Me, GE, and JFJ are making a book called the unseen. Here is is:
Chapter One
SHADOW
New York City. A busy town, with no one to protect it. No one but me. And I’m starting to think I might not even be cut out for the job. The sound of jazz music fills my ears as I walk down an alley.
I see several musicians. One looks familiar. Too familiar.
I keep walking until I arrive at the crime scene. Strange, no evidence except a body lying on the floor. To a non-professional it would look like the man was simply sleeping. But I knew where to look.
“Ah a small incision in the man’s leg”, I spoke to myself, “small but deep. Could have cut his main artery.”
I reached inside the man’s pocket to find a small wallet with a driver’s license. I recognized the name.
“Joshua Albot, age 36”, I read aloud, “a member of the Shane gang.”
At first, I thought maybe this was the work of a rival gang member, but then I realized that it wasn’t possible. A gang member wouldn’t leave a small cut in the man’s leg; he would blow his brains out with a shotgun.
I walk outside and I hear a gunshot from a nearby house. I rush to the scene and see a man holding a pistol robbing another man.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way”, the robber bellows.
I laugh, “Or I could break your arm.”
The man immediately sees the NYPD badge on me and several shots are fired. I easily dodge them and then come up to the man, twisting his wrist and disarming him.
“Sir it’s obvious that your just a goon, so tell me who you work for before I have to break your legs.”
“N-never”, the man stammered.
The man whimpered.
“F-fine, I-“
The man was cut off by a loud ringing sound. I quickly picked up my cellular phone.
“Shadow”, I heard a loud voice over the phone, “come back to the station. There’s a man here that wants to meet with you.”
“Yes chief, I shall be there in a moment”, I replied.
The man whimpered yet again.
“Just one little thing I have to take care of first.”
The chief’s tone was serious so I couldn’t waste my time on the ground arresting all of the killers and liars that I happened to come across, so I decided to go by rooftop.
It was a simple matter, climbing up ladders, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, until I noticed a man taking pictures of me. I threw a knife towards his camera but he had already put it away.
“Crap”, I muttered to myself but kept running.
It was only a few minutes later when I saw the station at the end of the block. I jumped down from the building and landed in a slight summersault at the bottom. I quickly checked into the building and sprinted off towards the chief’s office.
He opened the door and told me to come in.
“You wanted to see me sir”, I asked.
He nodded.
“Do you know a Jon Morris?”
I thought for a moment.
“I haven’t met him but I’ve heard of him”, I replied, “He’s one of the richest men in New York, yes?”
“Yes I am”, I heard a strange voice in the darkness, “and I know who you are looking for.”
“You know who the thief is?”
The man explained and I couldn’t believe it.
“WHAT”, I screamed, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME???”
The man shook his head.
I was enraged at myself; i had seen the suspect less than an hour earlier and all I had given her was I simple look.
“So, are you on the case”, the chief asked.
I nodded.
“Good then, I will be sending Officer Caleb and Officer Carson to assist you.”
I nodded yet again and then went out to the lobby. I soon recognized the two other officers assigned to this case with me.
“Greetings, Sir”, Carson said.
I nodded.
“So you are the esteemed Captains Carson and Caleb?”
They both nodded.
We walked towards my office. Me and some of our scientists designed it ourselves. It had a large computer that could track anyone in the world. Since I had absolutely no DNA sample of this criminal, it would be quite challenging to track this one.
I quickly turned on the computer to a bright green box. I entered in the criminals name, alias, age and a picture of her face and it quickly accessed all cameras in the world looking for a match. It was not long until I heard a high-pitched ding to notify me that it was complete.
“We have four hundred twenty-two matches within the last 73 hours”, the computer said.
I nodded.
“Bring up the most recent match”, I commanded the machine.
It responded almost instantly, bringing up a live video from the Lionwall Bank Security System.
“WE’VE GOT A ROBBERY IN PROGRESS, COME ON”, Captain Caleb bellowed.
We quickly ran outside and I told them to get into my car.
“Why can’t we go in my car”, Caleb asked.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
I couldn’t have been more right. We had to drive through the bad part of town and it was no surprise that several rounds were fired at us. Of course, the bullets did absolutely no damage to the car, which was quite a good thing as if it hadn’t blocked them; one of the bullets would have gone straight through Carson’s head.
It took a while, but we finally made it to the Lion wall Bank. It was a nice bank, but it had it had its history of robberies. The most famous one was back in 1999 when a bank worker stole the money that the people deposited. It was my first case, and the only one where I didn’t wear a mask.
“Now”, I whispered, “time for some surveillance.”
We looked around closely until we spotted the suspect, a young girl, maybe 18 wearing a mask to hide her identity. It seemed me and the girl had something in common. We watched closely, tracking her every move, until she looked back, almost spotting us. I got a bad feeling that she might have recognized me.
I took the moment that we were waiting there to look around. Me and the other officers were sitting on a metal pipe high on the ceiling, the shadows concealing us. The other two seemed to be having trouble keeping their balance, and the suspect was moving in.
I told the other officers to start moving in. I climbed down the side of the pipe, barely making a sound. I feared that the other officers wouldn’t be able to do the same. Unfortunately, I was correct.
The other two jumped down from the pipe, their large boots creating a rather loud sound when hitting the floor, causing the criminal to turn around and look at us. We were no longer concealed by the shadows, and she could see us plain as day. I told the others to go and search for accomplices, but it was only because I didn’t want those big buffoons and their guns making this thing bloody. That was my job.
I quickly recognized this girl as an expert, as instead of simply fighting me, she made much noise and ran towards the bathroom to draw my “friends” to her. I decided to make the best of it, and trap the girl with her own trap.
As I patiently waited around the corner, could hear the girl talking quite loudly, and then the footsteps of the others coming towards her. Just a few moments later, the men kicked open the door, storming in with their guns. A few more seconds later I could hear the little 18-year-old girl beating the crap out of these 42-year-old police officers. And just one more moment later I heard her reach for the door and stepped in front of it.
She screamed as she opened the door and saw me standing in the doorway. She further proved her skill as she grabbed for her knife with professional-like speed that was quite uncommon for young girls of her age, even for criminals. As it flew towards my head I flicked my wrist upwards, catching the hilt right before it dug through my brain, and threw it to the ground.
The girl jumped, landing right behind me. I knew I was in a bad position, but before I could do anything, all of the force of her boots hit straight on my back, causing me to collapse.
I laughed.
“Trust me, I know pain, and a little kick in the back is nothin’”
Then the amateur little girl said somethin’ that really pushed my buttons.
“I just got shot and had all of my hair cut off, you don’t know pain!”
To think that this girl could make an assumption like that with absolutely no idea who I was made me draw out a smoke bomb. I usually didn’t use bombs; I wasn’t really a fan of ‘em, but she forced me to.
Unfortunately this fight would continue for a while and I knew it. She threw the bomb at the bulletproof glass window, the explosion causing it to shatter. She jumped out, and soon I followed, ending in my trademark summersault at the bottom.
The girl had not landed as I did, so I had a few moments to taunt her.
“What are you, seventeen? Eighteen? When I was your age I had entire gangs linin' up ta' shoot me."
I usually wouldn’t waste my time talking, but for some reason I felt like this girl needed to know what I went through. Luckily, she felt the same, as she made the mistake of talking as well.
“My childhood was no pick-nick either. I wasn't like all of the other girls feeding their pet birds Phil and fighting cops on video games. I was fighting the real thing!"
As she was recuperating from her fall, I took the time to get out some rope and tie her to a tree. I brought out my handcuffs, ready to end this one, but as fast as I tied her to the tree, she had cut her way out.
She ran quickly but i ran quicker. I came up to her, and lunged at her finally thinking this battle was actually over, as I tackled her onto the ground. I quickly handcuffed her and lifted her up, walking her to my car. Unfortunately I made a very large mistake. I had taken out the adults handcuffs. She quickly slipped out and ran away at full speed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find ya’”, I yelled as I took off after her.
Chapter Two
Meg
The blasted grenade didn't work.
I fidgeted around with the useless machine but nothing signaled that it was alive. It was the with one fifth one I bought this week. I had got it from a shady guy on the corner of first and chestnut. He had a peculiar look in his eye. Late forties, living alone, big gut. All the signs were there that this guy was scamming me, but on my budget of, well, not a lot, I had to do with what I could get. I threw the gadget across the sidewalk and onto the street, where it got run over my a car. I turn back to look at the bank.
Guess I'm gonna have to do this the old fashioned way.
I already changed into the stealth suit, but pulling the mask over my head gave me a whole new personality. I was Viper, New York City's evil villianess. Five months ago, I robbed a jewelry store and took all their merchandise without even sounding off one alarm. Two months ago, I hacked into thew police station and shut down their program for 10 hours, then went on a little shopping spree. It took them a whole month to get reorganized. And just last tuesday, I robbed the newspaper business to personally put out a letter to the police, front page, simply warning them to stay out of my way.
I wasn't finished quite yet though. This last job meant everything, and I would be set for years if this went according to plan. However, with my grenade not working, I had a feeling this would be a bit tougher than I imagined. The bank had state of the art security, three guard posts, even barb wire around it's peninsula. I smirked at there petty devices and sneaked around the back.
Silence filed the air.
I caught onto a crack on the brick wall and began climbing up ever so slowly. I stood on a ledge and inched my way to the large window on the fourth floor. The sounds of the city were quiet but still annoying. I reached the window in record time. Finally, something was going right. I had timed it perfectly. It was half and hour til 2 in the morning, and when it struck 3 am, all the alarm systems would shut off for aproximentelly 12 seconds, courtesy of my hacking skills.
I caught onto a crack on the brick wall and began climbing up ever so slowly. I stood on a ledge and inched my way to the large window on the fourth floor. The sounds of the city were quiet but still annoying. I reached the window in record time. Finally, something was going right. I had timed it perfectly. It was half an hour till 2 in the morning, and when it struck 3 am, all the alarm systems would shut off for approximately 12 seconds, courtesy of my hacking skills. I watched a couple of cops, the amateur ones, patrolling an area two blocks from here. One of them looked awfully familiar. I pushed the thoughts aside and took out my pocketknife. As I was slowly carving a hole in the window I couldn't help but think if someone were watching me. I turned around swiftly but saw nothing. I managed to carve a hole out from the window and surprisingly the car alarm didn't blare off, I crawled inside but stopped at the windowsill. Hanging in mid air hurt like crazy, but I had to make sure these weren't try wires. I took a loose strand of my long white hair and tossed it gently in front of me. I saw it slice in seven different pieces. Well, they didn't call this one of the top banks in the country for nothing. I hold up my mirror high, and it reflects off of it, hitting it in a sharp angle in the opposite direction. I take a very careful step into the wires. Just when I think it's safe, a wire slices through my shoulder and deep into my skin. Piercing pain seeps through me. The alarm blares loudly. I back up a tad and it hits my lower back and leg as well. Focus, I think to myself, It’s only a matter of time until they come. Sweat beats down my forehead. You got this....Deep breaths...
In and out...
In and out...
I get to the middle of the dark hallway, and flip onto my hands for support, doing three back flips without effort. My landing, however, is wobbly. I hear a noise down the hall and lunge my head backwards, my mask ripping open from the back of my head. It slices through the leather and cuts all of my long white hair off, leaving only a short pixie cut. I grit my teeth and keep moving slowly. I duck my back so low I could win a limbo contest easily in this position.
The end is in sight.
I do a couple more flips and spins. My feet land perfectly this time, and I reach the end, sadly a bit over time. I have 20 minutes to get to the safe deep underground. No pressure.
I memorized the bank map hundreds of times, so I know the door to the far right with a emergency exit sign on it is the stairs. The door across from that is an office and next to it is a bathroom. I hear someone coming from up the stairs and instinctively slip into the bathroom. I am immediately startled my face on the sink mirror. I pull off the remaining scraps of my mask, which is surprisingly still hiding my front face. I look just like my mother, except the dyed white hair and purple contacts. I run a hand through my now super short hair.
I underestimated this bank, and now I look like a boy. I splash water on my face, making my face feel refreshing. I examine the cuts on my back and arms, but suddenly the knob jiggles. I run into the stall and close the door. Three people bound inside, and I crouch to the floor to examine them. I look up and see there’s two trainees and a police officer from the NYPD. My heart races and I’m afraid they can hear it. I ever so slowly climb onto the closed toilet, looking at them from above.
“Check the stalls Rodney,” The police officer says in a brisk tone.
The trainee whines, “But this is the Ladies room!”
The man’s eyes narrow and he speaks through his teeth, “Check. The. Stalls. NOW!”
I realize I’m in the third stall and only have about 10 seconds before they find me.
He slams the first stall door open as wide as he can. Then the second stall. He approaches the third and I can hear the tapping of the general’s shoe. I jump down from the toilet quietly and stand in front of the door. The handle jiggles and opens. I instantly grab him, slam his forehead against the stall door, and he falls to the ground, passed out. The police officer immediately pulls out his pistol, and fires. I dodge a couple of bullets, but one hits me in the lower stomach and I fall to the ground. The trainee takes my arm to pick me up but I grab his arm and kick him in the stomach, and throwing him into the sink. The police officer fire again but I duck just in time. “Surrender and we won’t hurt you!” He says sternly.
I hug my bleeding stomach, trying to escape the pain. I taste some blood in my mouth and spit it out, glaring at him murderously, “Oh but were just getting started.” I say, and then charge at him, catching him off guard. I take his gun, throw it across the room, and snipe his knee down onto the floor. My blood boils as he punches me clean in the cheek. I wipe the blood from my face with the back of my arm and grab his shoulder, lodging it into the air-drying machine. He crimples to the floor and I kick his chest, then grab him and throw him across the sinks, leaving him passed out and sopping wet. I turn around and head outside, but a face inches from mine catches me completely off guard.
I instinctively back up, startled by his sudden appearance, and couldn't help but scream. He looked to be in his late twenties, with jet-black hair and a matching goatee. His uniform startled me the most, he was one of the top NYPD police officers on the force, and he probably had amazing combat training. I had been trained since I was seven years old by my mother, who was also a villainess. She knew I would carry on the family legacy. I immediately pull out a knife, my mother's old knife, and throw it at him. He looks startled that i have one, but I brush it off and run to the hallway. He catch the knife in mid air, as if he does this every day, and throw it to the ground. I jump up and land on his backside, then kick his back with my combat boot. He falls to the ground in a swift motion, then laughs at bit.
“I just got shot and had all of my hair cut off, you don’t know pain!”
He reaches to his pocket swiftly and throws a smoke bomb at me, which I dodge. Great, he has a decent looking weapon. I kinda wanted to ask him where he got his gadgets but that would sound kinda weird. The smoke bomb crashes through the windows and the glass falls everywhere. The pain from my stomach is too much to bear, and if I don’t get it treated soon, it could be serious.
I scream at him, “I’ve just got shot and had all my hair cut off, you don’t know pain!”
I still hold onto the stomach with my left arm, not wanting to take any chances with bleeding to death. He seems to notice my bloody wound and I can tell he’s calculating just how to exploit my biggest weakness at the moment. I know he’ll follow me if I go left or right, so I decide to just jump out the window. My heart thuds faster and faster and I look up in that second to see him watching me fall.
I land on the concrete, on my feet. They crackle and break but I refuse to stop. My ears ring and my feet burn. The police officer jumps down from the window in such a calm, pleasant manner it’s almost as if he’s on a tipe rope. I decide to waste no time and begin running, desperate to get away from him.
I can hear his voice, as if it's inside my head, calling after me as he chases me, “What are you, 17, 18? When I was your age I had entire gangs linin’ up ta’ shoot me!”
My legs feels numb, and I struggle to hold onto my stomach with my now bloody hand. I fight back the tears but they flood through my eyes, uncontrollably pouring down, “My childhood is no picnic either! I wasn’t like all of the other girls feeding their pet birds Phil and fighting cops on video games! I was fighting the real thing!”
I still hear the alarms blaring in the bank. I was so close, so close to spending a few years away from villainy and just living a regular life. I was so close to getting out of my poor, moneyless rut. This little NYPD police officers just ruined my entire month. I swore to do everything n my power to make sure he regretted crossing me. I wiped the warm tears from my face and my vision cleared. He managed to catch up to me in record time, which only made it more painful. I fell on the ground again and he grabbed me, lifted me up in a swoop, and tied me to the tree. I could see his complexion clear now. He was reaching for his handcuffs but I was too quick for him. I cut my way out of the ropes on the tree and ran as fast as I could. However, my injuries caught up to me once again and he overpowered me, becoming so fast he passed me and came back to hand cuff me. He put some very large handcuffs on me, the ones you can easily slip out of, and lead me gently to the squad car. I slipped out from the handcuffs, and ran away will all my strength and might. I didn't care where I was going, as long as it was far away from here.
However, before I was out of his sight, I heard his blood curdling voice call out to me, "Don't worry, I’ll find ya!"
Chapter Three
Dr. Gold
I made my wealth off of killing criminals. Became the richest man in New York. Then one night a police officer caught me. He said he’d let me go, as long as I stopped killing people. So here I was, helping some masked cop track down some villain chick. I thought life couldn’t get any crazier. I can’t believe how wrong I was.
I was just sittin’ at home, drinkin’ some coffee or somethin’. Couldn’t really remember exactly was. Just then, I heard a ringin’ sound and I thought I was just hearin’ things. Then I realized it was my phone and answered it.
“This is Jon Norway”, I answered using the same alias that I had for years.
“Yeah yeah cut the crap Dovoth”, I hear an oddly familiar voice say.
“Who is this”, I asked afraid.
The voice laughed.
“You can just call me shadow”, he said, “anyhow if you care about your life you should come down to the old bakery shop off of Cedar. If not, I know a lot of people who would like to know where you live.”
I screamed.
“All right, all right”, I whimpered, “I’ll be there.”
The voice said one last thing before I hung up the phone, and it was one of those this ya’ never expected ta’ hear.
“And one last thing, wear your suit.”
I tried ta’ convince myself that he meant my business suit but I knew that wasn’t true. It had been seven years since I had been Doctor Gold, and now some mysterious stranger was forcing me to become him again.
“Just my luck”, I muttered to myself.
I unlocked ta’ lock on my left closet. I opened it up, ta’ find jus’ what I wasn’t lookin’ for. A pure kevlar suit complete with mask with seventy-four pockets for weapons, all painted gold. At least there were still a lot of weapons in the pockets, I wasn’t as strong as I used ta’ be, but I still had it with ta’ weapons.
I put it on me and made my way ta’ my limo. When I go in ta’ car i realized that my driver wasn’t my usual driver. I screamed when I saw a demonic white face.
“CALM DOWN MAN”, the being yelled, “It’s just a mask.”
I recognized the voice.
“Hey...you’re ta’ guy from ta’ phone!”
He nodded.
“A-and the guy from the police station!”
“Put two and two together yet Mr. Dovoth”, he asked.
“Yeah”, I said, “you’re some kinda hero tryin’ ta’ kill me!”
He sighed.
“Mr. Dovoth you’re not as smart as you look.”
He took a quick look at me.
“Scratch that.”
I started to yell but he completely ignored me. I realized I was in something even deeper than I thought. I sat quietly in the back of the car for the rest of the ride. It was not long until we hit Cedar. Cedar Avenue was one of the worst places in New York City, filled with criminals and gangs. There was a shooting a few years back at ta’ Bakery, so it was no surprise it had been shut down.
A few moment later we arrived at our boarded up, abandoned destination.
“So”, I began, “why are we here?”
The man laughed.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
At first i wondered how we would get inside, but then this crazy dude knocked ta’ whole door flat on ta’ ground. I didn’t wan’ ta’go in but I figured I didn’t have a choice. We walked inside to see somethin’ spectacular. Ta’ entire store had been transformed into a techy’s paradise. Huge computers. Huge TV’s. And a huge bag of Cheeseballs.
The last two won me over.
“Wha’ is this place”, I asked like a lil’ kid in a candy shop.
“This place is a state of the art training facility designed by me and some scientists from the NYPD.”
I grunted.
“So wa’ do I have ta’ do with this”, I asked.
He laughed.
“Trust me Doctor Gold you have everything to do with this.”
We talked for a while until he explained everything. We sat down on the sofa to make some final agreement s.
“So”, I said, “you wan’ ‘me ta’ join you’re team.”
“And in return you get to use this facility any time you like.”
I grunted.
“What’s the catch?”
He laughed.
“Oh, no catch. You just have to prove yourself in our virtual training center.”
I sneered.
“I knew there was a catch.”
We quietly walked down the corridor until we found a small room with nothin’ bu’ a small helmet on a bookshelf.
“THIS IS IT”, I asked.
The man laughed again and it was starting to get annoying.
“Yes Mr. Dovoth, this is it. Now would you please put on the helmet?”
I grumbled as i walked towards the helmet. When I put it on, ta’ whole world changed.
I was suddenly in a darkened alley, with several men holding Tommy-guns and several other weapons standing around me. My first reaction was going for my knife, and i whipped it out, slicing at their guns so they couldn’t shoot. The men quickly dropped their guns and took out their nightsticks.
They hit me a few times and I could feel blood running down my left leg. It was time to do what I do best.
Ta’ first one was weak and probably had a thin skull so I sent it toward my knee. Red on the ground confirmed my suspicions.
Then it was time for ta’ secon’ one. Large and muscular. This one would be more of a challenge. I took ou’ my knife an’ cut ta’ man’s arm a lil, causin’ him to drop his nightstick. I quickly picked it up an’ whacked it on his head, causin’ him ta’ fall unconscious.
The next few were easy, all little and all weak. But the last one was a major problem.
He was large than all of ta’ others combined, maybe seven feet and just as muscular.
I knew that my nightstick would be useless against this behemoth. It was time ta’ get out my real weapon.
My solid gold broadsword was one of the finest weapons that could be. It was as large and powerful as a normal broadsword but had been crafted to be almost weightless.
I sliced at ta’ beast, but my weapon bounced of his steel armor. I searched frantically for a weak spot when a large fist came pounding against my head. It disoriented me, but no’ enough ta’ fall ta’ the ground. Luckily for my I foun’ a weak spot, a rusty plate in his upper armor, and I rammed my sword into the weak spot.
The simulation ended as soon as it began. I took off the helmet as soon as I knew i’ was done. When I came back to reality I saw the man clapping.
“Good, quite good”, he spoke; “now you’re ready to see this.”
We walked down the corridor into yet another room and I started ta’ think about all ta’ expandin’ this dude musta’ done in here. This room just had a huge computer, somethin’ ya’ would usually find at an FBI base or somethin’.
The Man opened up some weird file on ta’ computer and I started ta’ wonder what was goin’ on here. Luckily for me, I was about ta’find ou’.
The firs’ thing ta’ come up were some video’s of me, the dude and some other chick. Next came up some files with pictures and biographies on all of us. After that came a few more videos, an’ finally some newspaper articles abou’ us.
“Wha’ is this”, I asked.
The man laughed and he really started to get on my nerves.
“See I told you about my project, but I didn’t tell you the last participant.”
He zoomed in on the things about the chick.
“Hey”, I said, “that’s that chick I helped ya’ track down!”
He nodded.
“Viper is a criminal thief with similar fighting skills to you and me, though she specializes in technology”, he explained, “as one of the most skilled people in all of New York, and would be a valuable addition to the team.”
I snorted.
“So let me get this straight, on your team of heroes you want a thief and an assassin?”
He shook his head.
“No Mr. Dovoth, there is a fine line between heroes and us. Heroes are fake vigilantes in comic books with magical powers. WE are simply people with skills who have thought it through.”
I thought about what he said. Since he was a cop our team wouldn’t be illegal and I could still kill all the criminals I wanted.
“All right sir, you have a deal”, I told him.
“Great, then it’s time for you to suit up.”
He pressed a small button on the wall and a closet opened up. When he opened it, I saw three costumes.
The first one seemed ta’ have the same mask as ta’ dude who brought me here, and then it ha’ a Kevlar trench coat and some other Kevlar an’ fire proof tings.
The secon’ was a chick’s suit that was made outa’ some of ta’ same materials as the las’ one. It wa’ pitch black, an’ it seemed to be designed ta’ match ta’ others.
Then I saw ta’ las’ one an’ i’ really shocked me. It wa’ exactly like mine bu’ with more metal. The key difference wa’ it wa’ black like ta’ others, with only a few golden stripes.
“Ya’ want me ta’ wear this”, I asked.
“If you don’t want your many enemies to kill you.”
I grunted and put it on over my costume.
“All righ’”, I said, “let’s go fin’ a villian.”