The action is hot and heavy as we roll into the second part of the Finale! Things are starting to look desperate for our heroes as our main villainess makes her move.

Up next.. Kadlin Bearsmasher roars into action.. literally! Sebastian Dash and his elven allies are still stuck in the dystopic vision of Honorburg, but maybe one of the Morelencir can do a little space elf magic. Jay's search for Lou continues, Wildfall and Cyber Sunset are stuck in the grips of a gigantic monster named Wild Bull and the battle pitting the Fumblies faction against the traitorous Bones and his demonic allies reaches a dramatic conclusion!

That's all up next on an explosive Road through Hey Daze.

 
By Cameron

Kadlin picked herself off the ground as elite penguin bruisers tangled with her troops. She lashed out at the fool who had hit her, striking him with black lightning. She charged and slashed him with her glaive while he was stunned, taking off a chunk of skin and ruining his outfit.

He was still alive; she'd leave him to experience the agony of death for awhile, and then reanimate him so he could experience the agony of death for a thousand years. Petty, but it would serve as a lesson to others so that they would be more hesitant to attack her in the future. And it felt good.

Knob smashers, shadow goblins, ghosts, and zombies tangled with penguins. As the ground began to be splashed with blood, red, black, and green, Kadlin began scratching the ground with her glaive. The fight continued on as screams of horrendous pain came from the penguins that only sometimes managed to drown out the ghastly sounds of the brutes as they roared in anger. Kadlin ignored all of this as she continued to scratch the stone with her glaive, adding runes and diagrams.

One of Kadlin's own shadow warriors slammed into her, propelled by a penguin kneecapping stick. She threw him off, rose to a crouch, dipped her fingers in the blood from his wounds, and began elaborating on the magical glyphs she was drawing. "Everyone draw back!" she ordered. Any of her troops that could withdrew from the center of the fight, knowing what was coming next. Kadlin unleashed a ball of death energy and black lightning, ripping the souls out of most of the penguins and the stragglers of her guard and leaving the bodies to drop to the ground as the souls went flying in all directions, finally stopped by spectral chains.

 
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by Dash

Several large metal canisters dotted the forest courtesy of the Morlencir. The space elves. Each one was.. spreading, basically. As per Aleena's orders, they'd manufactured the canisters which were now converting local raw material into a metal wall.

"A bit drastic, isn't it?" Zachane asked. Only after they'd set up Aleena's request, of course.

"It is," Aleena agreed. "But I think the situation justifies it. If Kadlin chooses to send representatives to disrupt our plans to recover Sebastian's former ally, then it's up to us to make sure that doesn't happen. Anything we can do to delay that, we should."

Valaria sounded confident. "This should keep them out indefinitely."

"Doubtful. Kadlin's a mage, which makes her dangerous enough. Now that she's tapping into the powers of the spirit in her glaive, the most we can hope to do is slow her down. Nevertheless," Aleena continued, "all we have to do is slow her down long enough for Sebastian, Cyber Sunset, Tarvel and the others to fulfil their objectives while we hold down the fort."

Valaria simply nodded, aware of how dangerous a competent, ruthless mage could be.

 
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Futuristic Honorburg (Hey Deze version)

Sebastian Dash had barely said that things were going to get worse when the large werebear with the doghead suddenly grew a large tentacle from its side and used it to smash into Dash, sending him stumbling backwards.

Yeah. That happened.

Dash ducked under the poison barbs of the next two enemies to attempt to ambush him, forcing Dash to backpeddle. "Lucky me, I was right. This is definitely getting worse."

"Hang on a bit more," Glyn insisted. "Whatever is going on here, it's definitely hackable. But it's going to take time."

"Not even challenging," Tarvel said, firing a laser at one of the enemies, whose skin quickly turned mirrorlike, sending her blast back at her. She dodged to the side. "Okay, that could be annoying."

The fight raged on. As Dash dealt with his enemies, a sluglike creature rushed at Dash. Dash quickly found the impact of the strikes from his broadsword Bad Beats was absorbed by the monster's slimy skin. "Urgh, my sword's sticking to this one. Got anything figured out, Glyn?"

"Working on it." Glyn dodged back to avoid a projectile fire attack. "Trying to stay alive too."

Dash quickly made use of his environment, dodging as a creature threw its sharp swordlike forearms at Dash. With Dash out of the way, the creatue's momentum carried it into the beast giving Dash problems. Further, the acidic like blood that exploded from the creature took care of Dash's would be assailant. "Soon, please."

Glyn's irritation began to show. "I'm basically hacking into reality itself here. It'll be done when it's done."

Tarvel stood over the fallen bodies of three giant enemies. "When'd you get so whiny, Dash?"

Dash sighed again as he took down an enemy, only to see yet another set of threats appearing, seemingly out of nowhere. Hopefully all the sighing wouldn't cost him the election. Er, if there were one, which there wasn't.

 
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Elsewhere in Hey Daze
By Dash; opening by Zed

"... Warlord, something's up. My... the person assisting us is way too eager to contribute; which could be an understatement, with how we're running all-out. So, possible setup or incident when we reach Catrina," muttered Zed quietly, to avoid attracting attention. He didn't think that the denizens would finish her off with any sense of haste - although Catrina seemed more concerned about their over-bulked sheaths.

"This way." Konall decided.

"Ahh.. why..?"

Konall shrugged. "Seems like as good as anyway to head towards. Besides, I tried a little prayer, and got a 'tug' in this direction."

Konall took a step towards the direction he'd felt the tug from. As soon as he did, several large mountains sprung up to impede his path.

Zed shrugged. "Works for me."

 
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By Dash

The rise of the mountains caught the attention of many others, too. Catrina had been drowning in enemies a moment ago, blows raining on her from every side. She still had one katana. The other was just out of reach, but she'd vowed to go down fighting.

Then it happened. A shift in Hey Daze shook the grounds. It sent most of the minotaurs and demons surrounding Catrina flying. Catrina was able to keep standing and immediately went on the offense. It helped, but she was overwhelmed. She decided to make a break towards the mountains, try to lose them. She rushed off; with her speed, she could cover dozens of feet of ground in an eyeblink, but that didn't happen. A few of the demons were somehow able to grab her mid-sprint.

Catrina found herself thrown to the ground. A large minotaur rushed at her. Before it could connect, a figure leaped over Catrina and caught the beast with a kick to the jaw, staggering it back. Catrina's eyes went wide as she realized who'd just saved her.

"Fahari!"

"Don't forget about everyone's favorite bard," came a familiar voice. Catrina looked up to see Todd Blackpaws. To be honest, Catrina wasn't even sure how she knew who Fahari was, but she was sure of the pantheress' identity. Now with the backup of Todd's amazing music and Fahari's significant fighting skills, Catrina felt invigorated and hopeful again.

"We need to end this," Fahari decided. "And reunite with our allies."

 
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The Fumblies command
by Fumblies and Dash

The fighting seemed to be hopeless as Bones' undead demonic horde continued to grow, enhanced by that fact the fighting was in the middle of a Hey Daze cemetery. Fumblies was coming to the end of his magical powers and would soon have to rely on his fighting abilities. Tus and the other Brutes were stuck in combat with several particularly nasty looking undead while Zap, the unit's lighting specialist was busy trying coax up some offense from his rapidly diminishing power reserves.

"I can feel your powers waning Commander," Bones spoke the title with a highly evident sneer as he begun his gloating. "Master Philler will be pleased when I bring him your mangle remains. Who knows he may find amusement in bring your lifeless corpse to serve as his butler or maybe his janitor. After all Fernsworthy Tower requires a massive amount of upkeep."

The intensity of the fighting surrounding Fumblies and Bones slowed, or at the very least faded away, as the former Fumblies Command necromancer gloated from the back of his skeletal dragon. While Fumblies was locked in his battle with his one time underling and friend, Wolf was locked in an intense battle with Hunk. Well it was more Wolf dodging the more powerful Hunk's attacks. Wolf was keeping just out of range of Hunk's hits trying to force a chase to tire the opponent out. So far it seemed to be working but Hunk suddenly lunged forward and sent Wolf flying.

Fumblies asked in a somewhat angered tone as he watches the Knob necromancer closely. "So just how long HAVE you been working with Philler? I mean you know what he is capable of Bones."

"I could have killed both you and that idiot Krimbo. In fact, it was only your admission of being manipulated into killing the Knob King that saved you." Bones sneered in an arrogance that had not been there when Fumblies had first met him. "Though if you must know I have been in Philler's service since you went off to Honorburg."

Fumblies' eyes narrowed in thought as he pieced together what Bones was telling him. It would seem Philler had been prepared for the eventuality of what had happened in Mirror World. Yet, his thoughts were interrupted as Bones shot a spell at him that was intended to suck the very life force out of Fumblies. Elsewhere on the battlefield Hunk was about to pulverize the stunned Wolf, but before Hunk could get an attack in, he got ambushed and knocked aside by a mostly recovered Cattaras.

The third battle raged on as well as Dr. Darth's foce bolts sent most of the Goblins assisting Becky flying. Green dodged behind a dead tree which took most of the impact from the blasts while Red jumped over the shots and landed on Darth's head with a "Yaaaaaa haaaaa!"

Disoriented, Darth turned and blasted Red, who barely rolled out of the way with a "whooa hoooa!" This left Becky free to blast him with a powerful ice shot, leaving Darth's armor covered in thick ice.

"Insolent child!" Darth pressed a couple keys on his armor, which started to heat up rapidly. "Your assault on the greatness of Dr. Darth mean nothing against my might! I.. what are you doing?"

Becky had stopped attacking and taken to mocking him instead. "What are you doing?!" she repeated in her best whiney imitation of Dr Darth's voice. It wasn't a very good imitation. More irritating than anything. "Oh, look at me! I talk about myself in the third person! I am the mighty one guy who is that guy who is calling himself a doctor! I don't know a kneebone from a kneepad!"

"Stop this mockery immediately!" Dr. Darth complained, but Becky kept it up, giving the others time to recover and attack him yet again.

Meanwhile, Fumblies dropped to his knees as he was hit by Bones' attack. He uses his sword to to keep himself upright. The life drain was making Fumblies weaker and easier to defeat with each each passing second. Just as Fumblies felt ready to meet his end a child like. voice spoke inside Fumblies mind. "Mind if I lend a hand?"

There wasn't a chance for Fumblies to think a reply as his armor started to glow causing Bones' spell to shatter. Bones swayed atop the skeletal dragon as the glow seemed to jump from Fumblies' armor to his sword.

"What is this?!?" Bones bellowed in rage once he finally resettled himself on his undead mount. His willed the closer undead to press closer as if to protect their animator. Fumblies calmly stood up keeping his marvel at his sudden new found strength to himself.

"A friend of my has decided to lend me a hand," Fumblies replied in a rather mysterious and majestic tone.

"It doesn't matter! I will still destroy you Fumblies." Bones gloated in a less than completely confident retort. Bones urged the undead dragon forward as he signaled for his undead minions to attack Fumblies. The demonic undead charged forward eager to obey Bones' command.

"Trust me Sir. Do as I show you to do." Fumblies gave a slight nod as a slight smirk crossed his lips. He knew who this friend was and had been there at his death even though in the months since the boy had been silent; it seemed now that the silence had been worth it. It seemed the ninja boy, that had been slain needlessly by the demon Dios, had been studying.

"Bones if you were going to destroy me you would have already done it." Fumblies retorted in what was an almost arrogant tone. Bones roared in anger as he flung necromantic energy bolts at Fumblies. The ninja spoke to Fumblies guiding his moments so that his sword blocked each of the bolts. Yet, instead of reflecting them back at Bones they were absorbed into the glowing blade. Fumblies couldn't believe it and neither could his former ally.

"What trickery is this!" Bones bellowed in rage as he forced his mount forward to attack his former commander. Fumblies stood his ground as he heard the voice in his head once more. "Use your necromancy to take control of his closest minions." The child sounded so confident and sure of himself as he told Fumblies what to do.

"What you don't like surprises Bones?" Fumblies retorted in sarcastic shock as he looked towards the closest of the demonic undead. Meanwhile, across the battlefield Wolf had caught his breath and was back in the fray against Hunk. Together with Cattaras the Warwolf forced the raging behemoth back inch by inch. Cattaras and Wolf were both tiring as each attacked from different directions keeping Hunk off balance as they worked to keep him from landing any of his hits. This only served to infuriate Hunk more as he yelled. "Why puny men no stand still for Hunk?"

Cattaras smirked. "With your stench, we'd pass out if we did, ugly."

Catt glanced over at Dr. Darth who was using every trick in his book, it seemed. Slime attacks. Fire blasts. Electricity. Even a tiny version of himself assembled out of his own personal armor. Yet the Goblins kept attacking. More than that, Becky kept it up with her freezing attacks, a seemingly endless supply of ice magic and attitude. Darth was clearly becoming frustrated, as were his allies.

Wolf, meanwhile, had been doing everything he could to cause Hunk to become more enraged. His eyes kept tabs on Becky's fight with Darth. While Wolf didn't have complete control of the situation due to efforts with big, dumb, and muscle bound he had still had a handle on the battles. He had been guiding the enraged lummox slowly closer to Becky as he had a brilliant plan up his sleeve. Finally, when he deemed them close enough he signaled for Cattaras to attack Hunk from behind to distract him. Cattaras circled around figuring this was just another unbalancing technique. As Catt attacks Wolf bent down and picked up a huge chunk of stone.

"BECKY, DUCK!" Wolf yelled out in attempt to get his ally out of the way of his soon to be incoming projectile attack. He waited for Becky to get out of the away as he strained to keep the stone aloft.

"Okay!" Becky said, wandering around. "I am looking for the Becky duck now!"

"Hon, I don't think that's what.." Cattaras was busy attacking Hunk from behind. Every time Hunk turned around, the big cat was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, nevermind, let's just end this!"

As soon a Becky was out of the way Wolf hurled the chuck rock towards Dr. Darth. Once the stone was in flight Wolf rolled out of the way with a shout to Cattaras. "Hey Feline pull back."

Cattaras, who by that time was in need a breath, fell back. As he fell back the stone hit Darth's armor with a thud causing him to stumble back a step as Hunk turned to face him. The infuriated Dr. Darth launched a fireball attack at Hunk. Each fire hit and caused Hunk to bellow in pained rage. This all happened in just a few seconds but as soon as the last fireball had hit Hunk the behemoth charged forward. Wolf couldn't help but start laughing as Dr. Darth and Hunk become locked in a brutal rage fill battle. "That worked better than planned."

"Oh, good one!" Cattaras said, roaring with laughter.

"What's a good one?" Becky asked, confused. Red pointed out the two were fighting. "Ohh, I get it!"

Meanwhile, Fumblies looked around the battlefield and pointed his sword and over a dozen of the demonic undead. As he did this each took on a slight glow before it turned and began attacking the undead nearest to it. Bones sputtered in rage as he watched helpless to stop his unexpected turn of events. Fumblies continued to turn the undead risen by Bones against the Knob Goblin necromancer until the voice once more spoke to him. "Sir, you have reached the limit of your necromantic abilities. Let your new minions and other allies take care of Bones' creations. Deal with the creator once and for all."

The boy had a point, a point that one so young shouldn't have been able to make but then again the boy shouldn't have been a ghost either. Fumblies nodded slightly in acceptance of the boy's advice as he moved to get ready to take Bones and dragon mount. Bones glowered in fear for the briefest of seconds before yelling with what was clearly false bravado. "So YOU dare to face me?!?"

"I don't only dare it Bones but am prepared to cleave your skull from your body in the process." All Fumblies got for this reply was for the undead dragon to breathe fire at him. At the very last second the fire was absorbed by Fumblies' sword. It seemed fire was another of its strengths and as to confirm this the child's voice speaks once more. "Strike the beast now before it is able to breathe fire again."

By this time the rest of the group had arrived and were picking off the remnants of Bones' once great and mighty undead horde. Behind them Hunk and Darth were still engaged in the rage driven brawl. It was Wolf who finally commented on the glow that seemed to have taken hold around Fumblies. "Does he always glow like that in battle?"

"I dunno, I don't pay attention cause I'm usually..." started Becky.

"No," Cattaras interrupted, keeping an eye on Darth and Hunk who were still fighting it out. "He doesn't."

Fumblies, unaware of the exchange, rushed forward and in with a swift swing of his blade hit the undead dragon in the neck. The dragon screamed in pain as it caught on fire. Bones saw this and jumped off of the dragon's back just as it exploded in a million tiny flaming bone shards. Fumblies looked towards Bones and started to advance. Bones, knowing that it was time to make a tactical advance to anywhere but there, started to run towards the city. Fumblies just watched him go with a smirk on his lips. Bones stopped well enough away from the group and opened a portal to elsewhere. He stepped through it and was gone, yet before the portal could close someone stepped through...

 
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The so called "Distant Woods"
by Cameron and Aleena

Kadlin approached the portal to Hey Deze, glaive in hand. She traveled only with those she trusted with the knowledge that Catrina was not as dead as Kadlin had implied, that is to say she travelled alone.

Up ahead was a structure made out of... metal? Kadlin laughed. Those elves, making things out of soft, malleable metals instead of hard, forged meat. Kadlin sent a bolt of dark energy at the gate, with ten times the power needed to blast through it. It was time those elves learned about the properties of materials. The gate had a black scorch mark on it, but it stood solid. What was this stuff made out of? It was a hundred times stronger than the strongest tin foil she had come across.

Kadlin lashed out several more times with her power, but to no avail. Well, this close to the helgate, other options would work better. Her demon summoning was much stronger here. She began marking vicious runes on the ground to call forth a diabolical nightshadow.

The gate to the fortress opened. "Who goes there?" asked Kadlin, pausing in her ritual.

"You of all people should know," said Aleena. Two elves walked to the front of their fortress; one silver haired and dark of skin, bearing twin swords. Her body looked tense, like a spring coiled. She stood protectively beside the Morlenciri Queen.

Kadlin ran the edge of her glaive carefully against her left wrist, losing the blood in her veins without disabling her hand. Drops of blood spattered on the ground. "I'm familiar with every living thing in Loathing, but I never got to know much about you elves. Perhaps we can rectify that now. How long is your natural lifespan?"

"You're not going to Hay Daze," Aleena said, ignoring the question. "We'll destroy the portal first."

"It would take me hours and many blood sacrifices to restore that portal. That would annoy me. Now, back to my question," she said, a smile on her face, oblivious to the blood dripping off of her. "Lifespan, I heard it was centuries, and that you remain paragons of beauty even at the end. Me, the glaive seems to be draining my life force. I appear to be in my late thirties. Me. I'm eighteen! Unintended side effects." She shook her head.

"Your news is correct. We can live for a thousand orbits of your world. And now, Kadlin, I must insist you step away from your drawing."

"The inscription was for something to break down the door. I don't really need it anymore, since your companions will allow me through." She backed away. "I was thinking of demonstrating my power by killing you, but a race as long-lived as yours never thinks that today's the day you're going to die. You don't know death well enough to fear it. So what can I do to strike fear in your hearts?" She thrust her left hand, spraying blood forward. The crimson pool on the ground joined with it, transforming into a wave of red energy that swept over Aleena and Valaria. Their skin became mottled and covered with boils, and cancerous growths began sprouting everywhere. Kadlin used a bit of her own mutation magic to grow a misshapen lump of flesh over her wound.

Aleena gasped in sudden pain as her flesh rearranged itself. Elves had genetic manipulation, but it would take decades for the genetic changes to set in. This burning agony was changing her in seconds. Her joints didn't fit together right anymore, and she nearly fell. Hopefully Valaria was... no! Aleena's lover had been hit even worse, the elf's face a contorted mess, with a grimace of pain. No, rage.

<Do it,> Aleena called for terrible energy to lance from the sky. Blindingly bright and painfully hot, even for elves, it burned a cylinder into the ground, even going so far as setting nearby trees on fire. "Let the skies burn you, Kadlin."

Kadlin raised her glaive above her head as she was engulfed in a pillar of white light. The blast lasted twelve seconds, and left a crater ten meters in diameter in the ground. Aleena looked in to see blackened bones and scattered bits of burnt flesh. The pole portion of the glaive had been vaporized, leaving only the sword with Kadlin's skeletal hand clinging to it. Odd that the heat didn't vaporize all organic material.

Aleena's heart sank.

The hand clutched the sword tighter. Black dust began swirling, attaching itself to bones and beginning to reconstitute flesh. Sinews knitted to fat deposits, which attached themselves to organs. A robe made of shadows surrounded her, shrouding the unsightly processes going on. Kadlin whacked her jaw, knocking sand out of a mouth whose jaw was only held on by a few filaments of cheek. She looked at the glaive. "Crap. It's still in one piece. I'd heard all about you elves' superior technology and hoped if I faced you again one of your almighty weapons would be able to break this thing and release the being inside so I can have its power. So much for shortcuts."

Zachane and Jen, a male and female of the elves, warriors both, swooped from the sky like birds of prey. Jen, having aimed her boot for Kadlin's head, missed by inches, perhaps Kadlin had some kind of supernatural danger sense? Valaria and Aleena rushed forward, despite their new disability, struggled to keep up with how their normal selves could have performed. When space elves fight synchronized, their movements become a dance and little can stand in their way. Their suits constantly chattered amongst themselves over radio, formulating strategies, movement predictions and how best to strike.

Kadlin moved and weaved, avoiding blows as best as she could. A vampire now, her body was reconstituted by magic according to the memories of the blood that flowed through her veins. Like all vampires, she could take not only human form, but the form of any animal whose blood she drank. Most vampires preyed on creatures of the night: wolves, bats, and the like. Most vampires had never drank the blood of a bear. Kadlin was not most vampires.

A 20-foot mass of black fur and claws reared amongst the elves, swiping furiously. This wasn't a mindless anger, it was an anger that pushed the body beyond its limits to make a problem go away. This was berserker rage. Kadlin backhanded Jen with her paw, hitting with the strength of a bear boosted by vampiric enhancement. The sword fell from her paw. Without thumbs, she could no longer hold it.

Zachane snapped up the sword, wielding it as if he had known it all his life. "You've caused enough trouble for one lifetime!"

The elves struck. Valaria's twin swords, flashing in the light as they struck Kadlin's nearly armored hide. Kadlin flexed, and Valaria's blades were trapped. She slashed at Aleena as Zachane thrust the sword at her. The sword stopped, and stabbed itself into Zachane instead.

"The sword is Mine," said Kadlin. "It cannot be taken from me by any means." She growled, and the sword teleported itself into her jaws.

The melee continued a few seconds more, but Kadlin suddenly turned into smoke and wafted through the door and down into the gate to Hey Deze. Her magical power was running low, and this fight was too much effort.

 
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Futuristic Honorburg (Hey Daze version)
by Dash

Dash's mind focused on nothing other than the enemies. And there were masses of enemies. "This is getting ridiculous!" Dash had been trained to take on enemies when outnumbered, using their own masses against them. Moving to confuse them and fight off multiple attacks without giving up the opportunity of his own to strike. Fortunately, he's brought along extra flash paper and island healing herbs. He even managed to find room for a couple extra bolas.

"Hang in there, Dash." Tarvel's advanced battle centric technology allowed her more offense safely. She should have been slaughtering the enemies by the masses- but these were dangerous, varied enemies. And Tarvel would only have so much energy. She'd already switched to conserving it, going to more melee attacks. The heroes were doing their best to adapt but it was no easy day in Hey Daze.

"Well," Glyn admitted after several minutes of fighting. "It doesn't look like I'll be able to hack the system, so to speak, like I originally planned."

"Great, what now?" Dash asked, wiping acidic slime off his arm with the edge of his sword. It kinda burned. Dash then used it to parry the attacks of a walking flytrap with bear arms. This trip to Hey Daze was starting to get even weirder than Dash remembered.

Tarvel took down yet another enemy. Even so, they were starting to get more dangerous every passing minute. "If we can't manipulate our environment, we'll need a new plan."

"No," Glyn corrected. "I can hack the system, just not in the way I thought. Dash, I need you to focus on one of the larger battles you've been in here. Something heroic. Preferably with lots of.. okay that's good."

Dash looked puzzled. "What're you.." Then the next second, he was surrounded by allies. Well, kind of. It looked off, like looking at a reflection in a dream. Still, there they were, looking as they had years ago. Dash's greatest allies stood ready to fight the threat off. Along with a younger version of Sebastian himself from years ago. Along with a younger Katlana, back before she started dying her hair. A few more allies of Dash's - Zluffles, Arata Tanaka, and more- joined in the fight, just as Dash remembered of the heroes' involvement against the great super villain teamup all those years ago.

"Wow," Dash said, awestruck. Watching the less experienced version of himself battling against the threat. "... I almost forgot about the ponytail."

"Lil focus here, Dash." Tarvel was mystified, however. "I assume this's your doing, Glyn. Illusions?"

"Nope!" Glyn said with a smile. "Well, physical illusions. Think of them as hard light. I drew this up based on Dash's memories, and the memories in the 'illusion' of the town itself. Maybe if we can run out the scenario..."

"Then we'll find the exit!" Tarvel flew into battle with renewed vigor, with Sebastian and Glyn picking up the pace along with their army of memories....

 
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Remainder by Dash
Deep in Hey Daze

Jay had a problem. A big, major important problem.

He was in the mood for tacos but had no idea what currency they had in hell. Plus, he'd always been told there'd be no icewater to wash it down, no matter how badly the people wanted some. Anyway, Jay looked around. There weren't as many demons here as there were on other places. A lot of the demons here had plaid suits and ties on. Some of the female demons even had ribbons on their tails. Ribbons! Jay snorted derisively. Embarrassment to demons everywhere. Ahwell, maybe he could bully them.

Jay stepped right in front of the biggest, largest demon he could find. The demon immediately took a swipe at Jay and sent him flying into the nearest building. Jay landed in a heap on the other side and slowly pulled himself to his feet.

"Okay, maybe I could start a little smaller," Jay decided, nursing his aching, bruised jaw.

"Yeah, maybe with a girl scout," a familiar voice taunted.

"Oh shut up, Jay, you know they only got the advantage because.. waitaminute, that isn't my voice. That's Lou, my trusty demon sidekick!"

"Boy aren't you a smart one?" Lou taunted. Jay looked everywhere for the demon, tearing the house apart, which is really weird as Lou was right in front of him the whole time. When Jay finally noticed this, Lou said, "Okay, let's go. Oh wait, I'm tied to this piano. Magic rope. Would you believe my luck?"

"Yes," Jay said. "Especially since you once lost a blackjack king with five aces."

"Look," Lou complained, his lil demon tail flickering. "Will you just get me out of here so we can get on with the story?"

"What story?"

"JUST GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Okay, okay," Jay said, getting to work. "What a grouch."

 
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The State of Lonestar (Hey Daze version)

Cyber Sunset, his elven ally Slyenia and the Ireacan rogue Jarlsboris Wildfall had been ambushed by a giant of a bull faced monster. Breath like acidic garlic. Twin longhorns which would look ridiculously funny if the monster wasn't a four armed absolute gargantuan.

"Iz.. is that all you got, ugly?!" Wildfall asked through gritted teeth. The creature had knocked down Slyenia, who was only now just starting to stir. It then was able to grab both Wildfall and Sunset with its massive hands. Right now, it was doing its best to squeeze the life out of the teleporting hero and the wise cracking Ireacan. "I've been squeezed worse by.. AHHH!"

The creature tightened its grip on Wildfall, even using it's two free hands to pound Wildfall's body a few times. "That all you got?!" Wildfall taunted the giant, although the blows quickly took their toll on him. It took Cyber Sunset only a fraction of a second to figure out Wildfall's plan, and another couple seconds to take advantage of Wildfall's distracting sacrafice, teleporting away from the best and to the unconscious Slyenia.. Sunset quickly set to waking her up, then turned his attention- and broadsword- towards attacking the beast.

"Alright, you might not be the same Wild Bull I knew," Sunset said, avoiding the beast's counter attacks. "but you're goin' down all the same, giant or no!"

Wildfall found himself flung to the ground by the beast, saved midair by a well placed teleport from Sunset. Wildfall briefly gave him a thumbs up before passing out, leaving Sunset alone against the beast.

No, not along, as Slyvenia quickly jumped to his side to assist, a whip at her side. Cyber Sunset knew they'd make quick work of the monster, which was already wounded and off balance.

He was mostly right.

To be continued in part III of IV

The first part of the Finale was my writing but this section, as you can see, had a really nice mix of writers contributing to it.

It isn't always easy to keep track of all the groups when they get split up (in order to write them), but when it works, I love the results of being able to skip between the different parts as I tell a story.

It's a common bit in AIL, going back to the earliest Finales like Chrono Quest which was split into the main battle and the story with Catrina, Moondream, Coconuts and the Chrono Dragon.

Another great early example: second part of the Crypt Cleaners Finale in the Meet the Council mission, which split the small group of heroes into four parts. Although this mission's finale has more and bigger teams with longer parts!

Makes sense. It was the last mission before the first part of the Season 2 finale. Speaking of which, the next part of this mission is up next!