Summertime

Chapter Eighteen-The Battle of Battery City

I sat at the main table, running my fingers over cracks in the plastic and humming to myself. The clock said 2:50 a.m. It was August third, and in just several hours we would be meeting up with a huge army of Killjoys and storming Better Living Industries. I heard soft footsteps pad into the room and Atomic Urgency sat down next to me.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked. I shook my head.

“It’s just the fact that we’re going to attack a seemingly unstoppable force in a few hours, and many of us might die,” I sighed. Urgency’s hand rested on mine, and in the dim light coming from the clock, I could see his face. He leaned in and…well, gave me an extremely passionate kiss that went on for a few minutes.

“Please, Sam, tell me how you really feel,” I laughed once he finally pulled away. He blushed and squeezed my hand.

“I’m scared of losing you,” he whispered. My spirits fell. We would be risking our lives very soon. I was scared of losing him as well.

“…We’ll be fine, as long as we’re careful,” I said.

“Don’t pretend we’re not walking into something dangerous,” Sam murmured.

“I…I just don’t want to think about what would happen to me if I lost you,” I said, tears filling my eyes, “I don’t think I could bear it.”

“Sweetheart, don’t worry about me. You know I’m strong,” he said, and swiftly picked me up like I weighed nothing.

“GAH! I hate when you do that!” I cried. He laughed and put me down.

“And if I don’t have to worry about you, you don’t have to worry about me. I may not be as strong as you, maybe, but I’m fast and good with a ray gun,” I said.

“We’ll do our best not to worry about each other,” Sam said.

“Okay,” I muttered.

“And, er, Terry?” Sam asked uncertainly.

“What?” I responded.

“I love you.”

I smiled and chewed my lip.

“I love you too.”

He took my hands and started to kiss me again.

“Well, fuck. I did not expect this many people to show up,” Vine Spider said as we walked through the crowd together. It was around 4:00 in the afternoon, and we were basically checking out the army we had collected. It was an enormous group of maybe two thousand Killjoys, and we had all been camped five miles from Battery City for a couple of hours now.

“The more, the merrier,” I said grimly. But the sight did look pretty merry. People dressed in outlandish, colorful outfits were milling about, carrying ray guns and shouting to each other. I had no idea that there were this many Killjoys out there in the desert. Lucky we found them all now.

Suddenly, a blond boy of about seventeen crashed right into us, dropping two jugs of water he was carrying.

“HEY!” he and Vine Spider both yelled. Then they stopped, their mouths dropped open in sync, and Vine Spider screamed.

“Ian!”

“Ouch! Ow! Stop it! Get off!” the boy yelled as Vine Spider hugged him. He finally pushed her off him and straightened his bright orange mask, his green eyes gleaming resentfully.

“I go by Tight Circuit here,” he muttered.

“I know! I know! But I’m so happy to see you, I haven’t seen you since you were little!” Vine Spider said happily, “Is War’s Angel here too?”

“Reporting for duty,” said a girl with long, curly brown hair and sparkling brown eyes.

“Ghost Lightning, this is Tight Circuit, my little brother, and War’s Angel, Star Lace’s little sister,” Vine Spider said quickly. I waved awkwardly.

“We have to go. Keep running, you two!” Vine Spider said as I noticed Party Poison beckoning us from afar.

“We’re going in a few minutes. You two alright?” he asked, mainly directing his question to Vine Spider.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Vine Spider said, standing on her tiptoes to kiss Party Poison.

“Umm I’ll see you two later,” I said as they started to make out. I turned around and headed in the other direction.

I lost myself in the color and clamor of the crowd. It was somewhat hypnotizing, the loud hum of people’s mixed conversations. Before I knew it, Doctor Death-Defying’s famous speech “Look Alive, Sunshine” was being blasted through the air, and the Killjoys started to march. I swallowed and clutched my ray gun. We were finally going to battle.

We must have been a strange sight; a group of two thousand people dressed in bright colors marching through the desert. Twenty people on roller skates, including Show Pony, were dressed in white and carried bags of medical supplies. Dr. D stayed back, watching over the radio in case something needed to be broadcast.

Danger Fate skated by me on her skateboard. I glanced over the mass of bobbing heads and saw the Fabulous Four leading our huge group. Jet Star’s afro was bobbing in the wind, and Party Poison’s hand rested on his yellow ray gun. I drew in a deep breath asBatteryCityloomed before us. This was it. The point of no return.

My heart fell into my stomach as I saw lines upon lines of Draculoids surrounding the city, but then it rose again as I realized we outnumbered them. Well, we outnumbered the Dracs outside the city anyway.

The entire mob drew to a halt as we stood on top of a specifically large dune overlooking the city. It was dead quiet. For two minutes, we stared off the Draculoids. Suddenly I felt a hand grab my shoulder and I turned around to meet Urgency’s eyes.

“I guess it’s too late to persuade you to go back?” he panted.

“You couldn’t keep me out of this for the world,” I said firmly. He grabbed me around the waist and we kissed once more before turning back to face the silent city. It was like some sort of mad dream. Heat rose in shimmers over the sand, making the Dracs look squiggly. My heart was pounding like a drum in my chest, and I could barely breathe. I pulled down my Killjoy mask, an old and battered Guy Fawkes mask, and gripped my laser gun.

“KILLJOYS MAKE SOME NOISE!” Party Poison screamed. The crowd roared in assent, and we charged intoBatteryCity.