I awoke with a start. Beads of cold sweat ran down my face. It's ok. Only a dream, only a dream. I thought to myself while I regained my breath. I saw the sun was out so I figured it must be morning already. It should be around nine or so. I stretched out and saw Lawbreaker fast asleep with no signs of waking up soon. I figured I'd let her sleep for a while longer cause I didn't want a cranky Lawbreaker today-or any day for that matter. Ikept thinking about my dream and what it meant until I realized it wasn't only a dream, it was the memory of the day I lost my parents. My brother and I had fled the scene as soon as we found Korse taking away their dead bodies. We both knew we couldn't fight him and win. It was then that I decided to become a killjoy. I now laugh at the irony. I had swore to his face that I wouldn't be a killjoy and there I was, telling him that I wanted to be one and I wanted him to teach me. Oh cruel irony. Though why would I remember it just now? It had to be some sort of sign right? Like a vision or something. Great, now I'm talking like dad. Don't get me wrong about it, its just that I never really believed in that sort of things.
My head no longer hurt but my side did a little. I checked my wound and it had looked better. I got out of bed and started walking around the room. Staying in bed is starting to get a toll on me. Mental note: never stay in bed for too long or you'll be as stiff as an oak tree. Easy enough to remember. I opened the door and walked out. I closed the door quietly so as not to wake everyone up. I kept walking down the hall and found a computer on top of a small coffee table. I turned it on and entered my name and code to start a session. It took about a minute because it was an old computer and it was kinda worn out. As soon as I was on my homepage I entered the location I was in (the california desert-battery city), Party Poison's code and hit the search button. That guy doesn't trust me and I need to find out more of this base. I need to know if I can trust them. I can't just be here without knowing about them. Know your friends and enemies, that's what my mother always said. Right now, I didn't know what they were to me. A friend or foe? I looked up more about these guys before I heard one of the doors open. Though it was clear that the person didn't want it to sound because he cursed slightly under his breath when it squeaked slightly. It was just so quiet that I could hear. I didn't know who it was and I wasn't going to find it out. Party would kill me in an instant without a doubt. I quickly closed the tab and shut down the computer, completely forgetting to log off or delete the history for. With that thought in mind, I got away from the computer and ended up in the kitchen. I sighed in relief when I saw who it was. "Hey. Woken up by hunger?" It was Fun Ghoul. Glad that it wasn't Party Poison I smiled. Man I swear he'll be the death of me one day. Good to know his name but it would be fun to call him 'the short one.' He came over to the kitchen. "Not really but food would be nice right now. Hopefully not the unknown canned dog food." He laughed a little." We have bread ,eggs and milk too, don't worry. 'Sides, I just invented the dog food part." He was still lightly laughing but stopped when I semi glared at him."You made me believe that was dog food? That's gross!" "I know. It was just a little prank I made. It gets quite boring here sometimes." "Fine. But it's still gross." His stomach rumbled in protest of his brain forgetting to feed it. "It's supposed to be Jet-Star's turn to cook but I'm hungry and he's asleep." He complained. I rolled my eyes playfully. "I'll do it" he gave me a questioning glance and I sighed " I know how to cook, I'm 16 and I've lived alone for quite a while." I took out a frying pan from a cabinet. "Sides, I'm not disastrous in the kitchen." He shrugged it off and took a can. "I'll feed Thunder while you get breakfast done." He seemed hesitant before telling me the next part. "He doesn't bite, does he?" I chuckled as I shook my head. "He won't bite. You'll be fine." He seemed relieved and left to open the door to let Thunder in. As Thunder came in he barked happily. He came running towards me, pleased to see I was ok. "Good mornin' boy. Nice day huh?" I pat his head and ruffled his ears. "Fun Ghoul's gonna feed you ok. Don't bite." I warned him before washing my hands to start on breakfast. I knew he wouldn't bite but I told him just in case. Thunder tended to attack people he didn't know, or even a stuffed toy dog. He yapped in response, indicating that he understood the order, and sat down near the table. Fun Ghoul then took out a plate and a can and served him his breakfast. I looked around for the food but found an old recipe book. It's the 2012 edition! How much had I looked for the book and there were about four copies here! I proceeded to find the eggs and bread Fun Ghoul told me about. I used one of the classic gas station recipe mixed with my mom's latin cooking and dad's american specialties. There are four killjoys here so 4 plus 2 is six and Grace would be seven. Seven servings it is. I returned for my bag that was in the room and brought out the food I had stolen the day before or so. I made sure to cook extra for Thunder. He may be a dog but boy does he eat a lot. That can won't hold him for long, that's for sure. When I was done I started placing the plates in the table. I made:
•scrambled eggs with tomato and onion (perico as my mother told me it was called)
•deep fried bacon strips
•french toast
and finally I made dad's special chocolate milk shake.
I heard the guys come in and started to eat my breakfast. "It's my turn to cook guys. What do'ya want for break...huh?" The sight of food on the table made him stop dead on his tracks. "Did you cook again Fun ghoul? It's supposed to be MY turn and, where did you get all this?" He looked hurt as he gestured at the table with his hands. Fun Ghoul just shook his head and sat down to eat. "I didn't it was Phantom. I was hungry and she offered to make us breakfast." With that said he started eating. "I don't remember having tomatoes, chocolate and many other whatevers you have here. " Yup Party Poison doesn't trust me at all. He was poking his eggs with his fork. "I had stolen those things from a Draculoid base. Take it as a thank you for letting me stay."That was the last thing I said before eating, Lawbreaker followed suit. Seeing that we weren't poisoned Grace started eating and everyone-apart from Fun Ghoul- followed suit. Party looked at me and then started eating. His face deep in thought. "So you stole this from a Draculoid base?" Kobra Kid asked after eating part of his eggs. I swallowed the piece of bacon I was eating before answering. "Well, it wasn't a Draculoid base exactly. More of a trading centre of sorts but I can't be sure. It was late and there were no lights. I also stole some candy but I have it hidden, don't want Lawbreaker to eat it." I face palmed as soon as I said that. Great! Now Lawbreaker knows about the candy! Idiot! "You have candy? Where?" Yup, that's my cousin. "It'sinmy...hey I'm not going to tell you! If I do you'll eat it!" Lawbreaker,and everybody else, snickered. Even Party Poison let a small smile creep in his face. But he was always silent. Never speaking a word. "At least I know that it's hidden in something that's yours this time!" At least I know you won't find it! I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity.
We all finished eating and put the plates in the sink. Party went to wash them while everyone else sat down to do their own thing. Fun Ghoul turned on the radio to see if Dr. D had news but to everyone's surprise, the little thing started smoking! "Party, since when does the radio smoke?" Party hadn't seen the smoke coming from the radio so he had a really funny dumbfounded face. "What? What do you mean the radio is smoking?" He came over to the radio as everyone else did. The only difference was that he had his hands wet and was leaving a thin trail of droplets behind him. "Here take a look." Fun Ghoul failed to notice his leader's wet hands and handed him the radio, which was still on. "Let me see...agh ow ow ow!" Party threw back the radio at Fun Ghoul when a small current shot him. "You ok bro?" Kobra was trying,and failing miserably I might add, not to laugh at his brother. "Yeah, it was mostly from surprise. Caught me off guard." He inspected his hands carefully. Probably looking for burn marks or something of the sort. After seeing that there was nothing of interest there anymore JetStar left to replace batteries in everyone's ray guns while Kobra, Grace and Lawbreaker played a game of cards. Thunder had then preceded to eat the bacon and sausages I gave him as well as everyone else's scraps. Being the hungry dog he is. Poison rubbed his hands while Ghoul checked the radio. "Need a hand with that? I can fix it for you if you want." I offered. Fun Ghoul looked at Poison, knowing his distaste for me. He gave him an ok sign before going to wash the dishes. All the while muttering something about "That girl' be the death of me one day. Trouble with a capital T. Don't know why we agreed to let them stay." I scoffed at that and rolled my mask covered eyes. I had never taken off my black and ghostly green mask since my brother's death. It was like a silent pact that I had made with myself for some reason. Not even I knew why I never took it off. "Yeah because I'm a trouble magnet. Not my fault Dr. D made us come to the desert, and definitely it wasn't my fault that we're here. In fact that I recall it was one of you that took me in." I said defiantly. If I'm going to be his death then so be it. Besides it really wasn't my fault I was here. I expected him to snap at me or something of the sort but instead he apologized in a soft voice. "Sorry. Just...I don't know what came over me. It must be because we never have had any other killjoys around us without knowing anything about them. I feel I'm the one to protect them from something unknown to any of us. These people are the only thing I've got left. My family, I don't want to loose them. I've been out of it since your arrival. Not knowing anything of you or your cousin, having heard of other killjoys taking over, I was very worried for them. I knew you were just a child since we saw you but I learned to never underestimate kids." He stole a quick glance at Grace and continued." Then you said you were a gypsy and I thought that you could help us but I turned out that you aren't one. I thought that you had lied to stay here and I well...I...let's say I distrusted you more than before." He looked down at the floor in shame of his previous actions. The others had been silent since he started speaking and were now watching him in surprise. There was nothing more but silece,he was probably waiting for me to say something. I did. "I know the feeling. I wish I had done something the day they killed my older brother. I was there yet I didn't do anything to save him, afraid that I could give Korse some sort of advantage. I never took my mask off since then. It masks the pain I feel everyday. Keeping me in the dark shadows. I wasn't expecting you to trust me anyways. I haven't been trusted in a long while. The other killjoys always lied to get information out of me so I became more of a thief and liar. Never trusting or being trusted. When you talked to me yesterday, I thought you were just like the other killjoys, they only wanted to use me for the little information I have about the gypsies. Not trusting, but expecting it." I paused. That had been one of the worst moments in my life. I thought that I could finally trust someone, but he turned out just like the rest. He looked even worse now. Guilt all over his pale face. "I then partnered with Lawbreaker, who is my cousin if I haven't told you, andTombstone and Revolution Invader but they died a year ago. I know what you mean when you don't want to loose your family. Lawbreaker is the only family I have left. Mom and dad were killed and so was Desert Bandit. I saw him die, but I couldn't bring myself to do something." I said quietly as stray tears ran down my face. I turned and made a go for my backpack to get my tools to fix the radio that probably everyone had forgotten about. I just wanted to get out of this situation soon. Everyone was downcast, I could tell by their silent stares. I was stopped by a hand on my right shoulder. I turned around and saw it was Party Poison who was holding me in place. "Do you want to start again? We sorta started on the wrong foot." He held out his hand towards me and he had a gentle look on his face. I looked at him, his eyes showed trust and truth; something no one had shown me in years, apart from Lawbreaker and my former friends. I felt guilty now. They were trusting me and I wasn't trusting them. I had told them the truth the first day but now all that came out of my mouth were sick, stupid lies. "I think we should." I shook hands with his sealing the deal. Now I have never felt worse in my life yet I forced a gentle smile into my face. Good thing that the mask covers my eyes though because I knew that they displayed total sadness and guilt. Everyone else cheered up and came to us with wide arms. I let my act go on and hugged them all, even Party Poison,although I had wanted nothing more to spill the beans and tell them everything but I knew I couldn't. It would just bring them trouble and I didn't want that for them. They didn't deserve it, not after being this nice to me. "Well then I shall fix the radio and you gus should go back to whatever you were doing." I said in a cheerful tone I despised at the moment. They did as I suggested and resumed doing what they were doing. I grabbed my bag from the kitchen and dragged it all the way back to the table where the radio was. I then put on my old gloves and got out a screwdriver. "Why the gloves?" Short one asked. I still liked calling him like that for some odd reason. "Because unlike someone," I motioned at Party, who had just come over to see what we were up to. He let one of his rare smiles, or to me at least, appear on his face. "I don't want to be electrocuted." Short one chuckled and Party shook his head, smile never leaving him. My stomach did a flip and it knotted itself. "Little liar when are you going to learn, that you'll be engulfed in fire if it's only lies you tell?" I heard a strangely familiar voice say to my ear in a strange language; but couldn't exactly know who it was. Or even if it wasn't my mind talking to me. "Did you guys say something?" I asked Party and Ghoul. They looked at each other suspiciously and answered with a "No we didn't." I just looked at them and shrugged my shoulders, assuming it was my conscience reacting. "Ok, I just thought someone was talking to me." I said and went back to repairing the radio. "What did it say?" Party asked me. "Ecuse me? I didn't get you." "I asked what did it say, the voice." I thought for a while, trying to find out what The Voice said. "I didn't understand it exactly, so I can't be sure. But the voice sounded familiar, like I have heard it before but I can't exactly recall whose it is." I sneaked a look at him and he had that 'deep-in- thought-so-don't-bother-me' look in his face. I decided to leave him alone in his thoughts and finished fixing the thing. "Look alive sunshine. It's 10 09 and the pigs won't quit. Headin' out for Zone 2. I got ya a surprise...Bald guy is there tonight." The signal stopped. We looked at each other. Korse was with them? Then this is something I won't miss for anything. If I don't kill him today I'll at least make him fear my name. "Killjoys! Grab your guns and let's go!" Party Poison roared the command. Everyone jumped at his order and did what they were told. Lawbreaker and I didn't know where our guns were so we went to the table where Jetstar had been replacing their batteries. Everyone had taken their guns and there were two ray guns left. I took them both and handed one to Lawbreaker. As she ran outside I took my backpack and got onto my bike. Party Poison was on the drivers seat with Kobra beside him. The rest were on the back, including Lawbreaker. "Wait! Where the heck are we going? Zone 2 is very big! We don't know where to start looking!" Grace screamed once she herd the motors starting. Good question kiddo. "I know where to go! Remember the place I told you about?" they nodded so I continiued ""They had said something like 'Clean! Korse is coming soon!' That is where they are. I know how to get there just follow me. Party Poison nodden and turned on the engine again. I did too and sped off with them hot on my trails. If you don't kill me, you'll fear me.
So here you go. Hope you like it. It was kinda sad but well, it gets better. R&R.