Part Two: Vampire Money

"May I kindly suggest that you lower your weapon?" Danger asked coldly. She stood stock still a few paces away from the Zombie and stared icily at her. The Zombie's jet black eyes refused to move from the two armed Killjoys until she heard a low 'click' as Danger took the safety off of her own bright blue ray gun and raised it in the air.

"Three to one," she taunted. "You choose."

After a moment of hesitation, the Zombie lowered her guns away from Caitlin and Kevin's heads and held them at her sides.

"Good choice." Caitlin growled without moving her own weapon. "Who are you?"

"My name is Jenny. You could say I'm in charge around these parts," she spat. "Who are you?"

Caitlin smirked, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Well, to be honest, she probably already did know.

Danger lowered her gun slowly, and the other Killjoys took the 'click' of her putting the safety back on as their signal to do the same. "Now," she said with a cheesy cheeriness. "What's all this about then?"

Jenny glanced at both of the Zombies laying dead on the dry, hot dirt. She looked back up at Caitlin. "One of the Draculoids you shot this morning was very closely affiliated with our group – "

Kevin glared at the Zombie with fire in his eyes, tightening his grip on his gun. A small frown possessed Danger's face.

"I am afraid that we are unable to let that one go," she turned now to look at Danger. "However, we would happily bargain a deal with you after which, if you went through with your end, we could call our teams equal of score."

Danger raised her eyebrow. "What would that be?"

Sunlight threatened to break the shadow that Racheal was hiding in beside the bar's solid front door. The oak was thick enough to stop her from hearing whatever was going on outside, but if she tilted her head to the side, she could see past the patches of dirt caked onto the window.

She saw Danger nod reluctantly, and the Killjoy that had been shot in the ambush was standing now, looking very angry and ready to draw her ray gun at any moment. They man who had shot the Zombie off of her was, by now, half way across what would have once been the bar's parking lot, stabbing agitatedly at the dirt with the tip of his steel cap boot.

Racheal squinted as Danger stepped forward and shook hands with the Zombie, and Caitlin finally relaxed a little and put her gun away. The other guy didn't even bother turning around, but kicked angrily at the red dirt.

Racheal slid out of the shadow and scurried back to her bar stool as the Killjoys turned back toward the bar and the Zombie strode back toward her car.

"Hi," Racheal greeted them sheepishly as Caitlin pushed her way through the heavy door, trailed by Danger and a fuming Kevin.

"What's up." Caitlin nodded.

"Racheal, this is Caitlin and Kevin," Danger told her distractedly without really looking in her direction.

Racheal watched as Caitlin silently placed her dusty ray gun down upon the bar top. She scooped her hair up into a messy pony tail and secured it with one of the colorful bands around her wrist.

"Well," said the third Killjoy once Kevin had glared angrily at Danger for long enough. "I guess we have some packing to do."

"Are you a fucking idiot?" Kev demanded wildly as Danger messily shoved some spare clothes into her duffel bag. She could hear Racheal and Caitlin chatting as they packed weapons in one of the side rooms, and Danger avoided eye contact with him as she grabbed a blanket off of the bar and pushed it into her bad.

"We had to do it. Any chance to save the world, right?"

"You just made a deal with a goddamn Zombie – for all you know, they'll turn on you and kill you before you even get there."

"Maybe," she shrugged. She paused for a moment, searching for that feeling in the pit of her stomach that told her she would care if this happened. She found hollowness in its place. "But they've got a Nuke. We have to try." She grabbed a photo frame and laid it on top inside her bag before zipping it up. "Besides, you've dealt with the Zombies before – they'd have it in for us forever if we didn't go along with it, and even we can't run forever."

"Yeah but we take some fucking Zombies." he spat. "You're talking about taking down a whole god damn organization of Dracs!"

"She said there were only a few. Rogues. We'll do it." She spoke the words without confidence.

"Yeah," he replied distantly. "Maybe you will."

Danger turned and stared at him for a moment. She saw decisiveness in his eyes. "Then you stay and look after the 'house' for us," she tried not so sound angry, but she was. "Get Caitlin for me? The two of us need to make a plan."

"Alright, so when we infiltrate, we'll have to know the place like the back of our hands," Danger told them, tapping her pen on an empty page of dirty notebook paper.

Racheal raised her eyes to glance out of the window above the bar. "Dark's creeping in," she noted. "If we gotta do it, we have to get in early. Move by morning."

Danger looked up at her, nearly surprised. "We?"

"You, me, Caitlin and Kevin…"

Danger shook her head, "You're not coming with us."

"Uh, yes I am." Racheal said, insulted. "The more of us, the easier it will be."

"It's going to be really easy when you get your head ripped off by a Drac," Danger's voice rose. She took a moment and sighed, "look, we've known you for five minutes. We've never seen you fight. Me and Caitlin don't have enough fire power to protect ourselves and you if you get in trouble. I'm not going to have your blood on my hands. If you want to stay, fine. Stay here with Kevin. But you're not coming with us."

Racheal opened her mouth to shout back, but Caitlin cut her off. "We're going to have to know out way around, like you said. If we go in dressed as in Integrated Drac, it'll look kind of sus if we can't even find the ladies room."

Racheal sighed and bit back everything she actually wanted to yell at them. "Wouldn't it be easier to go in as a new recruit? Then you can act as lost as you want."

"Brain washing," Caitlin answered simply. "As awesome as we are, no one can make it through that still thinking like a Killjoy."

"Might still not make it like a Killjoy." Danger mumbled darkly.

They stayed silent for a moment.

It was Caitlin who broke the silence again. "What do we do once we get in there. Find the nuke and disarm it? Kill the Dracs, and go?"

"If we can, perfect." Danger told her. "But I think from the point that we infiltrate the building, we'll just have to play it by ear. That Jenny chick said it was only a few rogue Dracs that's she'd found out about, so they should be relatively easy to get. If we can get past everyone else."

Caitlin's eyes looked haunted as she slumped down in her chair.

Jenny glared out of the windscreen of her sleek car as she sped along, the desert whirring past her must faster than it should be. "Target locked," she said coldly into the wireless receiver in her dash board as she pressed her foot harder against the accelerator. "Tell the Dracs that they are coming."

"Over and out," a voice crackled from the other side.

Aadya groaned as her cell phone blurted out a distorted tune to wake her up. She rolled over in her sleeping back, catching her left foot on the fabric and tangling it behind her right leg. She blindly grappled for her cell phone in the tufts of grass beside where she lay beneath the stars, drew it to her ear and, eyes still closed, answered it groggily, "Talk."

"Aadya?"

She opened both her eyes and stared up at the sky. "Danger? Long time no talk, Killjoy!"

Instead of friendly and at ease, her friend sounded distracted, "Listen, where are you?"

"Uhmm…" she thought for a second, looking around. "Middle of zone one."

"Can you get to zone three?"

"You know I don't zonehop anymore. Too dangerous."

"It's important," Danger hesitated. "I'll tell you when you get here."

Aadya closed her eyes in defeat and sighed, "When?"

"Sun up?"

She heard Danger begin to say something else as she hung up.