Chapter Text
September 18, 2017 - Marymount High School
"Ah, finally," Cindy Moon stretched her arms over her head in relief, "Man, I thought White had us, lucky Dave was also on his phone, huh Licia."
Felicia Hardy let a bubble of laughter leave her lips as the two girls exited the private school, "Yeah, that was a stroke of luck,"
Cindy's face morphed into a grin as the pair walked down Sunset Boulevard, chatting and laughing loudly, their matching uniforms identifying them as Marymount students.
"Hey, you never told me why you left New York," Felicia commented as the two stood in line at an ice cream parlour, "Did you realise the West Coast was superior?"
"As an East Coast born and bred, I am insulted," Cindy's face hardened with faux disgust, "Nah, New York got way too dangerous, alien attacks and crazed supervillains made my parents more adamant about moving to the other side of the country,"
"So, the Avengers," Felicia continued, "Have you met them? They're sorta myths here in L.A., well, at least Tony Stark is,"
"I think you've met them more than I have," Cindy rolled her eyes, "No, I've only ever met Spider-Man, pretty cool dude, saved my life in Washington D.C. during an Academic Decathalon excursion,"
Felicia pouted, "Hey, I've met Stark twice and let me tell you, I am insulted that I'm compared to him,"
"What? Talking about 'Party Hardy'?" Cindy laughed at Felicia's ridiculous nickname, "I'm kidding, but seriously, you have to admit, that reputation of yours is insanely similar to Tony Stark's,"
"In what way?" Felicia asked sarcastically, "That I'm a super-wealthy, popular, playgirl-like teenager who attends the top private school in Los Angeles? Yeah, I think I got that from the 'Mini-Tony Stark' nickname the media also gave me,"
"If only they knew that Party Hardy spends her free time watching Star Wars with her little brother instead of partying," Cindy lamented dramatically, "And that she's worried about failing school,"
Felicia playfully hit Cindy on the arm, "That's enough outta you, scholarship kid, what do you want?"
"Well, I won't say no to a mint choc,"
"Predictable," Felicia's lip curled into a smirk, "One Mint Chocolate Madness and one Strawberry Surprise,"
"Predictable," Cindy mocked with a laugh, "So, there's gonna be a party this Friday, you coming?"
"Can't," Felicia replied as she was handed the two ice creams, "I have a movie night with my brother, we're gonna watch Clueless,"
"You think Amadeus wants to watch Clueless?" Cindy asked with a quirk of her eyebrow, "Wow, I didn't know you tortured him like that, c'mon Licia, we're sophomores, once we hit Junior year we're not going to have any time to let loose like this, pretty please, I'll even introduce you to some cute boys,"
"You've been in L.A. for like two months, and we go to an all-girls school," Felicia raised an eyebrow as she licked the pink ice cream, "How on earth do you know any 'cute boys'?"
"Secret," Cindy winked, "Please, Licia,"
"I've been to parties before," Felicia screwed her face up in disgust, "I've been to enough parties to last a lifetime,"
"But never to a teen party," Cindy pouted, "You've been to rich people parties where people act nice, and like respectable humans, at teen parties, you get to have fun!"
"There's no way my dad will agree,"
"I've met your dad, he's the type to push you to go,"
Felicia groaned, knowing what Cindy said was true.
"Please,"
Felicia caved, "Fine, this is peer pressure by the way,"
"Yay!" Cindy squealed, "You won't regret it, you know, you remind me a lot of a friend of mine from New York, her name was Liz Toomes, and she threw the most amazing party last year, but then her dad turned out to be a supervillain named The Vulture and almost killed Spider-Man, so she moved,"
"And in what way do I remind you of her?" Felicia asked, her body becoming defensive at the mention of a criminal father.
"She was super nice and sweet and like literally the whole school had a crush on her," Cindy giggled, "She was also captain of my AcaDec, so that's how I knew her,"
"Oh," Felicia's body relaxed, "Cool,"
"Anyways, you need to go home now or can we hang out some more?" Cindy asked as they passed waited at the bus stop.
Felicia's brown eyes caught sight of a familiar sleek silver car in the distance driving down Sunset Boulevard and turned to Cindy regretfully, "Actually I think I need to go home,"
Cindy pouted in disappointment, "Don't know what I expected, tell your mum I said hi,"
"You've never even met my mother,"
"Your mother is my idol," Cindy's eyes twinkled, "Helen Cho is one of the smartest people on the planet, and she's a woman, she's what led me to go into science and technology, and I'm friends with her daughter, it's like a dream come true,"
"Sure, I'll tell my mother you said hi," Felicia tried not to burst out in laughter as the car pulled up along the sidewalk, "See you tomorrow, Cindy,"
"Bye Licia,"
September 18, 2017 - Hardy Penthouse
Walter Hardy was a lot of things. He was the CEO and founder of the Hardy Foundation. He was a self-made billionaire who hailed from the wealthiest city in China; Shenzhen. He was the father of two children; Felicia and Amadeus. He was married happily for 17 years to scientific genius Dr Helen Cho.
And he was a world-renowned gentleman thief who went by the name 'The Cat'.
Of course, no one knew, especially not his beloved wife or his beautiful children (but he had suspicions that his first-born; Felicia, did know and had never brought it up) and Walter had given up his thieving nature a while before. As far as anyone was concerned, 'The Cat' had retired for good, and his two-decade-long career of robbing banks and swiping one-of-a-kind valuables began in Shenzhen and ended in Los Angeles.
Walter looked out the skyline windows to see a silver car enter the garage and grinned.
Ah. Felicia was back.
It took less than five minutes for Walter to hear his daughter's footsteps enter the living room of the Hardy Estate and chuck her bag on one of the perfectly kept white leather couch, running to the kitchen and yelling a "Hey, Dad," as she passed.
Sometimes, Walter worried how much she took after him.
While physically, there was no way you could mistake Felicia as anyone other than Helen's child (her face shape, wide, coffee coloured eyes, dark hair, and straight eyebrows; Felicia was almost the spitting image of her mother); everything from Felicia's personality to her love of chaos perfectly mimicked Walter's own and it terrified him to know that if he didn't keep a close enough eye on her, she'd end up a thief like him.
Walter's second-born, Amadeus, resembled him a lot with a squarer face shape, smaller eyes, strong jaw and thinner smile but bore a very strong similarity to his mother with his quieter demeanour and more academic reputation. Of course, Amadeus was only 12, but Walter had little to worry about when it came to Amadeus Hardy.
"Dad!" Walter heard Amadeus' voice call up the stairs from the garage, signalling his return from school as well, "Stop jiejie* from entering the kitchen,"
Too late. Walter's head turned to see Felicia perched on a bar stool, a vicious cat-like smirk plastered on her lips as she held a slice of cake in one hand and a silver fork in the other.
Ah, so that was why she had rushed to the kitchen after returning home — what a devious daughter he had raised.
Amadeus had entered the living room and saw Felicia take a bite of the cake and Walter could have sworn his son was about to chuck his school bag at his sister.
"Jie!"
"What?" Felicia asked, smirk still tugging on her lips, "I'm just eating,"
"I called dibs on the last slice of cake," Amadeus whined as he opened the fridge, "Come on, Felicia!"
Felicia shrugged, "I don't see your name on it,"
"I said I wanted it, though!"
"Hm, I don't remember you mentioning it," Felicia hummed taking another bite of cake.
"What else did you take?" Amadeus demanded, head still looking around the fridge.
"That strawberry swirl chocolate bar," Felicia replied with a wide grin as her younger brother groaned, "Last time I checked, the kitchen was a communal area, and the fridge was a free-for-all,"
Walter smiled in amusement as he watched his children's antics.
"The moment you two return, our home sounds like a circus," Helen's amused voice broke into the siblings' fight, "What's going on this time?"
"Licia took the last slice of cake!"
"Felicia?" Helen raised an eyebrow at her daughter, "I thought you two had agreed Deus was getting the last slice yesterday,"
Felicia smiled innocently, "I guess I forgot, sorry eomma**."
"Don't apologise to me, apologise to your brother,"
"Sorry Deus,"
"Whatever," The young boy grumbled as he moodily made his way to his room.
Helen gave Felicia a flat look, one that Helen commonly gave their first-born which made Felicia sigh and cave in.
"Alright, I get it, I'll go comfort him like a big sister, Jesus, it's like I'm a monster or something!" Felicia huffed, setting the plate of cake down on the table and following after her younger brother.
"Sometimes I wonder where Felicia gets her chaos from," Helen sighed as the two teenagers left the kitchen, "And then I remember that I married you,"
"But you found it classy in me," Walter shot his wife a cheesy wink which made her smile.
"It was very attractive in the body of a young Chinese billionaire, but not so much in the body of a teenage Chinese-Korean-American heiress whom I gave birth to," Helen shot back with a roll of her eyes, "She was such a troublesome child, I had hoped she'd grow out of it, but she only blossomed into a troublesome teenager,"
"But there's a hope that she'll grow to be a mature adult?"
"No," Helen sighed hopelessly, "According to your mother, she'll grow to be a troublesome adult, there is no hope for her anymore,"
Maybe Walter's genes were a little too strong in Felicia. He had the feeling he'd doomed her from the moment she was conceived and doomed her further when she caught him in full 'The Cat' garb when she was five.
"Hey, dad." Felicia's head popped into the living room again after a while, "There's a party this Friday and Cindy wants me to go, can I?"
"Go ahead," Walter answered, "But be back before curfew or at least call us if you're staying at Cindy's,"
"Cool, love you,"
Perhaps, Walter didn't have to worry too much about Felicia.
September 22, 2017 - Hardy Penthouse
"Cindy, stop squirming, or I'm going to poke your eye with this mascara wand," Felicia threatened, waving the tube of mascara away from Cindy's Korean features, "Seriously, how am I the calm one right now,"
"Sorry," Cindy bit her lip and relaxed, "Ryan said that a bunch of Caltech students were going and I don't want to seem babyish, you know?"
Felicia rolled her eyes, "I get it, you wanna seem older than you are, I told you to leave it to me,"
"Thanks for letting me borrow one of your dresses,"
"Anytime Cindy,"
Felicia felt oddly at ease as she curled Cindy's hair and then her own.
" There—" Felicia's red-stained lips curled with pride, "—Cindy Moon, you no longer look like a high school sophomore,"
Cindy turned to face the full body mirror that was fixed on the wall of Felicia's walk-in wardrobe as the Hardy heiress took a moment to admire her work.
Cindy's long, silky, dark brown hair had been curled and twisted into a low, messy bun and, with the use of the extensive makeup collection Felicia had collected, her facial features had been manipulated to make her seem older than she was. If Felicia had to guess Cindy's approximate age, she'd think the Korean-American was at least a high school senior which was a pretty fantastic job if Felicia had anything to say about it.
"Are you sure I can borrow this dress?" Cindy asked nervously, "I don't think I've ever worn anything this expensive in my life,"
"I'm sure you can borrow it." Felicia's lip quirked into a half-smile, "It looks way better on you than it does on me anyway,"
Cindy bit her lip and returned to her reflection. The dress Felicia had lent her was a simple-looking, v-neckline, halter dress made of a navy blue silky material that barely grazed her knee; still, it was a little more modest than how Felicia looked with her shorter black hair that had been hiked up into a curled ponytail and her makeup a lot more western than the softer Korean-style makeup she had done on Cindy and the forest green dress that she wore. At the same time, also a halter dress was almost entirely backless and had a long keyhole that ended just under her bust, and a flared out skirt that reached her mid-thigh.
"I'd say we're ready to go," Felicia grinned as she fastened the pair of diamond drop earrings in her earlobes and slipped on a pair of forest green ankle strap heels, "If Deus makes a snarky comment at you, it's because he's bitter that he never gets to go anywhere after dark,"
"Ok?"
Felicia dragged Cindy out of her bedroom and out into the living room where her father and brother were (Felicia's mother was working late, which was bad luck on Cindy's behalf).
"You look like a Valley Girl," Amadeus commented after a glance away from the T.V.
"Where do you think we live, Deus?" Felicia shot back, "Bye dad, I'll keep you updated, and I'll call Lewis if I need a ride,"
"I'll see about that," The Hardy patriarch replied without looking up from his laptop, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do,"
"Sure, I'll make sure to spill drinks on the love of my life," Felicia teased her father as she pushed Cindy towards the garage, "Goodnight,"
"Bye Amadeus, Mr Hardy,"
"Have fun,"
"Your parents are insanely cool," Cindy laughed as she sat next to Felicia at the back of the same car that dropped her off and picked her up at school, "Shame I couldn't meet your mum today though,"
"My mum's always busy," Felicia shrugged, "Just bad luck,"
Cindy hummed in agreement, "So, tonight, we're just gonna have fun and meet people,"
"Duh," Felicia beamed, "Ah, it's been forever since I've been around other kids my age at a party,"
"Oh, is there a story behind this,"
"Kinda." Felicia scrunched her nose up in thought, "When my family went to rich people gatherings, their kids were usually snobby and entitled right? Like we visited New York once because my mum used to work for Tony Stark and two families who are on similar standings with the Hardys are the Thompsons and the Osborns,"
"Go on,"
"The Thompsons had one son, his name was something stupid- I think it was Eugene and—" Cindy choked at the mention of Eugene Thompson, "—You know him?"
"Eugene Thompson? Yeah, he was in the same class as me in Midtown," Cindy explained, "He goes by Flash Thompson now though, yeah, he's a jerk,"
"Wait, he goes to Midtown? But he's so dumb,"
"His parents have a lot of influence," Cindy explained, "What about him?"
"Well I met him at a charity ball, and he was douchy," Felicia rolled her eyes, "The Osborns' son, on the other hand, Harry was pretty similar to me though,"
"In what way?"
"He was sarcastic, charming and wore an innocent mask over a bored demeanour," Felicia recalled fondly, "He was a pretty cute kid as well,"
"Aww, did wittle Fewicia have a cwush on Harry Osborn?" Cindy teased as Felicia stuck a tongue out at the other Asian girl.
"Shut up, but yes, twelve-year-old Felicia was romantically attracted to Harry,"
"Little Felicia sounds like she could be my best friend,"
"Regular Felicia is already your best friend," Felicia swatted.
"But regular Felicia's love life is non-existent," Cindy joked, "Maybe after tonight Cindy Moon will finally be able to help regular Felicia snag a boyfriend,"
"We'll see," Felicia winked, "How much longer Lewis?"
"Excellent timing, m' lady, we just arrived." Lewis made eye contact with Felicia through the front mirror as Cindy got out of the car, "Felicia, it's nice to know you still haven't forgotten to have fun now and then,"
"Stop being sentimental, Lewis," Felicia pouted, "I'll get sentimental too, keep an eye out for a text from me or something, kay?"
"Of course,"
"Hey, Licia, you coming?"
"Just a sec," Felicia called out, exiting the silver car as well, "See yah, Louie,"
When Cindy told Felicia that she was going to take her to a high school party, Felicia expected a house party held in a suburban house in the outskirts of Los Angeles. Felicia did not expect a huge party held in a mansion that could rival her the one her family owned in Shenzhen. There were multiple pools, and hundreds of teenagers inside the mansion and sudden Felicia realised just exactly why Cindy wanted to seem older.
"Cindy Moon, you better not make me regret this," Felicia whispered to herself as she walked up the pathway towards the massive front doors.
Without hesitation, Cindy pushed the doors open and entered the mansion, ignoring Felicia's look of confusion.
"Time to find the host," Cindy explained cheekily as she pulled Felicia through the mansion as though she had been there before, "And then we can truly have fun,"
"And you know the host?"
"Uh-huh, so do you,"
Felicia's eyebrows furrowed in confusion before coming to a conclusion she didn't want to accept, "Don't tell me—"
"Yep," Cindy smiled guiltily, "Surprise,"
Sheryl Johnson. A fellow student of Marymount and the school's resident popular girl who started the entire 'Party Hardy' rumour back when they attended middle school together. Sheryl was insanely jealous of what Felicia had, which wasn't very something that benefited Felicia since Sheryl did have a sizable amount of power in society.
If Sheryl found out that Felicia attended one of her parties, that would generate so much material for her to use on Felicia.
"Nope," Felicia hissed at Cindy, "You can greet the host, but I refuse to, try and find me later,"
And with that, Felicia snuck up the stairs and tried to blend into the party.
What Felicia quickly discovered was that she didn't know a single person and she had the sneaking suspicion that the people she had just tried to mingle with were college students.
Drunk college students.
"Hey." Felicia tapped on the shoulder of a girl with short silver hair, "Do you know where the bathroom is?"
The girl pointed to a door on the other side of the room in response.
"Thanks," Felicia muttered as she squeezed her way across and towards the bathroom.
As Felicia's hand hovered over the bathroom handle, she felt a wave of cold chills splash down her back and turned to see who's gaze could make her react like that before her senses were overwhelmed.
Someone had pressed onto her, their significantly larger hands grasped onto her thin wrists and Felicia's sight was filled with the view of a chest covered with a dark blue fabric and her nose breathed in the scent of alcohol and then she panicked.
The guy was drunk, much larger than her, and now pushing her into the bathroom against her will and fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
"Let go of me!" Felicia demanded, "Help!"
Useless. The music was too loud, and her cry for help only led to the grip on her wrists tightening and her arms being pulled over her head. Felicia squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the impact of any kind.
"Hey Rap," A lilted male voice cut in, "C'mon man, don't be a perv, you're drunk, and she doesn't want it,"
With a grumble, the much larger man — 'Rap' — let go of Felicia's wrist and left the bathroom.
Without the college man holding her up anymore, Felicia collapsed onto the bathroom floor lifelessly and curled into a fetal position, head resting on her bare legs in shock.
"Are you alright?" Her saviour asked, crouching down to Felicia's eye level.
"Thank you," Felicia croaked out, feeling hot tears sliding down her face, "You have no idea how grateful I am, I—"
"Hey, it's fine," He denied, "I'm more concerned about you, that was a pretty traumatic experience, do you have friends around,"
Felicia finally raised her head to see the man who had saved her. Fluffy brown hair and concerned chocolate coloured eyes and— oh wow, was this what an angel looked like?
"Who- who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Ryan, Ryan Archer," He introduced himself, "That big guy's called Rappaport, he's not a bad guy, he's just completely wasted and horny,"
"Ashley Moon," Felicia lied between her teeth, "I came here with my sister Cindy, but I guess I got lost,"
"Cindy Moon, huh?"
Felicia's smile hardened slightly, "No, that's my sister, my name is Ashley,"
"Liar," Ryan smiled as well, "I know Cindy, she doesn't have a sister, but she did say she was going to bring a friend, I suppose that's you?"
Felicia's smile dropped from her face, "Felicia Hardy, a pleasure to meet you,"
"Pleasure's all mine, Felicia Hardy,"
October 29, 2017 - Ryan Archer's Apartment
Felicia woke up to the familiar white ceiling of Ryan's apartment, but that was when the familiarity ended.
She was sore all over, she could barely move her legs, and her memory was fuzzy. What happened last night? Where was Cindy? Where was Ryan? It was cold.
Felicia looked down at her legs, bruises were littered down in the inside of her thighs and— oh shit, she wasn't wearing underwear.
What happened?
She was sleeping over at Cindy's, and then Ryan asked if they wanted to visit his place next door and play games as they had done every time Felicia came over. And then he ordered pizza.
And that was all Felicia remembered.
Felicia had a sneaking suspicion of what happened after.
Her simple black bra was laying on the floor of Ryan's bedroom but next to it was a note.
Hey Felicia,
You made me wait too long, I couldn't control myself, every since we first met you wanted me didn't you?
Don't worry about Cindy, when she passed out I carried her back to her apartment; but you looked so perfect: drugged and delirious on my bed I couldn't help it
You liked it didn't you?
I have classes today but don't worry, I'll be back at 3 for more
Don't wait long,
Ryan
Disgust and hurt overwhelmed Felicia's senses as she dropped the piece of paper.
Why? Why had he done that?
He was the one who had saved her from almost getting raped at Sheryl's party back in September so why did he—
"Ha, ha, Ryan, this is funny, but Halloween isn't till Tuesday," Felicia called out, hoping— praying it was all a prank, "No need to scare me,"
No answer. It was real.
The pain and hurt Felicia felt bubbled in her stomach until it changed into something else.
Anger. Pure, unadulterated anger coursed through Felicia's veins.
He was a college freshman, and she was a high school sophomore... and he had raped her.
She felt sick.
Felicia looked up at the alarm clock. 2:30 PM.
Felicia wasn't going to wait for an answer; she already had one. She was going home.
Ryan had just proved the one thing Felicia knew deep in her gut. Men — especially teenage boys — were animals and they needed to be tamed, and boy was Felicia going to get her revenge.
Felicia was going to make Ryan beg on his hands and knees in front of her. He was going to beg for mercy, beg for his life, beg for forgiveness. The sheer thought of the man who had defiled her acting like a tamed animal shot chills of excitement up Felicia's spine.
Was she going to be merciful? No. Was she going to spare him? No. Was Felicia Hardy ever going to forgive him?
Absolutely fucking not.
She knew what she was going to do. Dangerous animals deserved to be put down, did they not? Felicia Hardy was going to do society a favour and put. him. down. perhaps publically.
Oh, what fun. It seemed like Felicia had a pet project now.
The rational part of Felicia's brain told her 'no'. If she went through with it in such a public manner, people might take pity on Ryan, and we don't want that now, do we? So Felicia had to be sneaky and take his life without anyone realising she was the culprit. Which meant no one could link any motive to Felicia. Which meant what he had done to her would have to remain their little secret.
Good. Felicia didn't want anyone else knowing how weak and useless she was last night.
And when she made Ryan Archer's blood spill, no one but her would know what she was last night.
A victim.
Felicia Hardy was not a victim.
March 26, 2018 - E. California Boulevard
If Walter Hardy didn't question anything when Felicia asked if she could use the private gym, then Felicia Hardy wasn't going question why her father's private gym focused on acrobatics and martial arts.
"Have fun," Walter had told a slightly star-struck Felicia as he gave her to keys to the gym, "I have a feeling you already know why it's like this,"
And yes, Felicia did indeed know, but that wasn't the point. The point was that the equipment in the private gym was perfectly suited to Felicia's kamikaze mission and she knew she was going to have a lot of fun and spend a lot of time in this room.
But that had been months ago, and at the sacrifice of a lot of Felicia's free time, she had developed strength all over her body that could rival a full-grown man's.
(Or a superhero's)
She was no longer a sophomore; Felicia Hardy was half-way through her junior year of high school (which, yay!) but that meant something else.
That meant that four months, three weeks and five days ago, Felicia Hardy had been plotting her revenge and four months, three weeks and five days after Ryan Archer had put his filthy hands on Felicia, he would die at her hand without a single soul knowing the truth of the crime.
"Felicia, I have no idea why the hell we travelled 12 miles to get bubble tea, there's like twenty stores in Downtown L.A., why are we in Pasadena?"
Oh yeah, Felicia had brought Amadeus as her alibi.
"What are you talking about?" Felicia batted her eyelashes innocently, "I'm here because this is the closest Tpumps,"
"Cut the bullcrap Licia; you hate Tpumps, you say you always have to wait forever,"
Yeah, Felicia hated the lines at Tpumps. Still, the bubble tea place was a six-minute walk to Caltech and also Ryan's stomping ground, especially when he was stressed, and Felicia knew he'd be pretty stressed nowadays.
"I thought you liked Pasadena," Felicia commented as they waited at the traffic light.
"Normally I would jump at the chance of going to Pasadena," Amadeus admitted, "But not now, there was a literal alien attack in New York like a week ago, how are you so unbothered by this!"
"The Avengers will sort it out," Felicia shrugged, "I mean, wasn't Stark on the news yesterday, and there were also spottings of the rouge Avengers in Europe or something,"
"Aren't you scared?"
Felicia shrugged, "Nothing terrible has happened to our corner of the world after Tony Stark left, I think we're good,"
She looked back up across the street to look at the bubble tea place and grinned widely. Perfect.
Then things started going wrong.
There was a ringing in her ears, and her body felt like dead weight. Something wasn't right.
"Deus?"
Felicia's vision became fuzzy, was she crying?
She felt like white-noise — pins and needles all over her body.
And then?
Darkness.