#sneakybrittpierce

Mike set the pizza down on his coffee table next to the drinks and snacks that were also there. The American kind, he'd stuffed the plethora of Asian snack foods his mother always bought into the cupboard or the time being less he give Santana more material to play with. She was unrelenting enough as it was. Speaking of Santana's words, her comment about Hunter rang in his ears. Not that he really had any reason to think he was a torch-happy murderer, but considering the short list of people he actually trusted, he wasn't about to put anything past anybody. Hell, he was pretty sure he'd seen a girl he'd thought was dead for over a year, he didn't know what to believe or not believe anymore. No matter what, they needed more information and Hunter seemed to have it. He didn't know what was going to come from this but they were all in too deep now. Shaking his head slightly, he composed himself again as he made his way to his front door and threw it open. Looking at the person standing outside his door, he flashed them a small but welcoming smile. "Hey there, come on in. Make yourself at home."

Santana So for some weird reason, they were trying this again. The last time Santana and Tina had even attempted to make this happen, they'd walked into some freaky booby trap. Which either meant that A set them up like he'd said in the first place, or Hunter was A himself. And Santana was seriously hoping it was the first option. For some reason the two had been in communication more than Santana would ever have imagined, and he definitely had the whole "not being a sociopath" thing down. Santana just needed to figure out with the answers they were gonna get if it was an act or not. Santana approached the house in front of her, which Santana realized in that moment she honestly had never been inside. She'd dropped Tina off there plenty of times, but this was the first time she was actually going in there herself. Santana knocked on the door impatiently, crossing her arms while she waited for someone to open the door. Which was why she instantly stepped inside once Mike did. "Freaking finally," she mumbled under her breath, taking in her surroundings for the first time. The whole place screamed Asian, big surprise, but it wasn't like Santana hadn't seen stuff like this before. She was best friends with Tina, after all. Santana raised her volume as she shot a retort back in the direction of Mike, her eyes still traveling around the room. "I'm pretty sure the homey vibe was ruined the second you decided to invite a possible torch happy murderer to your house, but at least we have a few minutes."

Hunter pulled up to Mike's house, telling himself again and again that this was a good idea. That it had to be. Things had been far too quiet since Prom, especially since he was elected Prom King, and the fact that Quinn had been elected Prom Queen as too cruel of a joke to pin on any number of kids at McKinley. There had to be something else, something much bigger, behind it, and the fact that he'd been a part of it only told him that he was the next target. And if he was right, he had to be prepared. Either something was going to happen to him, or he was going to get out of here before anything good. Regardless of which way it ended up, though, he knew he wouldn't be around for much longer. And he just couldn't afford to handle everything he knew on his own anymore. He knocked once on Mike's door when he reached it, crossing his arms as he waited. He didn't like that he was going to be talking about this in front of anyone but Lopez, but if she was so confident in trusting these people, he supposed he could be, too. When the door opened, he glanced up, both eyebrows raised. "Don't look so happy to see me." He mumbled, shoving both hands in his pockets.

Brittany: Naturally, Brittany was pretty nervous about this whole scenario—especially after what happened to Santana and Tina. But at least this time she was here and if anything happened, she could do something about it. She'd felt so helpless about what happened to her best friends, but this time she didn't have to be helpless. Brittany stayed pretty quiet when she arrived, wary of Hunter but not entirely distrusting. At least Santana and Tina were here, and since Tina seemed to trust Mike quite a lot, Brittany had a propensity to trust him. Not as much as she did Tina, but more than she would have if there wasn't such a connection. "Hey Mike, San..Hunter." Despite the pause, her tone was neutral. She didn't dislike him—she was just uncertain of what to think of him.

Mike wasn't surprised by Santana's greeting in the least. As usual she was charming as ever, and as usual he humored her. She was one of Tina's best friends so that had to mean she had a redeeming side. At the very least she was bringing him into the fold so that was something. "There's no certainty that he is a torch-happy murderer, that's what we're hoping to find out here. Remember?" He said, trying to bring her down a few notches. She was intense and if that rubbed Hunter the wrong way, then they either offended their only lead or a possible murderer. Neither worked in their favor, so civility would be nice. Leaving Santana to attend to the door, he held his breath a bit when he saw it was Hunter. At the comment he let it go, feeling a bit guilty at that. "Sorry, tough crowd in here." He said, nodding towards Santana. "Come on in." Letting Brittany in through the door as well, he flashed her a small smile. "Hey Brittany, make yourself at home." Already he could tell all of them were a bit more on edge and this was bound to be an awkward and interesting meeting. He just hoped Tina would show up soon. She was always good at getting people to gel, and more than that he just really needed her around.

Tina finally arrived at the house a while later, cursing herself for running a bit late when she had actually planned on being the first one there. At least then she could diffuse any potential situation that could arise. After all, Tina knew all too well how impulsive Santana was and didn't want the latina to do anything to jeopardize their mission here. Tina knocked at the door a few times before Mike finally opened it a small while. After giving Mike a brief greeting hug and kiss, she moved inside. "Hey, guys," she said, attempting a small smile. As she looked from Hunter to Santana to Brittany and then back to Mike, she knew it was quite the strange gathering that they were all having. But at the same time, she knew they all had reason for this to happen and she and the girls, along with Mike, didn't really have any other options.

Santana puffed her lips out slightly, shrugging at Mike without really having anything else to say about the whole thing. Sure, whatever, they didn't know anything, and Santana knew that even with the whole situation before, Hunter still was the closest chance any of them had to getting any kind of answers. So she was rolling with it, and because of her whole gut feeling that he wasn't who they should actually be afraid of. Santana heard the knock at the door, instinctively moving towards it to answer despite the whole it not being her house deal. But it wasn't like he was fighting it, she'd been the one texting Hunter this entire time after all, on the off chance it was him. Of course, as she suspected, there he was, in the flesh. Part of her was almost surprised that he'd actually shown up without all the gags, but she was also slightly relieved by the sight, even if she wouldn't let that read on her face. Santana gave him an up and down look, rolling her eyes at him once he shot the comment at her. "Get over yourself. We aren't here for any of that crap." Santana moved away from the door, giving him space to come inside, backing up from the door and making her way back over towards the living room area. Luckily, the whole exchange became a lot less awkward when Britt got there a few minutes later, instantly easing her weirdness about the situation as Santana moved instinctively to stand by Brittany. “Hey, Britt,” she started softly, shooting a small smile in her direction. All it took was Tina getting there to officially diffuse the room, and Santana was glad when she finally arrived too. With her girls there, she was way more at ease, but it didn’t mean she wouldn’t keep her guard up. She greeted Tina briefly before crossing her arms again as she moved in the direction of where she assumed they were gonna sit around the pizza on the coffee table. Santana crossed one leg over the other, keeping her arms crossed and looking up at all of them, suddenly a bit anxious to get the whole deal started. “So are we doing this or not??”

Mike smiled, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw Tina finally arrive. Now they could really get started with this meeting. He returned her quick kiss, then locked the door behind her, deadbolt and all. Call it paranoia but considering how often A went after the people in his living room, he wasn't taking any chances, even if he did like to think he was safe in his own home. "We're doing this." He added, crossing through the living room to take a seat next to Tina. He wrapped an arm around her, holding her close as if he could protect her from the world around her. He was learning more and more every day that he couldn't, but he wouldn't stop trying. He turned his attention to Hunter, who seemed to hold the most information and probably looked the most uncomfortable being there. The girls were best friends, and he'd known them for years as well, but Hunter was the newcomer with the dark past. You couldn't really blame them for being skeptical. At the same time, he knew what it was like to feel like an outsider and it wasn't easy. Still, his sympathy was limited until they learned more. Trying to meet up with Hunter is what had Tina walk into one of A's traps. "Why don't you start us off and tell us what you know?"

Brittany: softened a bit when she stayed near Santana, and knew that she couldn't really stay as tense as she had started out—she was generally a pretty easygoing girl and didn't see an urgent, immediate source of danger. Plus, though she wasn't sure about Hunter from what happened to Tina and San, he just didn't strike her as a bad person. Just imagining what it'd be like if it turns out he's completely innocent, to have people thinking he's a murderer—it made her empathize. So she stayed still and silent, observing and following obediently when everyone moved to sit down. Shooting a curious look towards Hunter, Brittany sat down next to Santana and clasped her hands in her lap, keeping them to one side so that her arm would brush San's. It calmed her to sit like that, and even though she was relatively calm, she still had a bit of jangled nerves she was dealing with. Brittany couldn't stand conflict, it terrifies her, and thus a situation like this made her nervous for that reason alone. Shivering slightly as a chill ran through her, she rubbed one hand up her other forearm in an attempt at generating warmth, and sat quietly with full attention directed at the former Warbler, to listen to what Hunter had to say.

Hunter took in all of the greetings at once, managing some sort of attempt at a smile and a nod towards Mike and Brittany, and then a sideways glare at Santana, sitting quietly across from the others in the room. "Fair enough." He agreed with Mike's suggestion, and straightened his back slightly. "Before I literally put all of our lives on the line, I just want to tell you all that there are just some things I can't disclose. Some for more selfish reasons than others, but trust me, if I can't tell you something, it is, in some way, in all of our best interests. And if you don't think you can trust me," his eyes moved to Santana's, "well, feel free to enlighten me with any other options you have." He offered, but didn't wait for a response before continuing. "Years ago, before any of this even started, I was more or less very closely involved with both Quinn Fabray and A. Not so much in a friendly way when it came to Quinn. I was doing favors for her, mostly. I suppose you could call it some sort of business endeavor, if you disregard the fact that my own personal issues were involved. Regardless, it ended up coming around and biting me in the ass when I betrayed A's trust under Fabray's instruction. Largest mistake of my life, really, considering how much they know about me." He quirked an eyebrow here, sighing. "Anyway. Things got worse. Quinn made everything personal. She screwed everyone over, including myself. She made empty promises, lied to everyone, backstabbed as many people as she had to in order to get to the top, in order to feel that power, and she did it all with a smile on her face. Even if you think you know her well, you wouldn't for a second believe some of the things she did." He swallowed. "That was the basis of the A team. It wasn't just A that wanted revenge, it was all of the people that Quinn had ever betrayed. They all wanted a piece of that vengeance, and not just on Quinn, but on anyone that had ever supported or helped her in any way. In A's eyes, you're guilty if associated. And maybe you won't believe me, but I never got involved. At least not directly. I'll admit to slipping information into the wrong hands countless times. That's what you all stumbled across when you went to Dalton, and found out about the NVT club. But I was never involved with any of the dirty work, because A already had it out for me. The trust was already broken." He paused, pressing his lips together. "A has a way of manipulating everyone that comes into their grasp. But me? I'm a personal case for A. That's why Dalton was torched. That was my warning. And when the shooting happened, I was meant to be on the body count. But I wasn't, and that only made it more of a challenge. That's why I was made Prom King, and that's why Quinn was made Queen. It wasn't a stupid joke, or to take away the crown from the praise-Jesus-hallelujah lesbian couple, or to make the 'pyro new kid' feel welcome. It was a threat, and that's why I had to tell you all of this, because I can't stay here any longer to take care of it myself." He told them. "You all have to."

Santana had to refrain herself from rolling her eyes in Hunter's direction with the dig he clearly threw at her, especially after everything that had gone on lately. Could he seriously blame her?! This so wasn't her fault, it's not like she didn't have a reason to not welcome Hunter with loving arms in the first place. Santana wasn't warm and fuzzy with basically anyone besides Britt. Even Tina got lip from her sometimes. But Santana's thoughts were interrupted as Hunter continued to speak. She'd wanted to butt in and blurt something out, but then he kept going, and the more he said, the more she felt herself slowly sinking into Mike Chang's sofa while chills simultaneously formed all over her body. As much as Santana wanted to question what he was saying, it actually did make a lot of sense. And if what he was saying was true, it mean the knew who A was. And what he was telling them could possibly be a major problem. But the last part is what really got to Santana. Santana stayed quiet for a lot longer than she would have normally, side glancing at Tina, Mike and then Britt before finally making eye contact with Hunter, her voice a bit more hesitant now. "What do you expect us to do about it?"

Mike listened intently as Hunter began his story. It was a lot to take in and wrap his head around. He didn't know Quinn particularly well, only from the people close to him who were close to her. However, he did know of her reputation, and it wasn't always so glowingly nice. That being said, he couldn't imagine what she could have done to piss someone off enough to start such an epic revenge plot again Quinn Fabray and everyone associated with her. This thing went all the way to murder. What was so bad that A was willing to kill for it, and who else was left on their list? Hunter for sure, and the three girls sitting next to him undoubtably. Santana's voice pulled him out of his own thoughts, it seemed her earlier bite and fire had quelled a bit. After all that information, he couldn't blame her. Looking over at Hunter he added, "She's got a point, and we can barely protect ourselves." Considering that all of them but Tina have managed to land themselves in the hospital. "What can we do to end this, and to help you?"

Tina was completely silent, taking in all of the information Hunter was giving them. And by the end of it, she was still confused a large deal. What all had Quinn done during this? She had known Quinn had power, that much was obvious, but she had never been quite aware that she had been involved in all the things Hunter was saying. She just had even more questions now and she worried she'd never get the answers to them. She pressed closer against Mike, frowning deeply. She glanced towards Santana when the normally-loud Latina spoke, nodding her head and doing the same with Mike. "They're right," she started. "A has gotten the better of all of us and, even with your information, I still feel like we're no closer to figuring out who A is. What can we do that you can't?"

Hunter glanced up when they started to react, and sighed when thy all asked him what they were supposed to do. "You all need to do exactly what I would do if I could. Find out who A is, and find a way to expose them before you expose anyone else. Trust me, I would love to just flat out tell you who's behind all of this." He sighed. "Because I do know who is." He admitted. "But if I tell you, it'll get around to them. And that means that either they get rid of me by killing me, which would mean a shit ton of information that can be used against A and Quinn would be lost, or they expose me and my past and get me put away in jail. And tell me: do you really think it would be difficult for the police to pin all these murders on me if I were already behind bars?" He asked. "Because it wouldn't be. And with the entire A team conspiring against me, it would only be that much easier for me to get framed. The only reason I haven't been framed yet is because to them, it's like a game. On top of the fact that I'm keeping quiet, so for right now, I'm not a threat." He set his jaw. "But no one, including me or anyone else who knows what I know, is innocent enough to expose A. That's why we all keep quiet. And that's why you all need to do something about it. Because you're all innocent enough that A can't pin it all against you. They have no proof to back it up with."

Santana would be lying if she said her head wasn't swirling. The whole thing was a roller coaster of emotions, from the Quinn stuff to what Hunter was saying now. Obviously it felt good to finally have someone other than herself prove how awful Quinn could be. There was a time that she used to care about her, and even follow her blindly like the rest of them, but she so ruined all of that. And clearly, Santana was right about Quinn, and had been this entire time. But then there was all this new Hunter info. Info that Santana admittedly, even if she wasn't usually about this whole deal, made her honestly feel bad for him. Obviously he'd done some stuff that was wrong, but he wasn't even lying about that. Which was what made this whole thing seem beyond true to her, for once. And it was seriously refreshing. It was weird that Hunter couldn't tell them who A was if he knew, but at the same time, he had a point with the whole motive crap. "You kept quiet until now," Santana mumbled quietly, before voicing herself more clearly, "So we're supposed to just go up against whoever this is when we have no idea where to even look?! I'm so down to get my hands dirty with whoever this freak is, but we need something to go off of."

Hunter leaned his forearms onto his knees. "Yeah. Until now. Until now, because I wanted to save your sorry asses." He told her, challenging her with a glare. He sighed then, shaking his head. "You don't get it, do you? You do have something to go off of. You three," he eyes the three girls, "all knew Quinn better than anyone. You could calculate who she liked and didn't like just by studying the look in her eye, correct? She only screwed over the people she wanted to. Narrow it down. Figure it out. If that's not enough for you, then I don't know what to tell you. Because if I told you right now, what I just explained is exactly what would happen. And if A is seen as innocent, that puts all of you at their mercy." He said, and then looked at all of them. "If one of you doesn't think that's a good enough reason, then by all means, tell me."

Mike looked down at Tina wit concern. He reached for her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze to remind her that he was here for her, he always would be. As confusing as this whole thing was, he knew it had to be a dozen times harder for Tina. Quinn had been her best friend, after all, as concerning as that friendship may be in this new light, especially if Quinn wasn't really dead. He wished Hunter would just tell them who A was, but it was clear he wasn't going to give any names. Considering his silence was probably what was keeping him alive and free he could respect that, but it didn't mean he was too happy about it. It was a messed up situation, and getting worse by the moment. He looked over at the other three as Hunter pointed them out. Did he really expect them to analyze every relationship in Quinn's life with a fine-tooth comb? Even if they did, that was still risky, especially if A's cronies got spooked by their snooping. "You keep mentioning the A team. Just how many people are we up against? Even if we try to expose A they've still got an army on their side." He was being more cynical than usual, but it was hard to find hope in a situation like this. Still, it was up to the girls to decide what they wanted to do.

Tina couldn't help but form a bit of a hardened gaze at Hunter's words. The three of them knew Quinn? Tina's eyes narrowed a little and she leaned forward. "We can try to do that as much as we want, but we probably /still/ wouldn't get close to knowing for sure," she countered before slowly leaning back. "That's the thing. We /thought/ we knew Quinn, but she kept so much from us. She knew all of our secrets, but she never dared to let us know any of hers. She kept us in the dark all the time and was careful to never let up on that. Even if we made a list of all the people we saw Quinn bully and started there, we'd be stuck on it forever." Tina sighed, running a hand through her hair, falling quiet again and eyeing Hunter carefully. She glanced towards Mike. "Mike's right. We need to know how much of a team we're dealing with here."

Hunter lifted an eyebrow when Mike asked how many people they were up against, and then sighed when Tina spoke up, as well. "What do you want me to do, then? Do you really expect that if I tell you, you can just go to the police with a name and it'll all be over and done with, and we'll all live happily ever after?" He asked, genuinely curious as to whether or not she really thought that would be how it would go down. "And as for the A team," his eyes went back to Mike when Tina agreed. "I can't tell you how many people there are, but that's only because I have no idea. I doubt the people who are actually on the A team even know." He shrugged, and it was the truth; he actually didn't know, and he had no idea who would.

Brittany: was admittedly pretty stunned by Hunter's words, her breath releasing in an indiscernible sigh that took the place of what may have been a quiet "wow". So Hunter knew who A was? The thought sent a shiver through her. She had been pretty scared about A lately concerning herself and the people she cared about, but she couldn't imagine living how Hunter must have to. He might not admit to being scared depending on whether or not he wanted to act fearless, but it really must be awful to have to live under such pressure. Feeling Santana next to her having a reaction to Hunter's words that was more external than Brittany herself, she tentatively let the side of her hand brush San's arm in a slight calming attempt that she wasn't sure was entirely wanted. But if it wasn't, she would stop. "Could clues from a member of the A team lead us to the identity of the leader?" was her quiet addition to the conversation as she tried to process the load of information that had just been exposed to them. It was a lot to take in all at once, honestly.

Santana felt herself nodding in agreement with Tina, her eye contact moving between her and Hunter, who still apparently had some attitude problem with her. No one knew what her deal was with Quinn, not even Tina or Britt, and Santana wasn't exactly gonna try to blurt that out to everyone now. She had her reasons for not wanting to trust people, she'd trusted Quinn, and Quinn beat that to death. She didn't plan on blindly trusting anyone again if she had a choice, especially not in Lima. "Please, we're not idiots. It's not like the police would actually do anything with it in the first place, why would they care about who some random is without proof that they did anything?! We need to get our hands on facts, stat. Because I'm done with feeling like we're all freaking puppets to either Quinn, or A." Santana knew it was obvious that she was on a short fuse about this whole thing, but after everything that already happened, she was pretty positive she had a right to be. She was just relieved when she felt Brittany's hand brushing up against hers, which was always a needed reminder that she hadn't lost everything. The gesture quieted Santana once again, causing her lace her fingers inbetween Britt's loosely, brushing them against Brittany's soft palm. As much as Santana hated to admit it, if Hunter seriously did know all of this crap, she had to be able to deal with him better than she had been. It was probably a good thing that Brittany was there. But as Santana sat there, a thought rose into her head once again causing her to perk up as she thought about what Hunter was actually saying. Why wasn't he gonna be helping them?! If he had people after him, Santana would think that if he seriously wanted to take A down, that he'd do it with them. And there was the whole thing about him not being able to stay that was even weirder. Santana felt her eyes narrow ever so slightly, suddenly feeling a need to once and for all clarify his reasons for telling them all of this. "But you're not helping us, are you?! You're running away."

Hunter turned his gaze to Brittany when she spoke up, and gave her a small, but genuine smile. "That's exactly what can lead you to A. But only if you have the right person." He said, and then looked over at Santana. "Good." He said when she told him they weren't idiots. "Then you shouldn't expect me to just give you the name. Because I'm not an idiot, either." He told her. When she spoke again, something curled low in his stomach, but he kept it tame with a deep breath, and ran a hand over his hair. "Yes. I'm running away." He shrugged. "Point that out all you like. But whether you like it or not, it's either that I leave, or I stay here and risk my neck. Either way, I won't be here. At least if I leave, I can still be in touch. Like I said. A has given me more than enough warnings. The second this meeting spreads around, which it probably already has, that'll seal it for me, and I'll be a dead man walking."

Mike squeezed Tina's hand again, frowning at the back and forth between her and Hunter. He cast a sideways at Santana who was being her usual hostile self, and while normally he ignored it, having grown used to it by now, it wasn't helping the situation. At least Brittany was here to take her down a notch. They still needed Hunter to want to keep in touch with them, especially if he was running away. A smart move on Hunter's part, get out of dodge as fast as you can was a good plan when your name was on a hitlist, quite literally it seemed. He would rather have him closer so they could keep tabs on him, but to be fair he was pretty sure they were all skipping town after graduation. As long as they kept in communication with each other he could deal with that, it'd probably be safer if they didn't meet up like this again anyway. Though, now that Hunter brought it up, he did wonder what would happen once A found out about this meeting. It seemed nothing was a secret from them, and that was a serious concern. At least Brittany seemed to be on track with what they had to do next, but that meant locking down one of their members. "Okay, so we know what we have to do. Who do we start with?" He asked, looking at the girls because, well, they were the ones who knew Quinn and had been looking into this from the start.

Brittany: nodded, a thoughtful look coming into her expression as she started to mull over Hunter's response. The little smile was noted as she thought things over—maybe she wasn't wrong to think he wasn't a bad guy, he seemed well-meaning enough. And it wasn't like she didn't understand why he had to leave. The danger of the A team's presence was all too present, and she figured it would be child's play for such an influential, practiced group of people to either kill him or set him up to go to prison. She gave San's hand a gentle, barely there squeeze, comforted by the little bit of contact. As much as her original intent had been to appease Santana, it also served to calm Brittany. They would have to be very careful with how they proceeded, she was sure of that. "And the A team can't figure out what we're doing..." she murmured, starting to fully realize how difficult of a task it would be. Dangerous, even. Glancing at Mike once he spoke, she made sure to listen for an answer to his question since she wasn't sure herself.

Santana didn't know how she felt about what Hunter had just said, but she knew she was gonna have to deal with it. They were lucky, or probably unlucky that they were getting all this info in the first place, so she didn't exactly have a choice. Did A seriously hate him as much as he thought they did?! One way or another, even if Santana knew there was a part of him that was still shady, she knew even more that she definitely didn't want him to die. "Fine. Do what you have to do, but you don’t get to abandon us, even if we’re all splitting up. We’re gonna need all the help we can get." Santana brought her attention over to Britt, looking at her for the first time since the conversation had began and leaning over to check on her. She'd been pretty quiet this entire time, and even if she knew it had to do with Hunter being there, she still wanted to make sure she was okay through all of this. Her small comment inspired Santana to speak up softly. Even if the comment was meant mostly for Britt, it also happened to apply to Tina and Mike, and to herself. She needed the reassurance just as much as any of them at this point. And maybe with weird Pyro Answer Boy on their side, as long as they were under the radar, they had a chance. “We've got this. We just need to seriously figure out an angle. I say we start with Berry, because there's clearly something weird going on with her."

Hunter let his eyes fall to the floor and kept them there for one, two seconds, before lifting them back up again and nodding. "If I get out of here in time, I'll be in touch. I don't know how often I will be, but I will be. That's something I can promise all of you." He said, now knowing if all of them were going to believe him or not. But honestly, it didn't matter too much at this point. Whether they believed him or not, they had their information and he was leaving. So it was either they trust him, and get to the truth faster, or they don't, and they fail. He'd have to leave that decision up to them.