In Battery City, Party Poison sat in a holding cell with the Kobra Kid. They’d been the most resistant of the four Killjoys to the Drac brainwashing, and had to be kept in a cell when not surrounded by other Dracs. At this point, the brainwashing only dulled their emotions; they knew they were Killjoys, they knew they needed to get out, and they knew they hated Better Living.
They just didn’t care enough to try.
The Kobra Kid sat on a bench, his head in his hands as he tried to break through the fog in his brain, not realizing the cell was pumped with vaporized pills, the kind everyone in the city received in their food to keep them blank. His brother was pacing, almost frenzied, but neither of them could think clearly or even care enough to plan a way out. Neither man noticed the pause in the hiss from the vent feeding them tainted air, but they both felt it when the untainted oxygen hit their systems.
Party Poison stopped pacing abruptly, feeling awake for the first time in a long time. The Kobra Kid looked up at his brother, feeling the emotions coming back, already working out a plan.
Then a figure dressed all in white appeared outside the clear door.

Party Poison glared at the door, but the girl held her hands up in a gesture of surrender. She was a bit different from the other Dracs; her hair was cropped short enough to be messy and spiky, but it was dyed a stark white. Her eyes weren’t the standard BLI-contact grey, but such a dark brown they were almost black. She wore thick black eyeliner and black lipstick, a metallic white snakebite flashing in contrast. There was a black stud in her nose, and she had three piercings up each earlobe, with one ring at the top of her left ear. The rings were metallic red, blue, and green pairs, with the single top ring being metallic yellow. Her uniform was totally white, from her jacket to her fingerless gloves to her BLI standard-issue boots.
“Listen up, we don’t have a lot of time.” The girl said through the door, glancing up and down the hallway. “Have you woken up yet, or is the gas still in your system?” Her eyes flickered to the vent in the wall, and Party Poison’s eyes widened.
“You shut it off?” He asked in surprise.
The girl nodded once. “You bet. We don’t have a lot of time. Please don’t kill me when I open the door. You need to get out of here, fast. There are two black motorcycles next to a white one in the garage. To get there, you go left to the end of the hall and take the elevator all the way down. That’s it.” The girl pointed, her gaze flickering between the two men. “You’ve gotta get back to the Lair as fast as you can.”
“You know about the Lair?” The Kobra Kid demanded in shock.
“Yeah. I know about Boom Box, too.” The girl answered, and both men flinched. “Listen, I’m not here to threaten you; when I open this door, I’m going to hand you your guns and masks, then you’re going to be good little boys and take the motorcycles waiting for you in the garage. The black ones have the keys in them, ready to go.”
The Kobra Kid stared at the girl in shock, but Party Poison glared. “Why are you helping us? And how do we know we can trust you?”
“Because I hate this city.” She shrugged. “I was raised as an Exterminator, that’s why I have rings.” She touched the ring at the top of her ear. “Only the Dracs born to be Exterminators are allowed to have piercings at all. I got the fighting training, but I stopped taking my pills. If I make it out of this, I’m going back out into the desert.”
“Exterminators?” The Kobra Kid asked.
“Yeah, people born in the city who are raised to go out into the desert as Killjoys. They see extermination posters and knock off any Killjoy on the list.” The girl explained, glancing up and down the hallway again. “I’m going to open the door, alarms will go off, Dracs are gonna come running, okay? When the door opens, take your guns and masks and run. Don’t look back, just run. Get on the motorcycles and go.”
“What about you?” Party Poison asked slowly, not really wanting to care.
“I’ll hold the Dracs off, don’t worry about me. I knew what I was getting into when I left.” She shook her head, sliding a bag off her back. It was the first black thing they’d seen on her, and it was made of weathered leather. It had definitely been through the desert. She pulled out three ray guns and two masks, shoving the blank white gun into her belt. In her other hand she held a red mask and gun as well as a yellow pair.
“Ready?” She asked, a reckless grin appearing on her face, and she hit the button on the wall without waiting for a reply. A scarlet light immediately replaced the white fluorescents in the hall, dying everything a pale red. She tossed the guns and masks to their appropriate owners, then turned her back on the elevators at the end of the hall, facing the way she’d come from. “Go.”
The men slipped their masks on and burst out of the cell, the Kobra Kid already on a beeline for the elevators when he realized his brother wasn’t with him. When he turned, he saw that Party Poison had grabbed the girl, twisting one arm behind her back and holding his gun to her head.
“What are you doing?!” The girl demanded, trying to get away from her captor. Even though she held her gun, she was pointing it anywhere but at the Killjoys. “Go! Hurry!”
The three Killjoys in the hall heard running footsteps coming down the hallway, and Party Poison released the girl in surprise, backing towards the elevators. The Kobra Kid grabbed his arm, towing him backwards as the Dracs rounded the corner, opening fire.
“Don’t look back!” The girl commanded, firing into the Dracs as they ran at her. Most of them stopped and took cover, firing back at her, and as the elevator doors slid closed, Party Poison and the Kobra Kid saw her fall.
As promised, they found two black motorcycles waiting in the garage, the keys in the ignition, next to a third, white motorcycle. They decided to listen for once and clambered onto the black bikes, bursting out of the garage and directly onto Route Guano, headed for Zone 6.