A little character piece on Punk Rocket's integration into the Hive.
I'm not overly fond of Rocky being British, but I did include some phrases etc. Put the accent in if you really want to.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Warnings: Actually, not anything wildly questionable. I think.
Rocky is Punk Rocket.
Rocky wasn't really a part of the Hive. Wasn't even close, actually. He maintained that it was because of his hard rocker personality and going to school would cramp his style. And totally crush his beat. But that wasn't the real reason.
It was hella hard to get in for one thing. Plus, all of the people his age had gotten in when they were like eight, so he was way past his expiration date. Most of the kids joined the Hive by the time they were nine, and even that was cutting it kind of close. He was almost 13 by the time that he moved to Jump from the UK, and that age was not gonna cut it. The youngest kid of the Hive who was out and about was eleven and a genius, so how could Rocky compare to that?
He wasn't even a super villain yet. Hell, he wasn't even a villain yet. His expertise was shop-lifting petty objects (and porn) to look cool in front of his stoner friends and joining one wannabe band after the other.
He knew he had a power, and it was an awesome one. He could do stuff with music. He showed it off a lot, if there was one thing that Rocky was good at, it was showing off. He liked attention, and lots of it.
His mom worked a lot, but that was no big deal. Lots of moms worked a lot in Jump, especially in the part he lived in. There were Titans and whatever in the super rich clean streets of the East part of the city, but the West side was total crap. The pavement was grimy and the walls were covered in graffiti. He wanted to be able to take credit for some of the awesome paint jobs, but despite being artsy in the musical stand point, his drawings were rubbish.
He hated orchestras and concerts, a waste of time if you asked him. They were too peaceful and there was no grit to them. He went to jail the first time by mussing one up, with his powers. His marvelous new-found powers. From the time he was a child whenever he had gotten access to an instrument he had played, and he had never played a wrong note. Ever. After he got more into playing various instruments he had wondered what would happen if he played something that would sound awful together. He blew down a wall with his guitar. It was brilliant.
So he crashed a concert with his friends and showed them what he could do. He didn't think he would get in that much trouble. But apparently, the people of Jump got annoyed about that sort of thing, and it had landed him in jail. If he was just a kid, he probably could've gotten off with a semi-light sentence, but he was a meta-human. So he went to jail with the orange jumpsuits and the kids that were so much more bad-ass than him it wasn't even funny.
It was in the jail that he had met Seymour. It was Rocky's first day at the meta-human prison and he was more or less freaking out over being there. The other boy had spotted him, grinned, and sauntered over.
"Hey man, what're you in for?" He settled down near Rocky's spot in the large holding cell.
"Blew up a concert." Rocky replied, concentrating on seeming tougher than he actually felt. "It had such awful music. I couldn't take it anymore."
Seymour laughed and held out his hand. "Seymour's the name. I had my 'eye' on you." He chuckled warmly at his stupid pun. "You could pull off a super villain lifestyle my friend."
"Nah." Rocky replied. "I'm too old to get started. Those kids at the Hive got going way before me; I'd stick out like a sore thumb."
"Ya don't have to join the Hive." Seymour looked at him, his forehead creasing. "Jeez, I wouldn't recommend that place to anyone. I mean, we're all hella cool and all, but the school system is whacked. You'd be much better on your own."
"You're from the Hive?" Rocky sent a look towards him, slightly more interested.
"Yes I am." Seymour smiled proudly, and reached over to ruffle his hair. He grinned. "You're the only person I can do that to; all the people younger than me at the academy don't have hair or wouldn't let me." He laughed again.
"You seem oddly happy for a person in a prison cell."
"This is like my twentieth time, probably much more." Seymour shook his head, still grinning. "I get caught for fun all the time; it gives me a couple of days off of school. Anyway, Elliot'll just break me out again." At Rocky's questioning look he elaborated. "Jail is kind of the way we get a day off of school. The cops know that they can't keep us in, but they put us in here for the ceremonial value." He waved at a cop walking by the large holding cell. "Hey Frank, how are the kids?"
"Fine." The cop, dubbed Frank, gave Seymour a fond smile. "How long are you in for?"
"Should be only a couple more minutes."
"All right, see you next time kid."
At Rocky's incredulous look Seymour said cheerfully, "Frank's cool. He got used to the whole me breaking out of prison thing ages ago. It helps if you're really polite. He's one of my friends now."
Rocky would learn that Seymour collected friends like most normal people collected stamps.
They sat there a little while longer, Rocky's false bravado slowly melting into actual confidence as they talked. All of a sudden, a small pale figure appeared in front of them. His violet hair was tussled and, Rocky noticed, he was as skinny as Seymour. Did these kids not eat or something? Weird.
The new guy, presumably Elliot, gave him an odd look before turning to Seymour. He glared at the black boy and spun away promptly, showing his back.
"C'mon Elliot, I really wasn't ready for the infiltration test today. You can't blame me for skipping." Seymour said in a pleading and rational tone. The other boy didn't move, just sniffed disapprovingly. "I promise not to do it again."
Elliot sent a disbelieving look back.
"This month." Seymour amended. "Anyway, you do it for fun! It's so not fair that I can't!" He turned to Rocky. "Elliot always gets himself caught, then teleports away at the last possible second just to annoy the police. He's a hypocrite, especially since I'm doing it with a purpose."
Elliot snorted again, but reached over and grabbed Seymour's shoulder.
"Hold up, I'm coming too." Rocky said, trying to sound assertive.
Elliot rolled his eyes, but nonetheless grabbed Rocky's shoulder with his other hand. In a whirl of black they were out of the jail cell. Still inside, Frank rolled his eyes and wondered why the police force even bothered.
They appeared somewhere in the center of the city. On the roof. Rocky stifled a scream as he went slipping down the slope in surprise. Figures that a Hive kid would teleport them to one of the only sloped roofs in the city. Just as he was about to topple off the frightening view disappeared in the blackness of Elliot's cold pocket universe. They reappeared back on the roof, Rocky fully prepared for the landing.
"Thanks man, I don't have my guitar with me so I would have been in trouble."
Elliot's previously uninterested stare sparked with something akin to curiosity. He turned to Seymour and gestured. Rocky looked on in confusion.
"Yeah man, he uses music n' stuff. Didn't know he could fly on a guitar though." Seymour turned to look at Rocky. "Pretty sick."
Rocky flushed at the praise and straightened up higher under Elliot's scrutinizing stare, it was the first time the other boy had looked at him in anything but derision in the short time Rocky knew him. Apparently, music was what it took to get into Elliot's semi-good books. Rocky could be musical. He was musical.
And thus Rocky was introduced to the Hive.
He had gone home to his furious mother. Rocky couldn't really blame her for being so pissed, he had been sent to prison after all, but he was still feeling rebellious and brave after the days events. So he disregarded her concern, her fury, and her emotions. They didn't matter, because for the first time he felt almost cool.
Years later Rocky looked back and regretted ignoring his mother, but even though her apartment in Jump was only ten minutes away, he couldn't bring himself to go there. He wondered if she even wanted to see him again.
He had been lucky; he met Angel and Baron next instead of the other Hive kids. They were easier to get used to and had accepted him, Angel, in a slightly suspicious mothering way. He slowly became, if not one of her kids, at least her nephew. Baron had gruffly accepted him, waved a dismissing hand in his direction, and grunting his approval.
Bailey had been next; he had given Rocky a once-over, but then turned away. At Rocky's look of concern, Seymour shrugged and said "that means you're okay."
Okay then.
"Where do you always go?" Rocky's mother said, in barely veiled irritation.
"No where." Rocky replied sullenly, slamming the refrigerator door and stalking out of the kitchen
If he had looked at her harder, he might have seen the worry induced lines under her exhausted eyes. He hadn't looked harder though.
Jinx warned him away. He had been introduced to her while she was in one of her melancholy moods. Apparently, her moods teeter-tottered nearly constantly.
"You know, you would be better off without us." She said, in an almost conversational tone with a severe element behind it. "The whole Hive is, excuse the term, bad luck."
Seymour scoffed at her dramatics, but his eyes seemed a little too serious to be mocking.
Rocky looked at her in confusion, smothering his panic at her words. Did they not want him to hang out with them or something? Was he not good enough? The bravado he had mustered up since meeting the Hive wavered dramatically. "What do you mean? I can take the heat!" He boasted desperately.
"Look, nothing personal. We just have a knack for sapping the resources of outsiders."
He tried to give her his most determined expression.
She rolled her eyes, but conceded. "Whatever. Hey, don't be surprised if Billy and Hank are less than friendly. Those assholes don't like anyone but themselves.
His mom hadn't come home yet. Rocky tried to pretend that he wasn't waiting up for her. That he didn't care. She was really late, later than she had ever been. Usually he was the one who got home at night after her, not the other way around.
He didn't like the feeling.
When she did get home he pretended to be asleep, so she would never know that he waited up worrying about her.
Hank and Billy hadn't liked him, and had been wildly sarcastic about his presence. That hadn't bothered him too much, since Jinx had warned him previously.
What had really stuck was their comment about the Hive liking him, but thinking he was a poser. Things that were true hurt more than falsehoods.
Vito hadn't liked him either, but his observations had been even more cut throat, and even more true. Rocky felt drained after that little encounter. But he pretended he was okay. The Hive was pushing him through more emotions than he had ever felt in his life, and he wasn't even in it.
He only hung out with the Hive kids once in a while, he had friends in the school, but he wasn't all that close to them. It was okay though, he had friends outside. And once he met the Hive other connections easily formed. He became integrated. He became the super villain that he had always wanted to be. Well, he was a little bit easier to bust than he would have liked, but that was okay. He had his music. And he had his connections.
He tried to pretend he didn't miss the mother that he had moved away from ages ago.
He wondered if she thought about him much.