Six

Jet Star gripped the back of the passenger seat with white knuckles. He was all for getting to the Killjoys soon, but Midnight wasn't exactly the best driver on the planet. Party Poison winced from the front seat when she hit another ditch going over a hundred miles an hour.

"We're not any use to them if we die in a car wreck!" Jet shouted over the rushing wind.

Midnight just gazed ahead, determined.

Jet sighed. Go figure. He was a Killjoy and he would end up dying in something as boring as a car crash. No action for him.

Cola looked nervous.

"Something the matter?" Jet asked him.

"I'm just worried. I mean, these are like my only friends, you know?" Jet nodded. "I've known Pony for almost my entire life."

Jet looked a little shocked. Pony was nice, but he sort of stayed away from everyone. And none of the new Killjoys had ever seen him with his helmet off—or even his visor up.

Cola noticed Jet's expression. "Yeah, he sort of keeps himself closed off with new people."

"Yeah," Jet said. "I've never seen his face."

Cola's face changed. It looked sad. "Oh. Well, there's a story there. Before we became Killjoys we were living in the slums. We didn't agree with BLI though. They tried to make us take the pills, but we didn't want to. Pony fought a Drac, and he slashed the side of his face with some type of sword thing. He has a huge scar now. I don't think he likes other people to see it, so he always wears that helmet."

Jet absorbed this new information. It certainly made sense.

They rode the rest of the way in silence.

Finally, they arrived at Zone 5. Luckily, it was one of the smaller ones. Like almost everywhere else, it was an old city that had been decimated with the bombs. This one, however, had more buildings, which was both good and bad. It would be harder for Dracs to find them, but it would also be harder for the Killjoys to find each other.

"Let's go find everyone," Midnight said, stepping out of the car. Although she was the youngest, the other three, even Agent Cherri Cola, seemed fine with giving her the leadership role.

Jet and Poison started off in one direction, and Cola and Midnight in the other, when she froze. "To the right!" she called, pulling out her ray gun and sprinting ahead.

"Jeez, Midnight, don't go rushing into battle by yourself!" Cola called ahead as he fumbled with his belt, attempting to get his weapon out. "Someone go after her!"

Poison rushed ahead and was at her side just as she threw herself into battle. The Killjoys and Dracs were in a standoff, and it was pretty evenly matched. Until the rest of the Killjoys showed up that was.

Poison and Midnight managed to take out three Dracs (he killed one, she killed two) before they even realized they were surrounded. Once Jet and Cola rushed up, they killed the rest of them within seconds.

"Whew," Ghoul said. "Good thing you guys got here."

"Now, we have to find it," Dr. D said.

"Find what?" Cola asked.

"There are maps and prints of BLI's new headquarters they're going to build. And more guns and ammo," Dr. D explained. "If we get a hold of those prints we could be able to infiltrate and shut down BLI for good!"

"Where do we look?" Midnight asked.

"I'm not really sure," Dr. D said, "but the Killjoy leader said he was sure they were here." Her dad's face hardened, and Midnight knew the other leader had died. "Pair off," he said.

He and Adrenaline headed back to the old Killjoy headquarters to see if they could round any information up. Cola and Pony went to the outskirts of the city. Ghoul and Jet went the opposite direction of Dr. D and Adrenaline, and Kobra and Poison paired up and headed deep into the city. That left Blaze and Midnight to take the left side.

Before they all left Dr. D said, "If one of us finds it, let the others know somehow so we can all regroup and fight our way out. This is the most important mission we've had yet, Killjoys! Let's go!"


Blaze and Midnight crept along the main street. No one was there. It was weird. Usually they could at least see a few people when they went out in the zones, but it seemed like no one here wanted to be out around the Killjoys. Maybe they were becoming more notorious. Midnight smiled.

"Where do you think BLI would keep something like this?" Blaze asked.

Midnight shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. They pay me to fight, not to think."

He cracked a small smile, and they continued down the street, looking for something that looked promising.


Kobra and Poison turned into an alley—and right into a group of Draculoids.

"Shit," Poison muttered, drawing his ray gun.

Without even thinking, the brothers were back to back, aiming and firing. There were only five Dracs, and three fell before the other two could even get in a shot. Kobra and Poison had to spin out and away from each other in order to avoid not being hit. Neither took any damage, and they were able to kill the other tow Dracs, but Kobra's charge on his gun was really low.

The sun had started to rise, and it was now fairly easy to see. Dracs seemed to have bad night vision, which had given the Killjoys an advantage, so they needed to find the BLI stuff and get out of there—fast. Kobra and the others who had been fighting for over a day now would be running out of ammo soon. Not to mention they would be getting really tired.

Poison hoped they found something fast.


"Dr. D! Over here!" Adrenaline called.

"What's this?" he asked.

"I think it's a map," she said with a smile. "A map of Drac hangouts here in Zone 5. And this one right here? It's got a little star on it."

Dr. D smiled. "Let's go."


Cola and Pony were crouched behind a dumpster.

"This is shit," Cola said. Pony nodded.

There were a ton of Dracs marching towards them. There was no way they could fight their way out of this one. The Killjoys really needed to get some grenades or something, but after bombs had nearly destroyed the whole world, there were less people willing to make more—even small ones.

"Let's sneak out and around here," Pony said. "They're moving pretty slow, hopefully we can get to the cars before they do."

Cola nodded and the two Killjoys took off.


A flare shot up and exploded in the air. It was near the Firebird and the van, Midnight thought. She looked over at Blaze.

"Think it's a trap?" he asked.

"I don't know. Maybe someone found it?" His gun charge was running low, and she could tell he was getting sloppy. He was tired. They needed to get out.

Just then, her tiny transmitter she kept in her vest pocket blinked. Only her dad could trigger that.

"It's him," she smiled. "Let's go."

They took off toward the center of the city, knowing that if there were any Dracs left they would be coming too.

Sure enough, they hadn't gone more than ten steps before Midnight heard something behind her. She turned to see at least ten Dracs close behind them.

"Shit!" she screamed. "Blaze, behind us!"

He turned just as the Dracs opened fire. Midnight rolled to her right, farther away from Blaze. The only way that had a chance was if they split the Dracs up.

"Blaze! Split up!" she yelled as she tore down an alley. Following her lead, he took off in the opposite direction. There was no need to say where they would rendezvous. If they made it back to the cars, everything would be fine.

Midnight took a hard left, then another right, hoping to throw off the Dracs. She was extremely fast, but she wasn't superhuman. They were. Those mindless BLI soldiers. They weren't very intelligent, and only knew how to shoot straight and kill, but that was about all they needed.

She sensed them getting closer and knew she would soon be overrun if she kept going straight. Her only shot was to find a side path that would be hard to follow. If only she could find an alley—there!

Midnight spun to her right and sprinted down into…a dead end.

Five Draculoids appeared at the end of the alley. She backed down as far as she could, looking for some way out, but it was hopeless. She was trapped.

A small Asian lady stepped out from behind the Dracs. She had a long sword hanging from her belt. It looked bigger than her. Midnight wasn't sure she could even wield it.

But one thing was sure. The Dracs could wield their ray guns, and they were pulling them out and slowly walking forward.

Midnight knew this was it. She didn't have any optimistic thoughts at the back of her mind that she was going to get out of this one. She wasn't. She had been stupid, made a mistake. She ran into a dead end.

"Sorry, dad," she whispered to the wind, and pulled her gun out behind her back. She was going to die—yes. She wasn't deluding herself. But she sure as hell was going to take a few more Dracs down with her.

Midnight Grace was a Killjoy to the end.