Hi y'all!
So, here's a little experiment:
I have been sitting on a novel for a couple of years. I have two-thirds of it completely written, with the last third existing as a detailed outline.
I write for a living in a non-entertainment capacity, and this project was my attempt to decompress after long days at work grinding out text for the benefit of other folks. I love my job, but what I create there isn't exactly rewarding on a personal level.
I originally started this story with the intention of releasing it online, one chapter at a time, released every couple of weeks over the course of a few months. I wanted to find an artist who was skilled in comic-style art, and have illustrations created to go along with each chapter as I released them. Several folks showed some interest, but for one reason or another, they all fell through and eventually I stopped production on my pet project.
I've been circling around this story again over the last couple of weeks, considering finishing it up. The story and characters have never been far from my mind, and I find myself mulling over the various story beats whenever my mind has time to wander. I actually have brief outlines for follow-up books, carrying the story and characters over.
I have decided to drop the first chapter onto Game Informer's user blog area, just to see if anyone was interested. If there is any interest whatsoever, I will continue forward. If there is even one person who wants to see where the story goes, I vow on all that is holy that I will follow through, and see the story to completion.
Of course, I know what you are thinking. Why Game Informer? What does this story have to do with games? Why don't I go and find some fan-fiction site to post my little story?
The answer is this: Game Informer is my favorite site. I am an avid gamer and I visit this site several times, every day. The sensibilities shown on this site match my story, if that makes any sense. It would also be fair to say that this story was directly inspired by a game. While I stress that this is not fan fiction (the world and characters, while seemingly familiar on the surface, are all original creations), it was while playing a game that this story occurred to me.
Further, after getting through the first few chapters, I jumped onto DC Universe Online to take a swipe at visualizing my main character, Ms. Goldstein. I tumbled down that rabbit hole, and wound up playing DCUO for the better part of a year. As Ms. Goldstein. So...yeah. I did get some sweet screenshots out of it though.
Okay, I think that is enough explanation. I have worked really hard to try to create something that doesn't suck, that people will find interesting and entertaining. Take a look and let me know what you think. If anyone wants me to keep going, just say "Keep going!" and it will be done. There is plenty more where this came from!
Ms. Goldstein
Chapter One - Today
Jessica Goldstein tilted her head slightly to the left, and watched in wonder as a little guy dressed as a ninja leapt across the chasm between two buildings and bounded across the roof towards her. Although she knew that there wasn't much he could do to damage her, she still took an involuntary step backwards. He was coming really fast, and frankly it was a little scary. He seemed determined.
"Um...stop...," she murmured, as he came racing towards her, arm reaching behind himself to draw some unseen weapon. She thrust her right arm out like a traffic cop commanding cars to halt at a broken stop light, just in time to catch his face in the palm of her hand. She watched with bemusement as the guy began unleashing a lightning quick torrent of martial arts jabs and kicks, none of which connected. With his right arm, he began wailing away at her head with some sort of nightstick. She froze the video image for a moment, and noted with amusement that she was being assaulted with a broomstick covered in black electrical tape. She tightened her grip slightly on his masked face, just to make sure he wasn't going anywhere.
"Dad, you seeing this?"
"Yeppers," his voice crackled to life in her helmet, seeming to surround her.
"Well, what do you think?"
"Try not to hurt him."
Duh. "Yeah, I know that, but how do I get him to stop trying to hurt me?"
"Jessica, he can't hurt you."
"I know that, Dad. But he's kind of spazzing out. I'm looking for suggestions here. This is my first ninja."
There was a moment of silence on the comm, then some shuffling. Finally, Larry Goldstein's voice returned, slightly garbled. "So....you don't know who he is, right? Or why he's attacking you? Why don't you start there?"
Was that crunching she heard? "Are you eating something?"
"Oyster Crackers," he dad replied. "Look, see if you can get his mask off. Then at least we'll have an image of his face on the hard drive. Then, I don't know...instruct him to stop hitting you and let him go, I guess."
Well, yeah, that made sense. "I want some stupid Oyster Crackers," Jessica mumbled.
"I'll make sure you get some," he dad answered. She wished for a moment that he couldn't hear everything she said.
Jessica reached out with her left arm and put her hand on the guy's neck. Picturing his head popping off of his neck and thinking better of it, she shifted her grip to his shoulder. This was already weird enough. She didn't want to do anything too gross. The ninja was still doing his best to kill her, alternating between chopping at her neck, whacking at her head with the broomstick, and kicking savagely at her groin.
"Stop squirming," she said firmly, and clamped down harder on him, slowly increasing pressure until he began to shrink against the pain and settled down a bit. "Now look. I'm going to take off your mask, and then I'm going to ask you some questions. Just try to be cool. I don't want to hurt you, and I'm not saying that just as a threat. It's more that I want us both to walk away from this peacefully, but I'm new at this and if you don't chill out, I might mess up and squash up your face or something."
She reached out and tried to grab the black silk hood off of the ninja guy's head. It was harder than she thought it would be. She made a few attempts to get a grip, but she couldn't feel anything with the tips of her fingers and was forced to try to get ahold of the slippery cloth by visual cues alone. She ran her fingers repeatedly along his face, like she was forcedly petting a resistant cat. Realizing that she was having a hard time, the guy started whipping his head back and forth. Finally, she just gave up and squeezed his shoulder until she heard something pop. That settled him down a bit, and she managed to rip the black hood off of him, taking a fair amount of sandy brown hair with it.
Underneath the hood was a standard, fairly friendly looking white guy, maybe about twenty five years old. He looked like he hadn't shaved for a few days, but other than that, there wasn't too much interesting about him.
"Hey," she said, "white ninja! Like Chuck Norris! You know this guy, Dad?"
"Nope. Ask him who he is, and why he attacked you."
Jessica nodded. She gave the ninja a little shake. His head whipped violently back and forth on his neck. The black section of broomstick clattered to the ground.
"Jessica, don't shake him. Shaking is bad. Whiplash and all."
"Is that really a thing, Dad? Isn't whiplash just some fake injury con artists pretend to have after car accidents so they can sue people?"
"I assure you, it's a thing. This guy is going to be sitting crooked on the sofa for at least a month already. Try not to make it worse."
Jessica shrugged, and turned her attention back to the matter at hand. "All right, dude. What gives? I'm up here practicing my new moves, just trying to do my thing, and you come flying out of nowhere with the sudden Crouching Tiger bit. You want to explain yourself?
With his shoulder still firmly in Jessica's grasp, the guy twisted violently, flinging his free arm out behind his back. Producing three metallic throwing stars from nowhere, he hurled them at Jessica's face. They bounced off harmlessly, and fell with a clinking jangle to the ground. Jessica's and the guy's heads swiveled slowly in unison, as they watched one dejected, slightly bent star wobble to the edge of the roof, teeter for a moment undecidedly, and finally fall over. A momentary hope that no one was walking down below flickered through Jessica's mind. She shook it off, trying to focus on the moment. She turned back to the ninja guy.
"Really, dude? Ninja stars? This is like, titanium or something."
"It's a carbon steel alloy," Larry piped in. "Tell him it's a carbon steel alloy."
"I don't think he cares, Dad."
"Yeah, but people should know. You should get the word out to the streets so random bozos don't keep throwing ninja stars at you."
"Is that going to be a problem, do you think?"
"I'm going to go live," Larry Goldstein said in her head, and Jessica felt a slight ping from somewhere inside her, almost like a muscle spasm. Suddenly her dad was chattering through the mouth speaker that normally carried her voice. "It's a carbon steel alloy, layered with a diamond wire mesh that I invented myself. I'm relatively certain that nothing you have is going to harm it!" The ping jolted her again, like a tiny electric shock, and she had control of her voice again. She cut the external speaker.
"Dad," she said slowly, "We're gonna have to talk later about what you just did...but for now, please give me a warning before you cut in on me like that."
"Oh...sorry. Okay. Sorry. Didn't really think about it," his voice sounded, safely in her head again. "Won't happen again."
Reactivating the mouth grid, she turned her attention yet again to the guy still clamped in her hand. He was starting to look a little worse for wear. He was sweating quite a bit, and he seemed a bit confused and scared by what appeared to be her split personality.
"Who...who are you talking to?" the guy managed, a bit of drool letting loose from the corner of his mouth. It made him somewhat less attractive.
"Look, just ignore that other voice. It was Larry. He lives inside me. He gets excited." That didn't seem to reassure him. His eyes were casting about wildly, rolling around in his skull a bit. "Just kidding, dude. It's my dad. You know, like a walkie-talkie?"
She decided to take a different approach. "Okay, let's just be buddies. Friends, like. I think we can get along, don't you? So just tell me why you came trucking at me when I was just jumping around and minding my own business. And then I'll just let you go, and you can run away. Cool?"
"Who are you?" the guy whispered.
"Jessica Goldstein. I'm new. Who are you?"
The sweaty ninja shook his head. He was breathing really hard.
Jessica sighed. "I can tell you're not into this. You just want to bail, right? So just spill the beans, and I swear to god I will let go of your shoulder, turn around and mosey on my way."
He just kept shaking, staring at her with a mix of fear and a bit of defiance.
She clicked off the external speaker again.
"Dad, do you think I should rough him up a bit? Like stomp on his foot or something?"
"Jesus, Jessica! No! If you do that, he won't ever walk again. His foot would explode! Besides, I think you've roughed him up enough. Look at his hand."
Jessica shifted her attention from where she was holding the guy's shoulder, and noted that his hand was a pretty unhealthy looking purpley-blue color. It was just kind of hanging there, looking pretty dead.
"Well, that doesn't look so great. Okay, well if I can't beat it out of him, what do you suggest?"
"Think of something else," her father commanded.
"Fine," she said. Switching on the mouth-speaker, she said to the ninja, "Just sit tight, Rex, I'm thinking here." She looked around for inspiration, and finally her gaze settled on the tape covered broomstick. She scanned the buildings around her. Four buildings away, one of those little brick shacks with sliding doors that allowed access for elevators rose from the roof.
"Got it," she said. Still keeping the guy firmly in her grip, she bent a little at the knees and telescoped her other arm out a foot or so until she could scoop the stick up. "Okay, check this out. This could be your face or something. Super violence!"
She hurled the stick at the shack, and watched with satisfaction as it impacted in a cloud of red dust. When the smoke cleared, the shack was leaning slightly away, and there was a clearly defined impact crater pounded into the side. The little structure seemed to shudder for a moment.
"Boom!" she shouted. "That was so cool!" She turned to the ninja. "Hey, do you have any more of those ninja stars? Think I can hit the same spot again?"
"Davey," the guy said, his voice shaking a bit. "Davey Thomas. That's my name."
"Dave Thomas?" she asked him. "Really? Like the Wendy's guy?"
"Davey," the guy said, and despite his pain and fear, he managed to sound a bit peeved. "I go by Davey."
"Fine, Davey. Whatever. You want to tell me what you were thinking, running at me like that? I mean, you don't know me, I don't know you, I'm just up here doing cartwheels and things and all the sudden...ninja attack. Strange way to spend your afternoons, don't you think, Davey?"
Davey the ninja looked down at the ground. "This is my block. I have to keep other gangs off of this block. It's like...my job. It's how we defend our turf. I didn't think you were going to be so strong. I was just gonna yell at you and maybe throw a rock or something. Nothing major. Most people just run away." He sighed and shook his head. "I haven't been doing this long."
"Turf? What is this, West Side Story? Is there going to be dancing?"
He just looked at her, eyes drawn together, as if trying to decide if she was crazy or not. Either way, he clearly didn't understand her sense of humor. Or maybe his shoulder was just sore. "All right, Davey, sorry. I'm just trying to lighten things up. Who do you work for?"
"You mean who DID I work for. There's no way I'm gonna work for them anymore. Not with my arm all cracked up like this, and this crazy story I gotta go back and tell them."
"Okay, so who DID you work for?"
"Well, mostly I teach Tae Kwon Do to rich kids at Ling Mo Dojang near the park. I just moonlight doing this turf guarding thing."
Jessica didn't say anything. She just stared at him and tapped her foot on the ground, vibrating the roof slightly.
"Sixth Avenue Ninjitsu War Tribe," he said finally, sounding a little embarrassed. "And they are going to kick the crap out of me if you tell them that I told you."
"Don't worry about it," she said. "Never heard of them. Don't care. Goofy name."
"Yeah, I know. They haven't really done anything yet. Kind of new, you know? And the pay isn't that great. Certainly not enough to make up for the hospital bills I'm gonna have now..."
Larry Goldstein's voice piped up in her ears. "Jessica, ask him if he knows Ignition."
"Okay, Dad. Good idea. Davey, do you know Ignition?"
Davey looked a little confused. "Is that a band? Are you in a band? Is your dad your manager? It's weird when you talk to him..."
"No, it's a guy. He calls himself Ignition. You know, like with flame throwers and crazy red eyes and arson and stuff."
Davey's eyes got wide when he realized what she was asking. "No! No way! I don't know that guy!" He shook his head emphatically. "I have run into Yellow Powder, the guy who blows stuff up with sulfur," he offered.
"Nah, different guy." Jessica switched off the speaker. "We good with this guy, Dad? Time to cut him loose? He seems fairly harmless."
Larry sounded like he was chewing again. "Real quick, Jess, do an MRI scan on him."
"Okay." Jessica concentrated and began flipping through her vision settings. "X-ray, infrared, micro, ahh...here it is, I think. Is this it, Dad?"
"Yep. Now hold him still a second...okay, got it. Jessica, may I have control for just a moment? I promise you that it will be brief, and for a good cause."
"Okay, Dad, but this is the last time today, okay?"
"Fine." Jessica felt the internal ping again, and then felt herself go lax for just the slightest of moments. Then her body began to move again, seemingly of its own accord.
"Okay, Davey, just hold still for a moment," Larry's voice came from the speaker.
"God, that's so weird," Davey muttered shakily under his breath, staring into Jessica's eyes in fear. "That's weird, dude."
"You're the one dressed as a ninja and running around on roofs, Davey." Larry's voice had a note of fatherly sternness in it.
Jessica watched as her grip shifted from one shoulder to the other, and her other hand lifted Davey's black silk-clad arm so it was perpendicular to his torso. Davey winced and let out a little whimper. With a tiny swift motion, Jessica's body tugged Davey's arm away from his body, and his shoulder slid back into its socket with an audible pop. Davey gave a cry of surprised agony. Her hands let go of him, and he crumpled to the roof in a sad, disheveled heap. She noted that some color was already starting to creep back into his hand.
Jessica felt her body take a heroic stance, with her fists on her hips and her face staring off into the distance as her father's voice boomed from the speaker in deep, commanding tones. "You will require Epsom salts, Davey. I would also take some ibuprofen for the pain."
"Okay, okay, that's enough, Dad. Give it back."
She could hear her father snickering as control reverted back to her. "Did you have fun?" she asked.
"No!" cried Davey.
"Yes!" said her father. "That was a hoot! I was worried I might rip his arm off if I pulled too hard, but it worked out okay."
Davey stared up at her, horrified.
"Still on speaker, Dad."
"Oh. Dang it. Sorry."
"It's so awkward when we both talk out of the mouth, Dad. Can we...hey...." Jessica trailed off as noticed some movement several buildings away. She locked her vision onto the damaged elevator shack and zoomed in. The doors were repeatedly opening slightly, and then closing again. They would open a few inches, and a hand would dart out through the crack and try to push them the rest of the way open, then yank back inside to keep from getting smashed. She focused on the hand and enhanced the image. It was wearing a black silk glove.
"Davey, did you call anyone before you came running at me?"
"Well, yeah," Davey moaned from the ground, clutching his arm. "I told them there was a shiny girl jumping around on the roof, and I was going to go scare her away."
"Looks like they came to check on you."
The hand finally succeeded in stopping the doors from slamming closed on it, and the elevator opened to reveal three more ninjas.
"Oh boy." Jessica reached down and tapped on her thigh with her middle finger with a small clink. A panel slid open and two tiny arms thrust out, gripping what appeared to be a folded up yardstick. Quickly grabbing it, Jessica flicked her wrist, and the yardstick snapped open and locked into place. A blazing strand of blue electricity streamed from one end, yellow from the other. Jessica bent the yardstick into the shape of a bow, and the electricity bands wriggled together like two snakes wrapping around each other and joined to become a string.
"You might want to tell them to back off."
"Yeah," said Davey, "I don't really know these guys that well."
The ninjas all pulled their taped broomsticks, and letting out screaming battle cries, began running across the rooftops towards Jessica and Davey, leaping over the chasms in between. "I thought ninjas were supposed to be stealthy. You guys are terrible ninjas."
"We're not really ninjas," Davey said, trying to regain his feet.
"You don't say. Stay down for a sec," she said, pushing him gently to the roof, "and don't touch the string."
Jessica lifted the electric bow and took aim at the nearest ninja's legs. The bow readjusted itself to aim at his torso. She lowered the bow, and brought it back up to aim at the guy's arm. Again, the bow slid of its own accord to the left until it was aiming directly at his heart. Her arms locked into place and began tracking him as he ran.
"Dad, can you kill the aim assist?"
"Well, I don't see why, Jessica. I specifically programmed it to..."
The ninjas were only two buildings away now. "Dad, they are getting closer! These aren't bull's-eye targets, they are guys, and I'm going to kill them!"
"Oh, right!" Jessica felt her arms unlock, and she quickly unleashed three bolts of electricity at the tiny ninja hoard, watching in satisfaction as they crumpled one by one. They fell to the tarpaper rooftop, moaning and clutching their legs.
"They're gonna be fine in a bit. If I had hit them higher, it might have stopped their hearts. I think it's time for me to get out of here." She reached down and pulled Davey to his feet. He let out a little cry of pain. "It was nice meeting you Davey. You should quit this job. It's stupid."
Davey opened his mouth to reply when a loud clanging sound rang out across the rooftops, and Jessica's field of vision suddenly lurched a few inches to the left. She shook her head for a moment to readjust, and then the clanging sounded again, and she found herself looking at the sky.
She brought her head down and turned around slowly to face a crowd of at least forty ninjas. The one closest to her swung an aluminum baseball bat at her head, and she found herself suddenly facing left, looking at Davey, who shrugged.
"I guess we're better ninjas than you thought."