Luckless Jake

Jake leapt backwards, the sonic sword barely missing his left arm as it sliced through the metal handrail with an ear agonising screech of grinding pain. He dropped to the catwalk and rolled backwards as his assailant thrust at him again. It was a desperate situation and things didn't look good for our hero. He'd been caught out at cards, called a cheat and then thrust out of the building into the darkness. He was ok with that, it wasn't the first time it had happened and he'd be the first to admit that it wasn't true. He'd never been a cheat, he was just gifted.

Born on Mars had left him one of the talented few who'd benefited from the increased radiation. He was what in common parlance was known as God's Gift. He was exceptionally lucky. Everything seemed to go his way in things of chance and fortune. Of course what this meant was that whenever he ended up in a place of chance and fortune, people generally took exception to his natural luck and believed he was a cheater. How else could he consistently win, even when he was trying to lose.

All that was beside the point though. This particular outfit had then had the temerity to send their trained assassin after him. The unfortunate thing was, Jake wasn't really skilled with weapons. They were something he'd always tried to stay away from as they made him nervous. He'd always been able to run and if he followed his rules, which he did, then he could outrun most people. Rule number one was Cardio. Make sue you stay fit and then you can stay running. Which is what he was trying to do now, but it seemed his attacker, the Sonic Sword Slasher also had Cardio somewhere in his list of rules.

The assassin had chased Jake for ten minutes before pinning him own on a catwalk and now his exceptionally rare sonic sword was seconds away from turning Jake's luck around.

Jake looked down, it was only five metres to he ground, barely a stretch for someone with his gift, he rolled and dropped off the catwalk, the assassin watching to see if he broke an ankle. Luckily though, Jake landed on a pile of discarded laundry. Not even straining his ankle. The assassin growled and jumped after him. Training allowing the masked warrior to land perfectly and go on the offence straight away. Jake backed away and looked around, groaning in dismay, it seemed his luck had finally run out after all. He had jumped into a dead end alley.

Th assassin smiled and advanced, his sword at the ready as Jake desperately looked around for a way out or for some kind of defence or for anything at all. The only option to present itself was a piece of lead pipe that lay discarded to the side. He shrugged, it was no defence against a sonic sword but he refused to lie down and take it, he would t least try to go out fighting. He made a grab for he lead pipe and brought it around to block the assassins swing. The assassin smirked, knowing that his sword would easily carve through the lead pipe as if it was butter and finish Jake off.

As Jake brought the pipe around though, he clipped one of the metal disposal bins that lay in the alley. It sounded as if a gong had been rung and his arm wobbled as the pipe vibrated from the impact. By some strange twist of fate, some extremely luckily coincidence, the kind of luck that defined Jake's life, the noise from the vibration was exactly the right form of sound to short circuit the assassins sword. The chances of the right sound being emitted were lower than one in a million, less than one in a billion. The assassin stumbled as he overbalanced with his sword sparking and he tripped over Jake's prone form falling forward to bang his head on the metal dumpster and knock himself unconscious, collapsing to the ground with a look of shock on his face.

Jake looked around the now quiet alley way and took a few breaths to calm his racing heart, then he got to his feet and looked around, it seemed no-one else had come chasing or caught up to them. He smiled and beaned the assassin over the back of his head with the lead pipe just for good measure.

“That's for making me run halfway across the city”, he said with a certain degree of satisfaction. Then he bent over and picked up the handle of the sonic sword. They were worth a fortune and even though he didn't personally like carrying weapons, he certainly did enjoy a tidy profit to be made from chance when it placed something valuable in his hands. With a final look around the alley and a last kick into the assassin's prone body, Jake whistled jauntily as he headed out of the alley and into the big city.

* * * * * *

Up above, high above the cloud line General Lee Penwynn flicked off the monitor with a small smile on his face.

“It seems our friend Jake is still pushing his luck to it's limit”, he said.

“Yes sir,” replied his aide, “Did you want us to pick him up tonight?”

“No not yet, his luck is still very strong and the containment chamber is not quite ready yet. But soon, we'll take him soon, then project Galileo can begin in earnest.”