Chapter One-Pixels and Palm Trees
With the blistering summer heat beating down on Retroville the way a schoolyard bully would beat down a helpless nerd for his lunch money everyone was looking for an escape, especially its population of youngsters. Jimmy Neutron and his two best friends sat at their signature booth at the Candy Bar bound by the heat of and the trio's mutual boredom.
"I'm so bored," Sheen drawled out as he let his head drop to the table his head falling into a plate of unfinished fries.
"I know what you mean Sheen," Carl added grabbing his friend's plate and stealing a couple of fries before Sheen could notice.
Jimmy sighed as he listened to his two companions whine, his boredom not much better. "Come now guys, it's not so bad. Anyone up for a quick trip to Retroland?" he asked hopefully only to remember that the lines this summer seemed longer than the Great Wall of China.
"Not with this heat, we'd be cooked to a crisp within the hour," Carl stated popping the last of the stolen fries into his mouth.
"So I take it we're not up for the beach either then?" Jimmy asked knowing full well the answer.
"Too crowded," Sheen muttered from the table.
Jimmy sighed once more, "Well if you guys think of something let me know."
The three continued to sit there in silence as they mulled over their boredom.
"Hey, I thought of something!" Sheen said raising his head off the table.
"Yeah?" Carl asked excitedly.
"I'm still bored!" he proclaimed slamming his head back onto the table.
Jimmy rolled his eyes mumbling a quick 'gee, thanks, Sheen.'Still, his friend had a point; it was just too hot to do anything. As the young genius pondered the television set Sam had recently installed caught his and his friend's attention, a commercial was playing.
"From the makers of "Fatal Injection" and "Myth of Shadows," Southern Eyes Entertainment presents "Quarantine Cove" a game you don't want to be caught dead without this summer!" the announcer said over a series of plasma explosions and zombie-like shrieks.
"Hunt down and defeat the undead, solve puzzles, find hidden weapons, and escape with your lives," the announcer continued on as the three pre-adolescent boys stared in complete awe, their mouths hanging open, their boredom gone as the commercial ended and the camera zoomed in on a lone tropical island in the middle of a raging storm surrounded by a fleet of military vessels, the words 'Quarantine Cove'written in deep, blood red lettering across its surface.
"Wow!" Sheen uttered aloud as he continued to stare at the screen his eyes glued the heart-stopping graphics.
"Cool!" Carl said as his own bespectacled eyes continued to be glued to the television screen.
"Hmm... Quarantine Cove..." Jimmy mumbled thoughtfully, his scientific curiosity piqued, "Sounds interesting." while normally he didn't have much of an interest in video games by the virtue or perhaps fault of being a twelve-year-old boy with nothing better to do he was just as engrossed in the commercial as his two friends were. What kid his age and in his situational position wouldn't? It was a game seemingly made for him and his friends.
"Gentlemen, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Jimmy asked as he motioned for the others to huddle closer.
"That we roll like the underwater purple thunder clouds from Ultra-Lord episode "The Depths of Doom" and head to the Retroville Mall and buy the coolest...I meant the 60th coolest game in all of existence!"Sheen said as he sheepishly looked at his blue-greenish Ultra-Lord tee shirt which was slightly stained with the ketchup from his earlier fries.
Jimmy blinked once and then twice and shook his head knowing that his friend's ultra-lord obsession would never fade even with the town's blistering heat. "For once Sheen you read my mind, let's go!" he said tapping his watch to summon the hovercraft its fun-fueled engines roaring to life as it arrived with its usual uncanny timing.
"Shall we?" he asked turning to face his friends who were still staring at the television.
"Coming!" Carl shouted out as the two quickly got up and followed their friend.
"Oh yeah, this game is going to be awesome!" Carl stated happily as the three friends hopped into the hovercraft and lifted off into the sky.
"You've no idea," Jimmy stated as the three headed for the Retroville Mall invigorated by the promise of a new video game that they hoped be the much-needed cure for the boredom and the summer winds that whipped against their faces as they traveled across the sky with their hopes renewed that maybe this summer wouldn't be so boring after all. They could even play the game on Jimmy's Neutronic Game Pyramid immersing themselves deep in the blood and guts of the zombies of Quarantine Cove as fought across the tropical island.
After what could possibly go wrong?
I hope you enjoy the first chapter of the story so far feel free to message me feedback. Updates and revisions are to arrive on a weekly(Ideally Friday or Saturday )basis.