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Description
Revelation

"What do you want." I demand, itching to look back, to make sure Missile Kid wasn't standing right there. The reason I haven't told her about the whole Party-Poison-being-a-Draculoid thing is because

1. It's for her own good, and
2. I don't know enough to prove it without physical evidence.

"How did you know it was me?" he asks.

"You reek of mint. Go for some other smell next time. Like BL/ind brand." I look him up and down, disgusted. The raygun is still aimed at his face.

"No, that's not it. How did you know it was ME?" it's the same question, but toned differently, as to express a whole new meaning.

"You and Korse aren't exactly discreet. You were using us both, weren't you?" I sneer. I already know his excuse.

"You don't underSTAND, I—" he cuts himself off, something I don't think he'd do.

"You WHAT." I hold the raygun steadier, and he gets it.

"I did this—DO this—because they'll kill everyone I care about unless I do. They use me by this." He lifts up his hair on the right side of his head, and I see a blinking green device surgically placed. "It controls my mind and tracks my thoughts and position, anywhere in the Zones, so that means some more BL/ind people will be on their way soon."

I lower the raygun some. "Why are you telling me this?" I ask, the tiny device mesmerizing. Missile Kid was about to say something about experimental implants…

"Because I know no one trusts you." He smiles, and my heart leaps in my chest. "There's not much time. So hold onto your questions, okay?" I nod.

"Missile Kid had gotten captured by BL/ind not long after one member of our team bad been killed by Korse. We went after them to Battery City, and wound up falling into a trap. Of course, I'd seen this coming, but still. We ended up getting Missile Kid out of there, but Korse had shot me in the head. I thought I was dead until I found myself sitting in a cell, staring through a barred window at the rest of Battery City. They said they'd kill the others if I didn't work for them. I resisted. They made me watch as they…tortured…my own brother." I complied the moment I figured out what they were going to do, but they wouldn't stop. They said compliance was immediate, not hesitant…" for the first time since I'd pulled off the mask, he shows emotion. It's pain and regret. "But they let them go three days later, scattering them across the Zones, in a hope that we wouldn't regroup. They put me in surgery after that, implanting the device. It controls your mind by scanning and altering the electromagnetic waves in your brain, changing the thoughts of freethinking and improvisation to ones of submission and vulnerability. Then it sends me my orders in my altered state, through a series of barely audible coded radio signatures, and I'm unable to resist them. They tell me to go out and kill someone, go maim someone, report to headquarters undercover. My…they're…they really think that killing all these people and controlling others like me will solve all this conflict." He sighs, frustrated.

"What do you need ME for?" I ask.

"You had the ring. When…when I was being trained as a Draculoid, there was this woman, her name was Christine. She was the head of the Developments division of Bl/ind. She and I became friends, depending on what you qualify as friends. She was smart, and funny, and deep down, she hated what BL/ind was doing to people, just like me. You remember that attack with the big loud noise?" He asks, and I nod. "She caught wind of what the real intention of what BL/ind was up to and freaked out, went AWOL, back in July." A sinking feeling invades my stomach. "She downloaded and deleted all research and data regarding the pylons into a tiny memory ring—her engagement ring from Korse." He wipes at his face. "I thought I'd never see her again, until that one night, when she was crouching over you, protecting you from the Killjoys. From me.

"Christine was your partner."

I stumble back a step. "And…they just took the key to completing that…that machine?" I ask, feeling dizzy.

"I'm sorry. I should've told you earlier." Tiny headlights make themselves known on the horizon. They don't move closer. They're surveying us. Whatever Party Poison has to say, he'd better say it now.

"What's going to happen to you, now that you've told me all this?" I ask quickly. He flashes a smile, and my heart leaps on its own accord.

"Nothing I haven't seen before." He said. He walks forward, grabs me by the waist, and presses our bodies close together. He leans his head down to face mine, and kisses me once, softly. I squeeze my eyes shut, my mind telling me something bad is going to happen. My brain supplies a word: sacrifice.

"Please. Party Poison, just—" he cuts me off.

"That's not my name." he whispers, forlorn. He takes my hand and presses something small and cool into my palm. It's his key. "Don't lose this. It's the only one left in the desert." He lets me go and takes his raygun from my other hand. I brush purple from my eyes.

"Wh-Why…how am I going to tell anyone the truth?" I ask, shoulders shaking.

"You can't ask ME to tell you that. You'll have to figure it out for yourself." He picks up his mask on the dirt and dusts it off. "We can win this. It starts with you. Christine told me that." He puts it on, and drives off on the gray number 16 bike. The headlights down the road are gone.

I put the key back on the chain and back around my neck, before going inside. Everything is loud in my ears. They're ringing like an old TV set. I open and close a few doors, trying to find Missile Kid. "Sammy?" I call. "Sam—!" I get cut off as a red-hot laser narrowly escapes my head. I duck behind the wall, staring at the scorchmark with wide eyes. "Sammy put the gun DOWN." I yell. I hear something click and turn off.

"Is that you?" Missile Kid asks.

"Yeah. Can I come in or are you going to shoot me again?" I ask gently, but mildly.

"Yeah." She says, and I peek around the corner.

She's hiding behind a stack of crates filled with records. Her raygun is off to the side. She's scared. I crawl over to her and hold her close. She cries in my shirt but it's okay because I'm crying too all of a sudden. I'm scared. I want my mom. I want to go HOME.

Instead, I find myself telling Missile Kid to put all the food in the car, to put everything in the car. She gets up shakily, but she's grateful for having something to do. In the meantime, I'm penning a note to Kobra Kid.

'Kobra Kid,

'By the time you get this, we'll be gone and off the map. Hiding. It seems that not even YOUR secret hideout is a secret anymore. We're in deep trouble. Korse has this ring with data to rebuild the pylons in Battery City. To rebuild them right. It's best to run into the mountains. That's where I'd take Missile Kid but it's not where we're going.

'Party Poison IS a Draculoid. I don't care if you don't believe me anymore, but it's the truth.'

I fold it in two, and tape it on the door of the broadcast room. I wave goodbye to the covered spider cage and I go to the garage.

"Come on. We're going south." I say.

Home, here we come.

Description
Revelation

"What do you want." I demand, itching to look back, to make sure Missile Kid wasn't standing right there. The reason I haven't told her about the whole Party-Poison-being-a-Draculoid thing is because

1. It's for her own good, and
2. I don't know enough to prove it without physical evidence.

"How did you know it was me?" he asks.

"You reek of mint. Go for some other smell next time. Like BL/ind brand." I look him up and down, disgusted. The raygun is still aimed at his face.

"No, that's not it. How did you know it was ME?" it's the same question, but toned differently, as to express a whole new meaning.

"You and Korse aren't exactly discreet. You were using us both, weren't you?" I sneer. I already know his excuse.

"You don't underSTAND, I—" he cuts himself off, something I don't think he'd do.

"You WHAT." I hold the raygun steadier, and he gets it.

"I did this—DO this—because they'll kill everyone I care about unless I do. They use me by this." He lifts up his hair on the right side of his head, and I see a blinking green device surgically placed. "It controls my mind and tracks my thoughts and position, anywhere in the Zones, so that means some more BL/ind people will be on their way soon."

I lower the raygun some. "Why are you telling me this?" I ask, the tiny device mesmerizing. Missile Kid was about to say something about experimental implants…

"Because I know no one trusts you." He smiles, and my heart leaps in my chest. "There's not much time. So hold onto your questions, okay?" I nod.

"Missile Kid had gotten captured by BL/ind not long after one member of our team bad been killed by Korse. We went after them to Battery City, and wound up falling into a trap. Of course, I'd seen this coming, but still. We ended up getting Missile Kid out of there, but Korse had shot me in the head. I thought I was dead until I found myself sitting in a cell, staring through a barred window at the rest of Battery City. They said they'd kill the others if I didn't work for them. I resisted. They made me watch as they…tortured…my own brother." I complied the moment I figured out what they were going to do, but they wouldn't stop. They said compliance was immediate, not hesitant…" for the first time since I'd pulled off the mask, he shows emotion. It's pain and regret. "But they let them go three days later, scattering them across the Zones, in a hope that we wouldn't regroup. They put me in surgery after that, implanting the device. It controls your mind by scanning and altering the electromagnetic waves in your brain, changing the thoughts of freethinking and improvisation to ones of submission and vulnerability. Then it sends me my orders in my altered state, through a series of barely audible coded radio signatures, and I'm unable to resist them. They tell me to go out and kill someone, go maim someone, report to headquarters undercover. My…they're…they really think that killing all these people and controlling others like me will solve all this conflict." He sighs, frustrated.

"What do you need ME for?" I ask.

"You had the ring. When…when I was being trained as a Draculoid, there was this woman, her name was Christine. She was the head of the Developments division of Bl/ind. She and I became friends, depending on what you qualify as friends. She was smart, and funny, and deep down, she hated what BL/ind was doing to people, just like me. You remember that attack with the big loud noise?" He asks, and I nod. "She caught wind of what the real intention of what BL/ind was up to and freaked out, went AWOL, back in July." A sinking feeling invades my stomach. "She downloaded and deleted all research and data regarding the pylons into a tiny memory ring—her engagement ring from Korse." He wipes at his face. "I thought I'd never see her again, until that one night, when she was crouching over you, protecting you from the Killjoys. From me.

"Christine was your partner."

I stumble back a step. "And…they just took the key to completing that…that machine?" I ask, feeling dizzy.

"I'm sorry. I should've told you earlier." Tiny headlights make themselves known on the horizon. They don't move closer. They're surveying us. Whatever Party Poison has to say, he'd better say it now.

"What's going to happen to you, now that you've told me all this?" I ask quickly. He flashes a smile, and my heart leaps on its own accord.

"Nothing I haven't seen before." He said. He walks forward, grabs me by the waist, and presses our bodies close together. He leans his head down to face mine, and kisses me once, softly. I squeeze my eyes shut, my mind telling me something bad is going to happen. My brain supplies a word: sacrifice.

"Please. Party Poison, just—" he cuts me off.

"That's not my name." he whispers, forlorn. He takes my hand and presses something small and cool into my palm. It's his key. "Don't lose this. It's the only one left in the desert." He lets me go and takes his raygun from my other hand. I brush purple from my eyes.

"Wh-Why…how am I going to tell anyone the truth?" I ask, shoulders shaking.

"You can't ask ME to tell you that. You'll have to figure it out for yourself." He picks up his mask on the dirt and dusts it off. "We can win this. It starts with you. Christine told me that." He puts it on, and drives off on the gray number 16 bike. The headlights down the road are gone.

I put the key back on the chain and back around my neck, before going inside. Everything is loud in my ears. They're ringing like an old TV set. I open and close a few doors, trying to find Missile Kid. "Sammy?" I call. "Sam—!" I get cut off as a red-hot laser narrowly escapes my head. I duck behind the wall, staring at the scorchmark with wide eyes. "Sammy put the gun DOWN." I yell. I hear something click and turn off.

"Is that you?" Missile Kid asks.

"Yeah. Can I come in or are you going to shoot me again?" I ask gently, but mildly.

"Yeah." She says, and I peek around the corner.

She's hiding behind a stack of crates filled with records. Her raygun is off to the side. She's scared. I crawl over to her and hold her close. She cries in my shirt but it's okay because I'm crying too all of a sudden. I'm scared. I want my mom. I want to go HOME.

Instead, I find myself telling Missile Kid to put all the food in the car, to put everything in the car. She gets up shakily, but she's grateful for having something to do. In the meantime, I'm penning a note to Kobra Kid.

'Kobra Kid,

'By the time you get this, we'll be gone and off the map. Hiding. It seems that not even YOUR secret hideout is a secret anymore. We're in deep trouble. Korse has this ring with data to rebuild the pylons in Battery City. To rebuild them right. It's best to run into the mountains. That's where I'd take Missile Kid but it's not where we're going.

'Party Poison IS a Draculoid. I don't care if you don't believe me anymore, but it's the truth.'

I fold it in two, and tape it on the door of the broadcast room. I wave goodbye to the covered spider cage and I go to the garage.

"Come on. We're going south." I say.

Home, here we come.