Free The Adventures of Kid Combat Volume Two: The Heist of Spring Road Toys by Christopher Helwink Page B

until his competition went
bankrupt. Jones would then buy the land and jack up the prices with
no competition left to worry about. He called it his two-for-one
deal.
    Mr. Thompson was outraged, and he went to the
police. Eventually, Jones Industries wound up in court to defend
its practices and address the allegations. Witness after witness
took the stand with nothing but praise for Jones.
    “It was a fair deal,” one witness told the
court under oath.
    “Mr. Thompson must have misunderstood me,”
another one stated. “There was no wrongdoing.”
    One after another took the stand in court and
told lie after lie. Jones sat back in his chair and smiled. Only
Jones knew what wonderful things he had promised each person in
turn for their testimony.
    Whatever it cost Jones to sway those
witnesses’ opinions, it was worth it. The trial was over in a few
days, and Mr. Thompson was the laughing stock of the town. He was
asked politely to leave office. Within weeks after the trial,
Elmcrest voted in their new mayor by a landslide—Phillip Arthur
Jones.
    All those years ago, nobody could have
predicted the horror that Jones would bring to the town. Looking
back, it seemed like a distant memory to most. Others simply didn’t
care. From Jones they became rich beyond their wildest dreams, and
they didn’t care how they got there.
    The election that brought Jones into power
and kicked Charlie out was the turning point for Elmcrest. Shortly
thereafter, Jones started building his empire even stronger, and
the townspeople started to change. They forgot all about what
Charlie taught them and followed Jones blindly. Soon, family values
meant nothing to most of the town. The only thing they cared about
was money.
    That broke Charlie’s heart, but he knew he
couldn’t give up, especially on the children. That’s why he went
into business and bought Spring Road Toys. From there he could keep
a protective eye over the children, teach them the old ways of
living in Elmcrest, and help them decide for themselves that what
their parents were doing was wrong.
    That’s when Charlie got his idea. He needed a
kid—not just a kid, but the most selfless kid in town—to help him
fight Jones and win back Elmcrest. It had to be a kid; no parent
would become his ally—and he had tried.
    Charlie had set up petitions and had
protested against everything Jones Industries made and sold. But,
the townspeople were already too far gone to be reached. They had
been blinded by Jones’s charismatic ways and the wealth he brought
them. Charlie Thompson was labeled a crazy old coot by the people,
and his claims against Jones were systematically dismissed.
    That’s why he turned to the children.
Children, honest and real children, have no basis for money. They
don’t understand its importance and they don’t need it. Charlie
knew this and knew if he could find one kid, that special kid
within the crowd who would help him fight for his cause, he could
turn this town back around.
    That kid turned out to be Kyle.
    One day, about two years ago, Kyle and
Samantha had happened into Spring Road Toys to get a few supplies.
It was unmistakable from the first time Charlie saw Kyle that he
would be the one. The way Kyle carried himself, the way he
instinctively helped Samantha and the other children do the
simplest of tasks without praise—Charlie Thompson saw in Kyle the
qualities he was looking for.
    Their first meeting was a spring day when
Kyle was in third grade. He stopped by Spring Road Toys alone one
day. Mr. Thompson approached the small boy. They talked for awhile
and then Charlie started telling him the tales of the old Elmcrest
before the rise of Jones.
    Kyle was fascinated by these tales. Hours
suddenly flew by, and the two talked all night. Charlie then told
him there was a way to get back to those times, a way in which Kyle
could help.
    Although he wasn’t named Kid Combat yet, Kyle
had already been busy with his friend Samantha starting to