The battle raged, multicoloured rays flying through the air, some hitting their target, some missing altogether. Kobra stood in the middle of the fight, killing Drac after Drac, watching as they all fell down, one after the other.
But they were enormously outnumbered. There were only a couple dozen killjoys, and thousands of Draculoids, and their numbers were falling. Killjoys were falling all around him, not nearly at the rate the Drac's were, but killjoys were dying. And where was Flame? She was supposed to detonate the explosives soon. A killjoy by the name of Ladyboy Diamond had come up to him a couple of minutes before, saying that all the explosives were set, and on his command, they would be able to 'blast Battery City straight back to hell', as Ladyboy had put it.
Time was running out. They would have to blast it without Flame, wherever she was. Kobra made a couple of turns before he spotted Ladyboy's snowy white hair through the throng of Dracs and killjoys.
"We have to do it now!" Kobra called over to the white haired killjoy, "I don't know where Flame is, but we can't wait any longer! Detonate!"
Ladyboy nodded once before pulling a detonator out of her pocket. She brought one hand up to the side of her head, signaling for Kobra to cover his ears. He did so without hesitation. Just as he covered his ears, Ladyboy brought her finger down on the trigger.
Everything erupted in light as the bomb went off. Dracs and killjoys alike were sent sprawling, clinging to the earth. Even though Kobra had been prepared, his ears were still ringing from the sound of the blast.
Then, just as everything was beginning to die down, there was another explosion, and then another, and then another, like a chain reaction of fire. Ash flew through the air, and from behind his eyelids, Kobra could see the flames as they danced over the remains of the buildings.
The only building left to detonate was the laboratories. None of the explosions would matter if that wasn't destroyed. So where was Synthetic Flame with the trigger?
Flame exited the alleyway just as the first explosion took place. She dropped to the floor, eyes shut tight against the flying ash and sand. Luckily, she wasn't close to the building when it exploded, but she knew that they would just keep detonating.
She stood up and ran as fast as she could, but a couple of seconds later, there was another blast, and she dropped to the earth once more.
It continued like this, run, fall, get up, run fall, etc. for five minutes until she was finally in the center where she knew she would be safe. The explosions continued, but she no longer feared being incinerated by them.
And then finally they were done. Only the laboratories remained, and the detonator for that remained in her bag. She did not reach around to take it out.
The battle had begun once again. Ray gun shots filled the air once more. Flame bent down and picked up a ray gun from a fallen Drac, having lost hers while running from the blasts. She turned it over in her hands, examining it, before readying it.
She heard footsteps behind her, and spun around, coming face to face with Ladyboy Diamond. She had a massive grin on her face, and her blue eyes sparkled.
"We did it, Flame!" she said gleefully, "We blew them all up! We blasted it to the back-"
Her words were stopped by the zap of a ray gun. Her eyes lost their glow as she fell backwards to the floor, her face marred by a ray wound. Her white hair flowed around her corpse.
Synthetic Flame stood above the dead girl, her ray gun still pointed at Ladyboy's smoking head. Flame's jaw was clenched, her face impassive.
She'd made her choice.