“Gun it.” Dr. Death Defying ordered Show Pony, who nodded silently and complied, flying down the path of destruction into the heart of Battery City. They were going in after their Killjoy comrades, who’s suicidal mission had gone completely Costa Rica.
Four Killjoys- the four Fabulous Killjoys- had gone in after a small child calling herself Boom Box. She’d been taken away by Better Living, because she was everything to the Killjoys.
She was going to save the world from Better Living Industries, but the Killjoys needed her back, first. To save her, the four best, most respected Killjoy heroes had gone into the city after her, knowing they wouldn’t come out alive.
Now Dr. Death Defying and Show Pony had to follow the destruction as far as it took them, and get the rest of the way in to grab the girl before shooting their way out.
They flew through the city, the van screeching towards the S/c/a/r/e/c/r/o/w Unit of BL/Ind headquarters, where the Killjoys had parked their vintage, graffiti-covered Trans Am. The pair could see Jet Star standing next to the car with Boom Box, no other Killjoys in sight as he tried to hold off the Dracs. Boom Box watched, horrified, tears streaming silently down her face as she stared back into the building.
Dr. Death Defying blinked back his own tears, knowing it wasn’t the time or the place for them. Knowing that the Killjoys had planned on not coming back.
Jet Star took a ray gun blast to the chest and toppled backwards to lie motionless on the hood of the Trans Am as Boom Box stared at him in horror, her hands over her mouth. Then she whipped around, backing against the car as Dracs advanced on her. Dr. Death Defying and Show Pony, as close as they were, would never make it in time.
Everything changed when an unfamiliar girl leapt from behind a decorative hedge after having seen the whole sad ordeal. She was obviously part of one of the city’s last waves of the selective breeding program, from one of the generations cut off seventeen years ago, before having children became illegal. Like everyone in the city, she was alarmingly pale, and had chosen between the black and white uniforms and hair color of the Dracs. Unlike everyone else, however, she had inverted herself from the unspoken Drac norm; her uniform was entirely black, her hair was brilliantly white, and her black makeup stood out well on her ashen face. She had the piercings allowed by the city; snakebites, a nose stud, and several in each ear, but she broke city code with them.
The metallic white snakebites and obsidian nose stud were very much regulation, but three pairs of earrings going up her lobes broke the laws. They were metallic red, blue, and green, with one metallic yellow ring at the top of her left ear.
She leapt between the Dracs and Boom Box, standing with her back to the young girl, her face stony although her eyes were wide in fear. She yelled something incoherent at the Dracs, tackling one of them as the others froze to stare in shock. By the time the Dracs started moving again, the girl was up and had taken down another Drac. The white, masked villains were drawing their ray guns again, taking careful aim at the girl, who just kept dodging and kicking at the Dracs.
“Run!” Dr. Death Defying couldn’t hear the girl, but he saw her lips form the word as she looked at Boom Box before returning her attention to the Dracs. One of them had used her moment of distraction to grab her by the hair, lifting and jerking her head back so she stood on tiptoe, her neck craning back painfully far. The Drac touched the muzzle of his ray gun to her throat, and she opened her eyes to glare at him, livid behind the tears of pain.
Just then, the van screeched to a halt beside the Trans Am, the door flinging open as Dr. Death Defying motioned for Boom Box to get in. He grabbed the young Killjoy and hauled her up next to his wheelchair, briefly meeting the city girl’s eyes before slamming the door shut, peeling out down the road, towards Route Guano.
Dr. Death Defying didn’t look back as Show Pony tore off down the road, still silent behind his helmet. He just watch Boom Box finally burst into hysterical sobs, mourning the loss of the four Fabulous Killjoys and the Real Rebel in Battery City.