Lucas doesn't mind the drive. He doesn't mind it at all.

He's learning, surrounded by these people. Lots of things he didn't know before.

For starters, he's learning the language. Most Killjoys speak English as their dominant language; but they also use a lot of words that people from BL/ind never did. Lucas' English teacher would have called it slang. He feels a bit embarrassed, asking all these questions about the lingo, but Bulletproof Girl encourages him to be curious, and let it show. It is accepted here with open arms, after all.

'Costa Rica', Lucas learns, is a phrase meaning wrong, or screwed up, especially to describe a mission compromised by BL/ind agents. 'Slaughtermatic' is used to describe something cool or exciting. 'Ghosted' means doomed, or in trouble or danger.

Lucas also, consequently, learns a jumble of curse words, but doesn't much see the appeal of using any.

Sitting here in a crowded van with Party Poison and Fun Ghoul also enables Lucas to learn more about the founders. He asks several questions about them and their lives, and after a bit Fun Ghoul breaks away from the rest of the conversations to speak directly with Lucas.

They sit side by side on the bench seat. "Don't know much about the founders yet, huh?" Fun asks.

Lucas shakes his head. It's a strange feeling, to be sitting next to a legend when you don't understand what they're famous for.

"I can tell you the story of how we founded the Killjoys, if you want," Fun Ghoul offers.

"Yes, please," Lucas says gratefully, and Fun begins the tale.

"It was 2019 when this whole mess started. Back then, everything was just going down hill. Myself, Party and the other founders, Party's brother Kobra Kid and our friend Jet Star; we weren't rebels then," Fun Ghoul explains. "We were just a band."

"What's a band?" Lucas asks.

Fun Ghoul gives him a wry smile, like he's trying to hold back laughter, and Lucas feels a bit embarrassed. "A band is, well, was, a group of people who made music together. There aren't many of them left anymore."

"Anyway," he says, carrying on with the story, "Our band was called My Chemical Romance. Around that time, like I said, things were just going way downhill. BL/ind had only been in control for a year, but they'd already made a lot of changes in government and society. A lot of bad changes. They'd just started experimenting with the brainwashing 'vaccinations'. It was horrible to see those people in the street. They just stumbled around with blank expressions on their faces all of the time." Fun Ghoul shakes his head sadly.

"Like they were more dead than alive," Lucas says quietly, reminded of his own, mostly emotionless mother.

Fun Ghoul nods. "Exactly. They were like zombies. It was awful to see, and people were afraid. So the band all got together to talk about it. We hadn't put out any music for a while, and we wanted to do something big, something that might wake up BL/ind and everybody else from all the bad things that were happening, and the even worse things heading our way."

"So you made Danger Days?" Lucas guesses.

"Yes. We worked so hard on it." Fun's eyes almost glaze over with the memory. "When it was ready, we let people download it onto their technology for free, and you could even listen to the whole album, practically on a loop, on our special radio station, 109."

"How did they react?"

Fun Ghoul's expression falls. "Not well. BL/ind immediately marked it a sign of rebellion, and we'd seen what they'd done to supposed rebels in the past. We got the hell away from the cities and made ourselves our own place, in the desert."

"The Nest," Lucas realizes aloud.

"Yeah. Once we left, BL/ind started 'vaccinating' the entire population. Some of them, though, were resistant to the vaccinations. Those people came to us. They just wanted some shelter, some hope. We took them in." Fun smiles. "All of them. And the rest is history."

"Wow," Lucas says quietly. "I can see why everybody holds you in such high esteem. You started a whole rebellion. On accident."

Fun Ghoul laughs. "Yeah. I guess we did."

After a moment, Fun drifts back into conversation with the others, and Lucas is left to sit with his thoughts.

Spending time with these Killjoys, all these people, talking and laughing around him; it feels strange, but good. It reminds him of the feeling he used to get when he thought of his father. Family? Yes, this feels like a family. One Lucas finds more than acceptable.

______________________

Author's Note: So what did you think of my Killjoy origin story? I could have looked something up on the internet but eh, I made my own instead.