snack cakes, they're packing sniper rifles! We need to get down!"

"I'm aware of that!" Harpy-Shantae acknowledged as the *Zhwiiiing* of another bullet zipped past her wing. "Shoot…! I could use my Sonic Screech here, but it'd leave me wide open…! No choice, then…!" she murmured before coming to a conclusion while dodging the *RATTATTATTATs* of more bullets from other guns zipping past them. "Rotty!"

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna change back to normal! Pick a bubble to bounce on and get ready to jump!"

"Aw, I had a feeling you'd say that…! Darn it…! Here goes! HWAAAAAH!" the impulsive zombie announced as she immediately leapt off her friend's back to a giant orange bubble directly below. Right after Rotty bounced off that specific bubble with a *BWABWOORF* to be launched up toward a bubble directly upward, she was bounced with another *BWABWOOORF* downward toward a bubble ahead, and then a third bubble directly above that one, and then up and backward toward one more, particularly GIGANTIC bubble waiting just for her. And with a much denser, much lower-toned *BWABWOBWOOOORFF*, Rottytops was flung well over the distance of an entire football field toward the fourth island. During the bouncy trek, however, the Ammonian defenders made sure to shoot down every bubble their enemy touched right as she bounced off of them with *KRAKABWOOOORRF* after *KRAWOWABWOOOOF* after earsplitting *PRAKAKABWOOORGH* of their rounds and explosives against them.

"HEY! At least let me COUNT DOWN before you ju-!" she was about to yell before another *DWOORSH* and *Fwooom* cut her off. The incoming bullet missed her head by mere INCHES, startling her back into focus as she took on evasive maneuvers and scoured the surrounding area for a bubble of her own. She would find none, however, as the Ammonian army grew wise to their strategy and began shooting down all the bubbles in the vicinity with even more reverberating *KABWOOORFFs* and *PRAKABWOOOORGHs* all around. "Hmph…! Fine, then… I was TRYING to make this more fun, but you guys HAD to go and spoil that for me… Way to totally burst my bubble…" she complained… a-and punned, evidently not at all bothered that there were swarms of crazed gunmen trying to utterly DECIMATE her with storms of bullets and bombs, but more concerned about them sucking the fun out of her insane footrace… Man, these Sequin Land heroes are built different… Nevertheless, Harpy-Shantae went bulleting (again, no pun intended) through the air as she braved another storm of gun rounds, twirling and rolling through as she homed in on the surface of the next island like a nosediving airplane. Within the next few seconds, the half-genie zipped over the blockade of Ammonian soldiers awaiting her on the beach before finding a spot to land before she transformed back to her human self with a *POOF*.

"Not so fast, genie girl! You've taken your last steps toward our ba-!" an Ammonian soldier shouted, aiming his gun at his intended target. The 'target' in question, however, hadn't even paid them any further mind as she looked on ahead at the sprinting zombie girl RAPIDLY creating distance between them. At just a glance, Rottytops was busy charging through spurts of gunfire and explosions using the giant dragon shield she'd previously dropped, hopping over landmines, bubbles, and spike pits alike.

"Darn it, she's WAY faster than I gave her credit for…! I've gotta figure out something quick if I expect to win this race…!" Shantae urged herself as she took off sprinting after her racing adversary as fast as she could.

"HEY! LISTEN TO ME WHEN I'M THREATENING YOU!" the Ammonian commander demanded with a shake of his fist, though his not-so-humble request fell on deaf ears. "Argh, these dainty, ditzy dunderheads are making a total MOCKERY of us! That's it…!" he further complained before pulling out a blue walkie-talkie to radio into someone. With a *SKZZZT*, his connection had been made. "Lieutenant Sam Mann to Admiral Nila. I repeat: Lieutenant Sam Mann to Admiral Nila. Over."

"What is it, Lieutenant?" the voice of the sea captain herself came through the other end of the transceiver.

"We've got hostiles hot on our trail. Two punk teenage girls, believe it or not. They're smashing through our fleet like they've got a MAJOR grudge against us. Looks like they're gunning straight for your battleship, and they're not keen on letting anything stop them."

"What? If this isn't some sort of ill-timed prank, then you'd better have a DARN good reason for not being able to stop two idiot KIDS from infiltrating our scouting site! What 'two punk teenage girls' are you talking about?" Nila asked, some notable level of apprehension in her voice.

"If I'm not mistaken, one of them is the so-called Half-Genie Hero, Shantae. The other, I think is one of her weird friends. I didn't get a good look at her, but I could've sworn she had green skin. Most likely a zombie. They're on their way to your location, and it's abundantly clear they're not here just to sightsee."

"SHOOT! Shantae and that miserable, mindless, meat-munching REVENANT are here!? OF ALL PEOPLE!" Nila hollered in a panic loud enough that it made Lieutenant Sam Mann flinch in shock. "Hashanah warned me that someone would come sniffing around if they spotted us here… For it to be THOSE two means serious trouble… Where are they now?" she asked just as an extremely startling *KRABWOOMBWOMBOMBOMBOMMMM!* rang out in the distance. When the Ammonian official looked in the direction, he was graced with the sight of four medium-sized battleships bursting into flames while the two teenage girls in question hopped from ship to floating bubble to ship, blasting and crashing through everything in sight as they sent droves of Ammonian soldiers running and swimming away like panicked schoolchildren.

"They're… about to be right at your front door. They just demolished K0414 vessels five through nine in no time flat… Unbelievable…!"

"Arrrgh, DARN IT! Looks like I'll have to deal with them myself before they completely wreck the few remaining ships we have left…! Tell the rest of the fleet to stand down! I'll handle them when they invite themselves into Blue Barbara…!" Nila advised, taking the news VERY seriously. "And while you're at it, make sure to get a damage report. I already know they must've made a giant mess of our fleet by now…!"

"Copy that, Admiral. Give 'em a fight they won't live long enough to regret picking with Sector K0414," Lieutenant Sam Mann encouraged his leader before cutting contact and switching the frequency on his transceiver. And with another *SKZZZT*… "K0414 Vessels ten through thirteen! Fall back! I repeat! Fall back! Direct orders from the Admiral! Do NOT engage the hostiles headed toward Blue Barbara! DO NOT ENGAGE!"

"Copy that, Lieutenant. Pulling back now," a female voice acknowledged through the transceiver. Immediately following the command, numerous boat and ships alike began sailing away from the final island of the archipelago, leaving the oddly named S.S. Blue Barbara unguarded at the naval leader's request.

"Hmph… I'd never have thought we'd fallen so far as a military superpower that we can't seem to deal with that deplorable genie, no matter WHAT we do…!" Sam Mann griped, gritting his teeth as he clutched his transceiver in his hand like he was going to crush it.

"I must agree, sir," another Ammonian soldier shared his opinion. "However, we should be so lucky that it's her and one of her weaker allies we're dealing with this time, and not the merciless, darkness-consumed freak of nature she calls her lover… Elsewise, we most likely wouldn't be alive to tell the tale of what happened here…"

"…Hm. Some silver lining that is, Private, but I cannot deny your point… May the many soldiers who perished that fateful day find eternal peace…" Sam Mann acknowledged with a sigh and instinctive gulp. Huh… For these guys to be so scared of Shantae and her friends… and especially Tayshan… it certainly made me wonder just what sort of nightmarish encounters they had, but one can only presume it left some pretty heavy scars on the Ammonian Army that likely haven't even begun to heal yet. Hm… A thought for another time. We've still got a race to see through to the end, so let's not waste another second!

Up ahead…

"Looks like I'm at the home stretch!" Rottytops cheered as she was sent propelling forth with another *BWABWOOORF* of a bubble toward the surface of the fifth and final island. With an emphatic *PLOPH* of her sneakers on the exceptionally tall grass, the zombie girl made her grand entrance as she spotted an entire squadron of Ammonian soldiers lined up like they were going to block her way. Only… rather than take up arms to attack, they oh-so-kindly (by which, I mean very cautiously) stepped aside and cleared the path for her. "Huh…? What gives? Why are you guys backing off like this? Are you finally realizing you can't stop us?" the zombie asked in understandable confusion as she raised an eyebrow and looked around. She wouldn't get much time to ponder, however, as another *PLOMPH* of a second pair of feet impacted the grassland.

"Whew…! Gosh, you are DEFINITELY giving me a run for my money, Rotty," Shantae remarked as she sprinted forth. "But I'm far from done! You won't beat me!"

"WAH! Sh-shoot, I'd better step on it…!" the surprised zombie girl urged herself as she turned ahead and put all her power into her legs with every step she took. And while it seemed Rottytops was safe initially, her advantage quickly began to slip away as the determined half-genie picked up the pace. As she clocked it into overdrive herself, Rotty's first of many obstacles came in the form of a mile-long, mile-wide trench that housed a GIGANTIC bed of wooden spikes. She wouldn't be deterred by the foreboding sight, however, as she quickly spotted a collection of bubbles and floating platforms scattered across the air directly above the pit that seemed to split into two different paths. "Heh… I've got this…!" she confidently assured herself as she sped up. And with the MIGHTIEST leap of faith imaginable, Rottytops long jumped over the pit, landing on a stony platform that quickly began to crumble away as she landed on it. Realizing her need to think and act quickly, she then basically swan dived off the platform onto a bubble that sent her careening upward with a reverberating *BWABWOOORF* into another bubble that, with a second *BWABWOOORF*, propelled her onto another floating platform with a *PLACK* of her feet against it. Not daring to look back, Rotty hopped across the descending platforms while running at full speed before finding another series of bubbles.

"YAH!" she shouted as she flung herself over the edge of the platform to hit the next spherical bounce pad. *BWABWOOORF* after *BWABWOOORF*, Rotty was sent hurtling forward, then upward and backward, then upward, then forward again before finally being sent forward and downward toward solid ground as she tucked and rolled upon impact with the ground. Shaking off any disorientation she might have felt, she kept on sprinting. "Looks like we've still got a bit to go, but I can definitely do this if I keep up a solid pace…!" she encouraged herself as she raced forth toward the next series of obstacles. Figuring she was able to create a comfortable amount of distance between herself and Shantae by this point, she glanced back… only to see the half-genie in question still nipping at her ankles. "What!? Shoot, she's still gaining on me…!"

"Goodness, she's TORCHING me right now…! I really need to kick it into high gear…!" Shantae acknowledged, panting hard as she locked her gaze ahead. As the ponytailed maiden worked on closing the distance between herself and her zombified rival, Shantae also quickly took note of the next series of obstacles as the gigantic island began to slant downward. She watched Rottytops veer to the right and dash into a forest and through a lush, albeit narrow dirt trail littered with glowing yellow spots across the ground, as well as a hefty smattering of spike pits and wire traps abound. "Yikes… It's almost like these Ammonian guys were EXPECTING us to show up here… Oh, well… Can't let that stop me…!" the heroine acknowledged as she sped along into the forest right behind her teammate. "Hooh! Harraaah! TYAH!" she shouted as she lunged, somersaulted, and practically danced her way through the trail while avoiding every trap she could see. Well… ALMOST every trap, as she overshot one of her jumps and landed RIGHT ONTO a yellow spot. And as soon as she heard the *click*, Shantae knew she was in for it…

"Oh, no…! Shoot, shoot, shoo-!" she cursed again and again in a panic as she did her best to hurry out of the bomb's blast radius. However, with an eardrum-shattering *KRABWOOOM* that sent dirt, gravel, and smoke sailing sky high, the landmine detonated. "WHOAAAAAAAHAHAAAAAAAH!" shouted the endangered half-genie… or rather, she SHOULD'VE been endangered, were it not for the azure force field surrounding her. Huh… She must've summoned one of her protective barriers at just the LAST second before being turned into mincemeat by that landmine. Nevertheless, she was sent rocketing forth with no reasonable way to stick a solid landing… which wasn't helped by the fact that she LANDED ON ANOTHER HIDDEN MINE while her force field was still active. With another *KRABWOOOM*, Shantae was blown forth once again while this shield of hers was put to the absolute test in protecting her. "Ghaaaahahaaah! This isn't what I had in mi-!" she tried to complain before NARROWLY missing a spike pit… by slamming onto a THIRD landmine that… Yep, you guessed it, EXPLODED with another deafening *KRABWOOOM*.

This time, however, she wasn't propelled forward. She was sent tumbling all over the place like she was stuck inside a pinball that rolled, hopped, and bounced around the trail while SOMEHOW still moving in the direction she needed to go. It wasn't a quiet trip by any means, either. She basically set off EVERY explosive trap along the trail, turning the semi-peaceful forest into a holiday fireworks display in a matter of seconds. *BABWOOOOM* after *KAPOW* after insufferably loud *BRABWOOORSH*, the explosions caused by Shantae pretty much tore that forest to SHREDS as wildfires quickly began to spread, sending droves of Ammonian soldiers on standby scrambling to safety. Of course, with all that chaos, carnage, and commotion, I'm sure you had one major question on your mind… The question being, was Shantae still having fun? Well…

"GWAAAAAAAAH!" she hollered in what was definitely pure ecstasy and not unadulterated terror as she ZOOMED through the trail like she was being shot out of a cannon. So, the answer is… debatable, to say the least.

Meanwhile…

"Jeez, what is going on back there? It sounds like the world's worst rock concert…" Rottytops pondered as she safely made it through the forest trail WITHOUT activating any of the traps. As soon as she popped her question, however, she was graced with the sight of a bubble-shielded Shantae RIPPING out of the forest and past her at a speed nearly undetectable by the naked eye. "WHOA! What in the heck!? No fair!" Rotty complained as she watched her best friend tumble down the massive grassy hill while being jostled about in her protective barrier. "You never said we were allowed to use magic to give ourselves a boost! I thought we were only using it to fight the bad guys!" she further yelled, evidently seeing Shantae's mishap as her trying to gain an arbitrary advantage. "Fine, then… If that's how you wanna play, snack cakes, then I'm gonna punch it up to the max! ZOMBIE ZOOM! HRRRAAAAAH!" the determined zombie girl announced, at which point, her body was immediately coated with a *VRWOOORSH* of Light Magic. And before one could even attempt to draw in a breath, Rottytops BURST ahead with an absolutely STUNNING, glittering *TATWEEEERSCH*, RAPIDLY closing the distance between herself and her opponent. Speaking of whom…

"GAHAGH! OOF! AWHARGH!" Shantae grunted and groaned with every time her barrier hit the ground while it rolled down the hill like a car tire. Thankfully, her shield wore off, allowing her to gracefully (read: unceremoniously) slide, tumble, and roll all over herself for at least another handful of yards before hitting the ground one more time with an emphatic *KAPLOUGH* before coming to a sliding stop… flat on her face. "Oogh…! What a spill THAT was… I'm gonna feel that for WEEKS…" she murmured as she picked herself up to brush the grass and dirt off her hair and face before Rottytops came ZIPPING by with enough speed to cause a gust of almost hurricane-level wind to blow forth.

"See ya on the other side, Shantae~!" the zombie maiden teased, cackling all the way as she bravely charged ahead to the final section of their impromptu obstacle course.

"Oh, no! Darn it, I REALLY have to get a move on!" Shantae urged herself as she took off sprinting forth. She realized right away that she was never going to catch up on just her willpower, however. "She's using that fancy Zombie Zoom technique of hers to boost her speed… In that case, I guess I'd better juice it up, too…! I only hope Rotty doesn't mind me borrowing a page from her book… Hmmmmm…!" she hummed as she… belly danced while running? Huh… Of all the things she could think to do in this scenario… Er, a-anyway, she somehow split her focus between running down the hill and shaking those luscious hips of hers while she clasped her hands together. And within a few seconds… "DANCER DASH!" she announced the name of a technique I SWEAR she just made up. It worked, no less, as she ended coating herself in Light Magic as her rival did… and with a MONSTROUS *BWAPROOOOOSH*, Shantae went BLITZING ahead at a high enough speed to potentially break the sound barrier! Stretching her arms out to her sides and leaning forward, Shantae poured all of her focus into winning this footrace like her entire career depended on it.

"What? Did… Did I just hear her shout the name of a new ability?" Rotty asked herself in wonder as she glanced back once again… to be greeted with the sight of the half-genie blazing ahead just as she had. Worse yet for the plucky zombie girl, her half-genie racing rival was catching up… and QUICKLY. "WHAT IN THE-!? YOU COPYCAT! Darn it, I should've known she would do that…! Alright, here goes EVERYTHING! YaaaaaaaAAAAAAH!" she shouted, pouring all the energy she had into keeping her waning advantage long enough to pull off the upset victory. "There's NO WAY I'm letting her beat me! Especially not with MY OWN MOVE…!"

At this point, the final stretch of the young ladies' footrace was more or less a straight path (for a given definition of 'straight path') where their destination patiently awaited them. There were, of course, a smattering of obstacles such as pitfalls, tree stumps, and the occasional floating bubble that floated around in circles, but the path was otherwise clear. Only this time, the bubbles weren't there to help them. Instead, they were situated DIRECTLY in their path hovering no more than two or three feet off the ground. One would only be able to avoid them by either running past them or sliding under them, or else they'd most likely send an unsuspecting runner hurtling BACKWARD instead of forward.

"Hah! Yah! Come on, come on…! Just gotta keep these legs pumping!" Shantae cheered herself on as she hurdled over pit after tree stump after pit while also sliding under floating bubbles that threatened to send her flying backward if she hit them. Gradually picking up speed as she locked the finish line in her sights, the scarlet-clothed speedster REALLY made sure to put the pressure on her teammate/opponent. "That S.U.G.A.R.S. comic is as good as MINE, Rottytops! Here I COME!"

"Aw, shoot, she's about to do it again…!" Rotty acknowledged in worry as she began to lose speed. In addition, the Light Magic surrounding her quickly began to flicker and fade as she grimaced in pain… Uh-oh… "Urgh! Ahhaagh…! Darn it… My legs are BURNING UP…! Come on, come on…! Hah…! Push it, girl…! Hrgh…! Hah…! You can't let her show you up again…! You've GOT to prove yourself…! Hrrraaaah!" she desperately encouraged herself, really cranking it up to her limit as she also took on the full brunt of the obstacle course. It became more and more evident with every shift she had to make for the obstacles themselves, however, that the poor zombie's fatigue had begun to set in. She kept it up, however, with a similar pattern of hopping over pits, sliding under haphazard bubble barriers, and side-stepping tree stumps to try and conserve enough energy to finish the race. However, Rotty would make a CRUCIAL mistake RIGHT as the girls reached the end of the course. The mistake came in the form of her recovering from the VERY LAST slide just a second too soon. In doing so, she was bumped from behind by the bubble she tried to avoid. With an unexpected *BWABWOORF*, the hapless young woman was sent tumbling forth with an unceremonious *PAPLOGLOPLOBLOGOBLOGH* of her body against the frigid, silky-smooth sand of the beach. "Ghahaagh…! No, no, no…! Shoot…!" she cursed as she scrambled to get back up… only for Shantae to finally zip past in an instant and overtake her. Within the next instant, the half-genie finished the improvised obstacle course before Rotty's very eyes as she raced onto the beach and touched a hand to the battleship.

"YES! I WON! WHOO-HOO! With that issue, I can FINALLY complete my S.U.G.A.R.S. collection!" the pumped-up half-genie cheered as she deactivated her magic hopped up and down, after which she wiped sweat off her brow and smilingly shot a 'V' for Victory with two fingers on one hand. "This is the best day ever! Man, oh, MAN, was that one close, though…! I seriously thought I was going to lose for a minute there…" she murmured, taking the much-needed moment to catch her breath as she hunched over and planted her hands on her thighs while taking in wide breaths of air. Within a few minutes, however, she was able to recover enough to collect herself. After shaking off her fatigue and stretching her legs, she turned her attention to Rottytops. "That was a great race, Rotty! You almost… uh… huh?" she trailed off as her smile quickly faded. She wound up noticing her friend still on her hands and knees where she fell.

"NO! No, no, no! No…!" a visibly devastated Rotty shouted over and over as she pounded the ground with her fists. "I was so close this time…! Graah, how could I screw up like that when I was RIGHT THERE!? Darn it…! I was right the-he-here…!" she further complained with a sniffle. It… went without much need for further mention that, as the displeased zombie girl lamented the unfavorable result of the race, droplets of liquid began to stain the beach sand…

"Hey, hey, girl… It's okay…" Shantae took the initiative to try and cheer Rottytops up as she approached and took a knee beside her. "You don't have anything to be mad at. You gave it your best shot, and you DEFINITELY showed me that you're not to be taken lightly. Seriously, you did an amazing job!"

"…But I didn't win… I get what you're saying, but I wanted to WIN…!" Rotty shared her concern, doing her best to hold in her tears as she rose to a seated position on her knees, looking at the other young woman from the side of her eyes.

"I know, and… well, I'm sorry for how it turned out," she did her best to acknowledge and apologize. "But look. Your training has carried you a long way since the first time we raced. Even then, you almost completely left me in the dust. I had to really dig in to pull off the win back then. And this time, you absolutely pushed me to my physical limit. With the way this was going, I was actually tempted to use my Animal Dances to catch up! I… I have to admit that because I'm actually not sure WHAT would happen if we did this race another time. You proved your point that you're definitely faster than me now, for what it's worth."

"That's great and all, but what use does that knowledge serve when I still LOST?" Rotty argued, still tasting the bitterness of defeat. "I'm sure we could dig up all sorts of things I'm supposed to learn from this, or how I still have room to improve, or how one different move could've changed the outcome or whatever, but I HATE losing…! I HATE that just ONE stupid mistake cost me the entire race! I… I HATE not being good enough…!"

"Rottytops, come on…" Shantae worriedly remarked as she scooted toward her best friend and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "It isn't like your whole life depended on this one tiny, meaningless little footrace. We can have other races whenever we want. And sometimes, you've gotta learn from the mistakes you make to improve your game the next time. I should definitely know from my earliest days in my belly dancing career, for sure… The crippling stage fright… The embarrassment on my face when I messed up on the easiest moves on my first big show in Scuttle Town… All those people laughing at me while I was onstage and telling me I should just give up and be a coffee shop waitress or Mayor Scuttlebutt's personal maid…"

"…Y-yeah, I remember you telling me about that…"

"Right. But I never told you that I almost DID give up because I was scared of being made fun of or totally blowing it if I tried again," Shantae continued to explain. "But I shook off my fears and disappointment in myself. I promised myself that I'd never let anyone else tell me I couldn't do something, especially if I had a passion for it. I told myself over and over again that I'd get better with every show I did after the fact. And… well, the rest is history there. I hope you understand what I'm getting at…"

"Sure, but you've got natural talent that you worked really hard to build on. There's a reason you're the best belly dancer in the country… while people like me have next to nothing to claim, and no way to catch up to you… Heck, you even learned one of my new techniques just by watching me do it once. That technique took me MONTHS to figure out…! I was so sure that only I could do it…"

"I… I know, and I'm sorry for that…" Shantae guiltily offered her sympathy, recognizing the impact that pivotal moment during their race had on Rottytops's self-esteem. "I… I just happen to be a quick learner. You're still the master of the move, though, because you have the most experience with it. And you should be proud that it's such a cool move that I had to copy it to even the playing field! I'm sure I-!"

"With all due respect, Shantae… Please don't patronize me," Rotty cut the genie off to somberly request with a shake of her head. "It's not helping."

"Oh. Ah… Sorry…"

"It's fine. But still… The fact of the matter is that anything I can do, you can do far better. Footraces, sparring matches, fashion and beauty, dancing, saving the day, making friends… You have so much going for you that I don't, now that I realize it. I don't know if I could EVER truly compete with you, no matter how much I improve on my own… I'll only ever be chasing your tail from ten thousand MILES behind as you get stronger and more multitalented every passing day…"

"I don't think the difference between us is THAT big, girl. Regardless, you've gotta at least set your own standard for yourself instead of comparing yourself to other people. And who knows? Maybe your standard will exceed mine without question, depending on what you choose to do. I'm not some untouchable goddess who's perfect at everything, and I'm never going to pretend I am. If I was perfect, this race wouldn't have been as close as it was. You have capabilities that I don't, and we've both got room to improve. And as hard as it can be at times to make progress, you only stop improving at all if you give up on yourself, Rotty. If there's ANYONE you should consider an expert on never giving up, just ask Tayshan," she mentioned, looking to really drive her point home.

"Him? What do you mean?" the zombie girl asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well… He started off on a REALLY low note when he first got here. No magic, no clue about the world around him, next to no faith in himself to succeed in his mission unless he earned my approval consistently enough along the way as he tried to constantly prove himself to me… His heart was full of self-doubt and fear of failing because of what he went through, and he questioned himself all the time about how useful he could be as my ally despite the massive power gap between us at the time. I remember the talks between me and him like they happened yesterday…"

"Oh. Wow, I… I had no idea he had it that rough…"

"'Rough' is an understatement. Our first sparring match, for example, went… not so well for him. Even while I was holding back almost all my power, I wound up breaking his ribs simply because he caught me off-guard and got me a little upset during the match…" she admitted, which was… astonishing, to say the least. She broke his ribs during a training session? Yikes… Talk about competitive…

"Ouch…!" Rotty remarked with a reflective wince, seeming to understand the pain.

"I know, and I still regret hurting him that badly when we were just supposed to test our abilities against each other that day. But he didn't give up then. He recovered and he kept pushing. He kept training. He realized that he didn't need to prove himself to me, and that he instead should focus on getting better for the sake of embracing his own progress. No matter how frustrated he got with himself at times, he still picked himself up every time he got knocked down, discovered new heights, mastered new abilities that even I still haven't figured out… pushed through even his darkest moments to keep on climbing…"

"Hm. I'm aware of some of the experiences, but it sounds like his road was a really rocky one…"

"Right, but like I'm saying, it didn't stop him. And… well, you've seen for yourself what he's become capable of by this point. He's found his own way to get an edge over the likes of RISKY BOOTS of all people. And even a HALF-GENIE, if we factor in Hashanah… and yet, he STILL wants to keep getting stronger. He never settles for less… Even I need to be careful now, or else he'll… potentially surpass me…" she added with a notable tinge of… what sounded like uncertainty? Interesting… She shook off the sudden rush of nervousness in her heart, however, and continued. "That said, I have reason to believe you have a similar level of potential."

"That's sweet, but I'm not THAT great like you two are. I… I just don't know if I'll ever get to be even half as good as you…" Rottytops somberly rebutted, her doubts in herself still holding strong.

"Again, you don't have to compare yourself to me. Be great as you are, Rotty. There's only one of you, and you should be the best version of yourself that you can be instead of trying to be like anyone else. And to be super clear, you really should give yourself credit for what you accomplished here. You really ARE a lot faster than you used to be. You've gotten way stronger, too. Like I said, you set out to prove something to me today, and you did that! You held your own this entire time without my help, and you showed me how incredible you are on so many levels. We're not that far removed from the days where you'd either wait for me to rescue you from a sticky situation—in some cases, literally—or find some charming way to get my attention because you weren't sure of yourself. That alone should be a testament to your progress!"

"Y… You think so?"

"I KNOW so, girl! Especially after a day like THIS? A day where you showed me all the power, skill, and speed you have to make a big difference in how this race played out… on top of recent days before this, where you actively helped me through some of the toughest battles we've ever fought, protected Scuttle Town alongside Tayshan when I wasn't around, AND held your own against me in a 1-on-1 sparring match? It REALLY shows me how much you've grown and improved on every level. It makes me wonder just how well we'll do when we deal with this battleship, because now I KNOW we're gonna crush it together! And you'd better believe I can't wait to see what you can do beyond this," she further praised as her cheerful smile returned.

"…Thanks, Shae…" the dejected zombie girl offered her gratitude as she tried to straighten her face through her sadness.

"D'ohh, stop being so mopey, girlfriend! You're way cuter when you smile for real, and you know that," the half-genie playfully remarked as she pulled the other young woman into a most affectionate hug. And while Rottytops returned the hug in full… she didn't smile. In fact, she didn't come close to feeling the same way Shantae did. Instead… she fell into another, deeper spell of sobbing as she hugged her best friend for dear life.

"Oh…! Rotty…!" Shantae called to her in increased concern as her smile vanished once again, hugging her tighter in return as she rested a hand on the zombie girl's head. "I… I didn't know this race would tear you up so bad…"

"…It's not the race…" Rotty admitted through her tears. "It's everything…! I'm not good enough…! I'm not good enough for Bolo, I'm not good enough for Sky… I'm not good enough for anyone… And I'm not good enough for myself, either…" she completely opened up, sniffling and sobbing harder.

"Ah… I… I should've known you'd still be thinking about what happened the other day, too…" Shantae realized, pulling herself from the hug just enough to be able to clasp Rotty's face into her hands. "Hey. I want you to listen to me, and listen to me GOOD. Okay?"

"…Mm-hmm…"

"No matter what anybody says, or what anybody DOES, you have to recognize and accept who you are as a person. You're a wonderful human being, Rottytops, and you deserve to be happy like everyone else…"

"Thanks, but… I'm not human…"

"Yes, you are. You being a zombie has NEVER changed that," the half-genie fervently clarified, absolutely wanting to lift her best friend's spirits. "Just like me being a genie or Tayshan being a ghost doesn't make either of us less than human. It makes the three of us unique, yes, but we're all human at our core…"

"Oh… W-wow, I… never thought about it like that…" the undead young woman remarked in realization as she let her closest companion's words sink in.

"Then I suggest you start now, Rottytops, because it's the truth," Shantae teased with an affectionate grin. "And just so you understand, you absolutely deserve to be happy with someone. I… don't exactly know what your type is at this point, but there's no doubt that there's someone out there for you. Someone who always puts you first. Someone who will do everything in their power to protect you and make sure you never stop smiling… Someone who… well…" the heroine trailed off, a blush forming on her face as she momentarily turned away.

"Someone who… what?"

"…Someone who loves you unconditionally, flaws and all, and encourages you to get better, even when it seems impossible…" Shantae built up the nerve to say, her eyes wavering as she looked directly back at her friend.

"Ooh… Uh… Are… Are you trying to tell me that you're in love with me?" the zombie maiden picked the perfect time to ask, missing the point entirely as she finally began to smile. Seeming to expect as much, Shantae deadpanned for a moment before sighing away her comical agitation.

"…Sure, if that's what floats your boat, but I'm afraid our 'relationship' can only go so far from here before my boyfriend starts getting upset," she built up the additional nerve to tease as she stuck her tongue out at the other young lady, at which point both of them giggled while they never moved from their position.

"Yeah, right. That big lug would totally be into it. And it isn't like he'd be left out, should we play our cards right~!" Rotty further pushed the boundaries to tease, though Shantae took no offense to it… THIS time, however much the ludicrous suggestion flustered her.

"Eh, there's no conceivable scenario we could think of where that would work. No offense, but it's clear that he and I are only interested in each other in that respect," she taunted right back, though the 'confession' caught the zombie maiden by a HUGE surprise. Her eyes nearly flew out of her head as her cheeks quickly turned a darker green.

"Wait… What? You two actually THOUGHT abo-?"

"Anyway, Rotty, you'll find that special someone before you even know it," Shantae encouraged, changing the subject as she let go of Rotty's face and helped her back to her feet. "Bolo… just may not be your best bet, no offense to him. At least, not now. He's got a LOT of growing up to do, and you shouldn't take his boneheaded mistake as a reflection of you as a person. The last thing I want to see is you constantly beating yourself up because of something HE did. That wasn't your fault, and you deserve far better than that."

"Yeah… Y-yeah, you're right! It ISN'T my fault! That slack-jawed dope just let his raging boy hormones get the best of him!" Rotty declared with a notable increase in her confidence as she stood tall. "I don't need to feel sorry for myself because of his endless stupidity! If anything, I should've expected it! And I definitely shouldn't let it get me down that he wasn't good enough for me. I am a strong, capable, independent woman who don't need no knuckle-dragging, drooling, lust-obsessed MEN to validate her existence!"

"O-okay, ease it on the anti-male insults, but yeah. Be proud of yourself for who you are, girl!" Shae cautiously reeled her teammate back in as she also showed her undying support.

"Yes! I definitely will, snack cakes! Thank you for cheering me up… I can't help but feel EXTREMELY lucky that you're my best friend…" the gracious zombie girl shared as she wrapped Shantae up into another warm hug… complete with a most overzealous kiss on the other girl's cheek. "Mmmmmpwah!"

"Ack! Alright, alright, I love you, too…" a mildly flustered Shantae acknowledged as she patted Rotty on the back before the girls separated. And after they reoriented themselves… "So now that we're back in action, are you ready to take down this battleship with me?"

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am! Although… I just have ONE more question for you…"

"What's that?"

"Did you happen to notice that those Ammonian goofballs stopped attacking us as soon as we got to this last island?"

"Hm. Y'know what? Yeah! I was wondering what the deal with that was…" Shantae acknowledged, cupping her chin with a hand as she looked around. "We ran past so many of them here, yet not a single one tried to shoot at us or throw a bomb."

"Right. And to add to that, I actually watched them move out of the way as soon as they saw me," Rottytops revealed, much to her teammate's shock. "They almost looked like they were SCARED of us by the time we got here," she further pointed out, though she followed up with a nonchalant shrug soon after. "Must've been them soiling their pants because we totally demolished their fleet in as little as an hour with no signs of slowing down."

"I can't say I disagree, but something is still fishy about how suddenly they backed off… I'm under the impression we'll need to be super careful boarding this battleship. If I know anything from past experience, it's possible they're setting up a trap for us in the event that they couldn't stop us before we got here."

"I don't doubt that for a second. Of course, with OUR teamwork, they don't have an injured zebra's chance in a lion's den of stopping us! You and me together, we're the Lethal Leading Ladies!" Rotty cheered, pumping her fist in the air as she gave their two-woman team-up an official name. "They can throw everything AND the kitchen sink at us, but we're gonna push through it all, and show these weirdo raccoon lovers, and ESPECIALLY that stuck-up turncoat Nila, who they're messing with!"

"An… interesting motivational speech there," Shantae acknowledged with a nod and chuckle. "I LOVE the team name, though! The Lethal Leading Ladies… It rolls off the tongue, it has the potential to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies, and it lets everyone who hears the name know that WE run the show! Good job!"

"Thank you, snack cakes! I worked SUPER hard on coming up with it over the last two days because of how excited I was to finally get another chance to join forces exclusively with you for an adventure. And I gotta say, aside from the result of this footrace, I'm really having a blast!"

"I can tell… And… I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, Rotty. Really, I am," Shantae sincerely acknowledged, patting her best friend on the shoulder. In response, the excitable zombie maiden beamed back at her. "Now, let's make the rest of this 'date' of ours one for the record books. Shall we?"

"Absolutely! Buuut… I have… just one minor request… if you don't mind…" Rotty proposed, shyly sinking into herself as she focused her full attention on the other Lethal Leading Lady.

"Go for it, sweetie," Shantae permitted with a confident grin. "What do you need?"

"W-well… Since we're in such great spirits now, and we've established that we're on a level of understanding that next to no one else could hope to mess up… er…"

"You don't have to be nervous about whatever it is you have to ask of me, Rottytops. Seriously, anything you need, I'll do my best to get it to you."

"Got it. Alright… So… Here goes: Can… C-Can I still have Tayshan as my boyfriend for a day? Pleeeeeeease?" Rotty dropped the bombshell of a question, grinning ear to ear with utmost hope as she pressed her hands to her face to sell a cutesy, pleading look. Did it work, based on the question? Well…

"Okay, anything but THAT!" Shantae VERY adamantly shouted, reeling back as she pulled her hand off her friend's shoulder, angrily frowned, and crossed her arms. "Also, NO! You lost the race, so you didn't earn it! And since you reminded me, you'd better pony up that comic as soon as you can after we're done here! I'm not going to forget!"

"Y-yeah, of course! I'll have Abner and Poe drop it off when they come around town. But like… Are you sure I can't? I just want to know what it's like to be in a relationship with a guy who ACTUALLY knows what he's doing with a girl, y'know? And… well, as we've recently discovered, there aren't many other qualified candidates for the position…" she tried to joke, though Shantae didn't laugh.

"Rottytops, I'm serious. I'm not letting you steal my boyfriend because yours messed up."

"Aw, come oooonnnnn-ah! I'm not even 'stealing' him! It's not like he'd allow himself to be stolen anyway! And besides, I've said it a hundred times that your relationship is golden, and I wouldn't even DREAM of trying to get between you two! You can trust me! What's the harm?"

"The real question is why you want to date Tayshan so badly all of a sudden! You're starting to make me REALLY suspicious about how close you want to be with him, and while I still feel for you about what happened with Bolo, I am NOT about to give you a chance to-!" she was about to go off and REALLY set a boundary as she grew markedly more agitated and protective of the wraith in question. Before she could finish her rant, however…

"No, no, listen! It isn't like that!" Rotty hastily pleaded, frantically waving her hands in front of herself for a second. "It's just like I said earlier! I only want to get both your perspectives on what makes your relationship work! You've definitely given me your side of it, and I want to know his side, too! Y'know, so I uh… S-so I know what to look out for when I… eventually go searching for my own romantic partner down the line… heh…"

"…Hmmm…"

"I mean that, Shantae. Seriously," Rotty dropped her playful façade to share her honest thoughts. "I'm not gonna do anything weird, I'm not gonna proposition him at all, and I'll… Er, I-I'll even try to ease back on flirting with him if you let me go on a date with him!"

"That's… not much of a case you're pleading there…"

"It's the best I've got, but you don't have to agree to it if you don't want to. I just want to get a chance to pick both your brains equally. Not to eat, either. To learn, like a normal person," she made sure to mention, catching Shantae by surprise.

"Oh. Wow, I've never heard you talk about brains WITHOUT throwing in some thinly veiled joke about eating them before…"

"That's how you know I'm being for real here. So… will you at least consider it? Please?"

"…Hmm… Well… We'd… have to ask him if he's okay with it, at least…" Shantae answered after a moment of heavy, HEAVY thought, thus finally cracking under the enormous pressure her best friend put her under.

"YES! Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!" Rottytops cheered as though she'd just won the lottery as she prepared to wrap Shantae into another heartfelt hug.

"Slow your roll there," Shae remarked, stopping Rotty in her tracks as she held a hand up to stop her from encroaching upon her boundaries again. "We're not even sure if he'd agree to it. I'm only saying that we'll see. On top of that, I still need to think about it. Anyway, we need to get a move on. Let's get onto this ship and wrap this up."

"You got it!" Rottytops agreed as she and her half-genie team leader marched themselves toward the ship. "And… any chance you could give me some relationship advice while we go along? Y'know, girl-to-girl?"

"Of course. I figured that was half the reason we took this trip together anyway. Mind you, I've only ever dated two guys, and my relationship with the first one only lasted about six hours before we broke it off. I can't exactly promise you my advice to you will be the most reliable…" she admitted with a touch of sheepishness in her tone. She's had TWO boyfriends in her lifetime? Makes me wonder who the first was… and why their relationship was so short. Actually, can that even be CONSIDERED a relationship? Ah, never mind… Overthinking again… Anyway…

"Any advice from my best friend is good advice," Rottytops offered her vote of encouragement. "Especially… considering your second relationship seems to be going well enough that I think I can hear the wedding bells already~!" she further teased, flustering Shantae all over again.

"W-what!? Get out of here, Rotty… We're… Tayshan and I are definitely NOT ready to get married yet… We haven't spent enough time together to know that that's in the cards…" Shantae tried to protest, though her face flushed redder than her clothes as she pouted, pressed a hand to her chest, and shyly batted her eyes away.

"Ahh, but there's hope~!" the zombie girl egged on, eating up her best friend's sudden onset of romance-related bashfulness. "And when he eventually pops the question, I'd BETTER be the one you ask to be your Maid of Honor and NOT Sky."

"Alright, alright, that's enough," Shantae dismissed, bothered beyond belief as she swatted a hand at the giggling Rottytops. "If you really want to know how he and I get along so well, then you can ask me anything on your mind as we go along. Okay?"

"Oh. Do you mean… aaaanythiiing?" Rotty continued to press the envelope.

"I know where you're going with that. But… as long as you don't go blabbing anything I tell you to anyone else, then sure," Shae unabashedly accepted with a shrug of her shoulders, catching her friend by genuine surprise once again.

"Ah. W-well, then. My lips are sealed, and I'll… try not to get too nosy," Rotty promised, knowing a golden opportunity when she spotted one… and especially knowing not to spoil it when the incentive was learning more about her best friend's most intimate… 'personal' experiences with their mutual comrade.

"I trust you on that much, at least. Now, are you Ret-2-Go?" Shantae asked, beyond eager to get a move on with the rest of their adventure.

"Yep. In fact, let me do the honors…" the undead maiden suggested as she removed her own head with *pop* like a cork coming out of a bottle and flung it high and far onto the deck of the warship. Afterward, Rotty's headless body wrapped an arm around Shantae. Within a few seconds, another skeleton-handed portal formed under the girls to take hold of them and teleport them onto the Blue Barbara…

And just like that, we've hit that majorly obnoxious point where we have to part ways. But you'd better BELIEVE you don't want to miss what's in store for next time! With their adventure (or date, or whatever you want to call it) going so strong, the Lethal Leading Ladies were absolutely keen on making sure their impact was felt. Of course, one could only wonder what answers the domineering Admiral Nila had for them that she'd intentionally allowed the genie/zombie duet to march through the islands surrounding the Crackling Crystal Castle to reach her battleship like she'd just invited them for tea. The anticipation's got me ready to EXPLODE… or is that my bladder? Because I realize I haven't… Ah! Y-you didn't hear that! I didn't realize this thing was still on… Shoot! Uh, I-I'll catch ya later!