April. Baby's first villainous motivation p.1

Dick was in Math class when he got Raven's text. It was a picture of her classroom, with all the desks and chairs in a pile backed up to a corner, with the caption 'It happened again'.

Dick looked over to Gar, and saw from his face he'd seen the text too. They exchanged a troubled glance. This had been happening all month. Broken equipment, supplies hidden in the wrong rooms, stuff outright stolen out of classrooms and never returned. Locked doors and busted toilets. Usually things that wasted time and ruined everyone's day. And always that signature to go with it: that 'Hive' tag.

"Who would do such a thing, over and over again?" asked Kori, absent-mindedly spooned her food. They had dedicated lunch hour to pore over the Hive issue so many days in a row it felt like permanent déjà vu.

Dick had lost track of which incidents had actually happened and which one he'd come up with in his nightmares.

"It's the third time this month." Vic said.

"I mean, they didn't come up with a whole logo only to never crop up again," said Raven.

"I can't believe we still don't know anything about them," said Gar.

"We know there's at least one girl in that group," said Raven.

"Circumstantially," Dick reminded her.

Raven said nothing. They'd had this argument before. The tag was a cursive 'Hive', with the H laid over a hexagram. Raven sustained only a girl would painstakingly come up with and then reproduce something like that that. Dick opined they couldn't be sure.

Their fruitless conversation was cut off when three girls approached the group, "Hey."

They had said it snottily, so Dick snapped with a, "What?"

"Are you guys gonna do something about all this, or what?" one of the girls demanded.

"Yeah, you're hailed as Murakami's defenders, so why don't you act like it?" said another.

"We're on it," returned Dick. "Do you know how to solve a crime with no suspect? No? Then let us work it out." He turned back to his food. "We've done it before."

When they walked away, Vic could see other kids in different tables watching the exchange, glaring at them like they would've personally walked over to call them out too. "Well, seems like Jen's inspiring people to publicly denounce us," he said.

"Is it bad that I totally think she and her group are behind this?" asked Gar. "Is that profiling?"

"No, I think it's only responsible that we suspect them," said Vic. "It's exactly what they'd do."

"I don't know," said Raven. "Don't you guys think this is… too big for Jen's group? They usually stick to simple pranks."

"The firecrackers thing was already a step up for them," reminded Dick. "They had to plan how to sneak into the lounge, get the master key, and identify vulnerable students for their victims. And that was all just to make some chaos."

"And if it is them, what do we do?" posed Kori. "Must we skip class to follow them?"

Vic stabbed his food. "Unless Blood lets us permanently stay out or they install cameras everywhere, we're at the end of our abilities. They're all expecting too much of us."

Dick hated thinking that way. He couldn't help but whisper it, "We should be able to crack it anyway." He shook his head as if to pretend he hadn't said it. "Okay, can we somehow think about this logically? This chairs thing. This took some time, and it would have made noise. Who has that kind of time? Who has access to the classroom at least—I don't now, ten minutes before class starts? Time to do this quietly?"

"And also," said Kori, "How come no class has been spared?"

"What'd you mean?" asked Gar.

Kori said, "Every class has been attacked. When they moved the chairs, everyone had to help to place them back. There is missing from footballs to calculators to costumes for the drama club. Everyone is being inconvenienced."

"Yeah… Yeah, that's what's hard about this," said Dick, nodding. "Everyone's being targeted. We can't start with the victims 'cause the victim is everyone."

Vic shook his head. "I think-"

"Hey guys."

They all looked up. No one had heard Terra approaching. Gar quickly checked behind them, afraid against all logic that it wasn't really them she was talking to.

"Hi?" he replied, his face brightening into a hopeful grin.

"Uh, can I sit?" Terra asked, struggling to look straight at any of them them.

"Yes!" Gar said immediately, scooting aside.

But he was sitting next to Raven, and she stayed right where she was even when he bumped into her. "We're discussing a mission right now," she said at Terra.

"We can do that later," Gar countered through gritted teeth.

"Why would we?" she retorted lowly.

Dick took charge. "Uh, excuse us for a second, Terra." He swept up his friends to form a circle off the side of their table.

Inside the circle, Gar asked Raven, "What is your problem?"

"A random girl invading my space is my problem," she returned.

"She's not random. She should be on the team right now."

"Except she's not, because she yelled at us for no reason and ran away."

"So what, the offer is canceled just because she did something you don't like?" Gar asked.

"She's unstable," said Raven.

"She was going through stuff, Raven! Not all of us can be models of peace and calm!"

"Guys!" Dick cut them off. "She didn't even ask to be on the team. She just asked to sit with us. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Gar turned to Dick. "And she can, can't she, Dick? Sit with us?"

Gar looked so hopeful Dick couldn't say no. "Sure." To the others he said, "Gar's right, we can talk about Hive later."

Raven said nothing, but wondered why everyone was determined to move mountains for this girl as they all sat back down and Dick told Terra to sit with them.

Terra did, and she said, "Look, if you're talking about the mission, there's no problem by me. Keep talking about the mission." She smiled. "I'll help you. I'm ready to join the Club anyway!"

"What makes you think you can just join the Club now?" Raven immediately asked her, not even sparing the time to give Dick an 'I told you so' glance.

"Well why not?" retorted Terra, returning Raven's energy. "I passed the test, right?"

Sitting between the two girls, Gar looked at Dick almost imploringly. "She did do that, Dick," he said lowly.

Dick didn't look at him. He rose right above all discussion and shot Terra a diplomatic smile. "Like I said. Terra, please have lunch with us." And without wavering, he asked whether she was taking an elective this year, because he was taking Psychology and it looked pretty cool.

Terra hesitated, eyed Raven glaring at her, then looked at Gar's expectant eyes, and accepted Dick's middle ground approach. " Yeah, I heard Computer Science was easy, so I went with that," she replied. Soon she was telling them how Mr. Fixet had disclosed he was being pressed by the principal to actually use the computer lab the school provided, so he'd tried the computer at his desk for the first time ever, and he'd spent half the class complaining the thing wasn't working before discovering the power button in the monitor, and none of the students had said a word through the whole process. The way she told the story got four out of five of themin hysterics.

From a distance, Jen looked at the scene and smiled at her friends, who seemed to be silently asking permission to call this a success. "We're in, boys," she confirmed.


After school let out, Terra pretended to look at the announcement board so she could talk to Jenny Hex, whose locker was right next to it.

"Hope you're happy," Terra muttered. "That was humiliating."

"Wow, your personality really does a one-eighty when you're not with them," replied Jen. "It's kind of impressive."

"Cut the crap. Now tell me, how are you gonna fix my record?"

"Calm down. You haven't actually done anything for us yet."

"Um, I'm in the group."

"Are you in the Club, though?" Jen returned.

Terra broke the stealthiness to openly glare at her. "You haven't even explained how you would help me. I'm not even completely sure this isn't a weird prank-"

"Relax. You're gonna find out tomorrow. After school. Okay?"

Terra glanced at Jen. She wondered if the other girl had decided that on the spot: her grin never let her see through to her thoughts. Maybe Jenny knew her patience was just about nonexistent. Terra nodded. She'd give it until tomorrow.


Vic offered his open palms to Bee and shut his eyes tight. "Go ahead," he told her.

With his eyes closed, he felt her touch his left hand.

"Left hand," he announced, and opened his eyes.

"Amazing," she whispered. "I've never seen such advanced sensory mimicry with my own eyes."

Vic couldn't help but smile at her fascination; she looked so cute immersed scientific glee, staring at his hands next to their uneaten burgers.

This was how they usually spent their lunch break at work, ignoring the food in front of them for twenty-five minutes and having to glob it down in the last five.

Vic had told his friends he'd switched jobs, but he hadn't yet told them he was working with Bee. He hadn't told them because he didn't want Gar to know that… well, that things with Bee may be moving forward, sad as he'd been about Terra. Now the blonde was back in the group, if things kept going well, Vic would spill the beans to everyone soon.

It all started when he'd gone to pick up his car in East High after the Ding Dong Daddy fiasco. He admitted it, he'd gone early so he could run into her, as he knew she liked to go into school early. She was surreptitiously still outside when he arrived, hanging around her Jeep on her phone in a way he let himself read into, and they'd got to talking about how he'd just quit his job. Without going into it completely, he'd told her he'd hated how people would ogle at him at the garage. She'd told him she was working part time assisting in tech support at the back of an IT store where they were always looking for new applicants, and the position would be perfect for him—all online work and no direct contact with people. She'd suggested putting a good word for him, and they had finally –finally!- exchanged phone numbers. Then he'd gone on the interview, gotten the job, and the rest was history. Now he reliably got to talk to her three times a week.

Bee got a few quick bites of food and then looked up at Vic, and her eyes narrowed. "Although I can never be completely sure you're closing your bionic eye."

He snorted. "You can blindfold me for your peace of mind."

"Pssh," went Bee.

"Or I can turn my head one-hundred-and eighty degrees."

She faced him. "Are you kidding?" And when Vic shook his head no, she exclaimed, "What? What's your spine like?"

Vic explained. "My spine was severed at three points. They had to line it internally with titanium, so it's way more flexible than it should be."

"Whoa."

He extended his arms. "My arms don't have bone anymore, they're pure titanium inside. Same with my legs below the knee."

"Uh-huh." Bee eagerly followed the explanation, eyes attentive and her burger again forgotten.

"Everything else is protected by a metal plate. Like my thighs and chest." He rose his shirt a bit so she could see.

"Mmhhm."

He picked up his burger, mainly so she would too, because this dinner break wouldn't last forever. They ate in silence for a while.

When Vic spoke again, struck by sudden inspiration, it was in different voice. "So… I basically lost four appendages."

"Uh-huh."

"But… the fifth one's still intact."

Bee froze her nodding. When she got his meaning, scientific curiosity left her eyes and embarrassment set in. He couldn't help chuckling at her face.

"Why are you telling me that," she murmured, and nudged his shoulder.

Vic shrugged, though he was blushing, and couldn't raise his own voice from an embarrassed whisper. "I thought you might as well know. I… kinda thought that could be why you didn't take me up when I asked you out the other day."

The embarrassment on her face turned to horror. "I wasn't—That's not even—I'm not that much of an asshole!"

"It wouldn't make you an asshole," he said, and his sober voice made her stop and listen. "I mean… Sex is important. If I had gotten injured badly, that would be a deal-breaker for a lot of people. I know it's one of the first things I asked when I woke up."

Bee looked at him sideways, seeming like she was considering forgiving him for embarrassing her, as it was something he really wanted to disclose. "I really didn't think of that," she said thoughtfully. "I don't know why I didn't say yes when you asked me out." She held up her burger in front of her mouth and didn't eat it. "I'm just always so busy. I don't really make time in my life… for boyfriends and that."

"Hmm… I'm not one of those boyfriends who demands all of your time," he said gently. He was only insisting because he could see she was open to it, considering it. "I'm Type A too, you know."

She laughed. "Yes. I know." She smiled at him wistfully, and it made her nose scrunch up. "We fight every time we meet."

"And I enjoy every second of it."

She laughed again. He'd made her laugh more than ever today.

When they had to go back to their shift, and they wouldn't see each other for the rest of the day, she kissed him on the lips, chastely, like a message. "I'll call you," she said. All noncommittal, but definite.

Vic felt like he was floating for the rest of the day. For once, everything in his life felt like it was coming into place.


"Okay, wait. We're actually tailing all of Jen's group… all the time?" Vic asked.

Dick had come to them at the end of the school day announcing that was what the next necessary step. "Starting tomorrow, yes. What else can we do? They're the suspects we have."

"I thought we were going to stores to track yellow paint," said Kori.

"We're doing both," said Dick. "The one good thing Jenny did in her life was dye her hair pink. She's gonna be easy to remember."

"She wears cat-eye contact lenses outside of school," Vic provided.

"Even better," said Dick.

Raven asked, "How're we gonna tail them and be in class?"

Dick had worked it all out during History class. "There's seven of them and five of us. Each one of us is in charge of whichever one of them we're in class with, to begin with. If they leave the class, we let the rest know, and another one of us will leave their class to see what they're up to."

Gar had been silent and smiling at nothing all day, just as he'd been the day before. Now he broke out of his reverie to say, "Uh, there could be six of us, Dick. Terra can help. It would make things easier."

Dick thought about it. "Yeah. Maybe she can help out," he said noncommittally.

"Why do you think she chose to return to us?" Kori asked quietly.

"I think she just finished working through whatever she was mad about," suggested Vic.

"That's a long time to stay mad for no reason," Raven didn't miss the chance to say.

When the Five left the mostly-empty school, Terra was in the hallway, hanging by her locker. She looked up and smiled at Gar, which was all Gar needed in the world to be happy. Gar gravitated to her. "Hey."

"Hi."

"I texted you, did you get it?" Terra asked him.

"Oh, I got my phone taken away for a month."

"Why?"

"Well a couple of weeks ago… uh, never mind."

Terra laughed uncertainly, putting her hair behind her ear. "What, you can't even talk to me about the old missions now?"

Gar panicked. "No, no, it's not that! It's just we actually got told not to talk about it by the police."

Terra hadn't been expecting that. "Oh."

Gar shrugged. "Occupational hazards. You know how it is." To show her he didn't mean to hide things from her, he said, "To solve this Hive thing, we're gonna visit every store around the school that sells spray paint, and hope a clerk remembers if a teenager bought yellow paint over the last month."

"So you're grasping at straws," she surmised.

"See, you could say that. But it's cool if you imagine we're spies tailing an escaped criminal or something."

Terra's face gained a fond expression that made Gar feel butterflies. "I bet you make it fun," she told him.

"Gar?" Dick called. The other four had been waiting at a distance. Dick opined they had waited long enough.

Gar looked at Terra full of regret.

Terra said, "Oh, go. I'm busy now anyway."

Gar smiled. Whether she was telling the truth or not, it meant she didn't take offense to him leaving. Things were fine between them, so everything in the world was right.

"See you tomorrow?" he asked her.

"Sure."

He walked away from her backwards until the hallway turned. He never wanted to stop seeing her.


Terra got off the bus after Jenny. They had ridden for more than an hour and Jen hadn't said a word through the whole trip. It made Terra wonder if the pink-haired girl was trying to get her lost. If that was the case,joke was on her: as soon as Terra arrived to any new town she walked the whole length of it. She always knew where everything was, and she never got lost. Right now, she knew they were on the rich side of town, which threw her off—try as she might, Terra couldn't picture Jenny being secretly rich.

As they walked down the street, Jen said, "Okay, this is the point where shit gets confidential. You're on our side now, and I'll tell you everything, but you have to keep your mouth shut."

Terra wasn't impressed. "Let me guess. You're about to reveal to me that you're Hive."

Jenny affected glee. "Well, you're not entirely brain-dead! Congratulations!"

"Duh. Dick suspects the hell out of you too. They just can't prove it." Gar being vague around the Club plans and Raven attempting to make them all close ranks hadn't kept her from gleaming that—Terra sustained she must be quieter than people expected, or in any case she always ended up listening in on things she wasn't supposed to know for some reason.

Jen only gave a wide grin as a response.

Terra saw fancy house after fancy house as they walked. "What do you have against those guys, anyway?" she asked.

"They're snobby assholes," Jen said lightly. "Why do you like them?"

"I obviously don't."

"Then what reason do you need from me?"

Terra stopped walking. "Jenny, where are we going?"

Jen didn't bother going back for her, and Terra understood why when she stopped in front of the next house –the fanciest, snobbiest one Terra had seen so far- and pressed the buzzer. Apparently, they were here.

"Yes?" said a voice in the other side.

"Hey, we're here," said Jen, impatiently.

Terra thought she recognized that voice. "Was that-?"

The gate opened.

"Come on," said Jen.

They crossed an impressive front garden. Terra already felt… odd. Not quite like this whole thing was a mistake—more like she'd stepped in an alternate universe. Like in all her life she was never really meant to step into a mansion. The feeling would only grow in the next few moments.

Waiting on the porch was Kitty Moth, arms crossed and looking… well, bitchy. As always. But she did not look surprised to see them. Terra was checking for it, because she still couldn't believe she and Jen were in this together.

Kitty impatiently motioned for them to follow her and disappeared inside when they were still a few feet away. Terra and Jen followed her into a large sun-filled hallway decorated with flower pots at either side. It was the prettiest hallway Terra had ever seen, and as they crossed it, she stopped puzzling over Kitty's motives, because Kitty helpfully ranted them to her.

"Those stuck-up Project Club losers think they get to decide who enters their stupid Club and who doesn't. Someone needs to remind them who actuallyruns the school. If they wanna stay popular, they have to respect the rules, duh! But it's like they don't care how things work. They don't put in the hours. They just wanna blow us off for every party, every pep rally, every stupid yearbook photoshoot, and they keep my Dickie-poo away from me."

Kitty stopped when she saw Fang in the hallway, and so Jen and Terra stopped too.

"Hey, baby," Fang said. His dark rocker clothes made an ugly contrast as he leaned against the pink and white walls.

"Ugh, babe, what the fuck are you doing here?" Kitty said in disgust, as she went to kiss him.

"Baby, I told you your dad was giving me an internship in the company," Fang said.

"And I told you I didn't want you to work with my dad! God!"

Fang mumbled something, and ever so offhandedly slipped away into the house, as Kitty yelled "Fa-ang!"

Terra eyed Jen, but she just looked bored; clearly this was a normal scene.

"Ugh," Kitty went again. She resumed walking, and the girls followed. "My stupid boyfriend wants to work with my dad. I'm like, I don't want you to go on the same business as daddy! That's so repetitive! And I don't want my dad and my boyfriend to hang out without me! I'm the common denominator here!" She made a pause and looked back, watching for the girls' reactions expectantly.

"How awful," said Jen dutifully, and so Kitty resumed her complaining. Jen grabbed Terra's arm and leaned closer to whisper, "She thinks we're her friends. Just roll with it."

Terra removed her arm from her grasp. "I'm not your friend either."

"Noted," Jen smiled.

They finally made it to where they were going: Kitty stopped at a door, and in lieu of knocking, she just let herself in.

"Kitten, I told you you can't just-" a voice boomed from within.

"Dad-dyyyy, I need a favor!" returned Kitty's.

Jen walked in after Kitty like it was nothing, so Terra followed suit.

Kitty was already dramatically thrown over a couch, and her father sat to the desk, holding a phone with his hand covering the speaker.

He was a stout man with fluffy-looking salt-and-pepper hair and mutton chops. He looked torn between asking who these girls were and addressing his daughter directly. He went with the latter. "I'm very busy, honey-" he began.

"Yeah, so do one thing for me and I'll go!"

Kitty's father apparently admitted defeat. He sighed heavily, and put the phone to his ear. "Sir, I will call you back." He hung up. "Now, darling, what is it?"

"Tara here has a shit record. Erase it and change her GPA."

Now Terra was sure she'd stepped into an alternate universe. She was so struck she didn't even correct her name. Jenny had to do it.

"It's Terra. Terra Markov. M-A-R-K-O-V."

To her unending surprise, Mr. Moth looked like he was about to protest, but just sighed, and dialed a number on the phone.

Terra looked at Jen and Kitty. "How's he gonna change my record?"

Kitty didn't look at her as she waved a hand boredly. "Daddy has ties to the principal, get with the program."

"He's calling the principal?" Terra asked.

By that time, Mr. Moth's call had pulled through. "Hello, Sebastian. I need you to fix a student's grades. …As high as possible. …Terra Markov. …M-A-R-K-O-V. …Thank you." He hung up. "It's done."

He got as prize Kitty going to him and hugging. "Thank you, daddy! I knew I could count on you!"

Mr. Moth addressed Terra directly. "You're a straight-A's student now, Miss Markov. Congratulations."

Terra started to furiously blush, and she couldn't pinpoint exactly why.

Then they were out of the office, and Jenny was telling her, "Stick with us and you'll have a perfect GPA for all your high school career."

The implication was clear- betray us and we take the boon back. But Terra couldn't bring herself to resent that. She'd gotten the better end of the deal, surely. In one sweep she'd had her entire past fixed. A clean slate.

It was everything she'd ever wanted.

"Now it's your turn, freaks," was how Kitty sent them off as they walked out of her house.

"She thinks people who reach popularity are public property, that's why she wants to punish the Club," Jen explained to Terra when they were out of earshot. "She also thinks every boy she wants has an obligation to be with her. And she's hoping Dick will fall in line—learn his lesson, so to speak, when the Club disbands."

But Terra hadn't asked, and she didn't really care. Jenny seemed to notice as much, because she stayed quiet the whole bus ride back.

Later, as Terra walked to her foster home, she kept replaying the bizarre afternoon in her head, wondering where the catch was—if things could really be that good.

If she'd had all the information from the start, if she had known this would be her prize, she would have done the same thing, and with way fewer doubts. How could she ever turn something like this down? For loyalty to some random kids she hardly knew? Terra laughed out loud on the street, and began to run, her joy needing an outlet.

The embarrassment she'd felt at crawling back to the Five wasn't real anymore. She hadn't gone begging for old friends back: she had deceived five idiots into thinking she wanted their friendship, when really she was making an incredibly smart business transaction. For the first time in her life, she felt smarter than those around her—she knew something others didn't—she was two steps ahead. And the power was exhilarating. For the first time in her life, she felt in control.


Hive roster partial reveal! :D

You guys… both double-agent Terra AND the Terra-Jen-Kitty trio are SO fun to write.

~The Lighthouse