Killjoy Division: or, The Hurricane Boy with a Bulletproof Heart

by Aruunacer_Alighieri

Summary:

Jet Star adopts yet another gremlin, and Party Poison is not enthused.
Technically a Party Poison x OC enemies to lovers but most of the time is spent on the domestic chaos that is five neurodivergent queers in one diner. The romance plot is... in there somewhere.

Character pronouns and conditions are listed below, trigger warnings listed for each chapter (except swearing, just expect a few per chapter. I don't really swear much but come on, it's a Danger Days fic):
Spiral Storm (it/he/they): autism, ADHD, synesthesia
Jet Star (he/she): ADHD, misophonia, synesthesia
Kobra Kid (he/him): autism, ADHD, dermatillomania
Party Poison (they/them): ADHD, maybe something else idk
Fun Ghoul (he/it): autism, ADHD

Chapter 1: Highways I Call Home

Summary:

In which Storm meets the crew.

Notes:

Content warnings: brief unintentional misgendering, referenced character death

Chapter title from "Summertime" by MCR

et Star leaned further under the hood of the Trans Am, trying to ignore the sound of squabbling killjoys while doing the routine maintenance that would hopefully ensure their vehicle lived to drive another day. Party always got distracted by bickering with someone when they stopped at Tommy Chow Mein’s, and Jet had learned to make good use of that time. And enjoy the relative peace that came with having Party away from the rest of the crew for five freaking minutes in a place where they could be somebody else’s problem. Jet loved Party, they all did, but one of these days the diner was going to spontaneously combust with the head of a classic Venom Siblings spat. Party and Kobra were off the rails, even by Zones standards.

Jet had just managed to tune out the “ambient” sound of ‘joys being ‘joys when it abruptly ended with a muffled thud. She extricated herself from the Am to see an unfamiliar killjoy on the ground with Party pointing a blaster at their face.
“For fuck’s sake, Party!”

-Five minutes earlier-

It didn’t count as loitering if Tommy Chow Mein couldn’t see him, at least according to Storm’s reasoning.
Safety in numbers was one of the cardinal killjoy truths, and at the moment, hanging around the new world’s best excuse for a grocery store was their best excuse for acting like he still had a crew. Storm had plenty of experience with being short enough for other people to trip over, so being spotted by Tommy was not their main concern. Unfortunately, not being spotted by Tommy’s customers was also not their main concern. When a red-haired killjoy came barrelling out of the store with an armload of supplies, they turned the same corner that Storm was lounging behind, and the result was not pretty. The stranger reacted before the last battery had even finished skittering across the sand. “Hey, watch it!” “Watch it yourself,” Storm growled back. “I was minding my own damn business! It’s not my fault if the tower of crap you’re toting is so high you can’t see over it!” “My junk wouldn’t be a problem if a little shit like you wouldn’t get underfoot!” Filled with indignation, Storm moved to reach for their blaster, but before it could get anywhere the stranger had flipped him onto the ground with one foot on his chest and a blaster in his face.
“For fuck’s sake, Party!” A curly-haired killjoy who had been half-buried in the inner workings of a Trans Am interrupted the situation by running over. “The fuck are you doing?” “Harassing short people,” Storm grumbled from its position underneath the redhead’s foot.

Jet hadn’t been paying particular attention to who had gotten on Party’s bad side this time, but at the sound of a familiar voice she looked down. Underneath the Zones dirt, hair dye and killjoy mask lay a barely-recognisable version of the girl he’d gotten out on his last visit to Bat City. “Stacey?” The teen’s eyes widened in recognition. “Yo, Jet Star! The one and only! How have you been?” They shimmied out from under Party’s boot and extended a hand to Jet. “Spiral Storm, it/he/they. Nice for you to meet me.” “Spiral Storm? Seriously? That’s the name you picked?” Party interjected, before getting back to their bigger concern. “Jet, who the hell is this, and why don’t you seem to care that they’ve launched our groceries across the entire lot?” “Excuse me! I don’t think I’m to blame for you being blind as a Batt rat!” Stacey- no, Storm- shot back. Jet was ready to pull his own hair out, and maybe Party and Storm’s too, for good measure. “Could everyone chill out for, like, two seconds? At this point I don’t care what happened as long as both of you will shut up and give me a hand loading this mess into the Am. Yes, both of you,” he said, preemptively shutting down another protest from Storm. “And then maybe after that we can get some answers.” If looks could kill, then the other two would have murdered each other many times over by the time everything was packed up, but they both seemed to respect Jet just enough to actually be quiet for a hot minute. “All right,” Jet Star sighed. “Party, this is my sis- well, brother in curls, Spiral Storm. I got it out of the City when they wandered into a corner that was right next to one of our back doors. Last I saw of them they were with a gang I found on the way back who agreed to take it in and help him get adjusted to the motorbaby life,” Jet added with a meaningful glance at Storm. “Speaking of which, where is your crew?” “How about you give me some answers first, seeing as you basically told my whole life story to that prick,” it said acridly while gesturing to Party Poison. “Okay, okay, geez,” Jet relented. “This is my crewmate Party Poison, they/them. They may be a little much, but they’re my family. Fuck with them and I will end you. Party, the same goes in reverse,” she warned before they could start looking too smug at Jet taking their side. “You’re my family, but Storm and I go way back too.” He ran a hand through his mane of fluffy hair and turned back the shorter killjoy. “So where is your crew, anyway?” “There’s no such thing.” “Yes there is, I definitely left you with one. I will personally guarantee that was not a mirage.” “Yeah, yeah, what I mean is I don’t have a crew right now.” (“Could have just opened with that, smartass,” Poison muttered.) “So? What happened?” “Got kicked out. Turns out most people only have a certain level of tolerance for little bastards who can’t shut up.” “The gang I left you with seemed pretty nice…” “Oh yeah, they were, until they got dusted. The next group I joined up with wasn’t that generous.” A moment of silence passed in recognition of Spiral Storm’s fallen first crew before Party spoke up again. “Jet, please don’t tell me we’re taking-” “We’ll take you with us,” Jet Star addressed her old friend at the same time. “Assuming you want another group of ‘joys to run with and don’t want to cut your life expectancy in half.” The dark-haired teen pointedly walked past a horrified Party Poison to clamber into the back of the Am. “Nope. I may be crazy, but I’m not that far gone. I’ll let you bump my life expectancy up past a few months, thanks.” Noticing Party’s offended expression, Jet murmured, “An insufferable killjoy is still a fellow killjoy. We have to stick together.” He smirked slightly. “And remember, I keep you around.”

Storm sat behind Jet so she couldn’t see it while she drove, but he was fairly certain that his two passengers were exchanging more death glares over his shoulder.
“Great, now I’ve got two,” she muttered under her breath.

Chapter 2: Turn My Headphones Up Real Loud

Summary:

In which Storm tries to get adjusted.

Chapter Title from "Summertime" again. Not my fault it has the most ND lines in Danger Days.

Fun Ghoul and the Kobra Kid were inside when the other two returned to the diner, so they did not see that the Trans Am that left with two killjoys in it now contained three. Their first clue that the group had been augmented by one was the sound of Jet and Party holding a whispered conversation right outside the front door.
“I still don’t think this is a good idea, Jet.”
“You say it like the fabulous killjoys have made anything besides calculated bad decisions in our entire time here. You of all people should know that no idea is a good idea anymore. What did you want me to do? Leave them high and dry to fade into the static, hoping someone would eventually find their mask and take it to the mailbox?”
“I’m just saying there’s got to be a middle ground between a death sentence and bringing the blasted kid home with us! Why couldn’t you just drop it off with someone like last time?”
“In case you didn’t notice, last time didn’t go very well for him!”

A familiar trail of subdued grumbles preceded the appearance of a very irritated Party Poison, followed by Jet Star and a curly-haired stranger. Seeing his older sibling in a fit of pique was nothing new to the Kobra Kid, but the newcomer caught his attention immediately. As Party fetched Fun Ghoul to tell it they had important business in the front room, Jet Star addressed them all. “Hey gang, this is Spiral Storm, it/he/they. It’ll be staying with us for a while, so for the love of Destroya, please don’t murder each other overnight. I will personally vouch that they’re trustworthy, so I expect them to be treated as a guest and not an intruder.” Party elbowed Ghoul. “Look at the bright side, you’ll have a twink your own size to talk to,” they snarked, referring to the fact that Storm was shorter than even Fun Ghoul. Although they were now indoors, the twink in question made no move to lift his mask, instead eyeing the room with a healthy dose of suspicion. It remained silent, allowing Jet to continue speaking for it. However, he too had already said his piece, so Kobra ended up breaking the silence in his usual manner- getting straight to the point. “What happened between you and Party? They’re more riled up than usual.” “Little bastard tripped me,” Party said at the same time as Storm answered “They ran into me and then threatened me with a blaster.”
If Kobra had been a more expressive person, he might have facepalmed or given Party a long-suffering stare. Instead he said “Ah.” and returned to wiping dried blood and mud splatters off his blaster, indicating to the crew that he had clocked the situation as Party’s Average Reaction to Meeting Someone New. Which left Fun Ghoul as the only one who had not yet weighed in. It elected to indirectly acknowledge their guest’s presence at first by mechanically patting the shoulder of the sulking redhead next to him and saying, “Hey, it’ll be fine. I’m sure you guys will figure something out.” He then stepped forward to extend a hand to Storm. “I’m Fun Ghoul, he/it.” It smiled, knowing that there was at least one thing the two of them had in common. “Don’t mind the siblings, they have even more trust issues than the rest of us Zones folk. Jet seems comfortable with you, and that’s good enough for me. Obviously there’s still a non-zero chance you could just steal all our stuff and run away, but, you know, standard hazards of meeting new people out here, yeah?” Spiral gratefully shook hands with the one person who had offered before retreating back into themselves. After some bickering over logistics, Spiral Storm was assigned a blanket pile in the corner of the diner and no one spoke over a hushed whisper for the rest of the evening.
--
The first day was fully as tense as Storm expected. It was the first to wake up, and, while he knew that the best plan was pretending to sleep until someone else got up first, restlessness drove them to tiptoe out of the diner and walk around the perimeter, watching the stars before they were washed out by the burning sun. Despite the fact that he had been expecting it, Storm still jumped silently when they heard a blaster click behind it, the little “Gah!” that sparkled in their mind staying there where no one else could hear it. Spiral Storm did not tend to express himself the way others did, and alarm was definitely one of the emotions that stayed hidden inside them without a voice. Hearing a slightly nasal “What. do you think. you’re doing.” Confirmed what they already knew: it was Party Poison who was once again hounding them. Spiral turned around slowly and whisper-yelled, “What the heck? Can’t a guy take a walk in peace?” “I don’t know, it’s a little suspicious when a guy takes a walk while everyone else is asleep.” “Some of us are in the habit of going out before the sun comes out to roast our sorry asses!” “Yeah, your ass is pretty sorry,” Poison muttered. “Whatever. Take your walk if you want. I’m not letting you out of my sight.” “What, not even if it’s so I can leave and never come back?” “You’ve got no hideout and no supplies. You’re not gonna do that,” Poison said, and smirked when the tiny killjoy did not dignify them with an answer.

Although Jet bringing a new gang member home to join the Fabulous Four was a rude surprise, they had to admit that nothing else about the situation was that unusual. Jet Star was second only to Dr. D in being considered a Proper Adult by almost everyone in the Zones, and, like Dr. D, she had an instinct for adopting undergrads, sand pups, and weirdos of all kinds. It was how Fun Ghoul had joined the team in the first place- they’d found him trying to hitchhike across the Zones offering experimental homemade bombs as payment, and Jet Star was incapable of ignoring anyone who stuck out like such a neon green sore thumb. Spiral Storm fit the same profile- tiny, homeless, kinda wonky- so they would only be the latest in a long line of up-and-coming zone-runners that Jet liked to help, and the second one he’d permanently adopted. There was one crucial difference between Fun Ghoul and Spiral Storm, though.
Fun Ghoul had quickly endeared itself to Party Poison, and Spiral Storm had done exactly the opposite.
--
“Yo, Storm, do you know how to make bombs?” “Only, like, third-rate ones, why?”
After the other three woke up, Party had begrudgingly stopped babysitting the new killjoy and settled for glancing over at him now and then. (Maybe dozing off a bit in between. They would never admit it, but getting up early to watch Spiral like a hawk left them really regretting those lost hours of sleep.) However, Ghoul’s question made them put down their magazine and glare daggers at the munitions expert. “You are not teaching the new kid how to cause explosions.” Ghoul grinned and continued addressing Storm. “Get over here, I’ll show you what a real explosive looks like.” Poison almost rose from their seat to protest, but the Kobra Kid laid a hand on their shoulder. “I know. They’ll be fine with Ghoul.” They did not need to ask what it was Kobra knew- neither of them was quick to trust strangers, and to Kobra’s perceptive eyes, his sibling’s face broadcasted their suspicion almost as far as Dr. Death’s radio station. Party couldn’t deny that they were close with Fun Ghoul, so with their brother’s encouragement they let the matter rest. If Jet and Fun were both opening up to the newcomer, then maybe it really could be trusted eventually.

Jet Star was beyond relieved that the Kobra Kid was stepping in to soothe Party. Heaven knew that amidst all the chaos she’d rather have the calm, collected Kobra over the Venom brother who got into petty fights with his sibling and used his insightfulness to lash out at others. Sometimes Jet felt like Kobra was the one stabilizing force that kept him sane, and when the Kid fell apart, it was all Jet could do to keep herself together. Sibling fights tended to cause collateral damage in the form of Jet Star laid out in the next room trying to ignore the red and yellow beams stabbing him through the skull every time Poison and Kobra raised their voices.
Jet would be lying if he said there weren’t still a few sparks prickling behind his eyes- Fun Ghoul and Spiral Storm were getting excited, and when they got excited, they were loud- but it was nothing compared to her relief that her friends were getting along. The siblings had settled down, too. They were sitting over at the counter with Kobra picking at some scabs on his hands while Party tried to talk to him with a gentle, worried expression. It was one of the prices of freedom- not being on the pills meant that the rebels lived their lives to the fullest, but it also meant they had to deal with the full brunt of issues like Kobra’s picking and Jet’s sound sensitivity. She glanced back over to the diner booth that had become the temporary site of a lesson in demolitions. Spiral Storm had really come into his own since the last time Star had seen it- their curly hair, darker than his but similar in texture, was now streaked with blue and purple hair dye and a lot of Zones dust, and its eyes shone with the light of someone who had not only gotten off the pills, but had also weathered the miserable withdrawals. It occurred to Jet Star that he’d met Stacey when he first helped her escape Battery City, but he had yet to properly get to know the grinning killjoy who was currently flapping its hands after Ghoul congratulated him on assembling their first real bomb.
If Star had to guess based on what she’d seen so far, Storm would fit in with the crew just fine.

Chapter 3: You're Unbelievable (Ah, So Unbelievable)

Summary:

In which stories come to light.

Content warnings: BLI being typically sucky, but with autism this time

Not for the first time, Party Poison was awoken by the sound of Ghoul screeching. He must have left quietly while they were still asleep, because the two shared a room and the piercing sound of Party’s closest friend shrieking their name was, mercifully, coming from the other side of the door this time. Little morning gremlin. They had no idea where he got all the energy. Wherever it was, Ghoul had a secret stash that no one else could find, because it was usually up before any of the others, today being no different. From the room next door, Jet Star rasped out “Ghoullll, cut it out, the sun’s not even up all the way and you’re already blinding me,” at the same time as Party mumbled “’M still asleep, whaddisit.” “Got something to show you!” “Mm, gimme a minute,” Party mumbled as they sat up and pulled a few stray hairs out of their mouth. With Fun Ghoul, “something to show you” could only mean bombs, and Ghoul got so adorable and excited when talking about bombs that Party felt they would be heartless to turn him down. Opening the door and seeing Spiral Storm next to him was enough to make them almost consider being heartless just this once, though. Swallowing down the bitter taste of an unpleasant surprise, they focused on their friend and let it into the room. “What is it, Ghoulie?” Ghoul plopped down on the mattress and gestured with its arm, hand limp and flapping like a ragdoll. “Storm, come show ‘em what we found!” His new apprentice entered, although they made sure to keep some distance from Party as they held up the inscrutable contraption in their hands. “Okay, so at first Ghoul told me that you have to decide what the countdown time on one of these things is when you make it because you gotta prepare the fuse before it’s closed in. But I was thinking, what if you gave it multiple fuses? A ten-second fuse, a thirty-second fuse, a sixty-second fuse-“ “So now you don’t need to know in advance what kind of timer you want! It’s all the same bomb, so you can just take it and go!” Ghoul finished. “Of course, it’s important to make sure you know which fuse is which. Wouldn’t want this blowing up in your face when y’think you’ve still got five minutes,” he giggled. Party managed a smile for their favorite killjoy. “That’s great, I’m glad you’re having fun.” They turned a little more serious. “But if the new kid explodes the diner with this, I’m going to dust you both myself.” “I would never!” Storm replied in a cartoonishly offended tone. “This place is prime real estate, if I wanted to get you out of the picture I’d do it out on a scavenge where it wouldn’t damage the diner or the car.” At this, Party rose and moved up directly in his face. Spiral took a few steps back, but the redhead closed the distance and used both hands to seize the collar of his jacket. “Maybe you think you’re funny, but I don’t. Out of respect for Jet, I’m not ghosting you without a very good reason.” They tapped their blaster. “But this can still be set to stun. And if you look like you might be even close to trying something, I’m taking you out and you’re waking up as a prisoner, not a guest.” They released Spiral and stomped out into the main room of the diner. Before Fun could say anything, the curly-hair boy left as well to go sit in its makeshift bed and ignore the world.

Both parties were still sulking in their respective domains when the other inhabitants had woken up and gotten together for breakfast. “Party, Spiral, breakfast’s ready, you coming?” “I’m not hungry,” both spitfires grumbled at the same time. “Oh, I know this goes,” Fun Ghoul teased. “In a couple hours it’ll be time to go scavenging and you’ll be rummaging through the diner for a snack. At least come sit with me, you wouldn’t leave your poor little Ghoulie eating breakfast by itself, would you?” “Storm, you can come sit by me,” Jet Star added. “I want to catch up, get to know the real you now you’re off the BL/ind drugs.”

Spiral took the invitation and walked over, noticing Poison stoically accept a peck on the cheek from Fun. They didn’t lean into it, but Spiral found it noteworthy that they tolerated him in their personal space like that at all. They didn’t act that way with Star or Kobra. “So, Spiral Storm, huh?” Jet began. “How’d you pick it? It’s a bit more, idunno, abstract than most of the names I hear.” “Well, it depends,” it chuckled. “D’you want the long answer or the really long answer?” “We’ve got time. I’ll take as much answer as you want to give me.”
“Well, then buckle in,” they said.
“I was a bit younger than usual when they put me on the pills. At first I was a quiet kid, like, a crazy quiet kid. Didn’t babble, didn’t say mama or dada, nothing. My parents even took me to one of those hack BLI doctors to make sure I didn’t have ‘mental retardation’ or something.” Storm punctuated the words with air quotes and a sarcastic tone. “Course, this is all what I’ve gathered from overhearing my parents talk and sneaking looks at my medical history. Turns out in my little kid brain I’d decided I wouldn’t say anything until I was sure I could say it exactly right. Once I was satisfied with my mastery of English grammar I turned into a problem child pretty quickly. First they noticed I was weird and fidgety so I got put on one pill a day, and then they noticed I was emotional as hell and got too excited when I was talking so I got put on two pills a day, and then they found out I was hearing colors and doing who knows what kind of creative things with that extra sense, so I ended up on the highest dose my metabolism could handle.” Storm giggled. It was an extended, vaguely unnatural sound that continued between his words even after he started speaking again. “But (giggle) my short-term memory has always been shit (giggle) and the pills could never completely stop me from being distracted and forgetful, so (giggle) one day I forget my dose and my brain turns back on just enough to go ‘Hey, why am I here taking these pills and doing the same boring stuff every day? This sucks ass!’ So when no one’s looking I grab myself a snack and walk all the way out to the wall and I hear voices behind this one panel, and boom! There you are!” “I didn’t know what things were like for you back in the city, but how did it give you your name?” Storm shook its spoon at her, oblivious to the risk of spattering Power Pup across them both. “I needed to give you full context for how the gears turn in my futzed-up little brain. After I got off the pills, I decided I wanted to be proud of all the things BL/ind hated most about me. I promised myself I’d give my emotions free rein and be like the weather here, uncontrollable. They never quite managed to tame the thunderstorms and they never quite managed to tame me, either.”

Party Poison had kept their eyes stubbornly fixed on their can of Pup while pretending not to listen to his monologue, but they joined the others in turning their head when Kobra spoke up. “And the ‘Spiral’ part?”
Spiral Storm tilted its twirled their index finger next to their temple, an old sign for madness that had survived from before the Analog Wars. “There were doctors who told my parents I might have some kind of insanity. They thought it was too horrible to believe, so,” he clattered his spoon into his mostly-empty can, “if it’s a bad thing in the city, then it’s a good thing in my book.” “Yeah, fuck BL/ind,” Ghoul agreed, clanking his Power Pup can against Party’s in a toast. This, finally, elicited a smile from them, and they toasted him back. “Fuck BL/ind!”

Storm headed back to their so-called room, talking over their shoulder. “You know, Mx. ‘I don’t trust anyone and I’m gonna be a real party pooper about it,’ you don’t look half bad when you drop the bullshit and actually smile for a change.” “It’s alright, you can just admit I’m the cutest thing you’ve seen since you came off the pills,” Poison sniggered. Storm was quick to yell back from around the corner. “Nope, that honor still goes to myself!” While the verbal duel over who was cuter continued around the hallways, Fun Ghoul leaned over to Jet and whispered, “You were right, now we really do have two of them.”

Notes:

Surprise, I'm alive! If you follow my Instagram then you probably know I'm in Israel volunteering. I just found out yesterday that my mother got me A Danger Days t-shirt and I am hyped!!

As always, comments and feedback of any kind are appreciated, I have no idea if anyone is still reading this

Chapter 4: Sing it for the boys, sing it for the girls, every time that you lose it sing it for the nonbinary crewmate

Summary:

In which sensory issues are addressed.

Jet Star could tell that something was up as soon as she came out to the main room and encountered Spiral Storm with its head sideways on the table, staring at its finger while they tapped incessantly. After a couple days together, he was pretty good at recognising when Spiral was happily zoned out versus when they were unhappily zoned out, and today their behaviour screamed ‘restless energy’.
“Hey Spires, what’s up?”
“Enjoying having a roof over my head and a little less sand in my hair, but otherwise same ol’ same ol’.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothin’.”
Jet gave them his best Mom Stare until the smaller boy started to cave and admitted, “I mean, nothing besides the typical ‘living in close quarters with other people’ stuff. I’ve been on my own for a while.” Star sat down across from her friend. “Oh, I can sympathise there. Everyone in this crew has something that makes teamwork hard. Me, I can’t hear anything without seeing it behind my eyes too. With Fun being the chaotic Fun Ghoul that he is and Party being the over-the-top Party Poison that they are, you can imagine how often I get migraines. Hell, Ghoul once left a project unattended in the shed and after it exploded itself I couldn’t see anything for a minute straight! And Kobes doesn't even talk. Obviously he does sometimes, but it’s not an always thing, y’know? It’s not like we’re gonna push him to talk to us when it’s hard even if the other two have trouble picking up on how someone’s feeling if it’s not really obvious. We’re really good at pushing each other’s buttons, but we stick together because we understand why our friends have those buttons better than anyone else does.” “That was a great speech, Jettie, but why are you telling me all this right now?” The taller killjoy rested her hand on top of Spiral’s. “You gotta understand, life in this diner is built around compromising and accommodating each other. I can tell something’s wrong and I want to help. I don’t care how weird it is, I can promise you we’ve dealt with weirder.” “Fine, you got me,” Storm smiled and rolled his eyes in surrender. “So, uh, I’m kind of a wavehead for music, and I kinda maybe depend on it the way city people depend on the pills…” It averted its eyes and grimaced in shame. “As a tumbleweed I could get away with just heading out to the most Destroya-forsaken spot I could find and belt where no one could hear me, but when I’m not by myself I tend to get shut down for being loud and distracting when I sing… so I’ve kept it bottled up since I got here, Witch knows how antsy and uncomfortable I’m getting. I wanted to sing along so bad when Poison was playing Mad Gear in the car but I really didn’t want to get farther on their bad side. Gotten kicked out of enough bars because I’m ‘too fuckin’ loud’ and ‘no one can even hear the damn radio’.” They sighed. “But I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up. I feel like all my energy is gone and I’m going to explode.” Jet Star patted his friend’s arm, trying to reassure him while the other inhabitants of the diner filtered into the front room. “It’s gonna be all shiny, okay? I got an idea already.” Propping her elbow up on the edge of the booth, she turned to Party Poison, who had made a beeline for the coffeepot. “Hey Pois, you ‘n’ Ghoul were gonna go out scavenging today, right? Think you could take Spiral with you? Preferably somewhere isolated and out of the way.” Without bothering to heat the liquid up, the redhead downed half a cup of coffee in one go and then grinned mischievously at Star. “Ooh, are you giving us reasonable deniability to dust him without witnesses?” “Witch no, Party! It needs to self regulate after bein’ crammed in a diner with four other people for half a week, I was asking you to give him some space to stim and let it out for a bit!” “Chill, chill, I wasn’ being serious. Lemme fill up the tank and they can come with us.” Fun Ghoul held up a haphazardly-assembled explosive. “And if we run into any Dracs we can try one of your multi-fuse bombs! Bye Jet, you ‘n’ Kobes enjoy your quiet time together.” Storm looked back to Star questioningly. “Are you guys, like, together or something?” “Uh… kinda?” “They’ve never tried to eat each other’s faces if that’s what you’re asking, but Jettie sure is in the habit of attaching himself to Kobes like he’s the only thing keeping her alive,” Ghoul teased. His friend’s face grew warm at that statement. “Shut up Fun, I just want a break from the rest of y’all giving me a headache all day.” Winking at Spiral, the demolitions king pulled him towards the door. “Lies. She’s totally pastel for ‘im.”

–

“I don’t care what Platinum said, I think I have every right to reclaim Mousekat as a killjoy symbol! What’s more subversive than throwing BL/ind’s own propaganda back at them?” “I never said I disagreed, Plat just seems to think your Mousekat obsession is a cover for you being a mole or secret BLI sympathiser! Don’t ask me why xe thinks that!” Party scoffed. “If I were a mole I sure as hell wouldn’t be dropping hints about it.”

From their vantage point alone in the backseat, Spiral Storm had an excellent view of the debate going down between Party and Fun up front. The Trans Am swerved slightly from side to side as Party gestured wildly to emphasise their point, trying to defend Mousekat from Ghoul’s absent friend.
“I was never that into Mousekat as a kid so it wouldn’t personally be my thing, but stealing them from BL/ind sounds like a great idea,” Spiral piped up. “Repurposing propaganda and waving it back in their faces is my jam.” “See, Ghoulie? The tumbleweed agrees with me!” Spiral lurched forward as the redhead slammed the brakes seconds before the Am careened into a gas pump. “And we’re here, so as the haver of the last word I automatically win the argument!” “I don’t think that’s how-” “Shh, tumbleweed. Just keep agreeing with me and we’ll be shinier than Platinum.” Fun Ghoul rolled his eyes. “Well, Great and Terrible Party Poison, while you bask in your victory over an absent foe, I’m going to see if there’s anything left in these pumps.” Before Storm could join him, Party lightly wrapped their fingers around its forearm. “With me, tumbleweed. You haven’t tried to dust us yet but if I left you alone with Ghoul your combined good intentions would somehow manage to blow things up, I’m sure.”
Spiral yanked his arm away like he’d been burned, a guttural hiss ripping its way out of their throat. To Poison, it was as if a very pissed-off Kobra Kid had suddenly acquired Fun Ghoul’s feral dog tendencies, and they almost flinched in shock. Not that they’d ever admit it and run their carefully-built reputation as the fearless leader.
“Oh… I forgot you had stuff going on like the rest of us. Kobra’s not a fan of the touching either, I should have checked.” They sighed. “Let’s… let’s just go inside, okay?”
Their face had hardly grown less fierce, but that was the closest thing to an apology Spiral had received from them so far, so he went inside without saying anything else.
“I just want some help carrying all this Power Pup back to the car and then you can do whatever it is Jet sent you out for, yeah?” Spiral wordlessly began stacking cans and carrying them out, tucking the top can of each tower under their chin so it wouldn’t topple over. The two of them met back at the Am with their last hauls, and Party took a moment to dust their hands off. “Look, I may not trust you, but I swear I wasn’t trying to, fuckin’, trigger you or anything. Don’t wantcha to get the impression I’m that kind of asshole. Whoever kicked you out fer bein’ annoying- I mean, I get being pissed about insufferable crewmates but it’s still scummy to dump someone out in the static like that.” “Thanks,” the smaller killjoy, without much enthusiasm behind it, and climbed into the back of the Trans Am.
“Weren’t you gonna do some stimming stuff while we were out here?” “Whatever, I don’t want to hold us up,” he replied, more hesitant now that there was no Jet Star between him and Poison.
“You won’t. Ghoul’s still-” They looked over to the gas pumps. “Well, idunno what it’s doing actually, but it’s still doing it. You got time.” Storm nodded and headed toward the far side of the station. “I’ll try not to take too long.”

It strode out a little ways into the desert, trying to get as much distance as possible without getting lost. For once, he even did some vocal warmups, although it was more out of nerves than out of caring about proper singing procedure. They sang and screamed for about ten minutes before pausing to catch their breath and then head back to the car. Upon seeing him, Poison removed their feet from the dashboard and started the engine while commenting, “You got a powerful voice, only other person I’ve known to sing like that is Mad Gear.” “Sorry,” Spiral muttered. “I know my voice carries but I thought I went far enough away, honest.” “Nah, it ain’t like that. Y’weren’t that loud from back here, I just went a little closer to see if you were any good.” Spiral actually had been that loud, but he seemed anxious enough about it and Party wasn’t about to admit that they kind of liked his voice and they had snuck closer to hear him better.
“Well, am I? Any good?” “Yeah, you could start a band or something.” “You don’t need to patronise me,” it grumbled. “They ain’t,” Fun Ghoul said as he took his place in the front passenger seat. “Pois’ll be the first to tell ya that your singing sounds like a dying magpie if they don’t like it. They’re serious this time.” “If you say so,” Storm acquiesced. He was still silent for the rest of the ride home.