siegfried432

Onichi Kuroi's winter outfit

Chapter 12: In Which Our Final Companion Shows A Bit More Promise Than the Last One.

"M-m-m-m-man, it's b-b-b-b-b-ball's f-f-f-f-freezing out here" our Monkey's son was chattering in the cold of Norway.

Our new friend had chartered us a plane to head us all the way to Norway to find our last companion my mother wanted us to add... although i wish she had chose a warmer place for us to find our last scion.

"Stop complain, Monkey-boy, I'm just as cold as you are" said Serena who had her arms crossed to try and warm up.

"Man, it's days like these I'm glad I'm not effected by the elements" Mara said as steam seemed to be rising off of her skin.

Well, complaining nor bragging is not going to get us anywhere." I said "Mara?"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"Where's our target supposed to be?

"Well, according to the files, he supposed to be somewhere... in..." She looked at the files "Hmmm, interesting..."

"What's 'interesting', Ms. Secare?" I was getting impatient with her.

"It says our target currently works at the Oslo Academy of Fine Arts..."

"Well that's great let's go find..."

"...As a Life model..." she interrupted

My eyes went about as wide as saucers... "Well then... let's... hope we don't... find him... modeling" I was feeling just a bit uncomfortable.

"OK then moving on to find him" I said quickly

Serena chuckled "It looks like Onichi's never seen a p..."

"I've seen one before!" I said out loud. Inwardly I cringed. I've seen them, yes, but only in pictures and once or twice after judo practice, but never up close. I kept my mouth shut, ignoring the looks that the group gave me as my face turned a few shades darker in embarrassment. "Well...what are we waiting for?" I told them. "Let's get going!" I marched ahead.

"Wow, you should have see the look on your face" Mara whispered as I passed by.

"Shut up, Mara"

Later on after much walking and taxi driving, we had arrived at our destination.

"Well, now we should go find out target" Tetsu said excitedly.

"Hey, I've been acting for a long time and I know all about stripping for art. Y'know. Been there done that, So if you guys don't mind, I'm going to wait inside where it's warm." He smiled. " Like the cafe!"

"Oh no you don't." I said. Serena and I grabbed him by the shoulders and herded him towards the classroom.

"If all of us must endure, so must you." Serena said.

"Yea, Monkey boy. We wouldn't want  you to miss out on all the fun." Said Mara. She chuckled.

Xuan tried to play it cool. "Ladies, I've seen plenty of d***s before. They're long and big, but in this weather I'm pretty sure-"

"Oh just stop complaining." I said as I rolled my eyes.

Tetsu trailed behind a little nervous.

The five of us got to the class room and saw the door was closed and we could hear naught but the sound of pencil against drawing canvas and some students speaking amongst each other.

All of us were arguing quietly amongst ourselves as to who was going to look in.

"OK, Serena... Go look and see if you can see our scion in there." I said.

She crossed her arms and frowned. "No chance, Onichi. As leader, you should be the one to look."

"But..but I-" I stammered. " Monkey boy, you look!"

"As comfortable as I am with my sexuality, I'd rather not. Besides..." He wrapped his toned arm around Tetsu's shoulder. "I'm pretty sure Tetsu here has yet to see a d*** other than his own. Man up, Tetsu, and go have a peek."

"What!?" He yelled in shock. A blush stained his cheeks and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"SHHHHHHH" the four of us shushed Tetsu.

"Sorry... but I still refuse to look in there. Have the Succubus do it."

"I'm a guide, not a look out, you guys sort this amongst yourselves."

"You know, fine, I'll do it." a fed up Serena finally sighed. She went up to the window and checked inside.

Her eyes opened wide and said as though she had her breathe taken away "Oh my..."

"What?" I said in curiousity

"Just... just... wow" she kept looking and saying.

I sighed "Just let me look"

She smiled "No, you didn't want to look."

"Well now I do."

"Too bad"

I tried to shove her out of the way "I said let me look"

"and i said no" she said as she pushed back.

We ended up getting in a tousle which then somehow unlocked the door and the both of us feel through. As soon as we hit the floor, we saw that all eyes, including the model, were on us. As embarrassed as I was, I couldn't stop looking at the model.

He had blond hair, slightly long, tousled out on his shoulders, a hairless chest, not beefy but he was fit, toned abs, legs, and... well, he was very impressive downstairs let's just say.

"May I help you?" a man with a Norwegian accent asked us. I was broken out of my trance and noticed the slightly balding thin man with a black attire and completed with glasses and a black beret. And I can tell you it was not the time on Sprockets where we dance...

"We're sorry" I said as me and Serena stood up "My friend and I were looking at the model through the window, thinking about whether we would want to get into the class next semester."

"Mmhmm, likely story" said the man like he was better then us. "Well as you can see, our model is a bit busy as all these students are recreating him onto canvas in their view."

I saw Serena was going to say something stupid so a nudged her in the ribs before she got us into deeper trouble.

"If you want to talk to the model, you can wait til after the class." and turned and waved us off as if we were bugs that were annoying him.

"Let's go and wait" and turned Serena around before she wanted to do something drastic and shut the door.

"Ooooooooo, who does that prick think he is?" Serena said

"Calm down, you can't blame him for being upset, we interrupted his class, which wouldn't have happened if you had let me look in the first place."

"Well, you had the chance to look, but you shoved the responsibility to me. So it's your fault."

"Ladies, LADIES" Xuan smiled "I know you wanted to look at his penis as much as any girl or gay guy in that classroom but nothing in that class room can compare to my..."

Double Smack!!

Without looking, both Serena and I punched Xuan in the face. "Me and my big mouth" he said before falling to the floor.

If there were people in the hall, they would feel the heat of rage between Serena and I at the moment. I really wanted to punch her lights out too, I really did, but I knew it would get anywhere, I took a deep breathe and said "I'm sorry, i should have taken the responsibility of looking through the window."

As mad as she was her expression changed from that of anger to mildly disappointed "I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have teased you"

A half an hour later, the class let out and we waited for the model to come out. He was wearing black suit pants, a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a black pinstripe vest, a small scarf around his and tied his hair into a pony tail. And his eyes... their were this wonderful bright green, and shined like emeralds... but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

"Can we talk to you?" I said.

"Ja, what's up?" he seemed unusually cool for a complete stranger asking to talk to him.

"Do you mind if we walk and talk?"

"Sure, I am guessing these are your friends, ja?" he pointed to my motley crew.

"Yes, they're with me."

"Well, how can I help you?"

"Well, we can't really say around her, you know a private place we can talk?"

"Well, no one really uses the class after this one, so why don't we just talk in there, is ok?" his English needed some work, but he was doing well.

So all six of us walked in the classroom.

He stood in front of us as the other teammates took a seat and I still stayed standing.

"It doesn't seem like none of you are from the country... Americans?" he said

"Umm... yes.. but.."

"I can probably guess as to why you are here" he took off his scarf and pulled out a necklace with what looked like a rune.

"How did you..."

"My name is Magnus Vegard, Scion of Baldur, at your service." he took a bow.

"Well, that cuts the awkwardness out of the air" Xuan smiled as Serena punch him in the arm, which Xuan proceeded to rub in pain.

"So you have come for me in order for me to take my part in helping the world, yes?" Magnus said "Well, as you can see, I'm doing quite fine right here at the school."

I closed my eyes, "I'm sure it's great and all, getting paid to strip naked as people... draw your... body" I had a hard time speaking. "But there are more important matters than -"

"Ok"

"....OK, what?"

"I'll join you"

"S-Seriously? Just like that? No fuss, no 'I don't want to take the responsibilities my father sent on me'..."

"Well, it saves you time and I'm getting bored of this place. I feel like my purpose is not meant to be a model.., i mean my father wouldn't have given me this" He pulled a desert eagle with rune engravings on it from his vest.

"WHOA!" the lot of us shouted and backed up a bit.

"Relax, it's not loaded, and I have the safety on. The point is that I need to do something with my life besides look pretty. I'm more then just a face and a body you know."

"I'm sure you are" Serena knocked Xuan to the floor.

"You're one to take, action star" Serena finally said.

"You seriously need to learn when to shut up, dude" Tetsu told Xuan.

"What's the fun in being silent?" he said in pain.

"Either way, I should introduce you to the band" I said

"The one on the floor is Xuan, Scion of Sun Wukong; The girl with the strong arm is Serena, Scion of Baron Semedi; The guy with the glasses and geeky shirt..."

"HEY!"

"...is Tetsuya, Tetsu for short, Scion of Raiden; and I'm Onichi, Scion of Kali... o, and that girl is my guide, Mara Secare"

"Nice to meet you all." Magnus responded

"Well, looks like the Fellowship of the ring is formed with this last one" Mara stated. "When we get back to Onichi's place..."

"Wait, what? My place? Why is my place the base of operations?"

"Why not? You're the leader, it makes sense, plus it's the most discrete place we can go to discuss the reason you have been gathered."

She was right, what could I have said? Serena didn't live anywhere, I'm sure Tesu's stuff was already gone or with his mortal mother, Magnus didn't seem like he had much possessions on him, and Xuan probably had maids to maintain his house hold and being he was a star, there was risk of being exposed.

Looking at my group members, they were all from different cultures and different divine parents, but  i couldn't help but noticed one thing... all of them seem to have known about their parents for a while, and I didn't. Why was that, why was I left in the dark when so many found out earlier? They would probably say they were better off not knowing but being most of them were a bit younger then I was or about my age and had found out sooner... i felt out of place... an outcast amongst outcast... but I would feel pity about this later... right now, there was a mission to do... although I didn't know what that mission was yet, but we were going to find out as soon as we got home...

Magnus Vegard, Scion of Baldur... coming soon...

Chapter 11: In Which We Have to Outrun Humanoid Hogs.

I looked out the limo roof window to see what the hell was chasing us. I was surprised to see who are pursuers are.

"You aren't going to believe this, but we are being chased by 5 part human-part motorcycle beings, almost like a motorcycle centaur or something."

"What?!? Fantastic!!" He shoved me aside and stuck his head out the window. "You should have told me there would be monsters like them. I would have said yes from the get go!" He laughed and ducked back down into the limo.

I gave him an incredulous look. "I..are you OK?..."

"Worried?" He smiled again, a wide grin.

"Crap... Of all the scions to be in our time, we get one with a death wish... and there's death right outside this car." said Serena

"O boy, Mara, can you drive this thing any faster?" Tetsu yelled.

"Hey, I have an idea, why don't you try driving a limo fast and I'll be the one to bitch at your for not going fast enough." Mara yelled back as she tried to put the petal to the metal.

The human half of the "bikers" were wearing typical biker clothing and some of them having weapons like spiked chains, clubs, brass knuckles, etc. Luckily, none of them had guns, or we would really be in trouble. They were hooting and hollering quite a noise.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you but I'm gonna try something."

In our 3 day trip from New Orleans I had a learn a new trick from Tetsu about increasing my running speed to incredible heights, the way that he does in battles to the point where it looks like he's almost standing still.

I focused my energy to my legs and jump to the roof of the car and slide down the trunk of the car and hit the ground running... I was even on par with the speed of the cycles. Of course the Cycle-Centaurs were shocked at this.

"What the?"

"Nice weather tonight" I said with a smile and smacked him in the face. He lost a couple of teeth, and despite being really strong, i felt like i had punch a metal plate. "Holy..." I said as a shook my hand

"Mind if i join you?"

I looked to my left and saw Tetsu was running about the same speed I was "Hi" he said friendly-like.

"Not at all, you take the left, and I'll take the right."

"Got it" and he saluted off to the left.

I turn back to my opponent. "That was mah good tooth you knocked out"

"Sorry to hear that" I replied as I punched him good in hard in the back, but this time when i punched him, my gloves glowed crimson, and seem to punch through him. I saw my hand through the other side of him but instead of blood there was motor oil and machinery but it's still felt... well, what could pass for "human". as soon as i pulled my hand out his "motor" stop and he slid to the side. the two Cycle-centaurs behind me dodge this and yelled "You're gonna pay for that, kid?"

I slowed down to their speed and hopped on top of the one with the spiked chain "Don't call me, KID!!" and grabbed the creatures chain and used it to wrap it around his neck, i looked in front and saw something that i need to dodge, and hopped on the other centaur. By the time the other centaur got the chain off of his neck, he said hello to the tunnel wall with an explosive squish. I looked to my left and saw that Tetsu had managed to taken one of the out and was having a running duel with the last guy who also happen to have a sword.

I'll help you out as soon as I can i thought to myself.

"In the meanwhile" I said outloud "I need to take care of youOOOO"

The centaur was trying to shake me off of his back "Git off'er me, ya dang blasted girl!"

"Maaaaaake meeeeeeeee" I said as the centaur kept moving side to side. I finally got him in a clinch.

The centaur seemed to be gasping for air "Let... go..." he struggled to say

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of me crushing your windpipe, say that again?" I tugged at his head, and he started to scream for mercy.

"No mercy for titanspawn or any creature that tries to impeed our path!!" I screamed as I tore of his head and pushed away from his body as it spun away and exploded in the distance. I looked at the thing once, threw it away and ran towards Tetsu to help him out. I pulled out my Bo in order to help him. One knows not to bring one's fist to a weapon fight.

I hopped over to the other side of the centaur to flank him. And now the the centaur was dealing with the two of us. I smacked him the in back of the head, I dodged his swing, Testu slashed at his chest, and he dodged teh swing from the centaur, all 3 of us were exchanging blows until  he managed to cut me.

Tetsu hopped over and picked me and we both rushed back to the car.

"Serena, Oni got hurt, we need healing, now!"

"OK, OK, don't get your panties in a knot"

"Looks like you guys are having trouble" Xuan said with a smile.

All three of us looked at him like we wanted to Dinozzo whap him.

"I can help, just let me at him."

"What can you do?"

"Prove my worth, and have a little fun, that's what." he pulled from his coat pocket what look like a small stick about the size of a pen.

"What good is that going to do us?"

"Hey. Didn't they tell you that the pen is mightier than the sword?" He winked and climbed of of the roof of the limo.

As soon as Serena healed me, all three of us rushed to the rear window and saw our action star crouch on the end of the limo and saw the "pen" in his hand grew into a 6 foot tall, and about 2 inch thick red pole with intricate Chinese designs on it and from the corner of my eye i swear i saw something shine from around his neck that looked like a jagged piece of stone.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" he screamed as he jumped from the back and did a 360 in the air and landing facing the car next to the centaur with staff in hand running circles around the Centaur. Showoff... he was evening running backwards, slapping the centaur with his pole who was starting to waver in his ride. He tried to slash at Xuan but caught nothing but air as Xuan landed on the tip of his sword. It was like something out of a kung fu movie... go figure, maybe he was telling the truth about doing his own stunts.

"What a beautiful night eh?" Xuan said smiling at the Centaur and the proceeded to bop him on the head with his pole. As the centaur was going to swing again, Xuan pole vaulted off of the "seat" of the cycle part and screamed "Baaaaaaaaaaaater UP!!" and the pole swelled to at least a hand's width wide and knocked the Centaur into tomorrow. Mara immediately stopped the car as Xuan caught up. He held up his staff as it shrunk back into the pen size that it was before, Twirled in and stuffed it back in his pocket.

Serena, Tetsu, Mara, and myself step out of the car star-strucked at what just had happened. Xuan dusted himself off and then look at as with that monkey-ish smile.

"You know, this sort of stuff reminds me of some of the stuff my father's been in, only more epic. So, where do i sign up to join this crew?"

I put my hand out, "You've definately proved your worth, but did you have to go so over the top?"

"Well, my father always said, 'Finish big, or not at all' " he put his hand in my hand and we shook sealing the deal and making our team from four to five.

"So I heard something along the lines of their being a fifth scion to be finding... would it happen to be another lovely lady such as your AAAAAAAAAHHHH!?" he screamed as I gripped his hand tightly.

"You may be part of the crew, Mother only knows why, but that doesn't mean you can act as you please? Serena nor I will be pushed nor flirted with by the likes of you, got it?"

"Whoa, kitten's got claws..." he shook his hand in pain "and a grip, but dually noted!" he added before I attempted to sock him.

I was hoping that the next scion we found was a bit more mature then the son of the monkey.

Xuan Sun (or Sun Xuan [pronounced soon shen] in proper Chinese order), Scion of Sun Wukong with makeup

Xuan Sun, Scion of Sun Wukong without makeup.


Clockwise from top left: Mara male form (and a Tetsu squealing), Mara demon form, Mara female form, Kali's avatar on earth, Genichiro Kuroi, Onichi, Tetsu, and Serena

Chapter 10: In Which We Meet One Of The Monkey King's Many Sons

After a 3 day trip from New Orleans to the City of Angels, we were pretty bushed. Here we were, in Hollywood of all places to find a scion, in front of the Grauman's Chinese theatre, amongst the the walk of fame, which, from what Mara was telling us on our trip that some of the stars along the walk were actually some Scions who had managed to escape the pain of having to become a savior of the world and got into the entertainment business, including Micheal Jackson, who also happened to be a scion of the Baron, much to Serena's dismay. To me, it made a lot of sense, I appreciated his music as much as the next but it would explain his actions in the last few years of his life.

Mara, Tetsu, Serena, and myself walked through the streets of Hollywood boulevard looking for any sign of our new companion.

"So" I said to Mara, who decided to be female today, an unusually hot female "Who are we looking for?"

She checked through her notes, though she looked a little confused at the name "X... oo an Sun? I..." she turned the page sideways "I can't seem to make heads or tails of this name"

"Give me that!" Tetsu yelled as he grabbed the notes from her. He looks at it a minute. "It's 'Xuan Sun',(pronounced shen soon) and you put the last name first"

"Doesn't matter we have a name." i said before something could erupt between our resident geek, and my demonic guide. "Now we got to find him."

"He's going to be at the Chinese theater tonight for a movie premiere" Serena spoke up.

Tetsu, Mara, and I looked at serena with a look of "how the hell do you know that?"

She pointed to the poster.

Premiering tonight at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre
"Journey to the West"
Starring Chinese Action star Xuan Sun as Sun Wukong.

In the center of the poster of a man in what look like traditional Chinese makeup, yellow clothing, and furry sideburns with a smile you just couldn't hate.

"Best way to keep a secret" Serena said "Is to put it out in the open"

Apparently so  i thought at the time, but the questions was how to get him to join us if this guy was a superstar. We had to do this with the utmost stealth, cunning, and most of all, timing...

Hours Later, after the movie premiere, our action star scion came out to flashing cameras as he headed to his limo. As he entered in, something felt strange about his usually limo ride and the fact that it was darker then usual. Before he had time to react or for anybody to get suspicious, Mara clicked the power locks and the now 5 of us drove away but not in a speeding hurry of course.

"Oh no," he said, a little sarcastically, but he had a smile on his face from what I can see. "I'm getting swept away by strangers. What do you want? Money? As you can see," He flipped out his wallet, almost bursting with cash. "I have plenty to spare.

"We don't want your money, we want you and don't be a smart ass. You're not in a position to be making demands, but we are." I spoke from out of my shadow refuge which I pulled Serena, Tetsu, and myself out of and sat in the limo seat.

Xuan looked at us and laugh. "Oh please... did my" he pointed up and then in quotation marks " 'father' sent you? pfft, please, I told him one and I'll tell you, there's no way I'm going to give us this life to 'save the world'. Sure, I could kick some ass in the real world but why bother?"

"Sounds to me like we got a spoiled brat on our hands, Oni" Serena sighed.

"Look, Mara told us we need him and what she says is what she says and what she " pointing to the heavens "says goes"

Serena looked a bit wide-eyed, I had told her during our 3 day trip about who my divine parent was and started to respect me a bit more, though it was going to be a while before I had really gained her trust.

"Hey, hey, hey, Ladies... and... gentleman" Xuan seemed hesitant to say as he was not please to see Tetsu in his presence.  "I can understand that I'm a... hot... item, but I don't think traveling the world is my idea of the way I want to enjoy life."

I had rolled my eyes at this, I couldn't and could believe this guy was like this, after all, he was the scion of the monkey king.

"LOOK!" I yelled at him "We don't have time to f*** around, there's a world that needs to be saving and every scion needs to do their part, i don't think you being a movie star is one of them, I'm sure you are pretty good with martial arts, and I'm sure doing this movie has improved your staff fighting skills"

"Well" he chuckled "I have been known to do my own stunts, I'm a regular super Jackie Chan, so to speak" he gave what could have been a monkey's smile, and it might have been a trick of the street lights or something but I swear I saw a sparkle at the corner of his smile.

I was almost at my limit and was about to sock him when...

"Let me talk to him" Serena said with a sort of bedroom voice. She switched from our side of the car to Xuan and started whispering in his ear. Xuan at first started to look very pleased with himself, but his face went from that of excitedment to that of "O s***" and it seemed as if was swallowing hard and then said. "Ok OK!, I'll join you, just..." he shuddered for a moment, "Just don't ... gah" he kind of sat in a childish slump and Serena went back over to our side.

"What did you..."

"You don't want to know, Geek-boy"

"My name is Tetsu, we've already discussed this, I don't appreciate it when you call me that!"

I put a hand on his shoulder and whispered "Lighten up, you know she doesn't mean it, OK? She just got us our fourth member, doesn't matter how, but once we get our fifth we can start on our mission."

"But what mission is that? You haven't said much besides saving the world. Logically, I mean one doesn't save the world, but help it..."

"Don't think too hard, please..." I said quickly.

I sat back into the leather interior of the limo and tap the glass. Mara lowered it. "So" I said to her "Where are we going?"

"We are going to"

CRASH!!

The whole limo shook throwing most of us to the right of the limo.

I got up. "What the hell was that?!" I yelled to our demonic driver.

"That" she said "is company, and we have it, in spades."

Chapter. 9: In Which Our Group Has A Serious Boss Battle

"This... is not going to be easy" I said looking at the hulking mass of zombie flesh that was in front of us.

This creature looked like it had been chewed up, spat out, chewed up again, and then regurgitated twice over... and then infected for good measure. In short: it was hurl-refic. It didn't help that it was about 10 feet tall with many razor sharp maws and... dare I say it... Tentecles. I still shudder when I think about that titanspawn.

"So" Mara said surprisingly calming "How are you going to take out that monster?"

I turned to her " 'you?', don't you mean we?"

"As much as I'm here to help you, my combat skills are THAT great... besides, you have Tetsu and Serena to help you out."

"Thanks, Mara, you are REAL big help."

"My pleasure" She said with a s***-eating grin.

"I'll just stay back here to support you guys" Serena said nonchalantly. "I've never been the kind of girl to jump into things head first."

"Well, it looks like it's just you and me, Oni" Tetsu called to me.

"Yep" i looked at the creature we were about to face "It'll be a challenge to say the least."

I readied my fists, Tetsu his sword, and Serena kept a watchful eye to see if anyone was failing in health.

The monster growled and spat at us. I wiped off slime from my face. I closed my eyes and concentrated and creating a film around my body as protection and concentrated on paying attention to the enemies attack patterns. When I opened my eyes, I was ready. 

"Let's do this"

I charged in and went straight for what one could possibly deem an eye and struck it.

Tetsu came from the other side and slashed from the left.

The monster growled as we kept grab us with his tentacles or bite at us with his maw, it seemed to be getting frustrated. It closed his mouth just as I was about to hit its side again, it opened its mouth and puffed out this green gas which smelled horrible.

"O GOD" I coughed "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?"

"Jebuus!" yelled Tetsu "Hasn't this guy heard of a breath mint... damn it, I can't move"

Serena fell to the ground "Neither can I, F***!"

All three of us fell to the ground paralyzed. I tried to get up... all i could move was my head to see the monster pick me up in its' grip, its' apparently acid grip. Every nerve where the monster touched me was screaming and on fire. The pain was almost too much to bear. Even with the regeneration, it was still hurting like hell.

"HELP ME!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. The monster had gotten Tetsu in his grip as well, who happened to be screaming as well.

It was about to get Serena as well, when...

"NO!" she screamed as she rolled away. "Nice try, S***ward, but I'm going to have to say 'BAD TOUCH'!!" she screamed as she pointed her rod in the monsters general direction and  there started to form a yellow pus filled bubble in the middle of it's forehead.

In it's suffering, it had dropped both Tetsu and I, I was not inclined to find out what would happened if we stayed close to the monster.

Tetsu had the same idea and both of us booked it towards Serena and grabbed her and we doved behind some gravestones as it's human sized wound exploded itself.

When the... well you can't really say dust cleared, we looked over and saw what was left of the titanspawn: a mass of teeth and a sizzling hole in the ground.

"Well done! See, I knew you could do this without me." Mara was back in her male form, applauding our small victory.

I went up and socked the now him right in the face, Serena came up behind me and slapped him too, and then Tetsu came up and kicked right in the... "I deserved all three" he said very weakly "And this is why I hate shifting into a guy" Still trying to catch his breath.

When he finally did. "Well, it seems that Serena has proved her worth, maybe we should head and find your fourth companion."

"Where's the scion located?" everyone including I was surprised that it was Serena who spoke up.

"What, if you want me to come with you, we are going to need more then you and geek boy over here."

"HEY, I resent that!" Tetsu protested.

"Whatever" She said as she looked towards her right with her arms folded. "Anyways, where is this person?"

I looked toward Mara, "You heard the girl, where's the next one?"

He gave us a smile, "I hear Disneyland is nice this time of year... Don't you just love it?"

you know i've been playing too much God of War when i'm doing this...

Chapter 8: In Which We Hear The Sad Past of the Bone Daddy's Daughter

We followed Serena through the crowd of brazenly drunken people and party goers of New Orleans going to a destination that is supposedly private. I couldn't help but wonder where we were going. Eventually the crowd started to thin out and we ended up the last place I would have but should have expected.

"The cemetery?" Tetsu spoke up. "Really?"

"Considering it's Marti Gras, can you think of a better place, mon ami?" Serena sharply said.

Tetsu kept his mouth shut until Serena finally stopped in front of a grave. She looked quite frozen as she stared at it. The three of us proceeded to look at the grave from behind her. The following words were on the gravestone:

The Band currently- starting from top right going clockwise: Tetsu, Mara (male form), Onichi, Serena