Destination Detonation

“What are you DOING?” I demanded.

I was demanding a lot of things. Maybe I should have been on anger management pills. I cautiously opened one eye as the music quieted down and saw the same look on all three men.

“That should’ve done it.”

His long black hair hung in his face. He desperately needed a haircut. Or at least a brush. He held my arms as we sat in an unwavering silence. The car skidded to a stop outside of a diner, like the red haired man had said, and I was pulled inside. Someone pushed me into one of the booths and the three men from the car and one from the back room slid in around me.

“Alright, well, first off, don’t panic,” The red haired man said, scratching absently at his nose.
“My name is Party Poison.” Attaching a name to a face, that’s good at least.
“This is the pack, Jet Star,” He pointed to the man who’d come from the back room.

Like the others, he wasn’t wearing a mask. It went against everything we’d learned about the rebels. They also didn’t look to scary, once I took the time to think about it. I stopped trying to slide under the table to try and get out. They might have something worthwhile to say.

“That’s the Kobra Kid,” The blonde man from before raised a hand in acknowledgment.

“And Fun Ghoul.”

The black haired man who’d sat next to me nudged me with his shoulder. “We’re called the fabulous killjoys.” He looked like he was struggling for words.

“That doesn’t tell me why I’m here. Or how you know me, or how you know my sister.”

“I’m… I’m getting to that. I just need to think about how to explain this. About six months ago, we found you by a place called the Tower. It’s a really dangerous spot, so we took you back here to help you out.”

“I don’t remember any of that, I think you might have the wrong person.” I said slowly.

They weren’t hurting me, or threatening me, they just looked sad.

“No, see, you didn’t let me finish. We started training you to survive and then you got kidnapped, but we got you back and it was awesome.”

“So what happened?” I hadn’t managed to take my pills, so this was probably a side effect. I didn’t usually ask so many questions.

“You left. Your sister, her name is Boom Box out here, told us all about it. You took off in the middle of the night. We found messages from you in these tunnels that run all around the underground. They finally stopped, so we started asking about you. A killjoy going by Joker said the city had you.”

“That doesn’t explain what happened between then and now, if you’re telling the truth.”

I let my eyes wander all along the walls. It was nice being able to see again. The doctors told me my loss of eyesight was caused by an allergic reaction to some of the medicines they’d been giving me, but they’d found a way to repair it. They never bothered to tell me anything else from before. Just that I was safe. If these people were telling the truth, they might know what had happened to me even before that.

“Better living industries uses their medications to brainwash the citizens. We’re not sure how much yet, but most memories are eliminated. Once you come down off of the pills after a big sensory shock, most of it is usually regained. You’ve been in and out of that city three times. That’s more than anyone else we know of.”

“So my brain is just a screwed up mess, that’s great” I mumbled sarcastically, letting my head drop to the table. “I don’t even know why I’m believing you. You could have hacked the system and kidnapped me to get back at the city.” I didn’t honestly believe that, though.

“Boom Box mentioned something about you. She called you a different name than we’d ever heard. Destroya. Is that you?”

I stopped biting my nails and slowly lowered my hands to the table. That was me. I’d chosen the name once we started to learn about the rebellion. That was before Grace had been taken-

Rescued? I had to ask myself.