Chapter Text
“Max, you needta see this!” Max heard Jet’s yell from outside the building. He followed Jet’s voice to stare at the side of the building, where the words “He’s dead”, along with a BL/I smiley, were painted in bright red. Blood.
“Who’s dead? Ghoul?”
“No…” Instinctively, Max knew exactly who Flare was talking about. “It’s my brother. My brother’s dead.” Max choked on the words, and Jet put an arm around him.
“It’s gonna be okay, Max.” He said quietly.
“You guys don’t have enough water to clean it up, do you?”
“Not water, manpower. There are too many injuries, too many deaths.”
“I’ll do it. I’m useless when it comes to medical stuff, and I’m not hurt.” Max spoke quietly.
“Not anything that I can fix.”
“No…” Max stared at the wall, almost looking past it, into some unknown dimension. After a few minutes, he looked at Jet. “Do you have spray paint?”
Max spent hours outside, Ghoul actually started worrying about him. “What the fuck! Is he gonna be alright?” Then his tone changed as he berated himself. “The fuck am I saying? He’ll be fine.”
Cola rolled his eyes. “Ghoul, his brother’s been dusted.”
Ghoul sighed. “I know, but he’s been out there for hours. Has he even had any water?”
“I don’t know.”
At that moment, Max walked in, sunburned and covered in paint and sweat. “Hey guys.” He said, with almost no feeling.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Drink some water.” Ghoul said.
“I’m fine.”
“Jet, get him to drink.” Ghoul limped out, using the makeshift crutches Jet had rigged to help Ghoul get around. The sun was hot on his face as he walked around the side of the building. Then he saw what Max had done to the side of the building. Holy. Shit.
The entire wall was a mural of the desert at night, of a white car speeding thorough the sand, the black smiley X’ed out by red spray paint. Ghoul could see every star, and the cloud of dust behind the car was so real that Ghoul actually had the urge to put his bandanna over his mouth.
“Geez. The kid didn’t tell us he was good at art.” Cola commented. “To bad his brother’s dead.”
“No kidding.” Ghoul made his way back inside, where there was no Max to be seen, and Jet was still helping the more seriously injured.
“Where’s Max?”
“Dyeing his hair. Said he was done with the City.”
“After that clap, I figured he would be.” Cola said.
“Max!” Ghoul called. He hobbled into the bathroom, where Max had hair dye plastered to his hair and skin. “Come to the races with me. I’ll help you paint your car tomorrow, not like you need it.”
Max looked miserable. “Sure.”
“It’s a date, Max.” Ghoul winked.
“Party… Party Poison.” He looked uncertain when he said it, like he wasn’t sure that it was the entirely right decision.
Ghoul grinned. “It’s a date, Party.”
Sand grinned. “Once your bike dries, we’ll take it out and race a track or two, yeah?”
Kobra nodded. “Okay…” He went for another layer on his bike, the yellow spray paint throwing a cloud into the air. Sand grinned again, and Kobra sat back, waiting for the layer to dry. “Hey Sand?”
Sand tilted his chin towards Kobra.
“When I find my brother, I’m allowed to come back and see you, right?”
“’Course! Why wouldn’t you?”
“I just… I know that ‘Joy groups are a little closed off…”
“Dude, of course you’re coming back. You better, or I’m gonna hunt you down.”
Kobra nodded with a small smile.
A couple hours later, the pair took off. Sand led him to a little dirt track, and they raced for a couple hours. Finally, they stopped, and Sand and Kobra sat together on a little knoll of tough grass.
“Okay. Let’s talk about your brother.” Sand said.
“Alright.”
“Where’d you last see him.”
“The City. I watched them get through the tunnel.”
“Them?”
“Him and Ghoul.”
“Ghoul? Geez dude, gimme somethin’.”
“Fun Ghoul. He’s how I got out of the City.” Kobra leaned back on his elbows. “Max and I got him out of the City, and he was gonna help us be Killjoys.”
“So they’re together.”
“Yeah.”
“Get off the damn hood, Ghoul!”
“You told me to put the tape here!”
“You don’t need to get on my hood to do it!”
Ghoul couldn’t actually help until almost four days later, and the race they were supposed to be going to was tomorrow.
“Okay, now put it—You know what, Ghoul, just—just let me do it.” Party grabbed the tape, and set it at angle, pressing down the ratty old towels to protect the rest of the hood. Once he got the rest of it taped, Party stood on the towels, spraying white into the space he’d left.
“Now you’re standing on the hood!” Ghoul complained.
“It’s my hood, Ghoul! Jeez.”
“What’s it supposed to be?”
“Shut the fuck up. It’s a spider!”
Ghoul, as much as he hated real live spiders, thought the huge ass spider on the hood was pretty fucking sick. “It looks cool as shit, Party.”
Party grinned. “Thanks.”
The great thing about stealing BL/I cars is when you get them, everything actually works. The t-bar, air-conditioning, you don’t even need to slam the car doors to get them to shut. So the air conditioning was blasting, and so was the radio, with Dr. D speaking in barely understandable code.
“Alright tumbleweeds, Zone 3’s got some serous motorbaby action, but keep your butt lamp down, kids, mom and dad are searching the closet for dust mites, and they’ve already found too many.”
Translation: Race today in Zone 3, but lay low if you’re going, cause BL/I’s looking for you and too many Killjoys have already been captured or dusted.
“And now we’ve got some screamin’ anthems comin’ your way.” A cello intro starts off a song Party hadn’t heard before.
“He wears his heart safety-pinned to his backpack his backpack is all that he knows.” Ghoul sang along quietly with the radio, matching the volume and tone. After a couple more seconds of the first verse, Ghoul started yelling the chorus. “ALL ALONE HE TURNS TO STONE WHILE HOLDING HIS BREATH HALF TO DEATH!”
“Jesus christ, Ghoul!” Party leaned away from Ghoul’s yelling.
“I’m singing.”
“You are not. The first verse was fine, but jeez, the chorus.”
“You’re just making fun of me.”
“For good reason.”
Ghoul huffed, and when the chorus came in again, he belted just as loud as he did last time. Party rolled his eyes and leaned against the window.
The race grounds were a lot more crowded than Party thought they would be, what with everybody trying to survive and all, but when he mentioned it to Ghoul, all he did was shrug. “What can I say? ‘Joys like entertainment. We’re not all doom and gloom and colorful clothes.”
They parked among the other cars and got out, Ghoul limping alongside Party. Jet was pissed that he wasn’t taking his crutches, but Ghoul insisted that if there was a firefight, he didn’t want to be dragging a couple pieces of wood around. So he limped. Party was tempted to help Ghoul, but he figured he’d get hit.
He saw the racers lining up, a teen boy with pink and black hair and a black jean jacket standing next to a bleach blonde kid in a red leather jacket, and a trio of girls, one with blue hair and a leather jacket, purple hair and a aviator jacket, and the third with long, natural red hair, and a black leather jacket with a snake printed on the back. Eight more riders stand around, and Killjoys mill about, chatting and generally having a good time.
“Motorbabies to the track! Come on ya bastards, let’s get this shit started!”
Every racer walked up to their bikes, already set up and ready to roll.
“Take your mark! Set! Go!”
The biggest cloud of dust Party had ever seen flew into the air and he actually took a step back. The ‘Joys shot off and Party and Ghoul watched them fly around the track. Ghoul subtly lean on Party, and Party let him as they watched the races. One Joy’s bike flipped and Party watched it hit the ground hard, and the Joy was thrown across the track. It was the natural redhead, as far as Party could tell. The race only lasted three minutes, but there were like twelve more after this, as well as a mini concert from a little band trying to get off the ground.
The race ended with the black and pink haired guy in first, the girl with blue hair in second, and the bleach blond in third.
The second race was getting set up when Ghoul complained about being hungry. “You owe me an energy drink.”
“You know those are shit for you, right?”
“Yeah but ever since Jet gave me one that night of the clap. Told him I didn’t wanna sleep… I’ve been craving one ever since. They make my insides buzz.”
“Imagine being affected by caffeine. It just helps my brain move slower.” Ghoul said with a grin.
“You’re still affected by it, stupid. It’s just not the same as my being affected.
Before Ghoul could formulate a response, he noticed something over to his left, whatever it might be, and took off that way, limping faster than Party would ever want to walk in this heat.
Party was about to follow, but the blond dude who won third slammed into his shoulder.
“Jeez, Kobra!” The black haired dude says, only half-joking. “Don’t crash into people you don’t know!”
That was the catch. Party felt like he did know him. Like there was a piece he wasn’t putting together.
“Shit, you okay dude? Did I knock a screw loose?” The blond, Kobra, stopped. “Wait a sec. I know you from somewhere. Were you at the race last week?”
Party shook his head. For a second he thought that maybe… But no. If this guy was at the races last week, then he had probably been in the desert for a lot longer than that.
“Look, you sure you’re alright, man?” The other guy asked.
“Chill, Sand.” Kobra said. “I’m Kobra, that’s Sandman.”
“You got first.”
“Yeah.” Sand seemed to want to take the subject very far away from the races.
“Hey, get off me, asshole!” That was Ghoul’s voice.
Party turned and ran towards him, and found himself in an alley, Ghoul cornered by four Joys. One was clutching a bloody nose, and the other had Ghoul against the wall, a knife to his throat. Ghoul had a knife to the other ‘Joy’s throat too, and they were trying to kill each other through stares.
Party’s hand moved toward his gun. “If you screwheads don’t back of right the fuck now, I’m gonna start a fight, and you won’t win.”
“Oh my god! Fun Ghoul?” Turned out that Kobra and Sandman followed Party, and clearly, Kobra recognized Ghoul.
Party tried to ignore him. “Is. That. Shiny?”
The guy shoved Ghoul away with an angry growl, but Ghoul was against the wall, so it just ended up leaving a very shallow cut in Ghoul’s throat. The ‘Joy signaled to his crew to leave, and Ghoul flicked away his switchblade.
“The hell’d you do, Ghoul?”
“Oh sure, blame it on the injured kid.” Ghoul rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, what the hell did you do?”
“Dude, he just wanted my carbons.” Then he grinned. “Lucky for me, I don’t have any carbons. He didn’t take that too well.”
“That just means you’re broke as shit, dude.”
“Semantics.” Ghoul waved away Party’s protest and went to look at Kobra. “Shit, I know you, dude.”
Kobra was still staring open-mouthed at Ghoul. “How are you not dead?”
“This the dude? Outta Bat City?”
It dawned on Party. “Oh my god. Jaren.” Then he threw his arms around his brother. “I—You’re alive.” Party could tell he was about to start crying. “God, Jaren, oh god.” Kobra hugged him back, and when the two separated.
“You guys made it out.” Kobra said.
Sand leaned on Kobra’s shoulder. “This bastard decided he was just gonna go kaput in the middle of the damned desert. Lucky Benze saw him.”
“Jaren, what happened?”
“It’s Kobra now.”
“Oh. Sorry. I’m uh, Party Poison. What happened?”
“I got out to the desert, and… well, honestly, I can’t really remember.” Kobra glanced away. “I remember pain, I remember standing up, and there was blood, and the sand was really hot, and—” Kobra’s breath sounded like it was shaking.
“Kobes, it’s all right.” Sand said, and Kobra stopped.
“I’m pretty sure a Scarecrow shot him.” Sand said.
“Flare! I’m gonna kill that bastard.” Party snarled.
“Ma—Party, it’s alright.” Kobra said.
“So what do we do?”
“For now, we race. I’ve got one in twenty minutes, and Sand’s got one in half an hour.”
“Well whatever we do, apparently I have to protect this asshole. He disappears for five minutes, and gets his ass beat.” Party grinned.
Ghoul glared at him. “I will hit you.”
“Guys, you want some food?” Sand asked. “It’s on me.”
“Dude, free food? Hell to the fuck yeah man.” Ghoul grinned, and Sand and him walked further down the court.
“Kobra, are you alright?” Party asked.
“We’re in the Zones. Like we’ve planned since we were twelve. It’s just a little hard to process. We left everything we knew. Our friends.”
“Looks like you made some new ones pretty quick.”
“I did not have any control over that.” Kobra smirked. The two walked slowly after Sand and Ghoul, who were laughing at something the other had said.
“You know we’re going back for them, right? We’re not leaving them in the City. Not Sira, Not Jake, no one. And after everyone we know knows they’re being lied to, we’ll take the rest of the City. They will be free.”
“You were meant to be a Killjoy, Party.” Kobra sounded a little sad as he spoke.
“You were too.”
“But you’ve got such a way with words. When you speak, I immediately wanna go fight God.”
Party blushed. “Come on, dude, I’m not that cool.”
“As your younger brother, I’m legally obligated to agree, but as a fellow ‘Joy, I say fuck the legalities.”
“You just want me to give you something. Come on, what is it. Keys to the ‘Am? Cause that’s never happening.” Party grinned as Kobra shook his head.
Sand threw something at Kobra, and Kobra, with his ever-quickening reflexes, caught it pretty easily. “Dude, a hot dog?”
“Yeah man, straight from the City. Last one they got, so you’re lucky as hell.”
Ghoul handed Party a can of peaches. “Here ya go.”
“Thanks.”
Fifteen minutes later, Sand, Ghoul and Party were all up against the fence, watching Kobra, who was lined up and looked incredibly determined.
“Swore he was gonna win this.” Sand commented. “Honestly, he scares me.”
“Yeah, you’ve never seen him fight over the radio.”
“That what you two used to do?”
“Fight over stolen radios and iPods? All the time. Then I—” Party stopped. “Things changed, y’know?” Party did not miss Ghoul’s questioning glance, but he ignored it.
“Go!” The command made the trio glance up and watch as Kobra shot off down the track after someone on a blue bike, seven other racers following him. Within the first thirty seconds, someone was out, sprawling in the dust.
“Come on Kobra!” Sand yelled, as Kobra and the blue bike kid came up neck and neck. Slowly, Kobra made his way past, and inched into the inside. Another minute and a half, and Kobra skidded on the other side of the finish line, his bike fishtailing as he braked.
“Dude, don’t do that.” Sand complained. “It’ll kill his tires and brakes.”
Kobra came up to the trio after the race and pulled off his helmet, a huge grin on his face. “Dude. I did it.” His hair stuck to his face with sweat, and he stuck his helmet under his arm.
“Kobra, you did awesome!” Sand grabbed him into a hug, and Kobra let out a laugh, one of the ones you do when you’re out of breath. “You’re fast, and reckless. You live off sharp turns. The perfect traits for a motorbaby.”
Party had a little smile as he watched his brother. He was so damned happy, and he had never seen him this way. Especially not in the City.
They finished their food, and Sand did his race, coming in first, as Kobra predicted. “I was talking to another ‘Joy, y’know, and she said that Sand was the best motorbaby the desert had ever seen.”
“I really don’t think that’s true. There was Electrica, one of the first motorbabies. I haven’t ever beat one’a her times.” Sand came up behind Kobra, and he turned.
“Come on, Sand. They think you’re awesome.”
Sand smirked. “Doesn’t mean they’re right. C’mon, let’s get back to the Valley.”
Kobra sent a small glance toward Party, one that was almost unnoticeable, but Sand noticed. “They can come, man. I’m not gonna stop your brother from comin’ with ya.” He said that like it was totally obvious.
“We gotta get back to the rehab, let Jet know what’s up.” Ghoul said.
“Sorry Party, I’m coming. You think I’m gonna let you outta my sight for even a second.” Kobra said.
“You’re the one who literally got shot!”
“So what?”
“So if anyone, you’re the one who needs protecting!”
“Weren’t they just talking about how awesome you are?” Ghoul asked Sand.
“They’re siblings.”
“Point.”
Sand and Kobra followed Party and Ghoul back to the rehab center, and Jet poked his head out, ignoring them once he realized who they were.
“Jet! I got someone for you to meet!” Party called quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“This is my brother, Kobra Kid.”
“I thought he…”
“No, he didn’t. Jet he’s alive!”
Jet grinned. “Your brother’s been a hell of a lot of help around here.”
“Where’s Cola?”
“Four ‘Joys got in a clap a couple hours ago. One’a them was shot, and’a, we were the closest to them. He’s helpin’ patch the kid up.”
“Oh.”
Sand looked around. “This the place you been holed up for two an’ a half weeks?”
“Lucky we ended up here and not somewhere else.” Party shrugged.
“Like the middle of the desert?”
“For example. Listen, Jet. We’re gonna stay with the Suitehearts for a bit.”
“Alright. Listen, come back. You guys are chill.”
Ghoul winked. “Bitch, you bet I’ll be back.”
“I’ll meet you guys in a moment, all right?” Party said. He made his way to the hospital area, where there were three Killjoys. One of them sat next to a hospital bed with his arms crossed, looking pissed as hell. The other two were joking with each other, every word strained and anxious.
“Hey guys… How’re ya’ll doin’?”
“How does it look?” The crossed-arms one snapped.
The one on the hospital bed was completely unconscious, pale and sweaty.
“I get it man, he’s gonna be alright.”
“They.”
“Sorry, they’re gonna be fine.” Party glanced between the bed and the Killjoy. “My brother got shot about a week ago. He’s in the front room, being a pain in my ass.”
“God, I fuckin’ hope so.” The one on the right said.
“I’m Crash Candy.” That’s the cross-arms one. Neon green hair, black jacket.
“Disco Dandy.” Cotton candy blue hair, pink jacket.
“Cosmo Ghost.” Purple hair, green jacket.
“The one who’s getting an ass-kicking from the Witch is Chaos Kid.” Pink and blue hair with a faded American Idiot tshirt.
“I’m Party Poison. The short ass gremlin and the bleach blonde bastard in the other room are Fun Ghoul and my brother Kobra Kid. Good luck.”
“We’re gonna need it.”
Party nodded and turned back, searching for Cola. “Hey, Cola!” He called. “There’s someone you gotta meet.”
Cola stuck his head out from another room. “What’s up?”
“Follow me.”
Cola saw Sand and Kobra in the other room. “Well I know Sand, but who’s the other guy?”
“Cola, this Kobra Kid, my brother.”