Danger Days; the True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.

<<*Sunshine’s P.O.V*>>

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Felix asked as we sat in his van outside of the diner. It’d been only a day since the Killjoys saved me, and Felix – Dr. Death Defying – took me into his home. I needed to go into the diner though. I had to grab a few things, and I had a feeling that I just needed to be in there. I had hope that when I walked in, the boys would be in there, sitting at a booth, and bashing on Party’s cooking. A small smile appeared on my face until I realized I hadn’t even answered Felix.

“I have to,” I said quietly, the smile faltering a little bit, and I looked at him. He had a sympathetic look on his face. I knew he felt bad, I knew because he hugged me every five minutes or so with tears spilling down his face.

“Do you want me to go in with you?” He asked, and I shook my head.

“I think I need to go in alone,” I admitted, “If you have something to go do….I might be a while.”

“I think I can wait out here, and take a nap maybe. Just don’t sneak up on me,” he teased, and I nodded shortly. I took a heavy breath before I opened the door of the van, and stepped out. The sun beat down heavily as it usually did, but it didn’t feel as hot since I was still in the not-so-white-anymore clothes of Dr. E’s Industry building. I’d need to grab my clothes from inside the diner, because I couldn’t live in there. Without the Killjoys, it would be empty. I took short strides until I was at the entrance of the small building, and I yanked the door open. I looked around the dark room to see that it was wrecked. The four ransacked the place for everything they would need to save me. I could feel the tears welling up as I walked through the place, letting my hand drag around on objects. I found myself in Party’s room, and I walked over to his art desk and sat down. There were a stack of finished drawings, and as I went through them, there were many of me, of him, of us, of the Killjoys.

“Why,” I croaked before the tears started spilling out, “Why’d you have to come save me you selfish asshole,” I didn’t know if Party could hear me or not, but I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t keep all of the pain in. I threw everything off of the art desk, and started kicking at the wall, leaving holes in the walls. I started ripping pictures from the walls, and I pushed the dresser over until I was huddled against a wall hugging my knees. I couldn’t even see a foot in front of me if I tried because the tears blurred my vision. The tears came on stronger, and I began sobbing. I must have been in there for a small while because there were footsteps entering the room, “Felix, I need to be alone,” I said, by voice cracking.

“Um, who’s Felix?” Fun asked, and my head shot up at him. I could see Fun, Jet, and Kobra, and I stood up.

“You guys are alive?” I asked in disbelief, the tears still falling from my face.

“God I hope so,” Jet said, and I couldn’t help it as I ran and threw my arms around the three, all at the same time.

“Oh my god, I thought I lost all of you,” I cried, and my sobbing came on even stronger. Fun’s arms wrapped around me as I cried onto his shoulder. It took a few minutes until I was finally able to calm down. I pulled away from Fun, and used the sleeve of my shirt to wipe off my face. The three looked uneasy, until I realized that there were only three of them. Where was Party? “Hey, guys,” I said, already having a bad feeling that I knew the answer, “Where’s….where’s Party?” I asked, not really wanting an answer. They all looked down.

“Sunshine…,” Kobra started, “I’m sorry,” was all he was able to say. The tears started welling up, but I couldn’t keep crying. I had to try and be strong for once, “I know, it sucks. He was my brother,” he said, sitting down on the mattress on the floor. Jet looked around the place, and shook his head.

“I’m guessing you got a little angry,” Jet suggested, and I rolled my eyes at him.

“I thought you were all dead, what do you expect? How are you alive, anyways?” The question had been tugging at my mind ever since they glided into the room like nothing happened.

“Well,” Fun started explaining, “We didn’t take any direct hits. We faked dead so they’d move on to the next Killjoy, and we took all of them out one by one once they weren’t all huddled together. We took out Better Living Industries for good.” My heart fluttered at this. No more running. No more fear of getting caught, and not knowing what would happen to me. The smile crept onto my face as I came in full realization of this.

“We talked about that on the way over there. It was part of our plan, but we didn’t plan on losing Party,” Jet continued the explanation. I looked back down to the ground, and started digging my toe into the floor.

“We’re sorry,” Fun whispered. I pushed the tears back, and looked back up at him. I was already starting to wish that we could sway the conversation from Party, because I was two seconds away from having a mental breakdown.

“What are we…what are we going to do?” I asked. I knew that Felix had offered for me to live with him, but he wouldn’t understand why I would stay with the Killjoys.

“What else is there to do, really?” Kobra said, “We’ve got to carry on with our lives. The way I see it, dwelling on the past won’t help us very much.”

“I’ve always wanted to travel,” Jet suggested.

“We could always try taking our chances on the road,” Fun agreed, “I mean, the car’s basically battery operated. We always get by.”

“It sure as hell beats sitting around all day,” I agreed, and then looked around at the wrecked room. I started to feel a little bad for basically destroying Party’s haven.

“So I guess it’s set. We’re going to set off in a never ending adventure around the country,” Kobra said, and I nodded, and wiped the tears away from my face.

“I should probably go tell Felix,” I admitted, and started heading towards the door. The three boys were on my heels.

“Who the hell is Felix?” Fun asked as they continued following me to the front of the building.

“Dr. Death Defying. He’s the one in the van outside,” I explained, close to opening the door.

“Um, Sunshine…there was no van outside,” Jet confessed, sounding as maybe I had lost my mind.

“Yeah, the parking lot was clear when we got here,” Kobra added, and my eyebrows knitted together as I exited the building to see that besides Party’s car, the lot was in fact empty. I looked both ways down the long stretch of road, and back in the spot where the van had been parked to see a small piece of fabric. I shuffled over to it and picked it up. It a neat print, the note read ‘have fun and tune in! –Dr. Double D’. A small smile appeared on my lips, thinly stretching across my face as I knew everything fell into place, and I looked behind me to see the boys gathered around the front door of the diner, looking at me. I walked over to them as I pocketed the note.

“You might wanna change out of those,” Fun suggested, and I nodded.

“Yeah, life’s not the same without my thick layers of clothing and the hot sweat,” I joked, and Kobra rolled his eyes.

<<*^v^v^*>>

“Do you think we’ll ever see him again?” I asked Fun as we walked away from Radio City. All he did was shrugged, and I peaked back to the building that had large buildings reaching up for the sky. Two year ago, Kobra, Fun, Jet, and I set out to travel like we had planned to the day after Better Living was destroyed. Once we hit Gamma Town – once called Newark, New Jersey – he refused to leave. That was last year, and this year, Jet found love in Radio City. So it was just Fun and I know. We had gotten really close in the past two years. Actually, we got more than close, we got married. We’ve been happy ever since. To be honest, he’s all I needed these days.

“I’m sure we’ll come through these parts again. We’ll stop by his house and say hi,” Fun smiled at me, and I blushed.

“What about Kobra?” I asked, and Fun looked off into the distance.

“I’m sure we will. I hate to go back there, though,” Fun told me about how that Gamma Town was the place the Killjoys grew up. He told me their history, about their childhood; that they used to be in a band together. He said just being there once overwhelmed him, and that he didn’t like it. I wouldn’t force him to go back if he wanted. I entwined my fingers with his as we walked, and he looked down on me as my face fell from its smile. On this trip, everybody’s found what they’re looking for. Everybody except me, and Fun noticed, “We’ll find your mom,” he said, “just have a little hope.”

“I hope so,” I said. If I didn’t find her, I’d be okay, though. I found something else – I found love. It was enough to hold me over for the rest of my life. Honestly, I still missed Party, but I forgot about the relationship that we used to share, and Fun forgot about it, too. He admitted that he had been jealous when Party snatched me up, and it caused me to giggle a little. I still talk to Party in my head, I have conversations with him as if he’d never died.

“What are you thinking about?” Fun asked, and now it was my turn to shrug.

“Just in my own head, as usual,” I admitted, and Fun chuckled.

“Do you wanna tell me a story?” he asked, and my lips stretched into a smile. Fun loved to hear stories, it occupied him as we walked on large stretches of road.

“Sure,” I agreed, “What do you want to hear a story about?” I asked. He’d usually pick something weird like a distressed maiden, or something about a super hero. It was funny how much of a kid he was, and it actually made me a lot more comfortable to be around him.

“I want to hear a story about you,” he said. I’d already told him my story, so I wasn’t sure what he meant, so my eyebrows knitted together.

“Alright, what about me?” I asked, and Fun’s hand gave mine a small squeeze.

“Tell me about the time you knew you loved me,” he said, and I found myself blushing again. Fun was almost too sweet in my opinion, but he made me so happy. He made me feel like I was the sun to his world, and that’s more than I could ever ask for.

“I’m not sure when exactly I knew, but I guess it was in Gamma Town,” I started, “When you were telling me about your past,” I fished around for the appropriate words, “After that, I started to see you in a new light,” I didn’t know how to explain it. All the memories swam around in my head, but it was near impossible to put them into words.

“What kind of light?” he asked, and I smiled.

“Like the sunlight…” I continued to tell him the story as we walked. This was how I’d spend the rest of my life – walking with Fun, and I was perfectly fine with that.

My name is Sunshine Fear, and this is my story of the Danger Days, and of the true lives of the fabulous Killjoys, and how they defeated Better Living Industries.

©Shannon.

Notes