The Adventures of Kid Combat 3: Jones Strikes Back (3 page)

Blanketing the crowd in a thick haze of
paper, the float shot pound after pound out of the small pieces of
paper, making it look like a hard, deep winter’s snow.

Jones sat on a bench and waved to the crowd.
Kid couldn’t figure out if the smile on Jones’s face was real or
fake, but it was big. Jones sat back, and enjoyed how the town’s
people cheered for him as he got closer to them.

Jones didn’t sit alone on the float. To his
left sat Two – his second in command. Two sat there in his typical
black suit and didn’t wave, smile, or do much of anything. He just
sat there, making sure not to take any of the spotlight off of his
boss.

To Jones’s right, a third figure sat. It was
the Boy in Blue.

“What’s he doing up there?” Samantha asked to
Kid.

“I’m not to sure,” Kid responded back, a bit
puzzled. “He must be tighter with Jones that we thought.”

The parade went by the group of friends and
Kid Combat forced himself and his group to fake some excitement as
Jones went by – as to not gain any suspicion. Everyone
participated, except for Wedge, who was defiant in not giving Jones
any applause. He stood there, arms folded across his chest, saying
nothing.

The crowd continued to cheer – with honesty –
all around the group of friends. Chants of “Jones! Jones!” rang out
from behind Kid Combat. Parents and kids held up signs saying
“Welcome Back!” and “We missed our leader!”

Elmcrest was truly blinded by Jones and did
not see the terror that lied right beneath Jones’s surface.

“Let’s get back The Playground, I’ve had
enough of this,” Kid Combat said as Jones’s float made it past him.
Silently agreeing unanimously, the group of friends turned, and
started walking back down Main Street.

“With Jones back, I have a feeling things
won’t be so quiet for us anymore,” Rocket said to his friends as
they made their way back to The Playground. The walk was long, and
with little chatter as the members of SOCKs were all not to happy
to see Jones back in town.

“You got that right, dude,” Wedge said back
to his brother.

“And what’s with that boy?” Gears asked. “Why
is he riding with Jones?”

“He’s the same one I saw at the museum,”
Samantha said. “Not too sure of anything else.”

“One things for sure,” Kid Combat said. “If
he’s with Jones, then he’s no friend of ours.”

“I wonder what Jones has plotted this time,”
Samantha said with a curiosity.

Chapter Four:

Time for the News

5:00PM

“We return with a story that is starting to
cause some panic and fear with the people of Elmcrest,” a news
reporter from channel 31 reported. He sat at the anchor desk in his
suit and tie reading the evening news. “With inflation rates
increasing at an all time high and with real estate taxes climbing
by leaps and bounds every year – and only a small percentage of
that money going to them – the educational districts throughout
Elmcrest are feeling the crunch. With a lack of funding, repairs,
and a disgruntled work force, Elmcrest may be forced to shut down
some schools and double up occupancy if something is not done about
this soon. We will be right back,” the reporter finished with. He
then disappeared as the TV was shut off from across the room.

It was a few hours after the parade that
Jones, Two, and the Boy in Blue made it back to Jones’s mansion.
Now nestled up on the second floor office, the two men watched as
Jones turned off the TV.

“There’s something to that story that is very
intriguing,” Jones said.

“How so?” asked Two.

“I saw a slight variation of that commentary
about a week ago, prior to my decision to return to Elmcrest, and
it got me thinking,” Jones said as he got up from behind his desk.
He walked out and paced back and forth in front of his two guests.
“You see, the schools are an untapped resource that I have never
ventured into. Why you may be asking. It’s simple,” a pause as
Jones looked at the men in front of him. “There’s no money in it
for me. None. Not a dime.”

“That’s true, Mr. Jones, I’ve heard you say
that many of times,” Two answered back, almost sucking up to
Jones.

“Yes. I know, Two. But now, I’m thinking,
that might have been very foolish of me.”

“Why is that, sir?” the Boy in Blue finally
spoke.

“You see my boy, the greatest way to find
your enemies – it to hit them where it hurts most and flush them
out. That’s what I need to do now. That’s how I will get Kid Combat
to come out of hiding – is to hit him where it hurts.”

“And how do you expect to do that? There are
a dozen schools in Elmcrest – and you don’t know which one he goes
to,” the Boy in Blue countered.

“I’ll do it one by one if I have to. But, I
will find him. And I have a pretty good idea where to start.”

“What’s your plan, Mr. Jones?” Two asked.

“My plan?” Jones answered with an inquisitive
look. “It’s already in motion. I started working on it last week.
They should arrive today. Schedule a news conference for tomorrow
afternoon.”

“Where? Where should I schedule this
conference at?” asked Two.

“Lincoln. Lincoln Elementary. And get a
report to the news channels by tonight. I want this on the late
news. I want him to know what is coming to him…”

“Yes sir, right away, sir,” Two answered. He
bowed slightly and turned around and exited the room. As he did, he
closed the large doors behind him.

Jones and the Boy in Blue stayed in the room.
Jones turned to him.

“You have everything you need?” Jones
asked.

“Yes, sir. I’m all ready,” the Boy in Blue
stated. He stood up a little bit taller, confident in himself.

“Good. Begin your assignment…”

Chapter Five

Playing the Pawn

9:00PM

The big LCD screens that were in MR1 were
void of their usual research data. The newsfeeds from the all news
cable networks were no longer present on the wall. The local news
channel, which ran the news of the day right now, was shut off.

Instead, a large chess board ran across all
the screens. The computer game that was running showed a regulation
size chess board with alternating blue and orange squares. The
imaginary board hovered on the screens as a fake outer space
background sat behind it. The background, mostly showing a foreign
moon of a planet, was gray in color and showed the deep craters of
the moon.

The black and white pieces were of the
classic design and hovered above the futuristic board that was on
the screen. Many pieces sat off to the side, as they were
eliminated from the game.

Sitting in one of the chairs in front of, and
off to the left was Gears. He was in charge of the white team of
pieces. He sat there, in silence, contemplating his next move.

Off to his right, and controlling the black
side of the board, was Kid Combat. He sat there, patiently, waiting
for Gears to make his move.

After years of vowing never to play each
other, the other week, the curiosity had gotten to them. Gears was
becoming very good at chess, Kid Combat was noticing. And Gears
felt it was time to play for bragging rights of The Playground.

For a week, the two friends would badger back
and forth to each other and trash talk one another. Even though it
was all in good fun, both kids knew that eventually they would have
to put aside their agreement, and sit down to a game of chess.

Today turned out to be that day. Even with
the return of Jones looming, the boys decided not to postpone their
game. It proved to be a small distraction from all the Jones talk,
and the boys tried to make the best of it. Kid and Gears sat in the
newly redesigned MR1 – sequestered from the rest of the members of
The Playground. No one was allowed in – unless it was an extreme
emergency. Neither boy wanted any interruptions – nor did they want
a cheering section.

The game started and with a few good moves,
Gears was in the lead. He captured both of Kid’s Knights, as well
as one of his Bishops. He also had a majority of Kid’s Pawns. Kid,
on the other hand, just had one of Gears’s Knights, and a few of
his Pawns.

The game was approaching the hour marker. The
two friends didn’t set any time limits and didn’t even set a turn
time limit, they simply let the game play out.

Gears sat there, and thought about his next
move. He looked over at Kid – who appeared calm and collected. On
the inside, though, Kid was a little bit nervous. Gears had gotten
better than he thought.

Gears finally made his move, advancing one of
his Pawns closer to Kid’s Rook.

“Hmm,” Kid said at the move. Gears looked
away from the monitor on the wall and over at Kid.

“You didn’t like that move?” Gears asked.

“Not at all,” Kid answered back as he studied
the board. “I just thought you had a better move than that
one.”

“Really?” Gears said a bit puzzled. He turned
his attention back to the game. “And where would this better move
be?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Kid said with a
small chuckle.

The room went silent again as Kid looked for
his next move. It had to be calculated and strong. Kid was on the
ropes here. He was, in his estimation, about twelve moves from
being checkmated – if he didn’t do something about it.

Kid paused. And paused. Even though they set
no time limits, to Gears, the move was starting to take too long.
He grew a bit nervous and was very fidgety now that he was in the
lead.

“Well,” Gears said, “come on and move!”

“I am. I am,” Kid said quickly back.

“No you’re not. You know you are behind. You
are stalling!”

“Am not!” Kid said back. He looked over at
Gears with a smug look on his face. Although, deep down, Kid knew
that’s exactly what he was going. In times when you have your back
to the wall, you sometimes need to find your enemies weakness, and
exploit it. That’s what Kid was doing here. He could see the
nervousness and excited energy coming off of Gears. He knew Gears
was very anxious and used that to his advantage to distract Gears
from the game.

“Lets, see here,” Kid said as he stalled some
more. “Should I move this…no. Not that one.”

Gears sat there and rolled his eyes. He
wanted nothing more than to beat the one and only Kid Combat in a
game of chess. He would have bragging rights of The Playground and
actually be better than Kid Combat at something. By the way Gears
was playing, it looked like that would become possible. If it
wasn’t for the interruption.

As Kid Combat moved his mouse over and
clicked on his Rook, Samantha came barging into the room.

“Guys. It’s, it’s terrible!” she said, almost
out of breath.

Kid and Gears, a bit startled by her
appearance, both turned sharply and didn’t really process what she
was saying.

“Huh?” Kid asked of her.

“It’s Jones,” she said, a bit more clearer
this time. “He’s, he’s gone to far. It’s coming on. Follow me,”
Samantha said as she turned and left the room. The two boys sat
there looking at each other for a second.

“Guess we have to postpone our game,” Kid
said. Gears shook his head in agreement. “You played well, we’ll do
it again sometime.”

“Hurry up!” was the sound of Samantha’s voice
booming from down the hallway.

Kid Combat and Gears got up from their chairs
from within Main Research 1 and followed the orders by Samantha to
get back to the Computer Lab. The panic was thick in Samantha’s
voice – which lately, spelt sudden doom. As they were running down
the hall, Roller came up from behind and joined the two boys and
Samantha in Computer Lab. There, Samantha, Rocket, and Wedge
huddled up and focused deeply on the flat screen TV on the back
wall.

“What? What is it, Sam?” Kid said, walking up
to her.

“It’s about to begin,” Sam said, turning
towards Kid.

“What? What’s about to begin?” Gears asked.
The six friends were now in a semi-circle looking up at the TV.

“Jones. They said Jones came to some sort of
agreement with the schools. They said, oh here it is…” Sam was
interrupted by the news report coming back from the break. She
reached for the remote and turned up the volume.

The news anchor came into focus as an Action
News logo disappeared from the TV. The next logo to the left of the
anchor simply said “Breaking News”. It then splashed to read “Jones
to save schools”.

“Welcome back,” the anchor started. “As we
mentioned before the break, Phillip Arthur Jones and his company,
Jones Industries, has reached a tentative agreement with the
Elmcrest School Districts to help out with their growing financial
concerns. Details are still coming in, but it appears that Jones
has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow afternoon at Lincoln
Elementary to elaborate further.”

“What?” Samantha said furiously. “He’s going
to be at Lincoln?”

“What does that mean – he’s reached a deal?
Is he going to be in charge of the schools now, too?” Rocket said
in a panic.

“I ain’t going to school in ‘Jones School’!”
Wedge yelled out. “Uh – uh. No way – no how!”

“He’s gone to far. He can’t do this. There’s
committees, PTA, boards that would have to approve this,” Roller
said. He took out his laptop and started looking for any
information on the internet.

“They must have already approved it – if he’s
having a press conference tomorrow,” Kid said.

The children went back and listened to the
reporter give some general facts about the news conference that was
set at Lincoln School. As the reporter talked, images of Lincoln
appeared on the TV, followed by directions to the school.

The kids stood there in silence – unable to
comprehend fully what Jones had planned. The news reporter finished
his story and the children were left with their thoughts.