54

Joey felt like a freaking super hero.

When Seto had shoved the high-tech looking grenade into her hand and told her to get to the top of a medium sized skyscraper as though all their lives depended on it, she had been too frantic to ask why. She hadn't bothered running around like a chicken with her head cut off, she just punched her way to the stairs, then leaped up like a freaking superhuman grasshopper. Within moments the smell of ultra-sweet vampiric blood and the rusty metallic of human blood had filled her sinuses like too much perfume and she crashed onto the scene. Hoping it would work, she shoved in the button on the grenade, shoved it down the freak's throat, grabbed the bleeding Atem and Yugi, and ran head first out of the window like a boss.

It wasn't till the explosion sent her spinning head over heels as she fell that it occurred to her how very, very stupid that had been. Atem's black wings snapped against the wind alongside her like a loose, leathery tarp. Even if they had been working there was no way it could have held up both Yugi and her arse.

"Aw SHIIIIIII-"

Then something hard collided against her. The fall jolted to a stop, and Joey found her face inches from the ground, clinging awkwardly to an unconscious vampire and a limp Yugi clutching a bloody arm to her middle.

"What the hell, Joey, you were suppose to push the button right before you used it, not—jumping out of a window? Fifteen stories?"

They'd have to talk later. Rubble cracked about them from the sky. More explosions thundered about the city. Armegeddon was at hand.

Seto more tossed her towards the car than set her on her feet. Still spiked with adrenaline, she flashed over, tossed the two into the back, shoved the rest of Atem's wings after him, and tried to crawl in herself. The front seat snapped back onto her rear.

"Hey!"

Seto slammed the door closed and mashed in the gas. G-force threw her into the mass of vampire and squawking best friend.

"Joey?" Yugi somehow managed to choke out.

Alas, super hero Joey was too busy getting her breath back for more screaming.

Mokuba's fingers on the side of his seat had gone white.

"Seto, we're not—"

The wheels hit a ramp. Joey went weightless, damp dragon wings rising with her.

Her breath snapped back into place for another scream.

Then SLAM! The car hit back down with an unsettling crunch of wheels and metal, and Joey onto two very non-squishy bodies. An elbow jabbed into her gut, knocking the wind from her.

"OPEN YOUR EYES!" Mokuba screamed.

Joey did so, wondering why the hell he tell her to do that, only to have her gaze fall on Seto's face. What she saw sucked all the blood from her face.

The freak was driving with his eyes closed.

With an unreal sort of skill and reflex, Seto twisted the steering wheel about, dodging falling debris and buildings like someone in a video game, and not a very realistic video game at that. Tires squeeled and bounced over rubble, black smoke and plumes of white dust blinded the windshield. Even if the crazy had his eyes open, she doubted he would have seen much.

A hand gripped her arm over the mass of unconscious wings.

"Joey," Yugi squeaked.

Then they flew up once more.

"We're gonna diiiie!" Joey wailed.

And then, just as suddenly, it stopped. The thundering of explosions still sounded about them, but it came from behind, and the smoke in front of the car thinned. Clear, smooth road opened up before them.

Kaiba opened his eyes with a gasp, jerking over the steering wheel. The car swerved slightly and started to slow.

"Mo-Moki…" he said faintly.

Then keeled sideways over the consol.

Mokuba jumped over his limp brother to grab the wheel as it slid from his white hands. Somehow, he managed to pull them over as the car came to a stop, but even then the older Kaiba did not stir.

Joey clawed her way from the backseat to see his face. "Moneybags?"

Mokuba appeared on the driver's side, heaving his brother out of the seat.

"Help me!" he yelled.

Joey did more clawing, and somehow managed to get the floppy mass of unconscious vampire into the back without breaking his spine and her into the passenger seat. Mokuba had the car going at break neck speed by the time her buttcheeks hit the seat. From the back she heard Yugi grunting as she tried to find space for herself.

"Did he—"

"Drive us through an exploding downtown with his eyes closed, yes," Mokuba sounded half Kaiba-cool, half hysterical. "I think those were just warning bombs."

"What the hell for? Don't suck any more blood, you sickos?"

"To get the last of the uninfected out of town. Do you really think leveling the city with normal bombs would get rid of all the vampires? No. It's a nuke or nothing else."

"Isn't that a good thing? We can still get out before we're sleeping with the cockroaches."

"Not if Yugi is the cure," Mokuba swerved out of the way of an abandoned bus in the middle of the road.

"But, Atem's still got those wingy thingies."

"Those are entire limbs, Joey. They're not going to poof away just because what's sustaining them is gone." Another swerve—Joey was smooshed into the door.

"Do I need to ask how a twelve year old knows how to drive like James Bond?"

Mokuba's thin mouth managed a smirk. "Nope. Open the glove department and get the phone out from there, will ya?"

Joey did so, but not without a sense of nausea as Mokuba performed so more stunt double like action moves with the car. The glove compartment opened up to a set of high tech looking devices clipped into place, and whose black screens stared back at Joey without a hint as to what they did.

"Uh, which-?"

"Last one on the right."

She fingered it out right after she had to brace herself against it to stop herself from face planting into it as Mokuba made a sharp right. Once she got it on and managed to squeeze pass her awe of the super high-def screen, she asked what next.

"Open the contacts and call Emergency 5."

"And I'm to say…?"

"Upload our coordinates and say the Kaiba's found a cure and are heading to West Interstate 15."

"…It can't be that easy. Are you sure this isn't your normal twelve-year-old-ness poking through?"

"Joey!"

"Calling! Calling! Jeeze, both of you are freaks of nature, I swear."

Whoever she was calling picked up on the third ring.

"Mayor Maximillion Pegasus here. I've been waiting, Kaiba-boy."

Joey nearly dropped the phone.

Everything sort of fell into place like the last water swirling out of sight down a drain. Joey robot repeated whatever Mokuba said before Mokuba put the freaking mayor on blue tooth. The gist of the conversation consisted of a creepily amused mayor (how he could be with his city melting like this) hearing Mokuba out about Yugi and the cure, making sure Mokuba understood that they would all be taken into custody, before offering a spot they could meet. Mokuba made the man promise they would listen and give them the best care (not just locking them up with the masses in prison like they had attempted to do before), before giving their position from the car's gps and agreeing to the meet up point.

Some driving. Joey accidentally tore holes in the seat when she clenched it in fear on seeing the army closing in around them. But even Mokuba's stern looks or the armies threats would separate Joey from Yugi, who had passed out from blood loss sometime in the journey. She clung to her until they led her to a makeshift bunker room filled with reassuring doctor's that allowed Joey to hold on to Yugi's uninjured hand while they worked on her. Someone got her a chair, and the next thing Joey knew she was waking up with her head nuzzled into Yugi's side on the hospital bed. She shot up, ready to bite someone's head off, but she still had Yugi's hand and only a kind nurse remained by the bed.

"Everything's going to be okay," she told Joey softly. "No one is going to hurt you."

Joey highly doubted that, considering they had to know what she was. The growing thirst in the back of her throat reminded her of that as well.

"Where are the Kaiba's? Atem? The winged dude?"

"The Kaiba's are out with the mayor, running tests. Atem is being treated as well." A peculiar expression crossed her face and she met Joey's gaze with an unsettling sternness. "They say he's human, though he doesn't look it…was it really her blood?"

Joey didn't much care for that question, despite their whole intent on revealing the cure. She was too tired, too thirsty, and too worried about her sleeping, bandaged up friend.

"That's what I gathered. But if I catch someone trying to drain her like some sort of fruit—" Her sudden, elongated fangs cut through her bottom lips, cutting her off.

The nurse stiffened, stinking the air with her fear. "I am doing no such thing."

Not wanting to tear her mouth up more with talking (gal, how did vampires manage it?), she settled for a snarl and settled her head and arm protectively over her friend's chest.

Despite her threats, as quiet minutes rolled into an hour, Joey once again nodded off.

Author's Note: Sorry for the late update. I'm lame. No other excuse.