iNsAnItY

I sat in the main room of the DayGlo building, tinkering with some controls. It's been five years since the deaths of the very people who saved me, and it sure as hell isn't the same without them. For five years, the Killjoys were lying dormant, waiting for some sort of hope. And me sitting here poking at wires and gears wasn't going to find that hope, especially with my hair falling in front of my face. With it being so colorful, I practically turn into a kitten with a ball of yarn with how fun it is! I mean, my hair is freaking red, blue, purple, and platinum (the platinum Show Pony's idea). How can you not have fun with it?

Speaking of Show Pony, I heard the familiar sound of roller skates rolling on the ground, letting me know that he's awake. Usually, I'm the first person up, as I go out and do some patrolling. Unlike other Killjoys, I'm still wanting to be a part of the fight against Better Living Industries. For five years, Korse fucking tripled his goons, making it harder for me to do patrols, but it also makes it fun for me. Target practice is always useful, isn't it?

"How is it that you are always up before the rest of us, girly?" he asked, a look of mock shock on his face. I just shrugged my shoulders.

"Patrolling the streets early and having to keep watch most of the night. It's something I'm used to. I've always been a night owl sort of person anyways," I answered matter-of-fact. He just shook his head and laughed. After a while, we heard Dr. Death Defying rolling in on his wheelchair. I've asked once how he got hurt. To this day, he still hasn't told me what happened. I guess it's a touchy subject or something.

"Morning Show Pony, Toxic," he said, wheeling himself over to his desk. He pulled out a box of rolled-up papers, and SP was rather interested (yes, I call him SP, but only because I don't know his real name and I don't want to call him 'Pony').

"What's all of that?" he asked, rolling over behind Dr. D. He looked up at SP and smiled a knowing smile.

"Oh, it's nothing special, just some blueprints." He now had my attention.

"Blueprints?" I asked. "For what?" I stood up and walked over to SP and Dr. D, wondering what in the hell Dr. D had planned this time. Don't get me wrong, I love his plans. I think that they're fun. It's just that then end up with me critically injured most of the time. Thankfully, Jet Star taught me first aid before... never mind.

I looked over Dr. D's shoulder, trying to get a good look at the blueprints that he was talking about. He looked up at me, a serious look on his face. "How much do you miss Fun Ghoul?" he asked me. My heart dropped.

Let me explain: Five years ago, I first joined the Killjoys. Party Poison and Fun Ghoul were surrounded by Draculoids and needed saving. I happened to be there- in disguise- and saved their asses. Since then, I've fought alongside the Killjoys in just about every battle. After a while, me and Fun Ghoul developed a relationship. You can imagine me watching them get killed devastated me.

"Toxic!" Ghoul screamed. I was lying on the cold tile ground of Better Living Industries, having been injured. He rushed to my side and picked me up, doing everything he could to carry me out of the place.

Party Poison told Ghoul to get me and Grace out of the building and to the Trans Am. He almost succeeded, if it weren't for the fact that right as Poison told us that, we watched him get shot by Korse. Grace screamed, and the rest of us could only watch in horror. Then we watched Kobra Kid get killed. Jet Star grabbed Grace and made a run for it, hoping that Ghoul would do the same with me.

"Ghoul, come on, we have to get out of here!" I screamed, trying to drag him along despite my injuries. He didn't move. He just looked at me. Then he did something that I will never forget for the rest of my life. He pulled me closer and kissed me.

"Don't forget me, Jade." Those were his last words to me before Jet Star came back in and dragged me out. I kept screaming for him to let me go, that we had to save Ghoul. He let me go and told me to make a run for it. I looked back at the doors just in time to watch Fun Ghoul, to watch Frank Iero, get ghosted.

"Jade! Get out of here!" Jet Star screamed, pushing me towards Grace. We began to make a break for the Trans Am until Show Pony and Dr. D pulled up in front of us with our backup vehicle. Me and Grace jumped in, and we both turned to watch Jet Star get shot at. That moment will never leave our heads. We won't forget having watched our leaders died. I won't forget having watched the love of my life die right in front of my eyes.

"Toxic!" I heard SP yell, pulling me from my thoughts. He and Dr. D were both looking at me with worry. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks. I rubbed at my eyes with my arm.

"I'm fine," I lied. They knew that I loved Ghoul, and they shared my pain when he died. It just hurts to have to know that you could have saved them, but they just accept death as if it's a normal thing. I know death is normal, but having to watch it isn't normal to me. Dr. D saw through me, but he didn't say anything about it.

"Well, we know that you miss him, as well as the rest of the group, correct?" he asked. I nodded my head. Dr. D smiled once more, taking out one of the blueprints and unrolling it for me and SP to see. It had drawings of what looked like computer chips and the human brain, with the cerebellum circled. At the top of the page showed the title of this blueprint, which was 'iNsAnItY.'

"I think I might have figured something out, you guys," Dr. D began to explain as he pointed to the brain drawing. "The cerebellum has all of the components of our brain which we cannot activate on our own. That's where a little special device called the 'killswitch' is located." Killswitch? What was Dr. D getting at with this?

"When the killswitch is activated, as the name implies, the person dies. If that killswitch were removed or destroyed, however, the person could keep living. That's where Project iNsAnItY comes in." Dr. D looked at me before continuing on.

"If we do this right, you can have Ghoul back." I was both happy and confused. Happy, because I'd get to be in Ghoul's arms again. Confused, because how in the hell is this supposed to work? SP finally spoke up at this point.

"But if they're dead, then the killswitch activated already, didn't it? How would we bring them back?" he asked. Those were actually good questions. Dr. D chuckled.

"That's what these are for," he replied, pointing to the computer chip drawings. "These are injected into the cerebellum, where they will immediately go to work and reverse the effects of the killswitch. So, in all technicality, our heroes would be revived at that point, but until the program itself is activated, they will only be in a coma-like state." Me and SP looked at each other for a moment. We both didn't like it when Dr. D started talking technical, but we had a pretty good grasp of what he said.

"So basically, we put the chip in and they come back to life, yet they don't come back to life?" I asked. Shit, that sounded better in my head! Luckily, Dr. D knew what I was trying to say and nodded his head.

"But if the killswitch is removed, they just keep on living for all of time?" SP asked. Goddammit, this was being made more complicated than what it needs to be! Dr. D looked over at him as he started talking.

"They will live until their natural deaths, like if they die of old age or sickness or something like that." Still, this was confusing, but as long as I got to bring back Ghoul and the others, I was perfectly okay with this plan. The two kept going back and forth about the killswitch when Grace walked in and sat down opposite of me.

"Hey, Toxic," she said sleepily. I looked up and smiled, completely drowning SP and Dr. D out. "What are they going on about?" she asked me.

"Dr. D's got a plan to bring back Poison and them," I replied, watching her eyes light up.

"Really? How?"

"It's this project he has called 'iNsAnItY,' and it is supposed to target the killswitch."

"You mean the thing in the cerebellum?" she asked, catching my attention. She is three years younger than me, and she knows about it? Then again, I don't really pay attention to human anatomy. I can get kind of grossed out by it. I just nodded my head.

"I don't know what all it does," I admitted. "All I know is that when they died, the killswitch was activated, but this computer chip that Dr. D has planned out can reverse it and put them in a coma state. The chip will also destroy the killswitch."

"But if it's destroyed, wouldn't it just kill them again?" Grace asked me. At that moment, Dr. D came into the conversation.

"Not to worry, my dears. It'll be programmed to only destroy it when the iNsAnItY program is activated and has done its job." I just shook my head.

"Dr. D, have I ever mentioned that I fucking hate it when you talk technically?" I asked, half sarcastic. All of us laughed it off. I stood up and grabbed my ray gun and mask.

"Where do you think you're going young lady?" Dr. D asked, looking at me with concern.

"Out. I'm going to see if I can find anyone who could be a great Killjoy." Dr. D looked over me and shrugged his shoulders.

"On the condition that Ricky can go with you, okay." Ricky? I looked over at SP, hoping that he knows who Dr. D was talking about, until I saw him grab his ray gun and helmet.

"I've been wondering for a long ass time what your name was!" I exclaimed, causing him to giggle.

"You never asked." I rolled my eyes, trying not to say something witty, mostly because I couldn't come up with anything good. We went outside in the California heat out to the Killjoy's van. We still don't have the Trans Am because, in all honesty, none of us had the guts to go to the BL/Ind base by ourselves or in the small group we have just to get it back.

Me and SP-Ricky- were almost in the van when we heard someone shouting. We turned our heads to see some people getting attacked by Draculoids. One of the people getting attacked looked like a Killjoy. Me and Ricky turned to each other. This could be fun.