But Maybe We'll Live Forever

Opening the door to the presidential suite, Bulletproof Liberation called into the large room as she walked in, beckoning us to follow. “Grace? Sunshine! We have company!”

She paused for a moment, then smiled at us and motioned at us to sit down on one of the gorgeous lounge chairs and sofas and loveseats. “Sit anywhere,” she said. “What’s mine is yours.”

We all cautiously picked places to sit and gingerly sat down, as if we were worried our imperfections would destroy the beautiful furniture.

Bulletproof Liberation sat down on a small loveseat made out of back velvet, smoothing her dress out over her calves. “GRACE! Where are you, Sunshine?”

The Killjoys and I shared a look.

Party Poison was the first to speak up. “Who’s Grace?”

As if to answer his question, a small girl who looked about nine years old scampered out to the room we were in. “Sorry,” she said, smiling up at Bulletproof Liberation. “I wasn’t sure if I heard you or not.” She looked at all of us, strewn about, and blinked. “Who are these people, Bulletproof?”

I took in this little girl. She was very sweet looking. She had uncontrollable curls all over her head and big, sweet eyes that could get her anywhere she wanted. She had a small build; but hey, if you’re a nine-year-old Killjoy, which I was supposing she was, that’s a good thing. Skinny and fit is always a good thing, even if you’re not always on the run…

“Oh!” the girl, Grace, gasped. “It’s them! The original Killjoys! How did you—”

“They found me, Sunshine.” Bulletproof Liberation looked up at us, then back to the little girl with adoration in her eyes. “Bullet Deceiver, the man I told you about? He sent them to me somehow.”

The little girl scanned all of us, admiration shining brightly on her face. Her eyes finally rested on me, which made her blink and look over at Bulletproof Liberation. “Then is this the sister?”

Bulletproof nodded.

Grace walked over to me and held out her hand. “I’m Grace. But Bulletproof calls me Sunshine in public. It’s her nickname for me. She says it’s my codename. I’m gonna be just like Party Poison when I grow up. I just need a second name. Sunshine something. Or I could just leave it as Sunshine. It could be like my thing. Only having one name. Does that make sense? What’s your name?”

I laughed to myself at her enthusiasm. “I’m Atomic Battery. Bullet Deceiver’s sister.”

“I’m sorry about what happened to him.” Grace looked at me seriously. Her eyes brightened, though. “But we’ll get Korse. We’ll get all of Better Living Industries and we’ll take them down! All in the name of Bullet Deceiver.”

I swallowed back tears. She was so sweet; so driven. So honest. And so loving. I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, we will. Thank you.”

Grace turned to the others and ran to each of them, jumping up and down and smiling at them, talking to them. It was really cute. What made it cuter was that the Killjoys seemed to know how to handle a kid. They smiled back at her and picked her up and introduced themselves. They hugged her, kissed her on the head. It was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen in my whole entire life.

Finally, Bulletproof Liberation clapped her hands. “Okay, okay, Sunshine. Come on. We’re gonna talk for a while, okay? Sit on my lap.”

Obediently, Grace- or Sunshine, as Bulletproof called her – sat down on her lap. “I’m getting kinda old for this, Bulletproof…”

Bulletproof just laughed and shook her head, looking over at all of us. “Okay, so Bullet Deceiver sent you a message somehow?”

“Yes,” Jet Star said. “On the back of some important Better Living Industries files. He left them for us.”

“Wow,” Grace breathed.

Bulletproof Liberation nodded. “And he wanted me to join you?”

“That’s what we think,” I said. “And I’m sure he knew Grace was part of… well, you.”

“Oh! She’s not my…” Bulletproof stopped, seeing the look on Grace’s face. “I’ll get into that later. But yes, he knew about Grace, and he knew I’d never leave my Sunshine behind. So this file. What’s in it?”

“We were hoping to read it here,” Party Poison said. “It seems as if this place is secure.”

“Most definitely secure,” Bulletproof said, smiling. She picked up Grace and put her down. “Gah, you’re heavy. Sweetie, why don’t you go watch some TV in our room or something?”

“Fine…” Grace mumbled, knowing very well she was going to miss out on the fun part. She scampered back from where she’d come, disappearing from our sight.

“She’s sweet,” I said.

“Oh… yeah.” Bulletproof Liberation smiled. “Dad was a worker for BL/ind. Mom was a rebel. Not a Killjoy, but against it all. Her dad took her mom away one day, snapping finally after something she said or did. She doesn’t know if her mom’s dead or not. But right after that happened, she ran away. Never wanted to see her dad again.”

I blinked. “Oh, that’s so sad. You wouldn’t tell…”

“Yeah. She’s brave.”

“How did you come across her then?” Kobra Kid chimed in curiously.

“Oh, well Ror—Bullet and I were on the run from some Dracs. Speeding in the car, making our get away. They were right on our tail. And there she was, on the side of the road. I wanted to keep going, but Bullet knew that the girl wouldn’t make it. Runaways aren’t tolerated too well. Especially not by sicko Draculoids. So, in our state, he pulled over, pulled her in, and we sped off. Been our little friend ever since. Well, mine only, now…”

I smiled, imagining it. Something that I knew Rory would do. He was always a softie for girls. For anyone, actually. But girls would make him to the craziest things.

But that probably was already clarified.

“Well, let’s open that file,” Fun Ghoul said, breaking the silence.

Bulletproof nodded. “Yeah. Let’s.”

Party Poison placed the folder on the table, and we all stared at it for a moment. Unsure what was going to come of this.

“This could be the first step in taking them down,” whispered Party.

I looked at him. His eyes were shining full of hope, regret, wishing, and anger. My mouth twitched slightly, unsure whether it wanted to smile or frown at this. I blinked, shook my head, and reached out, flipping the folder open.

“Oh, my God.”