The Adventures of Kid Combat Volume One: A Secret Lost by Christopher Helwink Page B

again, the man was interrupted.
    “I am the law!” Jones roared. A sharp noise,
which Wedge deciphered as Jones pounding on the desk, rang in his
ear. “You still haven’t figured that out, after all this time? Then
you haven’t been paying attention too well, which means you haven’t
been doing your job well. If you will all excuse me, I’m late for
my press conference. The plan will continue as I have instructed.
And get this man out of my face.”
    You could hear commotion in the room as the
men got up to leave.
    Wedge immediately radioed Timmy.
    “Tweedledum, he’s on the move. I’m coming
back in. Over,” Wedge said into the radio, but he didn’t wait for
an answer. As the drones said their goodbyes and took one last
opportunity to make nice with Jones, Wedge was packing up his
transceiver. He then carefully sidestepped along the ledge. He
covered about ten feet when it happened.
    A pigeon returned from its morning flight and
headed for its nest—on the fourth-floor ledge. What Wedge didn’t
know was that he was getting close to the pigeon’s home, a little
to close for the pigeon’s liking. Within seconds, Wedge was more of
a target than a trapeze artist.
    As the pigeon repeatedly dive-bombed Wedge
from above, Wedge let out a barrage of “shoos,” which didn’t help.
A couple of swats at the bird didn’t help, either. Instead, they
caused him to lose his balance. One foot missed its mark and hit
the edge of the ledge. Wedge stumbled. He caught his balance for a
second or two, but with a final dive-bomb from the bird, it was all
over. His arms flailed and circled as he desperately tried to
regain his balance. But it was to no avail.
    “This is gonna hurt,” Wedge said as he
fell.
    As he plummeted, he screamed, and his arms
flapped up and down as if he were hoping he would fly.
    After a final somersault in the air, Wedge
hit the ground. Smack!
    He lay flat on his back with both eyes closed
tightly. Then one eye opened and looked around. Then the other. His
brow furrowed, and he turned his head to the right, then to the
left, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
    “Am I dead?” he said out loud, still not
grasping the situation.
    “No, but you would be if you weren’t so
predictable,” a familiar voice rang out.
    Wedge quickly felt around him. He was on a
mattress.
    “Yeah, I figured you would fall and that I
better be prepared,” Timmy said, kneeling next to his brother. He
patted Wedge on the shoulder. “Remember that time in school when
you climbed up on the closed bleachers? Who saved you with the bin
of dodgeballs?”
    Wedge sat up. He was embarrassed that once
again, his brother had to save him from disaster. He liked it a lot
better when the situation was reversed.
    “Did you find anything out, Superman?” Timmy
asked.
    Wedge paused for a moment, still trying to
figure out the situation. But then he snapped out of it and said,
“Yeah, he’s on his way to his press conference. He said he was
late. We better get over there.”
    “I’ll radio Kid. He’ll want to be listening,
too,” Timmy said as he picked up his radio.
    “Tweedle—” Timmy paused and stared at his
older brother. He sighed deeply, and Wedge laughed. In a low,
unenthusiastic voice, he continued. “Tweedledee to Kid Combat. Come
in, Kid Combat.”
    “Say, ‘Over,’” Wedge butted in.
    “Over,” Timmy complied.
    “This is Kid. Go,” the voice on the speaker
rang out.
    “Humpty Dumpty on the move. Heading to press
conference. Over.”
    “I’ll call the girl and Gears. We’ll
rendezvous later. End transmission,” Kid replied.
     
     

Chapter Six:
    Jones Press Conference
    3:00 pm
     
     
    A few blocks down Main Street, a crowd had
gathered outside the latest Jones project, The Jonestown Mall. The
mall was an old Elmcrest courthouse that had been renovated into a
large shopping center. Jones Industries was the chief principal
contractor on the project and rebuilt it from the ground up. It
also