JUMANJI ONLINE:
Welcome to the Jungle – The Next Adventurer Is YOU!
Written and Adapted by Kai Michaels
Premise:
Kai Pickering is your typical, hard-working secondary school student with a loner status, a whole set of various book smarts and a love for RPG and MMO-based games. But when he receives a mysterious e-mail from a new and upcoming gaming company called: Rainforest Games inviting him to take part in private beta-testing of a brand new MMO-based game called: JUMANJI ONLINE, he, of course, jumps at the chance. Unaware of the fact he was about to embark on a treacherous and life-threatening virtual journey that will put everything he knows about the world of gaming to the test when he is sucked into the world of Jumanji and must work together with complete strangers to traverse and complete the game in order to free himself, and his party members from their virtual nightmare.
Chapter One:
"The Boy who Cried, Jumanji!"
"Kai! You're going to be late for school!" called a rather stern female voice up from the bottom of the stairs within the interior of a large, white Victorian-styled house in the middle of the suburbs in the county of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.
"I know…Mum!" Kai called back from inside the small ensuite bathroom attached to his bedroom, where he was currently brushing his teeth, and rolling his eyes at his mother's constant reminders.
"God…" he muttered to himself, spitting out the last of his toothpaste into the sink.
Kai Pickering is currently in Year 11 at the Britannia Secondary School. A loner by nature, Kai always kept to himself and was often bullied for his teacher pet-like status, and for being too smart for his own good. But he didn't care though; he couldn't wait to get out this god-forsaken town. He was only 5'9" with a slender frame. He had short brown hair that was styled slightly to the right with cute facial features.
Kai's deep yet distant blue eyes stared into the mirror before him for a second.
"Just half a year to go, Kai, you can do this. Just forget about everyone else, and keep doing what you're doing. It'll be all over soon." The teen said out loud, looking to pep-talk himself before exiting the bathroom.
He grabbed his shoulder bag and kissed his husky puppy, Raiden on top of his furry black and white head, who was lying down on his side on top of his daddy's double bed.
"See you later, buddy! Be good!" Kai smiled before giving Raiden's head fur a little ruffle and leaving his bedroom and quickly made his way down the stairs.
"I'm going now, Mum! Bye!" Kai shouted out.
"Bye, sweetheart…see you tonight, and don't forget your Dad's coming to pick you up tonight!" she yelled back from inside the kitchen, where she was sitting and working from on her laptop with a mug of freshly brewed hot coffee in her hand.
"I know, Mum…I know! I'm leaving now!" he said shaking his head and opened the front door, closing it behind him.
He hopped on his moped, and put in his earphones and played some of his favorite music on his iPhone using his iTunes account. He fired up his mode of transportation, and sped off down his road heading off to school in his monkey suit that called a 'school uniform'.
Kai pulled up outside the Britannia Secondary School, where masses of students were already making their way into the last place they all wanted to be, especially now that the winter school holidays were over and done with.
'It was a new year, which meant new challenges right? Yeah right. Nothing ever changes around here, so forgive me when I say, don't get too excited.' This was the internal monologue of Kai's life right down to a tee.
Kai got off his moped and kicked out the stand gently as it lent off to the side after turning everything off. He removed the key from the ignition and put it away inside his blazer pocket. He adjusted his shoulder bag after putting his earphones away along with his phone and made his own way towards the school's entrance.
The morning of the first day back at school seemed to be never-ending but when it finally did come around, Kai was sitting by himself in the corner of the large, bustling cafeteria eating the packed lunch he made the night before. He wasn't a baby; he didn't need his mother doing everything for him anymore, he was 16 now.
Kai was just minding his own business reading a book, when he's seemingly peaceful and uninterrupted lunch came to an abrupt end, when he was joined by none other than Chad Marshall and his two flunkies: Sebastian Cruise and Tom Delaware.
"Well, well…if it isn't the teacher's pet himself, boys?!" Chad mocked and knocked Kai's almost empty lunch box container off his table with a single a swipe of his hand.
Kai sighed, and looked over at Chad with hateful eyes and sense of pity for his arch-nemesis, who had been making his life hell since year seven.
"What do you want, Chad? Can't you see, I'm busy educating myself, unlike brutish thugs like yourself?" Kai stated harshly, sometimes he let his mouth get the better of him. He used to be scared of him, but it had been going on for so long now, he just didn't want to waste any more of his precious energy on the wanker.
"Ooh..lookie here…talking back to me, already!? How rude…" he replied with a smirk, and his facial expression soon changed to more angrier typing and instantly grabbed the front of Kai's white long-sleeved shirt, lifting the gamer up and bringing them face-to-face with each other.
"I think you need a little lesson in respect, don't you…FAGGOT!?" insulted the short, blonde-haired bully.
"Let me go, Chad! I mean it, or I'll…" he finished.
"..OR WHAT?! You gonna kick my ass, are you, Kai?!" he taunted, trying not to laugh at Kai's pathetic attempt to stick up for himself, slamming him up against the back wall.
Kai didn't know how to respond, it was like he was just frozen in place. He saw the burning intensity in Chad's brown eyes, the fear they would try to infect him with…and for intents and purposes, it actually seemed to be working a little. Kai gulped since Chad didn't seem to be messing around here…so maybe he should just back off with the smart mouth comments for now.
Kai looked away, and Chad smirked at Kai's defeated demeanor, triumphant in his method of persuasive no doubt.
"That's what I thought…Pickering!" Chad than out of nowhere smashed his fist into Kai's abdomen causing the loner to groan in pain, and become winded by the blow.
Chad seemed pretty proud of himself, and let Kai go who slid down the wall onto the floor holding his gut, choosing not to cry or show any kind of emotion right now, and give Chad more ammo to tear him down with.
"Let's go, boys…we're done here." Chad concluded and took his leave grinning wickedly.
Kai looked on at his oppressor, swearing internally to himself that one day he would make Chad pay for everything he has ever done to him. Whether or not that day would come he didn't know but he was sure as hell hoping it would.
Later that day, Kai had received a text from his father telling him, he wouldn't be able to pick him up tonight, so their weekend plans were off in general, because daddy dearest had to work. No surprises there, and continues to be one of the reasons, Kai always took his father's plans with a grain of a salt, because in the end he would always only ever disappoint his only son.
'Tragic, I know? But who cares right? Because life isn't fair right?' the internal monologue continued to fill Kai's thoughts, the teen was becoming more and more cynical every day it seemed.
Kai pretending his wasn't upset about the entire day's events, shook it off with a sniff and slammed the front door to his family home shut as he dashed upstairs, glad his mother wasn't around to see him like this having been jumped again by Chad's two flunkies on his way home from school giving him a cut lip and a nosebleed. He was pretty sure he'd have a black eye in the morning since his left eye was just pounding with pain right now.
Raiden was barking at his owner upon Kai's storming entrance, hoping to get some fuss and be played with.
"NOT NOW, RAIDEN!" yelled Kai furiously at his puppy who whined at his father's voice causing his ears to drop along with his tail.
Kai entered his room, closing the door loudly behind him again and threw himself on top of his bed, burying his face in his pillow. He couldn't hold it in anymore as the tears finally came, and to cry into his pillowcase.
It wasn't fair. What did he ever do to Chad? Apart from trying and be his friend at one point years ago and nowadays made sure to keep his distance. Kai didn't want to hurt anyone; he just wanted to be left alone. He didn't need friendship, love, family or any of that crap or so he thought when really he was incredibly lonely deep down but would never admit it out loud. He didn't owe this world a thing, and he would happily leave it if he could. No-one would miss him.
Suddenly the monitor of his Mac turned on by itself and began flashing a symbol of an envelope with its flap moving up and down…
"YOU'VE GOT MAIL!" said the computerized voice.
Kai stopped crying for a minute and lifted his tear-stained face up from his pillow looking over at his desktop computer.
"What the-?!" he asked himself and quickly moved off his bed over to his Mac.
"YOU'VE GOT MAIL!" it repeated.
Kai wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his school shirt and had his mouse pointer hover over the envelope icon, and double clicked it opening up his e-mail account. There was 1 new message inside his inbox waiting for him to read.
"Rainforest Games? Wha-?" Kai muttered upon reading who the sender was out-loud. He then read the subject, "You've been invited! Kaizer_262!" he paused to think, "Invited to what?" he commented, and opened the e-mail with a large banner appearing at the top of the message browser with the sound of drums beating in the background.
'RAINFOREST GAMES PRESENT: JUMANJI ONLINE!'
Kai raised his eyebrow, sitting down on his desk chair and began to read the rest of the message to himself:
"Dear Kaizer_262, you have been selected for an exclusive beta-testing of our brand new game: JUMANJI ONLINE! We've selected over like-minded players like you, who thrive in the world of MMORPG!" Kai stopped reading for a second, "Really? Interesting?" he said resuming his reading.
"Jumanji Online is an open world game with safari adventure aspects, and is any true explorer's dream come true! You can create your own avatars, and equip them with special skills chosen from a limited pool of abilities, we currently have installed in our beta server build with more to come! If you have a mind for strategy, roleplay, action, quests, and adventure than this is the game for you. You will need all your wits, and skill to complete this game's current content." He paused.
"The next big adventurer could be YOU! So do you accept this invite, Kaizer_262? If so then click 'ACCEPT' below, and you can start downloading the game right now! But think fast, you only have one hour to accept after opening this message…DON'T MISS OUT!" Kai's interest was definitely peaked, as a timer starting with 60:00 appeared at the bottom of the e-mail and began counting down quickly.
Kai put his hands together and rested his chin on top of them. He had to think about this, but was their really anything to think about? He loved this kind of game, and this was a great opportunity…it all seemed legit at least to him anyway.
Kai bit down on his lower lip filled with temptation right now, and smirked to himself, after the day he had he could do with an escape for a few hours, So why the hell not?
"Okay! I'm in!" Kai decided with an excited smile and clicked 'Accept' the timer than disappeared, and the game began downloading instantly. He had a fiber-optic broadband connection, so it didn't take long at all, just enough time for Kai to clean himself up, and change out of his uniform, and get a bottle of water.
Once the game had finished downloading, Kai installed it on his Mac. Once it was done installing he double clicked on the .exe file, and the game opened up in full screen. A black screen at first, but soon, a sense of mysticism filled its space with swirling mist-like graphics that came together to form a circle with words, which Kai read out loud.
"A GAME FOR THOSE WHO SEEK TO FIND. A WAY TO LEAVE THEIR WORLD BEHIND…" Kai smiled, "Now this is cool." he watched in anticipation.
"Welcome to Jumanji Online…" the screen read with the drums sounding in the background. "Enter Jumanji Online?" Kai nodded, "Hell yes!" pressing the return key on his keyboard and was brought to the beta server character screen.
Kai clicked: 'Create-A-Character', and was brought into the character creation screen. Kai spent a good thirty minutes designing the character, he wanted to present him. He used some of his favorite actors for inspiration with some of his own ideas thrown in for originality.
Once done, he had to select his skills and abilities from the pool available to him. So he selected the skills, he wanted.
"Now, I just need a good name. Hmm…" Kai thought about it for a moment. "Phoenix 'Valiant' McCloud? Now that's cool, yeah let's go with that!" he hit FINISH, and was accepted by the game.
"Here we go into Jumanji baby!" Kai smiled excitedly. He couldn't wait to get stuck in.
Soon the game's screen began to physically bend reality, unleashing a mystical circular portal causing his mac to spark a lot in areas.
"What the hell-?" Kai said instantly getting up off his desktop and watched as his hands began to stretch and dematerialize.
His entire being began to be absorbed into the game, but before he could say anything he was sucked all the way in within seconds. The monitor than immediately shut off and Kai was gone…just like that.
..To Be Continued!
Author's Notes:
Hey guys, its KaizerMichaels here. It's been a long time since I done any posting on .
I recently saw the new movie, 'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' and loved it, just as much as the first film, probably even more, and couldn't resist taking a crack at doing a limited fanfiction on it through an original character of mine.
This was just the first chapter with more to come hopefully if you guys like it. This is my first time doing a Jumanji fic, so please be gentle with me, haha!
Anyway, I hope you like it an would love to hear what you think about it so far. You will meet Kai's avatar in the next chapter, so I thought I'd keep you guys in suspense on that front for now. Hehe.
I do not own Jumanji.
