A few days later, an alarm clock playing loud music woke every one of us up at 6AM. Surprisingly, I had so much energy already without the caffeine. I sprung out of bed and quickly got myself cleaned up and ready for the day. I was the second one at the coffee table, after Poison. Followed by Kobra, Kid, Jet, then Ghoul.
"You seem to be in an oddly good mood, Fireball," judged Poison. "What's up?"
"I just am."
"Why?"
"Because I just am."
Ghoul turned to Poison and audibly whispered in their ear, "she's taking after you, Poison."
"Shut up Ghoul."
"Shut up Poison," I sassed back. Aaand I just proved Ghoul's point.
I high-fived Kid and Kobra on each side of me after a laugh. "So team, what's the deal today?" asked Kobra suddenly serious.
"Traffic's high early, so we're up early to fight it. It's expected to be really high all day into the night," answered Poison.
"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Jet. "Let's get outta here and fight it."
"Let me finish, Jet," said Ghoul, holding up his coffee cup.
"No."
On that note, we chugged our coffees and headed for the garage and to the car. My eye mask was on, gun in holster, boots laced tight, ponytails tied tight and high, and head up. I took the seat in the back between Kid and Ghoul, while Poison drove and Kobra called shotgun.
Poison turned the radio up: "Look alive, sunshine," addressed Dr. D, "One-oh-nine in the sky, but the pigs won't quit. You're here with me, Dr. Death-Defying! I'll be your surgeon, your proctor, your helicopter. Pumpin' out the slaughter-matic sounds to keep you alive! A system failure for the masses, anti-matter for the master plan, louder than God's revolver and twice as shiny. This one's for all you rock-and-rollers, all you crash queens and motor babies, listen up!"
Then the others joined in singing along to the radio, as I felt awkward not knowing the song: "The future is bulletproof, the aftermath is secondary. It's time to do it now and do it loud. Killjoys, MAKE SOME NOISE!!!"
Even with not knowing the song, I head-banged with them anyway and just sung the "na na na's" in the background.
The day continued a lot like that fun, with few breaks every few hours of fighting. We drove away from Korse in the BLI car in a chase, as we shot with precision every Drac and Scarecrow we saw.
Occasionally, we would get out of the car and battle, splitting up in pairs to fight on each side of the field. Route Guano was the busiest and most dangerous route to drive through, so through none of it did we drive: we ran and jumped and shot and rolled and dodged. I could feel it as the hardest I've ever fought in battle before. Nonetheless it felt extra good to do so... why was that?
Anyways, we continued the chase away from Korse in the BL/Ind car, stopping occasionally for battles on the side of the road and stocking up on ammo by hacking into the BLI ammo vending machines.
At one stop, which was near the gas station and store, Kobra led Kid out to the vending machine there and directed me to come over. "Let me show you two how to hack in here," he said, pulling out something that looked like a gaming controller. "This would be helpful in case you ever lose your ammo or if it gets stolen."
After Kobra demonstrated the process, I gave it a go. I ended up shaking the machine and banging on it with my fists to get the gun to fall. I shrugged with a chuckle after that. "Whatever works, I guess," laughed Kid, giving me a high-five then Kobra.
"There's a lot more around here, so no worries if it's broken," shrugged Kobra, then he smirked, "That's more we can steal more easily."
"Mwahahaha," laughed Kid, quietly but enough to make Kobra and I laugh.
I aimed at a nearby Drac to test out the new gun, and it was next to perfect. I threw my fists up in the air at the extra good shot.
"Guys!" yelled Poison out to us, whipping their hair back, "it's time to come back here."
"Okaaay," I joke-sighed, rolling my eyes with a laugh. We then headed back to the car to continue the journey, continue singing the "na na na's."
The full day of fighting ended when Korse and his cronies finally caught up to us. He pulled forward in front of us then turned around, stopping us Killjoys in our tracks. The next battle began, but unfortunately at the end, two of his Scarecrow cronies took away little Kid, grabbing her around the chest tightly and not letting her go as Korse and his other cronies held guns to our heads (Korse's gun at Poison).
"Keep running," Korse threatened, staring dead into each of our eyes individually. We could hear Kid's attempts to fight back.