Faith Is Unavailable

That night -now early morning- when everyone was asleep, Suspect 12 snuck outside and grabbed her dirt bike. She waited until she knew Kobra Kid and Fun Ghoul weren’t in a position to see her and she ran as fast as she could pushing the bike along. Once she was far enough away that they couldn’t see or hear her -or if they did they would mistake it for Draculoid movement- she hopped on the bike and hit the gas towards Battery City.
The tank was low but she was hoping she would make it into the city or at least a Drac outpost so she could get some gas. They all knew that she was supposed to be coming in tonight and Korse had given out the order that none of them should shoot at a girl on a dirt bike tonight.
Korse was going to have a rough time with Suspect 12 and he didn’t know what he was in for. It wasn’t long before she made it to the gates of the City. She stopped just like a citizen would and waited for the Draculoid in the booth to pull a gun on her as soon as he saw what she was wearing. Before the Draculoid could look up from the desk after grabbing his gun she already had hers to his head and her pass from Korse in her other hand.
“Don’t even think about it, Buddy. This is set to dust and I don’t hesitate.”
The Draculoid pushed the button to lift the gate and she slipped her gun back into the orange silicone holster on her thigh before squeezing the throttle and speeding off down the tunnel not caring that she was breaking the speed limit. She figured the residents wouldn’t be upset. They were taking mood-altering pills after all.
Suspect 12 docked her bike in her designated hiding spot just in case one of the Killjoys or Zone Rats were in the City for some reason. She didn’t want news getting out that she was a double agent after all.
She walked right into the Scarecrow Unit building and blew past the reception desk. By now the receptionists all knew Suspect 12 by the blur of black and gold going by the desk and were not alarmed that a Killjoy was in the City.
Korse had heard her dirt bike and was waiting for her. She was running only a minute late and he was already tapping his foot. She walked and as was custom all the Scarecrows and other occupants of the room stepped out.
“You are late by a minute.”
“Better than by six months.” Suspect 12 said plopping down on a couch to the side of the room.
“We have talked about that Killjoy attitude when you are around me.” Korse said gritting his teeth.
“Sorry. Forgot.”
“Please speak in full sentences as well. If I did not know any better I would think you were becoming one of them...” He trailed off before he let too much slip.
“About that, I have some questions and things that I need to know the answers to.” Twelve said leaning forward with her elbows on her knees.
“What?” Korse groaned rubbing his already red eyes.
“What is my real name?” She asked almost innocently.
“You know I can not tell you that.”
“Why?”
“Because it could undo everything we have worked for. Do you want to see the end of this, the end of the Killjoys and to see yourself with what I have promised you?”
“But if I’m the right person for this job, knowing my real name wouldn’t hurt this mission. Or are you scared?”
“We have never tested it on a captive. The whole point of the training is to teach you what was wrong and what was right.”
“Just call it brainwashing. It’s what you did.”
“Twelve,” He sighed, “can I just have the report?”
“Can’t I just know my name? If it fucks this all up then kill me.”
“I will not kill you. I will not give you your name. There is too much power in a name. Give me the report.” He commanded.
Suspect 12 could not resist the command like a beta to an alpha and she began to pour out all the knowledge she had collected. She told him about Dr. Death Defying knowing inside info and about his daughter, Sandra. Korse was upset when Suspect 12 continued to refer to her as Silver Sands but Twelve would not give in.
“Have you done the other thing I asked of you?” Korse asked not realizing that he already knew the answer to the question.
It was all routine this inquisition. His mind was elsewhere and he was running through old questions just to keep her there longer.
“What, make one of them fall for me? It’s been in the bag since before you even asked.” Twelve said confused. She picked up that he had forgotten he knew the answer to his.
“Which one is it?”
“Not telling you, but I will tell you he dropped the ‘L’ word not too long ago. Congratulations, I’m going to wreck a human being for your pleasure.”
“Oh Sweetheart, we are going to do a lot more than just wreck one synthetic animal.”
“They’re not animals. They care about things, they care about me.” Then Suspect 12 added softer than before, “They love me.”
“You are in love with whoever it is. I should have known this would happen. You better get over it or you are done and everything you have worked towards will end. With. One. Shot.” He emphasized leaning over so he was face to face with her. He pulled his gun out and repeated. “One. Shot.”
For a moment she was afraid. Korse intimidated her more than she would ever let him know but something inside her changed a bit. Maybe it was the rebel spirit but she turned her eyes up to lock with his and pulled both her guns from their holsters on her thighs and held them to the sides of his head before he knew what she was doing.
Twelve climbed over his desk expertly keeping her balance while keeping her guns to his head. She backed him away from her and up against a wall. She didn’t even feel like she was controlling her movements. He stopped breathing being taken back to a moment from four and a half years ago.
“Let me tell you what your two mistakes have been thus far. One, you let me befriend the Killjoys while knowing my past life in the Zones around Rebels. Two, you trained me as a Rebel who fights like a Scarecrow of Battery City. And if you dust me then everything you’ve worked for will be gone. You’ll have to start over and I don’t think once they find out what happened to me that it will be as easy, Sweetheart. You’re stuck with me and my imperfect love.”
Korse did not take this so easily and quickly turned the situation around on Suspect 12. She didn’t know how it had even happened. One moment she was in control and then her guard relaxed under no will of her own and he was holding one of her own guns underneath her chin while she still grasped the handle, finger still on the trigger. For as pale and ragged as he looked, he was still far superior to her in brute strength. She took a deep breath and looked into his eyes hoping that infatuation he had with her would stop him from dusting her.
Be careful what you say and how you act. I will make you dust yourself if I have to.” He seethed.
He did not like being caught off guard and he did not like his faults being pointed out to him. He saw himself as infallible and she had so easily reminded him that he was nothing more than human, just man. A man with needs and urges.
Before any plan had time to formulate in her head Korse’s hand slipped from her throat to her shoulder and his other hand dropped the gun to the floor. He was still pinning her against the wall but what happened next she was not expecting. Korse’s mouth was against hers in a rather rough kiss.
One of his hands caught back in her hair and pulled her head back to change the angle of the kiss. What disturbed Twelve was that for a moment she kissed him back. There was no explanation as to why she did, she just acted. That was what she had been trained to do, act not think.
Viktoria walked passed her father’s office at that moment and saw the scene. Disgusted she hurried on down the hall not wanting them to see her. She couldn’t get the picture out of her mind of her father kissing someone like Twelve.
She had known for a long time of her father’s infatuation with Suspect 12 but she had tried to ignore it. She’d seen him kiss her once before, but she assumed that was for show. Viktoria had rationalized it with her father’s loss of her mother and how Twelve was the only woman that even remotely reminded him of what his late wife had been like. The only person who would stand up to him and not take any of his shit. She was very strong, much like Viktoria’s sister Sandra had been before she had left.
Twelve pushed Korse back gently not wanting to anger him. He looked into her eyes thinking this was a natural break in the kiss and she had something to say. He was happy to see a smile on her lips, but then it disappeared.
“I can’t let you do this.” Twelve said backing away from him. “It’s not right.”
“You are in love with that little rat aren’t you?” Korse sneered realizing just why she was backing away from him.
“You’ll never understand anything.” Twelve said as she grabbed her guns and ran down the hall.
“He’s an animal.” Korse shouted after her as he leaned against his desk catching his breath. “You’ll see. You’re the one that I need, I’m the one that you loathe.”
Viktoria saw Twelve in the hallway and set her face as icy as she could manage. It wasn’t that hard for her with her absurdly pale skin and platinum hair further iced out by a light color palette for clothing. She regularly looked like an ice queen. Twelve paid no heed to Viktoria as she went past, nothing more than and accidental shoulder check that Viktoria took the wrong way.
“You will never fit in my family.” Viktoria called after Twelve.
Twelve didn’t hear what she said but fired a warning shot behind her hoping to get her point across that she wanted nothing to do with BLI at the moment. Of course this was not how Viktoria took it. She took it as a threat upon her life and went to inform her father of what his soldier just tried to do to her.
Twelve wasted no time filling her bikes gas tank and getting out of the City. She wanted nothing more than to see her so called animal and tell him how she felt. She was angry that Korse had to point it out to her that she was in fact very in love with Jet-Star. She’d known that feeling was bubbling around in the pit of her stomach but she’d done a good enough job ignoring it.
When she was close enough, Suspect 12 cut the engine on her bike and coasted in as far as she could before it was too slow and she had to get off the bike and run while pushing it.
Luckily for her, Kobra Kid and Fun Ghoul were relaxing tonight and not putting up a very good watch. She could hear them on the roof laughing. It was strange for her to hear Kobra Kid laugh. He was usually stoic or brooding over something in the recesses of his mind that only Party Poison might have a chance at guessing.
Suspect 12 put the kickstand down on her bike and went into the diner. The floor was littered with mattresses and Zone Rats. Some were familiar and some weren't. Dr. Death Defying and Show Pony were in the manager-turned-broadcasting room talking about something.
The only thing Suspect 12 didn't catch was Silver Sands slipping out of the diner after she had come in. Sands went to where the dirt bikes were hidden. Right off the bat she noticed Suspect 12's bike was on the opposite side of hers. She felt the frame and it was warm from the residual heat of the engine.
"What the fuck was she doing?" Silver Sands muttered to herself.
Back inside the diner Silver Sands was not the only one to notice Suspect 12's return. Jet-Star got up from his mattress and walked towards her. She smiled at him.
"What have you been doing up this late?" He asked not caring so much that she was out but that she was back.
"Something stupid and reckless." She smiled in the dark.
"And that would be?"
"Holding my guns to either side of Korse's bald head." She said in a moment of candid truth.
Jet-Star laughed taking it as a joke. "Keep your secrets."
He put his arms around her.
"Kiss me you animal." Suspect 12 smiled stepping closer.
"Someone's in a good mood." Jet-Star said leaning in.
Suspect 12 stopped him. "Hold that thought. Is there anyone in the attic?"
"No, it's night. That crawl space is vacant."
"Well it's about to have two occupants." Suspect 12 said grabbing his hand and tugging him up the stairs.
She locked the door behind herself and then pinned Jet-Star to the nearest wall.
"Someone really is in a mood tonight." He smiled grabbing hold of her hips as she tossed her jacket to the floor.
"Don't waste it." She cautioned. "I'm in love with you and tonight I'm going to show you."
From there it was a semi- awkward ballet of tugging clothes off and Suspect 12 pinning Jet-Star to the mattress. The awkward-ness was shed when her back hit the mattress and the familiar feeling of weight on top of her flooded her senses. From there it was easy to figure out what to do.

The big white hospital building rose up over the mild hill. It was only the east wing of the building. The biggest building in the whole city. It was the thing that started this place. They had only ever expanded it for it’s ever growing research. With their developments in human health care there was hardly ever a need for them to have patients in the hospital.
Korse gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to have to face his weakness, the human in him.
His 1971 De Tomaso Pantera growled as he pulled into a parking space marked with his name. It was his building, he founded the city it stood in. He sighed collecting the things he needed trying not to look at himself in the rear view mirror.
He knew he looked awful. His skin was pallid and sickly looking. Thankfully his body hadn’t begun to deteriorate yet, the drugs helped him. He lied to his people using his ailment to keep them from the Zones claiming it was ‘Zone Sickness’ from the Sector F revolt. If anyone dared go out there they would suffer like he was, or that was what he wanted to them believe. It kept them popping their pills and losing their emotions.
Of all the things he had cured the human race of, he couldn’t cure Leukemia. He could cure Zone Sickness now, but four years ago he couldn’t. That was why he had Leukemia. It proved to be one of the stronger cancers that he couldn’t seem to cure. It just took root in his body eating away at his strength biding its time until it decided it was done living cooperatively with him, until it was bored and decided to take him down.
Korse grabbed a black breif case from the back seat of his car and locked up before heading towards the building. His key card got him past the first set of doors into the back of the building. He made his way down the half lit white hallway and approached the door to his lab. A facial recognition scan and finger print scan unlocked the foot thick door. He walked it and it clicked behind him.
The case he had taken out of his car now sat on his lab table. He went to change into the proper lab clothes and came back to it. Upon opening it cold air rushed out giving him goosebumps.
Inside were a few tiny pieces of human tissue, his own. Korse had scheduled himself a biopsy so he could examine his cancer in his own lab. He didn’t trust the other doctors with the knowledge of his weakness, he didn’t even trust his own daughter with it. He removed one tube and closed the case on the other two.
Without looking at what he was doing he pulled up the computer on the glass surface of the tab table and tapped away at the glass. He heard machines firing up and calibrating themselves. With a swipe of his hand the computer information was gone from the lab desk and turned back to it’s reflective black color.
He placed the tube with his own tissue into a machine that did all the careful precise work for him slicing it into small bits for a series of tests.
It was going to be a long night for him.