Season 2, Episode 1: Yokozuna

Three Weeks Later

Claude dispared. Sumo was gone. As was Maggie. Oh Maggie, how his heart ached. They had had but one kiss when he lost her. He had not felt something like that in decades and now to have it and to have lost it, was ripping his soul to shreds. It was not better to have loved and lost. Never. I would be better to not even know. Claude was in worse shape than he had ever been. Even his condition after the genocide of the Sasquatch or his condition at the time he met Maggie could not compare. He was beaten. He sat in the corner of his old home in the sewer, not eating or talking, barely moving, waiting for the release of death.

After they had met Tadashi Nakamura, things seemed to be going so well. Revenge on Bender seemed certain. Sumo would be given back to his owner. The poor Woman; Claude was racked with sobs again. But then it all changed and there was no way to fix it.

episode 25 - "Enter Bunny" (Season 1 ends.)

"The order of Sumo????" asked Claude incredulously.

"Yes. Though the masters family has over the centuries been corrupted, his apprentices and followers have always been loyal. We have never betrayed Sumo and his power. We must protect him at all costs. He who holds Sumo, can hold the world. If you draw out the full power of Sumo, you take life from others and take it into yourself. But you can also grant that life to whoever you want. Imagine the man you call Bender with the power to draw life from the world and give that life to whom he chose. What favors could he get from the powerful and corrupt if he could extend their life by decades if not centuries."

Claude almost threw up. Bender with the power could not be allowed. Claude would stop him, no matter the cost to himself. "But how can we stop him"

Now the enigmatic man smiled, "Sumo can be given freely from person to person. If you just find him, he is not really yours. You might have him and hold him, but he isnt yours. Claude, you might be with Sumo, but since he want not freely given, you cannot know his full power. Only the owner can do this. The owner while he or she hold sumo, Sumo cannot be taken against his or her will. The person cannot be killed in anger or in cold blood. Sumo will protect the person against that."

"Yes", said Maggie, "But the owner does not have Sumo, we do"

"Right. And without Sumo the owner is vulnerable. The owner can be killed. And if the owner is killed without holding Sumo, ownership can pass to anyone"

Claude almost yelled, "But who is the owner, we have to find and protect this person, but who the hell are they?"

"Claude, I knew, I would give my life for them. But I have no idea who they might be".

Maggie was in shock. She knew. She knew who the owner was. She had read the label on the box back in the airport.

episode 24 - "1563?"

Maggie responded first...."1563?"

The mysterious figure stepped closer and Maggie and Claude were able to get a good look. He was a a male about 30 years old. We wore a suit, but the suit seemed dangerous. He seemed dangerous. Like a kettle about to boil.

The man drew a deep breath. "yes. 400 years ago. Sumo is not a voodoo doll as he might seem. But a artifact on the level of Excalibur." Maggie thought it was strange that he said Excalibur without a hint on irony. Like the ancient sword actual existed. The man continued. "It was made by a Japanese artisan in the village of Nara. It was passed from farther to son, from generation to generation. During the meiji restoration, when Japan, opened to the world, it became lost. The last generation of the line should have died out. And they did. Except for one. Who found another way to Survive." The man looked at Claude and Claude knew he spoke of his brother's blood.

"Yes Claude. Since Meji,140 years ago. The last of the line of Sumo's creator has been suriving on the blood of bigfoot, of the Sasquatch. And all this time he has been looking for Sumo. And he just found him. His real name is Satoshi Tezuka. He is 260. He corrupted the power of Sumo. What was created by his great great great grandfather to give life to the land, he took for himself. Sumo made his familgy long lived. But maybe 100 or 110 at most. It was not enough for Satoshi. He wanted life eternal. And he took and took from Sumo until it was lost. Then he drank the blood of the Sasquatch, using the power in his persona as Bender to persecute and destroy them, so he could use them to extend his life. Bender has lived long, but has given his soul."

Maggie again, "But what is Sumo??? What are you??"

The man thought, "Sumo for all intents in purposes is the fountain of youth.

But if misused it is not free. And I...I am Tadashi Nakamura, a knight of the order of the Sumo"

episode 23 - "Hypnotic"

Claude understood. Bender had been drinking Sasquatch blood for years. He had been looking for a youth portion even back when he was a Nazi. He must have heard the legends of the Sasquatch and their longetivity and figured he could somehow use it to extend his life.

Claude had always assumed the Sasquatch had been killed for politcal purposes or because powerful people were afraid. MAybe they were not killed, but harvested for their bodies and blood. Claude remembered the destroyed forest, but remembered very few Sasquatch bodies.

If Bender had killed the Sasquatch to extend their life, then Claude could finally have closure here. Well, once he bashed Bender's head in.

But why Sumo. WHy go to all this trouble over a toy. Claude knew the affect Sumo had on him, but what else could he do. Why did Claude want him?

Claude looked carefully at Sumo. He had always assumed he had been built in the last few years. But maybe not. In small letters on sumos back were some japanese and Chinese characters. Claude had no idea what they meant.

He showed it to Maggie. Her eyes went ride. Whatever language it was, Maggie Sawyer could read it. Maggie caught her breath and said, "It is the artist who built it, his or her name was Takahara and a date. Japanese dates are emperor and the year of his reign. This says Ogimachi yeat 5. I dont know when that is, I can read, I I dont know every emperor. But it has to be a loooong time ago"

A deep voice cut into the conversation. "Actually, it was around 1563 on the western calender to be percise"

episode 22 - "Sumo kinda like Icarus"

Claude drew in a breath deeply. He had always assumed that the Nazi was dead. But if he now seemed to be in his early 60s, that meant that he aged 5 years in the last 60+. Claude as a Sasquatch could live 200 years, but for a human to be unchanged in 6 decades was unheard of.

What could be keeping him alive. How could be still be around. He would have to be at least 120.

Maggie interupted his train of thought, "He wants the Sumo and wants it bad. He thinks that it is special, that there is some property of it that is near magic. He described it as a portable fountain of youth. Thats why he hired me, to find Sumo. He would place me in places where he deemed it likely to find one. I dont know how he determined them. But they were always misses, well, always misses until he turned up in the airport."

"OK. That expalins why he might want Sumo. But how the h*ll is he still alive."

"I dont know. I have never seen him do anything strange. Except...except..He had this fridge, that he kept refilling. It was always filled with Tomato Juice or V8 in these little beakers. Lately though he hasent been refilling it, and the fridge has just emptied out. Weird right. But one day he left an empty one. I picked it up and smelled it and it smelled like blood. But even if it was blood, that wouldnt make him live so long"

Claude thought for a second and became angry. No, blood could not explain his longetivity. Not human blood. But, maybe, Sasquatch blood could.....

episode 21 - "He is like Dick Clark"

The whiskey stung Claude as he drank deeply, but slowly. Sumo's whiskey sat in front of Sumo, untouched. Maggie sat next to Cluade.

Claude looked over with a start and was about to run. But he noticed that Maggie was just sitting there, so he remained seated. Maggie fumbled for words, "I'm sorry. I tried to kill you, take Sumo. but we dont have time for that right now. He is coming"

"Who might the he be?"

"Mr. Bender. My boss. But he is more than that. A lot more. And he might even have beeen involved when...when...". Maggie wanted to say "when you killed my father", but she knew it wasnt entirely true. so she caught herself and said "when you were attacked"

Claudes hackels rose. Bender. He knew the name. He knew that name. He didnt know he was involved in the death of Sasquatch kind. He knew the name. He had been in and out of Claude's life ever since the Second World War. Bender had been a Nazi scientist. Experiementing on everything and everyone. Claude and a Canadian paratrooper platoon had destroyed the lab. But Bender had escaped.

Could it be the same, Bender. Heir Bender had been about 50 or 60 then.

"What does Bender look like?", said Claude.

Maggie described him and it matched the description to a T. Then Maggie added "He is probably in his early 60s"

episode 20 - "If it's not Scottish, it's crap."

Maggie did not know where to go. She knew that Claude wasnt going home. Where could he be going. He didnt seeem to know he was being followed. The W was the closest hotel and Maggie ran there.

Maggie entered the door of the Whiskey Bar and sitting at the bar was Claude. He must have just came in. He sat with a whiskey in front of him. Sumo sat at the bar, with strangely a Whiskey in front of him as well.

Maggie was a little scared, only luck (or Sumo?) had prevented her from killing Claude. She knew he killed her father, but he also knew he had no choice.

She stood there staring at Claude. There was something. She looked a little scary, but he wasnt ugly. In fact he reminded her of her car, cute but warn around the edges.