Shantae: Tangled Tales

Tale 10: "Come Back"

23 days remaining . . .

"Listen up, losers."

Sitting on cargo boxes amongst a crowd of tinkerbats, Shantae, Sky, and Mimic frowned at Risky. She stood tall atop a box to address her audience.

"As of now, the Monster Queen has an army of thousands, while I'm stuck with twenty-one little creeps, one geezer, and two brats . . . ."

Shantae raised her hand.

"You don't have to raise your hand, you moron," said Risky. "Just say what you have to say already."

"What happened to your fun hat? Did you lose it again?"

Risky instinctively grabbed at her head for a hat that wasn't there.

Through clenched teeth, Risky grunted. "First of all, it's none of your business what happened to my hat!"

"She lost it again," Sky whispered to Shantae.

"Second of all," Risky continued, glaring at them, "my hat is not fun. It's the mark of a pirate captain of unparalleled power that is to be feared by the masses!"

"Well, I think it's fun."

"Are you done?" Risky asked.

"Yup . . . you may continue insulting us," Shantae said.

"Wonderful. As I was saying, you all suck. But it looks like we've got a shot at stopping the Monster Queen in spite of your collective suckage." Risky eyed Mimic. "Update the others on your findings, will you, old man?"

Mimic cleared his throat. "Sure . . . so, after running some tests, we discovered that coffee is indeed the cure for the Grey. Those infected return to normal seconds after ingesting coffee. Furthermore, coffee provides a sort of immunity, which would allow us to come into contact with the Grey without being infected; however, that immunity is only temporary. After some time, the coffee's effect wears off, and we'd be susceptible to infection once again."

"If we're frugal enough," Risky said, "we should have enough coffee for each of us to get one cup. But that's it. So, the moment after we drink that coffee, we have to make our move."

"How much time will we have until the coffee's effect wears off?" asked Sky.

"I can't say for sure," Mimic answered, "but not much. Probably around two hours or so."

"Now," Risky said, gathering everyone's attention once more, "upon landfall, our top priority is to contact the Genies by activating the Genie Beacon. Based on what we know about the Genies' struggle against the first Monster Queen, it's unlikely that they'll have the power to simply wish all our problems away. However, they should, at the very least, provide us with more coffee, which we can then use to cure those who are infected and, as a result, turn the Monster Queen's army against her. This means, unfortunately, no decapitations, gutting, or the like. We must keep enemy combatants alive. The most effective way of doing so will be to subdue them using knock-out rounds."

Risky pulled out her pistol and shot a tinkerbat. Shantae, Sky, and Mimic screamed until they noticed that the tinkerbat received no wound from the bullet and appeared unphased. After a few more seconds, however, the tinkerbat collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Risky grinned at the dismay of the others. "Knock-out rounds turn into a liquid sedative upon contact and seep into the bloodstream within a second. Unfortunately, we're not the only ones with this technology . . . . We know the Monster Queen has no desire to do us in. She'll simply want to keep us trapped in her kingdom until the coffee wears off. So, expect her army to use knock-out rounds and other tactics designed to subdue and capture us."