California 2019

Zone 5

Emma woke up to find herself sleeping in the backseat of an unfamiliar car. She looked at the seat next to her, where Jackie was snoring lightly. Emma opened the door and stepped into the bright sunlight, and looked around. Suddenly, everything that had happened the night before rushed into her mind - running from Dracs, rushing Jackie into the backseat of the old car, the redheaded killjoy on the motorcycle speeding ahead of them. Then screaming. Emma slouched against the car door, and sank to the ground, covering her eyes. Ashton laying on the pavement outside the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W unit. A gun being put to his head. And then Emma, herself, screaming, crying, pleading to go back. The brown haired killjoy telling her to shoot. Leaning out the car window, firing her ray gun. Swerving deadly beams. She opened her eyes and began to cry, still holding her head. She cried. She didn't know how long she cried for, but she didn't care - Ashton was gone. She turned her head, looking towards the front of the car. There, she saw the redheaded killjoy cleaning her motorcycle. The other two were nowhere to be found. Emma stood up, and swayed lightly. She looked all around her - and saw nothing but desert. Sand, dirt, cactus, and some rocks. That was all. She turned and started walking towards the short woman with the bike. She tried to speak when she reached her, but her throat was dry and she couldn't seem to make a sound. The woman smiled.

"Thirsty?" She asked, barely looking away from her bike. Emma nodded. The woman picked up a bag she had on the ground, and rummaged through it, finally pulling out a flask. She handed it to Emma and Emma drank as little as she could - she knew it would be difficult to replace - but she realized when she handed the flask back that she had drank more than half of the water.

"Thanks." She mumbled quietly. The redhead nodded, and stopped wiping the dust from her bike for a moment. She threw the rag on the sand.

"D'you have something to wear out here?" She asked.

Emma nodded. "Yeah. I have it all in my bag - and Jackie has her things, too."

"What's your name?" The killjoy asked. Emma cleared her throat.

"Emma. Emma S-" The woman cut her off.

"I didn't mean your actual name - your killjoy name. But either way, nice to meet you, Emma." She smiled "A word of advice - don't tell many people your actual name - you never know who you can trust, and we don't need any surprise attacks from the Industries." Emma blushed.

"I-I don't have a killjoy name." She looked down. "What should it be? How do I pick it?" The redhead shifted, and looked away.

"I don't really know - I mean, it can be anything. I'm Poison Heart, by the way. Should've told you earlier, sorry." She smiled.

"What does that mean? I mean, to you?" Poison looked away. "It's not important, never mind. Sorry" Emma apologized.

"No, it's not too personal or anything. Just - when I picked it, I was...bitter. I felt like my heart had been, well, poisoned." She looked at Emma and smiled softly. "Anyway, if you have trouble picking one, just go talk to Val."

"Who's Val?" Emma asked. "Was she in the car yesterday?" Poison nodded.

"Yup. She's got brown hair. Yellow mask." Emma nodded.

"Alright - but where is she?" Poison picked up her cleaning rag, and nodded her head to a spot not too far from where they were standing.

"She's over there - probably drawing, or listening to Static talk." Emma nodded, and walked off towards the other two women.

"Hey! How are ya?" One of them called out cheerfully as Emma approached. Emma acknowledged her with a nod. As she got closer, she noticed she was the tallest girl in their group, with multicolored hair and blue eyes. The girl bounded over to her.

"I'm Static Symphony - Static for short. What's up?" She asked. Emma looked at her.

"Not-nothing. I just wanted to talk to Val - is that her?" Emma asked, pointing a finger at the third woman, sitting on a rock, and turned away from them. She noticed she had short, brown hair, cut in some sort of faux-hawk style.

"Yup. That's Val. She's drawing, but she won't mind you. It's me that annoys her. Always has been, always will." Static laughed, and Emma wondered how she was so happy about being annoying to someone in her group. The two walked over to Val. She was so absorbed in whatever she was doing that she didn't notice them walk up behind her. Static leaned towards her, and spoke suddenly.

"Hey Val." It wasn't much, but it made Val jump. Emma noticed she was drawing on a scrap of paper, already covered in drawings. Val threw a small stone at Static.

"Thanks, Static. Thanks a lot." She growled. Static smiled.

"Anytime, sis!" And she bounded off towards the car. Emma looked at Val questioningly.

"You two are sisters?" She asked. Val sighed.

"Three. Poison's our older sister." Emma was dumbfounded, and Val smiled.

"What? We stick together - even though the youngest one of us is an annoying little shit." Emma smiled.

"She doesn't seem that bad." This time Val laughed, and brushed the hair out of her eyes.

"Give it time. She'll drive you nuts one of these days." Val cleared her throat. "Anyway, did you need something?" Emma nodded.

"Umm, yeah. Poison, she said I need a killjoy name, and that you could help me out." She looked away nervously.

"Alright." Val said. "Lemme think...I'm thinking something to do with how you became a killjoy - I mean, we picked you up at night...Night...Dark...Moonlit. That's good...and, umm, what else..." She trailed off, and looked away. Emma smiled - midnight. So far, so good.

"Hmm..." Val spoke again. "Moonlit... and what else...you seemed really driven last night...maybe anger. No, umm, fury? No, wait - Malice." Val smiled.

"Moonlit Malice. What d'you think?" She looked at Emma, smiling slightly. Emma thought it over for a moment.

"It's perfect." She said. "Um, Val...is that your full name? Or is it short for something?" Val nodded.

"Yeah, my full name's Graffiti Valentine. Val for short, as you know." Emma nodded, and her stomach growled. Val laughed. "C'mon, let's head back. We'll get you something to eat." Val got up from her rock, and the two headed back to the others. While walking, Val spoke "Remember, from now, you're Moonlit Malace - any idea of a short form?"

"Malice. It makes me sound tough." Emma said, jokingly. Val laughed, and put an arm on her shoulder.

"You are tough. Trust me, you'll be fine."

When they reached the group again, Malice noticed that Static was sitting on the ground with Jackie. She walked a bit faster to see how Jackie was, and Val stayed a few paces back.

"Hey, Jackie, how're you doing, sweetie?" Malice asked, sitting beside the small girl and putting an arm around her shoulder.

"Good. Static was telling me a story about someone falling off a motorcycle." She giggled, and Val shot an angry look at Static. Static smiled innocently.

"What? I didn't use names or anything." She laughed, and looked at Malice. "So, what's your name now?"

"Moonlit Malice." Emma said, and Jackie looked at her like she was crazy.

"No, you're Emma." She said. Emma looked at Static, who looked at Val, who looked unsure of how to explain everything to the girl. Poison's voice came from behind them just then.

"Hey, honey. How are you?" She asked Jackie.

"Good." Jackie said, and she looked away shyly. Poison sat on her other side.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Jackie."

Poison smiled. "That's a pretty name. Alright, Jackie, I have to tell you something, and it's really important that you pay attention. Okay?" Jackie nodded.

Poison cleared her throat. "Jackie, when you left Battery City last night, do you know why we had to hurry?" Jackie shook her head. Poison continued, "Well, there were some very bad people. And we had to get you out safely. Now, you need a special name - a code name, you could say - because we don't want the bad guys to hurt you. You understand?" Jackie nodded slowly.

"But why do they want to hurt me? I didn't do anything to them." Poison sighed.

"Jackie, no one knows why they want to hurt us, but they do. So now, we need to find a new name for you. And - and you can't tell anyone what your real name is. Okay?" She bit her lip, and looked at Jackie. Malice squeezed the girl's shoulder in support.

"So - so no one can know I'm Jackie? Ever?" Tears welled up in her eyes. Poison shook her head.

"The only people that will know you're really Jackie are Malice, Static, Val, me, and you." Jackie wiped the tears from her eyes.

"But if I don't tell people who I am, how can I find my daddy?" Poison looked shocked.

"Why would you need to find your daddy?" She asked.

"He left when I was little - I don't remember him. But mommy does and she said he loved us still and he didn't want to leave us, not really."

Poison cleared her throat and sniffed. Her sisters could tell she was close to tears. Static jumped in.

"Anyway, Jackie, let's pick a name. If we find your daddy, he'll recognize you, so it'll work out." Jackie smiled.

"Umm, okay. What do I pick?" She looked expectantly at the older women around her. Val spoke.

"Well, what do you like? Something really nice, that makes you happy. And that you won't get tired of." Jackie thought for a few minutes.

"I don't know - can I be Angel?" She asked hopefully. Val nodded, and added,

"You need something else, something different from anyone else...how about we add Threat to that? Threat Angel?" Jackie smiled.

"Okay - but Angel for short!" The older killjoys smiled. Malice hugged her.

"We'll be okay, Angel." Angel hugged her back.

"I know." She leaned back and looked at Malice. "Now what do we do?" Malice looked at the other killjoys, who shrugged.

"Well, you guys should get changed, eat, and then...we can look for somewhere to stay tonight." Poison said, before walking away.