You'll be my detonator...

[madesomenoise]

She dreams she's in the Zones. The Witch is nowhere to be seen, but Cherri's body is there, sprawled lifeless on the sand. She feels an ache for him, tucked between her ribs. He'd been so kind to her in the few hours they'd spent together, close together. She'd started to wonder if that kindness was what love really felt like.

Cherri's isn't the only body. All of her family are there: Poison with a scorch mark under his jaw, Kid with his arms outstretched for his brother, Jet with his hair all crazy across his face and Ghoul with blank, unseeing eyes, his gun still in his hand.

And then they come for her. They talk hold of her, rough handed, and there's an exterminator with her father's face. He looks her in the eye.

"Say hi to your mommy for me," he says. And then he pulls the hood down over her eyes.

The world goes dark, goes grey and lightless, and Girl sees terrible things, horrible things. Help me, she thinks. Help me, help me, help me

She had a name, but she can't remember what it was.
In the mask, she screams.

Comments

[boywhoflew]

"She told me about those," Carson admitted, sparing a glance at the mask on the floor. On it's own it didn't look like much. Just the same sort of cheap plastic and latex that could be found at any Halloween shop or drug store instead of some kind of high tech torture device. "I probably should have known that."

If he was honest, it kind of felt like a failure that he hadn't. But at least Poison had.

"One of Darrow's bright ideas for a joke, huh?" He guessed with a scoff. "Love this place."

[afabulouskilljoy]

Poison shrugs. "If she didn't talk about it much, how would you've known?" He can't blame Carson. Instead, he's just pissed at Darrow. "Hopefully that's the end of it... though it's kinda weird that the power went out. There's not even streetlights outside the building."

He can't tell if it's the whole block or just their building and the area around it. But it's weird. He frowns a little, looking down at their Girl.

[boywhoflew]

"Something happened while she was screaming," Carson said, nodding his chin in Dee's direction. What he still wasn't quite sure, not with how quick it was or how he had still been half asleep himself. If he'd been forced to bet money though, he would bet it all on having something to do with her and the drac mask that had been on her head.

"I don't know if it was the mask or just her, but there was this... thing. Then all the power went out." His teeth caught his bottom lip, but at the sting he stopped and chewed his cheek instead. "I can't say sure if it was Darrow or her, but I'm pretty sure it was her."

[afabulouskilljoy]

Poison touches her hair, smiling weakly. "Sunshine Detonator," he murmurs. More accurate than he could have imagined, but here she is. He always knew she was special, he just hadn't been quite sure how beyond the symbolic.

"Knew you were gonna rock the world, kid."

He sighs, blowing his hair out of his face.

"She's gonna be pissed or thrilled or freaked out when she wakes up."

[boywhoflew]

"Maybe all of the above," Carson offered with a weak grin. He was personally still kind of lingering on freaked out himself, but it could have been worse. No one was hurt (aside from his lip) and Dee was probably fine if not a bit shaken up. Of all of Darrow's fuckery, it honestly could have been worse.

Somehow that was less reassuring than it should have been.

"Do you think she's going to do that a lot?" He asked, feeling completely out of his element. Super powers and strange abilities were, as much as they were a day to day ordeal in Darrow, still science fiction in his book. "Or does she have to recharge it or something?"

[afabulouskilljoy]

"I don't know," he admits. "Never happened when she was a kid. Pretty sure we would've been scrambling a lot more if it did." He smiles though. They'll have to talk when she wakes up.

"Hey, are you okay?"

[boywhoflew]

From his understanding of Dee's unorthodox childhood as it was, Carson actually thought it might have been a bit more funny if a group of teenagers had been running around after a toddler EMP grenade. Or maybe not, but it still made for a funny mental image if he let his imagination go the right way.

Rubbing his neck he shrugged, a bit caught off guard by Poison's question. "I'm fine," he answered honestly. Nothing bad had happened to him, but he'd still feel a bit more relieved once Dee woke up and talked to them. "I'm not really worried about me, anyway. Yeah, she gave me a good scare. That's it. That and," he grinned a bit, feeling a tug at the split in his lip. "She clocked me pretty good. I knew she could kick my ass if she wanted."

[afabulouskilljoy]

"That's my girl," he says fondly. He huffs a laugh. "She gets that from her other dad." Maybe she got it from both of them; they had PTSD enough to sleep fight and there had been more than a couple bloody noses and split lips between them.

"Hey, open that window? I feel weird with the power off. The silence is extra silent." He hopes some street noise will break it up, and he doesn't want to move and risk Dee waking up.

[boywhoflew]

Carson was tempted to ask which one? but refrained, instead nodding and climbing to his feet long enough to open the window. "I always forget how creepy it is when the power goes out." He mentioned off hand, knowing full well that Poison and Dee both had far more experience with that than he did. The worst he'd ever dealt with was his mom forgetting to pay the electric bill, which while more often than was probably necessary, still wasn't any kind of life altering.

"How long do you think this will last for?" He asked, dropping back to the floor with a sigh. "Somehow I don't think calling the power company to explain that a girl turned into an EMP would go over smoothly. Or maybe it would. Who knows with this place."

[afabulouskilljoy]

"Someone else has probably called by now. Hopefully it's something fixable." He isn't quite sure what Sunny did, exactly, but it kind of makes him think of an EMP weapon, especially when Carson uses the comparison out loud. Yeah, pretty much. Those were handy, and they could do some damage, especially in Bat City.

"Wonder if she knows anything about it."

[boywhoflew]

Scratching at his cheek, Carson shrugged. The power itself probably wasn't all that important in the long run. Not when Dee had to deal with some kind of hallucinogenic Halloween mask getting shrink wrapped onto her face in the middle of the night and then having her chosen-one powers kicked on. They didn't even know if they were around to stay or if it was just some kind of fluke.

"I dunno," he said honestly, picking at the memories of past conversations for a clue, but his attention span at the moment was shit, so he gave up. Glancing back at the mask he made a face at it and then looked back at Dee curled up against Poison. "You said those things made you hallucinate," he pointed as he watched her sleep. "How-- I mean, is she actually going to be okay?"

[afabulouskilljoy]

"We might have to wait to find out, man. I mean... she should be fine now that it's off, y'know? I have no idea what she saw, that might freak her out for a bit but, like. I don't think it was on long enough to have any lasting effects."

Poison shrugs one shoulder, feeling helpless and hating it.

[madesomenoise]

Girl stirs, rubbing her face against the thin stuff of Poison's t-shirt before she lifts her head, blinking sleepily. The bedside lamp flickers and comes back on.

"What happened?" she asks, looking from Poison to Carson and back again. "I dreamed..."

[boywhoflew]

The second the light flickered Carson froze, one eyebrow arching as he watched Dee shift and sit up. He was half tempted to say maybe she should just shut her eyes and keep sleeping, but instead he shot Poison a prompting look before shuffling up onto his knees and dropping his elbows onto the side of the bed so he could look at her properly.

"Yeah," he said, resting his chin on his knuckles. "One hell of a dream. You okay?"

[madesomenoise]

Girl nods and then frowns, noticing the split in his swollen lip. She reaches out gently touching with the pad of her thumb. It's then that she realises how weird it is that Poison's bed with them.

"What did you do to your lip, baby?"

[afabulouskilljoy]

"You got a wicked elbow when you're hallucinating, baby girl." Poison smiles gently and fluffs her hair. Then he points at the drac mask, innocuous there on the floor.

"Wasn't quite a dream, though."

[boywhoflew]

Carson had just enough time to open his mouth to respond before Poison cut in, and he glanced at him just long enough to decide that yeah, it was probably better to have him explain that as opposed to himself. It wasn't even bad, but with Dee confused and still coming down from some kind of freaky hallucinogenic freak out it was probably better from her dad.

"Darrow decided to fuck with you while we were asleep," he added in, lifting and dropping one shoulder in a shrug. "I got a little bit of cross fire. No big deal."

[madesomenoise]

Girl stares at the Drac mask on the floor and a heavy shudder goes through her entire body. She buries her face into her hands for a minute and then she shifts away from Poison, leaning down to brush her fingers against Carson's lip.

"I'm sorry, baby."

[afabulouskilljoy]

Poison lets Girl go, lets her move as she needs to so she can check on Carson. "How are you feeling, Sunshine? We think uh... well. The power went out when you flipped out."

Maybe that's too much for right now, but they both come from a world where there's no time.

[boywhoflew]

There was a shitty knee jerk reaction where he was tempted to milk the split lip for what it was worth, but between everything that had happened and having Poison right there, Carson stamped the impulse down quick. Instead he just gave Dee a sideways grin and caught her hand to give it a squeeze, his attention darting between her and Poison.

"Don't worry about it," he told her, squeezing her hand a second time before reluctantly dropping it. "Like he said, shit got kinda wacky. Are you okay?"

[madesomenoise]

"Holy shit." She breathes it out for a second, and then she thinks about what that means, thinks about what the Phoenix Witch told her. Her hand tightens on Carson and she tugs, trying to get him to get back up on the bed with them. "Did I detonate?"

[afabulouskilljoy]

Poison smiles faintly. "Yeah, baby girl. I think you did a little bit." He isn't sure what she means by detonate, and it scares him a little, but... it kinda seems like that's what happened. Like an EMP weapon going off or something.

[boywhoflew]

Carson shot Dee a skeptical look if only because clambering into bed with his girlfriend and her dad sounded like the world's most uncomfortable idea ever, but he decided to take to the selfless route and only huffed a little bit before climbing up onto the mattress. Even then, he sat with her bracketed between them because it seemed like the least awkward option.

At least he was wearing pants.

"Looks like it," he shrugged because at the end of the day, the only person who knew hadn't been fully conscious for it. And had hit him in the face. "Can I just say, the whole power going out is a step up from the explosion I would have expected."

[madesomenoise]

When Carson's up on the bed, Dee leans away from Poison, tucks her head in against Carson's shoulder. She keeps the fingers of one hand wrapped in the hem of Poison's t-shirt, keeps as many points of contact as she can.

"Cherri said something about it when he was teaching me to shoot," she says. "Feeling the waves. Guiding your shot."

[afabulouskilljoy]

"Always thought Cherri had been in the sun a little too long. Maybe he knew more than we did." Then again, maybe Poison had always known there might be something extra special about Girl. He always knew she was more than just a child, anyway. A symbol of resistance. Everything. He wraps his hand gently around hers.

"You okay, Sunny?"

[boywhoflew]

Cuddling in bed with Poison there would be weird no matter the circumstances, but it didn't stop Carson from relaxing a bit and tipping his chin to rest on Dee's head. Most of the conversation at this point had him halfway to zoning out, only names stirring a bit of recollection from past conversations, but otherwise going over his head. He had a feeling like he might need to brush up on his science fiction if Dee was going to start causing power outages out of the blue.

"What he said," he remarked, jerking his chin in Poison's direction.

[madesomenoise]

"Neither of them know the truth about Cherri and now? Now isn't the time to tell them. Dee just nods sleepily and burrows in against Carson a little. "M'okay," she says. "Think I want to go back to sleep? Maybe?"

[afabulouskilljoy]

"You want me to stay or are you okay with Carson?" he asks, offering them privacy if they want it. He doesn't want Dee feeling like he's hovering, but... he wants to - needs to - make sure that she's okay.

[boywhoflew]

Carson would have gladly and quickly kicked Poison out, but it wasn't his call. It was Dee's room and her fucked up night, so instead he just tipped his head to rest it against her's. Whether she wanted him there or even if she wanted him to leave so she could have a night with her dad, he figured the only supportive motion was to just go with whatever she wanted. Even if surrendering the reigns to any situation still felt bizarre and more than a little uncomfortable.

"We can definitely sleep," he said, considering they had all had kind of gotten a rude awakening. And he still had class the next day. Shit. "But if you need your dad I can deal with that." Mostly.

[madesomenoise]

"I'm okay," says Dee, nodding, and then she leans away from Carson for a moment to press a kiss to Poison's slightly stubbled jaw. "Seriously. I'm fine. Go back to bed."