This one's basically a big battle on the Dash/ Catrina side, with a few Shamus XTreme interludes to shake things up.. and make it count as a crossover. heh

Shamus remains to be fun in a way that's different than the joy of trying to craft a masterpiece battle scene. I'd also put the Jester King as my favorite of the Elite 7 to write, although they all bring something unique to the story. This story has Shamus, Cat, Dash and the JKotB, so naturally I had fun typing it up.

I hope you have fun reading!

Now, some of you might be keyed into this already, but we've got a special extra treat here, where we'll spotlight the tremendous fight between the Jester King of Beasts, and the forces of KOKOL, as well as taking a special exclusive peak into the travels, trials and tribulations of Shamus XTreme, himself. We'll cover the battle at the Degrassi Book store shortly.

Short prologue

"How the HELL did we end up in Mysterious Island?! We were driving a meatcar!" Inu asked, holding her head in frustration.

Shamus shrugged. "I took a shortcut."

Hey.. it made perfect sense to him. Inyu just looked on like she wanted to choke him. Which she did want to.

 
Back in the battle.....

To set the scene, the battle had been waged at a fever pitch. As it turned out, the objective that had brought Catrina Whiteclaw, Katherine Swift, and Sebastian Dash down to a Degrassi Knoll bookstore turned out to be a fraud.

Behind the 'sentient Yeti' they'd come to face was an Elite 7- the Jester King of Beasts. His abilities seemed beyond anything they'd ever been, as well. For example, the near certain death which had appeared over the head of our three gallant warriors in the form of large, obnoxiously random objects floating in the air- about to fall.

Catrina's first reaction had been as simple as an obscenity. Within a split second, a large meatbike, telephone pole (no one knew what a telephone was yet), what looked like a cannon museum display case, and the likes were hurling down directly over the three!

Their desperate reactions were as near instantaneous.

Dash rolled to the side to avoid a large statue, leaped some feet into the air, catching the edge of the telephone pole with his broadswords, Bad Beats. Dash had just enough impact to cause the pole to twist so it missed Katherine, who was rooted in place, using her whip to expertly grab the meat bike and manipulate its path, sending it flying towards the Jester King of Beasts instead.

That left the house to Catrina. It had materialized much higher than the other objects, but this only gave her an extra fraction of a second. Ruefully, she focused her willpower, quickly drawing into existence an absurdly large steel hammer. Katherine saw it appear out of nowhere out of the corner of her eyes, right before Dash yanked her to the side to avoid a falling telephone booth. I doubt even the Jester King of Beasts knew what that was for.

The power of the +3 Giant Hammer of Kawaii Jerk Boppage was near super human. It also seemed to drain Catrina of her lifeforce itself, leaving her tired, and confused out of her skull at one point. This is why she hadn't used it since the fateful first time. Still, that had to be better than being lethally crushed under a falling house, right? Which isn't to say said death wasn't still a possibility.

The power slammed into Catrina's very soul like an obsidian dagger. Her muscles crackled as she easily swung the hammer over her head. She launched herself with inhuman like speed into the air, letting the hammer guide itself, with her body just seeming to follow. The building was, amazingly and unbelievably enough, split in twine by the very first shot.

Catrina temporarily vanished into the house. A split second later, it exploded with massive force, sending pieces flying in any and every direction as Catrina landed, eyes glowing with a pale black. It didn't obscure the far off look in her eyes.

"Aww, crap," the Jester King of Beasts uttered.

Elsewhere

 
Okay, but seriously, in case you were wanting an actual explanation...

"Ahhh..." Shamus looked around. "How do we get off this island?"

"Take a shortcut," annoyed Inu ruefully replied.

"That doesn't make sense!" Shamus shot back, annoying Inu to the point of not talking. A few minutes later, though, as Shamus turns to head towards the nearby Frat house for another attempt at free beer, a voice booms into the two with enough force to bowl the two over.

"IT IS I WHO BROUGHT YOU HERE! I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ.. ER.. CHRONO DRAGON!"

The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. Mostly, though, it seemed to come from behind them.

"And I brought you to me to hear my dire warnings!" Boomed the voice.

"Actually, could you just put us back in Seaside Town? I think it's dire enough for me," Shamus answered.

Damn you, Shamus!

"BEWARE my tidings! For the future of the Kingdom may very well lie in YOUR HANDS!" boomed the voice.

"Really?"

"Of course not," the booming voice answered in a more reasonable tone. "But it got your attention. BEWARE the beast who is unable to hear her own goddess!"

"Kay," Shamus replied. "Send us back now."

"It is done!" The voice answered, wondering what possessed it - no pun intended- to chose THIS one to send the message to.

"I hate you," Inu said, slapping Shamus around as they appeared in town, then kicking him in the side of the head.

"Because I casually dismissed the voice and had it send us back without bothering to ask for details on this 'beast?'"

"N... er.. yes, that's exactly it!" Inu said, burying a miniature plastic axe in the side of Shamus's skull. "As far as you know, that's exactly the reason."

"Whatever," Shamus said, ignoring her and eating his Borischips.

Inu hates Shamus.

Insert whacky transition effect here.

 
Back to the fight!

This's where things get strange. Stranger than usual. Like your mom.

Also like your mom, the promise of blood seems to be hanging in the air. For a split second, the Jester King of Beasts made eye contact with the distant bloodlust look in Catrina's eyes, and what was left of his dark, twisted soul seemed to freeze for a second. But only a second, which passed like the cry of a ghost, lost to the night.

Catrina's bloodlust didn't pass so quickly. With a simple flick of her wrist, the sword vibrated and let loose a blast, letting loose a hellish shockwave which sent both enemy and ally to the nearby grounds alike.

The Jester King of Beasts phased away, but was still taken back by the shock. Catrina dove at him, intent on smashing his bones to pieces with her oversized anime style hammer, but he phased into the ground at the last second to avoid the deadly intent. Unphased (so to speak), Catrina slammed the +3 into the ground, sending tiny earthquakes for dozens of feet around her.

Several Knob Goblins rushed her, only to be sent flying in any direction. It didn't register to Catrina that there were more of them than ever- or that there might be a reason for that. There was a far bigger challenger approaching!

Catrina didn't sense Grillhamo approaching until it was almost too late. She spun around at the last second, catching his pole axe with her hammer, slamming it to the side! Proving his fearlessness, he starred Catrina down, eyes blazing with violence. Catrina's eyes were anime large and burned with the power of +3 Jerk Boppage.

Their eyes locked for a few brief moments before Catrina found herself ambushed from the side by Grillhamo's trademark black panther! The panther quickly pinned her to the ground, hammer discarded to the side, and Catrina found even her enhanced muscle tested trying to keep the panther's jaw away from her.

With her newfound strength, she was able to get a knee into it, stunning it enough for her to grab it by the throat and throw it to the side. With the panther indisposed, Catrina found her rage only growing as she grabbed for the giant hammer, only to have Grillhamo kick her in the side. The hammer vanished as her focus was disrupted, drawn back into the neatherworld between worlds.

Catrina, the part of her that retained a semblance of anything other than battle lust, cursed at her twist of misfortune...

Elsewhere in the fight, backing up a few minutes....

 
It felt like the entire world was collapsing over their heads. In truth, that was less of an exaggeration than Dash would have liked.

Unfortunately, even with Catrina's unexpected near super human feat, the two were caught with a shard of falling rocks and wood from the explosion of the house being split in twine. As Catrina lashed into the enemies, Dash tended to his childhood friend, who'd taken the worst of it, quickly using what little first aide care Dash was able to carry to treat the worst of her wounds. She insisted it wasn't a big deal, but Dash insisted on at least that much.

"Alright, stop babying me," she insisted, pushing Dash aside as he finished. "We need to get back into this fight. Your feline friend isn't faring so well."

Dash turned with a start. In his concern for Katherine, he'd overlooked the possibility of something going wrong with Catrina. It obviously had. Dash turned to see the Knob Goblin's warrior, Grillhamo, and that annoyingly loyal black panther of his, attacking Catrina!

There was still the little problem of the fallen debris and Knob Goblin warriors between them, most of which had seemed to be watching the fight, stunned. As soon as Dash took one of them down from behind, the others turned their attention to the more pressing matter.

Dash hopped over a lightpole as he avoided a pair of charging football player sized Knob Goblins. It put Dash directly into the path of a Knob Goblin wizard, who fired at Dash. The beam turned midair into an avil.

Guess that explains the Jester King's antics earlier!

"Ahh, Katherine, I could use your help over here, if you're free," Dash called to her, barely avoiding the flying anvil.

"Ahh.. I'll see what I can do," Katherine replied, using her whip to snatch up a nearby log, and hurl it at the closest Knob Goblin Jr. Guard. Unfortunately, they'd managed to surround her quite competently. Must have gotten their merit badges in circling the wagon. Or hero.

She came out swinging that whip of hers, though! The extensive training and practice was immediately obvious. Knob after Knob felt the sting of the whip, either with a lash that left permanent, deep red gashes on their skin, or when she wrapped it around a limb, their neck or even their torso and sent them flying. Despite this, they kept coming, almost as if driven on by an unseen force.

Ahhh.. that magician. He panicked as he saw Dash turn from the Knob Goblins and advance towards him. In his haste he threw every spell he could at Dash, eyes shut tight in abject terror. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes, only to realize he'd apparently just helped take out most, if not all, of his other Knob Goblin allies.

"Aww, spit."

Meanwhile, Catrina rolled with the next kick from Grillhamo. He went for a third. Big mistake. The fur and claws weren't just for looks; Catrina was even stronger than the lioness she resembled. She snatched Grillhamo's massive boot as he kicked at her again, grabbing him by the legs. The hurled him effortlessly across several feet, and turned to face down the black panther.

No ordinary panther, this. The beast and king of the secluded The Black Forest. Yes, I think "The" is a part of the official name, but I could be wrong. This fearsome beast hunt even the other predators of the forest, proving its deadly, vicious superiority. Its jaws could snap a black tree. It could survive multiple bites from the deadly spiders of the location.

And now, one of the greatest of the black panther starred down Catrina, who'd already fought through battle after battle. Catrina's chest heaved with effort and exhaustion, already showing the effects from the magical +3 Giant Hammer of Jerk Boppage.

Dash dove into action, with Katherine behind him, trying to cut a swath through the enemies, but they were just too tough.

Catrina.. was in huge trouble... little knowing backup was very, very close.

But would it arrive too late?!

 
Postlogue

 
Shamus insisted on making motorcycle "Vroom" noises as they sped along. Shamus annoyed Inu, who was hanging on too tightly to spare a fist to bop him with. Before she got the chance, he plowed over a hill, and got attacked flat out by a Knob Goblin! Not yet realizing how close he was to the battle at the Book Store, Shamus prepared for the fight of his life.

By which I mean he cowered helplessly behind Inu, screaming for her to change into something useful.

Next up we have a Degrassi Book Store Finale part, then each mission will get a dedicated part to its Finale- with an ending that's worth looking forward to!