Each Killjoy prepared for the oncoming fight quickly and deliberately. Bandanna's wrapped around noses and mouths to guard against inhaling dust. Masks on to prevent sand and sun in their eyes and because that was what they did. Making sure ray guns were fully charged. Pointedly ignoring the Doctor as he blathered on about how fighting was unnecessary and killing hundreds of mindless Draculoids wasn't going to help anything at all. Eventually the Doctor silenced himself and sat down at one of the tables, arms crossed in front of him, glaring at the others.
The sound of a car stopping suddenly alerted them to the fact that at least one gang of Draculoids had arrived. Though it was clear by he sounds of motors still running that more were on their way.
"Show time," Jet said, slamming the visor of his helmet down and leading the way outside.
"Stay here," Party said to the three staying behind, as if the instruction hadn't already been given a hundred times. The last to leave, Party locked the door behind him.
For a moment nothing happened, the Killjoys simply stood, staring down the Draculoids that were now looking slightly confused. Then one of them got too close to Kobra Kid and was knocked out with a quick jab to the face. And so the battle began. Trying desperately to ignore the sound of more cars pulling up and Dracs piling out, Kobra focused intensely on each individual Drac he was faced with. One was running at him and a shot to the chest stopped it in its tracks.
"Mother fuck!" he growled as a laser grazed his left calf. He shot the offending Drac in the stomach before kneeling down to examine the damage. There was a serious burn there that would need to be treated sooner rather than later. But his leg still worked. "You could've at least shot off that fucking scar," he said, glaring at the dead Drac. He didn't have much time to brood though, three more Dracs were heading towards him and he realized they were being slowly surrounded. Either the Queens were full of shit, or there were far too many for them to hold back. Kobra made a small sound of surprise as a Drac leapt onto his back, arms wrapped around his neck, trying to bring him down. After a few moments of struggling to breathe, Kobra flipped the Drac over his head and onto its back, shooting it in the face before it had even hit the ground. He swung out; striking another Drac in the throat and knocking it down before it could get a hold of him. Glancing around, he realized they'd all been separated from each other. Each one surrounded by a much larger group of Dracs. With a low growl, Kobra silently cursed that damned Doctor. He tried not to think too harshly on his older brother though. He knew Party had only done what he thought was right. Despite it being a royal cock up. Besides, if they were going to die here, which was looking increasingly likely, Kobra didn't want his final thoughts of his brother to be ones of anger.

"Alright over there, Koby?"

Kobra was pulled by his musings to see a grinning Fun Ghoul, who had just shot a Drac about to take Kobra by surprise. He raised a hand in thanks to his friend before refocusing his attentions back to the oncoming Dracs as Fun pulled his mask back down and also rejoined the fray.

Fun was having much too good of a time. With every Drac dropped he would let out a triumphant laugh, before turning to the next one. Small and quick, it was very difficult for any of his opponents to actually hit him. Lasers – when the hit – merely grazed him, and they were easy to ignore. Punches were easy to dodge, and kicks even more so. Fun laughed again, noticing the ring of dead Dracs beginning to surround him. Apparently he was doing good. One came at him with a punch but Fun side stepped, grabbed the arm, snapping it in half and pushing the Drac to the ground. He quickly shot it dead to make sure it wouldn't be a problem later and managed to duck down in time to avoid a Drac swinging a large stick. Where in the hell had he gotten that from? The Drac swung again and Fun raised his arm instinctively to deflect the blow. Pain shot up his arm and he cried out, fairly certain it was now broken. Nonetheless, Fun got to his feet and glared at the Drac, arm pressed to his chest. He wouldn't be going down so easily. Another swing, but this time Fun caught it with his good hand. Jerking the stick towards him, the Drac stumbled and bowed as he tried to regain his balance. Tugging again, Fun brought his knee up to connect with the Dracs face. Even under the mask, Fun could see he'd done some damage as the Drac let go of the stick and stumbled backwards. There was already blood dripping out from the bottom of the mask and the Drac wasn't moving. With grim determination, Fun brought the butt of the stick down on to the nose of the Drac, sending sharp shards of bone directly into whatever was left of his brain. Dead.

He gave the stick a couple of experimental swings. It felt good in his hands. Grinning dangerously beneath his mask, Fun swung the stick in a wide arc, knocking down a number of Dracs who had been attempting to get near him, with them on the ground it only took seconds to kill them all with his ray gun.

"Fucking awesome!" he crowed, swinging his stick again in victory. An effective weapon, he decided. And fun to use too.

A Drac raised it's gun at him, but before it could fire, Fun stepped forward and whacked it over the head with the stick. It crumpled to the ground but Fun continued to beat it until he was satisfied it was dead, or at least unconscious for a very long time. As he swung the stick back into a fighting stance he felt someone catch it from behind him. He spun, ready to shoot the Drac responsible but instead found himself looking at Jet Star. Or at least Jet's helmet.

"Watch where you're swinging that thing!" Jet said good naturedly.

"Sorry, bro," Fun said, saluting Jet and dashing off to whack some more Dracs over the head.

Shaking his head with a chuckle, Jet spun around and shot an oncoming Drac in the throat. He was not enjoying this fight. Not because he didn't enjoy killing the odd Drac now and then. It was the why of the fight he had a problem with.

He kicked a Drac between the legs and knocked it over the head with the butt of his gun.

The Doctor and Alice were nice enough people and Jet had come to the conclusion that they could probably be trusted. Probably. But risking their lives for them? He would follow any order given to him by Party but still, he was having trouble making sense of this one. They barely knew these people, and while it was clear Party had some kind of plan he hadn't yet shared with the rest of them, and this plan probably involved the Doctor. Was it an important enough plan to risk them all getting killed? Would the plan even be worth it if there was no one left to carry it out?

Jet cried out suddenly as a laser caught him in the shoulder. He lifted his visor briefly, just long enough to see how bad the damage was. A full hit, but it had missed anything important thankfully. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Jet flicked his visor closed once more and returned to the slaughter of Dracs. Although perhaps slaughter wasn't the right word for it. There were certainly a lot of dead bodies piling up. And so far none of them was a Killjoy. But there was still the never ending stream of Dracs. For every one he shot or beat, another two would take it's place. He couldn't help but be a little worried about the Crash Queens. Either they had lied and weren't doing a thing to help or they were suffering as badly as they were. If not worse. Jet shook his head. No time to think on that now. There were Dracs to kill. One came running at him, and Jet lifted his leg, booting it in the chest before shooting it down. Out of the corners of his eyes he saw a Drac on either side of him, both lifting ray guns pointed in his general direction. Jet waited a split second before dropping to the ground. The lasers flew over his head, past each other and into the opposite Drac. He grunted, pushing himself back to his feet, pain flaring in his shoulder as he did so. He took a deep breath through his nose, punching out a Drac to relieve some frustration, before narrowing his eyes in anger.

Up until this point he had seen Party handle himself his usual way in a fight. Very fucking well. The man hardly ever took a hit, and when he did, he ignored them. They were usually glancing blows, easy to ignore, easy to continue. It was however very difficult to ignore a fucking Drac on top of you, one hand wrapped around your throat, the other reaching for either it's gun or a rock to smash your brains out with. Shooting a nearby Drac in the head, Jet ran over to where Party and the Drac struggled on the ground, and with a cry of rage, booted the Drac in the face, sending it flying away from Party. He shot it for good measure before reaching out a hand to his friend to help him to his feet.

"Th-thanks," Party coughed, a hand rubbing where his throat hurt, the other grasping Jet's as he was hauled to his feet. "I'm not sure how that happened."

Jet shrugged and clapped Party on the back. "Don't let it happen again," he joked. "I'm too busy to save your ass all the time."

Party pulled a face at Jet's receding form and coughed a couple of times until his throat stopped feeling like it was on fire. To be honest he had no real idea of what he was doing. His plan for the Doctor and BL/Ind was based on flimsy information. So BL/Ind knew who he was? And he claimed to know nothing of them? Why would that mean anything? Why would that mean he should entrust his life and the lives of his gang – his family – to this mysterious man, who looked barely into his twenties?

Party spun, slamming his elbow into the gut of a Drac behind him, then bringing his elbow up to meet it's face. It stumbled backwards, dropping its weapon as it hit the ground. He shot it dead with barely a blink and glanced around. The Drac numbers were finally beginning to thin. BL/Ind were either running out of mindless drones to send out, or maybe the Queens were finally making some headway. Either way, it would all be over soon. Probably. Hopefully. He heard a footstep behind him and spun around, shooting as he went. The Drac went down. It was so fucking difficult to keep track of them. Their numbers may have been dwindling, but they were still everywhere. The Killjoys were surrounded. Looking around again, he watched Kobra struggling with two Dracs and another sneaking up behind him. Narrowing his eyes, Party raised his gun and shot the third Drac in the head. The other two Dracs paused in surprise, allowing Kobra to take them out. Party turned his attention briefly to the Diner where Alice, the Doctor and Sunshine were sitting. So far the Dracs hadn't thought to try and break in which was probably a good thing. As Sunshine was the only one in their armed/allowed to use a weapon, the defense in there probably wasn't entirely up to scratch. He spotted Sunshine sitting on one of the tables, peering out the window at him, worriedly. He smiled at her, giving her a small wave to let her know that he was absolutely fine.

And then suddenly he wasn't.

He glanced down in surprise, seeing a rather large hole in his side. For a moment he stared down at it in confusion, before dropping to his knees as the pain overcame him. A laser flew over his head, killing the offending Drac as Kobra ran over to him, concern and anger etched on his face.

Party was fairly certain the wound wasn't fatal. Probably. It hurt like fuck, but judging by it's position, most likely missed all the important bits.

"Daddy!"

"Sunshine no!" Alice and the Doctor cried simultaneously as the little girl shot the lock off of the diner door and ran into the middle of the battle in an attempt to help her father. She shot a Drac down as she ran towards him, but more were in coming. Party and Kobra both looked up in horror to see her no longer running towards them, but surrounded by Dracs. Apparently another load had finally made it through Zone 3. They were all surrounded. Again.

Seeing that none of the Killjoys would be able to make it to Sunshine in time, Alice immediately moved towards the door. She was stopped however, by a hand on her shoulder.

"Alice, it's dangerous."

"Exactly," she said, turning to face him. "She's just a little girl."

The Doctor looked at her and sighed. She was right of course. Criminal little girl or no, she was still just a little girl who needed help.

"Alright," he said. "Let's go."

With all the movement outside, the dust in the air was thick, and Alice and the Doctor had to squint to keep it from getting in their eyes. They covered there mouths with there arms in a futile attempt to breath non-dusty air.

"Sunshine!" Alice called, panicked. The girl had her gun raised, pointed forward and she was slowly turning in a circle, trying to keep an eye on all of the Dracs at once. She looked past one of them, staring wide eyed at Alice. The Dracs suddenly turned around, focusing their attention on Alice. Alice stopped suddenly and took a small step back. She had not thought this through. She was unarmed, and the Doctor only had a screwdriver which she really didn't think was going to be useful in this situation.

She glanced over at the Doctor who was clearly thinking frantically. He had not thought this through either. All they had wanted to do was protect a little girl. And they would be no use to her dead.

Sunshine's wide eyed expression suddenly became grim and determined. Quickly, she shot down three of the Dracs slowly advancing on Alice and the Doctor before one of the ones behind her picked her up by her collar and held onto her.

"No!" A panicked cry from Party who immediately doubled over in pain at the effort.

Alice noted Sunshine's gun had dropped from her hands as she'd been picked up. After a moment's thought she dived for it, skidding along the dusty ground, and lifted the gun, pointing it up at the Drac holding Sunshine. She shot it between the legs and rolled out of the way as it dropped to the ground, releasing Sunshine as it did so.

"Come on, sweetie," Alice said, taking Sunshine by the hand and pulling her towards the Diner. The Doctor was no longer in sight and for a split second Alice panicked. But, as she glanced behind her, she saw he had moved over to where Party and Kobra were. As Kobra handled the Dracs that were bothering them, the Doctor looked into Party's wound. "Back inside, kay? Your dad's gonna be alright. The Doctor's looking after hi-"

Alice's words were cut off by a blinding pain in her back and she stumbled, letting go of Sunshine's hand so she didn't pull her down as she fell. She hit the ground face first and her fingers curled into the ground below her as she tried to fight off the pain.

"Alice!" Sunshine shrieked, dropping to her knees beside the older woman. It didn't take long for the girl to find the cause of Alice's pain. There was a large, gaping laser wound in her back. "Alice, get up," Sunshine pleaded.

Everything sounded so far away to Alice. She vaguely heard Sunshine trying to get her to stand back up. And she tried. She tried to force her body to get back to it's feet but it just wouldn't listen. Somewhere in the background she could still here laser blasts and someone calling her name.

Alice!

A familiar voice.

Alice!

An angry voice.

ALICE!

A very far away voice.

It took her a moment to realize it was the Doctor. And she waited for him to come to her. But he wasn't there. Through her hazy vision she could see Sunshine. And the bright sun light. And men in vampire masks shooting at colorful mean in other odd masks. But she couldn't see the Doctor. Where was he? Why wasn't he saving her?

The burning in her back was slowly spreading to the rest of her body, and it hurt. It hurt so much. As Sunshine shook her, trying to get her to get back up, Alice winced.

And then it stopped hurting.

Well. It didn't. It still hurt, but the pain became dull. It was there, but it wasn't. She felt her breathing slow, and her heart beat grow weak and Alice realized: She was dying. It seemed to be taking a long time. But Alice wasn't entirely sure. It could have been mere seconds for all she knew.

"Run," she managed to whisper to Sunshine. "Please run."

Somewhere in the back of Alice's mind she was okay with this. Okay with dying. She was supposed to be dead anyway, wasn't she? Her world had been destroyed and had become this wasteland. If it hadn't been for the Doctor she would have died anyway.

The Doctor…

But Sunshine needed to live. Sunshine, who was such a beautiful, happy little girl despite everything. She needed to live.

"Please, Sunshine…" her breathing was ragged, and for a moment she could feel every granule of dust beneath her.

And then she felt nothing.