Sunshine still wasn’t back. She had rushed out two hours previous saying that she had “business” to attend to. Dr. D needed her so that he could brief her on a mission he was sending her and Trans on.
“Trans!” someone yelled, “Are you ready to go?”
Sunshine stood in the doorway, her face rather red. Trans poked his head in, grabbed his mask and gun and they walked out together after saying a few goodbyes.
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Ever since Ex and Static were killed during Party Poison’s rescue, Sunshine hadn’t been the same. She often disappeared for long periods of time, but always came back unscathed. I didn’t know where she was going, but I had a hunch considering I had been there my fair share of times as well.
Life had been considerably boring since we had rescued Party Poison from prison, picked up two new friends along the way, and lost two as well.
Transmission Speaker was one of our most recent additions. Previous to meeting us, he had worked as a draculoid. We ran into him, and he seemed intimidating, but in reality he was a tall, gangly boy with dark hair and blue eyes that didn’t speak much. His name was Grant and he was friends with Mech and Sunshine before BLi, and they had helped him get some of his memories back. He and Sunshine had been planning to rescue his two younger siblings from civilian life for a long time, and they had just left.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkSxwnT0LFm
Adrenaline Bomb was the other addition. Andy was short and muscular with a knack for sports and sarcasm. He had swoopy hair and a ridiculous sense of humor. All of us had been friends with him before the world ended, and it was a pleasant shock meeting him. He unwillingly came along with us when Mech grabbed him on our way out of the prison but he had adapted well and was quite a lot of fun. He and Mech talked and talked and talked like they had only just met each other, and all that talking had retrieved his memories back quickly.
Life at the station could have been better, but it wasn’t awful.
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After Trans left with Sunshine, we all sat around with nothing to do. This happened a lot, but most of us handled it well. Missile went out to do some target practice, Pony and Dr. D disappeared into Dr. D’s office, and Mech jumped into the shower which meant tedious oiling noises for the next hour and a half. Lovely. Bomb and Party went into the ‘living room’ to hook up Pony’s old Nintendo console, and that left me alone. I was glad for it; I needed some time to think. I sat down with my headphones and let Fall Out Boy’s sweet serenade ‘Sugar We’re Going Down’ pour into my ears, drowning my thoughts. Nobody bothered me, and that was good.
For a while it stayed that way. I shuffled all of my favorite songs, and probably sang loudly along with each one. I kind of wanted it to last forever, I hadn’t been this calm in a long time. But then Bomb was shaking me.
“What?” I said, “You interrupted Patrick!”
I was true, I had been in the middle of ‘A Little Less Sixteen Candles’ when Bomb had woken me up, but he just shrugged and pulled me out of my chair.
“Missile,” he said, “Dracs, c’mon.”
My mind blanked, then I realized what he was saying. Grabbing my ray gun, I ran outside. In the parking lot, Party and Pony were already backing Missile up against ten or so dracs. Mech creaked out behind us with an oil can in one hand and a gun in the other. Without another word, the three of us jumped, (not literally), into the fray.
We shot and dodged. It felt like this would be our life from now on; shooting and dodging. I started humming ‘Sugar We’re Going Down’ under my breath as I fought, but soon I was singing it. The words were giving me power, power that I needed.
“We’re going down, down in an earlier round,” I shot some dracs, “And Sugar we’re going down swinging,” more dracs, “I’ll be your number one with a bullet,” duck and roll, “A loaded god complex cock it and pull it!” a bullet right in the head for some unlucky draculoid. The music was helping me along, giving me the strength to keep going.
Every time I thought about my favorite music, Fall Out Boy, My Chem, Sleeping With Sirens, Pierce the Veil, Patrick, Gerard, Kellin, Victor, and all of the other bands that had changed my life, it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. The artists that had followed me through every fabulous and difficult time in my life, they had shaped me to be me. The bands were my family away from my family and I was incredibly and unbelievably thankful for them.
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Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Missile. She was in the middle of three dracs. They all three had guns, and they all three were about to shoot. I knew that Missile could dodge two of them, but not all three.
It was one of those split-second decisions that people make sometimes. I knew what I was going to do.
It all seemed to happen in slow motion.
I whipped around and threw myself in front of Grace. I felt two bullets hit my, one near my collarbone and the other in my back.
I knew that it was over for me, but I also knew why I did it.
Just like the song said.
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I hit the ground and shot up, killing all three dracs. Grace knelt down beside me and started to press her tiny ten-year-old hands to my neck. Her eyes were filled with tears.
“Why?” she asked weakly, “Why Jocey?”
I coughed. Grace’s hands weren’t going my blood-gushing wound any good, but she felt like she needed to help so I let her. It hurt so badly, I felt like I was about to die. (Oh wait).
“We just got Gerard back,” I said softly, “You deserve more time with him.”
She smiled sadly and kept pressing her hands to my wound. It actually made it hurt worse, and I couldn’t stand it anymore so I gently pulled her hands away.
“Tell Emily I said goodbye,” I whispered.
She nodded.
Mech ran over and knelt beside me.
“Seriously Jocelyn? What’d you do?”
I smiled. I knew exactly what happened.
“If I was going down…” I said softly,
Mech smiled sadly,
“…I was going down swinging.”
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The last thing I saw was Mech’s mechanical eye. It was filled with sadness and fear. The last thing I heard was the sound of a car engine. Some gunshots and then a lot of screaming. Then everything went dark.
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When I woke up, everything was grey. Burned buildings surrounded me, and it was all black and white.
I sat up and looked around.
“Hey,” a voice said, “You ready to go?”
A figure stood in the shadow of a building. All I could make out was a pair of glasses, but as the figure stepped forward I realized who it was.
I smiled and stood up.
“Bring it.” I said firmly.
And the world disappeared again.
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