章 68: Contingencies II

"That was an unsanctioned, unauthorized operation by rogue agents. Justice and disciplinary action were swiftly applied upon their capture." One of the other Johnson's said.

"Oh, cut the bullshit. You had the chance of a lifetime and botched it." She was tired of the games and she was tired of the amateur bullshit. "You all knew what Noir was capable off and you went in half-cocked and under armed you should have-"

"What the Hell were we supposed to do?" The other man exploded his face red. "Bring down the whole fucking building! Hundreds if not thousands more could have died!"

She felt bitter inside.

He was right of course but she couldn't stop feeling the bitterness. Leave it to the agency to grow fucking Heart now! Where was this when pregnant women were dying of crack or when armed guerrilla fighters raped their way through in installing banana dictators?

"You do what it takes. You finish the fucking-"

BANG!

The loud noise startled them all.

"ENOUGH!" Brown yelled. "If you don't have anything constructive to say then keep quiet. BOTH OF YOU!"

Mallory saw the other man relent and lean back in his chair while she rolled her eyes.

"Now if we are done with the psych profile we move on to the next topic." Brown said his gaze intense. The presenter sat down. "Mallory, please, your report."

She hated this.

Not because she was technically spying on Ryan but because of what she had to report.

"Ryan is doing well and as far as I can tell he is developing as a normal child for that age would. Homelander has…" and she hated to say admit this "…proven to be a competent parent. His approach to Ryan has been well thought out and in line with what would be considered a normal working parent. If anything I would say he is being somewhat strict." She paused and took a breath.

"He has restricted access to social media and the internet in general it seems Homelander wants him to have as little screen time as possible. His days are filled mostly with tutors trying to bring his academic level. Like every kid ever he both hates it and likes it. He'd rather play video games than do homework." She paused once again.

"Is he adjusting well to the new situation? Are they getting along well? Is he happy?" One of the old timers asked.

She knew what he was getting at. Can Ryan be used against Homelander or is he turning into him?

"He is adjusting as well as any kid could in this situation. His complaints about his father are" she really hated to say this "trivial in nature, typical of what any kid would have. Their overall relationship I would say is pretty good. I doubt any plans to turn him away from his would work at this point."

"And his powers?" This time Brown asked.

"He practices them regularly with Homelander. I'm sure you've all seen him break the sound barrier in under twelve seconds?" A chorus of nods was the response from the room. "He loves flying and likes to practice it the most. Homelander has put him through various training programs at Vought to help him control his increasing strength. He's undergoing combat training with Noir and speed training with A-Train he even spent a few sessions with Silver Kinkaid. He says Homelander makes him regularly do target practice with his laser vision." She couldn't help but smile at her next sentence. "Says he's better since his father is missing and eye."

"Hopefully that will be enough to keep the body count down." Brown said.

The rest of the room agreed with him and she did as well. Ryan was growing fast and so were his powers. She could barely compare him to how he was when they were together. Back then he could scarcely use his powers both because he was afraid of what he could do and because he didn't know how to do it.

Though it was also likely because he was now a year older and thus more grown up and stronger overall.

"We will have to adjust our contingencies to take him into consideration as well." Mallory didn't like the sound of that but knew it was necessary. While she couldn't see Ryan turning into his father it didn't mean that the boy wouldn't help his father whether it would be out of love or manipulation the possibility as still there.

"Anything else to report?" Brown asked pointedly.

"No." she said coldly. "Nothing else." That is all she will give them for now, not that there was much else to report, outside of Ryan's wish to attend school. But 'fuck them', she thought let the others earn their paycheck.

"Good. And the last thing on the agenda." Brown said moving things along. "We have an update on Compound-V research facilities across the globe. Becker take it away."

Ever since the idiot Homelander spread V around the globe to terrorist cells it was only a matter before countries got their hands on them and started their own research facilities.

"As discussed in our last presentation out of the nations of concern China and Iran have managed to synthesize stable formulas and are approaching human trials if they haven't already started."

'What an imbecilic move that was.' She thought.

The idiot might have doomed them all.

God only knows what commies or the religious nutjobs will do with V.

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Author Note:

The Government being well the government. Both capable and incompetent.

Other countries progressing into V research. OG HL should have never spread V around the globe. It was only a matter of time before governments would get their hands on samples and try to recreate it. Long way to go until they get the magic juice right.

Mallory constantly being dragged back into the game. This time because of her relationship with Ryan.