Golden State ( a Killjoy fanfic )

Chapter 8: Picture Perfect

The next morning was, well, awkward, to say the least. Crossfire was in an uncharacteristically bad mood. Ghoul was trying to cheer her up, but to no avail. Kobra and Supernova were staring at each other from across the room, trying not to meet each others eyes. Jet was putting the power pup back on the shelf that broke the previous day, and Cyanide was sitting like a statue in a booth, robotically sipping her coffee.

There was no sign of Siren anywhere. About half an hour after she left the roof, Party decided to go talk to her. But, his room was empty. He realized how tired he was, and he slept. When he woke up this morning, the car that she drove here was missing, and so was she. He had worried, but Crossfire had told him not to, Siren wasnt stupid. She would be back.

Someone touching his arm made him jump.

"Oh sorry. I didnt mean to scare you." It was Cyanide.

"S'okay"

"Do you have a shooting range? I need something to take my mind off things."

Party was surprised that her mind was on anything. She didnt seem like very emotional person.

"Yeah, its out back." Party pointed.

"Thanks." She smiled at him, and it reached her eyes. Her mood swings confused Party.

She left, and Party followed soon after. This was all too... unnatural for him. He decided that shooting would help him too.

~.~

Party was a pretty good shooter. Hell, he was a great shooter. Cyanide was beginning to wonder if some of the stories had truth to them.

She felt weird. Yesterday had not been a good day for her. The computers and trackers she had spent years getting to work were completely destroyed. Her main contribution to the group was her technology and hacking skills. But, they didnt much good when there were no computers around.

She felt worthless.

And, instead of getting upset, she went numb. She had starting becoming emotionless in times of tragedy ever since...

She forced herself to stop thinking about it. The shooting was helping. She would feel better soon.

"You are pretty good, y'know." Party called to her.

She looked at the dummy she was shooting, the wounds were all over the place. But, at least she was hitting it. There was a time not too long ago when she couldnt even pick up a ray gun.

"Ugh." she said aloud. Her mind kept returning to the topic that she didnt want to think about. Party looked at her, quzzical.

"Are you okay Cyanide?"

"Dandy."

He chuckled at her word choice. "Well then." They walked back inside together.

~.~

The next couple of hours consisted of a lot of arguing.

Ghoul had proposed that they all go on a run together.

"Siren tells us when we go on runs. Not you." Crossfire had snapped.

It seemed obvious to everyone but Ghoul that she didnt like him. Like at all.

"Well, we do need to patrol." Party had piped up. "And, well, I am not going to leave you guys here. I met you yesterday."

"None of us are patrolling without Siren telling us we can." Cyanide stated. The conversation went on like that for a while.

Eventually, they decided to just stay there and wait for Siren. Party offered to let Cyanide to give the reports on the transmissions because she seemed tech savvy. She gratefully looked at him and disappeared into the shack.

At around 5, Siren returned. By that time, everyone was doing their own thing somewhere in the diner. Party was the first one to see her.

"Where the hell have you been?" he was suddenly angry.

"Why do you care what I do?" she snapped back at him. She looked tired though, and no effort went into the comment.

"Your Killjoys wouldnt go on a run without you saying it-"

"Woah, first of all, they arent my Killjoys. They can leave whenever they want. Second of all, I dont care. So dont waste your breath."

"I cant undo it. When are you going to stop hanging it over my head!"

She just sighed and walked back to the car and returned with something in her hands. She threw it at him.

"Thats were I was. Now, I have been up since 2:30 this morning so I am going to bed." And she disappeared into his bedroom again.

Party opened the bag, hestitant. Inside was cans of food and soda. He moved them aside, and saw something wrapped in brown paper. He tore the paper off. Underneath was a picture of five girls.

He recognized four of them immediately as the other Fabulous Four. They looked to be around 14 in the picture, and all had their arms holding onto each other. Each one was smiling. His eyes skimmed the faces, left to right. They rested on Siren. She looked so happy. It occured to him that he had never seen her smile.

Next to her was the only one in the picture he didnt recognize. She stood a bit taller than Siren, and had shoulder length black hair. Her eyes were an unbelievable blue. Instead of looking at the camera, Siren and the girl were looking at each other, but were facing the camera. They seemed to be laughing at some inside joke.

Party wondered what had happened to the girl.

~