Conventional Weapons

'OW!" Dolly Pop screamed, as Blu began to relocate her wounded shoulder. We discovered, as soon as we got home, that Dolly had dislocated her left shoulder when she landed on the road during the accident.
"That wasn't even the worst part" Blu said. "On the count of three, I'm going to place your shoulder back in place."
"Okay"
"Deep breath in" Dolly nodded, inhaling deeply. "Okay... Three!
"MOTHER FUCKING ASSHOLE!" Dolly screamed, as Blu pushed the shoulder back into place. I couldn't help but chuckle a bit, and I handed Dolly the bottle of Heal-All. Technically, you only need a small sip, but Dolly didn't really read the instructions. She downed the entire bottle in less then a minute.
"You are a nut case" I said.
"Yeah, but my shoulder feels much better"
"I'm sure it does"
"Sorry about that" Blu said, "it's easier to fake someone out instead of building anticipation"
"Makes sense" Dolly replied.
"Any news?" I asked Grace, as she still worked on her computer.
"Nothing much." She replied. "It's like all the cameras cut out when those exterminators appeared."
"I didn't think they were exterminators" I said, sitting down next to Dolly and Blu.
"Who is it?"
"I think its the final version of DESTROYAs. I think it may be Kobra Kid and Jet Star."
"How can you tell?" Grace asked.
"One of then final plans for us as DESTROYAS was not just the robo eye. Our entire left arm was meant to be completely replaced with android one. It would have been able to change into different weapons. Blades, ray guns, other shit. Its like a Terminator shit"
"So, do you think that they weren't active when the siege happened?" Grace asked.
"No, I know they weren't. Ghoul and I were supposed to be prototypes that were going to be updated when they perfected there DESTROYA. Maybe they actually made a perfect exterminator,"
"We need to call Dr. D" Dolly said.

Doctor Death Defying's home hadn't changed much, except it being in Battery City. His life style didn't change very much at all since the siege. He still broadcast out to the zones, rallied against the remnants of Better Living Industries, and gave us orders. Technically, he was still my boss. The only difference was that he was now located right where BL/Ind used to be.
"So" he started, wheeling himself into the former S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W unit office. "You had a run in with exterminators? How nostalgic"
"They aren't normal exterminators," Ghoul replied. "It had to be Jet and Kobra'
"Are you positive?" Dr. D asked.
"Serious as a heart attack" I replied, leaning against the old operating computer for BL/Ind.
"That is gonna be difficult." Dr. D said. "Too much of an emotional connection."
"I think that's the point' I replied. "They're tryin' to fuck with us"
"Could be the case"
"If it is Jet and Kobra, then what do we do?" Ghoul asked, running a tattooed hand over his buzzed hair.
'It depends on if setting ray guns to stun can work on them," I promptly ran my hand over the underside of my chin, feeling the scar left behind from being shot there twice. Once by Korse, which killed me, and the other by Dolly, which saved me.
"I feel like that isn't the case." I said. "Its a critical flaw in their system and they won't let it happen again."
"Then, you'll have to ghost them" My heart dropped when Dr. D said that. Dusting my own brother and our best friend.
"So, we don't necessarily have a choice?" I asked.
"No"

I tossed my black and red motorcycle helmet onto the sofa. I sighed and walked into the bed room, then automatically face planting into my soft, comfortable bed. Being told that I probably have to kill two people I seriously relied on was really depressing. I just wanted to sleep. I didn't fuckin' care that I still wore my jeans, T-shirt, and black leather jacket. I didn't care that my red hair was greasy and gross. I just didn't fucking care.
"Party, is that you?" Dolly asked.
"Yeah," I replied, my voice extremely muffled by the mattress. I felt the mattress sink, telling me that Dolly had sat next to me on the bed.
"You okay?" She asked, all I did was hold a thumb up. "Figured"
"I was basically told I have to kill Kobra," I said, rolling over onto my back and pinching my nose bridge between my fingers.
"Woah. That's shitty,"
"Very" I sighed. Dolly laid down next to me and wrapped her little arms around my waist.
"You know he's right"
"Yeah, I know. I just don't want to think about it"
"I love you" she said, putting her chin on my chest.
"I love you too."
"Guys!" Grace called from her room. We shot up from the bed and ran into her room"
"What is is?" Doll asked.
"I was online watching videos of kittens and my screen went completely black." She replied, and she was right. The screen on both her monitors were black. "I can't track the hack from my laptop either. It's like these assholes are ghosts." Sudden, the black screen pulled up four pictures. One of me, Dolly, Ghoul and Grace. Then, big red X's covered the images, turning the picture into old wanted pictures from 2019. We watched as a Mouse Cat cartoon came one. It was of the cartoon character handing out emotion blockers to people. Then the screen cut to white, and the Better Living Industries logo appeared. Two words under that. The one that I didn't know would haunt us.Keep Running.

Notes