Detonators (Gerard Way/Party Poison)

Chapter 3

I climb into the driver's seat of the trans-am while the rest of the killjoys pile in the back, and Ghoul prepares to ride my bike back. I hope he knows how drive it, or else I'll kill him. When I tell him this, he laughs and gives me a "Don't worry" look. He thinks I'm kidding. I'm not.
"You do know how to drive, right?" Kobra calls from the back seat.
I roll my eyes and put the car in gear before speeding off. "Does that answer your question, Kobra?" I laugh.
"Where are we going?" I ask Party.
"It's in the middle of Zone 6, I'll give you directions when we get closer."
To have base in the middle of Zone 6 is a good tactic. Zone 6 is the farthest away from Battery City, so they are well protected on that front. Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought. I notice that the car drives fairly well, but sounds like it could use a few repairs. Maybe I can talk the boys into letting me fix it up.
Party gives me some directions, and pretty soon we're at what looks to be an old diner and gas station. It's large, and looks super cool.
It's one of those old 50s styled diners that every town had before the fires. The one that my friends and I would go to at 3 A.M. because we couldn't sleep. The one that my parents took me and my sister to every Sunday morning for family breakfast.
It reminds me of the past.
"Hey, you coming?" Party asks me softly from behind me, snapping me out of my stupor. He must've realized that the diner reminded me of my life before chaos.
"Oh. Yeah," I say and follow him into the diner.
The inside of the diner has been completely customized. The walls have been colorfully spray painted with their individual symbols and the Killjoy black widow, along with some slurs against BL/ind.
"So I'm guessing one of you guys is an artist?" I say.
"That would be me," Party replies, raising his hand. "It's a bit of a hobby. And it's nice bringing something beautiful into this ugly world that we live in."
I'm taken aback by his deep and beautiful words. He didn't strike me as the thoughtful type, but more and more I'm starting to see the real him. It's nice. I just hope he doesn't see the real me. The broken, ugly girl with a bad past.
I need to stop thinking about the past. I'm in the present, living now. I put my smile back on and compliment him on his work. He smiles and says "C'mon, I'll give you the grand tour."
Their base is surprisingly large on the inside. The front room or 'diner' as they call it is like a sort of living room. Apparently it's where they hang out, eat, and everything else. In the back, there are about seven different rooms. One for each of the boys to use as a makeshift bedroom, two empty ones, one which will be turned into my room, according to Party, and a stockroom.
He leads me into the smallest room, which is the stockroom. It's filled to the brim with weapons, ammo, and everything else we could possibly need.
"Impressive," I note. "I guess I'll bring my supplies over and then we'll really be prepared."
He seems surprised at my remark, and so am I. I just offered to bring my own weapons. My own protection. What am I doing?
"Well, it's almost time to eat, should we go into the diner?" he suggests.
I nod and we walk into the diner to find Jet, Kobra, and Ghoul all sitting in a booth. We slide in next to them, and I say, "Ghoul, you didn't crash my bike, right? She's okay?"
He rolls his eyes before letting me know that she's fine, and is behind the base with the trans-am. He's lucky he didn't crash her. He'll get to live another day.
Jet hands me a can of Power Pup with a regretful look on his face. "I wish I could say that we have good food here, but we're stuck with this crap."
I laugh and start eating it. It disgusting, but I've gotten used to it over the years. I finish it quickly- I've learned that's the best way to eat it.
The boys marvel at me. "How on Earth did you get it down that fast without puking?" Party gapes.
"It took a lot of practice. But it's better to just get it over and done with," I laugh. They've barely started theirs.
I can get used to this. Laughing with them like we're old friends. Talking about stupid things into night. It's nice. For once I feel at peace. But I know that I can't get used to this. I can't get too attached.

"Hey, why don't we play that old 20 Questions game to get to know you better?" Ghoul suggests.
"You mean that game we played in high school to see if our crush liked us?" I ask. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Oh, c'mon! You can get to know us! It'll be fun!" Kobra encourages.
I don't think that they understand. I don't want to get to know them.
But before I can protest, Jet says, "Favorite color?"
"Blue." I answer in monotone. Maybe if I'm boring about it they'll give it up.
"Favorite movie, like before this all happened?" Ghoul shoots.
"Toy Story. Don't judge me."
They continue to give me weird questions until I finally start to have fun with the game.
"Oh, c'mon! You guys can ask better questions than that!" I exclaim after Jet questions my favorite book.
"Okay, thing you miss the most from before the fires?" Party asks.
Hm. Well they finally gave me a good question at least.
"Not a person, like an object or luxury, I guess," he clarifies.
"Definitely Twix bars. Those things were the best! And I would kill for a few cans of hairspray too. Ever since the fires I've had to reduce to back-combing my hair. It's just not the same."
We all laugh at that, and Party says, "Okay, why the name Toxic Torrent?"
"Well Toxic because I've always loved the word, it's powerful and deadly. And Torrent is a sudden rush or outburst. I felt that was what the fires were, and figured that if I could rebuild myself after the catastrophe, and be deadly along the way, I could do anything."
"Wow, that's deep," Kobra exclaims. They then proceed to tell me about theirs. Ghoul's was by far the funniest. He named his gun Fun Ghoul and then eventually somehow got stuck with that as his name. He still was disappointed about it.
For the rest of the night we laugh and learn stupid things about each other. These boys aren't as normal as they seem, I discover. They're actually about as messed-up as I am.

A half hour later, we're getting ready to sleep. Kobra and Ghoul are taking the watches tonight-another thing I'll have to get used to.
Party shows me to my room. It's small, with a simple bed and dresser. It's going to be amazing to have an actual bed, ever since the fires happened I've been sleeping on the floor with my jacket as a pillow. To have an actual bed is going to be rad. When I tell Party this, he seems concerned. "Seriously? Right after the fires we found an old store and took them. I can't believe you haven't slept in an actual bed for years!"
"Really, it's not that big of a deal," It is, but I can't say that. "But thank you so much. I really do appreciate it."
"No problem, maybe tomorrow we can go and grab all of your stuff. I'm right across the hall if you need me," he says with a smile.
I nod. "'Night Party."
"Goodnight." And then he leaves.
I want to trust them, I really do. But I've learned that trusting people only gets you hurt in the end. I was stupid for accepting their offer of being apart of a team. Pretty soon they'll get to know me. Really know me. And that is when everything will go downhill. They'll realize that I've got scars upon my heart, and who wants to be burdened with that? But I can't think of my past. I shove the memories to the back of my mind and roll over in the extremely comfortable bed. Maybe the Fabulous Four will be different. Maybe they'll understand me. I can't help but to notice that Party Poison might. Something about him just seems like he gets me.

I decide I've had enough thinking for tonight. It was a long day, and I'm exhausted. I roll over once again, and hope for sleep to come. I'm usually an extremely light sleeper, due to everything that's happened since Better Living's takeover, but I sleep even lighter tonight. And although I feel completely comfortable with the Fabulous Four, I sleep with my ray gun under my pillow, just in case.

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A/N: hey guys! So a lot is going to go down in the next chapter, and you'll understand why Toxic is the way she is. So stay tuned! Wow I sound like a TV commercial.
Anyway, I hope you're enjoying the story and don't forget to vote and comment, it makes my day when you do!
~S