Title I Didn't Choose Part 2

With Shev's body pulled aside, the crew had reclaimed its purpose. El Cesario had been playing with us the whole time. The decoy he sent towards us was nothing more than the carcass of a common giant sea crocodile, probably from up around the New Francisco bay. The cry went out again, this time directly behind us. Then again, out in front and slightly to port. Then a final "NOICE!" sounded like it was right on top of us. The crew looked frazzled, to say the least. Billy didn't know where to shoot, and neither did I. Wait. I had a plan.

"Mr. Smith, thrust ahead full," I ordered.

The powerful engines began to hum louder now. Let's see if the legendary Alex Siquig could keep up with my Raymond Blurr.

"Brandon Lewis, I want the depth charges ready to be released on a moment's notice."

"Aye-aye, sir," he said, stumbling off below decks.

Another call went out, although this time behind us, and sounding a bit less forceful. Good, I was making him work. Just like how he never used to do anything in Marine Biology, he'd just sit there looking cute. But enough about my stalking back in high school. If I knew Alex at all, I knew the best way to force him into a fight was to make him work. Or to insult his precious RX Bandits.

"Off the port bow, look!" Penrod yelled in her gruff voice.

"Hold your fire until my order, ready the charges!"

He was headed straight for the rear, coming in fast. He was after the engines.

"Hold..." 30 meters. "Steady..." 20 meters. "Hold it..." 10 meters. "NOW!" I yelled.

Kroeker struck his side with a rifle shot, Penrod gave him a shot at his tail from her glossy silver revolver, and Gaechter managed to graze Alex's head-if you could call it that-forcing the monster to slow hischarge. Chris took no aim, the little fucker.

"Release the charges!"

Nate Smith pulled the lever, letting loose three heavy underwater mines. At just the right moment, Siquig submerged, hoping to escape any more fire, just like how he was always trying to escape commitment. The explosions shot water every which way, sending tremors through the ship. Then, silence.

Mr. Lewis came scrambling back up on deck. "The engines were damaged in that blast, but we don't seem to be taking on any water," he reported, his hand casually rubbing his genitals inside his tattered jeans. Well, at least we had the sails. And more importantly, we had done some real damage.

"Penrod, Kroeker, get the nets," I ordered. "Stay frosty everyone, he may not be down just yet."

They let loose again the powerful whalers nets, and Nate Smith turned the ship around to sweep up our prey. Just then Kroeker let out a cry, and we saw the beast charging towards him, using the net as a ladder up the side of the ship. Before Nathaniel could grab his rifle, Cesario already had his lower body firmly within his tremendous jaws. It is worth noting at this point that I was able to finally get a glimpse of the monster up close-he had a great, sleek body, resembling a giant sea lion dyed black as if caught in an oil spill, but the head-this great, bulbous head, looked almost like that of a blue whale, and the cranium of an alien from that one Sigourney Weaver movie. Kroeker gripped his trusty bowie knife in hand, and plunged it into the front of the creature's face, with seemingly no effect. Gaechter took aim, but before he could wheel the turret around, Alex flung Nathaniel's still screaming body dead-on into my first mate, easily knocking him unconscious.

Penrod had by now dropped her half of the net and was leveling her giant handgun towards the creature's right eye. That one, beautiful eye. The eye that I had fallen in love with so many years ago... I knew just then that I could never kill this man, even if he had long-since lost all humanity... I remember scoffing when I discovered how the crew of the S.S. Strong Bad was devastated by Cesario. Her captain, and my long time rival, Michelle Chacon, had just refused to fight, saying that his eyes had mesmerized her... Penrod hadn't even taken two shots at the eye before Alex's great tail flipped out and knocked her across the deck, her head cracking hard into the mast, body crumpling to the floor. Then he leveled his eyes at me. The next few moments I don't remember-I just draw a blank. All I can remember is Nate Smith dive-tackling me just out of way of the monster's razor-sharp teeth. He told me later that I just stood there, staring, as if hypnotized, for almost half a minute as the moster stared me down. He kept hearing me murmur something in Japanese... kirei na tori

But now the beast had us both for sure. It stood above us, it's teeth dripping with drool and the collected blood of two of my crew. Just then, I heard a blood (okay, perhaps milk) curdling war cry. It was Bocian. He had grabbed a harpoon from the main cannon, and, with Penrod's revolver in his other hand, dropped down from the main sail and drove the harpoon into the back of el Cesario's monstrous head, and tightly clutched the harpoon while the enraged creature lashed about.

"I'm sending you back to Japantown, demon!" he yelled, as he unloaded a full six shots into the beast's brain at point-blank range. Losing the gun, he held on for dear life to the imbedded harpoon. We were quick to scarmble out of the way, as the mighty Siquig collapsed like a tired dog, letting loose one final cry. TRADITIONAL SLIIIIICE!

And that was it. Aside from a few more bullets me and Bocian put into the beast just to make sure of its demise, the battle was finally over. My crew, excluding Shev, all miraculous survived, Kroeker of course losing his legs, and Ashley Penrod receiving a serious concussion to that normally impenetrable head of hers. I gave them all a 2-cent raise for their hard work, and they deserved every penny. Not that it would be our toughest adventure, but at least we had the bragging rights, and had ended my rivalry with that bitch Chacon. Like somebody from Wilcox High School could ever manage to defeat el Cesario. But to this day, I still find myself thinking about that expedition, rembering those eyes. The eyes of a monster that were so strangely... human. Kirei na tori, Alex Siquig. Kirei na tori.