At Dr. Death Defying's base, things were a bit chaotic. The Fabulous Killjoys had finally returned after months of covert missions and rambling away from the base, and everyone wanted to see their friends/heros again.

"Hey, Poison!" Wilhelm Fink jogged to catch up to the head of bright red hair that was quickly disappearing towards Dr. D's quarters. "You goin' to the meeting?"

Party slowed down enough for the raven haired man to fall into step beside him. "Yeah, I'm late though. Everyone else is already there."

"So am I," Fink sympathised, "Van Gogh probably got there ten minutes ago, and when I freakin' fell over Balducci and Snoo making out in the supply closet on the third floor I told them to get their asses down here." His voice had an almost military edge as he said the last part, but his green eyes twinkled with mirth.

Poison laughed as they came walked down the hallway to a set of double doors. "So they're a thing? Didn't see that coming..."

"Yeah, most of us didn't. Eh, now I guess Snoo will stop pestering the rest of us, y'know? He has way too much energy for any given moment."

The two friends shared another laugh as they pushed through the doors into a small room with seven people already inside. Van Gogh looked up at Fink at grinned. "We were wondering where you two had got to... "

"Yeah, we were kind of afraid you'd started walking and just gotten lost in this rabbit den after not being here for so long, Party," Fun Ghoul added.

"Screw you, I knew where I was going, and you seem to have made it just fine, so what makes you think that I got lost?" retorted Poison as they took their seats around the table, Vigilantes on one side, Killjoys on the other.

"I've got a better sense of direction than you - you forget where you're going and just end up driving us in big circles most of the time!"

"Yeah, when he's following your instructions, Ghoul. Now both of you, shut up," Jet Star reprimanded good-naturedly. Fun Ghoul Stuck out his tongue at the older man but fell silent as they all looked expectantly at the figure at the head of the table.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You're probably wondering why I called you back so suddenly," Dr. Death Defying spun his wheelchair around to face the eight rebels around the table. They all shifted uneasily in their seats, exchanging glances, fearing some kind of bad news. "We finally managed to figure out how to play back information from the Draculoid eye cams. And the first one we captured had some - interesting - footage."

"Interesting how, Doc?" asked Kobra Kid, leaning across Jet towards the radio announcer.

"We think we may have another rebel group on our hands, but I can't tell who they are. I was hoping one of you could identify them."

"Well, play the tape! We're not gonna recognize anybody from a blank wall," insisted Snoo from his position on Balducci's lap.

"It's a bit less clear than it would be if we had the right technology," Dr. D warned, "but still, pretty high quality." He pushed a few more buttons on the control panel in front of him, and an image flickered to life on the makeshift screen.

It was obvious that the Drac had been hiding on a ledge, probably on a reconnaissance mission looking for rebels. The birds-eye view of a campfire didn't really afford a very good look at the faces around it, but they all knew with absolute clarity that these were rebels they hadn't seen in the desert before. That in and of it itself was interesting, because the nine people in the room pretty much knew everybody in the Zones. The image shifted a bit, and then there was the unmistakable scream of a panther from the far side of the campfire followed by the howl of a wolf.

Even in the safety of the base, Killjoys and Vigilantes alike tensed. They all knew what was going to happen. The dreaded beasts of the desert night were going to tear the poor fuckers to shreds. No one had ever beat a pack of them, though a few had been taken down by themselves.

But on the screen, the apparent leader of the group was moving. She grabbed a burning branch from the fire and threw it towards the sound of the animals simultaneously crowding the other nine figures back towards the wall. For a moment it lit up a ring of about thirty powerful forms in a semicircle around the group, trapping them in the sandstone alcove. And then there were bolts of light flashing out again and again, and beasts were falling where they stood. The leader was actually trying to take them on. And - holy fuck - she was kind of winning.

Her twin guns obviously weren't going to be enough though, because what looked like a cross between a jaguar and a tiger was managing to evade every shot and at the same time get ever closer to the twisting figure.

"Jimmy!" The voice was slightly tinny through the reconstructed speakers in the office

"Already on it!" A dark haired figure darted forward, sweeping up a backpack and pulling something out of it. "Juliana, catch!" A glint of glass shone as he tossed a bottle to the girl. She caught it and lit the rag in the neck with the fire behind her. "Duck and cover, guys!" 'Juliana' yelled as she hurled the Molotov Cocktail, and then then the image exploded into flame.

Defying paused the video and smirked slightly at the stunned expressions in front of him.

"Did she just..." started Fun Ghoul.

"Yup."

"Okay." He leaned back. "Okay."

"Doc, if we do manage to find them, how do you know they won't attack us? I mean dude, there's what - ten of them? and they seemed pretty lethal, y'know?" Balducci asked.

"Watch this next clip and I think you'll agree that even if they don't trust any of you, they won't KILL you..."

The DJ pressed a few more buttons on the table next to him and the video resumed playing at an obviously later point. The viewpoint was different again, now lower down and to the right. The Draculoid seemed to have moved to get a better view of the outlaws' faces, but the flickering light of the now-restored campfire and the dull glow in the corner of the image that seemed to be the still-smouldering carcasses of the beasts wasn't enough to show much detail, in addition to the fact that they were all wearing leader was talking again, and the men around the table leaned in to hear what she was saying.

"All right everybody, status report. Christian?"

"I'm alright, Juli."

"Good. Gloria?"

"Fine."

"Mr. Whirly?"

"We're good, Miss Homicide. Not a scratch."

"You sure? Whatsername?"

"I'm good, miss. Just a bit shaken up is all."

"Virginia? Gina? Rusty James? X-Kid? Is anybody hurt at all?"

A chorus of 'no's rose up from around the campfire. "Saint?"

"I'm fine, Juliana. We should get moving."

The leader turned her head to face the Draculoid's eye cam straight on - and removed her mask. Just for a moment, just long enough to wipe her face, but it was enough time for Dr. Death Defying to pause the video and give a crystal-clear picture.

He swiveled around again. "Any of you recognize her?"

As one, the Fabulous Killjoys nodded. Fun Ghoul opened his mouth slowly and said "That's Madden Smith. She was the bassist for MMDA - they opened for us on our reunion tour. If I had to guess, the guy she was calling Saint Jimmy is Ashley Barker, their lead singer."

"MMDA... weren't they a new punk band out of Massachusetts? And why are all of them named after people from my songs?" Fink asked, annoyed at being left out of the loop. "Can we go like find these people? I'm not like, mad or anything, y'know - actually they seem pretty cool - but if they're gonna take my people I'd like to at least have met them."

"Fink, if that really is her, she's gonna be scared that you're pissed at her for using your - characters - especially if you go in there being your arrogant self," warned Party Poison. "Let us go, and then she'll at least have met us before."

"Yeah but - "

"Hey, listen," Kobra Kid spoke up. "When we were on tour with them, it was like hero worship whenever the topic of Green Day came up. Would you want to think that 'Hey, I'm meeting my idol, but they hate me for being a fan?' If we go, then there'll be a buffer zone between the shock of getting found and the shock of meeting you four."

Dr. Death Defying broke in. "Here: The Killjoys can go find this group, see if they'll come back with us, and at the very least try to get a radio connection set up. Meanwhile, you guys," indicating the Vigilantes, "can try to figure out who the other six people are. Ask around. See if anybody's gone missing. Think of any bands that went missing after the firebombs. The next Marketplace is in tonight in Zone 3 - go and find out as much as you can. See if anybody's heard of the or met them. They must go somewhere to get supplies - figure out where. If there's one big group like this, there might be more. We'd probably do well to join forces."

"That's great, Doc, but how do we find them?" Fun Ghoul queried.

"Embedded in the video clip is the coordinates it was filmed. That video" the DJ gestured behind him "was taken on the edge of Zone 4. They took off into the middle of the zone. We found an old gas station in that direction. Here's a map - I for one am not going to trust any of your senses of direction - you should start late tomorrow afternoon if you want to get there and back by the next morning. Fink, Van Gogh, Balducci, Snoo - I want you four to go get ready to go to the Marketplace. Everybody know what's happening?"

A general assent rose from around the table. "Good. Now go - the 4:30 show is starting in 4 minutes and I don't want any of you here during the broadcast. Show Pony! What are we starting with today?" The Killjoys and Vigilantes took the appearance of the slight figure in the doorway, holding a vinyl record, as their cue to leave, and trooped out to prepare for their mission.

"Who d'ya think they are, Fink?" Van Gogh asked as they strode down the hallway.

"I don't know. But I'm bored in here and they seem interesting, so I don't really care." the diminutive former frontman replied.