Resurrection

Crimson had found there was an art to being unseen.
The stealth suit was pre-war tech, hidden in a military bunker until Party and the gang had gone looking at the height of the war with BLI. There had been others, ones that conducted electricity, ones that had inbuilt propane systems to allow the wearer to throw fire, all of them useful and utilised in the war but her own favourite had been this one.
It deflected light itself, bending it around the wearer so that nothing but an occasional shimmer could be seen. Crim watched Rainbow disappear into the milling crowd of people and droids, only able to see her progress because she knew what to look for before turning towards the BLI headquarters.
She walked without hurry, sidestepping the crowds and only pushing when it was able to be dismissed by the target as movement from other people. She kept her breathing steady and her movements controlled. It was easier than most people would think to tip off that sixth sense that tells someone when there is a person behind them or watching them. Crimson knew that drawing attention to herself in even the smallest way would risk attracting the dracs and had helped Rainbow get reacquainted with the intricacies of invisibility before they had climbed up the grate and into the city. The car was hidden below, one of many access tunnels where cameras and drones could be rerouted away from what BLI did not need to see.
Now she headed towards the labs and tech offices of BLI, the great white and glass fronted buildings dappled by artificial sunlight as they moved into the early part of the afternoon. Crimson was glad of the suit, she hated the artificial perfumed air of the city, remembering how they had destroyed the original city in nuclear fire and foolishly believed it was all over. She waited until a drac strode towards the door armed with a passcard and then followed him through the door and barrier, noting the security cameras and guard dogs. That was more tricky, they tended to spot things that humans didn’t and she stilled as one of the huge animals looked in her direction. Precious seconds ticked past as she held her breath, the pain it caused in her throat was starting to burn when the animal finally looked away and she moved quickly, using a grey clad woman to get into one of the lifts that headed up towards the records offices. Crimson wasn’t sure what she was looking for but anything remotely connected to where Party had been for eighteen months would be a start, something to tell her if Kobra, Ghoul and Jet were still alive…
Crimson walked carefully through the secretaries and office workers, listening to the drugged chatter and watching all the fake smiles. The whole place was setting her teeth on edge and she looked at the motivational posters and piped in news on small television screens, all promoting BLI, all telling people that abdicating their lives was a good thing. Despite her differences with Rainbow and the Killjoys, Crim would never believe that. She ducked into the rows of files and found her way to the section that catalogued dead rebels and the undead who became dracs. The cameras above turned at the movement but would register nothing and it was easy enough to magnetise them and move them to look at the corridor, she would have twenty minutes before anyone came to fix them.
She opened the screen log and clicked on the dropdown, trying not to concentrate on the fact that she knew too many of the names on the files. Midnight Ride, Violet Detonator, Grey Ghost…all of them gone and all of them forgotten. Her hand stayed as she reached the bottom and the four she was looking for. If Crimson was honest there were reasons why she had never come into this building and this was it. Morgue photos, autopsies, it was all here along with a catalogue of their past deeds. Every minute since the bombs fell till they walked into the city that last time.
Crim clicked on Ghoul first, she needed to know if the others were alive or if they would just need to find Party. It was strange to see his face again, the half smile that Ghoul always wore even in his mugshots made her think of his giggle, the hot temper that would end in a hug and all the times his bombs and weapons had saved her ass. She kept scrolling, down and down until she hit one word.
EXTERMINATED
She blinked back tears and took a deep breath.
Kobra Kid….
EXTERMINATED
Jet Star……
EXTERMINATED
Crimson checked through the files again but frustratingly there was nothing to say where Gerard was and she didn’t want to have to tell Rainbow that the others were gone. A foot note caught her eye, just a small line of script at the bottom of the page.
BODIES SENT FOR REPROGRAMMING
Hope bloomed, so maybe they were alive but much like Party, Crimson wondered if they would even remember who they had once been. She doubted whether they would remember their original names, even Kobra if they had in fact been resurrected. If that had been BLI’s plan then the brothers would surely have been unveiled together. She plugged in a memory stick and downloaded the information, planting a virus in the system to cover her tracks before checking the time on the display of the stealth suit. Maintenance would be along to fix the camera, she needed to go.
“Crim, you got anything ?”
Rainbow’s voice sounded tinny in her ear and she answered quietly, even her normal whisper muted as she moved silently over towards the exit. More and more people were moving around and there was an aroma of coffee and cakes that made her mouth water.
“All four are tagged as exterminated but there is a note about reprogramming so maybe there is hope.”
There was a pause, Rainbow seemed to hesitate before speaking again.
“Any idea where ?”
“No. You have anything ?”
Crimson skirted near the rest room and set her eyes on the exit that would lead down to the outside. It was so easy to get paranoid about others seeing her even though she knew that they couldn’t, it was psychologically inbuilt and she could feel a bead of sweat running down her cheek.
“We know where Gee is but he’s heavily guarded and never alone. To get to him we will need to draw him out somehow.”
“Meet me at the car.”
Crimson ducked out into the corridor, never seeing the man behind her or even realising he was there until she found herself pushed into a tiny cupboard, the heat of his body behind her and one hand forced up behind her back. She stamped down on his foot hard and threw her head back, trying to smash his nose before she saw a half reflection on a mirrored bucket surface and stopped struggling. Still he held her tight, Crimson managing to slam her palm against the wall and turn off the suit. With one hand she pulled the hood back and half turned so that he could see her face and she could properly see his. Both stopped moving and stared.
He looked so different, the blond gone from his hair and it was shorter, his natural dark brown. Crimson remembered him this way from the distant past, it was like looking at a ghost, the tall and gangly boy with thick glasses who had followed his brother into glory, war and finally death. The glasses were back, the white shirt and black tie didn’t hide the man that she had known and loved.
“Mikey….”
Mikey smiled, taking in the short girl and noting the changes there too. Her eyes were tired, the carefree smile gone and he saw the vicious scars that ran across the right side of her head before reaching out and pushing back the black bangs from her face. Crimson, herself a ghost of the woman he had known since they were both kids in a halcyon pre war world.
“I saw the suit, can’t mistake that shimmer. You came for Gee right ?”
“And to look for the rest of you. Rainbow is here too, we thought you were dead for the last eighteen months.”
He frowned, his world had narrowed down and he only remembered the last two months with any clarity. Whatever conditioning they had used had failed but he had been careful not to let anyone know it. He would work from the inside, they had been careful to keep him well away from his brother and deny that the two were even related. He had only seen Gerard on tv.
“They can bring anyone back Crim, problem is keeping them docile. Gee and Ray won’t know who you are let alone agree to come with you.”
Crimson winced, that had always been likely but it made the mission so much more difficult.
She contented herself with stroking his face, his arms going around her waist as he hugged her tightly to him. He was warm and alive, something that she realised she had long been missing. He could think of nothing but making BLI pay, of getting back to his family and the mission. Kobra Kid would ride again. Crimson pulled away and looked up at him.
“What about Ghoul and Jet?”
“You know Frank. He won’t bend and he won’t break. They’re keeping him in the dungeons below the medical units. How much longer they will keep him alive I don’t know. Ray is in the science block and he’s like Gee, he doesn’t know who he is.”
Crimson felt a flicker of a smile cross her face and Mikey broke into a rare grin, the thought of Ghoul railing against anything and anyone was so reassuringly familiar that it gave them both hope. Mikey checked his watch, he would need to get back to his desk before the end of his scheduled break so as not to arouse suspicion.
“C’mon, I got the car under the city. We can leave. Just follow me out.”
Mikey shook his head, gently pulling the hood up and tucking her hair inside it. It was a gentle, almost erotic, gesture. They had shared many things over the years including his brother and had always been as close as natural siblings. He knew she would not like what he was about to say.
“If I leave now they will know and that means we will never get to the others. I am more use working from the inside here. Go and get Frank, save Ghoul and use him to rally the Killjoys. When BLI retaliate they will take their minds of Gee and Ray and we can attempt a rescue.”
“Fuck. I don’t….”
He silenced her with a kiss, hard and fast before pressing a key card into her hand. It would enable them to communicate and contained the passcodes to get her into the labs above where Ghoul was being imprisoned. He had learned enough from Jet back in the day to make sure that nobody could listen in. Seeing her here had lit a fire in him and for the first time Mikey believed that they could pull this off and save his friends from a fate that was definitely worse than death. He opened the door, glancing back only once.
“Save Frank and keep running.”

Notes