The newly-found triviality of his studies made the final few classes drag on at a snail's pace for Sollux. The final exams were almost as unbearably easy as the classes he prepared for them in. After what felt like ages, he would finally begin his summer with a new, stimulating, and high-paying profession. He closed his laptop as the plane touched down at the Hobby Airport in Houston. The hacker stepped out into the terminal to retrieve his luggage in the most timely manner possible and report to the rain-slicked white zones outside the entrance. As he stood in the downpour and began to contemplate exactly how the hell CG expected him know which of the hundreds of people was TG, he was approached by a man about his age, clad in jeans, a sport coat, and most notably, a pair of old-looking aviator shades.

"So you're Captor, huh?"

Sollux blinked. Well he certainly did seem to give off the attitude of TG. The accent still somewhat threw him off. "turntechGodhead?"

"Nice glasses. And it's Dave Strider," He replied simply. TG gave Sollux a quick once-over before nodding, seeming satisfied. "I thought you'd be shorter. You gave off the short and whiny asshole vibe over Pesterchum."

"And you gave off the snarky prick vibe. Glad to see you delivered. Nice glasses yourself."

A small smirk formed on Dave's face. "You know it's probably not a great idea to be pulling any sick burns on scary people."

Sollux's eyebrow shot up behind his red lens. "You don't look too scary to me."

"I'm a damn sight scarier than you. I'm like the fuckin' horrible result of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees spending a romantic night alone with a couple dozen bottles of Jack compared to you," Dave snapped, "Plus I've done things that you should be scared of. So you'd best wise the fuck up, Captor."

He motioned for Sollux to follow him towards an expensive-looking black sedan, which he did with a small smirk at his success in winding the thief up. Dave jumped into the driver's seat and Sollux took his place in the seat beside him. "So what exactly is going on?" Sollux inquired as the car sped towards the highway entrance.

"You got recruited. By me. That's my job. I'm the smooth-talkin' faceman. Basically I do most of our public stuff that isn't handled by Pyrope."

Sollux was mildly surprised by the mention of another name. "There are more of you?"

A dry chuckle was Dave's immediate response. "No. We actually perform heists with two people. You caught us Captor. Damn you're good."

"This is me laughing my ass off. Good job, Strider," Sollux replied.

"Captor I get the idea that you'll be a fucking hilarious addition to the crew. Vantas is gonna love you."

Sollux only gave a grunt in reply. Having gotten his fill of human interaction for a little while, he chose to simply stare out the window and enjoy the calming effect of the mid-June afternoon thunderstorm. The gray skies and dull roar of thunder put him in a state of semi-consciousness, and eventually lulled him to sleep.

"Yo new kid." Never a great way to be woken up. "You know you're adorable when you sleep," Dave quipped. Sollux reluctantly sat up in his seat to see that they were in a less populous part of the city, pulling into the upper levels of a nearly empty and long-forgotten parking garage. Upon seeing the clock on the dashboard, he realized that his rest, however long it may have felt, was in actuality only about half an hour long. Sollux reached for the handle on the door and exited the car with the thief, who led him towards the doors that went out of the complex. "You'll meet up with Vantas and Megido and maybe Serket if she didn't head home already. Karkles'll give you your first month's rent and your new address."

"Wait, you mean I'm renting an apartment? Don't I get like... a car or something?"

Dave chuckled softly and stepped into one of the dirty-looking elevators. "Relax, Captor. You'll be rolling in cash in a few weeks or so. Then you can have a car, a penthouse, and a couple dozen hookers so you can finally pry off that V card that's been firmly welded to you for the past 21 years."

Sollux threw a punch at him that was simply laughed off. An elevator ride and short walk later, the pair arrived in a large warehouse, in which stood two figures amidst a set of tall boxes with various electronic equipment on them. "Yo Vantass! New kid's here."

The shorter of the two stepped forward from the equipment. He was somewhat pale, although not nearly to Sollux's level, and had bright red irises that contrasted dramatically with the mess of black hair that hung around them and stuck out in places. "Well it took you long enough. Idiot."

"You could've picked him up. Ever been to Jimmy John's? Something about wanting a faster sandwich would probably work here with some rewording."

The shorter young man, whom Sollux deduced was CG from his tone, slapped his palm to his forehead. "Strider, I couldn't possibly give any less of a shit about your half-assed sandwich metaphors unless you find some way to break physics so I can literally give a negative fuck," He growled. He then turned his attention to the newest team member. "Alright. Sollux, right? Look. I'm not in the mood to talk, so here's your apartment, I'm Karkat, go help pack up." He handed Sollux a slip of paper with an address written on it and pointed to the other person, who had already begun packing up the equipment. Dave followed Karkat out of the warehouse, insistently explaining his metaphor and exactly why he should now be given a sub sandwich at Karkat's expense.

Sollux shook his head on his way to the third figure. If this didn't work out he would be ruined. Maybe he should have reconsidered...

"Are those two not just hilarious?" asked a female voice.

Sollux looked up to see the obvious fact that the speaker was none other than the woman before him, still busy packing boxes. She stood at about half a head shorter than the hacker, with brown hair falling just to her back and, most notably, a pair of deep carmine eyes. "Did they say something about being professionals over Pesterchum? Because I think they might have been lying." Sollux said dryly as he picked up one of the boxes.

He felt a bit of satisfaction at her laughter. "Try not to worry. Dave and Karkat are both excellent at their jobs. They just like to get on one another's nerves from time to time." She slammed a box shut and held her hand to Sollux. "Well they should have at least told you who everybody was. I'm Aradia Megido."

Sollux took her hand and gave it a quick shake before returning to work, stacking the last few boxes. "Nice to meet someone who isn't a complete ass."

Aradia chuckled softly, picking up a stack of boxes and walking for the exit. "I would withhold that judgement for a while if I was in your place. I do try to be nice though." She smiled at him after he caught up, boxes in hand. "Nice shades."

Sollux took every ounce of willpower he had to keep from blushing. "They're uh... actually prescription."

She laughed again, although it was fairly obvious that it wasn't directed at him. "I think they look cool. Don't tell Dave I said someone that is not him was cool. He would probably fire me," she joked, "So you are the hacker he hired if I'm not mistaken. He says that you did fairly well with the test."

He gave a small smirk. His skill was one of his few traits he could claim to be proud of. "I managed to untraceably steal 7,000 US Dollars from a laptop. I think that's a little better than 'fairly well'." Sollux stopped himself when he realized that he probably sounded like a cocky asshole. "No offense..."

"None taken!" Aradia replied with a bright smile.

"So what does everyone... do here?" The question had been on his mind for some time. He had already deduced that Karkat was in charge of their group, but he had yet to figure out what Dave or Aradia's roles were, and who this Serket person even was.

She tilted her head up and to the right. "Well Karkat is our leader. He does a lot of the planning and makes sure that nobody... oh how does he put it? 'Finds themselves waist deep in shit'. Dave, Vriska, and I are all infiltrators, but that's more of a general position. Dave is also our con man—"

"Which is why you have him talk to the new kids. Can't risk them deciding that it's a bad idea to steal," Sollux interjected.

"Exactly!" There was that smile again. "I'm usually the one who figures out how to bypass security, and then Vriska opens the safes. There is also Terezi. She acts as our lawyer if we ever fail to clean up our evidence sufficiently."

"Okay so you guys needed me why exactly?"

"Well because we are making progress! We started with just Karkat, Terezi and Dave robbing local banks, then when they contacted me and Vriska, we started taking from bigger places. Now that you are with us, the sky is the limit!"

Sollux couldn't help but match her almost incessant smiling. For a professional thief she certainly had a bright personality.

"That is of course, unless you die."

"Wait, what?!"

The smile seemed less appropriate at this point. "Well you could get shot in the head and die, you could be thrown in prison and get shanked and die, you could be too close to an explosion and die... it's just so... interesting!"

Sollux blinked as he set the boxes down behind the black van parked in the garage. "Uh... yeah. Interesting." Okay so the cute thief girl had a weird obsession with death. He supposed he could get past that.

"So where did Dave find you?"

He snapped out of his temporary stupor. "I was a Computer Science student. University of New York. He probably found me through a... business I ran. I changed people's grades for money. So... what about you?"

Aradia gained a look of nostalgia and set off into her explanation as she pulled the rear doors of the van open and set her boxes inside. "I was an intern with an archeological team in Peru. We were in the dig site at Machu Picchu. That is where I picked up my skill with avoiding security. It came from a knack for spotting little details. Finding a tattoo on a corpse is shockingly similar to finding an infrared emitter in a wall. It really is all the same concept! Then it's as simple as finding another way around it, or having someone disable it. And that is why your job is so important."

Sollux set his pile of boxes neatly in the back of the van beside hers, nodding at her explanation. That was why she was so calm about death. She'd had experience with it. "So how will I know what's happening with who? I don't have any contact information for the rest of the team."

Aradia smirked, shutting the van doors and walking around to the driver's seat. "If you wanted my number you could have just asked, Sollux."

Every ounce of willpower wasn't enough to keep his blushing at bay this time.

And there was that smile again. "Relax, Sollux! I was only joking. My Pesterchum handle is apocalypseArisen. I will send you everyone's information over that tonight." Aradia climbed into the driver's seat and looked out the window. "Want a ride?"

Of course I do! By the way, are you busy tonight? "No thanks. I'll just take a cab or something," Sollux replied, followed by a mental self-scolding for being such a nervous idiot.

Aradia nodded and waved out the window at him. "Goodbye, Sollux!"

Suddenly feeling defeated and discouraged, Sollux waved as Aradia pulled out of the garage. "Yeah. Bye. God damn it."