This is the second part of the gigantic post that I got up right before going with my family on the trip to Maine the next morning. I want to add, by the way, I got to see the mountains and ocean for the first time ever - and it was amazing! We also got to see the view from a mountaintop and that was especially cool and something I will likely have burned in my mind forever.

Here it is- the third and final part of the Finale for Rats & Bats!

 
As a part of its news initiative, the Council ranked its top five news stories for public release, ranking them in order, based on their level of interest, relevance, information, and other factors determined by the Council.

Reporter Drea Jo Set-Ahax, who had been working with scribe Trish P. L. Cape, probably would have ranked higher had they decided to share more information with the Council. However, Drea opted to be mum and vague on most answers, only talking about a disturbance deep in Degrassi's underground hub, The Knob. She basically dismissed the idea of it being a hostile takeover as misinformation or incorrect rumors, although she refused to give sources or cite why she felt there was nothing sinister about whoever might or might not have invaded the Knob.

She and her scribe Trish did, however, drop vague hints about the "return of heroes to a world which desperately needed some right now."

Neither would specify whom, so this story ranked #4, just beating out the recent news of a firearm being fired in town during what town guards originally called a hostile attack but are now tensely referring to as a "simple misunderstanding, hardly worth mentioning."

**---------------**

The Paladin emerged out of the Knob and onto the nearby plains, running at full speed. Catrina pounced him again and was thrown to the side. Catrina growled, engaging the Paladin and again pitting her twin speed and chi-speed against the armor and seemingly endless weapons of the Paladin.

"End of the line, tall, armored and gruesome." The bravado was a front though. As expected, chasing the Paladin through the innards of the mostly-underground Knob was no easy task, especially as they had no idea of his final destination. The multitude of guards and people looking for fights with the catgirl huntress, the elven queen, and the Honorburg hero made things especially tough.

Catrina knew she was outmatched here. Especially if the fights from inside spilled out here. Still, she threw herself again the Paladin with reckless abandon. After all, he was her only chance of finding her son right now! Catrina chuckled. "Herson" would be a cute name for one of her grandkids. Didn't her aunt know a girl named ...

The memory was interrupted as she ducked under a polearm attack from the Paladin. Where he'd been keeping that gem of a weapon on his body, she had no idea, but didn't want to think about anyway. Not that she had time, not before the Paladin threw her back, causing her to have to roll to alleviate some of the impact of being thrown into the distance.

The next thing she heard- barely over the pounding of her head - was Dash calling out that the Paladin's horse had appeared in the distance, and an entirely unnecessary warning to stop the Paladin before he got to said horse. Unnecessary not just because it was fairly obvious, but because Catrina planned to stop him from doing anything.

Aleena felt a similar sentiment as she and Dash joined the battle once more. Unfortunately, that's when the guards poured out. Aleena turned to them and actually growled in frustration, but Dash waved her on.

"I'll deal with them! Help Catrina!" When Aleena hesitated to say something, Dash waved her off, and then turned to the enemies, ordering the Queen, "Go! I got this. You two take care of Paladin however you see fit."

Not that Aleena needed permission for that; she was the Queen of an intergalactic empire, after all. But she appreciated the gesture. With a nod, she turned and rushed towards the battle.

The Paladin continued to move toward the his armored black horse, although Catrina noted that, oddly, the Paladin's steed wasn't moving towards them but seemed to be moving towards a spot in the nearby plains. Hopefully it wasn't Clown Rock; Catrina wasn't in a mood to deal with those.. er... clowns today.

Aleena joined in. "Work together" was the unspoken rule and working together, they had the Paladin backpedaling. Soon, they had him in trouble.

That's when a flash of light in the distance caught the attention of all three.

Standing there on two legs was the bipedal beast. Aleena and Catrina both recognized it as a bugbear. Aleena rushed forward, intent on revenge for her torture and humiliation at their hands. Meanwhile, Catrina took the scent in, and realized the thing had her child's scent on it!!

In a flash, Catrina was grappling with the creature. Meanwhile, the Paladin caught Aleena as she rushed to help, throwing her backwards. She landed on the ground in a heap.

As she was midair, Catrina and the strange bugbear both vanished in a flash of light, thunder and cliche.

Meanwhile, the Paladin turned to stalk the still stunned Aleena. . .

By Dash

**---------------**

Ranking a higher on the Council's list, possibly due to having actual quotes from witnesses, was Shea "Ax" Joutred's report on the recent heightened activity involving bats, rats, and scary things around Spookyraven manor. Of course, the general news story of weird things happening around the old, abandoned manor was in of itself nothing especially new. In this case, though, several adventurers were seen entering the manor not long before several eerie sounds were heard from the old haunt (so to speak).

As of the time the story was submitted, however, no further information had been available. Because of this, the story only ranked third on the initial list. Mild congratulations go to Shea and her scribe, Dr. Phil "Ties" Cappa, who is in no way a mafia doctor in his spare time, in spite of the name.

An adventurer named "Meaty," upon seeing the reporter, made a note to say he had nothing to do with it, and stated that he would love to stay and prove it but he was already late for a clan meeting.

Curious.

**---------------**

Gem and Bristle arrived at the Haunted Mansion where they noticed first one rat then another and finally a whole bunch of rats. Gem was sure they were on the Rat King's trail.

"Wow that's a lot of rats, Gem; guess you're right about the Rat King. We better be careful and not get too close; we can't fight that many."

Bristle, well, bristled, jiggling the door. "Door's locked, too. Feels like a lock enchantment on it. I don't know how we'll get in without the key."

"Oh perfect timing then!" called a voice from behind the two. They turned to see two girls standing there along with two Knob Goblins and a mischievous looking obtuse angel. The girl talking had a purse with an annoying furry dog/rat thing sticking out of it, yapping nonstop. The girl continued. "A clanmate just handed me it!"

"Who are you?" Gem asked suspiciously. "If that fat Rat King hired you..."

The other girl giggled. "'Fat rat king?!' Hahaha, what a funny name! Is it one of these rats?! How they gonna pay us, in cheese?!"

Gem didn't sound convinced at first.

"No, we're not working for the any rats or kings," the girl with the purse rat responded. "We're here to stop Lord Spookyraven from being revived. Same as you, right? I'm Spaghettigirl and this is my obtuse angel, Bingo along with my friend Becky Joy and her two friends.. um..."

"Darson," the male answered. "And she's Goblina."

"A common name," Goblina clarified. "Well, for goblins, anyway. I don't see too many humans named Goblina."

"Maybe I'll name a baby after you if my hubby has one!" Becky said before realizing it didn't work like that. Probably.

"Gosh, thanks, Becky!" Goblina hugged her.

"Oh, right," Bristle said. "Sassy Snake talks about you all the time, Becky. Good to meet you."

"Hi!" Becky said, trying to think if she'd met him before. (Like.. in a Finale, cough cough.) But she couldn't remember for sure.

"I don't know if we want to get involved with this, Gem," Bristle said thoughtfully. "We're looking for the Rat King, after all."

Gem looked at Bristle and said, "He might be inside so we need to get in the mansion since he seems to have vanished on us."

"That makes sense, Gem." replied Bristle. "Let's get this done so I can get back to my Icy."

"Great idea!" Becky said smiling. "She sounds cool, I mean, not cool like ice, I mean cool like opening a door."

"Um... what?" Darson asked, rubbing his temple with his mitten-like Goblin hands. "Nevermind, I don't want to know."

"Kay!" Becky cheerfully replied.

With an ominous yet thoroughly annoying squeak, the door unlocked and opened and the group entered to find a rather spacious hallway, if you could call something bigger than the size of most rooms a "hallway." There were tables and chairs along with metal statues of knights. Ornate gilded molding surrounded the room that connected the walls with the gold tiled vaulted ceiling. Gold sconces lined the walls to provide lighting for the room.

A large rug adored the middle of the room.

"Now that's swag," Darson said, admiring the old place. He coughed. "Lots of dust, though."

Gem started sneezing and said, "Be careful and try not to stir up anymore dust, my allergies are kicking my butt." Gem started trying doors on the left side of the room and found both of them locked. "Someone try the doors on the other side of the room and see if they are locked too," she continued.

"This one works," Darson noted, opening a door that looked to be a kitchen of sorts.

"Hey, this one works!" Becky called out excitedly. "Phew, at least one door in here works!"

"Mine isn't locked, either," Darson meekly noted but the others ignored him, rushing towards Becky to congratulate her on being the first to find an unlocked door. Darson just sighed.

"Let's go in!" Goblina excitedly suggested.

"Me first," Gem said, pushing past them - well, pushing past their legs, and taking the lead.

Gem found herself in a huge pantry containing enough food stuff to feed an entire world but as she move about, she disturbed the dust and her sneezing increased. "I have to get out of here. Someone else is going to have to check this room. I can barely breathe and can't stop sneezing," she said as she turned to exit the room.

"Don't worry!" Becky said, holding her arms up. She had a toy yeti clutched tightly in one hand. "I'll blow it all away with my icy wind powers!"

"What?" Spaghettigirl asked, confused. "Wait, no, you're just going to. . ."

Too late! Becky's ice-winds ripped through the room as she tried to blow the dust back further into the room- but all she did, predictably, was kick up all of the dust into the room, turning it into a full blown dust storm which started choking everyone in the room as they heard random items falling off the shelves under Becky's sudden ice winds. Even Becky had to retreat from the room, with Bristle slamming the doors behind them.

"Well that room is out," said Gem.

"Careful next time, Miss Becky," Goblina cautioned her.

Becky just frowned. Then she just jumped back as she noticed a bunch of tiny-to-small bodies moving across the floor.

"Wow, look at all the rats scurrying by now," Bristle noted. "Where are they going? Ahhh.. Up the stairs?"

Indeed, the stairs squeaked and moaned under the stream of the constant flow of rats.

Spaghettigirl looked at the stairs and said, "We better be really careful here. Lord Spookyraven might be up there and that could be why the rats are going up."

Becky headed toward the stairs. She had one foot on the step when Gem grabbed her saying, "Stop, Becky, those stairs don't look safe and could collapse. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Why not?" Becky asked, stepping down. Then she giggled and put her hand over her mouth. "Oops, just kidding. It was a funny joke, huh? Here.. lemme fix the joke.. I mean, joke the stairs.. no wait, fix the stairs!'

Becky raised her arms again. Gem freaked out, worried she was going to do the same thing as last time. "Hey, waitaminute!"

Becky giggled. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna kick up no nasty chalk dust.. here, look."

With that, Becky focused on the stairs, freezing them in place as she solidified the moisture in the air, seeming to stabilize the stairs. "There, all fixed!"

Becky's ice magic had the added benefit of seeming to frighten the stream of rats off. They turned and ran the other way.

Bristle carefully checked the first stair with his foot and then smiled. (Not vacantly, like Bob.) "Seems solid enough to me."

Gem started up the stairs. "Be careful," she whispered. "The steps are slippery."

Bristle followed behind Gem and the rest behind them. They came next up upon an upstairs hallway and quietly followed the thinning stream of rats through an open door.

Becky gasped and whispered, "Fancy ballroom..."

"EEP!" Spaghettigirl cried out, seeing a rather imposing looking corpse positioned in the middle of the room. The corpse was lying in the center of what appeared to be a pentagram drawn on the floor of the ballroom with lit candles on all the points of the pentagram, giving the only light in the room. The skeleton couples dancing around the pentagram and corpse, chanting a strange incantation.

Spaghettigirl whispered, "They're starting the ceremony! They're really going to try to bring him back to life!"

"Not if we stop it!" Bristle said in spite of himself.

The group rushed the bats and rats, knocked the skeletons down while at the same time smudging the drawing of the pentagram and scattering the candles. "By messing up the pentagram, it will break the spell," said Gem swinging, her skullbuster at the skeletons and any rats or bats that got in her way. Meanwhile, Spaghettigirl conjured up a mass of wet noodles to entangle more of the enemies to make them easier targets for Darson and Goblina to double team, one at a time.

"Yay! Party crashin!" Becky's ice spells proved especially effective against the skeletons, and the rats did not fare much better against the "hyperactive hypothermic hottie."

One mage managed to avoid the group and finished the incantation as the corpse started to move and rise from the floor. Lord Spookyraven had been revived and as he rose he grabbed Darson, frightening the old Goblin.

Spaghettigirl shouted to Bingo. "Drop that mage!"

Bingo looked confused at first since he wasn't holding a mage. Then he raised his bow and let loose a Boxing Glove arrow which dropped the mage before it could even whine about the move not being an original idea.

"We won!" Goblina yelled, right as the mansion started violently shaking when suddenly the Lord drops Darson and disappeared..

Gem yelled, "Let's get the heck out of here, NOW." With that the group literally ran down the stairs and out the door of the mansion with Becky and Spaghettigirl pushing everyone out just before the before the door slammed shut behind them.

By Wildfall and Binajane

**---------------**

Much more exciting on the list of news stories was that of an altercation outside of the Typical Tavern.

Veteran reporter Buana Katherine, a hard boiled but fair ex-detective who wasn't known for playing well with others, was joined by rookie scribe and ideal optimistic dreamer Spice Phipps, a wannabe singer who has yet to learn that sometimes playing by the rules doesn't always work.

Between learning valuable life lessons, they reported on an incident with a known ally of Baron von Ratsworth picking a fight with local adventurers outside of the Tavern. . . or were the so called 'adventurers' merely trouble-making menaces picking a fight with the Baron's associate?

The story ranks number two for the high number of familiars supposedly involved in the fight.

**---------------**

"So that's how I rescued the familiars!" Bob explained, finishing the story.

Linger looked confused. "Wow, dat take long time to hear short story."

Bob just smiled, looking like he maybe had just farted and was proud of it.

"Sorry," Sassy explained. "What my friend here meant was it seemed like it took quite a while for you to tell that story, and we expected more. Like, a twist or something or some character establishing moment."

Bob responded in exactly the same way; smiling again vacantly. Maybe he'd just thought of something funny he'd read years earlier? Maybe he was doing really well on his turn count this run - oops, wrong game.

"Dat what I did say," Linger clarified. "Also: story feel rushed. Linger want more next time."

The others laughed politely. Bob just smiled again in exactly the same way. Was he even paying attention?

"Well, as much as I'm enjoying the cheap beer," Omar started to say, only to be interrupted by a large crash and the sounds of fighting. The entire tavern turned towards the bar's entry to see a couple of muscular looking Muri-dan, each of whom were holding one of the the Typical Tavern's swinging entry doors. The Muri-Dan, each looking over six and a half feet tall, held them up like shields.

A small figure lay on the floor in front of them, cowering.

"Listen up, jerks!" called out a third rat like figure as he walked into the room with a swagger.

"Ratso," Sassy called out sourly. She noticed for the first time that this rat looked very differently than the other two. The other two were more humanlike, like a hybrid. Muri-Dans? She'd heard the name. Then she recognized the street urchin cowering in front of him and rushed to help, calling out, "Mole! Are you okay?!"

The two bruisers stepped in front of her but Ratso seemed to be sweating the moment. "N-now listen, we don't want no trouble with you and Bruiser, Ledy. We just wanna .. hey.. where's Bruiser at?"

"He's standing outside," Sassy answered, trying to put on false bravado. "Just waiting and hiding, ready to crush you when I say so."

"Nice try," Ratso responded, meaning exactly the opposite. "If you didn't catch it, that was ser-cassm, sweet cheeks. I'm just gonna collect this little liar and make my way out of the bar.. ohhh... I think I'll reclaim some stolen property too."

Ratso was staring at Bob and his collection of familiars, both his own and the rescued familiars. "I'll be taking those! I think - - AHHHH!!"

That's when Linger picked Ratso up from behind. "Hi. Me squish'in you now, kay bye."

But both the muscular Muri-Dan turned on Linger and smacked him with the swinging doors they were holding, breaking them over Linger. Linger shuddered, dropping Ratso, who scurried after Mole, trying to catch him.

He came face to face with Omar and Naomi, the latter of whom smiled as she punched him, sending him falling back.

"Forget the brute!" Ratso called out. "Get them!"

The brutes threw Linger aside, letting him crash through a table and rushed at Naomi and Omar, but Sassy shot a crossbolt between the two, catching their attention.

"I don't think so," Sassy answered ominously.

Ratso scurried to his feet, and then yelped at Shelldor bit his ankle, causing him to trip backwards, falling over himself as he bounced out of the building with an arm of familiars rushing at him and the Muri-Dan brutes. A stab bat stabbed at him manically. A grinning turtle glared at him. (Not very effective, I know but it was a sarcastic grin.) Belushi the Killer Bee, previously kidnapped, swarmed around Ratso and repeatedly stung him.

Linger, Omar and Naomi crashed through the space where the swinging doors had previously hung before being ripped off their hinges. Bob tried to follow but tripped over Shelldor, trapping Shelldor under him.

That's where they ran into trouble. Two grinning Muri-dan stood in the distance. Two very familiar looking...

In a flash, they covered the space between themselves and the fallen Ratso, attacking both sailors and the troll who'd been looking to finish off Ratso. Linger, Naomi and Omar had no time to even prepare for the impact as the two Trinity members pounded them.

They stopped and turned to Ratso when Ratso yelled, "Get the urchin and get us out of here!"

"Not so fast!" Sassy yelled, stepping up to protect Mole.

Jerome laughed. "Poor choice of words, bitch."

Sassy's eyes narrowed at the comment. That's the only reaction she had time for. In a burst of evil chi-inspired speed, Jerome shoved her hard and grabbed Mole in the same breath.

By the time Sassy hit the ground with a loud thud, both Muri-Dan were gone.

Along with Mole and Ratso.

Bob wasn't smiling anymore.

By Dash

**---------------**

Our top story comes from our recently signed pairing of cousins Chandler 'Expo' Sition (reporter) and Alisha "TC" DiPrepp (scribe). Although it suffered from unusually high levels of expository information, it covered Baron von Ratsworth's confrontation just south of Degrassi with another band of self styled adventurers. The Baron travelled with two known associates, Boss Bat and Blake Cutler.

Although very little information on the actual events was available, we found one adventurer still in any condition to speak. She had a simple message for young children reading this program, or more accurately, having it read to them by their parents or closest literate relative.

She simple stated, "I might be young, but I give everything I have to everything I do."

Seriously, is that not adorable? It could go with an artistic rendering of a cat at the end of a rope and be sold. In totally unrelated news, this roaming reporter needs to go see the local pretentious artist about a picture of a feline for.. er.. my niece.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Bonus reporter stories by Dash

**---------------**

Baron von Ratsworth was unable to conceal his fancy disappointment in the slow movement of his troops. Not that he had any reason to attempt to conceal it.

The march towards the bathole continued, lead by the Baron himself. Blake Cutler marched to the Baron's side. In addition to his army of rats, the Baron had a horde of bats and a prisoner among the group and all were headed to the bathole.

"It looks like one member of that mob is not there willingly," said Fahari.

"Yea, I think you're right, hon," answered Todd as he turned to see someone approaching from the side.

"It's about time you two showed up, thought we were going to have to go this alone," Todd said to the newcomers.

"Geez, we just got your message," Wildfall replied, "John and I got here as fast as we could. What's going on?"

"We should go help!" Mary exclaimed, ready to rush at the group now to save whoever it was they had prisoner. But Wildfall and Todd each put a hand on her shoulder.

"Whoa, calm down there, missy," Wildfall said softly.

"Let's not go rushing in yet, doll," Todd said. "Don't worry, we'll save them, but we'll do it smart."

"Yeah," Wildfall added. "Let's see who they got first. For all we know, whoever they're keepin' prisoner could be more trouble than the people keeping 'em locked up."

"Before we go rushing into this we need to figure out the smart way to approach the situation," Sherri noted. "Look for any weaknesses and figure the best angle to attack from. We also need to look at our chances of success and survival and then make a plan."

John turned towards Wildfall and Mary to ask, "What's the first things you notice about the group ahead of us?"

"I see a mob of rats and bats and someone being held against their will," answered Mary.

"What do you see that might help us tactically?" John clarified, "In other words, what do you see that might give us an advantage?"

"Oh sure, I see trees we can hide behind so they don't see us," said Mary.

John rolled his eyes. "I was more thinking about the fact they're centered around two people up ahead, although one looks like he's more bat. Some kind of furry?"

"Naw," Todd said, eyes narrowing. "He looks a lot more like a bat that's walking, sort of. The smell isn't quite right, either. Two heads, too. Ya know what that means?"

"Oh!" Wildfall volunteered. "It means we can do that hilarious thing where we knock the two heads together, right?!"

Todd laughed. "Well yeah, I guess so. I'd have also accepted, 'It's the Boss Bat,' though."

"Oh, yea, now I see what you are saying," replied Mary, "But all this talking is not getting anything done about that mob, why they have a prisoner or why they are meeting with bugbears."

"I am all for going in and busting heads," Wildfall chimed in. "Been laid up long enough and want some action. All this talking is not helping me at all."

Mary turned to Wildfall as she said, "You may want to get back into action but don't be at all surprised that you tire easily or that your strength is not what it was before you got hurt," Mary continued on. "All I am saying is pace yourself and don't expect to be 100% right away."

"Oh, geez, Mary will you stop mothering me? I will be fine," Wildfall replied, Then he turned to the group and said, "Anyway, we should circle around and hit them from the front. They will not be expecting that. Mary, you keep back a bit and let us take the lead, so we can watch out for you."

"Now you just wait a minute, Jarlsboris Wildfall," snapped Mary, "You're NOT my father and you better think twice if you think I'm staying back and watching all of you fighting."

Wildfall smirked. "I knew ya'd say that, ya brat!"

Mary punched Wildfall hard on the arm and continued ranting at him, "I'm just as good at fighting as the rest of you. I may not have all your fancy weapons and tricks but my fists work just fine when they're needed."

Annoyed, Wildfall lightly poked her shoulder. "Stop it, that's my shillelagh swingin' arm. You're gonna injure a poor sick artist here if ya keep it up."

Mary grinned at Wildfall and gave him big hug and said, "Sorry if I sounded like I'm mothering you but I don't want you overdoing it and I don't want you trying to protect me liking you've always done. I want to show you and everyone else I can pull my own weight here."

"Deal," Wildfall said. "Let's catch up with the others then."

Wildfall glanced up. While they'd argued, Blackeagle had moved the others forward under the scant cover of the nearby plains.

Mary nodded and followed Wildfall to the rest of the group, who were able to make their way around the larger, slow moving group fairly quickly. Before long, they were inside of the forest, which presented a tough choice as quick whispered opinions were made, options were listed and plans were made, scrapped and amended with a desperate speed. They could wait until the group entered the woods but it was generally agreed they'd quickly lose the advantage in the woods. So they came up with another plan.

The plan played out when some moments later, Baron von Ratsworth and Blake heard a familiar and hauntingly beautiful voice singing from the forests as they approached it.

Todd whispered to Mary, "When you're ready, throw your hands up and I'll speed up the song. Then you start the Jig. That'll be our signal to get into place. Then Wildey here will be up next. Can you do that?"

Mary smiled and said, "Yes I like that and can do the signals just fine."

Soon Todd was singing a love song and Mary started waltzing out of the woods into the view of the mob. When she was out of the woods, Mary raised her arms and Todd's singing became faster as did Mary's dancing. The mob stopped and except for Todd's amazing singing, the only sound was that of the bats squeaking as their wings flapped.

Mary started doing the traditional Ireacan jig as she dropped her arms and hands down tight against her body, back straight as a board with only her feet and legs moving rapidly. As the music and singing increased, so did Mary's dancing with occasional leg kicks until soon she appeared a blur of movement.

Blake walked up closer, blinking. "What are we looking at here?"

As if on cue, Wildfall walked out from the exit, shillelagh tucked safely on the pouch on his hip. "And it looks like we have a traditional Northern Ireacan dance from our first entry. This dance originated in the Blarney Mountain plains as a form of exercise.. er.. as a mating dance.. I mean, as a high energy dance meant to bring good luck to the mountains. As you can see, it's being exceptionally well performed in spite of the substandard noise accompanying it that some would wrongly claim is 'singing..'"

This caused Todd to hit a sour note as he tried to growl while singing but he quickly got back into the act.

"This dance could best be describe in roughly five words." Which Wildfall yelled. "Okay, now RUN! Blackeagle, NOW!"

With that, the trio scattered to the sides, leaving the bats and rats ready to attack. They had no time to act on it before two large trees crashed over into the group, courtesy of the amazing power of John and Sherri.

It was enough to send the group scattering and allow Blackeagle to rush in head first, with Mary and Wildfall staying side by side, wading into battle from behind them while Todd rushed into the forest, soon to return with his "axe" - his trademark guitar.

Blackeagle's martial arts and strength allowed them to dive into the action, sending any curious or aggressive looking backs backwards without breaking pace. Before long, Todd used his music to encourage his allies to victory!

Blake immediately rushed into battle, eager to pit himself against the duo. "You two are quickly proving to be a thorn in my side."

"Like that?" John joked as he rammed a staff into Blake's side, causing him to stumble back. "How do you like? They're the first weapons we made when we got to this world. I've been meaning to take them out for a spin."

"Good idea," Sherri said with a laugh, spinning her bo staff like a helicopter and using them to smack the bats out of the air and the rats off the ground.

Meanwhile, Wildfall and Mary Kate attached Baron von Ratsworth, who threw his top hat like a boomerang. It nicked Mary Kate in the shoulder with a knife-like sharpness, causing her to yelp in pain.

"Why you worthless piece of rat meat, you will pay for that!" Mary screamed at the Baron as she began pummeling him with her fists, her face reddened with anger and adrenaline.

"I say!" the Baron protested in a posh sophisticated voice, trying to cover himself up. "How uncouth!"

When the Baron called Mary uncouth she hit him even harder and, seeing their boss getting attacked, the rat pack attacked Mary. This gave the Baron a chance to recover. Now he had Mary at the mercy of him and his rat pack.

Meanwhile, Blake found himself in trouble as Blackeagle were able to dictate the pace of the fight this time, forcing him on the defensive and keeping him off guard. Blake's never-ending supply of knives kept them off balance, but Blackeagle were smart and before long, he backed up straight into a roundhouse kick from John which sent him flying.

A karate style kick from Sherri sent him into unconsciousness.

"He's done," John noted as the two turned to see Wildfall standing over the fallen Mary. "Now we can.. AHHH!!"

John failed to notice a shimmying figure behind him, crackling with electricity. John fell to his feet, his body sparkling with the same electricity that danced on the metallic looking gloves worn by...

"Mimi!" Sherri called out. "New accessory?"

"Yeah," she called out, swooning. She swung her fists at Sherri who jumped back. "Electronic thingamajigs for your arms. Little gift from our new alien brothers. They're the hottest new thing, meaning they'll fry the skin from your bones!"

John was barely moving, having the fight taken out of him from the electric gauntlets. Sherri easily avoided the attacks from Mimi in spite of how quickly Mimi attacked. Even so, the force of the energy from the gauntlets sapped her energy and physically forced her back. She connected with a powerful kick to Mimi, sending Mimi flying, but as she flew, Mimi aimed the gauntlets at Sherri. When Mimi landed on her butt, twin force bolts blasted out of each gauntlet, striking Sherri and sending her backwards, unconscious.

Slowly, Mimi dusted herself off and walked over to Sherri, ready to finish her off. "As I was about to say before I was so rudely interrupted. . . . you're toast!"

Just as she said that, a bat like creature swooped in from the side and started attacking Mimi. The creature attacked by using his feet to claw at her and got a few bites in but it was enough to get her away from the helpless Sherri. When Mimi tried to use the gauntlet, the creature turned his attack on it, causing it to overload and cause an energy feedback. The feedback caught Mimi, Blackeagle, Koumori and any of the bats that were nearby. Koumori was wounded, and slightly stunned, by the overloaded weapon discharge and he flew off to try to recover.

Mary, sensing his presence, opened her eyes and looked up, just as he flew of and whispered, "Koumori, thank you." She staggered to her feet with the help of Wildfall.

Wildfall stood in front of her. "Okay, Mary, game time's over. Stand back and recover. Time to let the old man handle this."

Not that Wildfall was especially old, Mary noted to herself.

"I'm not going to stand back and watch, I told you that," yelled Mary.

She had more to say, but she kept it to herself as Wildfall turned to glare at her. He looked serious and upset. This wasn't a look Mary had ever seen before on him. He looked.. pissed. It reminded her a little of her father when he was trying to protect her. "Mary Katherine, you will do as you are told or I will drag you back to the nearest ship I can find, tell them to find your father and leave your raggedy little arse there, so Sneaky Pete help me! You're not ready for the Boss Bat.. and I am. You just made that clear, so do are you're - whoa! Down fellas!"

The bats had swooped down at Wildfall but he easily ducked them. "Sorry, been there, done that, got the complimentary fever. That's why I brought these."

Mary watched, stunned, as Wildfall slipped on a simple set of hard wooden knuckles over his right hand, using his left to hold the shillelagh. Made of the same solid oak as his main weapon, no doubt. Mary wanted to ask where he'd gotten them, but she was still stunned into silence over his verbal scolding.

Mary watched absentmindedly as Wildfall took the bats down while avoiding their attempts to get closer to him but she was quite distracted. Mary sat there thinking about everything that happened recently and wondered if maybe Wildfall was right and she was not as strong or as good as she thought, and she wondered if she should just give up the adventuring, go back to Seaside Town, stay home and set up the clinic like she and her mother had planned. All the old doubts about her abilities came flooding back and once again she was full of self doubts.

Wildfall fought fearlessly, but the bats were starting to overwhelm him. He fought his way free, only to have the rats start tripping him up. Once he got free, he turned confidently, saying, "Time to cut off this.. AHHHH!! Son of a bat that hurts!"

He had jumped back to avoid the top hat slicing his arm off but it still caught him, slicing him deep enough to force him to drop the wooden shillelagh. Wildfall used the solid oak knucks to slam into the hat, sending it flying. In turn, the Baron produced a very dapper beatdown on Wildfall with a fancy jewel crusted walking stick. The first blow nailed Wildfall in the side of the neck, taking him down, and the rest of the blows caused him to winch in pain.

"There, there, quite a proper beatdown, if I do say so myself." Baron von Ratsworth turned to Mary Kate. "Ah, I see he's quite put you in your place, little one. Quite rude of him if I do say so myself, so I do suppose I shall properly bludgeon him to death, if you don't mind. You should enjoy that, surely. Wot wot, with me being proper upper crust, as it were. Here, dear, would you like to add a couple of ineffective girly blows yourself? Or would you prefer to stand there watching me in admiration? Fancy admiration, of course."

"Why you dirty son of a moth-eaten rat," Mary opened up on the Baron once more. "Who do you think you are, talking to me like that, you oversized pompous old windbag," With that she grabbed the walking stick out of the baron's hand. Making it look like she was going to hit Wildfall, she immediately swung the stick and hit the baron across the face. She pummeled him with every bit of her strength, allowing all the anger she was feeling to come pouring on into the stick. She had not realized she was so angry until she noticed he was slumped over on his knees - and she was the only thing holding him up. Mary looked at the baron and then at Wildfall and even tho she was still seething with anger, she pulled away from the baron, letting him fall flat on his face in his own blood. Still holding the walking cane, she turned her attention to Wildfall.

Mary rushed to Wildfall as he writhed in pain and raised the cane to swing at the bats but they suddenly began to fly off, apparently wanting no part of the crazy girl who beat the baron so badly.

"You ordered me to stand back and let you take care of things and look who is still standing. Now do I look like I can't stand up to the Baron?" Mary asked Wildfall as she started looking at his wounds. "I just get you healed up and here you go getting all messed up again."

"Me and my big mouth," Wildfall muttered before moaning in pain.

Mary gently put her arm around Wildfall's shoulder and said, "I'm still pissed at you for what you said and for treating me like a poor defenseless little girl but maybe now you will admit I can…" Mary paused, looked around and said, "Hey, where'd Todd and Fahari go?"

By Wildfall and Binajane

I decided to cut it off so the last stories here would focus on the reporters, which I basically used to reflect the overall points of the participants in each mission. Knowing this, you can maybe tell who won the mission by the way it ended, hehe.

I'm proud of this Finale and especially proud that Bina and I got so much of it done in such limited time before I had to go.. we even got the Rollover for the next mission finished! Although it was a bit of a rush job too, hehe..

I'm extremely fond of the final bit with Wildfall yelling at Mary, who starts to doubt herself and then ends up basically saving Wildfall's arse. It played out so well, I thought. Plus the bit with Catrina's baby and the rise of Lord Spookyraven, which is huge for the Somber Six. Well, I gotta say I absolutely loved it all!

I hope you all enjoyed reading or re-reading the mission! Remember the spoilers page has the mission rankings, RP notes and such! See ya again next mission!