Chapter Five: Destroya

Shasta dashed out of the warehouse, running after Fanta. "Damn it, stay still, you obnoxious, infernal twit!" she yelled at the Killjoy who was now running zigzags down the street.

It was a strange sight to see. Shasta had stopped a few blocks away to take aim at the squiggling Fanta. The small girl with the massive cloud of purple hair was practically screaming her head off. She wasn't getting that far very quickly, considering her tiny frame. Desi wondered for a moment why she didn't duck into an alley. It's not like they dead end. Desi figured that Fanta must enjoy making trouble, and that she obviously denied Shasta would shoot her. Meanwhile, Desi had no such doubt. Shasta ran a tight ship, so to speak, and probably had the infamous Killjoy leader temper. It takes a special person to command a crew of Killjoys.

Maybe that's why Party Poison is such a prick to me. I get his guard up, for some reason. Shasta fired a shot, exercising top marksman patience. It narrowly missed Fanta's skull, and the white beam caused a lock of vivid purple hair to fall into the street. I just wonder why me being his sister irks him so much. Shasta fired another shot. This one grazed the elbow of Fanta's jacket, and the girl dropped to the ground, rolling with the motion.

"Bloody hell!" Black Rain exclaimed as she and a dozen other Killjoys leaned out of the windows of the second story. "I always wondered if she had a screw loose. Maybe it's just a death wish."

"No kidding," Rasta Blasta muttered. Fanta had recovered from her trick drop, and now sat in the street, legs splayed, hands in the air, surrendering.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, okay?" She exclaimed.

"Hate to tell ya, but sorry just isn't good enough, little girl." Shasta's voice was cold. What had Fanta done that had made Shasta so angry?

"Oh, you're all bloody, buggering, idiots!" Black Rain yelled from her spot in the window. "Let her go, De/Tox. She's just a kid, psychotic anathema to authority or not."

Shasta threw up her arms, and made that strangled noise girls tend to make when they feel like screaming. "The voltage was hardly even on!"

"That doesn't mean you have to chase her down the street and shoot her." Manic Phantom had appeared out of nowhere, and Desi jumped to see that she had been standing just to the left of her. Everyone is really good at sneaking up on me lately, and I say, it's getting old.

"She shorted out one of Candy's blasters. The misfire could have fried the nerves in her hand, stopped her heart, or even caused the blaster to explode and harm several Killjoys." Shasta shot the offending Killjoy a glare. "She's damn lucky nothing happened to my sister."

"It was just a prank," Fanta grumbled from her place on the ground. "How was I supposed to know that shorted blasters could be more dangerous than working ones?"

"Maybe if you listened to the people that are more experienced than you, instead of trying to kill them, you'd learn something." Shasta had holstered her blaster, and now stood with her hands on her hips.

Fanta grumbled something unintelligible, and stood up from the street, dusting off her jeans. "I won't do it again." she said, sounding more like a bummed kid than an apologetic Killjoy.

"Damn well better not." Shasta retorted.

"Okay, now that the crisis is over, can we all go back into the warehouse and finish evaluating the newcomers?" Manic Phantom asked, already heading back inside. Obviously, her question was rhetorical.

Rasta and Desi made their way inside, along with the small crowd of Killjoys that had come outside to watch.

"Now we know that you really don't mess with Shasta's sister or piss either of them off, huh?" Rasta said lightly, grabbing Desi's hand and threading his fingers through hers.

"I sure as hell don't want to find out how good her aim is on me. I don't have a protective curly purple 'do, and I never did run as fast as anybody else."

"You sure dance just fine," Rasta muttered, and slid his hand down Desi's back. She reached behind her, arresting his playful appendage.

"Behave, won't you?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.

"What if I don't want to?" Rasta questioned, being recalcitrant as he resumed his attempts to feel her up.

"You watched Lithium last night. I'll shoot you."

"Oh, Dizzy, you wouldn't." his green eyes twinkled a bit as he pretended to pout.

"You know I would." Desi stepped out of his reach as he moved in to kiss her. "You are so lucky that you're cute, 'cause I wonder why I put up with you." she smiled, happy that Rasta was around to flirt with and tease.

Rasta scoffed. "I thought I was the one putting up with you. Trigger finger, you're on Party Poison's hit list, Razor can't stay away. You're just a hot mess of trouble, Dizzy."

If anyone else had said that sentence to her, she'd have been offended. But when Rasta looked at her with his easy smile, she knew he'd never say anything with the intention to hurt her.

"Watch it, buddy," she joked as they melded into the crowd of Killjoys that surrounded Manic Phantom. "Party may have it out for me, but Kobra's got my back."

Manic stood in front of a waist-high stack of wooden pallets in the center of the warehouse. The twenty yards behind the makeshift ammunitions and weapons table were clear, and a large, laser scarred target stood against the wall. The target itself was shaped to vaguely resemble a person, and a Drac mask had been tossed over the 'head'.

"Listen up!" she shouted, and Desi noticed Manic's foot tapping. She seemed to do that when she was tired of Killjoy ADD. All heads swiveled to focus on Manic Phantom. "Jet Star and the other Fabulous Killjoys are out on a run right now, so he can't be here to show off and give advice." Sighs and complaints murmured through the crowd, but Manic interrupted them all again.

"You will just have to put up with the next best thing we've got, and it's not me. Kobra was almost glad to teach me karate, 'cause I couldn't hit the broadside of BLI HQ."

A Killjoy near the front raised his hand. "I give up; who's gonna be setting the bar?"

Manic snickered, and replied, "Well, none other than Desi Destroya, of course. Most of you guys all think she's so great, anyways." She looked over to Desi's spot near the edge of the crowd and narrowed her eyes. It was almost like she was daring her to be embarrassed enough to mess up. Maybe Jet Star isn't the only one waiting for me to prove myself. "Step right up, Desi, and give us some destruction."

As Desi walked up to the table, she pulled her blaster out of its holster. Well, Rasta keeps telling me I'm such a great shot. Let's see who wins that argument. "You looking for speed or accuracy, Manic?" she asked.

"Best you can do under surprise assault. And, it's Phantom to you." Manic Phantom replied with ice in her voice.

"Whatever, not like it matters." Desi grumbled as she put her back to the target, and tried to forget where it was. They want surprise assault? I'll give them some. Desi silently counted to three, and spun around, finding the target and sighting down her gun arm. She didn't even take time to breathe as she fired twice, straight into the center of the target's chest with the first, and shooting the ear of the Drac mask off with the second.

As she holstered her gun, a round of applause slowly started up. And, it didn't even sound sarcastic. I knew where the target was already. It's not like I would have been that good in a real attack.

"Well, well, well." Manic stepped forward to extend a hand to Desi. "Damn good, Killjoy." Desi eyeballed the hand in front of her. Despite her wariness of Manic's karate skills, she put her own hand out and shook.

"Had to intimidate the newbies, right?" Desi smiled, and turned up the Killjoy swagger Rasta always said she didn't have. "Besides, I could take out a gang of Dracs in my sleep."

The Killjoys who were close enough to hear laughed, and a voice called out. "I should know. She almost shot me in her sleep." Candy strutted to the front of the crowd, and Desi noticed a slight shake in her right hand. It must be the voltage from the misfire messing with her nerves. Is she downplaying the effects so Shasta doesn't really murder Fanta? "Now, since my attempt was, er, fouled up, could I have a go? Bet I could top Desi."

Manic looked at Candy. "Still trying with your blaster, or do you want to use the one we've got for those who are not so handily equipped?"

"I don't trust any blaster but my own. These two gremlins," Candy said, spinning her twin blasters around her fingers, "have saved my ass more times than I can count."

"Okay then. Step right up, cowgirl." Candy shot a look over her shoulder at Manic, and put her back to the target. Desi watched her contemplate; her fingers twitching near the holstered laser guns at her belt. Suddenly, Candy spun around, drawing as she moved. Her eyes snapped open, and she fired both blasters. Twin white beams flew straight into the dummy's chest, and she raised her arms, firing into the head. She left no doubt that the enemy was eliminated.

Candy holstered her blasters with some flashy twirling, and leaned against the stack of pallets. "So, guess I win, Desi. Gonna let me ride that hot bike with Rasta on our next run?"

Desi felt her face flush, and her trigger finger tensed. The bike is one thing, but my man is something entirely different. "No. He's mine, and the bike is off-limits, too." She narrowed her eyes at the girl.

"Whoa, feisty, eh?" Candy was laughing a little as she talked.

"Candy, you try being scared mindless that your man is dead or Dracked for almost a month, to then have a bubblegum cowgirl practically ask you for him as a prize the day after you get him back." She spun on her heel and headed for the door. "Of course I'm a little 'feisty'." It was a long walk, since the target range was in the back of the warehouse, but Rasta caught up to her before she was even halfway.

"She probably didn't mean it that way, Dizzy." he said. Trying to soothe a pissed-off Desi was like putting your head in a python's mouth. But, Rasta was practically a snake-charmer.

"That doesn't matter. She knew my story, bitched at me for being a wreck, saw how I felt about you. Then she went and said that. Not cool, no way." The heavy clomp of her boots echoed off the walls of the warehouse as she stalked across the concrete floor. "You haven't shot yet. You should probably head back, Ros."

Desi broke out into the sunlight. Even though it had been nearly twenty years since L.A. had almost burned to the ground, smog and smoke still hazed the sky. She only made it a few strides beyond the door before Rasta Blasta grabbed her arm. "I'm not going anywhere, not 'til I know you won't run off too far. Or worse, kill someone. There's dozens of Killjoys in there, and rank doesn't matter to me, anyway. I'm only gonna show off so we get grouped together during the raid." He turned Desi around to meet his eyes, and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I almost lost you once. I'm not letting you out of my sight again, not even for a minute." he smiled a little, and spoke again. "And, just in case you even wondered for a second, I'm not going anywhere for anyone else.

"The minute that I saw Razor pointing his blaster at you, scared, starving, and full of crazy new emotions that you never really felt in Battery City, I was more scared than I'd ever been. I knew right then, when I was more afraid for your life than mine, that you were the only hope for me, Dizzy."

Desi had never doubted Rasta, and now was no different. He was the most genuine, carefree, and protective person she'd ever known. Honestly, that wasn't many, since she'd only been in Razor's crew and roaming alone with Rasta. But, it was still true.

"When Razor wanted to kill you, and I asked you to leave, just get up and walk away with me, I was so scared you'd choose him over me. You've known him forever, and he was practically your brother. I was just a Killjoy girl who ran away from Battery City. I'd only been in your world for a little more than two years." Desi's body relaxed, her angry stiffness melting away. "When you chose me over Razor, Rasta, I knew there would never be anyone else."

"Hey there, Dez!" a voice yelled from a couple blocks away. Desi's head snapped up to search out the sound. Nuclear Spider was striding towards her and Rasta in his usual manner. Which, to say the least, was more like a squirrel dashing for cover than anything resembling a human walk.

Rasta sighed, and looked around for hiding places. "You feeling okay now, Dizzy?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Ros. But, before you attempt to jump into that dumpster, you do know that Spider already saw you, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, but that doesn't help with the reflex to run. That guy acts like a six year old amped up on sugar and caffeine. Twenty, four, seven." he spoke with a tone of exasperation. "It's frigging exhausting, that's what it is." Rasta kissed her on the forehead, and rubbed her shoulder. "I'm going to go run away on the pretense of joining the pissing contest inside."

"Any excuse for a Killjoy to have bragging rights, and everyone jumps." Desi said, and repressed a giggle. She turned to face Spider as he came closer.

Once you got past the 'sugar high squared by a caffeine rush' vibe the Killjoy boy projected, he was pretty adorable. Compared to Rasta, who was a few short inches from six feet tall, Nuclear Spider was in fact, kind of short. He was only a bit shorter than Desi, but that was counting the rioting shock of dark blond hair that insisted on standing up as though he'd stuck his finger in a light socket. A green skunk stripe was constantly flopping into his eyes, which were always wide open and vibrant blue.

He wore faded blue skinny jeans, and a yellow shirt with the batman symbol splayed across the chest. Over the shirt was a dark blue denim jacket, emblazoned across the back with Superman's symbol. 'The only two superheroes worth counting,' he'd once joked, 'besides the Fabulous Killjoys, that is.' He wore black and green high top shoes, a style most Killjoys passed over for boots or Chuck Taylors.

"How are you, Dez?" he asked. "I heard about your brothers this morning. Freaking crazy, huh?" The Killjoy talked at ninety miles an hour. When she'd first ended up in Razor's gang, it had been like he was from outer space. No one in Battery City spoke in any way other than a flat monotone, never even raising their voice.

"Yeah, Spider, it is freaking crazy. I had one heck of day." Desi quickly relayed the events of the past day or so, while simultaneously parrying several dozen questions from Spider.

"You think the Phantom was the one who left you the radio?"

"So far, that's my best guess. At least now I have a guess."

"Party Poison hates you because your mom was on the first Medicine trials? Not cool!"

"Tell him that."

"Rasta Blasta almost shot Fun Ghoul?"

"Yes. Fun Ghoul even looked a little scared."

Desi voluntarily left out the part about Lithium Razor paying her a visit. She didn't want to scare him or make him worry about her.

After Spider finished his interrogation, Desi learned that after Spider had left the gang, he had started rolling around with a couple of sisters from the Eastern Zones, not far from where Reno used to be. They had settled down in an old nuclear bunker for a couple of weeks, reading comics and shooting down the few rare Drac squads that found them. They'd had a nice thing set up, until the Fabulous Killjoys had found them when they were out on a food run.

"Are either of the girls particularly special to you, Spyde?" Desi asked.

"Nah, not really," Spider shrugged. "They're like sisters to me."

"Oh, cool. Well, you know that friend I was telling you about?"

"Um, yeah?"

"Her name's Candy. I think you two would get along great." And maybe then, she won't be looking at my man, Desi silently added, refusing to get mad all over again.

"Cool! Maybe I can meet her later?"

Desi smiled. Spider did everything 150% with tons of exuberance. "Definitely." He broke out into another of his huge smiles.

"Well, I'm gonna go watch everybody inside." Spider started to walk towards the warehouse, and suddenly turned around. "You wanna come with?" he asked, gesturing with both hands, over his shoulder.

Desi shook her head, and waved him on. "No, I'm good. I think I need some time to myself for a bit, okay?"

"Okay, catch you later, Dez." As Spider walked away, Desi headed down the street. She had no destination in mind, started to randomly take corners and explore alleys. Never before had she felt so safe in an area, to take the time to explore, instead of scout.

Rays of sunlight glinted off broken bottles and abandoned cell phones. Since Desi had overslept so much that morning, it was already past noon. It seemed like the smog and smoke might clear out for a few hours.

It wasn't very long before she had gone beyond the circle of warehouses that the Army occupied. As the surroundings became new and completely unfamiliar, she noticed evidence of a long-ago paintball fight.

Desi noticed paint everywhere. Yellow paint had splattered against the brick walls and aluminum facing of several buildings. Apparently, someone likes to climb a fire escape and get the high ground. She kept walking for several blocks, and started to get a feel for the different shooters.

The blue shooter didn't leave much behind, even when it was the spray-off of a successful hit. He didn't seem to be the shoot-until-you-hit-them type.

Red seemed easily distracted, with a lot of marks up high or in strategic spots on the billboards posted along the warehouse wall. Even though paint was everywhere, she didn't see much green, mostly just spray-off. Someone was kicking ass and taking names.

The colors of the paint were still fairly bright, not smoked over by the old fires at all. Obviously, the fight had happened recently, after the Army had moved in. I wonder who these Killjoys were.

She followed the paint marks around a few blocks and down several streets. It must be great to be secure enough to have a mock fight instead of a real clap.

Eventually, Desi saw paint splatter outlining the head and shoulders of their target. The splatter was made up of several shots from multiple shooters: yellow, blue, and red. They'd grouped up to take down Green. I'd gang up on someone if they were winning that bad, too.

The fight continued on, but the green paint seemed to stop all together. Must be a sore loser, then. With Green out of the running, Yellow seemed to take the lead, and dominated the other two shooters.

Curiosity got the better of her, and Desi started looking around. She was hoping, even though it was futile, for some sign of Green again. What happened to this Killjoy?

Right as she was considering the uselessness of her search, Desi noticed a green mark on a Dumpster several yards away. Success! She walked closer, to examine it, and noticed another mark, almost half a block from where she stood. Desi continued to find more paint splats, almost a dozen. She followed the trail, like an obsessed bloodhound, until she eventually broke out of the network of warehouses.

Before her was a huge pier, that had probably been a docking station for a cargo ship years ago.

The sunlight, weak as it was, still managed to glint attractively off the water and far away from her, Desi could see a pair of seagulls flying around an abandoned ship. I wouldn't mind a swim, but it's probably worse than jumping naked into raw sewage.

Desi walked to the end of the pier, and sat. As she stared out at the water, she let her mind wander, away from all the new information and stress of the past few weeks. Sometimes, being a Killjoy is so nerve-frying.

Desi looked around, wondered what she would have seen fifty years ago. Before the Riots, before BL/ind, before the Fall, L.A. may have been crazy, but it was beautiful.

Setting up the DDA here was rather poetic. Before the end of the world, all the crazy, wild, artistic and famous people lived in L.A. And, the only city that could be more of a home to the Killjoys was Seattle, but it was really far from BLI HQ, and not the best location to plan an assault when you're 1,200 plus miles away.

It's good to have a home. Even the most wanderlustful of Killjoysneeds somewhere to come back to when they get worn down.

"Dang, I thought no one could find this place but me." Fun Ghoul's voice suddenly came from behind her, and Desi nearly jumped six feet in the air.

Her head whipped around, and she narrowed her eyes at the offending intruder to her thoughts. "These boards haven't been taken care of for, like, twenty years, and they creak like hell! How come I didn't hear you?"

"Don'tcha know?" Fun Ghoul said, smirking. "I'm a ninja."

"Ha ha, that's likely. Hey, why are you down here, anyways?"

"Well, that's an easy one. It's my spot. I found it a few months ago, and I come here when five thousand Killjoys becomes too much family for me."

Desi frowned. "You're the life of the party, though. I don't think you'd ever get tired of your audience."

Fun Ghoul chuckled. "You'd be surprised, Destroya. Being this awesome takes a lot out of you." He sighed, and looked down at his feet. "Especially when every time you turn around, something reminds you of the one person you can't wait to see again. Except…" he trailed off. "You won't ever see them again."

"Kobra told me that all of you lost people in the First Assault. Important people…"

Fun Ghoul met her eyes. "You're a lucky girl. You got that Killjoy boy of yours back, alive and well. I think that's one of the reasons that Party Poison resents you. Well, I have another theory for one of his other reasons."

"Tell me you theory." If Desi couldn't get Party to accept her, maybe she could at least understand why.

"When Korse kidnapped Manic Phantom, it was like losing a comrade, a sister, and a daughter all at once. Party was furious at himself for letting S.C.A.R.E.C.R.O.W. win, furious at Korse for using people he cared about to get to him. He was just furious. Anger is how Party gets through it. If he can't sing it out, he'll shoot it out.

"He doesn't want to get attached to you, because he believes he'll lose you like he nearly lost Manic, like he lost Kaleidoscopic Cherry. If he refused to acknowledge you because he didn't see your mother as the same person his mother was, he wouldn't have kept tabs on you the way he did. Before you were a Killjoy, he and Kobra rarely argued about you. Their common goal was to make sure you were safe, even if it meant letting you stay a mushy."

"Wow…." Desi was speechless.

"I want to tell you something. We all had different theories of how to wrap our heads around the shit that went down in the First Assault. When I woke and started being a real Killjoy again, I thought about what makes us Killjoys, the things that divide us from the resistance that went down in a cheap defeat, defines us as more than mushies.

"We have a cause, obviously. We fight BL/ind. But how do we keep going? The world has practically ended, and if you think about it, we're outnumbered and overpowered beyond every chance. But we still feel. We hope, we dream, we love, and we create. Art is the weapon. Dreams are our anchor. Love is what keeps us fighting. Hope is our fuel.

"Don't lose your fight, Desi. I know you've got fire and spunk in spades. But, if you stop believing we can win this fight, you're going to go down in a clap you ran for, knowing you won't make it out. You may be Kobra's little sister, too, but we saw you several times while your boy was gone. I know the look that lived on your face. Party Poison had that look when he saw Cherry dead. It was the look on his face when he headed out for Battery City. And it was the look on his face when we drug him out of the Trans Am three hours later. It was months before he even so much as spoke.

"The Killjoys need as many things to believe in as they can get. They believe in you. No matter what hits you, don't lose hope."

Fun Ghoul came to sit on the pier next to Desi, and they sat there staring at the sun on the water for a long time. Neither of them spoke.

When Desi came back to the camp with Fun Ghoul around sunset, Kobra Kid and Rasta Blasta found them almost instantly. They both looked worried to hell.

"What happened?" Fun Ghoul asked.

"Well, jeez, besides Desi disappearing for more than six hours and then coming back with you?" Rasta Blasta glared at Fun Ghoul. I know he's worried about Fun Ghoul's reputation, but, that can't be all.

"Oh, come off it. I dig the protective boyfriend shit, Blasta." Kobra looked about to slap Rasta upside the head as he scolded him. "But, seriously, he's twice her age and you already warned him off. He's not the bad guy, here. We have bigger shit to deal with." Kobra looked at Desi, and his eyes were full of concern. "Several of the younger Killjoys are missing. Epic Strike and Fanta Explosion among them."

11