Having wrapped roleplay up, it was through an unfortunate mix of confusion and the sheer size of the finale that caused a two month delay before the first part of the Finale to go up. Furthermore, it was a couple more weeks for the next two parts to go up.

I've said it dozens of times before, though, and I'll say it again. It won't happen again, but it was worth it for this monster of a finale!

"The prelude to the REAL action!" as the section is called serves to set things up, so there is only a bit of preliminary action here. The series is, I guess, good sections by me with lots of KOL'ish humor, mixed with excellent sections by Catrina. The three stars precede the bits she wrote, while the dashes (appropriately enough) indicate a section I wrote. The co written sections will be represented, of course, as a mix of asterisks and dashes.

Each part mixes in action from all 5 participants in this mission, as well as Rebecca and Michelle. Get a'readin!

***

*Voices in the dark*

"So?"

"Everything goes as planned, old friend. They are all inexorably placed on the path to our salvation. I was worried when they spent so much time arguing the Prophecy, as if it hadn't been argued before!"

"Yes... I should have sent a clearer vision back then, but I was young and unsure of my powers. The visions I sent this night are much clearer... although I could not pierce the catgirl's slumber... odd."

"Well, what do you expect? The poor girl was obviously exhausted, and after the beatings she received today who could blame her? I was surprised she could gather the strength to track down the man! Were you more successful with his vision?"

"Somewhat, I was able to give him the gist of a message, although he has trained to sleep for short periods, and without dreams as such.... They will come, although they only have the faintest inkling why. "

"What of the catgirl's allies?"

"Her swordsman comrade seems to be unable to recall his dreams. It seems to be common for him lately. As for their allies. . . one's blocked out by a weapon who's power and evil defy even MY abilities. Another, by his own cruel, selfish nature, and the third is so sheerly different, if not insane, that I doubt I could penetrate into his mind, even if I wished to."

"I see. What of the one who is key to our redemption? Is she coming?"

"The pirate girl and the hippy girl are well on their way to us. The hippy was the easiest to communicate with, but it took the pirate to nudge her into action. The other fighters?" He shrugged. "Their minds are closed to my visions."

"And the Captain? He will play his part?"

"He will, I am sure of it. He knows he will fail, but also he knows that his failure will give birth to a greater success, so he is peaceful about his fate...."

"Good... by tomorrow's eve I will be able to rest finally. And you, old friend, will have your life back."

-----

It's one thing to fight for something you believe in, especially if you were coerced into doing by friends, family, and the ever glorious cola regime. After all, Fredico Botelnekka had learned one thing and one thing only from popular writings in his younger days - peer pressure would never steer you wrong!

Dedicating himself to the ancient martial arts of fu-cana (Or more specifically, the more recent, more trendy version of it, Tropi-fu-cana), Fredrico, otherwise known as Fred, exiled himself to the misty plains of the Sierra Edge, fighting off and mugging enemy sprites from the 8 bit lands, who were often hired as the minute men of Cloaca Cola's "Sprite-surge army."

He'd only been with the army of Dyspepsi for a few months before this snake, or lizard, or whatever it was showed up at his camp. Fred was hardly the worldly type at all, and had no idea what was going on. He'd hoped to learn more of the great beast if he survived this day.

The giant brute in front of him had this swagger about him that rubbed Fred the wrong way, and also made Fred determined to stay on the brute's good side. Thus, lots of generic, uninspired compliments. Fred knew for a fact he was smarter than brute here.

(Well, so Fred thought. We who know who Raw Hide is realize there's more to the brute than his insatiable blood lust, pure power, and greed. He just hides it REALLY well. Well enough to leave Fred clueless. Which doesn't take much, if you haven't noticed.)

Fred's soldier training kicked in as they made their way at a pace he wasn't comfortable with. Still, he was smart enough to recognize the island's landmarks, even if a great deal had changed. To say Fred was shocked at Raw Hide's claim he was in the future would be an understatement. He tried to do what he did best- talk- in an effort to outwit the beast of a man (was it actually a man?), which only seemed to irritate the behemoth. And for the split second, it started to look like Fredrico had gotten into his head enough to mentally outwit him. . . .

Then his soul was filled with pure, white cold terror. It was like a silent roar in the distance, and it was terrifyingly familiar to the cola soldier. The beast was fascinatingly large, with lizard like scales and an over excessive amount of spikes coming out it's forehead to it's body, although considering the pure girth and abilities of the creature, Fred wasn't sure anything not frightened by it already would be affected one way or another by a few spikes on it.

The psycho who's name Fred didn't know seemed like he smiled, a few seconds after noticing it. The thing moved at a respectable rate, too. The energies radiating from the creature was almost physically poking at Fred's brain. Fred felt a physical sensation of being shoved away from the air the dragon passed over, even though it was several dozen feet in the air.

Stranger still, the giant we know as Raw Hide only smiled. Like a wolf on the scent of prey. Fred ignored the sudden wet sensation in his outfit and prepared to sneak off, when the giant Raw Hide grabbed him, pulling him forward as he chased after the lizard of death . . .

***

Catrina stood in the early morning sun- gazing off into the distance. "Dash-"

"Yes, Catrina?" Dash was checking ahead for signs of the Dragon or anything having to do with him.

She squinted, trying to see better in the early morning haze that clung to the plains. "Isn't that Moondream and Coconuts?"

"Are you serious?" Dash paused, doing a double take. As good as his eyesight was, he was more than ready to defer to Catrina's feline senses on this one. "I thought they were still at camp. What're those two thinking?"

Catrina couldn't help but giggle. "If it were just Moondream I'd say, 'She thinks?' But with Coconuts? Odd."

"Can you feel the chill in the air?" Dash paused. "I've got a feeling there's gonna be a lot of bloodshed today. Catrina, I need you to round them up before hades breaks loose on this island. I'll keep investigating."

She looked sharply at Dash, then again at the girls. Was he trying to get rid of her before the battle? To save her from being hurt? Well, he was right that the others needed to find safety, perhaps...well, if he was trying to pull something on her, he'd pay for it later. "Right, I'll meet up with you later for the fun." She then set off after the receding shapes as Dash leapt forward, dashing through the forest towards whatever was going on down there.

-----

Chad was starting to tire.

He'd spotted the dragon around noon on the previous day, far far in the horizon. After stuffing himself full of strawberries, he'd done the most logical thing he could think of, and set out after it, determined to finish his job off quick, so he could get a dinner.

After going through a mandatory half hour razzing at the hands of Half Orcs of the nearby Orcish Frat House, and nearly avoiding accidentally joining a pirate ship full of zmobies (what the hell was a Gold Bloom, anyway? Chad often wondered), Chad finally got down to searching for the Dragon. It was already afternoon by that point. He searched by midnight, going by arcane prophesies and a complex mathematical module based on the previous patterns of the dragon and the available moonlight.

No, wait, that's not it. He mainly just stumbled around blindly in the dark until he ran full speed into a tree and passed out.

He woke up three hours later and was about to go back to sleep when he realized he still had a dragon to find, so he started looking for it, in the middle of the forest, with absolutely no light except for the moon, which was hardly bright enough to penetrate these woods deep in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night. Chad whistled, cause he was scared, then he started walking faster and faster, hoping to find the dragon.

Eventually, of course, he got tired of walking faster and faster and slowed down. Even though he was superstrong, he was used to his home, the moon of Grimace, home to various classed aliens, so the gravity of the unnamed planet the Kingdom was on not only slowed him down but also made him tire out a lot faster. So he had to stop to take frequent catnaps and breaks to catch his breath.

(Little DYI- didjya know on the moon catnaps are referred to as frynaps? And those breaks to catch your breath are known as shake-breaks. Chad never did figure out why.)

Realizing it wouldn't be too long before morning, TheChad finally just let himself collapse. It was hours later he was awaken by a roar, and confused panic in the background.

It was like the sound of lightning and thunder combined, if lightning was a sound and not a flash. And on some moons, it is. And, apparently, on mysterious islands of mystery, it is as well. So, anyway, it took Chad a while to figure which direction the sound was coming from, and once he did, he rushed towards it.

Unfortunately, the mighty battle roared on far, far away from Chad's location. As Catrina and Sebastian Dash, a mile and a half away, fought off demons from their own past, as well as the dragon itself, all Chad could make out was the dragon's tail.

Chad had hardly covered a third of the way, when the dragon appeared to blink out of existence. At least, that's how it appeared to Dash and Catrina. Chad could see it moving, almost in the blink of an eye.

Chad had an idea of where it was headed. It was gonna be a long walk, though.

-----

There wasn't much to Konall Bearsmasher's knowledge about the proper protocols in interacting with ninja snowmen. That actually sort of made sense to Konall, because although he grew up in the wintery mountains of Meenasotah-yah-sure-yabetcha, and occasionally the wintery suburbs, ninja snowman, or living snowmen of any kind, turned out to be considered pretty much non existent. And even when they did just exist, apparently half the time they were really just regular snowmen anyway.

Konall had earned the nickname "the Ice Man" for any number of reasons. His cool demeanor, his preference for frigid areas, and that was about it. In his recent times in his new clan, the Kingdom of KOL, he'd made his new home at the Icy Peak, overlooked by Mt. McLargeHuge. Home to more than a few notable oddities of the Kingdom.

There was an icy chill that had set over the islands that had nothing to do with the temperature.

The stranger had given Konall all the information he thought he'd need for dealing with what was about to happen. Konall found his talk about how his "skin is as twice as steel" tiresome.

 
The prophesies didn't seem to help much at all, and his riddles were a waste of time. At least they were easy to figure out. . . except that one about the duck from Mantucket. That left him on the hunt for the dragon. Konall hadn't thought about trying to sneak up on the dragon until the old man began speaking in his riddles. Riddles which lead to more riddles, which led to prophesy, it seemed.

He tried teaching Konall to read the moon signs, and the waves of the wind, but just got a blank stare in return. It wasn't like any star charting Konall had ever heard of. So the advice ended up being, "Go west two miles, and wait under the biggest tree you can until you see blue lightning in the distance."

Good advice. Good, simple advice that Konall, armed with a Gnollish lunch pack to snack on, and a yeti fur blanket, plus a stuffed baby drunken dairy goat to sit on. Konall figured it wasn't likely, but if he got scared enough, at least he'd have something to hold onto.

Okay, he didn't figure that. He just marched to his destination, with the echos of the dream firmly in his mind. What a weird dream that was. You know how random things about a dream sprung at you days later when you thought of them? No? Well, pretend you do for the sake of the story. What sprung to mind to Konall about the dream was, that he could have sworn he saw Sebastian Dash and some strange catgirl in the dream, but that made no sense whatsoever. He also remembered seeing affordable prices at a local Starbucks, but that was just random and unlikely.

So while Konall sat there, going through a pocket full of accumulated junk, minutes passed into hours, during which he stretched, keeping one eye on the sun, and using the other to reflect on his life and plans until this point. It was at this point he was glad Spaz was still around, even if he was sleepy from all the chaos. He'd ran himself tired, and was a little less talkative than usual. Not much, but a bit.

While Spaz babbled on from Canadian trains to bicycles and the various styles of them in hell- no wait, he was talking about flowers, Konall thought? - Konall was sharpening his haxxor, which he'd also brought to the island, although it might not have been mentioned to this point.

Konall was loaded with about half as much weapons as a small army. A well armed small army, in fact, and one who liked using a variety of weapons.

"Hey, you, big ugly goon!" A sarcastic, obnoxious, Orc'ish voice called out of no where.

Konall didn't respond at first, opting instead to keep whoever it was waiting on his acknowledgment. It was obviously an Orc, though it didn't sound fully grown to Konall.

"Um.. excuse me, mister? If you're not busy, I'm trying to threaten you."

Yeah, definitely the raging hormones and conflicted emotions of an Orc teenager.

Konall glanced up. "Oh, I figured I'd wait here until you could do it without embarrassing yourself." He turned to Spaz. "I figured somewhere around half an hour."

Spaz did a demonic yet also cute laugh and turned to him. "Yeah, haha, half an hour. Eggs only take three minutes to boil. Don't you wish there was some kind of timer for them? I never tried to bake an egg. I bet it wouldn't work. Ya know what else doesn't work? A shark with frickin' -"

The obnoxious teenager interrupted. How predictably obnoxious. "HA! Your pet's rambling! HAHA! Burn! Oh, I burned him so bad! Didjya see my burn 'im, Morice?!"

"Yeah," the extra big one said, echo'ing his laugh. "You're ramblin! Burn! Burn! HAHA BURN! HAHA BUr-"

Then the apparent leader of this pack of Orcs (Flock of Orcs?) put his hand up, indicating a calm distress with the situation. "First, yous. Don't piggy back burn." He then turned to the first Orc who spoke. "And as for you, don't call me Morice. My field name is General Mayhem. Got it? We didn't need this goon knowin' what our real names are."

"Are you sure you're not just embarrassed to have a moronic name?" Konall pondered aloud, pulling himself to his feet. Too bad there were only six of them. This'd be more of a distraction for Konall than an actual fight . . .

***

Catrina followed quickly after the pair, and although she could no longer see them in the gathering mists of morning, once she reached the point where she had last seen them it was a snap to follow their scent. She thanked the Goddess that they had been upwind of her, not for her usual pouncing teases, but for the fact that their scents carried clear in the air. Catrina smiled. With a scent like this she had no need of sight to track prey!

It was not long before she saw two shapes in the mists; one tall and shapely, the other shorter and less well defined. She hurried toward them, calling out to them so they would stop and wait for her. When she finally caught up with them Catrina asked the question that had started her off. "What in the Goddess’ name are you two doing out here?"

Becky quickly filled Catrina in on matters: Their dreams, the talk they had had the night before, and their plan. Catrina's expression went from interest to disbelief to, finally, acceptance. "Our dreams are our best window on the workings of the Goddess' Plan." Or so I've heard it said. Okay, I'm in. Dash'll probably kill me for doing this but …let's go find that Dragon!"

The three set out, and although none of them knew the area two of them had an uncanny feeling as to where they needed to go. But the way was not to be entirely an easy one. As they passed through a copse of trees Becky was brought up short by a voice. "Hey, Babe, guess who's back in town!" The voice belonged to a man just ahead. He was a handsome young man, tall and well muscled, but the smirk on his face made Catrina want to scratch his eyes out.

Becky must have had similar feelings, for she drew her cutlass and narrowed her eyes at the man, her only word to him a venomous "You!"

The smirk hardly flickered, but the man's expression suddenly became harder, more menacing. "So, you went and got some spark, whore? No matter, I broke you once, I can break you again." With that he began to advance on Becky, only to be intercepted by Michelle. "Hey, Mister? Like, I don't think she wants to see you now. Well, I don't know if she wants to see you or not, but now's not a good time because-"

She never finished her thought because the man suddenly backhanded her aside hard, yelling "Shut up, Bitch!" She landed in a heap, not really badly hurt, but stunned, her eyes gazing at him wide and fearful. Catrina felt like pouncing him and ripping his throat out, but was stopped by the flat of Becky's blade.

"No, Cat- he's MY problem. You get Michelle to the Dragon." Catrina nodded and bundled Michelle off, speaking silently to her, soothing her hurt feelings now, knowing they could always fix any other hurt later.

-----

Dash idly wondered what happened to these phantoms from the past until they died.

They seemed to be popping up out of nowhere, although Dash hadn't actually seen one appear. Hopefully, he wouldn't. Dash wasn't too fond of the idea of a Dyspepsi soldier or Wooden Knuckles materializing behind Dash's back. Or in him, for that matter, because who really knew how the dragon's magic summoning worked?

Regardless of how distracting the fear was, Dash realized there was no way to tell if it was valid, and precious little he could do to avoid it happening, even if it was possible. Thus, he focused on his current task. Armed only with his sword, and a few minor enchantment for his magical energy, Dash had one goal in mind- find a weakness in the dragon.

The energies around some of them sparkled. Dodging around so many of them hardly proved easy, either. The island was crawling with undesirable elements, and not the type one might have expected on the island, either. Very few of these creatures looked like they belonged anywhere near the island, the Kingdom proper, or even the Kingdom general areas. Some of them didn't look like they even belonged in the planet at all- maybe something from The Chad's past, Dash figured. Some of those creatures were huge, towering over Dash as he slipped behind a tree or through a row of bushes. Fortunately, the light of early early morning was still hazy enough to let Dash to slip through the many, many forest shadows.

When Dash sent Catrina after the girls, his plan was simple. Cut to the middle of the island, and take it from there. After all, that seemed to be where the concentration of enemies was. Therefore, the odds were stacked in the favor of the dragon being there. Smoke-like substance gathered ahead of Dash in a seemingly clear grove between the trees and huge clumps of brown, un-watered rows of hedges. Dash cussed under his breath as they started to take shape. He wasn't sure if it was anything or not, but he wasn't willing to take the chance of being spotted.

Dash kept low as he turned. His world went black for several moments, as he was taken off his feet, sent flying back with the force of the magical equivalent to a bullet, which most likely doesn't exist in this time period. Dash's body bounced off a nearby Black Oak tree, and went limp. He focused his wits about him, forcing himself to a knee, somehow. Dash looked up at whatever had attacked him, and through sheer force of will, and a little training, brought his vision back into something resembling focus.

Hades! He'd let himself get ambushed. He had no idea if it was his own carelessness, being distracted by the strange smoke forming into bodies in front of him seconds earlier, or if an enemy had finally come into existence in Dash's wake. Dash felt for his sword, Bad Beats, even as the figures in front of him spoke. Dash could tell from their obvious preference for furs, they hailed from somewhere cold. Most likely, the frozen mountains of the great north. Dash didn't recognize the fur much. It looked like Canadininationia gemoose, or maybe the White Russian Furbuzzle.

"You!" the voice of the biggest, tallest of the four boomed in a voice that reeked of both self righteousness, and vegetarianism. "You stand accused by P. A. L. A. D. I. N. of multiple, grievous, uncool crimes! Crimes which take the elaborate names of failing to protect seals in a distant land, refusing to publicly decry the abuse of seals in a distant land, six counts of use of cosmetic items involving illegally processed seals, and jaywalking."

"OHhhhhh, yeah!" The PALADIN next to him, a dark skinned, muscle t-shirt over his winter coat, sunglass wearin' fool cried out. The chorus around the two cheered supportively. It echo'ed like sounds drifting from miles away through the mountainy cliffs of The Big Mountain. Although at the moment, where they were from was secondary to what their purpose was here. It was clearly not to offer Dash goat cheeses and linoleum staffs.

"The best way to deal with you, is beat the snot outta you!" they cried out as one.

--**--

The figure in the gathering mists or morning, high atop a plateau, gazed out at the land, seeing more in his minds's eye than what his sight could give him. He saw them all- the fighters approaching from all sides to slay him and the one's who held his freeedom in their hearts, if he could nudge it free.

He saw what the road held for them... the battles against the enemies he would soon array against them, not knowing if the curse would twist fate as to deny his salvation from him. All the paths seemed to divide themselves into two as he sought without success to see the true future.

He cast his mind ahead, delving into the possibilities and saw all what lay ahead. He saw the cat, roaring in feral conquest over her enemy... and laying in bloody final defeat.

He saw the feline's swordsman ally, drifting though enemy after enemy, only to fall to a surprise attack. In one vision, the help he needed arrived from a surprising source. In the other vision, the help he so desperately needed arrived just in time to hear his dying words, before falling victim to the swordsman's own enemies.

He could see the large moon man running wildly through his enemies without care- either powering his way to a painful victory- or running straight into the agonizing jaws of death.

He could see the swordsman's Nordic ally standing victorious after a run in with one of the few native island enemies the "heroes'" would encounter. He could see the northerner standing either over the fallen Orcish college thugs after an easy win, or he could see . .

No. Pretty much just one possible outcome for that one.

The vicious, self centered ally to the Nordic and swordsman . . His possible fates? Swept up and lost to his own ambitions.. or victorious because of his vicious nature. His was the sole fate the mysterious figure truly didn't care about in the least.

He saw the Pirate- Cleansing a demon from her soul that had haunted her for so long- or begging for its mercy- a mercy it did not deem to give.

And the hippie? He shuddered at one of the alternatives.. what Catrina's enemy would do to her... before she dies.

The shadow continued peering into the murky depths of what was yet to be . . If nothing else, it was going to be interesting.