Danger Days

Piggies

They spent a much shorter time at this base, anxious to get on the road. For once, Kobra didn't have to break down doors; they all came out early, ready to go.

Diamond sat at the table with Kobra, letting the steam from her coffee hit her face, waking her up with its strong smell. There was a strange sense of finality in the morning that she had been trying to shake for awhile.

Ghoul sat across from her. She smiled weakly at him.

"What's wrong?" concern drifted into his eyes, his forehead creasing with frown lines.

"Nothing." Diamond shook her head, staring into the steaming cup, "Just nervous."

"You said that yesterday and everything turned out okay. Today won't be any different."

Diamond shook her head. "I know we'll find Party today." She was aware of Kobra's eyes on her, burning into her, "I just keep thinking about what you were saying last night..."

"What were you saying?" Kobra immediately looked at Ghoul.

"I-I…Nothing. I didn't say anyth-"

"You said a lot, actually." Diamond continued to look at her coffee.

"Ghoul, what did you say?"

"I said…" Ghoul paused, collecting his thoughts, "I said that maybe…the Party that we find today might-"

"Might what?" Kobra's voice was unreadable.

"Might not be the Party we remember. He might never be the Party we remember! What they could've done to him, done to his mind…"

In a second Kobra was up, knocking back his chair with a crash.

"How dare you even fucking suggest," Kobra glared down at Ghoul, who simply looked up, calm sadness in his green eyes, "that my brother isn't strong enough to beat those bastards. He'll never let them take him alive; he'd rather die then give himself or us up!"

"You don't think I know that?" Ghoul said angrily.

"If you know that, why do you think that-"

"Because I just do, okay! We have to consider the possibility that yes-even if he is the strongest one out of all of us-he might not be strong enough. We don't know what state he'll be in when we get there. If he's somehow lost himself, what the hell do we do?"

"Why do you guys have to fight all the time!"

Silence, both boys looked at Diamond, who was angrily clutching at the cup in her hands.

"Aren't you guys best friends? Brothers, even?" they both looked at each other guiltily. "Just try talking to each other like normal human beings for once!"

In the commotion, she hadn't noticed Jet loading the car. He came back in to grab the last bag, stopping to look around the room.

"Do you guys plan on being civil today, or are we going to have a few more emotional breakdowns?"

With that they left in a blur of strangled goodbyes and good lucks.

________________________________________________________

An awkward silence filled the car, Ghoul and Kobra refused to acknowledge the other's existence, Jet and Diamond just tried to stay sane.

"You're acting like children," Jet muttered.

"He started it." Ghoul retorted.

"Grow up." Kobra spat.

"I thought you were supposed to be the adults, not me." Diamond sighed and crossed her arms.

Jet smirked, "If you two don't stop it, I'll turn this car around."

Diamond laughed a little at that. "I guess I'm not the only adult."

"I'd offer you the position of shotgun, but I think these two would kill each other if we put them in the back seat together." Jet smiled at Diamond through the overhead mirror.

"They probably would." Diamond looked over at Ghoul, who was pretty focused on burning a hold into the back of Kobra's head with nothing but sheer mind-power.

An hour passed. Jet and Diamond continued talking to each other, but Ghoul and Kobra remained silent. They reached the base, this one much larger than the last two, with two floors and a garage for motorbikes and cars.

"Let's not bother trying to sneak up." Kobra suggested, "They know we're coming, anyway."

"I just don't want them to find the car." Jet said, swinging to the side of the road and parking. "Let's go. You all know what to do at this point. Ghoul and Diamond, stick together. Kobra, we'll try and hold them off long enough for Diamond and Ghoul to get inside. You two," he looked mostly at Ghoul, "search for Party. When you find him, try and get him to go willingly. If for some reason he won't," Kobra's face twisted at that, but Jet ignored it and continued speaking, "then make him. We've come this far, don't screw up, okay?"

They both nodded.

"We won't" Diamond smiled wide.

"What should we do when we've got him?" Ghoul asked Jet, "Just bring him to the car?"

"Since you're going, I'll give you these." Jet tossed the keys to the Trans Am over to Ghoul, who caught them, surprised. "I get to drive? You and Party never let me drive."

"Because we spent so much time painting it." Jet shrugged, "We didn't want you to wreck it and ruin our hard work. But after a month of constant driving…I think a few dents won't do much difference. We'll try and be here when you get back. If for some reason we aren't, just go. We'll catch up. There are more than enough motorbikes and vans in there. Go straight to Dr. D's too. Only rest if you need to, and don't take Route Guano, it's crawling with dracs."

Ghoul nodded, taking in the information. Diamond just looked at the keys in Ghoul's hand. Jet's talking had gotten her scared. It was such a precise plan, no room for error. But there was bound to be error. What would the error be?

"We're wasting time talking." Kobra said, snapping Diamond out of her thoughts, "Let's go."

Diamond tried looking Kobra in the eyes, but his sunglasses made that impossible. She settled for just looking at those. "Stay safe. We'll get Party out okay. You know that, right?"

He nodded, "Yeah. I trust you. Just…don't hurt him too much."

"We'll try not to."