Danger Days

Chapter Nineteen

Plastic Parade woke with blurry eyes, her neck aching. She must have fallen asleep in an odd position.

She pushed herself off of her bed, and ungracefully rolled onto the floor. Her dark blonde hair was dishevled and greasy, her eyes clouded with the beautiful thing known as sleep. She sighed longingly and stared at her warm, inviting bed, then shook her head back and forth.

For the first time in a while, she slipped off her mask, rubbing at her forest green eyes for several minutes.

Her hands were slowly becoming cold in the chill air, and she found herself wishing she had gloves. Lots of killjoys had them, but Plastic had never been lucky enough to find a pair. She stared with slight distaste at her cold hands, then slipped her mask back on. The chilled plastic stung her skin.

"That's brisk," Plastic said to herself as she exited her room. It was even colder out here, somehow. She winced slightly, then crossed her arms and began to walk into the courtyard. Why, she didn't know. She could easily just slip on all the jackets she wore and stay in her room, but she didn't.

Speaking of jackets, she had picked the leather one today. It was cold at first, and made her shiver, but after a minute her body heat warmed it up.

Soon she realized why it was so cold. Dawn had yet to arrive, which she immediately noticed when she got to the courtyard. The moon was nowhere in sight, so it must be almost morning.

Plastic noticed that only a single Killjoy was out. She couldn't see their face, but it was a man, staring at the sky, wearing a red leather jacket. A red and yellow helmet lay on the bench next to him.

"Hi," she said, sitting near him, trying to make her voice sound cheerful. He wasn't wearing a mask, which was fine. Some killjoys just didn't. But that wasn't what surprised her. What surprised her was the sharp jawline, bleached blonde hair, and cold hazel eyes that she had seen on countless wanted posters all throughout Battery City and the Zones. It was one of the fabulous four, Kobra Kid to be exact. Nervousness fluttered somewhere in her chest, but she pushed it down and gave a shakey smile.

He nodded at her quickly, then went back to staring. "I'm waiting for Alarm Clock Radiation."

Plastic frowned at the ground, her eyebrows furrowed. What did that mean... the phrase wasn't familiar.

"That means dawn," Kobra chuckled, looking at her confused expression with amusment. "Obviously you aren't a Sand Pup."

She knew what he was doing. He was trying to show that he knew more than her, with all his fancy slang. The joke was on him though, she recodnized that one. "I am actually," She said confidently, tilting up her chin. "I came to the zones when I was four."

Kobra hummed, still looking amused. "That was, what, three years ago?"

"I'm fifteen!" She bristled, scowling. Anger flared inside her.

"Good to know," he smiled. "But if you're that old, you should know better than to give up information so easily."

Plastic's jaw dropped. Well duh, of course she knew that. How could she have been so stupid!

She grumbled to herself and crossed her arms, frowning at the ground.

"Maybe you are a Sand Pup," he laughed. "But you seem more like a Batt Rat to me." He stuck out his hand. "I'm Kobra Kid."

Plastic glared at his hand suspiciously, and stayed silent. She wasn't falling for that again.

Kobra barked a laugh and retracted his hand. "You're learning. A good Killjoy knows not to give out their name to someone until they know they can trust them." He paused, then added "You can trust me though. I'm one of the fabulous four."

"Sounds like a Trojan Horse to me," she said, trying out a Killjoy word she head heard in the past, hoping it meant what she thought it did. An obvious lie, hopefully. Otherwise she'd look like an idiot. Of course, she knew that Kobra was indeed who he said he was. She just didn't want to come off as a fangirling idiot.

"All right," He shrugged. "Suit yourself."

They sat in a semi-awkward silence for a bit, until the first tendrils of sunlight began to stream into the courtyard, warming Plastic to her bones. She uncrossed her arms and sat forward eagerly, watching the sunrise with slightly closed eyes, until the light became too much and she looked away, blinking rapidly.

At that moment, Kobra Kid slipped the yellow and red helmet over his head, and began to walk off. Plastic stared after him, watching as he went into the bunks, the door swinging shut behind him. It wasn't long then before other Killjoys began to stream into the courtyard, chattering amoungst themselves.

She smiled to herself and watched the people around her. They were certainly different from any other kj's she had met. Most in the desert were harsh and cold, or pretended to be nice to cheat her out of her money. These people were friendly, open, and seemed to enjoy talking to others without any benefit except companionship. It was nice.

Plastic found herself with a deep seated feeling of contentment. She hadn't been this happy since... well, since before the C/R/O/W attacked her family.

Yup, she definitely liked it here.

|A/N: wow I haven't updated in a while... oops. I try.|