The girl stumbled out up off the ground, zone sun beating down on her. Another test.
A mere 7 years old, and she knew already she would die in the zones.
The girl looked around, but battery city was nowhere in sight. They'd grabbed her from her mother, who'd given her a letter and a kiss on the head as they took her away, and yelled,
"Keep running!"
She'd been thrown in the back of a truck, and then dumped in the zones. She remembered the doctor saying,
"She can't possibly survive this one, there's no way."
To which Korse replied,
"Madam's orders, we do as she says. If the girl dies, we know the limits and we don't do it again. If the girl lives, we come up with something else. Nothing can beat the BLi, nothing."
Then she was thrown off the truck, scared and alone, with nothing but the clothes on her back.
So she did the only thing she could think of, she spun around in a circle, then when she fell, got up and started walking in that direction.
*****
it was sundown by the time she collapsed. No food or water for hours, and she hadn't stopped walking.
Her eyelids were heavy and full of dust, so she closed them as she laid on the ground,
When the roar of an engine snapped those heavy eyes open again.
She heard voices as the engine stopped, and strong arms picked her up.
"Hey... Look alive.." A male voice said, and she opened her eyes.
She whimpered a little as he carried her, throat too swollen to scream.
The man had toasted zone skin, and eyes lined with black. His hair was bright red, and he wore a black and red bandana on his face.
"Look at those eyes huh?" Another voice said, and the girl turned her head. As she was placed inside a car, another man took her into his arms. He had black hair and a kind smile, his bandana pulled down.
"Wow... Golden, like sunshine." Another voice added, the one next to the girl as the car started to move. This man had a round face and big lips, with poofy curly brown hair.
"Yeah, we don't get much of that around here." The next voice scoffed, belonging to a skinny blonde kid with an angular face, sitting in the passenger seat.
"Go to sleep sunshine, we'll be home soon." The red haired guy said, looking into the mirror.
The girl nodded, and fell asleep.
*****
When the girl woke up, she was in a warm bed somewhere, that smelled of dust and smoke. She opened her eyes, and the red haired man was beside her, in a chair fiddling with a ray gun.
She pulled the sheets up to cover her face except her eyes, when he saw her, and he smiled and laughed.
"Morning sunshine. I'm not gonna bite ya, I'm no draculoid. I kill 'em, vampires will never hurt you." He smiled.
She lowered the blankets a little.
"Still a little shy hmm? I'm Party Poison, you can call me Poison though. GUYS GET IN HERE!"
The other men from the previous day filed into the room, smiling and laughing as well. They were a colourful and happy bunch.
"Well my little crash queen, these will be your new uncles."
The afro one was Jet Star, the sarcastic one was Kobra Kid, and the short one with the black hair was Fun Ghoul.
"We're keepin' you sunshine, hope you don't mind." Party Poison smiled, "You got a name?"
The girl shook her head. "A number."
"What's that?"
"000073461." She replied.
"That's no way to call someone, I'm gonna give you a name. You want a name sunshine?"
She nodded.
After a long pause and a great deal of thought, he said, "I'll call you Goodnite. Goodnite Ritalin Way."
She let the blanket down and smiled, "I have something for you."
She pulled out her mother's letter and handed it to Party Poison, who handed it to Jet Star, who read it aloud,
"Killjoys,
By the time you're reading this, the BLi will think my daughter is dead, but I am confident she'll have stumbled into your care. They can not know she's alive, not until she's ready.
She is the weapon, an accident, but still a weapon that can be used to destroy the BLi and they know that. That's why they've put her through all the tests, to try and break her. She will not break. She will be the one to save us.
Right now, she's just a little girl who's got a genetic mutation and horrible mood swings, but she will grow into something beautifully destructive if you raise her right.
Teach her your ways, she will detonate when the time is right. All we need is inside her.
All my love killjoys, and even more to my darling girl.
Keep running."
Party Poison turned back to the girl, now Goodnite.
"What do you think Goodnite?"
The little girl paused for a second, and then said,
"Look what I can do!"
And proceded to turn one eye blue and the other green, and cross them, while turning her hair white.
The killjoys laughed, and Party Poison lifted her up.
"Three cheers for our little explosive! Three cheers for sweet revenge! Are you gonna stay Goodnite?"
"I'll be your detonator!" She squeaked, laughing with them.
And from then on, she would be. The beautiful bomb, that would save them, not from death, but from life.
