Tomorrow's Money (We All Go to Hell)

Chapter Three

If you've never had a concussion, you don't quite understand the mental state and general thought pattern going on inside Battery's mind as Poison stood in the front of the tent. Mostly, she was thinking about how much her fucking head hurt and what it would be like to shoot Korse repeatedly in the face. So it took a few seconds for the realization to sink in.

Beam was gone.

Kidnapped, or... They wouldn't hurt him. No one could hurt Beam.

They've done it before.

Battery was suddenly overly aware of the gnawing in her stomach. "Toxic?"

The other Killjoy reached out to grab her shoulders before she collapsed. She was vaguely aware of the cool card table beneath her cheek, and of someone's hands in hers, and of the colour of Beam's forgotten blaster a few feet away. Then everything went black.

"She still doesn't look so good."

"She blacked out, idiot. She's not supposed look good."

"Maybe we should move her."

"God, you're stupid. Go away."

"When is Jet Star getting here? You're awful."

"Can you just sit in the corner or something?"

Battery's eyes flickered up. Cel and Skull were leaning over her, Cel trying to address the gouge on her head and Skull glaring over at him. On her other side, she noticed Toxic watching, still holding her hand. 

"Where's Beam?"

Skull and Cel stopped arguing and looked down. 

"I saw someone on the back of Korse's bike as he was getting away," Poison said, walking over with a grim expression. 

"Was he..." Battery forced herself to swallow. "Is he okay?"

"They won't hurt him." Poison dropped his eyes. "I mean, not yet. Not until we come for him."

"But we'll get there before anything happens," Cel said steadily. Battery looked up into his eyes and was somehow surprised to see fear in her friend. He and Beam were close, almost like Poison and Kobra. If he was scared...

"We have to go after him, then," she said quickly. 

Poison smirked. "I'd like to. But the storm's too big; we'd never be able to find them."

"But they'll get away!"

"The world is only so big, honey. They can't hide him that long."

"Besides, they'll be expecting us," Kobra cut in. "They'll keep him somewhere close, somewhere they know we'll look. We just have to be careful."

 Battery slid her eyes to the screened window, refusing to draw attention to the feeling of tears creeping up against her eyelids. Beam was like the group's anchor; he was the quiet one, the calm one, the only one slow to draw a weapon. He was like everyone's kid brother, only without the annoying noises and fights.

Gone.

“Bat?”

She could feel Toxic’s dark eyes on her, drawn in concern. She tightened her hold on his hand in response.

At that moment, the front flap was shoved open again, blowing sand, sun, and two more Killjoys into the tent. Fun Ghoul and Jet Star, desert-battered and sleep-deprived, stood in front of the group, helmets in hand.

“Sorry, the storm kinda slowed us down,” Ghoul smirked, tossing his green helmet to the ground near the couch.

“I think my left eye is broken,” Jet added, blinking rapidly to demonstrate.

“It’ll have to work for now,” Skull said, stepping back from Battery. “I think she needs stitches.”

Battery spent the next half hour trying to ignore Jet’s long hair getting in her face as he stitched the gouge closed with extra sewing thread and a debatably sterile needle while she remained fixated on Beam. What if they hurt him? Knowing BL/ind, he could have been tortured just short of death and locked in complete isolation by now. And there was nothing she could do. That was the worst part, she thought. She was as helpless as he was until they could find him, and that could take days. Weeks. Would he still be alive by then?

Her stomach clenched, and not from the head injury.

“There,” Jet said at last, standing back. Battery reached up to touch the row of stitches; six of them. Not too bad.

“Looks good on you,” Toxic commented.

“Very badass,” Mass agreed.

Battery smiled weakly. At least part of her wasn’t a nervous mess.

As she slid off the table, Toxic took a step closer to her, lowering his voice near her ear. “Hey… We’re gonna find him. They won’t hurt him unless we do something wrong. He’s gonna be fine, okay? You’re gonna be fine.”

She looked down at her shoes.

“Okay?” His eyes stuck on her.

Deep breath.

“Okay.”