Danger Days

S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W/

Korse stepped into the elevator calmly, two dracs and the woman who had helped him deal with Party following.

"The command has been sent," a drac said, "The Killjoys will be executed immediately."

"Good." Korse smiled, pressing the button that would take them to the first floor.

"May I ask why you aren't going to make better use of them, sir?" the woman asked coldly.

"It's a waste of medication." Korse scowled, "Party Poison's brain activity shows the memory suppressants are fading fast, and the emotion elimination drugs are losing effect."

"So it's like he's building immunity to it?"

"Not exactly. The doctors explain it better, but from what I understand his brain continues to subconsciously fight it. It's been hypothesized all Killjoys will react the same way."

"So what do we do now?"

"We hope the drugs last long enough for him to be able to kill Fun Ghoul, Jet Star, Diamond Dahlia, and the Kobra Kid."

"And if the drugs don't last?"

The elevator doors opened. They stepped out, moving quickly through the small hallways until they came to the main room. They continued on through the doors. Korse noticed the floors were clean as ever, as if the Kobra Kid hadn't lost a great deal of blood in that very spot.

A BLI van waited outside, the engine already running. The doors slid open and Korse stepped in. The woman remained outside the van.

"Sir," she began, halting the doors, "You never answered my question."

"If the drugs don't last I've sent something that will keep them occupied for awhile."

"Sir!" a draculoid piped up, "It's been confirmed a massive number of Killjoys are on the move. They should be here in a day."

"Perfect." Korse smiled. "Just enough time." He turned towards the woman, "I must ask you to stay here. I need someone to monitor the situation here."

"Why can't you stay?"

"I have pressing matters at headquarters. I trust you can handle a few unruly Killjoys."

-x-

The amount of dracs dwindled quickly. Eventually they stopped coming out of nowhere and the Killjoys were able to pick up the pace to the stairs.

Kobra held the door open, shooting any trailing dracs as Jet darted down the stars. Ghoul and Diamond passed Kobra quickly. Kobra glanced at his brother, whose head was limply lolled to the side. He could see a shadow of pain on Party's face, whatever was going on in his head was unpleasant.

"Diamond, you go ahead with Jet. Don't wait for us, just get out of here. I'll help Ghoul get Party down the stairs." Kobra commanded. Diamond looked like she wanted to argue but, when she met Kobra's eyes, she simply nodded and gently unhooked Party's arm from behind her neck. Ghoul shifted to accommodate the extra weight. Diamond looked at Ghoul, her expression unreadable, before turning and darting down the stars.

Kobra hooked his arms underneath Party's as Ghoul slipped out from under him.

"Take his feet." Kobra instructed. Ghoul nodded and took hold of Party's ankles.

"Hurry. Let's go." Ghoul and Kobra made their way down wordlessly.

They reached the bottom of the staircase. Ghoul set down Party's legs. Kobra hoisted his brother up into his arms with relative ease.

"Why couldn't you just carry him down by yourself?" Ghoul asked.

"I'm not quite sure." Kobra smirked, "I guess I just didn't want to be left alone with my unconscious brother."

"How do you do it?"

"What, stay sane?"

"Yeah."

Kobra shrugged, "I just try to not think about it too much. I mean, I haven't been conscious for long, but whenever I think about it I just think that we're going to get him out of here. We're going to do that. And he'll be back to normal, and we'll be at the Diner, and I'll have a brother again."

Ghoul just stared as Kobra looked at the man in him arms. Party's face had become peaceful. It now looked like he was only sleeping.

"Did he know it was me?" Kobra's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Excuse me?"

"When he shot me." Kobra's voice was louder. Colder. "Did he know who he was shooting?"

Ghoul shook his head, "No. How could he?"

Kobra just looked at Ghoul. "I just have a hard time believing he'd shoot to kill. Even under whatever influence those drugs have him under."

"We'll get him back." Ghoul insisted, "For now, we just have to get out of here."

Kobra nodded quickly. Ghoul held the door open and they hurried down the hallways to the main room.

What they opened to door, what they found was a surprise.

Jet Star was on his knees, hands held behind his back, a gun to his head. He was surrounded by draculoids and-

"Oh God." Ghoul breathed. They had brought s/c/a/r/e/c/r/o/w/s.

The Scarecrow unit was BLI's latest project. The efficiency and reliability of dracs was painfully low. They needed a new line of defense. So one bald zone runner with a very fluffy shirt and a dream stepped up to the plate.

It was a relatively simple plan; robots with big guns. And so, the s/c/a/r/e/c/r/o/w unit was born. To that day, Ghoul still couldn't figure out if it was an acronym or if the slashes were just for show.

The scarecrows and dracs surrounded Jet. A woman in a dark black business jacket and pencil skirt stood near them, smirking. Ghoul looked around.

Two draculoids were dragging Diamond to the wall. At first Ghoul thought she was dead, but then he saw she was breathing. He also saw one of the dracs pocket and empty syringe.

They had drugged her. For a split second he saw bright red as white-hot rage tore through him.

"Don't you touch her!" he roared and lunged for the dracs. He hadn't taken more than three steps before being hit in the back of the head.

He blacked out to the sound of the woman's cackling.

-x-

Kobra saw Ghoul go down.

"No!" he screamed before being hit himself. Even when falling to his knees and losing consciousness, he instinctively held his brother close, curling his body to protect Party. The last thing he saw were Party's bright hazel eyes, alert and focused, staring into his own.

But he never let go.

He never let go of his brother.