Tales Of A JetPunker Part 4

If you haven't, I definitely recommend reading the previous parts!

Tales Of A JetPunker Part 1

Tales Of A JetPunker Part 2

Tales Of A JetPunker Part 3

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU ARE IN THIS STORY I AM NOT ASSUMING ANYTHING ABOUT YOU, ALL THE CONTENT IN THIS SERIES IS 100% FICTIONAL. THERE MAY BE REAL LIFE ELEMENTS BUT THIS IS A FICTIONAL STORY.

"Shut up!" Lucky said to Rocket. "You can talk later. Just not right now."

Just then, Lucky hit his head against a piece of metal. It caused our tunnel (hopefully not a sewer) to vibrate.

"Can you be more careful?" I whisper-shouted.

I wish we didn't have to crawl in a tiny, cold, metal sewer pipe that may or may not break and kill us at any moment, but in these times, you gotta do what you gotta do.

"How much more tunnel left?" Lucky said to Rocket, exhausted.

Rocket glanced at the JetPunk city map. "Well, it's a half mile to where we should get out. Then, we'll get out of this hole in the ground, and hopefully try to turn off their security system."

It felt like three miles climbing through a possible sewer pipe, but eventually we reached a ladder leading up to the surface. Rocket climbed up to take a look at things. Then, I climbed up, then Lucky. I wiped the sweat and dust from my palms.

"Here's the plan." Rocket said. We awaited an answer.

"You thought I had a plan?" Rocket asked. I frantically nodded my head.

"Have you ever had a plan that worked before?" Rocket asked me.

I thought for a minute, and said, "No." (the plan to make a quiz with the mac and cheese box ingredients did work, though). Honestly, I wouldn't make a plan, either.

Rocket opened a metal door from the back of the building and we promptly walked in to a room full of mechanical devices and blue screens. A nerd's dream.

"I'll break the security system". Rocket said. Rocket pulled out a pocket knife and proceeded to stab all the important-looking electronics in the room. A few sparks began to fly in all directions, but quickly built up. A few touched my skin and I hissed in retaliation. Thankfully, we had the sense to lock all the doors. F***!

I was still a little sore from that surgical knife, so I wasn't looking forward to be burned (worst way to die, after drowning). "Open the freaking door!" I yelled, while frantically unlocking and pushing open the door. I shoved Lucky and Rocket through before the entire room burst into flames.

"Looks like there won't be any spotlights today." Lucky said. Our breaths were heavy.

"Also, are those footsteps?"

We got quiet, and indeed we heard footsteps. We froze. It was dark in this room, so we couldn't see, so sadly, we're gambling with our lives at the moment.

After the mysterious figure came to the door, they grabbed a key and inserted it into the door.

With a single twist, the door flung open.

"Who the hell broke in here, turned off the electricity, broke all our equipment, and started a wildfire?" they screamed at us.

"Gee, I wonder who did that." I said. They looked at me and grabbed a pistol from their backpack. "Shut up. You, come with me." They gestured at Rocket. They stood and walked over to them, sending a wink at me and Lucky.

Our offender pressed the barrel to Rocket's forehead. "Come with me, or your friend dies." they said.

"Eh, shoot 'em. Rocket wasn't really likeable, right?"

"What is wrong with you?!" Lucky asked. Our offender now looked really confused. I squinted at a patch on their jacket that said 'MKF'.

Rocket laughed. "The gun isn't even loaded in the first place. I can tell."

MKF's face turned bright red. "No wonder I was thrown into this place. What are you guys doing here, and why shouldn't I just kill you now?"

Me, Rocket, and Lucky stared at each other. MKF looked suspiciously at us.

"Up to no good, huh? I'll just knock you guys out and we'll deal with you later." MKF reached into their backpack and grabbed a small green container with a Jeppy symbol on the front - the seal of the JetPunk government.

MKF threw it at the ground. It burst, releasing solid white gas into the air.

"We're...out..." Lucky managed to say. My mind started getting foggy, until I fell unconscious once more.

I woke up to find myself in a dim, old prison cell. Lucky was in a cell directly across from me, still dozing off. Rocket was nowhere to be found.

"Lucky! Wake up!" I yelled.

Lucky abruptly opened his eyes and turned to look at me. "Prison again, isn't it?" Lucky said with a sigh.

"Reminds me of Gademotsili back in the 2nd ring." I said to myself.

Lucky looked surprised. "Wait, you know Gade?"

"I guess. I met them in that prison in the second ring."

"Gade isn't dead!" Lucky exclaimed. I gave him a skeptical look, because Gade could of been easily killed in this past week, from starvation, insanity, or otherwise.

"The moment we get out of here, we're going to go after Gade!" Lucky exclaimed.

We weren't even done with Spotlight Headquarters, and the 2nd ring prison wasn't in the direction of where we should be going. Then again, if I denied coming with Lucky, than he would leave by himself, anyway.

I felt a little bad for trashing the last prison cell. This one wasn't even decently nice.

I sighed. "First, we have to find Rocket."

"Ohhhh. Yah. The psycho who could tell if a gun was loaded or not? Though, I could, too."

We're all psychos, indeed. "How'd you know?"

"Overheard an Orcspel class in that torture chamber. Apparently they have prisoners and school in the same building." Lucky said with a hint of disdain.

Just then, a lean man with black hair walked into the hallway and handed us...something that reminded me of school cafeteria food. Undercooked chicken, soggy mashed potatoes, and stale fries were not suited for my stomach.

I smiled. "May I have a fork?"

"Check that room over there." Lucky whispered.

I creaked open the door, and to my surprise, Rocket was in there, frantically shaking their head at us.
The room was so dark I couldn't see anything. It didn't help that the walls were black and that there were no windows, or lights anywhere in the room whatsoever.

Just then, MKF practically jumped out of the shadows and knocked me and Lucky to the ground. Fu...er, frick!

"I knew you guys would show up eventually." MKF said. "And I have a favor to ask of you." MKF sighed. "You guys know how tyrannical the Quizmaster has been lately?"

Me and Lucky stood back up, dazed. All three of us nodded.

MKF sighed again. "Take this." MKF handed me a piece of paper. "Don't open it yet."

The slip of paper was perfectly folded in quarters, pristine white, and somehow felt like sandpaper. Asking me to not open it was like asking me to hang myself to a tree.

MKF sighed...again. "I shouldn't be doing this." MKF sighed.

"For the love of Stewart, stop sighing, please!" I said.

MKF slowly pulled out a small, shining screen and scrolled for a few seconds. They, hesitantly, showed us the glowing image. "Fine. I'm trying to look for four orbs:

"Where is the orb of taxes?" I asked. "In the second ring they charged us 100 points a month."

MKF laughed. "Not as bad as the first ring." Their smile quickly faded away. "Back on topic. I'm trying to find these four orbs. With them, we can override the entire city system and get rid of our newly tyrannical Quizmaster."

I looked at Rocket and Lucky, trying to process this information. "Are you sure we have to 'get rid of' the Quizmaster?" Lucky said.

"Not what I meant. But the Quizmaster's behavior is not natural anymore. Why, you ask?"

MKF opened their backpack and grabbed a plastic bag. Inside it...

Oh no.

"A feather from, practically, the depths of hell?" Rocket said in a shaky voice.

MKF nodded. "I found it under a table, not too far from the pinnacle of Quiz Headquarters."

Quiz HQ was an almost mythical-like shiny yellow skyscraper, and at the top, was the Quizmaster's ultimate control room. I've only seen it myself once, but it's pretty amazing nonetheless.

"So that means an Orcspellian climbed a skyscraper, poisoned the Quizmaster, and got away with it? With a feather?" Lucky asked, skeptical.

"Precisely. So, again, I need the four orbs, so we can - hopefully - rip apart the Quizmaster and put him back together, with all the right pieces intact." MKF said.

"I need to go. I could be caught. Find the orbs, bring them back to me, and we can fix our city." MKF stuffed everything into their backpack and ran for the door.

MKF looked back at us with an unreadable gaze. "You'll know soon enough." They shut the door, leaving me, Lucky, and Rocket inside a nearly pitch-black room.

There was a sawing noise coming from outside the room.

My heartbeat picked up. Lucky looked at me with a questioning look.

The wall smashed open to reveal three hooded figures ready to make chase.

"Run!" I screamed.

We burst through the door and started down the hallway. Weirdly, there was no prison guards in sight.

We reached a dead end, with nothing to escape but a window behind us.

"Wait a minute." I pulled out Rocket's knife from earlier, thankful that I brought it with me. Not the best way to break a window, but it'll do.

I frantically lodged the knife between the pane and the wall. After a few tries, I was able to make it pop off. I kicked it and it shattered everywhere.

I mentally confirmed that it was a first floor window. "Get out!" I said, pointing to the people that nearly have their hands on us barely a few feet from us.

"Jump!"

We all jumped out the window in unison, until we heard a click sound.

Just then, the floor started to crack and break into shards. It gave in, and we fell into the black depths.

Part 4 at last! I really hope I can make the next one sooner, but definitely no promises (you should know by now if I say 'coming on January 1st!' it'll come January 23rd). I feel like each part is worse than the last, but I hope you enjoyed this part! I have big plans for the next parts (which hopefully are better!). Don't worry if you aren't in this chapter, you'll likely be in the next one (if you would like to be in the story, say so and give me your pronouns!).

How many chapters long do you think this series should be? Don't want to make you guys lose interest, but I also don't want a riot because ToaJ was ended too early.

I have dropped a few (some obvious, some not so much) hints of what are to come in the next chapters.

As always, thank you for reading!