Chapter 2
Digging tunnels. It's a skill I learned from this old man I met when I was younger. The old man taught me so I can help aerate the parched soil that we stood on. And the villages need tunnels. This provides the soil air and water tunnel pathways. I hear back in my home of Waterton on Earth, it's helped to provide a connection to the main hub of Kamina City. Waterways have expanded, commerce is flourishing, and Waterton is a village that's turned from some barren wasteland, to a thriving garden tourist attraction. No one pays me with anything there. The old man told me that helping people is a virtue, that human progress is its' own form of payment. But I'm not the old man, the world doesn't operate on charity and give me's. In this world, you have to make it, in order to break it. I intend to break everything now. I've carved my own path in the world. I'm pretty content just living it out like this. I'm just a simple driller, there's no big plan for me, is there?
In a remote jewelry store right on the outskirts of Neo Neptune's Diamond District, everything is closed around this hour. The curfew that the districts employ are fierce, it's meant to ensure that the constant lights that buzz around Neo Neptune come off, to signify that there is a night time to Neo Neptune. That the black skies aren't just a way to say that it's always night in Neo Neptune, there are nights as well, people need to sleep. The Diamond District had its' own circadian rhythm. This weeded out the upper class who would work in the daytime, and the lower class who'd ruin their eyesight at night to clean up the streets in poor lighting conditions.
Within that same store which houses some of the finest collection of diamond jewelry the Diamond District is known for, the windows began to shake. It was because inside, the porcelain tiles on the floor began to rumble. A cluster of 20 x 20 tiles implodes into the earth itself, without the foundation base, these tiles just decided to buckle under their own weight and fall into what seemed like a black tunnel under them. Out of the blackness, two brown cowlicks popped out of the floor. A young man, maybe in his teenage years, stuck his head out. He had his red cape draped over his mouth and his face was stuck with dirt and ash from the tunnel he just dug.
"Jackpot, " he announced as he pulled himself out of the hole. He tried to slick his hair back, running his hands across his hair, his brown cowlicks stuck right back up right above his forehead. He took one of his free hands to pull the red cape he'd used as a makeshift mask off his face. In his other arm, he had a handheld miniature propulsion drill. Latest state of the art in drill technology, blows air so that as you drill, the sediments would clear out so you can see where you're drilling. "Coast is clear guys." As the boy carefully looked around for any other people in the dimly lit store, two other boys came out, one with a mohawk, the other with an afro. The three friends stared in amazement at all the diamond jewelry on display.
"Whoaaaa!" mohawk marvelled. "This is a good haul PeaCoco." The two friends called the caped digger as PeaCoco, a portmanteau of the animal peacock and his nickname. This name in jest was meant to satire the cowlicks which would constantly stand on the top of his head, like a peacock. The boy they referred to as "PeaCoco" would not find this funny however, he tried to rush his friends. "Time to line your pockets boys. This is the motherload, after this, we won't need to do another job for a while."
"But won't somebody miss this?" afro asked. "Nope," PeaCoco responded, "This is Neo Neptune, diamonds literally grow on trees here." He was right, Neo Neptune's primary carbon earth guaranteed that the production of diamonds was much more in abundance here than on the planet Earth, where a majority of humanity comes from. "Besides," he began to think as he was still stuffing jewelry into his bag, "I need this so I can take care of the old man when I get back." PeaCoco seemed genuinely happy and concerned at the same time. Whoever this, old man he referred to, he referred to him with a silent and profound respect. "Sorry old man," he thought to himself, "I know you don't approve of stealing, but I gotta do this."
All three friends continued stuffing their bags and pockets, they didn't notice shadowy figures from around them surrounding the jewelry display cases. A single light turned on and provided spotlight right above them. "Well well well," a voice sneered, "Look what we have here. Some young punks who think they have the right to steal from Big Mama Jama." The three friends looked around, shadows around them with no clear faces. They saw their jewelry which they all wore in abundance, it reflected the one spotlight that the three friends were standing on. Afro and mohawk both ducked and hugged each other tightly, afraid of making the wrong people mad. PeaCoco took point and put his hands up.
"GUYS!" he said in a friendly tone, "Is this your jewelry shop? Wow I'm so sorry, I thought this was my uncle Steven's back from Shouka district. Oh man, what a big mistake I made, these two idiots following me probably mixed up the underground tunnel directions. Ain't that right guys?" No response. "Guys!?" PeaCoco looked back and saw two missing outlines of people who should have been there. He then saw the porcelain tiles he let cave into the floor magically seem to appear back on the surface, covering up the exit hole he was going to use. The patch up job was poorly done, but one thing's for sure, PeaCoco's escape plan was shot.
He annoyingly looked at the hole, in complete and utter humiliation as he felt he just got punked. "Looks like your boys decided to leave you." PeaCoco rubbed the back of his head and began rambling, "Well here's the thing, they aren't really my friends they're more like, my mother's auntie's sister's nephew's cousin's former roommates from another mother and-" "SHUT UP!" Before he knew it, guns from all different directions pointed at the man in the center of the room. "Um guys!? Can't we talk a little more?" PeaCoco pleaded.
"Oh you've talked quite a bit," a man threatened, "Human scum, you gonna die here, less humans there be on this planet, and you won't even make the news. Big Mama won't even wanna know your name fool." PeaCoco's desperation became apparent. He had been in tough situations before, but this one took the cake due to the unexpected visitors. He'd certainly never been pointed a gun at before. He looked down at his feet, he saw black dirt, his mind began gearing and working. He had an idea.
"Gentlemen," he began to talk, "I think we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Copernicus, friends call me Coco." He lifted up his giant forearm mounted drill. "Look guys, I'm a driller, that's what I do, I just use this puppy to make a living by drilling tunnels and the like. Would you like to see this work?" The shadowy figures leered their eyes. "Just what in the world is your game you punk?" Coco tweaked a couple of nozzles on his arm drill and pointed it directly at the floor. "Like you see, this drill has the latest AIR PROPULSION!" Suddenly, a quick flick of a trigger on his hand unleashed a huge gust of air. It caused the dirt which Coco left behind to kick up a ringed dust storm around him and temporarily blind his assailants. "SHIT SHIT!" Coco thought as he started dashing wildly towards what seemed like the back door. The shadowy figures coughed away the dust getting into their lungs and looked around. "Where da hell did he go!?" The men looked around until they found a gigantic hole which could fit a crouching person that led outside. "Find him." One of the men said.
The lack of neon lights really hindered Coco's sense of direction, he didn't know which alley he was turning on or where he was going to go next. "Oh please!" he began to beg to the sky, "I don't care what I'm going to have to do after this, I'll clean toilets, I'll cook for the old man every day, I'll go rescue a cat out the tree," he stopped to think about the last one, "Anything just so I can escape with this one haul." As he continued to run, he made his way into one alley where he noticed a door, it was worth a shot. He knocked repeatedly, no one answered. As he heard the quickly approaching footsteps behind him, he decided to simply kick the door at the knob to provide the quickest entry way. He got in.
Coco quickly slammed the door, finding some chair he quickly shoved it under the knob of the door and slowly backed away from the door as he heard pounding on the other side. Coco let out a sigh of relief, "Well I say that was well worth it." Just then, a large brown skinned woman appeared from behind Coco. Well dressed in a white suit, her main articles of clothing she identified with were a pair of black shades and a necklace with a sign of currency. "I'm Big Mama Jama," the giant figure said, "That's some interesting looking jewelry." All Coco could do was just feel defeated, "Oh, what the f-"
SMACK!
Coco was living large. There he was, in the rainbow colored tunnel, drilling, drilling, and drilling away with his arm dril. The dirt turning into diamonds as he drilled into the earth. Coco's eyes lit up and turned into currency symbols as he began drilling harder. Coco then drilled above his head and the diamonds further showered onto his head. "Why do diamonds feel so wet?" he asked a little surprised, but nonetheless happy, "Who knew diamonds could feel so refreshing." He spit out some of the tiny diamonds that went into his mouth. Coco then reached the surface.
DIAMONDS EVERYWHERE
Out in this floral field where the flowers grew diamonds and the floor was lined with diamonds and the sky was lit up with a rainbow with the light refracting off the diamond clouds. Coco couldn't help but feel overwhelmed and just fell supine into the soft diamond dirt ground. "DIAMONDS!" he sang along in total heaven. Coco spread his arms and legs from his supine position and begun to wave his arms and legs, making a diamond angel. The gigantic diamond clouds then began to float down to him. "Come to me my gigantic beauty!" As Coco's face salivated at the floating diamonds, the first diamond reached his chest. "OOF!" It weighed literally a ton. It then slid off his chest and disappeared into nothingness. "Weird," that's all Coco can think. More diamonds were raining down from the clouds. Coco gaped his mouth open to accept all the incoming glittery bliss. "DIAMONDS!" Suddenly, a bunch of diamonds from the sky fell down. This time making other sounds as they hit him in the chest and stomach. "OOF!" "POOM!" "POW!"
KLOK!
Coco woke up, a single light on him as he hung loosely from a rope hanging him from one of the pipes suspended on the ceiling. His hair and face wet, dripping with water as he was splashed repeatedly by his captors. "So you do wake up." A man with brass knuckles commented. "Good morning sunshine."
BAM!
He let out a punch to Coco's gut. Coco felt extreme soreness in the punch, spitting out some saliva out of his mouth. Quite honestly it was disgusting, but at least he could now speak. "Hey can't we talk about this?"
SOCK!
"We done talked enough," the man said adjusting his knuckles as they collided with Coco's face, "You steal from the boss, you get pinched. One less human is better for the galaxy anyways." The brass knuckles man pulled out a handgun and pointed it directly at Coco's face. "Easy big fella," a voice bellowed from behind the man with brass knuckles, "Can't you see we have a guest today?" The powerful voice stepped out into the light and stood side by side to the man with the brass knuckles. "So Big Mama," a rough military man said. He had a buzzcut, wore a camouflage jacket unbuttoned to show off his physique. His white tank top fit snugly on his defined olive skinned body, "This is how you welcome me to your warehouse? With you about to kill some kid?"
"Easy," Big Mama responded while smacking her lips, "They don't call me Big Mama Jama for nothing. This boy here done try to steal mai precious diamonds, and I ain't having none of that. So you can understand that I am pretty pissed that I don't respect this kind of disrespect." Coco grew a little desperate, he just died, twice. "Hey Big Mama? Can I call you Big Mama?" Big Mama Jama had an expression of annoyance on her face, "Great! So here's the deal, I'm sorry I stole your diamonds, but I just needed one big score. You see, my old man lives on Earth, see that's where I'm from, and every year he gets ready for this festival, you know it's a really popular one. He's getting up there in age and I just want to make sure he sits on a nice goose egg so we can all take it easy. I'm sure one diamond could do right?"
Big Mama looked at him with contempt. "No? Well that's a shame Big Mama, so I think you win this round. Those darn diamonds oh you, I'll get you next time. So like let me go please?" Coco tried to bargain for his life. "Kill him." It didn't work. Coco had his eyes gaping wide open, "Is this how I die?" he questioned. Guns from many men already affixed on him.
"WAIT!"
The military man commanded. He scanned the room and found an arm drill on the table next to where the brass knuckles man would sit during his breaks. "That your drill?" He asked the captive. "Last I checked," he replied. The man's face lit up. He stroked his stubble with his index and thumb for a bit as he pondered.
"My name is Lieutenant Scourge," he said in a coarse, but welcoming voice, "Don't associate me with these criminals, but they have something I need." Big Mama took offense, "Scourge," she pointed her finger at him, "If you think we gonna take some punk boy thief on the heist, you gotta another thing coming." Scourge, not intimidated by her attitude snapped back. "The Colonel is counting on me to finish the job...with or without you." His tone began to threaten to walk out, leaving Big Mama and her crew without any business.
"Well ain't that karma," Big Mama sighed as she conceded, Coco didn't follow what was going on. "I run guns, and the minute someone wants something better than what I have to offer, they rope me in with some punk kid with a drill." She inched her way closer to Coco. "Listen here sonny," she began to scold, "I don't tolerate anyone trying to boost Big Mama, but you got something we could use." "My drill?" he thought. "Yes your drill." she read his mind.
"The plan is, there is this pesky little building we can't seem to get into from the front door," she ran her huge gigantic finger along the side of Coco's cheek, it was quite disgusting really. "So we need to be smart and get a nice little back door if you know what I'm saying." There are two things in Coco's vocabulary he knew very well, the first was heist, the second was money. With the prospect of the heist but no promise of money, Coco only had one thing to ask. "If I refuse?" Lt. Scourge calmly stroked his green hair back. "Then I won't stop these goons from turning you into swiss cheese." Point taken.
Coco looked at both Big Mama and Scourge with defeated and agreeable eyes. Yes he was a thief, but he only liked to steal from those who knowingly deserved it and he only took as much as he needed, now that he's helping the enemy, he didn't know quite how to react to this turn of events. "I guess I have no choice…" he disappointedly announced. Big Mama waved her finger at him, clicking her tongue as she bent down lower eye to eye to Coco to tell him one last thing. "I sure don't think you gonna disappoint me. After all, we have a saying in my crew, especially one for cocky punks like you."
You break it, you pay it!