It's Ninja Village.
And soon it will be nightfall.
So, then. Afternoon.

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Warning: Strong language

 
Spread out like a fungus encrusting the northern half of the Ninja Village, several slavers paced around, each awaiting orders from a thug who was awaiting orders from someone above him, and so on, with Operations Co Leaders Slick and Xion at the top of the command chain.

More slavers were on standby nearby too, with a plan bigger than any of the hundreds of thugs at the village could imagine. Taking over the north side of the ninja village wasn't enough. They'd also built dozens of temporary campsites and dwellings in the plains and woods surrounding the village. Some were ready to be counted among the dead before the amazing machine revived and transformed them.

No, improved them. Slick was sure of that. Made them stronger, closer to achieving the One True Goal of any great group, immortality. The oldest of writings taught the enlightened humans of the Catalina Starpoint Isles that they were destined to rule the world through control and dominance. That they were superior to the egotistical hybrids which controlled most of the main island, those furred perverts who prayed to a false goddess in the image of some of their own.

The greasy haired Slick stood in front of the machine responsible for it all in the most well guarded hut in the slavers encampment. Oily perspiration dripped from the fatty folds and numerous warts and boils of his chin. Slick had been the only occupant in the room for hours, maybe days. Slick lost track when he was busy scrying. Things like sleeping and eating were secondary in a land filled with dangerous adversaries. Slick winced as he realized another had entered the room in spite of his warnings not to. The new figure towered over Slick, a large collection of bulging muscles and ruthless determination. Only one of the scum fit that description, the leader known as Xion the Deranged.

Xion was larger than most of the other slavers. Slick was easily the runt of the group.

Physically anyway. Mentally, he towered over all others. They knew it and often resented him for it.

Xion nudged Slick roughly. "You figure this thing out yet?"

Slick staggered forward but caught himself, glaring at the much larger Xion. Xion ignored the glare, of course, didn't even seem to register it. Either fearless or too stupid to notice, Slick wasn't sure which. Not even a glint of appreciation after Slick saved Xion from going blind, possibly dying, after being struck in the head by a piece of frozen rock during the slaves' first escape.

"Soon," Slick answered, spitting at the ground. "Be patient! The tests on the mass graves have been something of a success, but on each occasion, we nearly burned our machine out permanently. I suspect that if we can obtain another machine rumored to be in the nearby Forest Village, we can use the machines in conjuncture to not just revive the dead but control the living! ... somehow. I'm sure it'll end up doing that or something similar."

Xion leaned over, glaring. "We're getting slick and fired of sitting around in this village. The thugs want action, and our zombified comrades want flesh."

"Slick and fired?"

Xion cursed. "Sick and tired! It's been a long day, you pathetic mole. Now give us something. And soon."

Slick glanced at the scrying machine. "Well, you could always deal with those intruders which you've been ignoring the last hour."

Xion slammed his fist into the wall. "We'll take care of that. You just continue working on letting us take over this continent. I needn't remind you, this is the key to regaining control of our motherland."

With that, Xion walked out, nearly ripping the door off in the process. Slick watched him go, bitterly reflecting on what he'd said. No, there was no need to remind Slick or any other true patriot of the fate of their homeland, may the great Dark Ones themselves curse the Muri-Dan for their treachery in the matter...

[UP TOP]

 
The ninjas prowling the village had learned to avoid conflict with the slavers, choosing to stick to the shadows and bid their time. Two ninjas named Hope and Faith joined Todd Blackpaws and Wildfall, who stood there along with Sir Fumblie Falanges, more commonly known simply as Sir Fumblies.

"Where's he going now?" Wildfall asked as Fumblies continued walking towards trouble.

"Not sure," Todd replied. "But I think we're supposed to follow. I'd rather stay with these two cuties, though."

"Though a pleasant thought," Destiny said, "there are problems that must be immediately dealt with."

"With us by your side," Hope said, standing between the two. "Move silently, choose well your opportunities, and strike with lethal force."

"Strike," Destiny said. "With lethal force will you be met but we shall drive them out and soon."

"And soon," Hope said, smiling. "We shall treat you and your friend as heroes and champions."

Before more could be said, the sounds of battle rang out in the direction Fumblies had started towards.

"Hold that thought," Todd said, nudging Wildfall to take the lead. "It sounds like Fahari's boytoy just found some action of another kind."

With the ninjas following at a safe distance, Todd and Wildfall emerged into a wide open area in the center of the town. No ninjas were seen here. Several slavers were lined up in various stages from living to the barely moving undead. It was clear Xion lead these scallywags and nogoodniks. As clear as the dated slang in this description.

In front of them all stood the all too familiar figure of Xion the Defiler. Sir Fumblies stood there, with Wildfall, Todd and the two ninja girls standing behind him.

"Awwww," Xion said in a mockingly appreciative voice. "You came here to die. Spares me the hassle of having to track down you cowards."

"Well you've found us," Fumblies said, wondering if Kwadlin's dark hand was at work here and awaiting a chance to battle the slavers, ridding the village of their presence once and for all. "Now if you would kindly shut up, we could get on with kicking you out of this village."

Todd growled. "I've been looking forward to another chance to tear apart some slaver assholes."

"Hear that, boys?" Xion said in his most mocking voice. "He wants a chance at your assholes."

The slavers broke out in fake sounding laughs then rushed forward. Fumblies did likewise.

"Hey, I didn't say -" Todd said, but the fight was already on. He shrugged, hoping maybe the ninjas would pick now to send a little help. Todd strummed his guitar, using his enhanced talents to support his allies and a death solo to weaken and finish off any of their numerous enemies.

[UP TOP]

 
The four space elves arrived in town, each keeping an eye out for a threat that might slip by their suits' sensory abilities, although of course such a possibility seemed exceedingly rare.

"Considering the massive amounts of slavers moving towards one point," Glyn said, "I guess we have a pretty good idea where the big fight's scheduled to be. Audio monitoring and spectral analysis both confirm there's beings we're not picking up through conventional means, although they seem to have heartbeats still. I'm also picking up three familiar bio-signatures corresponding to Todd Blackpaws, Sir Fumblies and the Ireacan native known as Wildfall. It looks like our fight will be on the edges of both the city and forest."

Jen had converted some of her heavy suit into a form more suitable for travel but with the fight so close, she quickly began assembling it into its heavy combat form. They could use the trees to their advantages, hopefully.

Glyn took the information in and quickly formulated and suggested a plan of attack. "Best bet would be to hit the big group from their collective blindside, but close enough to help our allies. I'd suggest spreading out."

"Do it," Jen said. "But don't spread out too far. With magic involved, we have no idea how dangerous their so called 'zombies' might be to us. Raven and Tarvel, you should be able to hit them from high."

Tarvel nodded, using the trees and huts to get a better vantage point for an attack. Thanks to her cysuit, Jen's right hand again formed into powerful cannon as she lumbered forward, towards the right. Raven took to flight on his suit's wings while Glyn stayed close behind, ready to aid Jen's assault.

[UP TOP]

 
As the space elves rushed into the battle, another figure watched the chaos more passively. Kadlin Bearsmasher kept track at a distance as the battle lines were drawn and the battle engaged. She'd set up a small network of spies already, but this one, she wanted to see in person. The safety of the so called 'heroes' would be a secondary concern, obviously. After all, they'd get in her way and have to be dealt with sooner or later. But for now, she was less interested in their death than the slavers being defeated.

Kadlin swiftly moved towards the edges of the fight. She knew of the space elves' impending arrival but hadn't expected Sir Fumblies to wade into battle so soon. Could his ego be getting the best of him?

Fumblies started off with magic blasts, which might have been seen as surprising to some, but Kadlin saw it coming. Without his small army at the ready, of course he'd rely on his magical talents. Wildfall stayed close behind, lashing out with his wooden shillelagh. Two against a mob would seem like a foolish plan but of course, that wasn't really the case at all. After all, they had Todd supporting them. The ninja girls also flew into action when the slaver groups started surrounding Todd and Fumblies. The ninja girls served as a valuable distraction. Clearly the tarts had a few tricks beyond those required to be kept in the presence of a bard.

Then again, the slavers were proving to be very organized, slowly, carefully and methodically cutting Wildfall and Fumblies off from any possible assistance. Kadlin nearly moved in to help when she realized what Fumbiles was up to...

[UP TOP]

 
"We're in trouble," Wildfall said, pulling his weapon free from a slaver who'd foolishly tried to grab it and gotten kicked in the face instead. "I'm not really cut out for dealing with all these enemies at once, and they have us surrounded."

Fumblies blasted the enemies as they drew near with ice and fire blasts, but he didn't seem particularly worried. In fact, he smiled. "As a matter of fact, we're right where we need to be."

With that, Fumblies moved away from the enemies half a step and let out a sharp, shrill whistle. The slavers paused, confused, but quickly prepared to attack again. They didn't get past preparations, as they were blindsided by a couple of out of control Knob Goblin brutes. Other brutes and Knob Goblins, mages and soldiers alike, poured in behind them.

Fumblies continued blasting away. "You didn't think I'd come without my army, did you?"

"Maybe not," Wildfall said, "but this's gonna be a long fight."

It was already obvious the fight was going to be long and hard if not impossible to win, but Fumblies backup would help. A lot. The brutes tore through the first waves of slavers, who responded by beating them down with magical attacks, leading Fumblies to take the lead against the magically enhanced slavers. Todd and Wildfall ducked the constant magical attacks less gracefully than the sporty ninja girls.

"Fire isn't good for wooden weapons," Wildfall complained.

"Tell me about it, man," Todd said. "All you have to worry about is some little stick. I've got grade A musical magicmakers on the line here."

"'Grade A' might be pushing it," Wildfall answered.

Todd chuckled. "Oh shut up and fight, Wildfart."

Wildfall hmph'ed at the name-calling. There wasn't much time for more than that. A couple thugs jumped him and were quickly dealt with by a couple shots from Wildfall's trademark shillelagh. A thug tried to grab it, but Wildfall kicked the thug in the head. However, a dozen more slavers split him and Todd up from Fumblies and the others. A solid meaty fist dropped Wildfall, who tried to struggle to his feet. Wildfall glanced up to see a muscular slaver standing over him, axe overhead. Wildfall took what he expected to be a lethal blow, but that blow never came. Wildfall watched as lethal projectiles ripped his would be executioner apart. It took him a second to spot the source. During the incident in that strange other world, Wildfall and Summer had seen a similar elf in action. Rumored to be from another world. Now, there were four of them joining the battle and none of them were the elf Wildfall had seen during the last encounter, leaving Wildfall to wonder how many of them this planet had.

One of the space elves struck the slavers from above, riding on bird like wings. No, the wings were more angelic, but black like a raven's. Wildfall didn't know how fitting the observation was.

The elves struck with uninhibited, lethal intent. Jen's army suit allowed her to tear through the masses of enemies, while Raven, Tarvel and Glyn targeted the biggest threats of the bunch. Xion watched the tide starting to turn against his side, no expression of any sort crossing his sundried and scarred face. "Get those mages in action!" bellowed Xion, veteran of many, many desperate battles. He rushed into battle himself, skillfully avoiding Jen's lethal projectiles, ducking behind her, and smashing a mace over the back of her head. Jen hardly had time to pull up a helmet from her cysuit to avoid lethal damage. Even so, she stumbled forward directly into the path of a mage's lightning attack. Jen felt her vision blurring. Xion didn't stop to admire his handiwork. Instead, he grabbed Glyn, surprising the scientific elf with near superhuman strength, which he used to hurl Glyn towards the incoming Raven, who'd thought to move in to neutralize Xion, clearly the biggest threat here.

Todd pulled Wildfall in the direction of the elves. "Come on, Wildey. It looks like the Morlencir could use a lil help."

"The who?" asked a confused Wildfall.

"Space elves, man!" Todd pulled Wildfall down, allowing them both to avoid a deadly blade. Wildfall took the disoriented attacker down with a wicked shot from Wildfall's shillelagh between the slaver's legs. Yeeouch! Even so, Todd and Wildfall were battered from all sides, barely avoiding the most dangerous and potentially lethal attacks. Todd dodged under both the attack and legs of Xion, who continued his momentum without pause, nearly taking Wildfall's head off with a broadaxe. Wildfall dodged the attack; two slavers failed to do so, caught in the arc of the lethal attack. Wildfall scrambled into a counterattack, swinging his thick wooden weapon at Xion, but the deranged slaver blocked it with an arm. Xion then used the butt of the axe to send Wildfall flying backwards.

"Hang on, buddy, I'm coming!" Todd called out, slinging a round of death metal at Xion, which dropped him to his knees.

"Forget him!" a voice commanded. Todd knew the voice and scent; he didn't bother to look over at her.

"Not happening, Kadlin." He tore into the slavers with not just his bard magic but with teeth and claws as well. Even a hunting knife he'd brought just in case things got bad. And whoa, man, is this bad! Todd thought to himself. The slavers were tough and well trained. Even the seemingly undead slavers. They were especially tough, and actually smelled worse than the normal slavers, as impossible a thought as that seemed.

"Their resurrection machine is near. It has to be dealt with." Kadlin blasted the slavers surrounding Wildfall. "There, your annoying little sidekick is safe for the moment. There's a sturdy looking building towards the back. In the middle of huts, it should stand out."

"So deal with it, lady," Todd barked at her. "I've got problems of my own, if you hadn't noticed!"

Todd was probably referring to the three new dead looking slavers swinging blunt looking and fairly large wooden planks at Todd, while another set of slavers hurled rocks his way. "Ow! Hurts way more than rotten veggies."

"I can't, you idiot!" Kadlin replied. Dark lightning took down another four slavers as well as those attacking Todd. Two of them stood up, glowing with pure white energies which they used to blast Kadlin with, sending her flying backwards. Todd turned to help but she waved him off, quickly getting to her feet. "No. The slavers are interrupting my plans, and some kind of force is keeping me away, so I'll take my own revenge. Find that machine. Destroy it. I will not accept any failings on this part."

Todd nodded and jumped forward. "Wild, tell the elves, make sure they know what the goal is now! I'll do what I can to.."

Something large exploded between the two. The force sent Wildfall backwards, tumbling. He looked up to where Todd had been standing and saw nothing but a smoking hole, soon obscured by at least a dozen larger than life undead looking slavers, their hair disheveled almost beyond recognition, their skin sickly shades of green and grays, like something out of a horror novel about four war buddies being left for dead in the Futuristic Wild West. On the worst of them, vines grew from their fingers and weeds and grass from their hair.

That was nothing. Any thoughts or concern for the foxbard's fate faded into terror as Wildfall looked up and saw a pair of inhuman beasts cloaked in armor that seemed to be made of light. They kneeled before Xion. The look and smell of the beasts was that of something long dead. Long dead until now. Raven and Jen lead the charge against the beasts, but were cast aside with by a powerful force of magic.

Stunned into cliche speechlessness, Wildfall began to doubt this was going to be an easy job at all.

[UP TOP]
This big important scene courtesy of Mitch (Todd's handler). And viewers like you.

 
Todd Blackpaws looked up, panting. The machine only lay a few feet away but, the way he felt, it might have been back in Aldara! The explosion had come close to decapitating Blackpaws. He took a step, sinking to his knees. 'm not gonna make it. he thought to himself.

He smiled to himself as he remembered a little old lady way back when, a sweet woman who had treated him almost like her son when he was loose on the streets. His vision seemed to coalesce around the mental image of her as she stood there smiling at him, reaching out.

A part of him knew this for what it was and rebelled, but he knew he could not resist forever. He closed his eyes to it, trying to close his mind to it as well as he dug deep in his soul for the energy to complete his task- and the fear grew that he was going to end up woefully short on that tab.

He heard himself sob and then bark words that the old lady had taught him. Words he had not used in many a year. "Blessed Vixen, help me!"

He felt his burden lighten a little and sighed. Opening his eyes he saw that the darkness that had ensnared him had been thrust back by a Light- and in the midst of that Light SHE stood!

She was tall- tall and sleek and as beautiful as he had imagined in those days when he was but a whisp of a runt of a kit back in Aldara. Her fur was the purest of white, covered (barely!) by a gown so red it seemed she wore living fire. Her nine tails were arrayed behind her- some majestically down while others were up in that wordless signal to all Vulpin males.

She smiled at him, and it was as if her blue eyes sparkled with the stars themselves. "My! You have grown into quite the stud!"

He felt for the words to respond to her but she continued. "And quite the bard! It is what has drawn you here, I know- for look! Here is an instrument, ready for you to play! Come- your greatest concert awaits you."

Todd rose, finding that he'd been on his knees this whole time, and advanced toward where she pointed. He picked up the instrument- the machine that had been doing this evil, and he looked at her.

"You know the tune, Handsome Bard- play it."

Todd nodded. "I do, but I am not worthy of the words."

She laughed, then whispered to him. "You are worthy of far more than you credit yourself with, Todd Blackpaws. But play, I will supply the words."

Todd began- hesitantly at first but with quickly building confidence. A confidence that was boosted enormously as the pure tones of the Vixen's voice began to sing along with him.

The Vixen finally quit singing and Todd ended his song, panting- almost dropping the instrument as he began to feel so tired. He started to look toward the old woman, but his gaze was turned by the Vixen herself with a touch to his chin. You did wonderfully, my studly Bard!" And then she kissed him- a kiss that made Todd's head explode with pleasure, then he felt himself fall back- felt arms catching him. He looked up into the eyes of one of the Space Elves and smiled.

"Beautiful..."

He passed out.

[UP TOP]

 
Glyn looked up from the now unconscious bard to Raven and asked, "Did he mean me or the music?"

Raven just shrugged.

"That was some song," Wildfall said. He hadn't been quite sure at first if it was music. Too beautiful to be music. But moments before, the undead around Wildfall and the others fell, unmoving, under the strange music as it began to play. Xion grabbed his ears, screaming for someone to stop the 'horrible noise.' Wildfall obliged, slamming Wildfall's trademark shillelagh into the back of Xion's head, robbing him of consciousness. The slavers, realizing the tide had turned, tried to run, but many of them fell unconscious or dead. Kadlin and Wildfall lead the final attack, soon joined by the space elves.

Throughout all of this, the Todd's amazing song continued for several minutes before finally stopping. For a moment, Wildfall noticed Todd and a strange, ethereal being singing.

Then the next second Todd was alone, unconscious. Glyn rushed over, catching Todd before he could fall and receiving the very odd comment, indeed. The others tried to revive him so the hero of the slavers' last stand at the ninja village could properly be appreciated.

And Kadlin Bearsmasher? She was simply.. gone.

As was the machine Todd had been playing like an instrument of the finest quality.

With this piece wrapped up, there's still one more Finale to go and this mission is in the books, so to speak. It's another classic.