002 . . . HUSH

falling in my den

full of lions, full of breath

take the muzzle from their heads

i'm a sucker for revenge

hush the marías

On Lili's birthday, her mother used to lay down next to her in bed, at thirteen minutes past midnight — the exact time she was born — and tell her about how she came into the world.

It always started the same way. Lili had been born with a fever, like a thousand fists slamming up from underneath her soft baby skin. I was born with a fever too, her mother used to say. It never really went away. The fever made Lili grow into a difficult child, but her mother never found it to be a problem. She liked Lili's stubbornness, her refusal to do what people told her to, her hard-won but oh-so-worth-it smile — which had always been a bit crooked, like she was keeping a secret.

Over time, Lili figured that the fever was just a metaphor for the disquiet that both she and her mother nestled within. In truth, Lili had been born with a fever, but her mother saw it as some sort of premonition, a testament to her daughter's character.

Lili still saw it as a fever, something infectious, this urge that she got to fuck things up, either for herself or for other people. Good things can't last. This sentiment was so true to her that it seemed like a mutation to her genetic code, etched inside of her forever.

She felt it now, walking out of the Old Gotham Vista, her fingers traveling fast across her phone screen, a thousand fists beneath her skin, making her feel warm — warmer than the summer heat bearing down on the city.

Joe already had the car waiting by the old hotel's entrance when Lili marched out, blistering mad, putting so much weight on her steps she could have pierced holes on the sidewalk. Incensed, she pulled the car door open and threw herself in the backseat, catching her bodyguard's inquisitive look in the rearview mirror.

"I need to go to the main hideout."

He simply nodded, solemn, and Lili lurched backward as his foot hit the pedal, setting off onto the busy street. Joe had been her bodyguard since she moved back in with her father about eight years ago, and Lili appreciated how he was the only person who worked for her family who didn't question her about where she'd been or what she had been doing or planning on doing. And, if he did, he never told her father about it. — He was also the only person under her father's commands who knew of Lili's job as Black Cat. She had tried to hide it from him when she first started it, but he spent so much time with her that it had been hard to keep it from him. Once she told him, things had become a thousand times easier. Joe had been her mother's bodyguard first and, even after all of the years, he was still deeply devoted to her. In turn, he was deeply devoted to her daughter. She took oaths on her mother's name very seriously.

On her phone, Gabby's face greeted her in the corner of the screen, her eyes comically wide and her tongue sticking out. The last message they had exchanged had been sent by Lili, to let her know she was waiting for her to open her apartment's door, a few hours earlier. Now, it felt like a lifetime ago.

Lili sent her another text, punctuated with lots of urgency and exclamation marks, asking Gabby to meet her at the main hideout they shared with Selina, on East End.

Not much later, Lili exited the car and stepped out in front of their safe house. From the outside, it was just another inconspicuous building, in ways of being considered condemned. It had two large metal garage doors that had served as many a store front, but were now the quickest exits out of the hideout. The building itself had been many things before everyone — except for Selina — gave up on it. It had been a gambling den, a thrift store, a strip club, a front for some drug dealers who had long been run out of town, but, most importantly, it had been the building where Selina and Lili's mother had lived when Helena first moved to Gotham City. Lili understood the emotional significance of Selina deciding that that would be where they would run their "business" from, even if she had never said a word about it.

"Gabby," she said, pushing open the side door in the alleyway. There was music humming somewhere inside, far into the open area where they kept their getaway cars and motorcycles. "Are you in here?"

"Yes," Gabby replied, sounding far away. "Glad you're alive. You got the job?"

A sour taste bit at the back of Lili's throat like her pink drink trying to make its way back up. She looked at Gabby, coming into the open area from the side room where they sometimes crashed after a particularly harrowing job. She already had her catsuit on and her gear and gadgets with her.

"No, I didn't. But I'll do it anyway, out of spite." Lili explained. In her purse, she found the receptor for the bug she planted on Jason's jacket. She placed it on their workshop table and waited for Gabby to hand her her own suit and utility belt.

"So he didn't offer you the job? Is he insane?" Gabby said, scandalized. She placed her hands on the table and stared at the receptor, her mouth twisted in contempt. "He couldn't find anyone better than you if he tried."

Thunder cracked outside, filling the air with the smell of ozone. The boarded up windows shook with its vibration, and Lili felt a chill crawl up her spine — like a bad omen. "No, he offered me the job, but I said no."

Gabby went silent for what felt like forever. 

"Sorry. I don't get it."

Lili didn't even know how to begin to explain it. How much of a coincidence was it, really, that the guy she found on a shady website, offering her a job, was in fact her childhood best friend who she deeply resented?

She opened her mouth to try and tell Gabby about it, but, instead, the bug receptor buzzed, and Jason's voice came out. He sounded on edge, but not exactly angry.

"The person I talked to didn't show," Jason lied to whoever he was talking to. Lili could understand why. Apparently, not many people said no to him. "They probably thought it was a scam. We're going to have to do it ourselves. It's fine, just— It's fine. Is the cargo at the docks already?"

The docks.

Lili looked up to meet Gabby's eyes. She had one eyebrow quirked up, and the look on her face flashed with some sort of partial recognition. Her lips moved almost in disbelief, and then Jason's line went quiet and Gabby nearly shrieked.

"The Red Hood? He offered you the job?"

"Do you see why I had to say no?" Lili said, zipping up her catsuit. The leather stuck tight to her skin, not as uncomfortable as the heat could have made it, thanks to some advanced technology that the seamstresses had used in its making. Lili didn't really get it, but she was grateful for it now that the adrenaline was making her skin even hotter to the touch. "And why I have to steal it, whatever it is that he's waiting for?"

Gabby, of course, knew who the Red Hood was. She also knew about all of the pesky details from his childhood. And Lili's. In truth, she was the only person with whom Lili could talk to about everything that had happened nearly nine years ago. She was the only person Lili cried to, when talking about it.

Gabby's silence, this time, was of the understanding kind. She let the confession linger between them before she spoke again.

"Yeah... I get it," she said, placing a hand on top of Lili's, caressing the soft skin in the gap between her gloves and the suit's sleeve. "Are you sure you want to do it, though? You're burning up."

There was not a world in which Lili would have decided to let it go. Whether it was fueled by some petty need for revenge — or something deeper, even more personal than revenge — it didn't matter. Her anger stoked her. Her short fuse was always at the responsible end of each and every one of her bad decisions, which, of course, Lili would never admit were bad unless the outcome was really terrible. The heat of her anger, the quickening of her heartbeat once she heard his voice again... it was what set it in stone after she cooled down, like lava. Nothing would make her back out now.

"See if you can get any of the other girls to come with, and bring the truck. If this shipment is coming from the docks, it might be pretty large, so we're gonna need all of the help we can get. And leave soon, because I'm calling in a favor from Digger."

"Sure. Some of the girls are resting in the break room, so they'll come. I'll check in with the others, too, to see if any of them are free."

The girls, as Gabby had said, were Selina's personal army of young women who had come to Gotham City and, much like Selina and Helena, were down on their luck. They were girls who had hit a bad patch on their journey to whatever it was that they were looking for in Gotham. Girls who had been mistreated by fate and, possibly, by the people in their lives. Girls who had experienced poverty and cruelty and, much like Lili and Gabby, needed an outlet for the restlessness that it had brought forth. They all worked somewhat independently, but they also took care of each other. It was the closest thing they had to a real family.

And Lili knew they'd help her now. That they wouldn't even question it.

"Will you explain? Well, with as little detail as you can?" Lili asked, grabbing her helmet and hopping on her motorcycle — the first one out of the garage. "I have to get there as soon as possible."

Gabby nodded, and waved her off.

Lili didn't have much time. She didn't even have a plan. She assumed Jason was better off, because he had at least known the details beforehand, so he probably had a strategy all thought out and that he'd pass on to her, had she accepted the job. But she said no, and now she had to make do with second-hand information and a whole lot of luck.

But it was fine. It was more exciting that way.

She found Digger's line on her comms and nearly yelped with gratitude when he answered quickly. As the leader of the Dirt Knights motorcycle gang, it wasn't often that he was available to her every whim.

"Hey, Digger," Lili said, turning her voice into melted candy. She knew it was all it took to get Digger to say yes to whatever she asked of him. "Remember that favor you owed me?"

"Look who's calling so late at night," Digger said, in lieu of hello. "Say it, princess. What do you want?"

"Can you get your guys to block every road to Miller Harbor?" She asked, and listened as he hummed in agreement.

"Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. What are you up to?"

"Nothing much, just the usual... Stealing cargo. You know how it is." She said, "Look, I have to go, so... Just watch out for a guy in a black and red motorcycle, wearing a red helmet."

Digger hollered, "You mean the Red Hood? Didn't know you had business with him."

"Well, I don't. I'm stealing from him."

"Uh-oh..." He said, though his voice had a lilt of amusement.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I really have to go now, so I'll explain later, okay?"

Lili disconnected revving the engine and backing out so Gabby could drive out with the truck. Once she gave her the signal that she'd take the quickest road out to the harbor, Lili set off on the street, leaning against the dashboard as she increased in speed.

She maneuvered through the labyrinthine streets, her boots gripping the pedals as she weaved between vehicles, each turn and swerve calculated with precision. The neon-lit signs in downtown Gotham blurred into kaleidoscopic streaks as she raced, the city flashing past in a blur of asphalt and flickering lights.

Nearing the docks, Digger's motorcycle slowed next to hers. She looked over at him and he nodded, giving her the go-ahead. Lili picked up the speed and watched the bikers in the rearview mirror, swerving and stopping all the way across the street, like a barricade. She kept going, the sounds of the chaos caused by the bikers getting quieter with the distance.

Different from the rest of the city, the docks laid shrouded in an eerie stillness. There were five ships moored at the harbor, but only one of them seemed to have been guarded, with its cargo already unloaded — a single large container without any markings that might have identified its contents.

Lili spotted Gabby discreetly waving her over even before she braked. She jumped off her motorcycle and ran towards the gap between two of the smaller vessels. In the shadows, she could spot the subtle movements of the girls Gabby had called in for help. They perched in the dark like predators, ready for an ambush.

"We took care of most of the security," Gabby explained, gesturing towards an unconscious body on the ground. It was a rugged man who looked about 40 years old, with dirt streaked on his face and a bleeding gash on his forehead. There was a cracked mask laying next to him, in the shape of a skull.

"They worked for Black Mask?" Lili asked, and Gabby gave her a look.

That was just perfect. Not only did she have Jason hot on her trail, she'd also have to deal with Black Mask's gang. Two of the guys who hated each other the most, and she was in the middle of that.

She had been wondering when things would start getting interesting.

"I thought you knew. But no, not all of them did. This one was taken out by some guy working for the Red Hood. We took care of that one." Gabby pointed at a man tied up with a grappling line, also unconscious.

"Shit. They were here already?" she asked. "Well. It doesn't matter."

"Just a few of them. I haven't seen him here yet, so I think we beat him to it," she explained, leading Lili towards the container, where two of the girls they worked with had been trying to pick the lock on its chain.

"Thank you, girls," Lili said, taking her lockpick from her utility belt. "Bring the truck closer and be ready for when I call to unload the cargo, because we'll need to get out of here very quickly."

With that said, Lili crouched and began fiddling with the lock. Cautiously, she pressed the metal on each pin, feeling for the moment it stuck. Her focus was unwavering, her hands moving with a fluid precision as she delicately manipulated the lock, coaxing it open through a dance of finesse and patience.

The air held its breath, the world around her muted in anticipation as the lock surrendered to her skillful manipulation, the metallic clicks of tumblers falling into place were the only sound in the night. With a subtle twist, the mechanism yielded, and Lili opened the container.

Inside, there were about fifty crates stacked with vials about the size of her ring finger, each of them containing a semi-transparent, milky liquid. Lili lifted up some of the crates to see if she could find a name for what she was stealing, but there was nothing. All she knew was what Jason told her: it was some kind of chemically enhanced drug.

Outside, Gabby whistled in warning, right before the roar of motorcycles and the crack of assault rifles filled the air.

The girls ran inside the container as bullets rained down on them, rattling against the metal. Dutifully, they started picking up the crates and passing them to the girls inside the truck.

By the amount of bullets and the speed at which the shooting was dying down, Lili assumed there weren't a lot of armed men waiting for them outside. Gabby peered into the container and Lili kept passing out the crates.

"Black Mask?" Lili inquired.

"About a dozen of his men, but there are some of Red Hood's men out there too, though they started fighting each other. Oh, and the Knights."

"That's good," Lili said, though she suddenly wondered if Jason had given them orders not to attack her and her girls. If he had told them to distract Black Mask's henchmen so she could get away unscathed.

As if he thought she was doing him a favor and he had to repay her somehow.

If that was what he was thinking, then he was dead wrong.

As soon as the container was empty, the girls piled into the truck and Gabby gave them the signal for the driver to hit the pedal. Lili hopped on the back, holding the doors open just enough to see Jason arriving late, caught in the crossfire. She blew him a kiss and waved like a pageant queen before pulling the doors shut, much to everyone else's confusion.

Suddenly, the only sound at the docks was the truck tires skidding on the asphalt, and the cackle of the girls' laughter at the gunsmen confusion.  

note

helloooooooo hey hey hey!! so... this is a bit delayed but to be fair i wrote it like three weeks ago and forgot to publish it lmao so this was supposed to have been up much earlier HOWEVER... better late than never right? anyways, this is just like a somewhat introductory chapter to what's really going to happen and it might not seem like it now but hopefully later i'll be able to convey how something that happens here is what kicks off everything else.

hope u guys liked it <3 mwaaah thanks for reading