Saltmarsh Andy Journal #30
Clash of the Titans Part I
The day in question began as most days do, in the beginning. The only day which did not to my knowledge was a recent event in the Middle East in which the sun took a great deal of time to rise. That small issue aside, generally days start at the beginning and end at the end. The beginning of this day was not interesting, so I will skip to the end.
It was the 4th of July. The 4th, which is slightly less pathetic than Canada day since Americans don’t still have the Queen on their money and in which the yanks like to celebrate the defeat of England by the French, with the assistance of a few American Irregulars. Basically celebrating a failed British police action to attempt to quash insurgents. My posse had gathered on the Spirit of Ephyra, a galleon we earned after defeating some evil Pirates, but that story shall have to wait. My posse, the Miami Pound Machine includes Rosie Ember, a rather gruff Scion of Hephaestus whose interests lie in things mechanical, especially cars. We have Pepito Corezon, the self-styled Cuban Dragon of Little Havana, a Scion of Ryujin and Ninja Master. We have Zara Leveaux, the mysterious and sensuous Scion of Damballa, known for her flying snake and ability to heal or sicken with a glance. Last but certainly not least is Sonny Wu, a Scion of Sun WuKong and the Most Powerful Fighter in Miami-Dade County. We had faced all sorts of obstacles before, so threats were hardly new to us. Rosie’s know-how, Pepito’s cunning, Zara’s mastery of body and mind, and Sonny’s bold as brass fighting style had cast aside threat after threat. This would be the most dangerous night of our careers, however. Thankfully, we did not face it alone.
We were joined for this celebration on our ship by several allies. Five were from the Dodekatheon. Helen and John Alexandros were siblings and Scions of Ares. Helen is a gentle healer who has assisted us before, while John is a power warrior without peer. Also representing that Pantheon was Rivet, a Scion of Hephaestus and half-brother to Rosie. Rivet is a skilled racer and shockingly mechanical genius. Marcus Orion is a Scion of Hermes and potentially an associate of Sam’s, having some government connections. Finally Mary Reed is a young Scion of Poseidon and, sexily enough, pirate captain, who has little trouble getting along with Pepito despite the natural antipathy. Not all were Dodekatheon however. A dynamic team of Celestial Bureaucracy Scions was present as well. Zei Xing Li is a fiery Scion of Nezha, who like Rivet we had raced against before. Lanfang Lei Mei is a Scion of Guan Yu and predictably a bit more even tempered.
Along with the Scions were cadres of other friends. The Miami Pound Machine’s honorary member, the Tengu Tokichiro was present to see his girlfriend Rosie. The Alexandros’s had their team of golems and John’s lady friend Sylvia. Mary Reed had her team of undead pirates including Captain Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny. Our old friend the Mermaid Ephyra was there. Clashing with her constantly was the Kappa Maki who along with Ephyra had taken a shine to Pepito. Two Kitsune named Makoto and Hitomi were present. A Xian named Huizong Yen and his associate dragged against his will Egg Shen were present. It was quite a group. It was my job to entertain.
Much occurred. There was a wet T-Shirt contest organized by (and participated in by) Sonny, which Ephyra came out the winner in though Zara put in a very good showing. We organized men’s and ladies volleyball. Zei Xing Li and Lanfang Lei Mei ran away with the girl’s trophy, while Sonny and Egg Shen won for the boys. Songs were sung and games were played, and a good time was had by all.
Of course, while the festivities were quite exciting for those present they don’t make for a good tale. After all, a wet T-shirt contest is not that exciting without pictures. Which is why I prepared this power point presentation on my laptop…
…Anyway during our party, some of us noticed what appeared to be falling stars over Miami. Obviously this was of great concern for our Celestial Bureaucracy contingent, and the rest of us did not much like it either. Our posse went into action. I looked to the mists and crafted a prophecy, while Sonny…well, Sonny has a way of finding the answers to big questions in his bottle. Pepito set the Spirit of Ephyra steering toward Miami, and Mary Reed set her ship that way as well. My vision sent by my father, along with Sonny’s insight, concluded that two Titans, Tiamat and Orochi had forces doing battle in Miami. That may have actually been our fault. A little wheeling and dealing had seen to it the forces of the two Titans were tuned on each other. At the center was a fallen God named Anzou who was sought by Orochi’s forces of Genma Demons (from the Hell of Saotome) which was to be resurrected with the souls of fallen peoples of Miami. Well, there would be no standing for that.
Our ship approached the harbor, and found a battle taking place between Genma Demon ships and a Undead Pirate fleet of Diabalito, commanding, I believe, Tiamat’s forces. These two forces had quite a spirited battle going on, though the war was primarily an Army verses a Navy. Unfortunately, the Spirit of Ephyra, being a ship crafted by the Gods forces, would stand out a bit. Mary could get her ship in no doubt; the Spirit of Ephyra had a harder row to hoe as it were.
Did I mention Pepito is a ninja? With incredible skill, he directed us to fly our sails specific ways…to conceal incriminating aspects of the ship. I used my mastery of Illusion to change the aspects of a few sails. Sonny drank. Pepito guided us carefully and answered every hail properly, all while keeping us near Diabalito’s crew and away from the Genma watercraft. Soon we were in, and disembarked. As soon as we did, we saw a young girl pursued by Undead Pirates. Sonny and Zara each moved to dispatch a Pirate, while Zara and Rosie finished off a third. Of course, they did not expect such an onslaught and fell quickly. Pepito noted and commented on the fact the girl was preternaturally good at avoiding the Pirates blows. She did have a shirt from Missy the Magician on, but I did not really notice at the time.
We decided to split into small teams and meet at the Lazarus Museum in town. All together would draw too much attention. Obviously the Miami Pound Machine was one team. Egg Shen actually demurred, returning to China to report the incident and see if he could get us reinforcements (he could go back instantly) but we all feared such would be too little too late. We began to move though the broken and chaotic city streets.
We came upon several groups of demons and pirates fighting. One fight, however, Pepito spotted a hiding boy near his dead parents. Now as I noted Pepito is a ninja. He crept up and with a single bound swooped in and rescued the boy, vanishing into the shadows before the Genma Demons or Undead Pirates could really react. Once the boy had escaped, Pepito again pointed out the shirt he too had on, for Missy the Magician. We began to suspect a local ally who protected children was involved, but there was no time to investigate that. Pepito suddenly got a tug from a ward that he had placed on a human ally Rudy Sarzo and his niece Esperanza Marlene Sarzo signaled they were in danger, menaced by the Undead Pirate lord Diabalito. Wasting no time, Rosie hotwired a nearby car and we raced to the Sarzo residence, hoping we would not delay our visit to the museum by too much.
We were challenged on arrival by a group of Undead Pirates. Sonny, who had grabbed the volleyball net coming off the boat, cunningly used it as a pair of staves complete with net. He leapt into the Undead Pirates, taking down a full eight with almost frightening celerity. The Lead Pirate attempted to marshal his forces but found himself impaled from a nearby shadow and Pepito did his deadly ninja work, slaying the unsuspecting Undead Pirate with a single blow. Rosie is never one to slouch in a fight, and went after her pirate with gusto, taking one down with her mighty hammer. Zara took a nap. The Pirates were scattered swiftly, and we made our way inside. Diabalito was there, with Esperanza under one arm and Rudy under the other. He threw Rudy aside by Sonny lashed out with his volleyball net, catching Sarzo with a single swing and moving him to safety, while Pepito moved to attack. Then the Robots showed up.
What, blue flying ones disguising as humans? No these were sort of mechanical griffin-like people. They arrived and popped up machine guns that opened up on us. Diabalito ran and Sonny pursued. Pepito moved to Pursue but found the robots blocking his path. He spun the his Trident Wrath of the Deep over his head, and shadow version flew out and impaled two of the robots, destroying them instantly. That was unfortunately when they exploded.
Pepito managed to create two shadow versions of himself between the explosion and himself and was unhurt, moving to pursue Diabalito. Sonny broke off to rush back to assist us. Zara escaped the damage from shedding her skin, but Tokichiro and Rosie were badly hurt, and I suffered a certain amount of crispation myself. As I moved to assist the fallen, Sonny grabbed the machine with his volleyball net and hurled it away from the house. He then leapt upon it, surfing it through the air as they fought. When it exploded, Sonny should have been injured as well. But Sonny, as I mentioned, was a Scion of Sun WuKong. Things like exploding robots don’t hurt him.
Meanwhile Pepito leapt into the air, eclipsing the moon as two shadow version of himself appeared in front of Diabalito, who called a whirlwind to impair one while fighting the other. Pepito hurled Wrath of the Deep at Diabalito, but Diabalito held up Esperanza at the last moment as a shield. Thinking fast, Pepito moved with the swiftness of a shadow, running and jumping into the air to surf his Trident and grabbed the prongs, pulling it out from under him but ending its flight. Landing on his feet, he looked up to see Diabalito had summoned a huge Tsunami out of nowhere, for they were not at the shoreline, which crashed into Pepito. Pepito, however, is cunning, and invoked the Water Dragon’s Shadow to evade the tsunami by becoming one with it’s shadow. However, when the wave withdrew, Diabalito was nowhere to be seen.
Meanwhile, we had patched up Rosie and Tokichiro and stabilized Rudy. Zara’s healing is truly magical. We would get Esmeralda, but first we had a resurrection to stop, and carried on to the Lazarus Museum to meet our allies.
When we got there it was time to fight for our lives…
The day in question began as most days do, in the beginning. The only day which did not to my knowledge was a recent event in the Middle East in which the sun took a great deal of time to rise. That small issue aside, generally days start at the beginning and end at the end. The beginning of this day was not interesting, so I will skip to the end.
It was the 4th of July. The 4th, which is slightly less pathetic than Canada day since Americans don’t still have the Queen on their money and in which the yanks like to celebrate the defeat of England by the French, with the assistance of a few American Irregulars. Basically celebrating a failed British police action to attempt to quash insurgents. My posse had gathered on the Spirit of Ephyra, a galleon we earned after defeating some evil Pirates, but that story shall have to wait. My posse, the Miami Pound Machine includes Rosie Ember, a rather gruff Scion of Hephaestus whose interests lie in things mechanical, especially cars. We have Pepito Corezon, the self-styled Cuban Dragon of Little Havana, a Scion of Ryujin and Ninja Master. We have Zara Leveaux, the mysterious and sensuous Scion of Damballa, known for her flying snake and ability to heal or sicken with a glance. Last but certainly not least is Sonny Wu, a Scion of Sun WuKong and the Most Powerful Fighter in Miami-Dade County. We had faced all sorts of obstacles before, so threats were hardly new to us. Rosie’s know-how, Pepito’s cunning, Zara’s mastery of body and mind, and Sonny’s bold as brass fighting style had cast aside threat after threat. This would be the most dangerous night of our careers, however. Thankfully, we did not face it alone.
We were joined for this celebration on our ship by several allies. Five were from the Dodekatheon. Helen and John Alexandros were siblings and Scions of Ares. Helen is a gentle healer who has assisted us before, while John is a power warrior without peer. Also representing that Pantheon was Rivet, a Scion of Hephaestus and half-brother to Rosie. Rivet is a skilled racer and shockingly mechanical genius. Marcus Orion is a Scion of Hermes and potentially an associate of Sam’s, having some government connections. Finally Mary Reed is a young Scion of Poseidon and, sexily enough, pirate captain, who has little trouble getting along with Pepito despite the natural antipathy. Not all were Dodekatheon however. A dynamic team of Celestial Bureaucracy Scions was present as well. Zei Xing Li is a fiery Scion of Nezha, who like Rivet we had raced against before. Lanfang Lei Mei is a Scion of Guan Yu and predictably a bit more even tempered.
Along with the Scions were cadres of other friends. The Miami Pound Machine’s honorary member, the Tengu Tokichiro was present to see his girlfriend Rosie. The Alexandros’s had their team of golems and John’s lady friend Sylvia. Mary Reed had her team of undead pirates including Captain Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny. Our old friend the Mermaid Ephyra was there. Clashing with her constantly was the Kappa Maki who along with Ephyra had taken a shine to Pepito. Two Kitsune named Makoto and Hitomi were present. A Xian named Huizong Yen and his associate dragged against his will Egg Shen were present. It was quite a group. It was my job to entertain.
Much occurred. There was a wet T-Shirt contest organized by (and participated in by) Sonny, which Ephyra came out the winner in though Zara put in a very good showing. We organized men’s and ladies volleyball. Zei Xing Li and Lanfang Lei Mei ran away with the girl’s trophy, while Sonny and Egg Shen won for the boys. Songs were sung and games were played, and a good time was had by all.
Of course, while the festivities were quite exciting for those present they don’t make for a good tale. After all, a wet T-shirt contest is not that exciting without pictures. Which is why I prepared this power point presentation on my laptop…
…Anyway during our party, some of us noticed what appeared to be falling stars over Miami. Obviously this was of great concern for our Celestial Bureaucracy contingent, and the rest of us did not much like it either. Our posse went into action. I looked to the mists and crafted a prophecy, while Sonny…well, Sonny has a way of finding the answers to big questions in his bottle. Pepito set the Spirit of Ephyra steering toward Miami, and Mary Reed set her ship that way as well. My vision sent by my father, along with Sonny’s insight, concluded that two Titans, Tiamat and Orochi had forces doing battle in Miami. That may have actually been our fault. A little wheeling and dealing had seen to it the forces of the two Titans were tuned on each other. At the center was a fallen God named Anzou who was sought by Orochi’s forces of Genma Demons (from the Hell of Saotome) which was to be resurrected with the souls of fallen peoples of Miami. Well, there would be no standing for that.
Our ship approached the harbor, and found a battle taking place between Genma Demon ships and a Undead Pirate fleet of Diabalito, commanding, I believe, Tiamat’s forces. These two forces had quite a spirited battle going on, though the war was primarily an Army verses a Navy. Unfortunately, the Spirit of Ephyra, being a ship crafted by the Gods forces, would stand out a bit. Mary could get her ship in no doubt; the Spirit of Ephyra had a harder row to hoe as it were.
Did I mention Pepito is a ninja? With incredible skill, he directed us to fly our sails specific ways…to conceal incriminating aspects of the ship. I used my mastery of Illusion to change the aspects of a few sails. Sonny drank. Pepito guided us carefully and answered every hail properly, all while keeping us near Diabalito’s crew and away from the Genma watercraft. Soon we were in, and disembarked. As soon as we did, we saw a young girl pursued by Undead Pirates. Sonny and Zara each moved to dispatch a Pirate, while Zara and Rosie finished off a third. Of course, they did not expect such an onslaught and fell quickly. Pepito noted and commented on the fact the girl was preternaturally good at avoiding the Pirates blows. She did have a shirt from Missy the Magician on, but I did not really notice at the time.
We decided to split into small teams and meet at the Lazarus Museum in town. All together would draw too much attention. Obviously the Miami Pound Machine was one team. Egg Shen actually demurred, returning to China to report the incident and see if he could get us reinforcements (he could go back instantly) but we all feared such would be too little too late. We began to move though the broken and chaotic city streets.
We came upon several groups of demons and pirates fighting. One fight, however, Pepito spotted a hiding boy near his dead parents. Now as I noted Pepito is a ninja. He crept up and with a single bound swooped in and rescued the boy, vanishing into the shadows before the Genma Demons or Undead Pirates could really react. Once the boy had escaped, Pepito again pointed out the shirt he too had on, for Missy the Magician. We began to suspect a local ally who protected children was involved, but there was no time to investigate that. Pepito suddenly got a tug from a ward that he had placed on a human ally Rudy Sarzo and his niece Esperanza Marlene Sarzo signaled they were in danger, menaced by the Undead Pirate lord Diabalito. Wasting no time, Rosie hotwired a nearby car and we raced to the Sarzo residence, hoping we would not delay our visit to the museum by too much.
We were challenged on arrival by a group of Undead Pirates. Sonny, who had grabbed the volleyball net coming off the boat, cunningly used it as a pair of staves complete with net. He leapt into the Undead Pirates, taking down a full eight with almost frightening celerity. The Lead Pirate attempted to marshal his forces but found himself impaled from a nearby shadow and Pepito did his deadly ninja work, slaying the unsuspecting Undead Pirate with a single blow. Rosie is never one to slouch in a fight, and went after her pirate with gusto, taking one down with her mighty hammer. Zara took a nap. The Pirates were scattered swiftly, and we made our way inside. Diabalito was there, with Esperanza under one arm and Rudy under the other. He threw Rudy aside by Sonny lashed out with his volleyball net, catching Sarzo with a single swing and moving him to safety, while Pepito moved to attack. Then the Robots showed up.
What, blue flying ones disguising as humans? No these were sort of mechanical griffin-like people. They arrived and popped up machine guns that opened up on us. Diabalito ran and Sonny pursued. Pepito moved to Pursue but found the robots blocking his path. He spun the his Trident Wrath of the Deep over his head, and shadow version flew out and impaled two of the robots, destroying them instantly. That was unfortunately when they exploded.
Pepito managed to create two shadow versions of himself between the explosion and himself and was unhurt, moving to pursue Diabalito. Sonny broke off to rush back to assist us. Zara escaped the damage from shedding her skin, but Tokichiro and Rosie were badly hurt, and I suffered a certain amount of crispation myself. As I moved to assist the fallen, Sonny grabbed the machine with his volleyball net and hurled it away from the house. He then leapt upon it, surfing it through the air as they fought. When it exploded, Sonny should have been injured as well. But Sonny, as I mentioned, was a Scion of Sun WuKong. Things like exploding robots don’t hurt him.
Meanwhile Pepito leapt into the air, eclipsing the moon as two shadow version of himself appeared in front of Diabalito, who called a whirlwind to impair one while fighting the other. Pepito hurled Wrath of the Deep at Diabalito, but Diabalito held up Esperanza at the last moment as a shield. Thinking fast, Pepito moved with the swiftness of a shadow, running and jumping into the air to surf his Trident and grabbed the prongs, pulling it out from under him but ending its flight. Landing on his feet, he looked up to see Diabalito had summoned a huge Tsunami out of nowhere, for they were not at the shoreline, which crashed into Pepito. Pepito, however, is cunning, and invoked the Water Dragon’s Shadow to evade the tsunami by becoming one with it’s shadow. However, when the wave withdrew, Diabalito was nowhere to be seen.
Meanwhile, we had patched up Rosie and Tokichiro and stabilized Rudy. Zara’s healing is truly magical. We would get Esmeralda, but first we had a resurrection to stop, and carried on to the Lazarus Museum to meet our allies.
When we got there it was time to fight for our lives…