Summertime

Chapter Nine-Vine Spider on the Radio

Ghost Lightning’s P.O.V

I flushed dark red when Urgency called me pretty. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or angry. He seemed like a really sweet boy, but I was dating Kobra Kid after all.

“Tell me about my past life,” I demanded, wishing I didn’t blush so often.

“Your name’s Terry Seymour,” Urgency said gently, “You’re twenty years old and your birthday is November 14. Your parents died in the Fires of 2012, along with your little sister. We started going out in our freshman year. In 2016, when we were seniors in high school, BLI attacked our school to try and give us the pills. We were the only district who hadn’t given in to taking them. Most of the kids took the pills, but you and I resisted. A spark set the school on fire before we could be force-fed the pills and everything turned to chaos. You and I found each other in the hallway. It was madness, and…you kissed me. I don’t know why you did it just then, but you did, and it was the last time I kissed you…”

Abruptly, I noticed that Urgency had taken my hand and was pulling me closer to him. I was staring straight into his mischievous brown eyes as he smiled at me.

“I’d love to do it again,” he whispered, and tried to pull me to him.

“BASTARD!” I shrieked, slapping his hand away from me and jerking back. Panting heavily, I glared at him. I didn’t know what had come over me. Somehow Urgency had distracted me with his words enough so that he was almost able to kiss me.

Furiously I stood up, knocking the chair over. I bolted from the dining room and went right to my room. I locked the door behind me and threw myself onto my bed.

I couldn’t believe he would do that to me. Urgency, who had seemed like such a kind boy, almost tricked me into kissing him. I wanted to hit him in the face with a beer bottle. Angrily, I buried my head under my pillow as I heard him knocking desperately on the door.

“Terry, open up! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you angry, I was just teasing!” he yelled.

“Piss off!” I screamed at him through the door. There was silence, then I heard him slowly trudge away.

Two hours and one tear soaked pillow later, I heard the door slowly open. I didn’t move. My bed creaked as someone slowly sat down next to me and started to stroke my back. I glanced back at Kobra Kid.

“I heard what happened,” he said softly. I sat up and slowly curled up against Kobra’s warm body. He gently started to run his fingers through my hair.

“I love you,” he whispered in my ear. I smiled.

“I love you, too,” I murmured. He turned my face towards him and tenderly kissed me on the lips. I felt shivers run down my spine as I kissed him back. He pulled away and smiled at me.

“See, I always know how to cheer you up,” he teased.

Atomic Urgency stayed with us for the next few weeks, healing. We ignored each other for the most part, but multiple times I caught him staring at me. I still hated him for trying to kiss me, and promised myself that if he ever gave me another reason I would punch his face in.

One day, two weeks after Urgency came to stay with us, I was out driving with Party Poison and Jet Star. We were looking around for Dracs, since there hadn’t been many around lately and we wondered what they were up to. Jet was fiddling around with the dial on the radio, trying to find Dr. D’s station. Finally, over the loud crackling of static, we heard Dr. Death-Defying’s clear voice.

“…reported that—ZZZZzzzzzweooup—Vine Spider, kidnapped by BL/ind and taken into custody. She is rumored to be located at the BLI headquarters in Korse’s hands. We can only hope she is still alive and well.”

Party Poison slammed on the breaks and I screamed as the car screeched to a sudden halt. I was almost thrown face first into the seat in front of me.

“Vine Spider?!” Poison gasped, “Korse—BLI—they’ve got her, she could be hurt—what if she’s dead—oh God, oh God, we have to rescue her!”

“Poison, chill the fuck out, man! Calm down!” Jet yelled.

“YOU EXPECT ME TO CALM DOWN?!” Poison roared. I wanted to sink into the leather seat and disappear. I had never seen Poison so upset. And I was utterly oblivious to who this “Vine Spider” was.

Poison kicked the door to the Trans Am open and jumped out. In blind rage he drew his laser gun and shot blindly at a cactus until it was a blackened stub.

“Do you have any idea how much that girl means to me?! After she left, I wanted to kill myself! I wanted to shoot myself in the head! But you know why I didn’t? Because she said she might come back. I lived for the day when I might see her face again, the day I could finally hug her and tell her how I really feel. I just—” Poison suddenly fell to his knees, breathing hard. I saw two tears fall from his eyes and land in the dust.

“Korse could be torturing her at this very minute, trying to get information out of her. No. I can’t let that happen. We have to save her,” he mumbled.

“Um…” said, barely above a whisper, “I’m a bit lost here…”

“Vine Spider was a Killjoy that came to live with us about a year ago,” Jet murmured, “Her boyfriend had been murdered by Korse. Poison fell in love with her, so she left only weeks after coming to stay with us because she was still in love with her dead boyfriend. She wasn’t ready to be with someone else. It sort of tore Poison apart. He hasn’t been the same since she left.”

I hopped out of the Trans Am and carefully approached him. He was crying quietly into his hands. I knelt down next to him and hugged him. For a minute he hesitated, but soon he hugged me back. I pulled him to his feet and we went back to the car.

“I’m sorry,” he said, wiping his eyes, “I…I overreacted.”

“We’re going to get her back,” I said quietly, “Now.”

“Ghost, I don’t know—”

“We can leave Urgency with Dr. D and Show Pony. I think the rest of us are fit to go,” I said, pretending I hadn’t heard Jet’s protest.

“I don’t want you to come,” Poison said abruptly, “You’re still not as experienced with fighting Dracs.”

“Okay, bitch, first of all, I’m not going to stay with Urgency at the diner with only Dr. D and Show Pony to keep him from kissing me again. Second of all, do you really think I’d even let all of you leave without me?” I said to Poison, punching him on the arm. For the first time, I saw him smile.

“Alright, alright. I guess we should’ve known better than to try and keep you out of this,” he grinned. As soon as he had turned his back I did a discreet fist-pump.

Finding Party Poison’s girlfriend was not the only reason I wanted to get to BLI. Korse would be there. And I still had a few questions for that bastard.