Two

We saw a building, obviously deserted

“Should we check it out?” Kobra Kid asked Party Poison, not taking his eyes off the building

“It looks deserted.” Party Poison answered after a short pause. He looked a Jet Star and gave him a look, “What do you think, Jet?”

Jet Star looked down, trying to decide what to do I guess. This guy thinks too much. “Wouldn’t hurt to try, I guess...” He said, finally. I looked over a Psycho and motioned to her to follow me; she scowled, but did as she was told

“Quit being so bitter. They’re only trying to help,” I said, matter-of-factly

“Don’t tell me what to do,” She replied angrily and walked passed me, bumping into me

“What’s her deal?” I heard from behind me. “She’s just so…mean all the time. Even to you.”

I turned to look at the man that was speaking, and there was Fun Ghoul, “She’s having a difficult time with all of this. She wasn’t like this before.” I answered, avoiding eye contact. I didn’t like talking to people about Psycho when she wasn’t around; especially not to strangers

“What was she like before?” He questioned, raising an eyebrow

“She, uh-” I started but was interrupted by the sound of Psycho’s “annoyed voice”

“Revenge, why the fuck are you talking to this idiot?” She asked me, venom in her voice, and sent a glare Fun Ghoul’s way

“I wasn’t. I, uh, I’ll come in now.” I muttered, sending an apologetic smile Fun Ghoul’s way and followed my sister into the diner

“Who are you?” I heard Party Poison yelling, and just as I was about to answer, ‘you know who we are’ I heard another voice, a voice I couldn’t recognize

“I’m Dr. Death Defying. And this is my diner,” The voice said, “Now, who are you?”

We entered the room that the voices were coming from and saw Party Poison, Kobra Kid, and Jet Star standing around a man in a wheelchair, “I’m Party Poison. This is Jet Star, and this is Kobra Kid.” Party Poison answered, pointing to the guys that matched the names as he spoke them. I cleared my throat and he smiled over, “And that’s Revenge, Psycho, and the short guy behind them is Fun Ghoul.”

“I’m not short!” Fun Ghoul answered bitterly, “You’re all just too tall!”

“You’re short, Ghoul,” Kobra Kid laughed, getting a scowl from Fun Ghoul

“Well, I guess we can’t stay here guys,” Jet Star looked around at each one of us, then turned to Dr. Death Defying, “Sorry to intrude.”

“Nonsense. Stick around for a while, nice to have people to talk to.” Dr. Death Defying smiled up at Jet Star, who looked at Party Poison, who shrugged

“If you insist.” Party Poison said with a laugh, and the six of us found spots to sit in, Psycho and I sitting in a corner far away from everyone else. Kobra Kid looked over at us and frowned, but found a seat next to Party Poison. Suddenly a girl came crashing through the door

“DR. D!” She shouted, “I SAW FOOTPRINTS LEADING UP TO THE DINER, SIX PAIRS!” Then she paused and looked around the room, and then her eyes widened “WHO ARE THEY?” And again Party Poison introduced all of us. The girl still looked quite cautious of us, but dropped the subject. I looked at Psycho who just shrugged at me.

“Hey, Party Poison?” Kobra Kid questioned, looking at the red haired man, “My feet hurt. And as soon as we leave this place, they’re going to hurt even more. Are we going to have to walk forever?”

Party Poison opened his mouth to answer, but before he could Dr. Death Defying interrupted, “How far do you guys have to go?”

“Erm, as far as the desert takes us, I guess.” Kobra Kid answered getting strange looks from his friends and laughing at himself

“Well, follow me.” Dr. D. said, and wheeled himself out to a garage of sorts. There was a vintage Trans Am sitting in the garage, obviously used, and Jet Star’s eyes visibly lit up.

“Wow.” He breathed, and the other’s grinned at him. Apparently Jet Star liked cars. “Is this…are you…?” He stuttered

“Yep. If you’re willing to fix it up, it’s yours” Dr. D. said with a grin. Jet Star smiled happily and looked over at Party Poison. He grinned, and nodded to Jet Star who ran over to the car, whispering another ‘wow.’

Jet Star spent the rest of the day working on the car, not talking to anybody, not stopping for anything. I guess he was determined to get it fixed in one sitting. That obviously wasn’t going to happen, but he definitely put up a good fight. By the end of the day the engine started, which it wasn’t doing earlier, which was actually pretty insane.

“He likes cars, doesn’t he?” I asked Kobra Kid, he looked over at me and just stared blankly at me for a second

“I’m sorry, what’d you say?” He asked, and I smirked

“Never mind. Just asking a question I already know the answer to.”

Within days the car was up and running. Jet Star was unbelievably proud of himself, and Party Poison just wanted to give the car a nice paint job. He had asked me and Psycho if either one of us could paint, or draw or anything, I answered honestly, with a ‘Not unless you want a house and a couple stick figures on it,’ and Psycho said she could but she really didn’t want to. I had convinced her to draw something for them by saying something along the lines of ‘If you don’t well probably have some shitty unicorn on the hood, and I doubt you want that’. And when that didn’t work I threatened to make her such an emotional wreck she wouldn’t be able to stand up; my power is emotion control, if you didn’t catch on. So she drew this pretty awesome spider with a lightning bolt on it. I thought it was pretty awesome, but Kobra Kid and Fun Ghoul were freaked out by it because it was a spider. Babies. Everybody else liked it, so Kobra Kid and Fun Ghoul were outnumbered. Psycho and Party Poison got to work right away on the car, sketching the spider onto the hood. They decided it be easiest to finish the painting all in one day, and that’s what they did. They painted the spider black, and painted an upside down American Flag on the side, just for the hell of it.

When they finished we all gathered around the car and just took it all in. Fun Ghoul stepped up to touch it, but Party Poison smacked his hand away, “Wet paint, idiot.”

“As if we didn’t stand out enough,” Kobra Kid said suddenly, and we all turned to look at him and Party Poison frowned

“Stop being such a downer, Kobra, it’s unbecoming.” He said, nudging Kobra Kid with his elbow, getting a glare. I’ve never noticed before, but they look a lot alike. Almost like brothers.
Anyway, Fun Ghoul walked up to Kobra Kid and mentioned something to him, too quietly for me to hear, and Kobra Kid burst into a fit of giggles. Cute.

After a couple of hours, Party Poison asked us if we wanted to drive around a little. I was all for it, but Psycho kindly declined. And I use the term ‘kindly’ very lightly. I stood up to join them, but the little girl from earlier bounced in, bragging about how ‘Jet Star said she could go if she didn’t mind squeezing into the back between Kobra Kid and Fun Ghoul.’ After hearing this I realized that there wouldn’t be enough room for me so I smiled at Party Poison, shook my head, and went back to my spot next to Psycho. And then they were off. About two and a half hours later the four of them came back, car a bit beaten up, and Jet Star bleeding from his forehead. I jumped to my feet and ran over to him; I took a look around and counted the people that came in the door. The guys were all there, but something wasn’t right. And then I remember; the girl. She was nowhere to be found, and the look on Party Poison’s face revealed that something definitely wasn’t right. I looked to Kobra Kid for an answer and he frowned

“They took her.” He said, looking at Party Poison, “We need to get her back.”