in Spring 1997, a group of 4 of us took a trip to Atlantic City... it was actually the first time I ever saw the ocean, but that's irrelevant to this story... it was one week before my 21st birthday, so I wasn't legally able to gamble... not that I cared to anyways... and not that I couldn't have, since 3 of us were under 21 anyways, and they gambled (funny thing, I was the only one who got carded and I didn't even gamble at all...)... I was just happy to be doing something different and to finally see the ocean for the first time first-hand... so I ended up walking the boardwalk with whoever wasn't gambling at the time... first, I walked and talked with Dana while Jeremy was gambling with Rich, the only one of us over 21... after about 2 hours of walking, Dana switched with Jeremy, and he and I began walking around Atlantic City... the whole walking and observing experience was very enjoyable as we watched the seagulls (or what Jeremy called them, sea chickens...) and the ocean as night fell on a brightly-lit Atlantic City... after about 2 hours of walking, Jeremy and I decided to make our way back to the hotel to meet up with Rich and Dana... we didn't feel like risking our lives on the Jitneys (privately owned mini-buses in which the drivers drive as fast as they can so they make more money... quite an experience to ride in 'em...), so we began walking towards our destination... well, it was much farther than it looked and we ended up walking through a deserted part of town that looked like it came straight out of the movie 'Judgment Night'... then we found we had a body of water between us and the hotel... so we were wandering a ghost town alone around midnight in unfamiliar streets... this is where the excitement began... we passed a building covered with graffiti... in big, bold letters was written the name Cha-D... we were now in Cha-D's hood... all of a sudden, we were jumped by one of Cha-D's gang members named Tyrone... well, Jeremy and I being ninjas by trade, we sensed his attack... we sprang into action... Jeremy surrepticiously sprang behind Tyrone and grabbed ahold of his arms... Jeremy held on to Tyrone's twisting, fighting body and I began to question him... all of a sudden, Cha-D appeared in the middle of the street and ordered us to let Tyrone go... before we knew it, Tyrone had freed himself of Jeremy's momentarily-relieved grip and took a fighting stance next to Cha-D, who had the flames of Hell burning in his eyes... the battle ensued... I made quick work of Tyrone while Jeremy took on Cha-D... Jeremy, a usually more-than-capable black belt ninja, fell prey to Cha-D's lethal spinning kick fire attack... but since I had been trained by the great Ryoko in the art of devil spawn annihilation, I was fully capable of defending myself from Cha-D's spinning kick fire attack... after deflecting his blows thrice, I launched into attack mode... it took only one flying angel kick to return Cha-D to his rightful place in the depths of Hell... his body landed right beside Tyrone's in the middle of the once peaceful street... when I went to see how Jeremy was, I saw a flashing out of the corner of my eye... when I looked back to where Cha-D and Tyrone's bodies were laying, Cha-D's body was nowhere to be found... just ashes remained where his body had once been... Jeremy was slightly wounded, but other than that and his deflated ego, he was Ok... so we took Tyrone's work shirt as a souvenir of the annihilation of evil and of our first trip to Atlantic City... we eventually found our way back to the hotel an hour later and ended up going back out, along with Dana, for some more exploring... during our journey of another 2 hours, I picked up (and set down...) a hoe and we were propositioned by a ho ("How are you guys doing tonight?"... my response, "Ok"... didn't realize till Jeremy told me what she actually meant... hee hee...), but other than that it was pretty uneventful... we left the next day... that's the story of my first trip to Atlantic City and of how I came to obtaining Tyrone's work shirt... my only question is, where will I run into Lucifer, aka Cha-D, next?... soon, I can feel it... I'll be sure to tell you in my next edition of 'Good vs. Evil: Matt vs. Cha-D'... until next time...

how much of this story was true?...
***all of it... ***part of it... ***none of it...