The Adventures of Kid Combat 3: Jones Strikes Back (5 page)

The press conference started to break up and
people started going in their own directions. The members of SOCKs
decided they too had seen enough.

“Let’s get back to TPG,” Kid Combat said. His
friends agreed with him and each one of them turned and started to
walk out of Lincoln’s grounds. The long walk back to The Playground
took longer than usual as the friends walked especially slow –
lacking any energy or care.

Chapter Seven:

Infiltrator

1:30 PM

Scanning…

Scanning…

Access Granted.

Not everyone was at Lincoln Elementary
watching Jones unveil his latest plot. The Boy in Blue was one of
them. He was, though, assigned by Jones, to go on a mission of his
own.

He currently found himself on that mission.
The Boy in Blue was in a room with no markings and void of any
furniture. The walls were silver in color and the back wall was
round in shape. In front of him sat a keypad that was on a small
round post about three feet in the air. The device, sitting here,
in this particular location, would have baffled most people as to
the importance. But, to the Boy in Blue, he almost expected another
layer of security. After all, it took him about an hour to find the
hidden touchpad that was nestled against the back wall of the last
room. And that was after about a week looking for it. Before that,
it took him about two weeks, when he knew it would be safe to
search for it, to find the small, hydraulic elevator hidden amongst
the trees.

The Boy in Blue stood at the keypad that was
the last security measure before entering into The Playground. Ever
since he followed Roller back to Male Forest, and ever since he
watched Roller guide his way to the group of trees out in
centerfield of the ball field, the Boy in Blue became obsessed as
to what could be inside that group of trees. And he was one
security check point away from finding out what it exactly was.

The Boy in Blue reached into his bag of
tricks and pulled out a device that had a few wires hanging out of
it. He carefully put it on the ground and went back in his bag and
pulled out a screwdriver.

The Boy in Blue, very gently, applied the
screwdriver to the first of the set of screws attached to the
keypad. He would need to take them out in order to access the vital
electronics inside the keypad. As he worked, the Boy in Blue made
sure he did not harm anything. He knew he would have to put
everything back together so perfectly that no one would suspect he
was there.

The four screws came out without any issues.
The Boy in Blue lifted the keypad off the base and turned it upside
down – exposing the wires, and set it back down. He then took his
device off the floor, attached its wires to the keypads wires, and
hit the START button.

Mathematical equations and numbers started
flashing rapidly on the display screen of the device. A few lights
also flashed on and off. The Boy in Blue waited for a few moments
for the device to hack into the keypad.

The numbers on the display screen stopped and
settled on 083082. A green light also appeared in the upper right
hand side of the device. A few seconds went by, and nothing
happened – not what the Boy in Blue anticipated. He looked puzzled
at the device, then at the keypad, but then he heard a loud knock
from the back wall. He looked up, and as he did, the wall started
to move.

The Boy in Blue didn’t expect what was being
presented in front of him as he never made it this far before. For
weeks he struggled to access The Playground, all failed attempts.
Today seemed to be his lucky day.

The back wall slid completely open and The
Playground opened up before him. Although the Boy in Blue had no
idea what he was looking at, he knew he had just made a huge
discovery.

Acting quickly, the Boy in Blue removed his
device from the keypad, and reassembled it. He packed up all his
belongings, and moved through the secret entrance to The
Playground.

It was dark inside and very hard for the Boy
in Blue to see anything. He reached into his pocket and produced a
glow stick. With a quick cracking of it, it sprung to life and
produced ample lighting for the Boy in Blue to see the amazement of
The Playground.

He walked through the room known as RD1. His
footsteps rang hollow throughout The Playground. The Boy in Blue
proceeded with great caution. Not only did he not know what this
place was, he did not know if anyone was inside. He reconsidered
his glow stick for a moment, thinking that might give him away, but
continued on with the light to guide him.

As he reached the back wall of RD1, he took
the right hallway, leading him by Gears’s workshop and the other
rooms tied to a member of the SOCKs organization. The Boy in Blue
quickly glanced into each room, paying them no mind – and continued
on.

He made his way through the hallway, all the
way to the back, and turned left into the main conference room. As
he walked in, he noticed the large window that led into the
computer lab.

Retracing his steps a bit, the Boy in Blue
found the door leading into the computer room, and opened it
slowly. The room had a slight glow from all the electronics and
their lights flashing on and off. The Boy in Blue, as he proceeded
in, put his glow stick in his pocket, and closed the door behind
him.

He walked right up to a computer terminal –
which turned out to be Gears’s – and started typing away. Gears had
exceptional security on all his systems, but this one had the most.
The tightest firewalls, the most anti-viruses, and security
passwords for each folder, hindered the Boy in Blue’s search.

The Boy in Blue looked around the computer
for quite some time – hoping to find a way in, but he never could.
Each folder he tried to enter, each directory he searched, all had
such tight security on it, it would take him hours to crack in. The
Boy in Blue deciphered, he didn’t have that kind of time.

In a last ditch effort to find something of
any importance, the Boy in Blue opened the Garbage folder and
peeked around the discarded files. It seemed that security wasn’t
installed on this folder – as the Boy in Blue found himself access
to a few files.

He skimmed through them, and to his
disappointment, one by one proved to be of little use. Old
schedules, discarded calendar entries, and junk emails were all he
found. Until he came across one file labeled “blueprints.pic”.

As the Boy in Blue double-clicked on the
file, a drafting program was opened and the file produced what
appeared to be the blueprints for the very structure he was in. In
some great detail, the screen showed the dimensions of every room,
what the rooms were called, and even was labeled “The
Playground”.

Still unsure of who this structure belonged
to, or what it was even used for, the Boy in Blue sat back, studied
the blueprints in detail. He then stood up, and walked around the
room – looking for any clues on where he might be.

He rummaged through a few folders, looked
around a few cabinets, but couldn’t find anything besides the word
“SOCKs” plastered on just about everything. And then, above the two
computer monitors, a red light started to flash. The Boy in Blue
looked up at one of the side monitors and noticed heat signatures –
about six of them – entering into the group of trees above him. It
appeared the owners of this facility were coming home.

The Boy in Blue scrambled quickly. He dashed
over to the computer that had the file open of the blueprints, and
closed the program down. He then produced a USB flash drive,
inserted it into the slot on the computer, and proceeded to copy
the blueprints.pic file onto the flash drive. He grabbed the flash
drive, and proceeded out of the room, and back down the
hallway.

At this time, the members of SOCKs were
riding the elevator down one at a time. The friends waited for one
another in the hallway and went to checkpoint two in a group.

The Boy in Blue hurried across RD1. He ran
back up to the wall which opened up – exposing The Playground to
him. There, he waited against the wall.

Kid Combat was the one who entered the
security code to open the wall up. He put in his six digit code and
the group of friends waited as the back wall opened up. As it did,
the six friends descended out into the darkness.

The Boy in Blue pressed up harder against the
wall. He waited in the shadows and prayed the shadows would remain
as the wall opened up. He wasn’t so lucky. As the wall opened up,
the shadows the Boy in Blue were hiding in, slowly melted away by
the light. Knowing he would be spotted in a second by whoever was
coming through that door, the Boy in Blue retreated behind the pool
table in the corner of the room.

Gears was the first one through the wall.
Next was the set of twins, followed by Roller, Sam, and finally –
Kid Combat. The Boy in Blue hid anxiously behind the table, unable
to see any of the figures as the walked deeper into the room.

“Turn the lights on,” one of the figures said
– it was Rocket. As the group of people moved further into the
room, the Boy in Blue moved around the side of the pool table,
inching himself closer to the exit. He looked up, above the pool
table for a moment, and saw approximately five to six figures
walking away from him. He could tell that they were children – due
to their size, but couldn’t make any of their faces out. Knowing he
would be caught for sure if he stayed here much longer, the Boy in
Blue left his hiding spot and made a dash for the door.

The Boy in Blue walked at a very brisk pace –
keeping his eyes bouncing back and forth between the door that was
suddenly starting to close, and the group of people walking further
away from him. As the group went down one of the hallways, the Boy
in Blue made it out of The Playground – with no one seeing him.

Chapter Eight:

Accepting Control

“Hey, that’s weird,” Gears said out loud as
he sat down to his computer.

“What’s that?” asked Roller.

“My computer is on,” Gears said back.

“So?” Roller stated as he started typing away
at his console. “It’s always on.”

“Yea, I know. But, it’s on-on. I mean, it’s
not in sleep mode. We’ve been gone for hours. The screensaver’s not
even on,” Gears questioned. He started to type away on his keyboard
and ran some quick checks. As he did, he thought about why his
computer would be in this state. He continued to type away and then
made a discovery.

“This isn’t right, Roller,” Gears said. “Get
Kid in here.”

“I’m already here, what’s up?” Kid said
entering into the room behind the two boys. Gears spun around in
his chair and faced him.

“It’s my computer. Something’s wrong. It says
I accessed the blueprints file just a few minutes ago.”

“Well that’s certainly odd,” Kid said in a
carefree manner. “Why would it do that?”

“I don’t know,” Gears said puzzled. “But,
that’s what it says.”

“Keep looking into it, Gears – make sure you
weren’t hacked into. Roller, come with me – I want us all to
discuss what’s going on with Jones.”

Kid Combat and Roller left Main Computer Lab
and assembled with the rest of the SOCKs alliance in Main
Conference Room. Gears stayed behind and looked into his computer
issues.

The rest of the members of SOCKs were already
in Main Conference Room. They sat around the table as Kid and
Roller made it over to them. Before Kid could even sit back in his
chair, the talking began.

“What do you think Jones has planned for
Maple Forest?” Rocket asked of the group. He was very fidgety in
his chair, even for Rocket.

The rest of the members of SOCKs were no
better off. All of them – including Kid Combat – had great concerns
of their own. Jones had infiltrated not only their school today,
but threatened one of the last remaining parks in Elmcrest with so
called “improvements”.

“I don’t know which one to worry about more,”
Samantha started, “the fact that Jones is coming to Maple Forest,
or those awful uniforms he’s trying to get us to wear.”

“Do you think we can stop Jones before school
starts in a few weeks, Kid?” Roller asked.

“We have too. We can’t let the school systems
fall to Jones. If it does – nowhere will be safe for us,” Kid said.
He then turned to Samantha. “The uniforms are the least of our
worries, and the chances of those coming about seem to be slim. Too
many kids will be against it.”

“What do you think his plan is then?” asked
Sam.

“Jones wouldn’t get into the schools just to
get uniforms with his logo on it. There’s something deeper going on
here. Maybe he’s hoping I would panic at the press conference and
try something. I don’t know. But you can be certain, that this
isn’t the only thing he wants. He will try to actually take over
the schools somehow.”

The mood in the room went from bad to worse
as the kids sat in silence around the table picturing their own
worst fears in their mind.

Kid’s was of going to a school called “Jones
Elementary”. He could see himself sitting in a classroom being
taught math by an employee of Jones Industries new “School
Division”.

Roller had the fear of working in the
computer lab at school. But, instead of working on a school
project, or maybe a script to be used at The Playground, Roller saw
himself working for Jones and Jones Industries to crack into
computer systems around Elmcrest – either crippling them or
stealing from them.

Samantha’s mind kept going back to that
dress. That horrible, ugly dress that Jones threatened she would
have to wear. There was no way, in her mind, that she would go to a
school that enforced such a hideous dress code.