When the Angels Came Down To Battery City (7)

CHAPTER SEVEN

CAN'T SEE STRAIGHT FOR ALL THE FLASHBACKS IN MY EYES

Yellow, orange and bright red sparks flew like a million sparklers lighting up at once. Fun Ghoul worked away meticulously on the broken Cardio Support System Chip or CSSC device that was clamped in place on the work bench before him. While a blow torch in Fun Ghoul's hands would usually sound like a terrible idea… or the start of a sadistic and potentially bloody prank aimed at Kobra Kid, when Fun Ghoul was working, he was all business. He lifted his helmet visor and looked down at his handy work with furrowed eyebrows. "It's not quite right," He murmured to himself.

This from the guy who thinks Cheetos in Ice Cream is a good idea…

"Fun Ghoul!" Party Poison yelled to him from the door of his haphazard looking garage. "This is no damn time to be a perfectionist," He growled. Beside him, huddled against the door frame, Bloodshot sputtered through sharp gasps of air.

"Warning, warning!" Her robotics reminded her, the panel on her belt lighting up with red and green flashing lights. "Cardio systems shutting down…" The panel powered down abruptly- cutting the voice off mid nagging sentence.

"Ugh!" Bloodshot groaned, still struggling for air as she held a hand to her chest. Just under the palm of her hand, her half mechanical heart was slowly winding down to an indefinite end.

"Shit!" Fun Ghoul leapt into action and ran up towards her. Worriedly, he quickly reconnected the frayed wires on her person. "Look away!" He warned loudly and without a pause to make sure she was actually looking away, he lowered his visor and lit up the blow torch. The blue and yellow flame exploded out of the nozzle. Sparks flew.

"Hnnnggh!" Bloodshot groaned, thankfully looking away with her eyes pinned shut as the heat of the blowtorch scorched the skin on her neck. "Fuck!" She spat when he switched the blowtorch off. A red mark on her flesh grew all along the side of her neck, and her polyester suit melted at the collar. Fragments of the congealed outfit dripped across the Better Living insignia on her chest.

"Plug it in!" Fun Ghoul yelled, though he didn't have to. Bloodshot got up and shot off a few feet away only to crumble to her knees again, screaming loudly and shrilly as she plugged in her Cardio Support System.

The panel on her belt sprang back to life; "Systems up and running, systems up and running…" The voice chimed in. Bloodshot heaved a sigh of relief, but it was short lived. She heaved forward suddenly and choked out a mouthful of blood. "System rebooting." The voice said.

Bloodshot panted, drawing quick and shallow breaths as she felt her heart beat soar in the cavity of her aching chest. She looked up, squinting in the fading sunlight.

"UV levels at fifty percent… seek shade."

"Fuck off!" She screamed, grabbing her head in agony.

A pair of boots walked up to stand beside her and a hand rested on her shoulder. A moment's silence passed and Bloodshot steadied her breaths a little. Even though all her training and programmed instincts told her to shrug off the hand on her shoulder, she left it there, reminding herself that it wasn't everyday someone reached out and touched an android soldier.

This was one of them rare occasions…

"Thank you for helping us," Party Poison said, sounding honestly thankful for her efforts. "Are you gunna be okay?"

"Yeah…" Bloodshot said, nodding weakly. Suddenly, she coughed up another mouthful of blood, hunching over miserably. "I will be…" She muttered.

Party Poison looked over to the garage and saw Fun Ghoul walking inside again, checking the hole on the shoulder of his jacket as if it was their biggest problem to fix right now. Party Poison smirked, shaking his head. "So… what're you running away from?" He asked, turning his attention back to Bloodshot.

"Excuse me?" She asked, looking up at him in disbelief.

"What're you running away from?" He repeated, "Everyone who's not trapped inside the Better Living mindset and working on the opposition is running away from something… and usually it's not as plain to see as it is with you," He explained. "You say you used to work for them… what happened?"

Bloodshot stared out at the empty desert, her eyes following a hawk as it glided along on a hot breeze far off. "A lot of things," She said, "Your friend's right, I am a V.A.M.P Drone… Otherwise known as a soldier for the Vampire Android Military Program," She sighed, "It's a very new program, only into its second phase… that's why all this stuff keeps jamming up and finding new ways to bug the hell out of me," She huffed, gesturing to the gadgetry that consumed her once human body. "It was a sick idea dreamt up by some sick doctor at Better Living… anything to build the world's strongest and most resilient arm forces I guess…" She said, "I suppose its irony or something; seems to be the feeling that stings me everyday anyway… irony. They built an empire that preached peace and then they built an army to reinforce it,"

Party Poison smirked.

"What?" She said, looking up at him.

"Nothing," He replied, "Just nice to know that someone out here thinks a lot like me…"

She smiled, and turned back to stare into the horizon where the sun was setting.

"UV levels at 30%..."

"So you're part vampire, part android?" Party Poison asked, "How the hell does that work?"

"Badly," Bloodshot scoffed, "I need blood and working electronics to survive… like I said, some sick doctor came up with some sick plan…" She said. "Maybe they thought it would be more efficient if soldiers can just feed off the bodies of their enemies."

"So that explains the bite marks on Kobra Kid?" Party Poison asked.

Bloodshot looked up at him with an apologetic expression; "I'm sorry, I don't usually resort to attacking humans… it had just been awhile since I fed and my body was reverting back into primal codes… the system takes over when my body's weak," She explained.

"Well, thankfully that kid's going to be alright," Party Poison said, drawing in a deep breath of air as he stared out to the pink and blue sky before them.

"You guys are fighting the good fight, Poison," Bloodshot said, "I hope you get what you're looking for,"

Her words lingered in the air between them for what felt like forever, and Party Poison turned solemn. As he looked out to a fading sky on yet another day spent dodging death, he wondered if he was every, truly, going to get what he was looking for. He wondered if the benchmark for freedom, peace, and paradise for free will that he had set was too awfully high… and he wondered what a dream like that was going for these days.

Party Poison took off his yellow mask and held it in his dirt covered gloves for a moment; staring down at it with a sad, dejected look on his face. At that moment, he was holding his identity in his hands; everything about Party Poison came down to this cardboard half mask painted on with poster paint. After all, wasn't who he was just a pretty illusion for another faceless victim on the road to God knows where? He turned around and saw the safe house, Fun Ghoul's garage... and the dust covered Trans-Am; his material possessions… his legacy in a handful of broken down objects.

"They hand picked me out of some place in Section B5," Bloodshot's voice broke through his train of thought, and he turned his attention back to her. "I was out there looking for answers when my system went into overdrive mode," She said, "But that's all I really know… I don't know when, or how… but a long time ago I was just a normal person living a normal life… and then I woke up Bloodshot," Tears welled up in her eyes. She wiped away the blood on her lips hastily, before quickly drying her eyes on the back of her hand. "I have no idea who I really am…" she said.

"We have that in common," Party Poison replied. He pulled out her remaining pistol and handed it back to her. She took it hesitantly, looking up at him, confused. "But at least we know who we need to be," He said.

She stared down at the gun for a moment, her mind clicking over the words that he had just spoken. When she looked up, he was already walking back to the safe house, his red hair blowing in the wind that picked up as night set in on the arid planes. She looked up into the sky and gazed upon Venus who was making a slow but graceful appearance in the darkening blue. A small smile curled upon Bloodshot's bloodstained lips.

"UV levels now zero percent."