{ Next generation }

Chapter 1

It was about 4 o'clock in the morning, the sun was barley visible along the empty desert, and the killjoys had just moved from zone 5, now into zone 6. They drove in their killjoy car throughout the narrow, winding desert roads. Party Poison's finger tapped anxiously on the steering wheel. There were a couple of difficulties at the moment. Car troubles, low on gas and engine problems. Then there were the overall problems, low on food, charge for their ray guns and completely lost in direction. They were being tracked for days but were now safe.

Jet Star was in the front passenger seat, sound asleep. Kobra Kid was sat in one of the back seats; he too was asleep, though you couldn't really tell as he was facing out the window and his sunglasses blocked his eyes. Then there was fun ghoul; his feet were up on the seat next to him, his head resting upon the window. He had his arm wrapped around Curly and she was huddled into his waist. All of them were asleep, all of them except Party Poison, he was the usual driver, he insisted, no one else was going to drive his car. Still he hadn't slept in days and the others were slightly worried, it was making him ill. His skin was paler than usual; he was shaking, throwing up, and paranoid of everything.

By now it was morning, the sun had risen half way up the sky, and yet; the other four remained dormant, fast asleep in the car.

Jet woke up after the car swerved slightly on the road.

"Morning" he said, yawning as he rubbed his head; which he hit when the car swerved.

"Morning..." party poison replied, his voice was weak and cracking slightly.

Jet stared at him worryingly, he sighed, "have you been up all night?"

"I'm fine" he replied

"You're not fine!" he said; careful not to raise his voice too much to wake up the others, "stop killing yourself! We're safe now, we're not being followed anymore ya know?"

"Face it jet, we're never going to be safe; ever" he sighed and his eyes saddened, "our whole lives are built out of running"

Party's eyes widened slightly as he felt Curly's hand on his shoulder.

"Hey Party!" she said with a cheerful grin.

"Morning sleepy head" he said, his face did get a bit happier after seeing her happy, smiling face.

Now they were all awake, and the old boom box that Curly was holding onto was blasting throughout the car.

Fun Ghoul sighed, "Where are we actually going Poison?"

"I'm trying to find somewhere to get fuel, and the car's screwing up again"

Curly overheard the conversation and butted in before fun ghoul had time to put in another sentence "Oh, I know!" she said her face was happier than before, "I know some people 'round here!"

"Some people?" Party asked slightly confused.

"Yeah! They own a gas station about a mile up this road, they are really nice!" she said pointing down the dusty road.

"Perfect!" Kobra Kid added, shifting his stare from the window to the rest of the gang.

{ Chapter 2 }

They reached the stop in no time; it was an old gas station, with a small diner and a moderately sized garage. There was a man standing at the front of the diner, he dressed as brightly as the killjoys, maybe he was one? He looked to be in his late 30's, early 40's. He had short, black, spiky hair and a short beard. He wore an electric blue jacket and purple t shirt underneath, with black, ripped jeans and blue, leather boots. Curly jumped out of the car once it was parked and she ran up to man.

"Diamond!" she called running up to him.

"Well hello there gorgeous!" he said back to her hugging her in his arms.

His name was Diamond Ephedrine and he owned this gas station.

The rest of them exited the car one at a time. Party was the last the exit and he staggered as he got out, Kobra caught him from falling on the floor.

"You alright?"

"Yeah…" he replied, even though he could barley stand on his own.

Diamond walked over to them all and smiled at all of them.

"You okay there?" he said looking at Party Poison who was being held up by Kobra Kid, or else he would have just collapsed on the ground.

"Fine…" he barely managed to squeeze out the words.

"No you're not!" cried Curly; she was pointing her finger at him as if she was scolding him.

"Maybe you should go lie down?" Diamond asked softly and kindly. Party Poison didn't say anything, his eyes just stuck to the ground.

Jet star and Fun Ghoul sighed "Just go lie down, would you, we can get the car fixed on our own" said jet star firmly.

Diamond put Party Poison's arm over his shoulder and walked for a while before turning around to them "oh, you said your car needs fixed?" Jet and Kobra nodded. "Well my daughter's 'round in the garage over there. She's real good at machines and cars and stuff, she'll help you out" he waved at them and walked on with Party.

"Yay!" cried Curly, clearly overly excited.

She ran over to the garage, calling the others to follow her; which they did.

The garage is of an average size, filled to the top with paint, tools, batteries, car parts, engine parts and radio parts. Anything could have been made from the stuff in that garage. And sure enough there was a girl in there too; she was building what looked like ray guns, there was a pile of them to her left; tools and equipment to her right. She was young, very young, like a kid. She didn't notice them at first; she was really into her work.

"Hey Fusion!" Curly called over to her. She now turned around to them. "Hey curly, what are you doing here? I haven't seen you in ages." She smiled softly.

"I know it's been a while. Oh, fusion, these are my friends; Jet star, Kobra Kid and Fun Ghoul" she pointed to each of them as she said it.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Blood Love Fusion, but you can call me Fusion" she smiled and shook each of their hands. She was quite small, but she was only a kid, her hair was short; about shoulder length, it was choppy, black and her fringe was half covering her face. There was one green and one purple streak running down her hair at the one side. She wore a sleeveless, purple, leather jacket, with a green vest top over the top of a black, half length top that came to her elbow. She then had black fingerless gloves pulled half way up her fore arm. She wore green skinny leg jeans and black boots that came up to her knee. A ray gun was attached to her waist belt. It was half purple, half black; with two green striped going down the one side.

"So you're seriously a mechanic?" asked Fun Ghoul, trying to make conversation.

"Yeah. Why, do you need help with your car or something?"

"Yeah, we do. If you wouldn't mind?" asked Kobra Kid kindly.

It then shifted back to Fun Ghoul who was now very curious about this girl. "How old are you exactly?" he asked bending down at her.

"I just turned 13 a month ago"

"Oh and how good are-" Jet Star interrupted Fun Ghoul, "would you be able to help with our ray guns too?"

"Yeah, no problem" jet threw the ray gun at her and she caught it in her hand. The rest of them placed their ray guns on the table beside her and sat down to watch her work.

It was not even 10 minutes later and she had finished one of the guns; jet stars. She was now working on Fun Ghoul's; it was the most damaged. Her father, Diamond Ephedrine walked in.

"Hey, how's Party? Is he ok?" asked Curly worried.

"Well he was completely out cold by the time I even got him up there." He explained, "he's completely exhausted, what the hell was he doing?" he asked.

"he's like, our leader; he's first in action and the last one out, he's the driver, the planner, the one with the brains, the one with the power and the one that will always put his friends before himself" Fun Ghoul explained, and sighed, "and then…..he ends up like this"

"Well, I think he needs to think about himself for a little while or he'll end up killing himself" Diamond said firmly.

There was a long moment of silence until Fusion's annoyed voice was heard.

"Shit!" she said grabbing her hand.

"You okay?" asked Diamond peering at her from beind.

"yeah, just a little shock" she said wrapping a bandage around it and putting her glove back on over it, "here's your ray gun, I charged it for ya too, it was completely flat."

"Thanks!" Fun Ghoul caught the gun she threw at him and he smiled as he examined it.

"Well do you boys want to come for some food in the diner?"

"Shouldn't we stay here with fusion?" suggested Kobra.

"I'll be fine, I still have 2 guns to fix and your car, it'll take a while" she smiled at them so they couldn't refuse.

"Okay, here's the keys, but just, don't tell Party I gave them to you, okay?"

She nodded and caught the keys. Who the hell is this Party Poison person? She had caught on that it was their friend, a killjoy and their leader, but she didn't know what he was like or even what he looked like. She was dying to know.

{ Chapter 3 }

In no time the ray guns were fixed and she went outside to collect the car. She never really cared much for makes of cars; the engine and speed of them is what interested her.

She got into the car, put in the keys and started it up. Yes, a 13 year old girl knew how to drive. She reversed it slowly into the spare space in the garage, careful not to hit anything. Fun Ghoul watched her drive it form the diner window, his mouth was half open in amazement. Diamond laughed at his expression.

"She learnt that from her mother," his voice was soft and he stared out the window at his young daughter, "she learnt most things from her…"

They all looked up at him and Curly was the only one that knew what he meant.

"What happened?" Kobra asked with sorrow in his voice

"We haven't always lived here" he started to explain, "We use to live about 40 miles in the opposite direction and her mother was a very dedicated killjoy. One day when Fusion was out with her mother, I heard a bang, a bomb from outside. Fusion screamed and then it went quiet. By the time I got outside there were dozens of draculoids surrounding our house. My wife…" his voice got weaker, he closed his eyes and put his hand over his face. "…she was already dead" he continued, "Fusion was unconscious, but she wasn't dead, I could tell. I took my daughter and I ran. I ran away from that place and we moved here, we built this place from nothing. Fusion tries to be just like her mother, she helps killjoys in any way she can. I'm all she has left, I could never leave her, she's already broken inside, she doesn't show it, but…" he never finished his sentence.

{ Chapter 4 }

The day went by quickly, it was now late at night and Diamond had given them all rooms to stay in; a nice change from the inside of a cold, dusty car. Each of them had their own room, even Curly; who stayed in the room that she was given when she stayed with them.

Jet headed downstairs to the diner to make sure everything was locked up and secure; a force of habit I suppose. A flash of light caught his eye from outside and he peered out of the window. The garage lights were still flashing and a few sparks were flying in different directions.

"She's not still working, is she?" he mumbled under his breath. He headed out to the garage to see what was going on. And he was right, she was still working on the car, it even looked cleaner, she had fixed the engine and she had even gotten rid of the dents in the hood and doors. She was currently working on the hinges; which had rusted and were making the doors barely attached.

"Hey" he said peering around the corner and sitting down behind her.

"What are you doing up?" she never even took her eyes off her work, she focused the whole time.

He never answered her; he just went straight through the conversation, "Your dad" he started, "he told us, about your mom" with this she stopped working but she never turned around to look at him, she kept fiddling with a locket around her neck.

"He really is all that you have left, isn't he?" he tried to look at her eyes but she was still facing away from him.

"Yeah" she slowly turned around to face him, "and this place"

"I'm sorry, you know if- "she cut him off "don't" she said sharply.

"What?"

"This world is completely falling apart, and you're in it, trying to make a difference. You don't to feel sorry for some stupid kid."

"Some stupid kid? That's not really the way I see it." She looked up at him to see him smiley gently at her, "so maybe you are just a kid, but you've put your suffering aside to help others. People you don't even know, people like us. This world has something going for it when there's people like you in it." He put his hand on her shoulder and she gave a faint smile.

"I don't really care what say" he added in, "you are a true killjoy!"

"You think so?"

"I know so!" he was giving a full grin now and she half smiled back, "so have you finished the car?"

"Yeah, it is" she kept pulling her gloves up every once in a while; self consciously, but Jet wasn't going to start asking questions.

He held out his hand to her and smiled, "you coming then?"

She took his hand, smiled her half smile and they both walked into the diner. There was sort of a height difference though, jet being very tall and Fusion being a 13 year old girl.

He brought her into her own room, made sure she was comfy and safe and he headed off into his own room. Within minutes the whole place fell completely silent.