Summertime

Chapter Twenty-Four-After the Battle / Atomic Urgency's P.O.V

“She’s not dead.”

“Oh, thank God!” I gasped, squeezing Terry’s hands. Show Pony stood over us, biting the side of his mouth and looking worried. His white Noise shirt was splattered with blood, but whose blood, I didn’t want to know.

The Battle of Battery City was over. BLI’s dictator, Randolph Vance, had been shot and killed by a seemingly stray laser moments after he arrived atBatteryCityalong with the reinforcements. Without a leader, the Dracs, Exterminators, and anyone else fighting for Better Living Industries had fled. BLI was finally done for.

But right now I wasn’t really thinking about that. Right now, I sat next to my girlfriend—no, fiancé—as she lay unmoving on the cold floors of BLI headquarters. Terry had been shot through the stomach by a Drac. Show Pony arrived just seconds after she had closed her eyes, seemingly for the last time. We had brought her into the Better Living Industries headquarters, which had been turned into a sort of Killjoy hospital for the time being, and laid her out on a blanket.

“She’s lucky. That laser barely missed her internal organs, and it was a weak shot, so it didn’t go very deep. But yeah, she’ll be unconscious for a while. I’ll be right back,” Show Pony said as a girl with a black leather jacket and green streaked hair was brought in on a stretcher.

Terry’s face was pale as milk. I reached out with a trembling hand and gently stroked back a stray lock of her red hair. I didn’t know what would happen if she didn’t make it through this. I loved her too much to lose her again.

“Urgency?”

I glanced up to see Noise Flag, Star Lace, Absolute Zero, Vine Spider, and Danger Fate standing behind me. They were staring at Ghost Lightning with wide eyes.

“Is she…?” Spider croaked.

“She’s barely breathing,” I replied grimly, “Shot through the stomach by a Drac. She’s in a coma.”

Zero dropped to her knees and shook Ghost’s arm. She bit her lip and I saw tears forming in her eyes.

“Ghost Lightning if you die I’m going to kill you!” she yelled, the tears streaming down her face. Star Lace put a hand on her shoulder.

“Show Pony said she might pull through,” I said weakly, “Maybe…”

I glanced back at her and yet again reached into my pocket to finger the ring.BatteryCitywould be the last place you would expect to have jewelry stores, I know. The entire time we had been fighting, I’d been looking for one. I had been planning on proposing to Terry for a while now. Honestly, I was lucky to find the shabby little jewelry shop that I did.

“She’ll pull through, Urgency,” Noise Flag said, “She’s tough.”

“I hope so,” I said softly, squeezing Terry’s hand.

Suddenly her finger twitched and she whimpered. I bit my lip, staring at her face for any sign of movement. The other Killjoys fidgeted nervously. I felt my stomach tighten in anticipation.

Her eyelids fluttered open and her sleepy blue eyes looked up into my face. I realized I had been holding my breath and exhaled violently.

“S-Sam?” she said in a raspy voice. My heart leaped in my chest and I beamed down at her. I gently pulled her into a sitting position and cuddled her against me.

“Guys?” she breathed when she saw her friends.

“We’re all here, Ghost,” Danger said.

“What happened?” Ghost groaned, gently touching her hand to her bandaged stomach.