Some people can't accept their lives, even after they're already dead. Those people pass into limbo, and a certain group - high-school aged children - come to the afterlife high school. There they can study, and go to school to live a better life. Ultimately, though, this will lead to their Obliteration. When people have no reason to stay there, they pass on. They disappear. To avoid this, certain students have banded together to fight the student body president, known as Angel, and to fight God himself. These students call themselves the Afterlife Battlefront. Their goal is to stay as alive as they can be - and to eventually obliterate Angel once and for all.
A loud pounding was making Kenny's head ache. What was going on? Where was he? They had to stop that noise. If he didn't stop the noise, his father was going to demand what it was. What was it? Kenny squeezed his eyes shut tighter than they already were. It sounded like Adam's band - but they hadn't been nearly this good. The twelve-year-old boy band had really consisted of three people. They hadn't been good enough to play anywhere real, or to have anyone who actually liked their music. Most of their music had just been them learning to play popular songs. They hadn't played anything in years. Or, rather, Kenny hadn't heard them play. Once Adam had stopped playing for the band, they'd had to find somewhere other than his house to play. He'd heard they had gotten a lot better - they had played at school dances and festivals. Once they even played at a charity event. There was no way this was them, though. He never went to any of those things - he couldn't be hearing them. Come to think of it, where was he? He wasn't in bed, the surface beneath him was too hard for that. Maybe Mrs. Thomson hadn't found him yet. He'd somehow woken up on the kitchen floor. Only, that didn't make sense either. There was a wind here, like he was outside. And if he was on his kitchen floor, it also didn't explain the music. Or the fact that nothing hurt. Maybe he was dead. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, but he figured if he were, he could find out later. He'd just rest here and enjoy the music. His eyes relaxed, but he kept them closed.
The music stopped when the song finished. Kenny had sat up and opened his eyes before the next song started. He was indoors, but windows on one end let in the breeze he'd felt. He got shakily to his feet. A concert was going on below him. In the low light, he could just make out another person standing not too far away, and he approached her.
Rakel stood on the catwalk above the stage, looking out at the crowd of NPC's cheering for the blasting music that was pounding out of the speakers on the stage. Rakel smirked. It was a very good thing going deaf wasn't a thing here. She pushed her dark red hair out of her eyes and watched the door and the crowd, waiting for the right time to give the signal to turn on the fans. Rakel heard someone moving on the other end of the catwalk and turned to see a familiar comrade-in-arms. But he looked all wrong... he was wearing the regular school uniform and he wasn't even supposed to be up here! She'd stationed him outside with the task of keeping Angel out! Didn't he understand what would happen to the band if Angel got in here? "What the hell are you doing here?" She demanded. "Why aren't you at your post?"
"What?" Kenny asked. What post? Why did she act like she knew him? She couldn't be talking about Adam, either... That simply wasn't possible.
"What do you mean, what? This is the third time you've been late, and why the hell are you even all the way over here anyway? I am pretty sure you're supposed to be stationed on the bridge!" Rakel snapped.
Kenny shook his head. "No, you've got the wrong person," he said, simply.
Adam raced around the corner towards his post. He was late, again. Rakel was going to eat him alive. He shouldn't have stopped to talk to that girl - she was probably even an NPC and only even talked because there wasn't a class going on right now. Stupid. How could he have risked this mission just to talk to a damn NPC? Angel was probably already to the bridge. He was screwed. At least if Angel stabbed him through the chest, Rakel might give him a break when he woke up. He tried to stop the smile that came to his face at the next thought: maybe Rakel would lecture him while he was still unconscious, and he'd get out of listening to it. He nodded to himself. That's what he'd hope for. He pulled out his gun as he ran, hoping that Angel wasn't already inside.
"We need extra manpower on the bridge, Adam's neglected his position again." Rakel hadn't even heard him, speaking now into her radio and trying to make up for Adams blunder. "Angel will probably be over there. If he's got any brains, he'll take advantage of the mistake."
Adam swore. He was so dead. How did Rakel know that? He'd hoped she would remain oblivious this time, or that she wouldn't know until later, at least. He was in for it big time. Angel made it across the bridge without a problem, but scrunched up his face when a bullet struck the side of his knee. "Guard skill: hand sonic." His metal blade grew without a problem as his leg started to heal. He turned around to face his attacker. Adam Clark had made it. He deflected the next bullet with the hand sonic.
Rakel shut off her communicator and looked up at Kenny again. "What if the others don't make it to the bridge in time, huh? What if Angel gets by while everyones distracted and a man short? How could you put the band in additional danger like that, Adam? And what the hell are you wearing, anyway? Where's your uniform?"
How the hell did she know Adam? Adam was dead. He had been dead for almost a month. Kenny shook his head. These kids probably thought it was a good idea to bring him up here and play a joke. That it would be so funny to joke about his dead brother. "Very funny," Kenny said, coldly. "I don't even know you, and you think that's such a great idea?" He turned to walk away.
"You think this is a joke?" Rakel grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled out her Black Rose dagger. She'd duplicated it as soon as she'd learned how to create things in this world. "I should run you through with my dagger right here and now." She hissed angrily at him. "We're in the middle of an operation and you go go mouthing off stupid jokes?! Just go die, Adam!"
Rage filled Kenny's face and he shoved her, punching her when she was off him. "Who the hell do you think you are, huh?" His voice cracked with a mixture of fury and sadness. He advanced on her with anger that would scare him later. How dare she talk about his brother like that!
Rakel staggered back in surprise. How dare Adam punch her! He knew exactly why she was so angry with him. "Who the hell do you think you are? You're sure as hell lucky we're on this catwalk and spilling your blood would frighten the NPC's or I'd stab you right here and now! What about Alex and Catherine and all the others? Do you want Angel to obliterate them?"
"What the hell are you even talking about?" Kenny asked, furious that she wasn't even addressing the problem.
"What is wrong with you Adam? You know full well what I'm talking about! You've only been here for almost a solid goddamn month!" Rakel shouted. Then she noticed a girl on the side of the stage, hidden from NPCs by a curtain, begin to wave her hands, trying to attract Rakels attention. She realized the crowd had reached its peak almost ten seconds ago, and she was supposed to be ordering the fans on. "Oh sh*t!" She pulled out her radio and fumbled with it, ignoring Adam for a moment. "The fans, turn the fans on!"
"I'm not Adam!" Kenny cried, right before the fans went on. "I'm Kenny and you f*cking know it!" His brain was only starting to process what she'd said.
"Stop f*cking around! We don't have time for your stupid games!" Rakel shouted back, over the noise of the fans as the meal tickets began to fly away.
"Whatever, asshole." Kenny stormed out.
Adam got too close to Angel this time around. He'd stupidly tried to pin him down, hoping that if he got this over with, Rakel wouldn't kill him. His eyes widened as with one fluid motion, the hand sonic sliced his gun in two, and entered his chest. "You idiot," one of the other members shouted, forming a line so that Angel couldn't get to the cafeteria.
"Adam!" Rakel shouted, running after him. When she got outside she saw Angel very close, supporting the weight of a man with his blade straight through the chest. Gosh dammit, this was all Adam's fault! Talk about cutting it close!
She grabbed Kenny's arm, not wanting to waste time with frivolous distractions. She could stab him later. "You see was happened because of your bullsh*t, Adam? Do you have your weapons on you? Anything?" She demanded.
"For the last time, I'm not Adam. Just stop it. Whatever you want, fine, just tell me! Just stop..." Kenny shook his head. He turned and his eyes fastened on Angel and his brother, his eyes widening. He had no idea who had been stabbed through the chest - he couldn't recognize him from the back - but someone had just gotten stabbed through the chest. "Oh my god."
Angel wished he hadn't had to do that. He should have restrained himself further. But the song had ended. The music had stopped, and they were done. The students who didn't want to stay and talk about how awesome the concert was were heading back to their dorms. He was no longer needed. He'd failed. "Guard skill: delay." He was long gone by the time their eyes registered it.
Rakel sighed. "Talk about cutting it close." She said. "Who was it who sacrificed themselves?" She asked. "We ought to move him back to the hideout so he's not out here when he wakes up. Get him some new clothes."
"It was Adam," one of the other fighters answered. Kenny still stood in shadow. A couple people helped lift Adam. "Guess he wanted to make up for being late."
"What?" Rakel of course, didn't believe it. But there was Adam's face, plain as day. "But he was.. I was just..." She turned back to look at Kenny, completely confused.
"I told you so," Kenny said, but he seemed just as shocked as she was. That was his twin brother. His dead twin brother. He had to be dreaming.
This was a completely different man. A man who had no idea what was going on. And she'd screamed at him. Rakel was mortified. "Oh my gosh... I'm so sorry... I thought... I'm sorry."
Kenny shook his head and walked off. He needed to think. This had to be a dream, but why was he dreaming of people he'd never met yelling at him, and his brother dying? Rakel knew it'd be better to leave him alone, but she couldn't risk he'd go to class and obliterate himself by accident. "Wait!" She called. She didn't sound angry anymore. Her worry was clear in her tone. "A... Kenny!" He'd said his name was Kenny right? Right? Oh geez.
Kenny sighed. Why didn't he just wake up already. "What?"
"Look I'm really sorry about all that, I lead these guys so I can come off as more abrasive than I'd like. I know you'd probably like to be left alone, but as you just saw this place isn't exactly normal and your brother will kill me if you get yourself obliterated before he wakes up."
"How is he here?" Kenny asked. "What do you mean wake up. He's dead, and he just died again..." The pain was evident in his voice.
"No, he's not... well yes he is, but..." She gave a bit of a laugh. "This is what happens when I make a fool of myself, okay? I get all tongue-tied." She sighed to steady herself. "You appeared here because you just died. Everyone here is dead. You brother, you, me, the musicians on stage there... everyone. Since we're all already dead, dying here doesn't actually do anything except hurt like hell and knock you out for an hour or two. And ruin your clothes, that's always annoying. But when I say he'll wake up, I mean exactly that... he'll just open his eyes in an hour or two and be perfectly fine."
Kenny was stuck on one of the first concepts. "I just died..." He didn't seem that surprised, and he didn't seem to be denying it to himself.
"Yeah. Do you remember? If not I wouldn't worry, amnesia's pretty common to those who suffered some kind of brain injury when they died."
"I remember," Kenny said, flatly. He just hadn't been sure. "Why are we here, if we died?"
"Because our lives were miserable and unfair. Least, that's what it seems to be. I don't know everyone elses stories, but I know enough to make that deduction." Rakel said. "You fight, or you get obliterated. That's just how it works here. That guy you saw stab your brother? That's our main enemy. We call him Angel."
Kenny had already made a decision. "You get obliterated?"
"Yeah. You just vanish from existence, I guess. No one really knows. It happens if you don't fight. There're all these people around who act all normal and go to class and such, but they don't have souls and we call them NPC's. You'll see them around. But if you try that, if you go to classes and clubs and be a normal student, you'll be obliterated. Only those of us who've chosen to fight ever stick around."
Kenny nodded. "How're you going to keep me and my brother straight?"
"Of course. I'm not going to get obliterated, and I'm not going to leave you to handle my brother alone," Kenny said, though he was mostly joking about the last bit.
Rakel laughed. "He's been here about a month or so. He's a bit of a pest, sure, but he pulls through when it counts." She put out a hand for him to shake. "My name's Rakel. Nice to meet you."
"Kenny, but I already told you. It's nice to meet you as well." He shook her hand. "And, er, sorry for hitting you."
"It's fine. Sorry for being such a jerk. I swear I'm usually a lot nicer to newbies." She laughed. "Come on, let's head back and I'll show you HQ. Most of the others'll be hanging around there anyway."
"Alright. After that I'd like to wait for my brother to wake up."
"That'll probably be where he is anyway. That or the infirmary but its safer at base, so it'd be smarter to take him there."
Rakel took him to the Principals office. "Oh, also this door will kill you if you don't know the password. This giant hammer thing drops out and hits you out the window. I died like fifty times just trying to figure out how to open the damn thing. The password is 'There is no God, Buddha or Angel'." She walked in. "I've never tried to change it since I found out. Seems disrespectful to the last battlefront who left us the place."
Adam had been left lying on the couch, and a clean folded shirt had been placed beside him to replace the blood soaked one with the giant hole in it he was still wearing. Catherine was leaning back against the armrest. "Hey Rakel." She grinned when she saw Kenny. "Woah, he looks just like Adam. This the guy you were arguing with on the catwalk?"
"Yes.." Rakel rolled her eyes. "You think you can grab him a uniform?"
"Done and done." Catherine went to a glass case that had once held books and withdrew a battlefront jacket.
"But if there have been people before us, what happened to them? Did they just give up and get obliterated?" Kenny asked as they entered. He waved to Catherine. "My name is Kenny," He said, changing his jacket. "Adam's my twin brother."
"Yeah, as far as we know. At any rate, by the time I got here, everyone was gone. I was first. I was here a couple months before Angel appeared, and we've been enemies ever since. I learned most of what I know from the computers in here and we all as a team kind of figured out the rest as we went."
"Catherine." Catherine answered him. "Hope you're not as big of a handful as he is."
"I don't think I am," Kenny said, glancing at his brother. He looked like he was about to say something, but his expression changed and he said something else instead. "But you guys had better be treating him right - or I'll have to kill you." Kenny smiled. "I'm his big brother now, I've got to protect him." Rakel laughed.
"He ain't doin' anything the rest of us aren't." Catherine assured him. "He's just more reckless, so he gets hurt more often. But he'll be right as rain soon enough."
"He was always reckless," Kenny admitted, sitting down by the couch. Towards the end, though, Kenny had started to wonder if that was actually his brother's personality. Was Adam himself now?
"I'm gonna go see how the rest of the band is doing. Maybe kick a ball around or something." Catherine left the room.
"Has he told you about us?" Kenny asked Rakel.
"What, like your lives? Not really. I'm not nosy, and I figure it's personal." Rakel shrugged, turning on the computer and typing out what she could about the day. She wanted to leave a record in case something happened to this battlefront like had happened to the last one. She wished she'd known what had happened to them all.
Kenny nodded, and Adam pushed himself up. Kenny grinned. Adam froze. "Hey-" Kenny started. Adam stormed out of the room. Kenny quivered, not sure what to do. Why did Adam just leave like that?
"Oh, good you're con- Hey, Adam!" Rakel grabbed the clean shirt and went after him but stopped at the door. "At least take your bloody shirt! Uh, off!" She yelled after him. Adam threw his bloody shirt back at her and continued outside. The shirt hit Rakel in the face and she gritted her teeth. "I sort of meant come take a clean one too!" She yelled. Then she sighed. "Fine. Walk around shirtless. See if I care." She shut the door and went back into the room. "Stupid Adam and his temper. Goshdammit. Can't he be a little more mature about the whole thing?"
"Why did he storm out like that?" Kenny asked, in a whisper.
"Oh I don't know, probably because of you." Rakel said bitterly.
"What do you mean?" Kenny asked.
"What do you mean 'what do I mean', dumbass? We. Are. All. Dead. Youare dead. He just found out his brother is dead." Rakel said, like she was explaining this to someone mentally incompetent. "How would you want him to take that news?"
The sun was still quite down when Adam made it outside and it was entirely deserted. All the NPCs were in their dorms, and most of the people were in various rooms about the school. Everyone was inside.
Except no, it wasn't deserted. Down the stairs, way out on the middle of the track field, Adam could see the silhouette of a girl lying on her side on the ground.
Adam wasn't interested in having a conversation. He sat down where he was and tried to calm down. His brother was dead. He should have been there for him.
The whole time he sat there, the girl did not move. Finally, Adam was calm enough to go down to see what was up. That girl hadn't moved the entire time. "Hey, what are you doing out here?" he called, before he could really see her. The girl, who was unconscious, didn't answer. She didn't even move.
When Adam approached her, he would find yet another person he knew. But this girl did not look anything like he knew her in life. Her skin was clean and unblemished by scars, her sleeping or unconscious face had filled in from the sunken, pale look she had had before. Her clothing fit her perfectly and no ribs would be seen under her shirt, skinny though she still was. Her once lifeless, half-gone hair had regained it's natural body and her full head of hair flowed, blonde and wavy, down to her shoulders. In short, this girl who had been starving herself since before Adam had met her in life had become healthy again, with no traces of the damage inflicted by both herself and other parties.
She had her arms curled up to her chest and her hands on her shoulders as though trying to keep warm. Her lips were slightly parted, and the girl he knew to be named Roseanne slept peacefully. She was really quite pretty when she wasn't starving herself.