Everything in this mission and the last parts of the previous mission have been leading to this.

Get ready for an exceptional battle and dig in. It's all on the line here!

 
The excruciatingly long and exciting adventures of our heroes and anti heroes in Hey Daze came down to this one key battle. Kadlin Bearsmasher had tracked down Catrina, ready to end her existence once and for all. Hay Daze, or Hey Deze, seemed like the perfect scene for the final battle. More specifically, she'd spotted them in a group of mountains that had risen out of the ground not much earlier.

"Kadlin!" Aleena scorned. "You're outnumbered and overmatched. Do you really think a few of your thugs are going to help?"

"Hand over Catrina or I kill you all," Kadlin commanded, ignoring Aleena. To an individual, the large group opposing her, from Catrina and Dash and the space elves, responded by taking a battle position. No one here would be backing down. Kadlin continued in a bored voice. "Three, two, one, kill them all."

Half a dozen mutated Knob Goblins stood along with Kadlin and her familiar, a demonic, highly polished metal flying skull, although the Goblins were hardly identifiable as such. They were much larger even than the brutes, for one. Mutated beyond reason, their muscle literally burst through the skin, glowing with pale brown energies and puke green fungi, with their armor fused into skin and bone. And while the brutes still had most of their hair left, the smasher instead seemed to grow small, sharp bones out of their heads in place of hair.

And while the brutes would tower over everyone other than Kadlin's smashers, the smashers towered over the brutes. As soon as Kadlin's threat was free of her lips, Catrina and Cattaras (who'd just joined the fight, without Becky, Fumblies or the others) were moving at their top speeds coming in on opposite directions. Each one attacked a smasher. Kadlin kept her eye on Aleena, who was still clearly suffering from their earlier encounter.

Catrina and Cattaras used their speed and claws against Kadlin's Goblin Smashers as the others rushed into the fight. Cyber Sunset teleported next to Kadlin and lashed out with his swords. Kadlin shifted into a smoky mist to avoid the attack, then countered with a choking gasp of mist. Fortunately, Kadlin wasn't able to hold her smoke form very long. So to speak.

She re-materialized behind Dash bearing a new set of fangs which she quickly tried to sink into Dash's neck. Dash had plenty of experiences with ambushes from behind, including vampires. He flung her over his shoulder before even consciously registering her presence.

Kadlin rolled her feet via her magic and immediately had to defend against multiple ranged attacks from the space elves. Meanwhile, Jay and Fahari and Todd joined Catrina and her brother in the battle against the Goblin Smashers. Probably a good thing since Catrina and Cattaras weren't doing so hot.

Cattaras rubbed his sore jaw. "They're fast. Hit hard, too."

Catrina growled and rushed, clawing one of the Smashers from behind. However, another moved faster than Catrina would have thought possible, slamming into her from behind. It sent her flying. Like all cats, she landed on her feet, crouching with her twin katanas raised to parry. "Tell me about it."

"Can't you just avoid the attacks?" Todd asked. "You're moving faster than those things can even see. How can they even hit you?"

"They move fast, too, hon," Catrina answered, taking a moment to size up the smasher. "Plus, it's a lot easier to attack than avoid your opponent at that speed. It's a matter of.. Oh nevermind, here they come."

Meanwhile, Kadlin sought to stave off the assaults of battle, furiously conjuring shields to block the elves' projectile attack, doing her best to turn the attacks back on the elves. Just as soon as she found a pause, Sebastian Dash leaped at her from behind. He might have gotten her, too, if one of Kadlin's brutes hadn't slammed Dash out of his lethal attack from behind.

Meanwhile, Jay, holding a knife in one hand, peppered another Smasher with a firebolt to the face which didn't seem to have much effect. Todd belt out the best death metal solo of his career against a Smasher. With the intense magic behind the bard's song, it could have dropped a small army in their tracks. It only momentarily staggered the Smasher, forcing him back before he advanced again on Jay and the fox.

"You gotta be kidding me," Todd said. His sharp hearing gave him an overview of what else was going on, and it wasn't sounding good for his side so far!

"They're tough," Jay said. "But so am I." With that, he let his body go momentarily limp as a subtle change overtook him. His posture got a little more aggressive and serious. The sword he carried and armor he wore burst into flames. He even spoke in a deeper voice. "Let's do this!"

"Do what?" Todd asked as Jay suddenly leapt into battle, charging at one of the brutes, sword ready to strike. "What a minute, are you crazy?!"

"So they're tough, so what?!" Lou said, staggering up behind Todd. "I'm an all powerful demon."

"Oh really?" Todd smirked, looking at the demon, who was basically half covered in blood from various wounds and barely seemed able to move. "You look like a powerless corpse. Maybe you should..."

Lou cut Todd off with a glare, silencing the bard for a moment. Long enough for Lou to conjure a watermelon sized fireball and blast one of the two Goblin Smashers with it, nearly knocking the Smasher over.

"Should what, kid?"

"Uhh.." Todd was flabbergasted. "Should keep up the great work, I was saying."

The small demon Lou just smirked. With Todd, Lou and Jay engaging with two of the Goblin Smashers and another two engaged by Catrina, Fahari and Cattaras, that left the other three to aid their mistress and re-creator, Kadlin.

"Enough of this!" Kadlin dropped her shields and shifted herself again into smoke. She reappeared nearby and blasted several shots at Aleena. Jen pushed her queen out of the path of the bolts but ended up getting hit herself.

"Jen!" Aleena yelled, momentarily turning her focus to the injured elf.

Konall yelled his battle cry, breaking off from the Smasher he had been attacking to rush Kadlin. The other brute threw aside the injured Valaria and rushed at Aleena, only to be intercepted by Zachane and Zed, allowing Aleena to start firing point blank lasers at Kadlin. The elves couldn't believe it when Kadlin sidestepped, firing back with a barrage of dark blasts. It quickly became obvious Kadlin could go after multiple targets when Kadlin's blasts dropped Zachane, leaving him open to a brutal assault from one of the brutes. The beast smashed Zachane with its hammer like fists. A third shot was deflected by Konall Bearsmasher's haxxor as a blade simultaneously sunk into the brute's back.

Courtesy of Sebastian Dash.

"Idiots!" Kadlin proclaimed. Dash and Konall found themselves under assault from the dark magic with two of her smashers by her side, helping her stave off attacks from Zed, Aleena, Glyn and Tarvel. "Keep them busy!" Kadlin commanded her brutes. Easier said than done, perhaps, but the Smashers gave Kadlin a precious few seconds to start a summoning spell. Zombies and demons started to swarm the area but lost direction a second later.

A metallic twang behind her announced the arrival of the heroic Cyber Sunset, who quickly slammed the hilt of his blade into the back of Kadlin's neck, dropping her. Sunset might have smirked. Might have, but instead found himself in the grip of the two massive Goblin Smashers standing next to him, trying to pull Sunset's arms off of his body. Slyvenia and the injured Wildfall rushed to help.

Even as backup arrived to aid Catrina, Cattaras and company, who weren't doing so well. That changed as four brutes rushed at the first larger Smasher, while the other came under attack by fire blasts and an ice storm.

"There you are," Cattaras said. "Bout time you caught up."

"Yay, we caught up!" proclaimed Becky Joy, the one behind the ice storm. Standing next to her, hurling fireballs, was Sir Fumblies.

Wolf, of course in werewolf form, rushed in to join the attack against a Smasher. Glyn jumped on the beast's back while Wildfall slammed his trademark oak shillelagh into the beast's knee. The beast maniacally threw off its attackers, only to fall victim to Konall, who was already berserking, rushing right at the beast, slamming it with his haxxor until the Knob Smaher fell, first to his knees and then on his face.

"More!" Konall yelled, turning to the next Goblin, who tossed a couple battered brutes aside. The brutes would need a while to recover. Konall rushed at the brute and started smashing it.

"Lou, just do it," Jay said, exasperated. "Just one time."

"What am I, a pet?" Lou folded his tiny demon arms over his chest. "Having to do something once is almost as bad as having me to do two things, twice."

"Actually, it's only one forth as.. no.. three ninths.. " Jay scratched his head. "Eighty seven percent as bad? I dunno.. I'm not that good at math when I'm fighting."

"Alright, fine!" Lou said, holding his horns over his ears with his hands. "I'll do it if you just shut up about math!"

"Deal."

With that, Lou turned to the Smasher, who was stomping on Konall and choking out Cyber Sunset. Lou fired a seemingly never-ending blast of fire at the brute, who turned and started to plow into the fire blast. But it was clearly taking it's toll. Jay slammed his sword into the smasher's neck, ending the fight. Probably lethally, although with Smashers, it's hard to tell.

Sir Fumblies directed Green to get the now-injured Becky Joy out of the way and Red to join the Knob Goblins surrounding another Smasher. Wolf had been battered to the point he couldn't even maintain his werewolf form.

Fumblies looked around and blasted the smasher with more fire and ice. "Alright, Fahari, distract him!"

Fahari did so, nailing the best with a series of martial arts strikes.

"Zed," Fumblies said. "Could you kindly help Fahari trip him up and then, clear away?" Fumblies had clearly been storing up for a massive attack.

"Sure thing, boss." As Zed Shinestone slammed his polearm into the back of the beast's knees, Fahari nailed it with a kick to the head, toppling it. The others, even the Knob brutes, backed away as Fumblies called down an awesome lightning strike from the.. well.. probably not from the heavens. Either way, it did the trick of ending the threat.

Even with Valaria and Jen recovering, the other space elves and Sebastian stayed on top of two of the Smashers. Tarvel's analysis seemed to give her a potential advantage. She broadcast to Aleena via cysuit radio. "My queen, I seem to recall you studied the Mahari assistance in the uprising on Delta."

"I did," Aleena replied. Morlenciri radio as fast as thought itself. Much quicker than bothering to speak, and more private to boot. "Why?"

"There was a certain sonic attack they used on the beasts. If you could give me more information on that..."

"You can adapt and use it against Kadlin's brutes..." Aleena quickly accessed and sent the information, right before a smasher sent a chunk of brimstone rock at her. Aleena dodged it and looked up to see Tarvel's concentrated sonic attack on the brute. Unfortunately, the brute was driven quite mad, slamming into Aleena and sending her flying back before the concentrated sonic attack took the brute down.

Meanwhile, Todd Blackpaws found himself separated from the others, back against a large rock as a brute stared him down. "Come on, ugly, let's get this over with."

Todd strummed a few bars of an Absolute Annoyance Anthem at the beast, enraging it to the point of near mindless. It charged at Todd, who ducked out of the way and slammed the side of his guitar into the beast's back, sending the misshapen, oversized Goblin smashing into the rock. Todd turned and blasted both the Goblin and rock with a death solo, stunning the brute and causing the rock to fall on top of him.

Todd looked around, briefly disappointed that Becky wasn't there to make a rock and roll joke. Todd made his way back to the fight where the last brute stood against Dash, Konall and Cattaras. Todd rushed into battle, his excellent hearing being enough to pick up on what was going on. Dash directed Cattaras's attacks low while Konall focused his attacks on the back of the beast. Todd arrived just in time to blast the brute with a Weakening Whisper of Woe soundtrack, causing the beast's knees to buckle. As soon as the beast was on it's knees, Dash finished it off by slamming Dash's sword into the creature's ear. It didn't seem to go in very deep but it was enough to finish the smasher off.

Dash looked around, seeing the others recovering. Kadlin was gone. The smashers were either dead, dying or at least down for the count. Hard to tell with them. Dash sheathed his sword and moved to Aleena and the others. Cattaras and his sister were helping Becky and the others. Wildfall held his ribs as he tried to get Todd to explain what happened. Jay slowly shifted back into his regular insane self. Even Konall's battlelust was dying down.

"Now all we need to do is get out of Hey Daze," Dash said, looking into the distance.

"Yeah," Todd answered. "Horrible place to visit, and I sure as... er.. here.. wouldn't wanna live here, either."

Glyn offered, "I could try hacking Hey Daze again."

"Actually," Dash said hopefully. "I think Catrina here might know how to find a friend of hers to help us out."

Cattaras and Catrina both looked to Dash and answered, "Master Sliver!"

Dash nodded. "We have a demon here. Between that and the space elves, getting out of here should be no problem, curse or not."

written by Dash, editing assistance by Aleena

The heroes escape from Hey Daze - or are about to- and move forward into the Season two finale!

You might be able to pick up, near the end, where I try to emphasize the top scores this mission through the characters' action. If you want to compare, the scores are up on the spoilers page.. If you've gotten this far, you probably don't have to worry about mission spoilers.

It's a pain to code but huge missions like this make me happy to be back to archiving the AIL missions! There's another mission that needs to be archived next. After that, the only thing left is to finish up our "10.5" mission, although this one might be going on a while. After that.. who knows?

An epic battle with a bit of humor. My favorite kind of battle. Thanks for joining us for the mission!