Hopscotch
Hopscotch
is a light-hearted science fiction/fantasy adventure about a team of scientists
who use magical assets to travel to various worlds in the universe. Together, they study scientific,
technological, and magical achievements throughout the known galaxies. However well intentioned they may be, they
tend to fight problems with bigger problems.
Of thieves and vacuum cleaners: Mary inadvertently creates a portal into Dr. Fritzenhopper’s world when she uses a wielding kit against
a talking sculpture that has eaten her cat.
The portal is reduced to a pile of slime on the floor which Mary falls
through and into another dimension.
Mary’s mom vacuums the slime up off of the floor, and when a thief robs
their house, he steals the vacuum cleaner. The thief discovers the slime inside the
cleaner and uses it in clever ways that will allow him to steal more
efficiently.
Making a deal with the devil: Dr. Fritzenhopper needs the
blood of a vampire for his computer system.
Things go very wrong threatening the Doctor’s entire operations. They trick the vampire, making a deal to
obtain what they need.
The problem with trees: Mary
is able to regain some of the things that were stolen by entering into the
thief’s home (through the Doctor’s side of the portal) however he spots her and
follows her back into Dr. Fritz’s world.
Doctor Fritz writes the thief a check for fifteen dollars to buy their
safety. Laughing the thief rips the
check up, unwittingly activating a teleportation device and ending up in a
forest world. When he realizes what has
happened he is angry and begins to uproot small trees from the ground to vent
his frustration. Unfortunately these trees are sacred trees that help keep the
balance between good and evil at a manageable level in this woodland pixie
world.
Fooling mom: The fairy guardians of the sacred trees change Mary
into a feral-type creature until she is able to re-establish balance in the
forest world that the thief (who has been changed into a large centipede) is in. Mary cannot go home with fur all over her
body so they develop an elaborate disguise for Barry to wear to make sure
Mary’s mom doesn’t worry.
Into the woods: Mary meets various creatures, including a
forest god who puts his bloody mark of protection on her while she is
sleeping. Later, The balance of the
trees of good and evil is restored and Mary is returned to normal, however the
evil creatures obtain a gun, a bargaining tool that the thief has stolen from
Mary, enabling the evil creatures to kill the forest god.
Mom joins the team:
Mom is unable to be fooled for
very long before she learns what has been going on. Instead of forbidding Mary to continue in the
adventure she joins the group to ensure the safety of her daughter.
The “safe room”:
The first change that mom
suggests is to make leaping from one world to another safer. There is a concept of a “safe room” that the
Doctor has been working on, however he has never had the funds to create
it. The safe room is a room in which the
occupant can walk around the world he is about to leap into without really
being there.
Boy bands: Mary’s mom starts managing intergalactic boy bands
passing off the greatest songs ever written as their own material (jurisdiction
of copyright law is limited). This income
enables Dr. Fritz to create the safe room.
Stealing the “Snook Book”: With
the use of the safe room the team steals a library of books from a snobby
elitist society of scientists who have operations similar yet more advanced
than the Doctor’s. (One of the books was written by the devil.)
A serial killer ghost has been living in your lab: The
magical gloves (created to steal the books from the elitist society of
scientists) were stolen by a ghost. When
the ghost goes on a killing spree; all evidence points to the doctor, making
him a wanted man. The gang must stop the murderer and prove Fritz’s innocence.
Extraction of a Goblin Queen: Mary
helps a girl who has been trapped inside a broken mirror. Mary extracts
multiples of the “girl” from each slice of mirror only
to find that the girl is an evil goblin queen.
Now that her powers have been multiplied she plans to expand her rule to
all ends of the universe. (Two of the extracted girls join the team.)
The end goal: There are other stories that I have planned but my end
goal is for Mary’s character to progress to a place where people (in the story)
will someday celebrate the day that she died – not because they love her, but
because they hate her. If I can do that
while keeping her a character that is well intentioned in her actions then I
will be satisfied.