[Maverick Hunter Zero]

The residential district of the Life Sphere was vast, but if one were to look carefully they would find the roof of an odd building, this building was in fact designed to look exactly like a lighthouse and was the home of a certain half-genie, but of course it wouldn't be that difficult to locate Shantae as she was reclining on the roof of her home away from scuttle town (which was probably forever lost to her for the time being) though despite the situation she was in, she had to agree with her adopted uncle mimic that the people who lived here as the result of the subspace emissary incident had it much[/b] worse then they did at the moment, what with the looming threat of the starvia disease and the infected, and as if it couldn't get any worse than that, black shadow was a very menacing evil that made the likes of the pirate master look tame.

It was at this time that Shantae had time to mull things over, and it was clear that black shadow was obviously evil, wanted to destroy the Life Sphere and it's defenses, and possibly wanted to conquer this world for the reasons that all evil villainous people love. What made this man unlikable however was his ability to control the starvia and was beginning to turn into an eldritch abomination because of it, that and the fact that she can't do anything about it was just about what you would expect since he was an almighty NPC and a complete monster to boot.

But now wasn't the time for such thoughts, as Shantae could attest, she had to get her mind off of this and let the more brave members handle that bastard as she was not too concerned about their current predicament. "no place I'd rather be than being here at home right now, especially since I don't know what the neck goes on out there beyond the boundry." Shantae mused, clearly looking at the sky and watching the clouds float past her field of vision, her mind on hoping to meet new people.

[Deleted]

The residential area of the Life Sphere tended to be a peaceful world, typically a place where you could forget the immediate threat of dying for at least a few minutes.

Today was not that day.

A girl raced through things streets, pink hair waving frantically as she leapt over obstructions and anyone too slow to dodge out of her way, a bag of coins stuffed under her arms. It was Jill, having left her Drill Dozer back at a rundown house she had taken as her own to do some thievery, to keep her fingers quick.

It should have been easy to steal from that Bully, he didn't even have arms to catch her with! No, the problem was the metal ball he had called a Chain Chomp, which had tried to bite her arms of! And speak of the devil, the burst around the corner, the Chain Chomp barking angrily while the Bully barked at others to get out of his way.

Jill chambered up a lighthouse-like building, wishing she had brought the Drill Dozer just this once. A girl was sitting on the roof and Jill flattened herself on the roof, hissing to get her attention, "Hey," She whispered, "I'm not here!" She slammed her mouth shut as the duo passed underneath the roof, hoping the girl wouldn't rat her out.

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

Shantae gave a sigh, having heard the rampant barking of a chain chomp giving chase to a young girl who had inexplicably decided that hiding atop the rooftop that the half-genie was on, and was clearly the type of person that Shantae was not expecting off the top of her head.

"you do realize that it's wrong to steal from someone, right?" Shantae said as she looked towards the newcomer, a stern look on her face as she said it. It wouldn't take long for the newcomer to notice that Shantae noticed the bag of what might be money in said persons possession.

"good thing I didn't go inside my house to call the police, mainly because I never had access to a phone or I'd be more than happy to do so. I'm Shantae, by the way; what's your name?" Shantae added, a small giggle escaping from her as she was reminded of he own realm in which there was barely any notable technology aside from what the Ammo Baron had.

{this is for more than just me and drakka to post here, I'm quite certain that other female characters owned by other people would like to join in.}

[Mari]

A young lady sporting the dark purple skintight bodysuit look a la Zero Suit Samus dropped from the sky above Shantae. Judging by the controlled way she descended, with her arms and legs spread to prevent her from rolling, she seemed to have jumped deliberately. Yet, as she neared the ground there was no parachute to save her. She was free-falling at lethal speeds and showed no sign of being able to save herself.

...Ashe pulled her legs in and landed in a crouch with a thud nearby, flinching as she managed to land on the roof near Shantae. For a moment it might seem as if she were in shock, but the moment passed and she stood back up. She was ... fine, it seemed! How odd. It seemed parachutes were for squares wherever she came from. Ashe brushed herself off a bit, placing her hands on her hips and turning to acknowledge Shantae with a smile.

"

Whoops! I hope I didn't freak anyone out with that landing. Looks like I was a little off my aim. Are you alright?

"

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

Shantae did not say anything for about a good fifteen minutes as she looked at the sky, oddly enough she could make out a small black shape coming down from the sky, a lethal freefall perhaps; but what struck the half-genie was that this black shape was human and definitely not a their.

"I'm good, though I do have cannonball insurance since I had to deal with a certain female pirate once before, I should be thankful that my home wasn't demolished. Either way; may I ask for your name?" Shantae said, getting up from her skygazing and looking like someone's idea of a hot date because of what she was wearing.

[Mari]

Ashe smiled sheepishly at Shantae when she got up to address her, running a hand through her somewhat messy, gravity defying hair. ...How did that ponytail even work? It was so bouncy and floaty, almost ethereal! She moved to gesture to herself with one thumb.

"

The name's Ashe. I'm a hunter! It's like, if you combined a bounty hunter and an archaeologist. But honestly, I'm just on the lookout for booty~

"

Ashe remarked unironically. She didn't seem very self-aware of what she'd said or the rather obvious innuendo for that matter. It wasn't entirely clear whether she just had no shame or was just a tad oblivious upon first meeting her. She seemed awfully proud of herself either way.

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

"Kinda like what my uncle Mimic does for a living as a treasure hunter, I envy you, but not to the point of outright jealousy." Shantae said as though she looked startled by this fact, but not by the factors that make her the oddball, but by the fact that she was no stranger to exploring dangerous areas.


"As for me, I am Shantae, and it is indeed a pleasure to meet you." She added, her eyes showing a bit of her usual cheery demeanor.

[Mari]

Arle hesitated a moment. Could she know Shantae's Uncle Mimic? It didn't sound like a name she'd ever heard before, and she was pretty social with the other hunters... As she continued considering this possibility her gaze trailed to Shantae's attire and it suddenly occurred to her. ...Shantae couldn't be from her world. She looked too ... organic.

"

Everyone has their own dream to follow. I guess yours is out at sea, huh? By the sound of those pirates... Or maybe they were sky pirates? We had a lot of those back where I came from.

"

Ashe placed her chin in the crux of her thumb and pointer, quietly pondering this question.

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

"I think you are close, but sky pirates aren't what I had to deal with. Its just one pirate and a whole slew of tinkerbats, though I did take down an undead 'pirate master' once before." Shantae said with a giggle, her remembering that fight with the aforementioned pirate master was her crowning achievement in that she fought and defeated him alone while it took all the genies to simply seal him away.

"And considering where I came from, advances in technology wasn't something my world wasn't ready for, despite the fact that I had to deal with a certain military nutjob known as the ammo baron on occasion; that alone speaks for itself." she added, her eyes averted to look at the vast city, the place was indeed more technologically advanced than scuttle town was and she was a tiny fish in a very vast ocean.

[Mari]

"

What sort of pirate doesn't have a crew..?

"

The question was mused into the air almost rhetorically, but it certainly sounded very different from the raiders she'd had to deal with. Not everyone could be a superhero, and so numbers tended to be a pretty handy thing to have whether you were a pirate or a hunter like herself. While Ashe was pondering this however, she noticed the way Shantae was looking off into the distance. Was that a hint of ... longing? Perhaps reminiscing? Ashe scooted a bit closer, following Shantae's gaze for a moment.

"

...You ever miss your home world? All the places you used to know, all the people you used to care about?

"

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

"I had plenty of good adventures where I came from, though sadly I can't believe this happened. I had to get my friends and me to this place in order to stay out of danger and keep from getting infected by that starvia disease. If only there was a way to contain it and keep it from spreading..." Shantae mused, her mind on other things at the moment after hearing ashes question.

She did indeed miss her home realm, and now she felt as though she was now even further from finding an answer, let alone finding her parents.

[Mari]

"

...That's the dream, right? Stopping the Starvia, restoring the world, finding all the people we left behind, everything going back to the way it was.

"

Shantae would find herself the unwitting recipient of Ashe's frustrations. She, of course, could lead as many assaults as she wants and destroy as many infected as she pleased, but what did that actually accomplish when the world remained uninhabitable and the starvia's armies would eventually return anyway? The hunter leaned back a bit, placing her hands at her sides.

"

Is it even possible to win this war without the cure? Sometimes I just feel like we're just killing people we could've been saving out there.

"

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

"Doubt it, because even I'm stumped as to find a way to deal with that." Shantae said as she looked towards the route that leads to the black market, where people loath to go since there were some ne'er do wells that thrived in doing shady business deals and were nothing but trouble unless you were helping them in one-upping their competition.

Possibly due to this, Shantae seemed to ease up on the tension and began practicing her dancing, mainly due to it being a stress reliever.

[Mari]

"If only there were a way I could help with the cure... I guess this is one one those situations that has to be left to the scientist types instead of the heroes." Ashe replied thoughtfully. If only it were as simple as recovering a stolen cure or protecting one during transit or retrieving something that would help make one. Synthesizing a cure though? That seemed far beyond her... Ashe watched Shantae's movements becoming slightly entranced, if not a little flustered, watching her dance. She noticed that there was a whole lot of emphasis upon the movement of Shantae's hips in her dancing, which found her eyes wandering and lingering there a bit longer than they ought to. For a moment she felt awkward as she realized what she was doing, but she quickly dismissed those feelings. They were both girls, so she doubted there would be any misunderstandings about the nature of her interest. She'd simply never seen that kind of dancing before! ...And there was definitely nothing more to it than that. Or at least, that's what Ashe resolved to believe.

"

How'd you learn to move like that..?

"

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

Well, that question came out of nowhere pretty quick, especially since Shantae was capable giving a solid answer.

"it happens to be a good thing that the dancing I do comes naturally just like when someone fires off a gun or swings a sword, though this is a much safer activity since it uses no violence." Shantae said, her dancing stopping as she gave her answer to the question.