Zak, the Giant Slayer

8.5.13

Once upon a time a long time ago in a land far, far away, as many stories start out, there lived a young boy named Zak, who was known far and wide as the giant slayer. People often told the tales of his heroics by the campfire after supper and the children would listen quietly so as not to miss a single detail.

Zak was a young shepherd boy who often sang songs while watching his flock, and occasionally he would have to run off a wolf or two, he often watched the flock until supper time and made up fantastic stories about people and things he imagined seeing in the stars, and many was the night that the other children in the village would gather around to listen to his tall tales. 

The children would ask him to tell them a story and he would scratch his head and think about it for a spell, and then something would come to him and off they all went to imaginary lands in his mind.

One night, the children gathered around and begged him for a story and although he did not feel well that night, their pleads inspired him to tell them the story of another shepherd boy who cried wolf just for fun, and when the people came to his rescue as they often did, he would laugh and laugh at them. After several pranks from the boy, the villagers vowed they would not be tricked by him again, and so the next time, when he cried out wolf, they ignored him and went on about their business.

"Oh my, what happened?" asked Hera, a bright eyed little girl in the group with long silky hair and big brown eyes.

"Wolf ate him up," Zak said proudly. "And that is why you should never tell a lie." he pointed at the children to emphasize his point, and they all shook their heads terrified.

Suddenly the dinner bell rang and all the little children jumped up to run to dinner, but they could not get down the trail to the village because a big mean looking Cyclops was in the way and he looked hungry. The children had always heard that Cyclopes ate children and so they screamed and ran behind Zak.

"It's okay," he told them, "I will distract him and then you all run home."

Zak walked up to the Cyclops who looked at him and the children hungrily and raised his club, which was as big as a tree in the forest almost, and swung it at him with a mighty swing. Zak took a dagger from his belt holster and stabbed the giant in the foot. The giant Cyclops roared and tried to smash Zak with his club but he missed, then Zak ran out into the meadow with the Cyclops close behind. The giant had much longer legs than Zak so he had no trouble catching up with him quickly, but that was what Zak wanted because as soon as the giant chased him into the meadow, the children ran home to safety and now that they were safe and he and the giant were alone, Zak was going to teach that no good monster a lesson and how.

Zak grabbed his sling shot and a nearby pebble and he wound up a shot and hit the Cyclops right square between the eyes as fast as he could. Now the giant had been in the process of raising his heavy club to smash Zak  at the time and had both his hands high above his head and so he was totally defenseless against his assault.  The small pebble hit the giant like a bullet and knocked him flat on his back. As he fell, his head hit a rock behind him and killed him.

About this time the villagers came running with pitchforks and clubs and saw the giant Cyclops fall to his death and they cheered and ran to Zak and carried him victoriously home chanting "Long live the giant slayer" all the way. 

That night the village listened to the tale of Zak the giant slayer for the first of many nights to come, and soon his legend spread all across the land, to the farthest reaches of the kingdom and beyond.

Return to Sunnydale

Nothing was left but a huge crater. A canyon they called Sunnydale Canyon. The

township of Sunnydale was gone.

Thirteen days passed and then the trucks
came. And the workers. A foundation was laid at the bottom of the
canyon.

Thirteen months passed and the new facility was almost done. The new
lab was creating hundreds of jobs even before it opened.     

Police were
concerned about the alarming reports of bat, wolf, and Racoon attacks. And
workers were plagued by flies and mosquitoes.  

The Raccoons were going through
the garbage every night and soon the workers were calling the plant Raccoon city.
The name stuck.
There were record high accident rates and mysterious
disappearances. Some workers were torn apart at night by wolves.

The first
buildings in the city were designed to be underground to conserve energy and
protect the people from bad weather.

Once the underground city was complete
the canyon was filled with dirt to keep the city cooler.

The umbrella
corporation was one of the most successful companies in the industry. They drew
many people to Raccoon city.
Now any city with a lot of people is going to
have some demons and vampires among other things.

I met Mic and Gabe in
a club in Santa Monica called The Asylum. Seemed an appropriate name as it was
full of vampires.
The elder vamps wanted to explore the ruins of Sunnydale
and take what treasure was left behind. Seeing as i had nothing planned for the
next hundred years or so i thought what the hell and went along.  

The new
city was growing fast above ground. People were moving in and starting new lives
unaware that the ghost town below them was a gateway to hell.

The only way
to get to the ruins now was via the new sewers. Place smelled like bloody hell
but the demons had dug out a tunnel to get to the surface.      

Michael had
compelled a demon to lead us to the city. The entrance was well hidden but the
demon knew where it was. Small chap name of L'Tiangle. I like to call 'im T. T
was a greedy lil prat so we had to watch 'im and our wallets closely.


T led us to the door but it was big and heavy and he couldnt move it.

Gabriel and Uriel helped Mic and me open the door and Gabe went in first.

The houses and shops had been pillaged by demons til there was almost
nothing left. Also the place was crawling with vamps during the day hiding from
the sunlight.

Sunny d had become the city of the undead i thought. And
about that time a vamp attacked T and tried to bleed him dry. Mic drew his sword
and beheaded the beast.
Mic and his friends weren't your average daemons.
They were elder demons and high up on the food chain; most demons knew better
than to mess with them. Stupid bugger, i thought as i passed by the vamp, who
was turning to dust.
Someone had rigged the cities lights to the new city
above and the street was lit up like bloody christmas.

As we passed the
Magic Box I heard a scream and a huge man eating bunny rabbit ran out of the
building as a fire ball hit it and burnt its fur. A vengeance demon came to the
door to throw another fireball but the bunny was gone around the corner. It was
Anyanka. "DAM BUNNIES" She said. " I hate rabbits"
Anya looked at me and
smiled. 

"Hi Spike" she hugged me. 
 "An youre alive." 
"Well, they gave me a choice.
Vengeance demon or the bunny cage. and I hate bunnies."
"And now i know why luv," I told her. I looked for the eight foot bunny but it was gone.
"O it will come back. They always come back. dam rabbit. What you doing here Spike?"

"Looking for buried treasure" I told her.
"Oh, you're a pirate now." 
T looked in the door of the magic shop.
"What are you doing?" An asked him
closing the door.
"That's T. He led us here."
"I see. Well pleased to
meet you mister. . . T" An smiled.
"God its been thirteen years now. How the bloody hell are you luv?"
"busy busy busy you know. Vengeance never
rests." she smiled and looked at the door. I come back here to use the safe
sometimes you know."         

"You in town for long luv?" I asked. 
"I have a lot of business in the middle east but I will be back soon." she smiled. 
"K well i will see you then"
An went inside and closed the door as we continued
towards the bank. A man screamed in agony from inside the shop.

It was good to see a familiar face again, but I almost felt sorry for the poor bugger
in the shop. What kind of agony was she putting him through I wondered?
A couple of blocks later we came to the richest building in town, the Sunnydale
Bank. It was not surprising that it was surrounded by goblins. They love
treasure you know.
A couple of them charged us, but Michael compelled them to
defend us and soon half the army was killing the other half for us. I hardly had
to lift my sword...

Once the fight was over, we left our bodyguards
outside and strolled inside the bank. Sitting on a golden throne in front of the
vault was none other than Mammon himself. Daemon of Greed and god of the greedy.
I chuckled to myself as I recalled encountering him before and dubbing him
Mammorys as his body fat count was terribly high and he had a large set of man
boobs on him.
" Get out," Mammon growled at us and sent his bodyguards
toward us. The large hulking Fyarl daemons came towards us and Mic cut the first
one up into little pieces.
"The leader of the Fyarl daemons ordered the
others to attack, but i asked him why he was defending Mammon and he looked at
me...
"You speak Fyarl?" he asked me in disbelief.
"Well yes" i told him.
"Uganda too, long story. Anyway, why are you protecting this lowlife scum?"

I pointed to Mammon.
"He promised us a portion of the loot, " the Fyarl
replied.
"Oh I see,.. well, if you help us, you will get an equal share each
AND live to tell about it, yeah?"
The Fyarl looked at each other and then
turned and charged Mammon, who promptly screamed and vanished in a puff of
smoke...
Then the Fyarl turned and looked at us. Mic looked in the leaders
eyes for a moment then told him to kill the others.  

"Hey, not cool," I told
him.
"What you want to share the booty with all of them?" Michael asked.

At the moment all i could think about was cutting off his head, but i
decided to let it slide as the Fyarl would have probably killed us in our sleep
anyway...

We loaded up our bags with treasure and then Mic told the
Fyarl to stay and guard the rest until we got back. Then we left Sunnydale and
headed for home.
I peaked in the Magic Box on the way out, but all that was
there were some torture instruments covered in blood.
It would be good to see
my flat in Santa Monica again I thought... 

Dark Reaper

1/24/15

Albert had sent out for pizzas earlier. He was in the mood to celebrate his new promotion with his girlfriends, Diana and Christina, in his new 13th floor apartment. As the new CEO, he had cut no expense to impress his two favorite secretaries.

Albert had pulled a few strings to get the job, but that was just business. Anyone else could have done the same. The former CEO, Bill, thought he must have been dreaming when Diana and Christina flirted with him at the bar, drunk and frisky. He was just having a little fun, that was all.

He didn't know about the webcams they had hidden around the office. He didn't know that they were helping Albert set him up. He was surprised as hell, when he went into work that day and lost his job to Al. Very surprised.

Albert was never going to forget that look on his face. He was never going to forget that day as long as he lived. The shock in Bill's eyes. He thought of that image as a trophy. An award that he earned on his climb to the top.

Yes, Bill was surprised when he lost his job. Almost as surprised as Al was when he opened the door and saw a tall robed figure standing there. He didnt see his face. It was covered by the hood. The black robe covered all of his features in fact, very well. But Albert could tell the stranger before him was very strong as it picked him up like a toy and tossed him off the balcony of his new apartment.

He stood beside him and saw the figure toss him off the balcony. He looked over the edge and watched his own body hit the concrete below. He heard the girls scream and run out of the apartment.

He couldnt look away as he saw the blood streaming from his head below. He could tell that the reaper was leaving, but he couldnt look away just yet.

As the reaper walked through the door, Albert called to him. "Why? Why me?"

The reaper disappeared into the hall as Albert watched him leave. He couldnt leave the room to see where the reaper had gone. He couldnt turn on the TV and see if his death had made the news. He was trapped in his new apartment forever.

Cops came after a while to dust the room and check for clues, but they couldnt see him or hear him. He heard them talking amongst themselves. They didnt know who had done it and he couldnt tell them. No one even knew he was there.


They called his murder a suicide and took some pictures of the place. Eventually, they left him alone in his new apartment. They roped off the room and sealed the door, but he thought there was no need as he could not leave anyway.

Albert sat on the balcony all evening, staring at the stars. He wondered who would have done such a thing to him. He was just having a little fun, that was all.

"Hmm, are you dead?" asked a young girl who walked onto the balcony.

"You can see me?" asked Al.

"Well, yeah. It comes with the job," the girl looked off the balcony at the spot below. "Yeech, messy suicide. Lucky for you, you werent inside."

"No, it wasnt a suicide tho. Someone threw me off there. Big guy. Strong. Black robe and hood."

"Really? They said you jumped. They usually know these things you know." The young girl pointed to the clouds and shrugged. Then another hooded figure walked on to the balcony. He was somewhat shorter than the guy who had killed Al, but dressed the same. Al shuddered and backed against the wall.

"Hey, Leo, Al here says he was thrown off the balcony."

"Really?" asked Leo. "By whom?" Leo and the girl look at Al.

"Big tall guy. Really strong. Dressed just like you." Al points at Leo, and Leo looks at his robe.

"Black robe? and really strong. hmm. I didnt wear mine today. No time to change. Name's Cassie by the way." Cassie reaches for Al's hand and shakes it. Al is still trembling from the sight of the black robe Leo is wearing.

"Relax, Al, youre dead. Cant die again you know." Cass sits on the patio chair nearby. "So, this killer was a reaper, you say?"

"A what? And how do you know my name?" Al is freaked out pretty good by now. Leo sits on another chair behind Cassie and listens carefully for deets.

"We're reapers sweetie. We were sent for you when the guys upstairs found out you were dead. You know you weren't scheduled to die yet? We had no clue you were here at first."

"Okay, well, I was thrown off the balcony by a big guy dressed in a black robe and then he left through the door." Al looked at the locked door inside. "He just walked through the door. Did not even open it."
"Could be a reaper," said Leo, "but Al was not on the schedule for months yet."

"Wha- Wait - months?" asked Albert.

"Well, after a fall like that he ain't getting back in," whispered Cassie.

"We better take him to Ryan. See what he thinks. Remember that socialite in L. A.? Sounds like the same story." said Leo.

"Yeah, Ryan, should hear this one." said Cassie.

"What's going on here?" asked Albert.

"You sure he didn't ride down and hit his head?" asked Leo.

"Its okay Albert. We'll explain on the way." said Cassie as she lead him into the room. "You know, you're lucky you made the news or we might never have found you."

"Lucky?" asked Albert. Albert barely noticed that the reapers were walking through walls like him, but he was not interested in asking why at the time. Leo followed them into the room and looked around.

"Say Albert was this guy who attacked you transparent like us?" asked Leo.

"Uh, yes. He was," said Albert.

And then the three of them walked up to the mirror on the dresser and walked through to the other side...  
***to be continued---

Lance and the Ghost Ship

Lance and the Ghost Ship
2014

Doctor Eli Zeus was not your average scientist and his team was certainly not your average team. Jinx was a master of magic and mystic arts and Dexter AKA Hack was a tech wiz of the highest order, and with our new team mate KB at the com, we thought there was nothing we could not handle....

Lance was sitting at the helm staring off into space when Jinx walked up to him and asked what's wrong. Dex was in the co-pilot's seat and flying to our destination. A distress call had come from somewhere behind Sirius and the team had been sent to investigate it. As we came closer and closer to our POI, Lance was becoming more and more distant I noticed.

"Oh, nothing," said Lance. "I guess I am just a little jet-lagged."

"You were tired, yes, but i sensed something more." said Jinx.

Jinx had this long black hair that went down to her waist and she kept it tied back on missions. Her skills with magicks were only topped by her mental abilities which included empathy and she always felt what we felt to some degree.

"Sometimes I have visions that could not possibly come true," said Lance. "It's nothing. Really."

But was it nothing? Lance focused on the flight path and began to watch the sensor sweeps carefully. He turned up the scanner so everyone could hear any radio transmissions from outside the ship clearly. Mostly, all we heard was static.

As we approached the Sirius 3 space station, something came over the scanner...

"SOS! SOS! Mayday!" The transmission from earlier was being sent again.

"Scan for lifeforms," said Lance.

I turned on every scanner at my reach and watched for green lights, but there were none.

"No signs," I told the Captain.

"I don't feel anyone alive either," said Jinx sadly.

"There were 12 crew members on that post before," said Lance. "Take us into orbit by the Sirius, Zan. I am going in to look around." Lance donned his ghost armor and he and Dex flew to the ship. It always fascinated me how those armored suits could literally fly through walls and turn the user invisible.

"Aye, Captain," I said as I brought the ship into orbit by the station.

Jinx took the con next to me and watched the monitors closely. "Locking transporter beams on them, Zan," she told me as she pushed buttons on the con panel.

"Standby to beam them out on the Captain's order only," I told her.

"Standing by," she replied.

The monitor was dark but the landing team could see much better than us. As they flew through the wall of the station. I heard Dex comment on how it was dark as a tomb inside.

"I don't know where the lights are here," said the Captain. "Activate night mode."

"I have the light controls," said KB from the back of the command center. "Switching on now."

I glanced at the monitor of the bridge and saw KB in her station. "Nice work, K."

"Thanks Zan," she replied.

"Be careful." said Doc over the monitor. He and his team were watching from home base.   

Once the lights came on everyone could clearly see the dead bodies floating around inside the space station. 

"No life signs," said KB sadly.  

"Lance turn on the ships com and get out of there," said Doc Zeus. "We can review there records from here." 

"Should we transport the corpses to home base, Doc?" Lance asked the question but barely noticed the answer.   

"Negative, not until we determine cause of death and scan ship for viruses."  Doctor Zeus was not wanting to bring any dangerous diseases back to the ship or to home base. 

"I have been running scans since we got in range, Doc. There are no detectable parasites or viruses on the station from our files," said KB. 

Thank you Kay," said the Doc. "Begin monitoring video feeds and broadcast all files from the ship at once. And Lance get your team out of there."    

"On the way back now, Doc. Looks like the crew was eaten alive by something big and mean... and carnivorous."  Lance motioned to Dexter to go back and turned to the door. "Lets go Casper."   

Jinx gasped and shouted,"Get out! Abort!" 

Dex phased through the door and flew back to the ship, but before Lance could leave, he was hit by a large alien beast that looked about like a dragon, at least seven feet tall. Lance was no small fellow himself and once he saw that beast facing him and snarling, he pulled a blaster from his side and fired heavily at it. As the beast fell back, Lance phased through the wall and flew to the ship. Everyone on board, sighed, except Jinx who was suiting up in an armor of her own. As Lance reached the ship, he saw Dex passing by him and firing, he turned to see the beast had busted through the door of the station and was in pursuit. Lance fired at the beast, knocking some of its protective scales loose and taking out one of its eyes. 

"Fall back, Casper," ordered the Captain. " Been a while since I fought one of these." Lance stood on the top of the ship with his magnetic boots holding him in place and he chanted as he reached behind his back. As the dragon came closer, it charged Lance and roared as it spread its wings wide. Lance pulled a large silver sword from behind him with a gold hilt and swung hard at the beast, cutting its jaw in two and then he quickly swung again taking off one wing. 

"Inside Dex! He shouted as he took the dragons head off on its return trip. The dragon's decapitated corpse floated off into space as Lance watched it go away. "Thank you, Excalibur." He said as he sent the sword back to its resting place with a Welsh chant. "No life signs..." Lance and Dexter phased inside the ship and sat down.  

"What the hell was that?" Dexter asked. 

"A dragon," said the Captain. "Zan, set course for home base. You have the com." 

"Aye, Captain," I said, changing the flight plan accordingly.  

"Are there more of those things?" KB asked. 

"Where there is one, there are more." Lance took his seat in the Captain's command center as the ship turned for home. As the Space Station faded into view, an uneasy feeling came over me that we were being watched. There was nothing showing on the sensor sweeps, but the sensors had not detected the dragon that attacked us either.

Jinx was still in armor and watching the monitors as we went into hyper drive. It seemed like she and the Captain knew something we did not... As the system faded from view, I could have sworn I heard a roar behind us, or maybe that was just the wind....

9.27.14

Lil Oprah Annie

LITTLE OPRAH ANNIE GOES TRICK OR TREATING
10/30/2014


Little Oprah Annie 
Went out for tricks or treats 

She was a witch again this year 

With pointy shoes on her feet 

Her little friend Nancy was a butterfly 

As they walked down the street that night 

A big house caught their eye 

It was large and spooky 

With cobwebs all about 

And a big old jack-o-lantern 

On the steps with eyes and mouth carved out 

As Annie walked the sidewalk 

Nancy fell behind  

Annie told her to come along 

And she heard a kitty whine 

In the distance a wolf howled 

Or maybe it was a dog 

Nancy turned and ran away 

As an evil laugh was heard in the fog 

Little Oprah Annie walked up to the door 

The call of all that candy 

She just would not ignore 

Her little hands trembled 

As she rang the glowing doorbell 

What would come to the door 

She really couldnt tell           

As the door swang wide 

She heard a growling dog 

And turned to see two glowing eyes 

In the distance by a log  

Screams came from inside 

And a shadow crossed the wall 

As a large witch with a pointy hat 

And green face came down the hall 

A little girl with a small dog ran out 

Annie did not know what to do 

As the witch came to the door 

And shouted "and your little doggie too/ 

Well, hello my pretty," 

Said the witch with a glare 

"Dont you look lovely tonight my dear 

Tell me who undoes your hair?" 

The witch reached behind the door 

And Annie thought to run 

Then the witch brought out a candy bowl 

And asked," are you having fun?"  

The candy bowl was full of treats 

Like candy corn and gum 

And the witch handed the girl an apple 

And said,"you look so very sweet"   

The witch invited her in for supper 

"The stove" she said,"is piping hot." 

Then Annie turned and ran away 

As far as her feet could be got 

She never looked back as she ran away 

But she heard the old witch cackle 

"Come back my dear!" the old crone shouted, 

"You forgot your apple!" 

Annie ran straight back home 

With Nancy right behind 

And they ran inside and locked the door 

Scared out of their minds!