Jeopardy Jinx POV

It was harder to drive a motorcycle outside of… well… wherever I had been in death. I also had to deal with the semi-dressy clothes, which made weaving around the usual Route Guano debris difficult, to say the least. But I managed, even pulling my dressy blue, sparkly mask from my small black side-pouch purse and putting the mask on. Soon I was in Battery City, screeching to a halt in front of the tall building.

I felt a sense of déjà vu. But there was no irrational sense of fear—no undead friends, no 10-foot-spiders, and not even any Dracs. Well, scratch that. As I walked inside, I saw two dead Dracs, except these were wearing smiley face masks. It was almost creepier than the Dracula masks they had gotten their name from.

I made sure my mask was on, and ran up the stairs. No alarms were going off, so apparently the guys hadn't been discovered. I found myself in a long hallway. Almost silently, I stepped forwards. I heard two quiet shots from behind a door to my left, which was clearly marked "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W/ Unit". Through the glass, I could see a familiar figure. I toed the door open, and clicked the safety back on. Kobra was keeping watch as the others stood in the control room just inside this room.

Silently, I holstered my gun and walked over to Kobra. His gun was instantly trained on my forehead. I held my hands up, showing I was no threat.

"How?" was the incredulous question.

I quietly explained about the group of women and the two little girls. I would leave my experiences in the world of the dead for a later date. After I told him about everything, Kobra hugged me, which I returned whole-heartedly. Then the alarms started blaring.

"Poison," I heard Ghoul tell the red-haired man. "Time to go."

Poison had been hugging Girl—that much I could tell from the curly mass of hair peeking out from behind his shoulder. I pushed open the glass door, saying, "C'mon. We need to get out of here!"

I saw everyone's eyes snap to me.

"Jinx?" Poison queried.

I rolled my eyes in mock annoyance. "Well, duh. Let's go. I don't want to die again."

It seemed Ghoul had forgotten those two stun-shots, because as soon as we were outside, he hugged me. My aversion to human contact had vanished with my psychosis, so I hugged him back.

"Hey, you didn't shoot me!" exclaimed Ghoul.

I smiled wryly. "I can, if you'd like."

"Nah, I'm good."

We caught back up to the others fairly easily. All of us walked back downstairs to the lobby. There we found a swarm of Dracs waiting for us. With a fierce cry, I sprung into the fray. Drac after Drac fell due to my shots. Kobra fought to my left, throwing punches and shooting like a madman.

Riot finally found me, and I realised that I had missed that cocky smirk. We pressed our backs together, and turned in a slow circle. It allowed us to watch each other's backs while shooting any Dracs. It was also fun, because we had a better plan than said Dracs most times. From the corner of my eye, I saw Korse and a flash of red…

He'd cornered Poison!

I set out at a dead run, but I felt like I couldn't run fast enough. All I saw was the fear plain on Poison's face… Suddenly I was behind Korse, my arms around his neck, pulling as hard as I could. I ripped him backwards, shrieking, "GET HIM!"

Poison seemed like he was in shock; he moved incredibly slowly. I felt Korse struggling, and noted he wasn't as good a fighter as Kobra. Suddenly I remembered just how easily Kobra had thrown me to the ground, so I kicked the back of Korse's knee. He dropped to the ground. I pressed my knee into his back. There was a quiet shock and the struggling stopped. Jet stood there, blue ray gun still smoking. He smiled once, and went back to join the fray.

Before much longer, the fight was over. Even Girl had shot a few Dracs, herself. I wondered where NewsAGoGo had gotten to. With her alive, there would be no safety. I mentioned that to the guys. Everyone agreed that we needed to find her, so we split up to search. I walked with Riot, who was unusually silent. It bugged me.

"What's wrong?" I asked quietly.

He took a moment. "I'm afraid, Jinx."

I wrinkled my eyebrows in confusion. Since when did Riot get afraid? "Why?"

"I can't lose you again," he said, piercing me with those stunning emerald eyes of his.

"You won't," I insisted firmly. "Nothing—come Hell or high water—will keep me from you. Nothing."

That earned me an unfathomable look. "You can't promise that."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Riot cut me off, shaking his head. "Don't. Just don't."

"For the first time in my life, I can see things so clearly!" I said urgently. "I feel free, Riot! I'm not hallucinating. I'm not paranoid… No more psychosis! All of this terrible, awful stuff has happened to me, and you're scared? You're scared! I was dead! Am I scared? No. I'm ready to fucking fight! Now that I can actually think clearly, I'm going to fight like I never have before. I'm going to make BL/Ind crumble, Riot. With or without your help."

We'd made it halfway up the stairs to the second floor by that point. Something changed on Riot's face. "Jinx, you're making me feel guilty."

"You should," I retorted heatedly. "Stand up and be a man about it!"

Something flitted across his face I couldn't identify. Suddenly he hushed me. I let out an angry noise, hell-bent on continuing.

"I hear something!" Riot hissed, pulling out his gun and checking his mask.

I did the same, staying quiet. We crept up to the second floor landing, finding a loud commotion. Ghoul and Jet were the culprits. Dracs lay on the ground, piled all around the two. Jet raised his hand for a high-five. Ghoul had to jump to reach.

Riot and I continued on, until another scuffle was heard. There, we found Poison and Kobra fighting hard. Where was Girl…? There! NewsAGoGo had her, a curved blade pressed to the younger girl's throat. Girl was still struggling.

Poison saw her first. "GIRL!"

"Daddy!" Girl shrieked, reaching out for Poison.

I'll admit: I've never seen Poison's eyes get that big. Several things suddenly made sense. Girl was apparently Bandit, Poison's daughter. NewsAGoGo smirked evilly. "Well, it seems we've gained some valuable information on the untouchable—" she spat the word "—Party Poison. Who are your friends, though? The dead girl and the boy that's probably going to pieces as we speak?"

"Jeopardy Jinx and Silent Riot," I announced as I raised my gun. "Oh, and that blue-haired girl's such a bitch."

My attempt to distract NewsAGoGo worked pretty well. Her eyes flashed to me, and her grip on Girl loosened just enough for her to get away and run to Poison. The pretty Asian woman dropped her blade, and raised her own white gun. Time slowed down.

I dropped to the floor as the blast shot over my head. I fired a couple of rounds, but NewsAGoGo ducked out of the way every time. I realised that I had to get her back towards the guys. If I did that, one well-aimed shot would take her out forever. How the hell would I manage that?

I dove behind the woman, and she whirled. She was going to kill me if someone didn't act.

"Goodbye, News!" I sweetly chirped, waving.

Confusion swept across her face. But it was erased as the quiet shot sounded and she fell, dead.