Scarecrow and the Rainbow Solution

“Inside pocket of my jacket. Always carry a spare set.”
Party grinned and winked at Jet who was considerably less amused at waking up handcuffed ankle to wrist with his best friend. All of them were a little hungover, very bruised and nobody had any idea what day it was. Obviously it had been a good night all around. Ghoul also smiled, his fingers trailing down Rainbow’s back as Kobra retrieved the small metal keys and tossed them to his older brother.
“You gotta admire that she got out bro.”
“I made it too easy.”
Blood Spatter and Dark Cascade were watching the exchanges and still sizing up if this was really for real. Already the boys had invited them along to the upcoming raid, they couldn’t know that Jet never took anything for granted and had been snooping around the killjoy underground for information on them and what had come back had been impressive. Party was all for it, glad that both men had found someone to hang on to.
“Where’s Crim ?”
Rainbow’s sleep voice caused Party to stand up and look for clothes. They needed to check in and see what information had come in overnight and then organise to go out into the zones. It would be a long drive and no doubt there would be patrols. His face frowned in concentration as the others took his cue and started to pull themselves together.
“Probably getting breakfast or in someone else’s bed.”
Party smirked and pinched Ghoul’s ass at the comment before tucking his gun in his belt and heading toward the door. Either was possible and neither particularly bothered him, exclusivity had never been part of the deal in their relationship and he seriously doubted that Crimson would have been capable of much more than sleep by the time she got free.
“Hey, guys. Hang on a minute.”
Rainbow put down her shirt, half dressed in bra and jeans as she pulled something from under the bed. Crimson’s battered jacket was a history lesson in killjoy tactics and the blood that often came with it. Laser burns through the leather could be traced to scars on her skin, blast damage to raids that remained burned into collective memories and a good deal of her own blood. It wasn’t so much the jacket that bothered Rainbow.
“That’s fucking odd.”
Party closed the door again and they all stared at the black raygun, painted with a particularly colourful swearword. Another thing that had seen a lot of war. He hefted it in hand as Kobra and Jet leaned in. Ghoul felt a shiver.
“Weird but even Crimson doesn’t take a gun to the crapper.”
“No, usually a hand grenade. But then you would know all about that Ghoul….”
Party dodged the pillow flying at his head as Rainbow gleefully recounted how Crim had found it funny to drop a dummy hand grenade into the toilet just as Ghoul was enjoying the facilities. His panicked fall from the throne in full view of most of the North Crater residents had passed into history. Blood Spatter got hiccups and looked over at Ghoul.
“I’d have done the same thing.”
Ghoul grinned widely and pulled on his jacket.
“Better than getting your ass blown off.”
The argument over whether it was physically possible to lose your ass to a toilet based grenade continued all the way down to the makeshift studio where Dr D was already broadcasting. Show Pony waved them into the common room and poured coffee, listening to the conversation until Rainbow remembered the missing member of the crew.
“You seen Crimson ? She wandered away last night.”
“Not since I’ve been around. She’s not in the mess hall or taking a sentry duty.”
Party frowned and downed the warm coffee, savouring the immediate hit of caffeine as Neon entered the room. He looked a little agitated and was blushing, having heard the second part of the conversation.
“Midnight is awol too. Left the damn bar wide open and there was blood on the floor.”
There was a pause, Kobra could see that something crossed Party’s face and knew it wouldn’t be jealousy but more worry. He would have laid a bet on them finding the missing pair in bed but leaving the bar open was unheard of.
“Neon, get on the tannoy and see if you can raise either of them.”
Jet followed the young man out, Cascade just behind him as Party motioned to Dr D through the studio window. He was beckoned inside leaving Kobra to turn back to Ghoul and Rainbow. Blood Spatter quickly closed the door behind Jet.
“I don’t like this. Crim doesn’t go anywhere without that gun and I’ve never known Midnight leave the damn bar open.”
“You think it’s trouble ?”
Rainbow could feel the hairs on her neck start to rise. If somehow BLI had got into the club there was nothing to stop them detonating the weapon. It was also true that Crimson was armed more than ninety nine percent of the time. Party came out of the studio grim faced and looked around at his friends.
“Guards saw Crimson and Midnight leave here just after three this afternoon. It’s now nearly nine and nobody has seen them come back in. Mid’s car isn’t here either.”
“They went for a drive ?”
Kobra sounded incredulous as Party started to pace. More than likely his friends had gone out looking for trouble and found it but it didn’t explain why Crimson had left her gun and mask behind. Something didn’t smell right.
“I’m guessing they got into difficulty out there. Dr D is going to raise up the troops outside and get them to start looking. We can do a sweep while we head out to six. Hopefully Crim will roll into view after sleeping off whatever her and Midnight were drinking.”
His fingers found her gun, tucked into his belt near his own. This was an added pressure that he didn’t need and he intended to tell her so when she turned up. Which she would. He sighed a little and saw his own fear mirrored in Rainbow’s face.
“Best get out there then. I’ll take the bike. You coming ?”
Blood Spatter nodded at Kobra and followed the others out of the studio and up the many stairs. It took another twenty minutes to load weapons into the Trans Am and enough water to cover the trip out into the Zones. It would be a long trip and there were many places where an ambush could hide. Ghoul set up the radio in the front so they would have a link to the Dr while Cascade and Jet combed the bunker for any new information on the settlement.
Still no word and now it had been confirmed that there was no sign of either Midnight or Crimson in the club. Worse, the guard on duty had confirmed that both had seemed pretty drunk on leaving.
“I’ll fucking kill her and him.”
“Party, relax. You know they are too smart to get in serious trouble. Crim may have one of the new guns on her.”
Ghoul’s face was hopeful as Rainbow checked and reloaded their weapons before slipping into the back seat beside him. Party gunned the car and followed Kobra out onto the road, still pouting a little.
“It still doesn’t make sense.”
“Neither does the fact that Jet got laid by something other than a sexbot.”
Cascade landed a flick to Ghoul’s ear and even Party had to smile as the air rushed past. He turned up the radio and kept his eyes on the lookout for trouble. The hours started to tick, only one bunch of Dracs being dumb enough to think that Kobra was on his own before pulling a car out. It was a short and one sided battle when faced with a rocket launcher and some trigger happy killjoys.
After another hour they stopped, another small settlement that quietly hid and supplied them while trying to divert the cameras and flies that BLI had all over the area. Some transmitted news reports onto flat surfaces like walls and old cars, another way of getting propaganda out into the zones and mostly they were ignored. It was only when a smiling white face appeared in the flickering pictures that any of them took notice. It suddenly felt like Korse was watching them all as his voice echoed with a strange tinny tone.
“Citizens of Battery City. Once again BLI has preserved your safety from the anarchists outside who threaten our peace and way of life. We have taken care of a serious threat and now show you this danger, this terrible blight that could befall our peaceful homes.”
Party leant back on the wall as the man grinned wider, his hand resting against his gun.
“The killjoy filth found a terrible pre-war weapon and intended to bring it amongst us. Thousands would have died except for brave BLI personnel who captured both the culprit and the weapon. Now I will show you one and demonstrate the other. Bring them out !”
None of them could speak as all attention that had previously wandered was now focused on the small figure being dragged onto the stage in front of the Scarecrow Headquarters and the smart young man beside Korse. They could recognise Crim, the hair and t-shirt gave it away even though she was limp and unmoving between two dracs but Midnight in a grey suit was too much. Even when Korse pulled Crimson up by the hair, showing the marks of a sustained and terrible beating, there was no sound and no words. Korse looked triumphant and seemingly right at Party.
“I have something of yours Gerard.”

Notes