章 7: Chapter 7
C 7
Marcus was sitting alone in the apartment that Vought had recently assigned him. Kara and Megan were just down the hallway in their own assigned rooms. This was an apartment building that primarily served Vought contracted Supes.
Madelyn Stillwell had told them all to rest for the night, but Marcus was feeling antsy. He decided to head outside and explore the nightlife in the city a bit.
Walking down the streets of New York, Marcus wasn't exactly sure where to go. He could admit that he was feeling a bit lost. His whole life he'd had that voice in his head he could always talk to and now it was gone.
Marcus's wings appeared behind him and he took to the air to fly around.
"Woah! It's a Supe!"
"His wings are so pretty!"
His wings naturally drew the eyes of any pedestrians nearby. Marcus gave them all a smile and a wave before he started flying. He probably could have invited Megan or Kara to come with him, but Marcus just wanted to have some time to himself for a bit.
He flew up high in the air and did something he'd always wanted to do. He flew over towards the Statue of Liberty and just plopped himself right down on top of her head. A quick wave of his hand magically cleared away all the bird poop up there first.
Marcus took a seat and just decided to enjoy the view by himself for a bit. This was the first time in his new life that he was truly alone for the first time and he just wanted to enjoy it for a bit.
…
Marcus sat up there for a few hours thinking about many things. Many of those thoughts centered on Vought. While the concept of corporate owned Superheroes didn't sound great, it shouldn't have been too bad either. The Supes would still have to hit their quotas and even if it was for fame and money, they would still be saving people.
There was one thing Marcus had heard from Madelyn though that disturbed him. After he signed the contract to work for Vought, Madelyn had told him that he would be the perfect hero for their young Christian audience. According to her, "Supes were created by God himself because he loved America." That was a "fact" in this world that everyone knew.
Marcus obviously knew that wasn't true.
This world had essentially been cut off from the majority of his grandfather's influence. Big G certainly wasn't going out of his way to create Supes of this world. Big G didn't even make the Meta Humans in their home Universe, so why would he have made Supes here?
Marcus at least had an objective for now. Find out where Supes in this world truly came from. If it was something nefarious, he would have to put a stop to it if he could.
…
Marcus was flying back towards his new apartment to turn in for the night when something drew his attention nearby. Bright and glowing orange in the distance, was an apartment building on fire!
Marcus flapped his wings hard to speed duplicate and zoomed towards it as fast as possible in case anyone was still inside! There was a gathering crowd of people on the streets below. He could see some people had burns and were covered in soot. They had barely escaped with their lives.
"Is there anyone else inside?" Marcus yelled out above the crowd. The people below all looked up and gaped at him. "Is there anyone still in there?" He yelled again.
"My friend Lisa is still in there!" A woman with a few burns on her arms yelled up to him. "She lives on the top floor!" She'd never seen this Supe before, but she was hoping he could save her friend.
He zipped up towards the top of the burning apartment building.
Marcus could hear fire truck sirens blaring only a few blocks away, but they weren't going to be in time. The flames felt incredibly hot and were spreading very fast. Marcus grimaced when he saw the bottom floors were already a lost cause. He doubted anyone down there was still alive. Hopefully Lisa stayed on the upper floors.
He took a deep breath and flew forwards into the burning building's top floor! The glass window he slammed into easily shattered and he made it inside.
…
"Hello! Is anyone here?" Marcus yelled loudly before coughing from all the smoke. The smoke was everywhere, and Marcus's eyes were tearing up from all the ash.
Marcus circulated his Light Energy through his body as he pushed through the apartment. It made it easier for him to breathe and withstand the heat.
"Help…" A very faint voice called out from behind a closed closet door. Marcus sped over towards it and ripped it off its hinges. Theresa, a young woman inside, had her face wrapped in a towel to help her breathe. Marcus scooped her into his arms and sped back towards the window with plenty of time to spare.
He took a deep breath of relief when he made it back to fresh air. Hovering in place with Lisa in his arms, Marcus asked, "Are you alright?"
She coughed violently. "I–I think I breathed in too much s-smoke," she rasped out with a struggle.
"Ambulances are on the way. I'll get you down to them," Marcus said as he started to float back down towards the cheering crowd. However, his instincts screamed at him to move, and he flapped his wings hard to the side just in time to avoid a burning hot torrent of fire from a nearby rooftop.
"Dammit!" Marcus heard the man who just tried to kill him curse. The man was dressed in a black cloak, and no discernible features were visible. "Don't get in my way, fucker!" he screamed, pointing both of his arms at Marcus.
Another torrent of fire was unleashed towards Marcus, causing panic among the people on the ground and Lisa in his arms. Once again, he leapt out of the way of the fire.
Marcus thought this world didn't have any supervillains, but clearly, that wasn't the case because he was facing one now.
He held Lisa tightly against him with one hand and conjured a Lightspear in his other. "Stand down, whoever you are!" Marcus said, pointing his spear towards the villain.
"Shut the fuck up and die, pretty boy. I'm not afraid of your glow stick!" The villain screamed and hurled more fireballs at Marcus.
"You should be!" Marcus yelled back and hurled the golden spear forward with all his strength. The villain's superhuman reaction time allowed him to dodge the spear, which slammed into the bricks behind him, punching a burning hole through them. The villain turned and looked at the burning hole in shock. "The fuck! That could have killed me! I'm out of here!" he declared.
"You're not getting away," Marcus called out, conjuring another Lightspear. He was loving his new reserves and felt like he could fight much longer than ever before.
"You can stop me, or you can save the normies below!"
Marcus's eyes widened when the cloaked villain created a massive fireball over his head and hurled it down to the spectating crowds below.
"Oh my god!"
"Run!"
"Noooooo!"
People were panicking and stampeding to get away, but there's no way they would all make it.
With everything he had, Marcus rapidly dove downwards and put himself in between the fleeing crowds and the fireball. Lisa was once again screaming loudly in his arms.
He threw a massive amount of Light Energy in front of himself. Almost all of his reserves sailed towards the huge fireball. He wasn't sure what he was even doing at that point. He just willed his power to snuff out the flames. To his relief, they did! His Light struck the villain's fireball, and the fireball seemed to wink out of existence.
Lisa and everyone else stopped screaming once that happened.
Marcus sighed in relief and started floating down towards the crowd. Firetrucks and ambulances were pulling up en masse.
…
Marcus landed back on the ground, and Lisa hopped out of his arms. She immediately bolted towards the nearest ambulance, not bothering to thank him for saving her, but Marcus didn't hold it against her. Clearly, she wasn't expecting to be thrown into the middle of a super-powered fight, and neither was he.
The firefighters stormed past Marcus, and many residents were being rushed towards the ambulances. The majority of people in the crowd, however, were all staring at him. At least a hundred people had gathered so far, and more were showing up every second.
Marcus raised his hand and gave everyone a wave. A bunch of people started clapping and cheering for him.
"That was awesome!"
"Way to go, handsome angel guy!"
"You snuffed out those flames like it was nothing! That was so cool!"
He had to admit, it felt a bit nice. Marcus could understand now why people wanted to be heroes. "Thank you, everyone. Everyone is out of the building, and I'll let the fine gentlemen of the fire department take over from here," he said as his wings spread out, and he prepared to leave.
"Wait!" A woman's voice yelled out loudly. A female reporter roughly pushed her way through the crowd and headed towards Marcus. She had a microphone in her hand, and a guy holding a large TV camera was following behind her.
She ran towards Marcus and held up her microphone. "I'm Tracy Coleman with CNN!" She said, hoping to get an interview with a never-before-seen supe.
Almost instinctively, Marcus almost flew away just from hearing her introduction. Then he remembered that he was currently in another world, and he didn't have to avoid reporters. "Hello, Miss Coleman. I'm—er—you can call me Nephilim. I recently signed a hero contract with Vought, but I can't state the details," he introduced himself.
She nodded at him. Pretty much every single supe was working for Vought or wanted to work for Vought. "Your name is Nephilim?" She asked while inspecting his wings. "It certainly fits." She said in admiration. The young man in front of her certainly looked like an angel. "So, Nephilim, what happened here? We got reports about a genuine supervillain attack in this location. Is that true? Do the American people now have to fear the possibility of super-powered villains?" She asked. Her voice was laced with worry, playing it up for the camera like all reporters do, but she was genuinely concerned if there really was a supervillain in the world now.
Marcus didn't exactly know how to answer this question. He didn't want to start a panic, after all. That would not be good. Also, what were the odds that supervillains appeared for the first time in this world's history as soon as he got here? That was pretty crazy in and of itself.
"I don't know if I would go far enough to call him a supervillain," Marcus said. "But you are correct in that the person who started this fire did have powers. He seemed to have a combination of super agility and pyrokinesis. Those were the only powers I had seen him display, at least. It's possible that he has more," he explained. "When I asked him to surrender, he instead chose to violently attack the crowd below."
The reporter nodded at him. "And, of course, as a hero, you chose to put people's lives first. Do you think this was an isolated incident or the start of something more?"
"At this point in time, I can't say," Marcus replied. "What I can say is that this man seemed to care nothing for collateral damage and he burned down dozens of people's homes for an unknown reason."
The reporter then asked Marcus what the pyromaniac looked like, and he gave his description of him. A few people in the crowd apparently also snapped some phone pictures of him. None of them could get his face though, just his black cloak. Some people in the crowd were yelling angrily that this villain was trying to rip off the hero Lamplighter.
Marcus remembered, from earlier today, that Lamplighter was the member of The Seven who was retiring soon. Starlight was supposed to be replacing him.
…
Marcus didn't answer any more questions and flew away back towards his own apartment. His outing into the city had turned into quite a mess, and he could feel that this was just the start of something much bigger.
Who was that villain? Why was he trying to burn down that entire apartment building? Was he after someone inside? If so, why burn down the entire building just to get them? Dozens of people were now homeless and injured, and a few residents had even died in the flames.
If the villain was after someone who lived there, then he had probably succeeded in killing them in all that time. Marcus regretted letting the villain go, but he couldn't go after him and protect those people at the same time. He was annoyed by his own weakness. He had no doubts that if Kara was with him, she couldn't have instantly defeated the guy and then blown out the entire burning building with her frost breath.
He made it back to his apartment building and flew through the window that he'd left open. Marcus decided to call it a night at that point. Unfortunately, he was kept awake all night with all the questions brimming in his head.
When the sun rose up over the skyscrapers in the horizon, Marcus decided to get out of bed. He got changed with one of the emergency outfits that he kept in his personal storage space and stepped out into the hallway. He almost bumped into someone when he did.
"Sorry about that," Marcus apologized.
"No, no, it's fine. I had headphones in, and I wasn't looking where I was going either." A cute blonde girl who looked vaguely familiar to him said. She was wearing sweatpants and a small jacket, looking like she was about to go jogging.
Their eyes met, and Marcus realized where he recognized her. "Starlight? You look—er—different." He said. "A nice kind of different!" He corrected himself quickly. She really did. Without her hero costume and the tons of makeup she had on yesterday, he almost didn't recognize her at first.
"Thank you!" she replied. She gestured to herself. "Yep this is what I look like when I'm out of costume and not doing the whole hero thing. Also, please call me Annie when I'm not in costume." She added on.
"Of course, Annie." Marcus said.
Annie was just about to go for her morning jog. She was definitely a morning person and loved to go running whenever the weather could permit it. "I was just about to head out and go jogging. Would you like to join me? Annie asked Marcus. She could tell by the outline of his rippling muscles underneath his tight shirt, that Marcus was somebody who liked to stay in shape. She did her best to be polite and not stare at them too long though.
A bit tired from staying up most of the night, Marcus figured a morning jog could help wake him up. He agreed to go with her and added, "Do you mind if we can pick up breakfast on the way back? I was planning on grabbing some food for Kara and Megan." He suspected both of them were still deep asleep this early in the morning.
"That sounds great, let's go. I love the location of these apartments. Central Park isn't that far away from this place." Annie said.
Both of them were running through Central Park, weaving around early morning pedestrians and dog walkers.
"So, Annie," Marcus huffed out as they ran, "what made you decide to become a superhero?"
Annie pondered for a moment before she answered, "I guess it's always been my dream ever since I awakened my powers as a young girl. It's never been quite what I expected though. There's been a lot less fighting crime and saving people and a lot more beauty pageants and talent shows…" she trailed off.
"Beauty pageants and talent shows? Well, that's certainly something," Marcus said.
Annie laughed, "It certainly was, and then there were all the 'Youths for Christ' initiatives that I had to go to. I'm grateful that the Lord gave me my powers and all, but the gatherings did seem to be over the top and excessive."
Marcus nodded along. He wasn't sure what 'Youths for Christ' even was, but Madelyn had insisted he would be perfect for it. He did find it a bit ironic that a world with practically no Supernatural intervention for hundreds of years was somehow filled with people who were even more religious than his home universe. He knew his mother and Big G would get a kick out of that.
The two of them continued jogging through Central Park.
"So what's the seven like?" Marcus asked
"I'm not actually sure yet, Annie admitted. The only member I met is Homelander so far, and he seemed a lot more interested in his daughter than he did in talking to me. I can understand that though. I was supposed to get a whole tour of Vought Tower and everything but Madelyn put that off for a few days because of you guys." Annie explained to me.
"Homelander has a daughter?" Marcus asked.
Annie looked at Marcus, puzzled. "Yeah his daughter, Kara." She said. "After you three headed out with Madelyn yesterday, Homelander couldn't stop gushing about his long lost daughter being so amazing!" Annie had to admit to herself that Kara was amazing. In fact, all three of the younger heroes were all pretty amazing from her perspective. She caught the late night news last night and Marcus had been on every single channel! He fought an actual Supervillain and saved a bunch of people on his very first day, even!
Annie figured that Marcus might have been like her, though. If he wasn't bragging about it, then he probably didn't even want to talk about it. That's why she never brought it up so far. She knew a bunch of other wannabe Heroes back from her youth days who would be all over their social media gushing about themselves after such an accomplishment. Annie had actually tried to find Marcus's social media and was surprised he didn't even have one.
The events of last night were currently the last thing on Marcus's mind…
'What…' Marcus was very confused. 'How in the hell did Homelander think that Kara was his daughter!?' He exclaimed internally. The events of the day before had clearly unfolded differently than he had expected them to! Somehow, after seeing Kara display her powers yesterday, Homelander–the Superman of this Universe–had gotten it into his head that Kara was his daughter…
Marcus would have to talk to Kara and Megan as soon as he made it back. They'd have to talk about how they were going to play this situation together. Would it be good for Kara to pretend to be Homelander's daughter? Marcus figured it could make their investigation into Vought a lot easier.
Annie stopped and wiped some sweat from her brow. Running while having a conversation was more strenuous than just listening to her headphones. "Ready to head back?" She asked Marcus. I know a good breakfast place nearby. I went there yesterday morning and they had these bacon and egg sandwiches that were amazing! I'm sure Megan and Kara will love them too."
"That sounds good." Marcus said as he snapped out of his thoughts. Before they could turn and head back, though, the sound of someone crying nearby stopped them.
On a nearby park bench, a man in his twenties was crying out in the open. Of course, since they were in New York everyone nearby did their best to avoid the guy. Annie's eyes met Marcus's and he sighed. They were both heroes in this world, and he knew he couldn't leave the poor guy alone without first hearing what was wrong. Marcus hoped to himself that the guy was just emotional and was crying over a sad scene in a book he read or something similar.
That was not the case sadly…
"Hello, sir. Are you all right?" Annie asked as she and Marcus approached the guy.
"Leave me alone…" The crying guy cried with his head down. "My girlfriend just died! She was murdered by a Supe and no one cares!"
Marcus and Annie were taken aback by that declaration. "Murdered?" Marcus questioned. He definitely didn't hear anything about that happening!
The crying man glanced up at the two people who were talking to him. When he saw Marcus's face, he immediately recognized him from the television last night! His eyes narrowed in anger when he realized he was currently talking to a Supe… One who also worked for Vought! A-Train murdered his girlfriend and then the corporation tried to buy Hughie Cambell's silence for a measly $10,000! They only gave him a week to decide whether he was going to accept the money or not… 'The insensitive bastards!'
"Fuck you, you piece of shit, Supe!" Hughie pulled his fist back and punched Marcus in the face! "Ow!" Hughie cried out and cradled his hand in pain. He felt like he'd just punched a brick wall.
Marcus was completely caught off guard and couldn't dodge the man's fist. His head whipped backwards from the punch. The sudden punch didn't hurt Marcus physically, but it sure startled him!
"Oh my God! Marcus! Are you alright?" Annie cried out.
"Ow, fuck you and fuck A-Train!" Hughie said as he cradled his hand and ran off.
Annie inspected Marcus's face and sighed in relief. Thankfully, he didn't have a scratch on his face. She was shocked by what just happened though.
"Man, I have no idea what just happened…" Marcus trailed off. "Was that guy actually being serious or was he just another crazy New Yorker?"
Annie gave Marcus a small smile and shrugged. "I honestly have no idea either…"
…
Nearby, standing in the tree line, a man wearing a black trench coat had just witnessed everything that went down. He watched Hughie Campbell sock a Supe right in the face and the man approved.
…Butcher suspected that he had just found the newest recruit for The Boys.
…
–Madelyn Stillwell–
Madelyn rode the elevator up to Stan Edgar's office. Visiting him always made her nervous. She knew that some people would find that peculiar. Madelyn routinely worked with the world's most dangerous and insane Supe, Homelander. Why would she be scared of a regular human CEO?
Well, those people would have never met Stan Edgar in person then. People who go against him tend to meet some very unfortunate ends. Whether they end up financially ruined or just straight up vanishing tends to be up to him.
The elevator reached his office floor and she stepped out. She walked down the hallway towards the CEO's private office.
"Mr Edgar is expecting you Miss Stillwell," His secretary said as she buzzed her into the office. She thanked the woman out of courtesy and entered his office. She found the man intently staring at the flatscreen in his office. He did not look happy. She could see that he was watching a report from CNN.
"Do you know what this is?" Edgar asked her.
"No Sir." Madelyn responded immediately. It was obviously bad news of some kind for Vought if it seemed to have him so upset. Clearly the news had not reached her yet though. That was bad for her considering it was currently on CNN.
He muted the TV and turned to her. "An hour ago…one of your newest signed heroes ended up saving a crowd of people from being roasted alive in a fire." Edgar said as he turned to her.
"Is that not a good thing for our reputation?" Madelyn questioned. She also wondered what hero he was talking about. The screen behind him flashed and a picture of an incredibly handsome young man with Angel wings briefly appeared on the screen. Madelyn sighed internally. 'Of course it was him.' Didn't she tell him and the two girls not to go out tonight? Clearly they didn't listen to her. She would have to reprimand Marcus and the girls later. Although she was still confused about what had Edgar so upset.
"Normally it would have been, except he ended up clashing with another Supe…on camera no less. There was another Supe there that was the cause of the fire. I think we both know which pyromaniac I'm talking about."
Madelyn was surprised. "What was Lamplighter doing starting fires in the middle of the city!? Was he recognized?" She asked in a mild panic. The last thing they needed was a member of The Seven getting caught committing horrific acts. Her dream of getting Supes in the military would be truly dead in the water. The government would never trust Vought again.
"Thankfully, he was in disguise and was not wearing his normal costume. As to why Lamplighter was there. A woman who lived in the apartment building was blackmailing one of the members of our board. He had been having an affair with her and she had recorded…evidence." Edgar said. He was incredibly displeased by such a notion.
"So the board member asked Lamplighter to take her out and he fucked it up?" Madelyn asked for confirmation and Edgar nodded.
"He fucked it up indeed. And now the people are in a panic over a rogue fire starting Supe. They want us to catch the man. That's where our problem comes in. We're going to need to find a Supe who fits the parameters to take the fall." Edgar said. And by "we" Madelyn knew that he meant she was going to have to find someone. Edgar gave the orders, he didn't do the grunt work.
"I'll get right on that, Sir." she said. Madelyn then shifted in place slightly. I suppose we shall now get to the real reason that you wanted to speak with me."
Edgar glanced at her with a stare she couldn't read. He calmly walked over to his liquor cabinet and began pouring himself a drink. He placed some ice in it and took a seat behind his desk. "Quite… I want to know about this Kara. How did we not know anything about her?" He asked with genuine irritation in his voice. That was more emotion than the man hardly ever showed.
Madelyn gulped. "We don't know, Sir. We couldn't find any information on her or her two friends. According to them, they all grew up in an orphanage in Italy. That country's citizen records are less than up to par." She said. "They all speak perfectly fluent Italian though so they shouldn't be lying."
Edgar pursed his lips before he took a sip. "I don't like it… A girl with all of Homelander's powers shows up now of all times. Not only that, but with two additional Supes who are also very dangerous themselves? If she had shown up by herself I could have counted it as coincidence. With one of those friends it could be happenstance. But three times…" He trailed off and Madelyn understood his message.
"You think they're spies from some other organization. Some group that was able to abscond with one of Homelanders children and raise them for who knows what purpose?" She asked.
Edgar swirled the whiskey in his glass as he stared at her. "I'm not saying anything. I'm merely pointing out the strangeness of this situation. Not to mention, not even a day with Vought and one of the three has already become world famous after fighting against Lamplighter."
Madelyn nodded. "I'll make sure to keep careful tabs on those three. There is one problem though…"
Edgar nodded. "Homelander?"
Madelyn sighed. "You should have seen him, Sir. He was smiling ear to ear at the sight of Kara. He truly believes the girl is his daughter and with her powerset and appearance it's not hard to see that it's probably true. If we make a move on her, he will intervene."
"I'm sure we'll figure something out on that front." He replied.
XXX
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