Chapter Seven

As the deadites charge the four heroes, Ookla howls at them, picks up the ancient desk, and hurls it at the deadites pouring in through the secret door. The decrepit piece of furniture sails through the open door, smashing through the deadites like they were made of fine china. Thundarr and Ash slash their way through the deadites, cutting them down like farmers harvesting wheat. And Princess Ariel raises her hands over her head, unleashing rapid fire balls of energy, each one smashing a deadite to pieces upon impact.

One of the deadites gets close enough to Ookla to attempt to hit him with a heavy spiked mace. The mok grabs the mace, stopping it in mid-swing, and smashes the undead skeleton with his fist. He then smashes his way through the deadites between him and the secret door. When the mok reaches the door, Ookla slams it shut, right into the skeletal faces of the deadite reinforcements. He then grabs a discarded sword from the floor and drives the blade hilt deep into the floor right in front of the doorway. The deadites on the other side try and force the door open, but the sword is driven too deeply into the floor for them to hope to be able to move it.

Ash manages to fight his way to within striking distance of Infernus. Letting out a primal scream, The Chosen One swings his chainsaw hand at the wizard. With hardly an effort, Infernus catches Ash by the wrist and lifts him into the air. He turns a baleful glare upon his hated enemy, as Ash's feet dangle mere inches from the floor.

"Oh crap," says Ash, right before the wizard throws him hard into the wall, driving the air from his lungs.

Thundarr, Ariel, and Ookla make fairly short work of the deadites in the room before turning their attention towards Infernus. Ariel blasts him with spell after spell, only to have Infernus deflect them with his hand as he did before. However this time she is prepared for this tactic, and when her magic is redirected at her, she similarly deflects it out the door, where it destroys numerous deadite reinforcements.

Thundarr tries to attack Infernus while he is distracted by his magical duel with Ariel. However, The Necronomicon has made the wizard far too powerful for such a simple tactic. As the barbarian approaches, Infernus shoots twin beams of energy at him from his eyes, all the while still deflecting Ariel's magical assault. But Thundarr, too, is more cautious in his attack. He deflects each of the wizard's attacks with his Sunsword, each time making his way just a little closer to being within striking distance.

Ookla picks up a heavy mace which had been dropped by one of the destroyed deadites. He looks at it for a moment, regretting having left his quiver of stun arrows and his mok composite bow back with his equart. He hopes this weapon would be powerful enough to aid his friends. He slips along the wall, hoping that Thundarr and Ariel's attacks will keep the wizard occupied long enough to allow Ookla to smash him with the mace.

Luck was not with the mok this night. Stealth was never Ookla's strong point, and The Necronomicon has made Infernus unusually difficult to sneak up on with magically heightened senses. When Infernus notices Ookla trying to flank him, he deflects one of Princess Ariel's magical attacks at the mok rather than back at her. The blast catches Ookla square in the chest and drives him through the wall.

"Ookla!" Cries Thundarr, as he sees his friend taken out of the fight.

The barbarian's momentary distraction is just enough to give Infernus the upper hand. A magical blast from his eyes sends Thundarr flying across the room to land in a heap at the far end.

"Thundarr!" Cries Ariel.

Infernus tries to use the distraction to defeat the princess as well. Fortunately for Ariel, she is much quicker to react than her companions, and gets her magical shield up just in time. The wizard's magical attacks deflect off of Ariel's defensive spells. Infernus stalks towards her, his eyes glowing a malevolent red.

"Surrender, Princess," he says to her, "Join me, and perhaps you need not perish here today. With our powers combined, we would be a formidable team."

"Never!" Shouts the sorceress, "I'll never join with you!"

"Then I shall swallow your soul," hisses the wizard.

Just then Infernus feels something tap him on the shoulder as someone behind him whistles to get his attention. He turns around and finds himself staring down the twin barrels of Ash's 'boom stick'.

"Hey, Mister Fancy Pants," says Ash, "Swallow this!" and he pulls the trigger of the shotgun.

With a loud 'BAM', Infernus' skull explodes, spraying Ariel with blood, brains, and gore. The wizard's headless body stands there for what seems like forever, as though the vile power of the book maintains his body even after such a grievous wound. Ash lowers the gun to point at the wizard's chest and empties the second barrel into it. The headless corpse flies backward, The Necronomicon flying free from its grasp. Whether from the physical separation from the book, from the two horrendous gunshot wounds, or a combination of the two, is hard to say. However after the second blast from Ash's 'boom stick', Infernus will never rise again. Ash walks over and helps Thundarr back to his feet.

"Are you alright?" He asks the barbarian.

"I'll be fine," replies Thundarr, "What happened?"

"We won," says Ash.

"Then let us be done with this evil!" Says Thundarr, and he ignites his Sunsword and runs up to The Necronomicon with the weapon held high.

"No, wait!" Shouts Ash, but he's too late.

Thundarr brings The Sunsword down upon The Necronomicon, driving its fiery blade through the infernal book. The moment the blade pierces the hideous cover, there is a blinding light and a loud explosion. Thundarr, Ariel, Ookla and Ash are all thrown against the office walls and fall to the floor. A great wave of energy sweeps across the ruined city. As the wave hits the deadites, they collapsed into piles of dead bodies and old bones.

Sometime later, Princess Ariel begins to come to. She opens her eyes and blinks at the pain between her temples. She looks over to where the book was, but all that is left is a black mark from when the book exploded. As she tries to get up, she finds herself pinned down by an unconscious Ash, whose face is resting upon her breasts.

"You had better really be unconscious," says Ariel, as she rolls him off of her.

Ash lies on his back for several minutes before finally beginning to recover. Finally, The Chosen One begins to mumble and groan. As his thoughts begin to become more coherent, so too does his speech.

"Stupid, sword happy, half-witted screw head," he says, "Why the Hell did he have to do that?"

"What?" Asks Thundarr, who had just recovered himself, "It was the book that gave the wizard his powers. Without the book, no other wizard can raise an army of deadites."

"And without the book," says Ash, "I can't get home, dumbass!"

"What did you call me?" Demands the barbarian as he ignites his Sunsword.

"You heard me, dumbass!" Ash replies, revving up his chainsaw.

"Hold on fellas," says Ariel as she steps between them, playing peace keeper, "Thundarr, you must admit destroying the book before we could use it to send Ash home was pretty rash."

"I suppose so," says Thundarr, still glaring at Ash.

"And Ash, you said yourself that The Cataclysm takes place one year after when The Necronomicon dragged you here," she says, "If you can't get back, you can't die in The Cataclysm."

"I guess you have a point," says Ash as he lowers his weapon.

"Then I suggest you two call a truce," says the sorceress, "What's done is done. And we still have work to do."

"Very well," says Thundarr, and he extinguishes the Sunsword and puts it away.

"Never could say 'no' to a beautiful woman," says Ash, and he turns off his 'Chopomatic'.

"Good," says Ariel, "Now let's go. We still have much to do."

The four of them turn and leave The White House. The next few days are spent cleaning up the deadites' remains. The skeletal ones are thrown into the empty graves from whence they came, although there is no way of telling which ones belongs to which grave. Still, it seems the most respectful means of disposal. The few villagers who had survived the deadite attack return and help Thundarr, Ookla, Ariel, and Ash to bury their dead. Eventually, it comes time to part ways. Ash scavenges several books from the ruins of the Washington Public Library, where Infernus had taken up residence. He finds several books on petroleum and petroleum products, and loads them into his truck.

"Well, looks like this is it," says Ash.

"Where will you go?" Ariel asks him, "And what will you do?"

"I figure I'll head down to Texas first," says Ash, "I've got enough fuel to last me a while, but it'll eventually run out. There were a lot of oil wells near Dallas, back in my day. If the oil's still there, I might be able to use the information in these books to convert it into gasoline. If so, I oughtta be able to keep my truck and Chopomatic running for years. After that, who knows? Maybe I'll travel around kicking wizard butt like you guys."

"Then the wizards will surely be in trouble," laughs Ariel.

Ash turns to Thundarr and extends his mechanical hand to the barbarian. "We didn't always see eye to eye, but I'm glad we're on the same side."

"You are a brave and able warrior," says Thundarr as he shakes Ash's hand, "It was an honor to fight at your side."

Ookla howls and roars and scoops Ash up in a crushing bear hug.

"I'm gonna miss you too, big guy," gasps Ash as he tries to breathe.

"Well, so long," says Ariel after Ookla had finished saying his goodbyes, "I wish you the best of luck."

She extends her hand to him. He takes it in his mechanical hand and then pulls her in close and grabs her about the waist, dipping her.

"Gimme some sugar, baby," he says, and he kisses her deep and passionately.

Princess Ariel doesn't react at first, surprised at the sudden move on Ash's part. Then she wraps her arms around him and reciprocates. Thundarr glares disdainfully at Ash as the two of them are locked in a passionate embrace, while Ookla just chuckles. When they're done, Ash stands Ariel back up, who is looking at him with an odd mixture of surprise and longing. Then without another word, Ash gets into his truck and drives off. Thundarr looks at Ariel, who merely smiles and walks over to her horse. Thundarr and Ookla follow her, and the three of them mount up. Thundarr's white stallion rears up on its hind legs.

"Ariel! Ookla!" He says, "RIIIIIDE!"

And the three of them ride off into the distance in search of their next adventure.

THE END