Luckless Jake pt 2

Jake was no fool and could read between the lines, 'heartbreaking' meant Jakes heart would quite literally be broken if he refused. He looked at the courier and nodded his acceptance. Without a word the man withdrew his foot and left, quickly and silently. As he turned around Jake slammed the door shut in frustration, he hoped to leave the miserable mudball of a planet before he had come to the attention of the nefarious under element that worked in the city. Apparently he'd overstayed his welcome. He knew who'A.C' was, it was Allan Croft and you didn't say no to him even without threats. You also didn't run. Mr Croft would have you followed, he would find you, he would have you brought back, either in one piece or many, but still alive, and then you would wish you had not been alive when you were brought back.

Still, Jake thought, the note was worded as a polite invitation, he hadn't been jumped in the street or had strange men burst him into the apartment and drag him to a more secluded meeting place, so maybe there was still a chance he could walk away after Thursday night. To be on the safe side he called the travel company and booked the earliest flight no Friday morning that he could. Four AM was it, which would leave him enough time to play the game till about three in the morning, make his excuses and run. Hoping he could get far enough away, quickly enough, to bury himself somewhere should things go sour. With that done he grabbed his card and headed out the door, he had two days to do some shopping and he had to find just the right clothes. Nondescript, but classy, short sleeved but elegant enough for a dinner with people who dressed in the very best. It was going to cost him a bit, but for the game he was expecting it would be well worth the investment.

That was two days ago and it was now eleven pm on Thursday night and Jake glanced idly at his timepiece. Across from him Allan raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly, “Watching the time Jake? Do you have something else on tonight? A pressing engagement elsewhere? Don't fret my good man you'll have plenty of time to fly out of here once our game has been finished.”

Jake's heart skipped a beat. Allan knew about the flight. There was nowhere he could run if things went south. He was fairly certain that Allan had enough clout to be able to hold the flight should Jake attempt to leave early. That left Jake's only option to start losing a bit, if he could.

More Jake

I fleshed out my jake story a bit. I'll end up reposting the whole thing as it has some before and after. I'm not sure where I want to take it, so I am open to suggestions.

I'll also need to do a proper vampire story at some point because all these new vampire crap things are crap and crapping me.

Anyways - Enjoy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jake sat down at the table at the Jittery Bug night club. He was in the private room out the back and so far things were going well. He was up by fifty thousand credits and they had only been playing for about two hours. Of course he thought he might have to start trying to lose some soon otherwise the men around the table might take offence at his luck. Already he was starting to get some dirty glances in his direction and every know and then he heard them muttering about the luck of the new guy at the table. It was something he was used to and he'd purposefully worn a nondescript short sleeved shirt to try and allay some suspicion. It was a classy top of the line shirt, but the important thing was that it didn't stand out in a crowd and the sleeves were short. It was harder for them to accuse him of having an ace up his sleeve if he didn't have a sleeve to keep an ace up.

There were five others at the table with Jake tonight and most of them were a little on the shady side. It was a rather exclusive game he had managed to get himself invited into and he hoped to make a fair bit of credit at the end of the night. On his left was Little Timmy and Big John. With typical gangster acumen they had been named for the opposite of what they were. Little Timmy was a dark skinned man almost seven feet tall and the rest of him matched his large frame. He was definitely a person who worked out and kept in shape. Jake was intimidated just looking at his bulging biceps. Big John again was a bit of a misnomer. He was only around five feet six high fairly average in build. With flashing blue eyes and short dark hair he was able to ladle around the charisma though. He was dressed immaculetly in a tailored black suit with a blue tie. To the right of Jake sat Mack, he was a bulky asiatic looking man and he got his nickname from the trucks he used to drive. He started out in life as a simple truck driving man and managed to successful smuggle enough contraband past customs that he was able to buy his own truck driving business. Not to mention the contacts he made during that time let him expand his influence ten fold once he owned the trucking company. He was now head of a minor crime syndicate in the city that was rumoured to be far larger than anyone knew.

To the right of Mack sat Sally-Anne, no-one knew a lot about Sally-Anne, the only things that were common knowledge was the fact that she was rich, powerful and beautiful. Long silky black hair hung to her waist and she had brilliant emerald eyes, a perky smile and cute dimples completed her face and she had a long sinuous body shape that drew the eye of every male when she gracefully made her way through a room. Tonight she was wearing a long dark emerald silk dress which must have cost her a fortune, with silk having to be imported especially from halfway across the galaxy. On the far side of the table across from Jake sat Allan Croft, the instigator of this nights little game. He was nondescript in the extreme, plain brown hair, that to be fair, was extremely well styled, dark brown eyes and a build that belied his internal strength. All Jake knew about Allan Croft was that he was not to be crossed. He'd heard rumours of other people who had attended these games and generally, anyone who'd tried to cheat had never been heard from again. Except for maybe a short brief scream in some dingy back alley.

Jake had received his invite earlier in the week. A representative had knocked on his apartment door and handed him a note, Jake had tried asking questions but the deliverer of the note simply said nothing and pointed at the note, patiently waiting. Shrugging Jake had tried to close the door, but the man had put his foot in the way and gestured at the note again. Rolling his eyes at the dramatics Jake had sighed and opened the note.

Mister Jake,

It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance at last. I have heard much about you from my sources at various clubs and places around and it is with great joy that I wish to ask you to attend a little social gathering I have arranged this Thursday night. It will just be a couple of close friends having a little game and we would appreciate it if you could attend.

Formal attire, the man who delivered the note will take your acceptance or denial, but I sincerely hope you accept. I would be devastated were you to refuse, it would be... heartbreaking.

9 pm – Back room of the Jittery Bug, show the envelope to the man at the door when you arrive and he will show you in.

Regards,

A.C

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.”

Replay

Finally worked out how I wanted to end the ninja vs suits show-off (pirates are SO over done these days). Also changed the name to Replay.

I've edited the post below to include the new ending so if you've already read the post below, just jump to the bottom and read the extra, it's only a new paragraph and a half.

Also does anyone know why you can't copy and paste from an openoffice document into a blog post? I can copy from an openoffice doc into a txt document, then I can copy from the txt document into the blog post. But I can't go straight from openoffice into the blog post. I find it strange and otherworldly.

Ninjas Vs Suits

Again, this was a result of a word war - 10 minutes off the cuff, writing in a hurry to get as many words down as possible. Which is why there are some typo's and bad grammar.

Enjoy :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The coffee shop was peaceful and tranquil,the businessmen sipping their coffee and eating their bacon and eggs while reading the paper. Twelve men in all. The morning light filtering in through the window. Which exploded outwards in a glorious hail of glass and flame. Ninjas swung in on ropes, smoke grenades and throwing stars flying everyhere.

Rodrigo Martinez rolled up his newspaper in a second and battered away two smoke grenades, knoking them back out of the shop. Ducking and weaving he caught three ninja stars in the paper as he made his way behind one of the ninja. Pulling a ninja star out of the newspaper, he drew it across the ninja's neck with a vicios twist, a fountain of blood spewing forth as the ninja fell to the grond. Ducking quickly he pulled forth the ninja's sword and plunged into the fray.

Across the room two business men fell to the ground,the front of their suits riddled with stars and blood, pained expressions on their faces as the poison infiltrated their bodies and wracked them with agony.

Donald Moon stood up calmly and pulled forth two glock 15' from inside his jacket. Two shots and two ninja's were down, holes right in the middle of their foreheads. A third business man was not so quick however and he lost his hand to a sword swipe from a ninja who followed it up with a business like thrust at the suited man's throat. He went down in a fountain of blood. Donald looked over and pulled his triggers, sending forth a hail of gunfire at the ninja, riddling the black clad body with holes.

George Taband looked up calmly as a ninja landed on the table he had been sitting at. He smiled as he reached under the table and pulled the trigger on the sawn off shotgun he had hidden there. It was hard to tell, but he was pretty sure the ninja looked surprised as the table exploded out from under him, dropping the ninja's body to the ground in a spray of blood and splinters. After that it was an all out brawl, guns, swords, ninja stars and smoke grenades going off all over the place as the businessmen fought for their very lives.

Eventually there was only two ninja and three businessmen left standing. The two ninja looked at the three blood soaked businessmen, their torn and bloody suits hanging in shreds as one wall of the coffee shop collapsed behind them, sending sunlight streaking through the clouds of smoke and dust. There was a pause as ninja and businessmen looked eye to eye.

Two gunshots rang out as the ninja dived sideways, the two stars that had been flying towards the suits were shot clean out of the air as a loud shogun blast rang out, there was a clang of swords and more gunshots followed by ninja stars getting shot out of the air. A sound like tearing silk tore the combat as Rodrigo impaled one of the ninja on his borrowed sword. The other ninja suddenly missed a step, his head getting blown off his shoulders as another shotgun blast tore the coffee shop.

The three surviving business men looked at each. "Nice work guys," said George as he slumped to the ground. Rodrigo and Donald looked in shock as they saw three ninja stars lodged in George's left am. George's eyes rolled up in his head and he slumped into unconsciousness soon to be followed by death as the poison took effect.

A soft clinking noise echoed throughout the stillness and as the two surviving businessmen looked a small round object bounced onto the floor from out of the hand of one of the ninja. There was a blur in the air and if you blinked you would have missed it and suddenly, the coffee shop was in perfect condition, businessmen sitting at their tables having coffee and reading the paper. Morning light streaming through the window before it exploded inwards with a shattering boom. Ninjas swung in through the window and as you looked you saw the faces of Rodrigo and Donald freeze in horror as they swung into action, repeating the motions they had performed not ten minutes ago, everything that happened exactly the same except for the agonised look on their faces as they realised they had been caught in a timeweb. The grenade that exploded was specifically designed to capture the last ten minutes or so, it's hard to be accurate when trapping time. It was a kamikaze grenade. Anyone caught in it's affect was doomed to repeat the last ten minutes of their life for eternity.

Rodrigo and Donald would spent eternity watching their comrades die without any hope of surcease.

Space Whales (search google if you don't believe they are real)

This story was written as part of a word war for nanowrimo. Apologies for the lack of formatting and grammatical correctness. It was written in 15 minutes completely off the cuff.

Enjoy.

P.s it is to be continued with some point with pirates and aliens and all sorts of fun stuff

~~~~~~

The whale drifted through space, it' epic journey long and uncountable by mortal man. It was a massive thing, easily kilometres, nay thousands of kilometres long, it's massive form hardened against the vaccuum of space, it traveresed the empty blackness seeking something, something only the Lord in the heavens above could know. Certainly it was not something that I was wont to be able to discern, I merely wished to view the gargantuan beast with my own eyes, marvel at the mere fact of it's existence and put to doubt my fears of the existence of the Creator. I knew in my heart he or perhaps it was she, existed, after all, I was alive was I not? Surely such a thing as the world and humanity and from there, the galaxy and all the myriad races and cultures could not merely have come into existence as mere happenstance? No it could not be. I had faith as I was taught, not merely in my teachings, but the faith itself had come to be my own.

That was why I stood here on the deck of the Celestial Dawn. Not a captain of such a magnificent vessel, no that was not my place, I was here as chaplain. Chaplain and explorer. We were here on a mission of peace to bring proof of such a thing to the misguided masses. To reignite the fervour that should exist in the hearts of all mortal man. The captain stood to attention at the helm,his eyes on the massive window that did give the view of space before us. This craft was specially designed to give us the widest possible window with which to view the heavens. Such sights had we seen! The forming of supernova, the collapse of stars. The birth of comets and meteors and such wonders as I had never dreamed of before my feet left my native soil.

Our craft was also crewed by the most stalwart men and women of the fatih. Each one a believer all there to support our sacred mission. Not one of them shared a doubt that we would cmoplete our mission. Surely even now we had gathered enough evidence to prove to the heathens that no mere chance could bring such wonders into play.

"Sir!", cried the third officer, "I have contact, bearng six-one-nine two-three-eight. It's large sir, easily two thousand kilometres long and Sir, it doesn't register as any known metal or material."

The captain smiled and said "Bring it up on the main screen please, it's still too far away to see with the naked eye I gather?"

"Correct captain, briniging up on screen now"

I held my breath in suspense as the image resolved, it looked nothing so much as a long tube gliding through space, it's shape delineated more the stars it blocked than by actually seeing the creature itself'.

"YES" i cried with exultant fervour. "We have found it, there is your proof of God! Surely none other could hav created such a massive, such a fantastic, such a wondrous beast!", in my religious excitement I mistook the captain's smile for joy, I too believed he shared the same faith as I did, in my innoncent naivete did I doom that poor beast. Why did I not see the truth? Surely God ould have guided me to realise that these people did notshare the same goal as I? Or was I blinded by arrogance? My own pride causing me to doom such a magnificent lonely creature.

I looked on in shock at the next words out of the captains mouth, " Ready the laser harpoons", he called. It took a few seconds for it to sink in. Harpoons? Laser harpoons? Surely not!

"Captain?" I asked tentatively.

"Relax Father," he replied, and truly did I see his evil smile at that point," It is in the name of God that we are hunters, and that is the bigest prize any captain could hope to claim."

I must admit I saw red, I threw my teachings out of the metaphorical window. Blinded by my emotions did I charge at the captain in a furious rage. I raised my hand to strike him down when my forward momentem was halted in a crushing grip.

The first mate was ready and had grabbed my wrist as I raised it, he was a young man, strong and burly and I could no more hope to wrest free, than I could hope to spare the beautful space whale that was about to be captured and killed for mere sport. Another of the crew came forward to hold me and together with the fist mate they did lok to the captain.

"Shall we take him to the brig captain?" asked the irst mate.

"No, I want the old fool to watch" replied the captain as he turned to look out the window.

"Fire."

New dragon time!