"You brought him HERE!" Gizmo shouted, hovering in the air, scowling. See-More looked curious, blinking his eye into a question mark. Mammoth didn't look one way or the other. Jinx was somewhere else, doing whatever it was she did. Wykkyd looked confused. Was there something wrong with bringing Billy here?

"YES, crud-for-brains! We can't just bring anyone here! They'll rat us out to the Titans or try and take our stuff…and…and… you just CAN'T!" Gizmo ranted, trying to maintain his furor.

"Why not?" Mammoth asked. "We let Wykkyd in."

"Yeah, but…we needed a replacement for Private Hive." Gizmo muttered, folding his arms.

"C'mon, why not, Gizmo? You saw that news report with Billy on it." See-More spoke. "Fought all th' Titans. Plus, he went to th' academy."

"So did that snot-eatin' jerk Cyborg." Gizmo snapped back.

"Yeah, but Billy was fighting Cyborg." Mammoth said simply.

Gizmo stewed, grinding his teeth and lowered back onto the ground.

"I still don't think we should let him in."

Billy had long since ignored all this. Four Billies were on the couch, and flipped the channel to Ultimate Fighting Championship. Another two were looking in the kitchen for ingredients to grill a steak with. Only one Billy remained in the Hive Five's immediate line of sight, and he was standing next to Kyd Wykkyd, who insisted with his body motions and hand gestures to let Billy into the Hive Five.

"Not up to us anyway." Mammoth said with a shrug. "Jinx makes those decisions."

"Razzin-frazzin', gunkmunchin', toaster ovens for brains…fine, he can stay till Jinx throws him out." Gizmo snarled.

Wykkyd grinned appreciatively. Billy gave him a thumbs-up.

"Thank ya kindly, Wykkyd. Didn't know where ta go till ya snagged me."

"DON'T GET USED TO IT, ROCK LICKER!" Gizmo shouted, struggling to find good insults now.

"Yeah, whatever. What else ya get on this TV?" Billy replied, walking to the couch amongst the other Billies, flipping through the channels. Wykkyd and Mammoth followed after, cruising through channels before Wykkyd pulled out the gamecube as suggestion for all of them. See-More and Gizmo stayed where they were. Gizmo continued to fume. See-More eyed him calmly.

"I'll go find Jinx and tell her, all right? See what she thinks about it."

"Stumminframmin shimmavimm…" Gizmo mumbled, glaring at nothing in particular.

"Uh, yeah. Sure." See-More said, and walked off to find Jinx.

"Damnit, Billy, whydja choose Pikachu! He sucks!"

"Ah'll play who ah want, Billy!"

"Not if you wanna win, Billy!"

Wykkyd smiled gently while he played, Mammoth grunted, getting fiercely competitive. The four Billies on the couch had become two to allow the others to play, and they were quickly removed from the match, too distracted by shouting at each other to play effectively.

Gizmo stared hard at the couch, then, with a press of a button, continued to stare hard, except from a higher perspective, casting fierce glances at the Billies arguing with each other.

Suddenly, echoing throughout the Hive Five base, rattling the framework and making everyone in the living room dead still came the booming voice of Jinx.

"GODDAMNIT, I WAS SLEEPING!"

Gizmo, after regaining his senses from the yell, grinned and rubbed his hands together.

He didn't accept new members easily.