Death Before Disco: Hopeless Hearts trilogy book 1

Come One, Come All

Kobra Kid POV
          After a relatively routine supply run, my brother, Party Poison and I were driving down Route Guano, headed back to the diner where Fun Ghoul and Jet Star were waiting. Then, out of the blue, on the brink of our vision, the classic yellow-brown wasteland filled with white. Dracs, and lots of them. Party stopped abruptly and we jumped out of our Trans-Am, pulled out our ray guns and tried to defend ourselves. Classically, we were hopelessly outnumbered. I lost sight of Party and was rapidly losing this scuffle. I began to doubt my odds. Somehow, I missed the remaining Dracs moving to a tight formation around me, successfully allowing me to lose all faith I had in coming out of this situation unscathed. It really hit me then, I was going to get ghosted. dusted out right here on Route Guano. As the Dracs closed in on me, I saw a flash of color from behind a shrub nearby. 

           "Duck!" Without warning, a girl, younger than me but not by much as far as looks could tell, jumped out began shooting the Dracs surrounding me. Her long brown hair with black tips fluttered and framed her face as she skillfully ended Dracs with deadly accuracy.
              As suddenly as she’d appeared, she turned to leave. Behind the shrub she had seemed to jump out of was a sleek black motorcycle with splashes of random, neon colors. It was covered in bright paint with no arrangement or pattern and random ads from before Better Living Industries monopolized existence.
           After a couple seconds of me staring at where she’d been, quite shell-shocked, I remembered that I didn’t know where Party was. "Party! Where are you?!" My brother’s red hair popped up from behind the Trans-Am. “I thought you got dusted. Let’s move!”

        “Where are we… What?” He exclaimed in confusion as I jumped into the drivers seat which was usually his and tore off after them, the slick black bike was hard to miss on the desert backdrop. After pursuing the pair for, um, however long it was we ended up at a small, low to the ground cement bunker, it was a place we’d been before. The Battery, a club created for and run by Killjoys. I leapt out of the Trans-Am and bolted down the outer staircase. The club music had just started to invade my sense of hearing as I entered, with Party hot on my heels.
         "Kobra! What are you doing?" he shouted at me, straining to be heard over the pounding beat.
         "The girl who saved my life went down here!" Then, as if through a haze or smoke, she was there, along with the girl who had waited by that badass motorcycle. Not knowing quite how to proceed, I walked up to the owner of the bar, Crash Cola.
"Crash! Who's the brown haired bartender?" I asked
         "Oh her? Hey, Chem. Get over here!" The girl at the counter turned, and walked over my way.
         "Yeah, Crash? And who is this?" she asked, her tone melodic.
          "You don't remember me? You saved my life! Like ten minutes ago," I blurted out, a little confused. I wasn’t habitually forgotten so immediately.
          "Yeah?" she asked, obviously uninterested. "I'm Chemical Shot, and blondie over there is Harmless Insanity, and that’s our job. We save Killjoys. What makes you so special?" she glared at me.
           "Well, I'm Kobra Kid," I stated, confused at how she didn't know who I was.
           "And I already told you who I am, but you haven't explained why you feel all high
and righteous," she said, getting annoyed.
          "I'm, uh, not to brag or anything, I’m kind of one of the Fabulous Killjoys." I drawled, trying to make myself look like less of a fool for having to get my life saved by the girl I may or may not have been trying to hit on.

Chem laughed, "Hey! Harm! Get a look at this! He thinks he's the shit
because he's a Fabulous Killjoy!" the two girls laughed.
          She got right in my face and looking me straight in the eye and said, "I don't
care who you are, and you being a ‘Fabulous Killjoy’ means nothing to me. I work
with Harm, saving Killjoys and doing what we need to survive. We are not part
of your ranks and you have no control over me," she shot me with her glare and
walked off with Harm leaving me confused and in awe of her independence and
strength.

        Party came and joined me at the bar. "So, you kind of crashed and burned there. You're an excellent flirt, and if I could find the time in my oh so busy schedule I would totally ask you for lessons," he said, on the verge of laughter.

        "Get this, Party, she didn't even know who we were and she didn't care either. She and her friend laughed when I told them that I was a Fabulous Killjoy!" I said, grumpily and disapproving of the sour reaction my reputation had earned. It was at that moment that her friend, Harm, walked toward us.

        "Hello boys, I'm Harmless Insanity. And I know you're Kobra Kid," she stated pointing to me. "And you are, Beautiful?" She asked my brother.

        "Well... Um, I'm... Um, Party Poison?" he stuttered intelligently, and she smiled at his awkwardness. The whole scene was a little bit too sweet for my liking.

        "Hey, Harm, show them why you're the best shot around," shouted a voice from across the bar.

        "Alright. That shouldn’t be too tricky," She said.

        "How about that shot glass?" Chem smirked, choosing a target.

        The glass was about an inch tall and across the dance floor on the other side of the room. Before I could stop myself I shouted, "Not even Party could hit that.

        Harm looked at my brother, quizzically before shouting, "Everyone clear the dance floor, unless you want a bullet to gracefully collide with your face! You want to give it a whirl, Hottie?" She said turning to my utterly dumbfounded brother.

        He let off a shot after stammering out some syllables that definitely did not actually make words but still somehow confirmed that he was going to try and hit the chosen target, and was quite close, but missed the glass. "A little too high, Sunshine," she advised. “Hit the lights,” she said to Crash. And then, in near total darkness, the only thing seen was a flash of steely silver light from her ray gun and the only thing heard was the tinkling ping of shattered glass. When the lights returned, she was seen still at the ready, holding the gun one handed. She proceeded to twirl her gun on her finger and blow out the slight steam from the barrel of the gun. Twirling the gun again, with quite a bit of skill, she holstered it by her hip. She and Chem looked at each other, with mirrored smiles on their faces and stalked out of The Battery. They didn't even look back to notice Party and I giving longing looks to the two girls who just showed us up.

        Both Party and I turned to Crash, and simultaneously we muttered, "Drink, please."

        He laughed, and as he poured our beverages he advised us, "Ye be warned, fellas. They stick around with no one but each other. You might be lost in their beauty and enigmatic personalities, but not even you, members of the Fabulous Killjoys, stand a chance so you might as well just give up the chase."

        Taking a large gulp of my soda I muttered, "I wish I had the strength to follow that advice, but I don't."

        "Neither do I," whispered Party, resting his forehead on the cool surface of the bar.

        "Good luck then. You're next drink is on me. You will definitely need it if you are going to try and chase them," Crash stated. Then talking mostly to himself added, "You could've chosen anyone, but it had to be them."