Here it is, the Finale part II.

It's very similar in a lot of ways to the first Finale in terms of who wrote for it, but the groups split up and merge in new ways. It's a great transition between part I, where we're setting everything up, to the action packed part III. (Kind of makes sense, huh?)

 
"No."

The big lion finally spoke after watching the Morlencir ship land. The entire time, his tail had been thrashing, a sure sign of trouble Cattaras knew too well. He sighed and turned to Daisuke.

"She's perfectly safe. I've been on board her several times now."

"I'll walk. Besides, if we were meant to fly, the Goddess would have given us wings."

"But you will walk." Jen interjected helpfully. "The ship flies, yes, but…"

She stopped, seeing from the look Daisuke gave her that this line of thought was not helping matters. Catt wasn't that easy to dissuade.

"It will take too long to walk there. She's perfectly safe, especially since this is such a short trip for her."

Daisuke looked at Cattaras. "Why do you talk about that thing like a female?"

"Tradition," Jen smiled. "Besides, in our travels she will nurture and protect us even as we care for her."

Blahking looked at the ship in admiration and awe. "I'm guessing it's our best bet for getting up close to the shield, and finding a way to get past it to rescue Catrina."

"I believe so," Jen answered. She turned to Daisuke. "Are you in?"

"Fine," Daisuke growled. "It's going to be dangerous but maybe I can give you a little insight into those idiots' tricks."

"Quite dangerous, I'm sure," Jen said, pausing to hum as she thought Daisuke's comment over, ideas already forming in her mind.

 
By Catrina, assisted by Dash

 
------------------

 
The four friends headed deep into the woods, heading ever south. The day was a cool one and made for a pleasant stroll through the forest. Sassy, bringing up the rear, kept glancing over her shoulder; easy to tell, she was thinking of her garden. Their pace was a steady one if not a fast one and they seemed to be enjoying their jaunt. Sassy stopped from time to time, looking at the ground and picking certain roots, berries, herbs and the like. Icy was the first to break the silence.

"Sassy? How do you do it?"

Sassy looked up, slightly puzzled. "Do what?"

"Know which things are good for what things. How do you know what you are picking is good?"

Bristle laughed. '"Now, Icy, you want her to tell you all about herbs in an afternoon? It took her a long time to learn it all, didn't it Sass?"

"Kind of," she said, looking at Icy. "Would you like to learn it, then?"

"Well," Icy said, "it would sure come in handy. Knowing what would be good to eat, what to use to help people when they get hurt, and knowing what to avoid."

"Like firebrand berries," said Linger with a smile. "Me not touch dem again."

Sassy walked up to him and slowly lifted his hand. "Let's see that hand, Linger. Hmm, it is looking better. No burn marks, I see."

"Uh, dat could be because I burnt t'other one." He laughed and showed Sassy his other hand.

"Well, it does look a bit better. Here, I'll put some more salve on it." She applied the salve to his hand and then laughed as the joke finally caught her. "Well," she said, "even healers can make mistakes." The sound of their laughter could be heard ringing through the woods.

They kept walking in the woods when Sassy saw an interesting root. Kneeling down to check it out, Sassy plucked it and held it up as if it were a prize.

"Do any of you know what this is?" she asked with excitement in her voice. They all shook their heads.

"Well, that doesn't surprise me since they are so rare now, especially here. It is sapphire root."

"Sapphire means blue, but dat not look blue to me," said Linger, looking over the root very carefully.

"That's true. Once this root is ground into powder, the powder becomes blue. Do you know what it is good for?"

"Hm," said Bristle. "From the way you talk of it, my guess is that it isn't an edible. By that, I mean it would not be a root you would cook and eat for supper."

"No," Sassy said, "not quite. Wouldn't want to dine on it. It can be ground to a powder and then the powder can be used as a flavoring and preservative for your food, kind of like pepper but it doesn't taste like that."

"Why we need dat? Why anyone need dat?" questioned Linger.

"Well, you see, it is used to make your food last longer."

"Oh, me see now. Dat good idea."

"How did you know about that, Sassy?" asked Icy.

"My mother used to use it and she taught me a lot."

"Yes," said Bristle. "She was an awesome woman, fought like a tigress when the Black Band tried to attack us." He looked at Sassy and his head lowered. "I am sorry Sassy. She was a wonderful mother and one you can be proud of. "

"Were you there when she died?" Sassy asked him, her voice trembling.

"No, not exactly. I was in the group fighting with her against the Black Band. She managed to draw their attention away and told me to run and she would meet me at the rendezvous point. I waited and waited a long time, but she never came. I heard later that she had been killed. I won't go into gory details, but suffice to say that the Black Band was known for inflicting harsh treatment. I am sorry, Sassy."

"Forget it, Bris. Thanks for telling me what you could." Sassy heaved a sigh, wiped tears from her eyes, and steeled herself for whatever lay ahead. "We had best keep moving, I guess."

A little further down the trail, the bushes moved and they stopped. Sassy looked into the bushes and reached for her crossbow. A long slender snake slithered out onto their path and Sassy saw that it was Serpentina.

"Sisssster Sasssssy," Serpentina hissed. "Art thou well?"

"Yes, Serpentina, I am well."

"Dost thou mean to keep to thisss path?"

"Yessss," Sassy hissed back.

"Thee must beware. There is trouble ahead of thee, sister. Keep watch leasst thou ssstray into trouble."

With a flick of her tail, Serpentina retreated into the brush. Then Sassy felt the ground shaking and she heard roars and a lot of noises.

"Do you all hear that?" Sassy asked, looking at each of them. They all nodded their heads.

"Shall we check it out?" Bristle asked and the others agreed. Bristle took the lead with Linger in the middle and Icy behind him. Sassy took the rear position. The four friends, which they will always be, headed off toward the sounds of what they now recognized as a fight.

All of them had their weapons ready. They walked with a careful tread to look the scene over before acting.

 
By Sassy Snake

 
------------------

 
Blackeagle stood at the edge of a simple table in the middle of a vastly overcrowded tent. It felt like far too many people had been crammed into the tent.

John chuckled. "A bit crowded in here, yeaa?"

"Standing room only," Sherri replied. "I mean, except the people sitting around the table."

John again chuckled. He found it especially amusing considering there were even more people, ninjas and creatures packed around the tent who would love to be inside right now. The couple, collectively known as Blackeagle, looked around the motley crew assembled around the table, giving each other subtle but clear signs and signals that even ninja vision or hearing was unlikely to pick up on, much less decode.

Sir Fumblie stood around the table along with Knob Goblins, ninjas and various representatives of the Fumblies Command, which Blackeagle supposed included them as well. As Fumblies sat down at the table, the rumbling and talking slowly came to a halt as everyone watched and waited in anticipation of Fumblies to speak.

John glanced around the room again, noticing a few of the guests had a distinct resemblance to the Vikings from his own dimension. He'd heard of Vikings in this world and that many of them were part of the Blood Clan. John figured that is who these Vikings must be.

Fumblies finally spoke. "Thank you for joining us, everyone and thank you for joining us for this important meeting. We've uncovered some important information."

"So we have," the head ninja said.

Fumblies continued. "Working together with the ninjas, my spies have managed to uncover evidence of multiple former Elite 8 members heading south and interacting with the strange alien bugbears who seem to be the cause of the spaceship, which just happens to be appropriately shaped like a bugbear."

"What are we waiting for?" asked Sherri. "We should leave immediately."

John put a hand on her shoulder, calmly explaining, "Let's be sure we get all of the facts first."

Sherri nodded. "Okay."

"The most eager potential bugbear ally," Fumblies said sourly, "is undoubtedly the vile necromancer known as Kwadlin. For a while I thought of him as a mentor although that changed when I learned of his true intentions but nevermind that for the moment.

"However, his incendiary crimes aren't just limited to associating with the bugbears. He's also attempting to bring the Darkness under his control."

A Viking spoke up. "You're not speaking mega.. misha.. metaphorically, are you?"

Fumblies smirked. "Well, that too but in this case, I'm referring to the darkness that was literally unleashed upon the world when we battled Kadlin. She unleashed a tiny fraction of a great evil which spread over the lands. And interestingly enough, Kwadlin himself seems to be related to that darkness which is, I suppose, why he's trying to control it. The darkness itself, though only a tiny sliver of the dark ones, is deadly beyond comprehension and I can safely say the last thing we would want is for a troublesome necromancer like Kwadlin to end up in control of it.

"So I've decided that I'd like to ride to the south. I'll be taking a small group with me. John and Sherri, I'm sure you two would want to travel with."

"Of course," John replied.

"It would be our honor," Sherri added. "And travelling in a group certainly seems like the safest route to go under the circumstance. Plus, it will be nice to travel with people who know the land."

Fumblies paused and considered. "Then you'll help me handpick my team and we can start making our way to the bottom of this mysterious kidnapping. This should be very interesting indeed..."

 
By Dash and Blackeagle

 
------------------

 
"Awwww, come on, Mary, do the birds have to go after it? They could get hurt in this storm," Bob whined. Shelldor sighed from his backpack.

Mary also sighed at him. "The birds will be fine, Bob, they're tough." Unbeknownst to Mary, Shelldor gave the birds the smallest incline of his head to get flying.

Bob looked heartbroken as he watched his feathered friends fly off. "Be safe, and don't pick up any strange seagulls!" he shouted after them.

Mary put a hand on his shoulder. "I know that was hard, Bob, but I know they'll pull through."

As they waited for the birds to come back, Bob paced the ship, clearly worried. He took Shelldor out of his backpack and started to pet him. The turtle did not look pleased.

"Look, Bob," Mary called out. "They're coming back, and I think they've got something."

Bob hurried very fast up to the bow, and Bob didn't hurry for much. He was still holding Shelldor.

The bird flew into the ship and landed. In their beaks they held… fish?

"Well, that was anticlimactic," Mary said.

"At least we have lunch," Bob replied, getting a dirty look from the birds.

They both turned as the captain started yelling, "The bird is making landfall! I need volunteers for a landing party to search for him."

Bob started to look for anywhere else to be to avoid work, until Shelldor gave him a small bite on the hand, causing him to cry out.

"Ah, Bob, good of you to volunteer," the captain said.

"But... but... but," Bob started, but the other volunteers had already tossed a pack of supplies at him.

"Bring the fish," the captain continued. "They'll make good rations."

 
By Shelldor

 
------------------

 
"These woods are made for skippin, and that's just what I'll do!" Becky Joy sang out, skipping along happily without a care (or clue) in the world. "And one of these days in these woods, I'm gonna, skip right up to you!"

Becky kept walking, or dancing and skipping and quickly attracted some unwanted attention.

"What's that?!" a thug called out as Becky skipped up to - and almost past -a bunch of unruly looking Knob Goblins.

"Hi!" Becky said. "I'm a friend to Knob Goblins everywhere! You don't have to attack me!"

"Hear that, guys?" the ugliest, biggest Knob Goblin said to the others. "She's friendly. Let's attack her!"

"What?!" Becky backed off. "Eep! What're you doing?!"

Just then John and Sherri eyed the thugs. As a natural reaction, they got into a fighting stance. They just knew that there would be a fight. There usually was. An elderly woman and her young son being harassed in the woods by Knobs? That was the last thing they expected to see.

"What the hell ya'll think you're doing?" John asked to the Goblins.

"Let 'em go or we'll kick your tail," Sherri added, stepping on front of Becky who was still clearly confused.

"More tough talk from humans," another Goblin said, stepping up. "I'm so sick of you Adventurers pushing us around and stealin' our BBQ! Always raisin' trouble and ruining everything!"

"We don't want your BBQ," Sherri said. "We were just trying to pass when we saw you harassing these two people. We don't want trouble."

"They're in our turf," the next Goblin said. This one was bigger and looked tougher. "You're in our turf. Give us what you got, and tell them to give us what they got, and maybe we'll let you pass, if you're nice about it. Hand it over, girlie!"

"Looks like they aren't going to listen to reason," John said. He and Sherri took up defensive stances, waiting for them to attack.

One of the goblins tossed a spear in John and Sherri's direction and immediately, it was grabbed by John.

"Thanks for the weapon, my friends," John said.

With that, John swept a couple goblins off their feet using the spear. Another goblin tossed a spear and Sherri caught it. She used the spear to knock three more goblins off their feet.

"If you want to walk out of these woods, I suggest you do it now while you're able to," Sherri told them in a stern voice.

The goblins got up, defiant. In fact, more joined them, pouring out of the woods. However, a quick burst of frigid air and snow from Becky scattered the bigger, dumber group and left them running for the hills of the Nearby Plains.

"I guess they didn't bundle for the winter," Fumblies commented as his group joined Blackeagle and Becky. Blackeagle turned towards the couple of poor innocents the Goblins had been harassing.

An elderly woman pulled back a cloak over her head, smiling. "Thank you so much for helping us!"

Becky just nodded. "Yup! We're like heroes. I'm a deputy too!"

As Fumblies moved back to let Blackeagle shine, John smiled politely at her. "You're welcome. It's just lucky we came along when we did."

"Quite fortunate," the elderly lady said. "My name is Veravia and this is my son, Johim. How can we ever repay you?"

"No need to," Sherri said, shrugging it off. "We were happy to help."

"Or bring me cookies!" Becky said, giggling. "Just kidding, you don't have to but you can if you need to."

John laughed and joked, "No cookies before adventuring, young lady."

"Awwwww," Becky said, giggling and winking cause she knew it was a funny joke!

"Please try to keep safe," John said. "You might want to head north to a town as things here seem to be rather dangerous."

"We will, thank you!" the elderly lady said, bowing. "Thank you. If we ever see you again, there will definitely be cookies served."

That made Becky quite happy as she skipped off after Blackeagle!

 
By Dash and Blackeagle

 
------------------

 
Not terribly earlier, starting maybe sometime during part I

Flames danced around Larry the demon as he floated through the woods, not a care in the world, his only desire being to enjoy nature.

Well, that and to chase down and kill the Toot Oriole.

Okay, actually mostly the Toot Oriole killing spree. In fact, he didn't really give a damn about the forest or nature at all, it was just getting in his way!

The Oriole moved pretty quickly when its life was in danger, Larry idly noted. With Larry's elemental magic, simply sniffing out the bird's life should have been easy, but this was no ordinary bird. This was the Toot Oriole. Trainer of all, seer of most, knower of much. It didn't die easy. It would die hard and, on a good day to die, possibly die hard with a vengeance.

When it avoided the simplest of Larry's demonic attacks, Larry decided to have a little fun chasing after it. The chase was simpler over the Nearby Plains, but the Toot smartly shifted its flight and was soon flying through the Distant Woods with Larry chasing behind it, whistling an old fashioned diddley.

Of course, some of the joy was lost at that point when Larry started crashing into trees trying to keep up with the old bird. Larry started taking to burning down the trees in his way. Eventually, he forced the Toot into an open groove amidst the trees and cut off any possible escape route with fire.

"Oh, what's that?" Larry asked.

"I didn't say nothing," the Toot said, staring down the foul demon. Fire everywhere, surrounding the bird, but not yet burning the forest around them. Of course, Larry hovered above the Toot, savoring the moment.

"Shut up, I was being symbolic." Larry pulled out a cigar, lit it on fire, and pushed it between his lips.

The Toot glanced over at the fire surrounding him. Paths of flame floated in the air, so simply flying over it was likely out of the question as well. "Careful, you'll end up causing a forest fire."

Larry laughed uproariously.. then stopped as he realized the Toot had slipped free. "What?! How'd you get out of my impenetrable cage of fire!"

"I had the fire key," the Toot answered wryly, flying towards the clearing.

"BS!" Larry answered, moving fast enough to easily cut off the Toot's attempted escape back into the forest. "Now it's time to.. AHHHHH!"

If you wondered, Larry's threat was interrupted by a wave of death metal from the bard Todd Blackpaws! Larry fell to the ground as Todd stepped into view, with Wildfall and their latest strange allies (Gina and Wilma) following at a safe distance.

The demon turned towards the quartet and roared. He began to look more dangerous and demonic somehow.

Todd's ears went flat as he realized he'd just annoyed the demon. "Whose lamebrain idea was it for me to attack him again?"

Gina held her hand up meekly. "I totally thought that would work."

"But..." Wildfall pointed out. "It's a demon. Why would that song work on it?"

"It's?!" Larry cried out in surprise. "Excuse you. I am not a 'it.' I'm not a shark, I'm a man!"

"You mean you're not a demon?" Todd said with trademark snark. Covertly he signaled his friends to be ready; the bard had a plan! Wilma turned to Gina and flashed a 'five.' Gina made a 'two' in response and proclaimed, "Scissors beat paper!"

Larry's eyebrow went way up - almost past his hairline. "What are you doing?"

Todd rolled his eyes, then rolled with it. Hopefully his message had been two-thirds received.

"They're playing, demon- man." The vulpin smirked. "Shows ya what they think of their chances, don't it?" He took a step to the side, away from the others. For his plan to work he had to be the center of attention.

Good thing he liked that position...

"What're you holding behind your hands?" Larry asked, maneuvering to try to get behind Todd. Todd moved, further drawing Larry's attention.

"My tail. Not that I'm gonna give you a good look at it." Todd chuckled, trying to pump all his confidence into his speech..

"You're through, demon-man." Todd laughed. "You forget where I've been, how many times I've been in tighter spots. You forget who I've played for- and with!" He unslung his axe, trying his best to make it shine like some holy instrument.

A little longer…

"Why are you talking about playing with me?" Larry backed off slowly. "I'm not into that kind of thing!"

Wildfall just chuckled.

"Like I said," Todd laughed, "You forget. You think after the Vixen, I'm gonna stoop to your level?" He heard Wildfall, but did his best not to react.

"Hey pal, you said it, not me!"

"Yeah, 'pal', and I'm gonna say a lot more. Just as long as you keep watchin' me and not, say, what's happenin' behind you…"

"BS!" Larry said. "I'm not falling for that! ... What's back there?"

"Not a thing. Honest." Todd smirked.

"BS!!" Larry called, spinning around. "I'll see what.. oh hey, you were right, there isn't anything here.. Thank you for being so.. hon.." Larry turned around to see.. well nothing since Todd had split, just like the Toot, Wildfall and the girls, leaving Larry to scream "BS!!" at the top of his lungs.

 
By Catrina and Dash

 
------------------

 
After she and the others departed Captain Horatio's ship on the southern side of the Nearby Plains, Mary stood on the grassy and sandy shores, surveying the surrounding area. She stood on the beach with a view of the plains in front of her and a forested area just beyond that, scanning the area for a sign of the bird.

Meanwhile, Bob stood off to the side, trying to get his own bird familiars to listen to him. They ended up pecking his head and sending him running, where he nearly crashed into Alys, who was still trying to steady herself after finally getting back on land.

A couple more young sailors joined them, rounding the group out nicely. Mary looked at them and said, "Thank you for joining my hand- picked team. Since we are all here I think we should get started. It will take the Captain longer to get his team geared up and we need to cover as much ground as we can before it gets too late."

The first of the two sailors stepped forward, doing his best to look serious for her. He was a bit older than Mary though only by a year or two from the looks of it. "I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that it's our honor to accompany you!"

Older still, if barely by a year, was the female sailor who looked less happy to be there. She just rolled her eyes.

Mary then heard a slight snoring noise and looked to see Bob lying on the ground, already passed out, resting his head on a startled looking turtle.

"BOB! Get up!! This is not the time to sleep!" yelled Mary.

Bob woke up with a start. "What? Ohhh.. I'm not sleeping, this is just for my turtle. He likes it when I use him as a pillow, it relax- OWWW!"

Bob yanked his head up when Shelldor snapped at his ear and lept all the way to his feet when Mary delivered a sharp kick to his rear. He then ducked as the parrot started pecking him on the head again.

"Thanks Bob," said Mary sarcastically; she turned just in time to catch a very unsteady Alys and help her sit down.

"Thanks," Alys said wearily. "I thought getting off the ship would fix that, but I guess you were right. Maybe I should have stayed on.."

Mary sat down beside Alys and put her arm around Alys' shoulder, comforting her. "Alys, you will be ok. You just need to get used to being back on solid ground again."

Alys made a sour face. "I'm confused. I've been on solid ground most of my life."

Mary laughed and said, "Being on a ship that is rocking and rolling is not exactly like being on ground that doesn't move like a rocking chair. Your body had to adjust to the rocking of the boat on the open sea and now it has to adjust to being back on dry land again."

Alys nodded. "Okay, that makes sense. I guess I'll just give it time. Thanks again!"

While waiting to regain her 'land legs,' Alys turned to the two sailors and said, "We'll be traveling together for a while and I don't want to call, 'Hey you' every time we need to talk to you. What's your names, you two? I'm Alys of the Distant Woods."

"Hi there, I'm Bob!" Bob went to shake their hands but tripped over his turtle.

"Bob and Alys, meet Omar and Naomi," Mary said blushing. "Sorry. I'd meant to introduce them sooner."

Omar stepped forward. "It'll be an honor following you ladies, and Bill."

"Ahh.. it's Bob, actually," the turtle tamer corrected him meekly; no one seemed to hear.

"Oh, right. We should get to work." Naomi turned her attention back to the others. "How could we lose sight of the bird already? It couldn't have gotten that far."

Alys shrugged. "Maybe the bird wasn't moving at full speed earlier. Hmmm.."

Alys scanned the scene in front of her, including the very familiar woods to the south of the quartet.

"It might have vanished into the woods," suggested Mary. "That would explain why we can't see it."

"Can't see the forest from the trees," Bob said, trying to sound sage. "Or is that the trees from the forest? No, maybe it's the root from the leaves.. or is it.. OUCH!"

Bob stopped rambling as his turtle bit him on the foot.

"Thanks Bob for that lovely bit of wisdom," replied Mary dryly.

"We'd better get moving then," Naomi suggested. "We should find a woods guide."

Alys smiled wide. "You've already found one. Me."

"Oh, perfect," Naomi said. "Good. Let's move out."

"Whoa. Hold up, Naomi," Omar said sharply. "Mary is leading here, remember?"

Naomi frowned. "Right, sorry."

"Naomi is right. Let's move out." Mary turned to look at Bob.

Bob was still on his knees. Something about his familiars caught her attention. The birds were staring at the turtle, who made some kind of gesture. The next thing she knew, the birds swooped over to Bob, grabbed his ears and shoulders, and yanked him to his feet as Bob whined in protest.

That's weird, Mary thought. Was the turtle giving the birds commands? But no, that was crazy? Or was that just how familiars worked? Or at least Bob's familiars?

She shrugged it off, dismissing it as an optical illusion, and focused on helping Alys keep steady as they headed to the south, with the two sailors taking rear and Bob carrying his turtle. The bird familiars flew to scout ahead.

 
By Mary Kate and Dash

 
------------------

 
The Morlencir ship drifted close to the force field, stopping barely fifty, sixty feet away from it, with the front fourth of the ship dramatically fading from sight as it did, giving the ship's occupants an unobstructed view of the alien technology.

Four figures roamed the inside of the ship, with Prince Blahking and Jen sitting in front of the ship and Daisuke and Cattaras pacing behind them.

"As you can see," Jen started, "the view behind the shield is distorted. Our sensors have been mostly unable to penetrate it."

"But you can see right through it." Daisuke growled. He was already a bit frazzled- felines were not meant to be birds damnit! "Surely it cannot be that much of a barrier?"

"You can see through this ship at the moment," Jen answered. "And it's built to survive the toughest conditions in space."

Daisuke shook his head at the idea of being able to see through what was obviously a very solid ship.

"If it's so tough then why are you letting this shield stop us?" He growled.

"Isn't it obvious?" Blahking asked. "We have no idea how much energy we'd need to blast through nor how long it would take. Additionally, we have no idea what's waiting for us on the other side. If we go in guns ablazing, there'll be no turning back."

Daisuke just growled again, but Catt chuckled. "It's okay. Daisuke is just anxious to get to the 'saving Catrina' part."

This actually got a chuckle out of the big cat. "Knowing her she won't need much…" He stopped with a laugh. Catt looked at him, raising an eyebrow, and even Jen turned around.

"What is so humorous?" the elf asked, and Daisuke grinned as he answered.

"Knowing Catrina, and knowing the meat…"

"Dash," Catt corrected him.

"Yeah, yeah. Knowing Dash I'm sure that they will both be working to escape from their prison. Which will probably mean…"

"...that they have to disable the shields to do it!" Catt exclaimed.

He is smarter without the mask, Jen thought to her tiger love before speaking out loud. "I doubt you're saying we should wait for them, though."

Daisuke nearly purred at her. "Of course not! What we need to do is to keep the idiots inside that ship so busy that they can't do anything about a couple of escaped prisoners!"

"Or we could sneak in," Blahking suggested.

"I'll try a few more aggressive scans," Jen suggested, moving over to a nearby console which suddenly appeared in front of her on command. In truth, with her cysuit's capabilities, she could perform the scans without even needing to move. This was just for show, for the benefit of the others. Catt leaned closer to Daisuke.

"Gotta love those body hugging nanites…"

"That's actually what I'm using," she answered, distracted by the task at hand. "I'm sending in some nanite probes, small enough to sneak through the shield without being noticed and.."

Suddenly something shook the ship, causing the view to spin uncontrollably. Luckily, it seemed to have far less impact on the passengers inside.

"They just hit us with lasers!" Jen cried out, almost.. offended. She flipped a switch, symbolically. "I just set up the shields to deal with it."

Catt chuckled, glancing at Daisuke. "I think we have their attention now."

Blahking pointed towards some incoming objects, heading directly towards the ship. "I should say so."

A few darted around the ship, quickly joined by a half dozen more.

"Drones," Jen said.

"How much of a threat are they?" Daisuke growled, stepping toward the console as if he could understand what it did.

"Considering they're already firing?" Jen answered. "I'd say not much.. although that's new."

Suddenly one of the drones split in half, with each half displaying a nasty looking drill. They rushed towards the ship but were immediately taken out by the ship's defenses.

Daisuke grunted. "Looks like we've whacked the hornet's nest here. They'll try to gang up on us, overload us with their small attacks."

Indeed, a dozen more drones quickly surrounded them, blasting the ship with lasers. The first few shots had a little impact, but even that was quickly neutralized by the shields.

"Enough of that, now," Jen declared. The ship sent an EMP blast which fried most of the weaker drones, leaving only a few left. A barrage of missiles took the next group out.

"Just don't let one group distract you while another.." Daisuke broke off, pointing at a second grouping of drones that had used the attack of the first to move into a flanking position.

"Leave those to me." Catt growled, taking a console next to Jen's. Their link made it so that his knowledge of the little ship was almost equal to Jen's, so soon enough the sounds of his claws skittering across the keyboard filled the room- old fighting instincts dying hard, as it were.

Daisuke nodded as he watched more drones fall to the combined attacks. He even smiled a bit. "Can't tell you the number of times I got it in the tail from that."

His smile fell as his sharp eyes noticed something. Not knowing, why he pointed. "That ship… It's not like the others."

"Scans say it's just a regular.." Jen paused. A quick double check on the scans revealed some odd discrepancies in the readings on this particular drone. It made no sense. "Wait a minute, you're right."

The Morlencir tech displayed a close up of this oddity of a drone, also showing a few surrounding it. Whereas they were all simplistic in design, this one seemed to be covered in an ancient writing, and glyphs. The other drones were mostly perfectly round, although a few sections of their design were angled to perfection. This one, however, looked almost handmade in its rough, uneven design. The lines on the other ships glowed lightly with the ship's energy. On this odd ship, however, those glyphs and symbols instead pulsated with dark power.

Veteran instinct quickly kicked in as she made this strange new drone a new priority. Half a dozen of the other drones, however, rushed to defend it. Catt leapt to the attack, Daisuke pressing against his chair as he urged the tiger to 'pull its sting!'

A shield quickly formed around this strange looking drone, though. Not a simple, simplistic energy shield like the other drones. This one glowed and crackled and moved in a way no energy shield would. It dealt with the elven attacks much more effectively than the other ships.

"What in the name of.." Jen called out. "It's coming right at us! Brace yourselves!"

Indeed, the strange drone altered its path and was now heading straight towards the elven ship. The ship quickly reconfigured itself to protect its passengers, strapping them in, anticipating the expected impact. Cattaras had to actually fight against his chair, still inputting instructions for an all out attack on the rapidly approaching drone. For a moment, it seemed to work as lasers and missiles split the drone apart, spilling its contents, a strange and murky looking pink goo.

"Got it!" Cattaras proclaimed. "Wait, what's.."

In an instant, the fragments of the drone covered the spaceship, causing the ship to crackle and shake violently.

"Something's wrong." Jen called. "Maneuvering thrusters are offline. Shields are failing. Ship integrity is compro-"

The pinkish goo covering the ship could be seen from the ground easily. It quickly enveloped the ship but did little to conceal the rapid deterioration of the elven ship nor did it conceal an explosion which shook the ground for miles around.

Meanwhile, a similar scene played itself out on the ground a quarter mile away. Daisuke, Cattaras and Jen sat in a perfectly renditioned version of the ship's main hall, but there was no ship here, only a large monitor in front of them. The furniture threw Daisuke around though, just like the image of him on the ship had done.

"There is such a thing as too much realism," the lion growled as he picked himself off the floor, inspecting the rips in the chair that had earlier been his last hope of remaining standing.

 
By Catrina and Dash

 
------------------

 
The quiet of the woods continued to be broken by loud noises; squawks, shrieks and screams. Sassy and her friends continued to follow the sounds with their weapons ready for a fight. Bristle turned to Sassy and asked, "Are you sure we should be rushing into this situation?"

"I don't know," replied Sassy, "but something sure is happening."

"Yes," breathed Icy, a bit out of breath from running, "but what is it that's happening? And is it anything we want to get into?"

"I don't know but . . ."

Her words were cut off short when she saw a whirring blur over her head and then with a whoosh it was gone; only the sound of its scream echoed in the woods.

"Wot was dat?" Linger asked as he looked around. "Was dat de byrde?"

Sassy picked up a feather from the forest floor and offered it to Icy. "Well," she said, "this feather seems to prove that it was the Toot. What could scare him that badly?"

"Maybe a big creachure like dat?" Linger pointed at another fast-flying blur. The demonic creature seemed intent on catching the oriole. Sassy lifted her crossbow, took aim and fired at the blur. The thing seemed to shudder slightly but then he swerved toward them. Sassy barely had time to reload and her second bolt whizzed by the creature's head. In answer, the creature belched fire and flame at her and Sassy and the others headed for cover. The creature flamed trees and bushes and wreaked havoc trying to find them. It quickly decided it would rather try to capture the oriole and sped off after it.

The four friends breathed a quick sigh of relief as this demon sped away. "Wot was dat ting?" Linger asked. Noone seemed to be able to answer that question.

As they stood together, collecting their nerve and catching their breath and wondering what they should do next, Sassy looked and saw a familiar figure running full out, trying to catch the demon. She recognized him as Wildfall.

"Come on, guys. Let's find out some more about this. Maybe Wildfall can help us." So saying she headed off to meet Wildfall, her friends following after her.

 
By Sassy Snake

 
------------------

 
On the ground, a few miles away and a few moments earlier

Sir Fumblie lead a small group across the southern lands which the Kingdom of Loathing knew best by its proper name, the Nearby Plains. He'd purposefully kept the group small, with half a dozen Knob Goblin troops and a pair of Knob Goblin Brutes joining Blackeagle, Becky Joy, a pair of ninjas, a pair of Vikings and a KOKOL ally, a bard named Melody Thompson who could communicate with songbirds bringing up the rear.

Their march would take them to the shield although Fumblies had no idea what he would do when he got there. With his dark magic and the elemental magics of himself, the ice mistress Becky and lighting expert Zap, he didn't expect to have much trouble with it.

The random monsters, assorted thugs and other oddities didn't do much to slow the group down. With Blackeagle leading the spearlike formation, and Becky right behind them, the others barely had to pause for most battles, which left thugs, robbers, misguided animals and a couple lost Cards of Hate either lying in their wake or scampering to get away from the Fumblies Mobile Command.

After one such fight, John called over Sir Fumblie, Sherri and Becky as he noticed a sleek black ship flying from the distance. It covered the ground from miles behind them to the spaceship's shield (where it then hovered in the sky) in a few moments.

It caught John and Sherri's attention, to say the least, as they peppered Fumblies and even Becky with questions about the ship, which Becky and Fumblies recognized and explained was an item of the Morlencir. Even as they continued to ask about the ship and try to make sense of the answers (especially Becky's), the ship fell under an attack from various drones. The questions were then stopped short when they saw the pink goo covering the ship, which was then ripped apart moments later.

Not even waiting for Fumblies, John called for the group to make double time towards the scene, hoping against hope to find survivors of the attack.

By Dash

There's probably a lot I could say or praise here. I think we established a good variety of styles and paces in part I and II, so hopefully you like how they all flow together.

I enjoyed bringing in Veravia and this is her son Johim, originally introduced by Sassy Snake and later used in Spaghettigirl's AiL debut. They get help from a hero (or heroes) each time, which is kind of a cool role for a reoccuring NPC.

Larry the demon's back, too. Originally introduced as a human by Shamus, and later transformed into a demon during one of my Finales, it's kind of fun bringing him back every now and then.

I know you are just dying to see how this ends, so I better let you get to part III! (Besides, I'm in a hurry to get this thing posted now, we're already in the next mission's Finale writing as I write this. Yeesh, I thought I was gonna get this one up earlier since I started earlier, too!)