The setting sun set the sand of the desert ablaze. The sand looked like water and rocks and dead trees were transformed into forms from a nightmare. No birds or animals disturbed the radiating heat waves. Wisps of sand blew lazily across the horizon. Clouds of dust signaled something was approaching; the scream of a woman in pain sliced through the desert, shattering the calm.

An American flag clad car sped across the cracked pavement of long-forgotten highways. Loud rock music blasted from the speakers over the roar of the engine and two brightly clad men leaned out of the open windows, guns cocked and ready, ever vigilant. The driver's red hair blew wildly about his face. Three similarly colored cars quickly caught up to the Trans-Am, following their fearless leaders on their wild mission. A small girl in the back seat pressed a hand against the woman's forehead and shouted, "She's on fire." The red haired man urged the car faster, pushing the engine to the depths of its strength. A deep voice sounded from the radios of all four cars. "Listen up, all you crash queens and motor babies, the Fabulous Killjoys are on the move. A Killjoy, a friend of theirs, has been injured. You see them, give any Dracs headed their way hell." The red haired driver's mouth turned into a snarl as the woman screamed again.



Everything about this mission had gone wrong. The floor plans we'd memorized beforehand were completely outdated, one of my guns wasn't working, and Dean had injured himself getting out of the access vent. It was just a slight sprain, but it was the icing on top of the cake. We were told our entrance would be easy, unnoticed, and that was fine with me, but it all felt wrong. I was on edge because everything felt wrong. "Dean, I don't like this." I looked at him, so debonair in his black tuxedo. His blue eyes gazed into mine, so calm and light.

"Don't worry, Luce. It's fine, everything is going to be just fine," he said. "You worry too much." Our mission was to enter into this swank party that an infamous arms dealer, called El Diablo, was having, sneak off and find the weapons, and report back what was there and who was there. A simple, info-gathering mission that would be easy. "You look beautiful," he whispered in my ear as we entered the ballroom. I smiled at him and squeezed his arm. The ballroom was gorgeous and filled with beautiful women in dresses similar to mine and men in tuxedos. To the untrained eye, this was an art auction. To us, a room full of terrorists, arms dealers, gang members, and dictators all looking at art, waiting for the real auction to start - the auction where they could buy terrible weapons. Sure, there were a few sort-of-civilians in the room, mostly just dates of the people who needed to be thrown in jail, but they weren't 100% innocent because there was no way they didn't know what was going down.

We made our way around the room, scanning exits and pretty much casing the entire place. We had to be prepared for the worst. We had split up to look more natural. I studied an ugly painting and sipped on a glass of champagne. From the moment we entered the room, I felt eyes on me. I couldn't find them and I felt tense and uncomfortable, even more so because I had to hide it. Dean came up behind me and put a hand on my elbow. "Time to move," he said smiling. To anyone else, it looked like he was telling me he wanted to make a bid on the painting I was in front of. I nodded and we made our way to a door, surprisingly unguarded. We entered a dark hallway.

"Why wasn't it guarded?" I asked him.

"This isn't the main entry to the viewing room, but we can get to it from here," he said leading me down the hallway. I heard a sound and pulled my gun out. I still felt like something was wrong. This was all happening much too smoothly. I spotted two guards standing on either side of a door. They were big, but not so big that we couldn't take them down. I gave Dean the signal that I would take them down and he leaned behind a corner to let me have my fun. This would be easy. I sauntered up, holding my gun behind my back and smiled at them. I approached one of them and placed my hand on his chest. I could sense his nerves, especially when he grabbed his gun from his hip. I chuckled and moved my hand behind his neck. Just as I pinched the spot that would knock him out for a solid six hours, I heard Dean take the other one out. This was how we worked - we were a team.

"Thanks, baby," I said, quickly kissing him on the cheek. We busted into the room like we owned the place - and were faced with men. Five of them. And one of them was El Diablo. I cursed myself as Dean and I drew our weapons. I had known something wasn't right the whole night, and yet we'd gone on with our mission and not done extra checks. I couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed that El Diablo wasn't in the main ballroom. There were reasons why those floor plans were outdated - they'd been waiting for us. Someone in on the mission had talked, obviously. Much to our confusion, two of the five men bolted out of the back door. El Diablo trained his gun on me, right between the eyes, and Dean moved almost imperceptibly.

And he shot him. His arm moved so face, it was inhuman. Dean was on the floor, no light in his blue eyes. A feral scream ripped from my mouth as I fired.




"ACID, WAKE UP!!" Someone was screaming at me. My eyes tore open and I realized that I was screaming - screaming Dean's name, over and over - and crying, and I had no idea where I was. It wasn't the Killjoys' hideout, but a similar - cleaner - place. I clawed at the person shaking me and screaming in my face. My mind raced as I tried to recognize my surroundings and this person who was now fighting me off. "Stop screaming!" they shouted again and finally everything clicked into focus. I had given Fun Ghoul some angry red marks on his cheeks and neck.

"What...Where am I?" I asked, panicked. My heart was racing and I was breathing so hard. I buried my shaking hands in my hair. Missile Kid came up and tried to wipe my face with something, but I slapped her hand away. "Fuck it, Fun, WHERE AM I?" I screamed. I was wile, trying to get out of the bed. I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. That dream, that flashback, whatever it was, had been so vivid. It was like I had just relived that night again, every excruciating detail was burned into my retinas. I wanted to claw my eyes out just to not have to see it again.

"You're at Show Pony's, he's Dr. D's fried. Two of the Killjoys that live with him were nurses before, we brought you here because you've been sick for weeks and your wound was only getting worse. You passed out at the diner and your head was like touching fucking hot coals or something. Adrenaline Raven gave you some anti-venom and you threw up a shit ton...even thought you were unconscious," he explained, grasping my frantic hands in his. His eyes caught mine and he helped me catch my breath. Missile Kid pushing my dirty, sweaty hair from my face and blotted the sweat from my brow with a cool cloth.

"I'm sorry I smacked you, Kid," I apologized. I felt bad for fighting them.

"It's okay. You didn't know what was going on. Who were you screaming about?" she asked me, very straightforward. Fun gave her a look when I didn't answer. I was reeling and still breathing heavily.
"Kid, why don't you go get Adrenaline Raven so she can talk to Acid about her leg?" Fun asked her just as Party Poison walked in. She nodded, her thin eyebrows coming together in a frown. "Hey, Party, look who's awake?" Fun smiled at him. Party nodded, looking angry.

"I just got curious because the screaming finally stopped," he said curtly, just as a a short woman entered the room. She had short, spiky jet black hair and very pointed features, so I assumed this was Adrenaline Raven. She had birdlike qualities - thin arms and hands, a pointy face.

"Hey, Fun, Party, can I talk to her alone?" she asked. She had a high voice, but she sounded nice enough. I was still really upset and I just wanted everyone to leave. They left the room quietly. "I'm Adrenaline Raven. I treat seriously injured Killjoys here, it's sort of a makeshift hospital. I was a nurse before -" I cut her off.

"Look, I don't really care what's wrong as long as I can be back on my feet soon," I said.

"Don't worry, you will be. You'll have to take it easy for about a week though, even though you've been here for two days. I treated you with some general anti-venom and that seemed to stop most of the symptoms of the poison in that wound. I have no idea what poison that was and I have no way to test it, so I can't tell you what kind of symptoms you may experience from here on out." She sounded so official, so nonchalant. I was used to doctors and nurses from when I used to get hurt, but her eyes betrayed her. She was hiding something from me.

"Look, I don't normally just give out personal information about myself to random strangers, but...I'm a former CIA agent. I know you're not telling me something, so either tell me what it is or leave," I said through gritted teeth. My heart was breaking all over again and I needed to be alone.

She glared at me for a moment, then said, "Your body reacted very strangely when I injected you with the anti-venom, and very quickly. I don't know what has happened, but your wound has begun to heal very rapidly. You will have to pay attention for changes. That's all I know." She began to leave.

"Please tell them to leave me alone for a while," I said, trying to sound nice while choking back tears. She nodded over her shoulder and was gone. I curled into a ball on the bed and cried, whispering, "Dean," for hours.

Notes

Title: "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W/" by My Chemical Romance

And this is how I spend my Friday night, as a 21 year old person lol. Enjoy lovelies :)