Sirens continued to wail as the killjoys ran down the hallway to the laboratories. Ruby lights flashed, casting the pristine white walls in a scarlet glow. Draculoids would soon be filling the empty halls, ready to ambush them. The killjoys had to get out before that happened.
The door to the laboratories came into sight, and Flame skidded to a stop in front of it. With one swift movement, the door slammed open, smashing into the interior wall of the laboratory. Five zaps from a ray gun were heard, and Drac after Drac fell to the floor, unmoving.
They would have to move quickly. Kobra knew they would be coming for them soon.
Promptly, Flame reached behind her, pulling her back-pack over her shoulder onto the metal top of one of the experiment counters. From that she extracted a large, metal canister.
Placing it firmly on the countertop, she twisted it sideways, and a small jet of steam shot out from the bottom of the flask. Satisfied, Flame stood back, examining the small explosive.
"Alright, it's ready," she said, "Now we've got to go before the horde of Drac's get here,"
"Wait!" Kobra said suddenly, "We should call for reinforcements!"
"And how the hell are we supposed-" Ghoul's words were cut off as Kobra ran to another desk, this one with an odd device on it. Kobra turned a few knobs, twisted a dial, and then picked up a thing that looked like a receiver. He then spoke into it as though he was talking into a telephone.
"Hello, Dr. D?" the group exchanged glances, "It's the Kobra Kid. We've been captured in Battery City. We need reinforcements pronto! Over,"
The group all looked at Kobra.
"How …?" Crimson asked the question they were all thinking.
"It's like a double radio. You tune into the station of your choice then you can talk to whoever's running the radio. After I woke up I went looking about and I saw them working on it. 'Thought it would be a pretty good fail-safe,"
The killjoys continued to stare at the blonde.
"Kobra," Jet said slowly, "You are a genius,"
The Kobra Kid blushed slightly.
"I do try. Now come on. Dr. D said that there was a big group headed this way anyway. He said they'd be here in less than half an hour!"
The killjoy's couldn't believe their luck. But that luck wasn't going to last for long if they didn't get out of the building so Flame could detonate the explosives, blowing the laboratories sky high.
Picking up ray guns from fallen Drac's as they went, the killjoys rushed out of the white labs into the corridor. The sirens were still blowing, casting red light against the tiled walls. But now, the killjoys could hear something else, something besides the blaring alarm bell. Footsteps. And they were getting close.
The group gave one fleeting glance at each other, loaded their ray guns, then charged down the hallway leading to the exit. Their loud thump of their running feet reverberated off the walls of the hallway.
And then, the door to the exit was visible. The killjoys knew there were Drac's on the other side of the metal exit, but they also knew they were behind them as well. But they all silently agreed, they'd much rather die out in the air than in some hallway in a Battery City structure. So they chose the door.
The door burst open, and the air was instantly filled with sounds of ray guns, from both ends of the scale. Multicoloured beams shot through the night, lighting up the immaculate buildings in a rainbow of colour.
Drac after Drac fell down to end their days on the cold sand, but the killjoys remained standing. They were much better trained than the Draculoids with a ray gun. In truth, the Drac's were just zombies, almost incapable of anything they weren't told to do, and they'd been told very little about gunfights.
Ghoul brought the butt of his gun down hard on a Drac's skull, and it fell to join the others on the desert floor.
Crimson shot a Drac in the leg, causing it to bow over, and its face colliding with her knee.
Flame had picked up an extra gun from a fallen Draculoid, and was shooting both, one in each hand.
Jet Star was crouched behind a white van, bringing his arm up every so often to shoot a Drac, never missing.
Kobra was using some weird kind of karate to down the Drac's before shooting them. His legs and arms were all over the place, but somehow it seemed to be working.
But it was Poison that shocked them all. He managed to take four Drac's on at once; kicking his feet out, tripping some Drac's, punching others, before zapping them, burning their insides. He jumped about with grace and agility, yet terrifying accuracy. Not one ray missed its target.
"'Don't feel too good to die, does it motherfuckers!" Ghoul screamed at no Drac in particular as he shot them down.
The battle continued, and still none of the killjoy's fell.
Then, there was movement behind Flame. She turned around; ready to elbow the Draculoid in the face, but a hand came up to stop her. Flame looked into the face of a girl, probably about her age, with hair as white as snow that fell down to her waist. Her face was grimy, but her icy blue eyes shone through the dirt. She was dressed in grey short shorts and a black tank-top, covered by a blue leather jacket. A sapphire ray gun was at her waist and another tied by a bandanna just below her knee.
"Ladyboy Diamond, at your service, Synthetic Flame," the girl with the snowy hair smiled at her.
That was when Flame noticed the others. Dozens of killjoys were now fighting alongside the group, their colourful rays filling the air.
Flame laughed out loud. They were here, and they were helping them.
Flame twisted around, battling alongside Ladyboy, ray guns flying, Drac's falling. Then Flame remembered what she had to do. She turned to the snowy haired killjoy.
"We need to set explosives everywhere!" she shouted over the roar of the guns, "Let's blast Battery City to the back row!"
Ladyboy shot Flame a sly grin before turning and running to the nearest building, dragging a few other killjoys along with her.
The fight continued, Drac after Drac biting the dust. But it wasn't just Draculoids that were falling now. In amongst the white beings that scattered the desert floor, Flame could see bursts of colour, fallen killjoys that would never see the world change. A lump formed in her throat, but she swallowed it back. She had to stay on task.
That was when a hand grabbed her from behind, covering her mouth and nose so she couldn't breath. Flame tried screaming, but it was no use. The hand dragged her away into a dark empty alley between two white buildings.
She struggled, trying to break free from the grasp the being had on her, but then there was a sharp pain in the crook of her left elbow. She moved her eyes downward and saw a syringe sticking out of the soft skin, and then the gloved hand that held the needle pushed down on the syringe, and pale blue liquid flowed into her bloodstream.
The results were almost immediate. Flame felt her body relax. Her muscles unwound and the thoughts surging through her brain slowed down. She was immobile.
The gloved hand moved downward slightly, exposing her nostrils. Flame inhaled sharply, glad of the cool air coursing down her throat. The only noise she could hear now was the distant sound of ray guns being fired, the soft breathing in her ear, and the pounding of her heart against her ribcage.
Flame heard the lips of the being behind her part, and then a voice spoke softly in her ear.
"Look at it," the voice whispered. Its gloved hand smelled like a hospital, and it made Flame want to gag, but she didn't dare.
"Look at all the carnage out there," the individual behind her said, "All the carnage you've created,"
Flame looked out at the fighting people. Drac's were falling, but so were killjoys. Flame watched as a Draculoid raised its ray gun and fired. A male killjoy spun around, almost pirouetting as it fell. Another Draculoid shot at a killjoy, this one female, and Flame watched in horror as her body jerked backward from the impact, falling hard onto the earth, never to move again.
"It could all stop," the voice spoke almost seductively in her ear, "You know what you have to do,"
Flame swallowed back the bile that was beginning to climb up her throat. All of this could change. All of the fighting could stop. But why was it up to her? Why not somebody else? Why did it have to be her?
The figure removed its hand from her mouth and lifted her up slightly, dragging her to the side of one of the buildings. He placed her so that she was sitting with her legs straight out in front of her, back against the white building. Flame looked up at the figure, hoping to catch a glimpse of its face, but it was hidden in the shadows.
"You'll gain control of your body in one minute exactly," the figure said, "Then you must make a choice. Whose side are you on? But remember; don't make the wrong one,"
The being then turned on its heels and walked swiftly away down the alley before turning right out of sight. Flame sat, still unmoving, against the wall of the building. The battle was still going on, but she couldn't help.
That was when she thought it. What side should she be helping? BL/ind or the Killjoys? Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. Did she want things to go back to the way they were before 2012? Things, as she remembered, weren't all that great. There were wars, fighting, dying. With BL/ind promised a perfect future; a future without all the dying. They could put a stop to that, she knew. But was that such a good thing? Living forever, never leaving. It sounded fantastic, all the things you could do, but then what? Once you've done everything, is there anything really left to live for?
But if the rebellion were to win, things wouldn't be perfect. There would be no living forever, there would be dying. Things would just go back to the way they were before 2012.
What Flame had to do was think of the greater good. She had the world on her shoulders, and she had to choose whether to throw it into the fire, or the ice. Either way, things would never be the same. So what one was best for the world? Could it survive the fire that came if the rebellion were to win? Could it survive the wars, and the pollution, but also the love and friendship? Or would it be better if it was thrust into ice? The coldness of being the same as everyone else, but as well as the confirmation that everything would be alright, that everyone was safe from everything?
Flame could feel the serum that had been injected into her begin to wear off. She could move her fingers and toes, and then her arms and legs, until finally she was able to move her whole body.
It was time. Flame would have to choose. Fire or ice? Blood or roses? Beautiful and dangerous in different ways.