บท 9: Chapter 8 Part 1: New Day, Information and Plan
Back again with another installment. Sorry it took so long, but parts kept getting deleted because of bad internet connection. Hope you enjoy it.
Enjoy!
Hospital
"What do you mean you're stuck at the border?" A medical director asked on the phone. "I was told you guys could get pass the border security with those papers." Pause. "Since when?" Huffs a sigh. "Just let me think of something." Pause. "Just buy me an hour please." Pause. "Thanks."
The medical director hangs up his phone with a sad sigh. He had gotten several diabetic patients who came in after trying to ration their insulin. Which had risen to a ridiculous amount, so he decided to purchase the same insulin for a fifth of the price in Canada. Unfortunately customs wouldn't allow that without a special permit.
A woosh was then heard. "Insulation delivery!" A voice exclaimed. The medical director looked and saw XLR8 with a box of insulin. "Hate to do this buddy, but can I borrow a twenty, I wanna get some Canadian bacon when I get there." He requested.
Still staring at him the medical director requested a twenty from anyone nearby. One of the orderlies obliged and handed it to XLR8 who said. "Thanks." As he was about to leave he stops himself. "Oh by the way tell your guys to unpack the boxes, and cross the border on foot with one at a time and repack on US soil. You'll get around the FDA, PTA, FSD or whatever." Then takes off.
"Fucking shit." The medical director gasps.
"Did you get his autograph?" A Nurse asks.
Scene Cut
A news reporter was outside the same hospital XLR8 was delivering insulin. "For the past two hours the Shifter form known as XLR8 had been carrying boxes of insulin to this hospital, making the nearly two thousand mile trek in record time." She tells to her viewers then receives a message from her station on her ear piece. "He's just been spotted just entering Manhattan, maybe we'll see him shortly." She say's into the camera right before a vroom is heard.
"Phew I need to workout more." A semi exhausted A-Train says, breathing heavily as he checks his pulse with one hand and holding a box of insulin in another.
"A-Train what a surprise are you assisting Shifter in this heroic endeavor?" She asks, with slight confusion in her tone. She had prepared questions for Shifter if he stopped by.
"Not just me, Shock Wave and a few others are helping out." A-Train answers. "Heck even Marathon Man is helping out." He adds with a smile.
"Really?" The reporter asks shocked.
"Yup." A-Train replies. "Sorry I gotta go, need to help the people who save people." Then runs inside.
Scene Cut
XLR8 just delivered his last box of insulin, apparently the company that normally supplies the insulin for the hospital caved. Now they were gonna provide the life saving medication for a much more affordable price. Like they should've done in the first place. (Remember how the house rejected the price cap for insulin to be at 35 Dollars. Get those Vought's out of power)
As he was about to leave the medical director stopped him. "Thank you so much." He said with much appreciation.
XLR8 lifts up his mask and shrugs. "Just doing my job." He tried to downplay, then adds. "I know Homelander usually says this and doesn't mean it but I do." The medical director raises and eye brow and the alien puts a hand on his shoulder. "You guys are the real heroes." Then takes off.
Scene cut
A little girl, around two years old, was separated from her mother was about to cross the street into on coming traffic. The mother finally found her child but it was too late, a car was driving and didn't see her.
Or was it.
Just then a black and blue blur zoomed in just in time. The celebrity then felt wind blow by her and saw XLR8 holding the little girl. "I think this is yours." He commented handing the child over to the mother.
"Holy fuck thank you." The woman replied, grabbing her daughter and holding her tightly. "Oh I'm so sorry baby." She say's, closing her eyes and thanking God that her baby was safe. "Listen thank-." She was about to finish, but when she opened her eyes she saw XLR8 had already left.
Hideout
Ben was walking into the little dining area for breakfast when he was ambushed by a smiling Janine and Elena. Despite the stressful circumstances she seemed to have adjusted to being in hiding until who knows when. "What?" He asked confused.
"You saved Kutlure." Elena told him.
"Did you talk to Cardi!" Janine asks.
"Was she nice?" Elena questioned.
"You gotta get me an autograph." Janine added.
"What?" Ben repeats.
"Look!" Elena tells him shoving an Instagram post in his face. On it was the mother of the little girl he saved earlier. The caption read 'Shifter saved my baby' followed by a bunch of grateful emojis.
"Oh she's Cardi B?" Ben asks, looking at her profile. "She always has new hair and these celebrities never wear the same thing twice so it's hard to tell." He adds giving back her phone.
"So you didn't get an autograph." Janine say's disappointed.
"Sorry." Ben apologizes.
"If you meet Nicki Manaj though you better come get me." Janine warns.
"Us." Elena clarifies.
"Can we eat now?" Ben asks, feeling hungry. They then walk to the table where Monique, after making Butcher and Frenchie get really expensive ingredients, made Pancakes, French Toasts and eggs. "Looks awesome."
As they sit down and start eating Ben noticed some people absent. "Uh where is everybody?"
"My mom is doing yoga in her room." Janine informed, as she cut up her toast. "Daddy and the Boys keep making her mad."
"Understandable." Elena comment as they recall what went down few nights ago.
Flashback
"Can anyone tell me what's going on?" Monique asks after finally getting over the initial shock enough. The explanations Butcher, Frenchie, MM and Hughie gave were conflicting.
"I got this." Ben volunteers.
"Maybe we should-" MM tried to stop him.
"I was in my universe's Niagara Falls fighting two of my worst enemies who teamed up to try and take me on." Ben begins. "When my grandpa was trying to send them to a prison dimension something happened zapping me to this dimension." Monique jaw drops even more. "Where I soon started kicking Vought butt, then Butcher finds me, makes me drop my Shake Shack, buys me a new one, says he has a crusade, I join we find Hughie and get him on bored. Then we captured Translucent after failing to bug Seven tower, met Frenchie, we get info out of Translucent and sort of get the CIA on board." Turns to Butcher. "Did they say yes on that helicopter yet?"
Pause as the human adults look at each other. "No." Ben concludes then goes back to explaining. "After that we find MM and spy on Popclaw and find out about compound V, a supe drug. I go all XLR8 on the race, but no V, we find Elena who ran away from Vought." Points to the girl in question. "Then they find out about the Female." Turns to the Female. "We really need to find out your actual name." Turns back to Monique. "While me and Elena went upstate and stopped a supe thing called Herogasm which was an orgy which was disgusting." Both the children shiver.
"What!?" Monique shouts, but Ben pays no mind.
"We then go to the Believe Expo and get more information on compound V via blackmailing Ezekiel, Kevin attacks, Vought loses, my buddies and I win, Kevin is sleeping. Butcher and Frenchie get the V and then while we were celebrating you guys show up." Ben concludes. "That's about it."
Monique just stares. "Ok so what's with Ghostfreak?" Ben asks, pointing to Wraith.
"I do not know." Wraith explains. "I was held captive by Vought until she." Points to Elena. "Freed me and then I found refuge with Janine."
"Why do you keep calling him Ghostfreak?" Janine asks.
"That's what I named him when I could turn into him." Ben explained. "But my Ghostfreak tried to take control of my body to make himself whole. Until I burned him out of existence."
"Is that why you can't be out in the sun?" Janine asks the ghostly extra terrestrial. "You're not whole."
"I thought it was because of Vought's experiments." Wraith responded.
"So you've just been squatting in MM house?" Butcher asks.
"Well I did help out with the house work." Wraith said.
"So you're the one who's been doing the laundry, alphabetizing the DVD's and-" Monique lists off.
"Organized your kitchen, made that little tea triangle I saw on Reba." Wraith added. "I also made sure Janine cleaned her room and put things on your grocery list you forgot." He continues.
"He also helped me with my homework." Janine says, hoping it'll make him look better.
"Is that why you've been doing good in school?" The mother asks.
"I also did it for her." Wraith adds with confidence.
"Wraith!" Janine replies in a worried tone.
"You what?" Monique asks him to repeat.
"Oh." Wraith says, understanding that was something he was not supposed to say. He then turns to MM. "He lied about that special vacation to France he said he was planning for you, he was talking to some French women he was probably cheating on you with." He accuses.
"WHAT!" MM exclaims then turns to his wife. "Baby I was talking to Frenchie not a woman." He gestures to said Frenchman.
"So you're cheating on your beautiful loving wife with some French male prostitute." Wraith says, getting a laugh out of Butcher.
"Woah hey now." MM say's.
"Please he could not afford me huh." Frenchie claims, full of confidence.
MM turns to Frenchie with a look of confusion. "Bro please you worth like what, two Penny's?" He estimates.
"You'd be lucky to have me!" Frenchie exclaims, offended by that price.
"Shut the fuck up both of you!" Monique shouts, then turns to her husband. "You're gonna get us outta here then I never wanna see you again." She tells him.
Flashback over
Turns out a meeting with Raynor couldn't be scheduled until 2 weeks later. Which was today. During which Monique and Janine shared a mattress on the floor. Thankfully MM made everyone clean the bathroom so at least there's that.
"If you have your own place why do you stay here a lot?" Elena questions, eating the last bit of her food.
"It was cool at first, but now." Ben answers, then drinks his OJ. "With Hughie, Butcher and Frenchie it can get crowded, plus Vought might track me if go there too often.
"Right." Elena say's understanding.
Janine then notices Chip hovering around Elena and has a question. "So what's that?" She wonders pointing at Chip.
"Oh Chip. He's a friend." Elena simply says with a smile. "My dad made him, not really sure why. But he helped me when I needed him."
Flashback
Elena was in her and her Mom's loft at Vought, just hours before she escaped. Bored and grounded for sneaking out to meet Starlight she began snooping through her parents room. Her mom didn't always sleep here, and once or twice she found someone else sleeping with her. But she has vague memories of her father here for some reason.
She goes through the usual stuff in the drawers, she even puts on her mom's fancy jewelry for a bit. Then suddenly she hears a faint 'tink tink tink' repeatedly. It's coming from the closest. Going over there she follows the sound to an old box and see's 2 small circular glass cases each containing a small device. Suddenly one starts talking to her in her head. "Well hi there." She greets.
Flashback over
"Hey everyone how was breakfast?" MM greets as he comes in with several bags. Ordinarily he'd ask if there's any left but knowing his wife, possibly soon to be Ex wife, he knew there wasn't. "Where's everyone else?" MM wonders, looking around.
"Frenchie is trying to understand what Kimiko is coloring." Elena answers.
"Hughie's in the living room." Ben adds, which was basically a couple of couches and chairs around a TV.
"And Wraith is weirding him out." Janine tells him.
Scene Cut
Frenchie was in another part of the hideout observing the female's drawings, but couldn't figure it out.
Meanwhile Hughie and Wraith were alone watching TV, earlier he'd come to watch some tv to at least forget some of his troubles. But then a ghost joining him and asking if he can watch 'Two and a Half Men' reruns kind of ruined it.
After a while of awkward silence Hughie clears his throat. "So... do you have like..." He starts then see's Wraith's eye moves along the black vains on his body to look at Hughie, who looks terrified. "Unfinished business?" He manages to finish.
"I'm actually not a ghost, I'm just an extra terrestrial species that happens to look like what people would call a ghost." Wraith corrects, though it's unclear if he was offended by that or not.
"Cool cool." Hughie replies.
Wraith then decides to carry on the conversation. "Do you have unfinished business?" He asks.
"Um.." Hughie starts then thinks about it. "Kinda." He eventually answers.
"Does that mean if you die you'll be a ghost?" Wraith questions, making Hughie even more uncomfortable if that was even possible.
Hughie gulps before replying. "Never realy thought about that." Turns his head to another direction. "What was that?"
Wraith looks around and asks. "What was what?"
Hughie turns back to the ghost like alien and tells him. "Butchers calling me."
Wraith is confused by this. "I didnt hear anything" He tells the human.
"No definitely heard him calling, see you later." Hughie quickly walks out of the room trying not to break into a run. Wraith meanwhile just shrugged it off. Despite being aware Butcher has yet to arrive.
Vought Tower
In Madelyn Stillwell's Office the woman in question just finished her presentation to the heroes Shifter worked with to beat Chimera. Including the tragic Death of Translucent and a spot opening for the Seven. Each of them would go on a reality show to compete for the spot. She also spent at least a good twenty minutes of kissing up to them.
"So basically you want us to do an "American Ninja Warrior" thing to decide who gets the spot." Web-Weaver simplified.
'Gen-Z's' Madelyn thought with annoyance as she kept her composure. "That's the short version yes." She spoke then sat down at her desk. "I know you must have questions but..." She tried to drag on to add suspense, but that fails when.
"Pass." Groundhawk tells her, crossing his metal hands with a stern expression.
"I'm sorry what?" Madelyn asked, not believing what she heard.
"Pass." Groundhawk repeats. "If you think you can make me the Nubian's punching bag, fire me then after I start doing good try to use me again then." Chuckles a bit. "You dumb fucks are even dumber and fucker than I thought." He concludes before walking out.
"I guess that leaves you three." Stillwell said, still keeping her composure. "Now you just need to-." She was interrupted again.
By Ice Princess this time. "Actually I'm done to." She told the seated blonde.
"For what reason?" Stillwell wondered. "We've been so good to you I thought that-."
"Save the bullshit, just say I froze people's arms, legs and other parts and you covered it up. We just reached a settlement where I froze a guy's dick off." Ice Princess blatantly say's, though only Web-Weaver has a reaction, an audible gasp. "FYI I offered him triple if he doesn't sign and already went to the Times, Gaurdian, and I'm sure even Al-Jazeera and BBC and whatever the fuck are gonna report it tomorrow. I'm probably gonna be lucky if I don't get arrested." She informs.
"It was an accident." Madelyn tells her, going with the go to defense for collateral damage.
"I was a fucking shit who froze a guy's dick off because I wanted a good lay that my fake boyfriend wasn't giving me." Ice Princess replied and before Stillwell could continue. "I knew full well what could've happened, it's happened before, no warning to him or anything prior. I wasn't sorry then, but I am now." She adds.
"Why now?" Madelyn asks. "Like you said this isn't the first time."
"Two reasons." The ice themed supe began to explain. "First I was a piece fucking shit that thought she was great, but I realized I'm just a lucky fuck up bitch." She explained.
"And the second?" Stillwell said.
Ice Princess then pulls out her phone, which had been recording the whole time. "I wanted you to say you knew." Madelyn's eyes widen a little. "He get's his job back, double the pay, full back pay, a bonus, you'll pay for his surgery and you'll leave me the fuck alone when my contract is up next month." She tells her then starts to walk away. "If I wanna stop being a dweeb I gotta stop hanging around one's." Walks out.
Madelyn then looks to Silver Kincaid but before she can get a word out the Hijab wearing supe does. "I'm not joining a team that wants to change my name to Captain Al-Qaeda." This puts a worried look on Stillwell's face. "Don't worry there's no footage or anything and if I say something I'm gonna be accused of being racist." She informs her corporate superior which alleviates some of her worry.
"I'll just make this easy for you though." Kincaid tells her then simply walks outs. Leaving just Web-Weaver.
"Do you wanna hear my reason or should I just leave?" The arachnid themed hero asked.
"I'm sure we can come to some kind of agreement." Madelyn still tries to convince him.
"Sorry no." Web-Weaver says shaking his head. "My uncle told me to be careful who I turned into and I'd rather not turn into a sell out. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility." He adds then walks out, leaving a very annoyed and tired Stillwell behind.
Scene Cut with Maeve
The Amazon warrior checked her latest instagram post of her training which already got several hundred thousand likes. While the video depicted Maeve going through an intense training regiment it was just a month old video she had on her phone she never posted. She has a bunch of those.
Putting her phone down on the night stand she continued smoking her vape. Feeling the bed shift she saw the two Vought employees she spent the night with. Both seemed exhausted, guilt free and looked as if they were in pure bliss. Maeve was only one of those. With an annoyed sigh the supe gets out of bed, not bothering to put any clothes on, and goes to her fully stocked bar. She then opens the closest bottle she can find and started chugging the contents straight from the bottle. Didn't help.
Scene Cut with Homelander
The Seven leader was in his quarters looking at the TV which showed another report on Shifter being a great hero. Despite it angering him him he couldn't look away from it. Instead he pulled down the lower part of his suit and began stroking his member. "I am the greatest. I am the fucking greatest." He kept repeating until he was finally content.
Scene Cut with Deep
"I told him already. Twice!" Deep replied to Timothy, an octopus inside the large tank in his room. He then heard Timothy's advice. "Of course I'm fucking worried, but Homelander doesn't seem worried." Pause for a reply. Timothy's reply then causes Deep to gasp. "He's the best there is." Pause for reply. "Who gives a fuck about Shifter, guy's a pussy anyway."
Timothy then gives a lengthy response and causing Deep to ask. "What when?"
Flashback
Ripjaws was swimming away after stopping some criminals from using a boat to escape. As he was leaving he noticed a royal blue tag that looked suspiciously familiar swim next to him. Obviously he didn't speak fish but followed the fish anyway. Eventually he came upon an ocean floor littered with cans, bottles, plastics and even rubber tires. How rubber tires kept getting into the ocean is a great mystery.
Ripjaws picked up a rubber tire and flung it to the nearby beach. The fish alien the went back and forth bring all the waste from the water to the beach. Naturally this ruined people's beach day (If there was one, they don't give dates in the Boys) but soon some people started cleaning that up properly.
Flashback over
"So he helps a few of you guys one time, I've been here this whole time." Deep reminds him.
And while nobody else could understand him, anyone could clearly tell that Timothy's latest reply was along the lines of. "And you've done nothing to help." Before he swam away.
Scene Cut A-Train
A-Train was training by himself since his brother was out on 'a paid leave of absence' after the Chimera fiasco. Probably for the best in his opinion he would likely give him a long speech about how bad he was doing, how many calories he needed and blah blah blah.
Thanks to joining Shifter's little UPS campaign earlier his points shot up a bit, though not like Starlight. It's like she did better than before if he was being honest.
He wasn't even using his usual track since Shockwave had it booked for the near future. So instead he went back to his old neighborhood's track that looks almost the same as it did when he was in Highschool. And it wasn't that new back then.
As A-Train got back to his starting line to prepare for another lap a wave of nostalgia wafted through him. Teenage Kix, Popclaw and him being the hope for kids on the street. Seemed like a million years ago, but it also felt like it was yesterday.
As he was about to resume his workout a few kids started to run towards him. Smiling he walked towards him and did a mini photo op.
Scene Cut Black Noir
The Dark themed hero was training against one of the few other supes at Vought that actually tried to keep in shape. Blind spot, a millennial, and while the younger supe was no match for the veteran he still provided a good workout.
Scene cut Starlight
Annie was on another date with Hughie. Things had been going really well since he finally told her about his previous girlfriend. Then there was Vought giving her more freedom of movement. Which meant she was able to stop crimes like she did back in Des Moines, though with more frequency. But there was one thing dragging her mood down. The news.
"Two weeks since the Chimera attack the city is still reeling from the shock." The Cameron Coleman said in the camera. The footage then shifted to the Seven trying to stop Chimera, though it only showed their successful hits. Not of when Kevin beat them.
"Against overwhelming odds the hero's of Vought were able to weaken it enough before going to protect the vulnerable citizens of the city." Camera then shows Homelander stopping some rubble. "All while Shifter struggled to mop up the mess he made." Footage showing Diamondhead struggling to beat him.
"Until more Vought Heroes came to his aid and finally stopped him." Cameron added, footage going from Chimera's fall to his face. "Then, likely through manipulation, convinced the other heroes of Vought to release Chimera, or "Kevin" into the hands of the CIA." Scoffs at this. "When he should be in a secure facility only the Seven and Vought can provide."
Small pause as he listens to his ear piece. "Oh and get this." An image of Victoria Neuman's latest tweet appears. "Victoria Neuman's latest tweet. 'I thank the heroes for protecting the people of this great nation, and possibly the world, but it is clear Shifter clearly knows this Chimera individual, or Kevin. If he knew about it why didn't he say anything earlier. While Superheroes certainly can save lives, they are just loose canons without any control."
Pause. "Well it seems as if she's starting to see the light, but has the audacity to maintain the notion that inexperienced politicians should be in charge of the great saviors of America." Goes to commercial
"Unbelievable." Annie sighs. "We got our asses handed to us." She turns to Hughie with an upset look.
"You did pretty good, all things considered." Hughie tries to comfort, and he was right. "You and Noir got the most hits, and got hit the least."
"Still..." Annie drags. "Shifter was the only one who who actually was any good, still can't believe he formed a team so fast." She adds.
"You think they're a team?" Hughie asks. Knowing it was entirely unplanned group that miraculously came together like a cheesy Disney band on TV.
Starlight in disguise shrugs. "Maybe. They just worked really well together if they weren't." She replies.
"Maybe he's just that good." Hughie suggested, knowing Ben was. He may just be a kid who wants to slack off whenever, but whenever it Hero time he's all business. With some of the kid showing off.
Seeing as how her mood went down Hughie decided to change the subject. "Hey. Eye of the tiger. You and me, we have a Panera gift card to win." He said with a smile. "No distractions. Come on."
"Ah, good one here. Before joining The Seven, which hero led a search-and-rescue team..." The game host asked, reading the next question. "after the 1994 Northridge earthquake?" He finished.
Noticing her struggle Hughie commented. "Isn't it like your job to know this?" He teased then seeing as how she wasn't figuring it out. "It's Lamplighter."
"Thank you." The female supe replies while writing down the answer.
"Yeah, I had all the trading cards." Hughie lamely tells her.
"Of course you did." Annie say's with a teasing smile.
"Hey can't you just like dress up and get us free Panera for life?" Hughie humorously questions, causing her to smile. "That way I can save up to take you on a less lame date." He adds.
"I don't think this is lame." Annie tells him honestly.
"Really?" Hughie replies with a tilt of the head, indicating he was slightly surprised. "I'd figure bowling alley, movie, bar trivia that seems a little a cliché."
"I like a little cliché." Annie admits. "Guys usually try to impress me with something dumb like buying me cars or earrings, my ex Drummer Boy even got a Ferrari to try and take me back." She tells him as if that was lame.
Hughie takes this in and replies. "Well I can assure you that I will never do that." He tells her. "Or be able too actually." He adds, causing her to chuckle.
Vought
Isabella smiled as she looked at the readings. Finally progress after all these years. Apparently her daughter taking the father chip and running away was a blessing in disguise. Turns out the Father Chip never deactivated, it was sending out small sonic waves keeping the Mother Chip in stasis.
Thanks to her work she almost has the mother chip fully active. And while her daughter still has control of the self destruct feature, she no longer is recognized as the master controller. She is now. Pretty soon Edgar's dream of controlling the supes will come true. Those bastards don't deserve the powers they were given.
Feeling like celebrating a bit and glancing at a pair of regular chips her eyes briefly glowed red. The Mother Chip and the other two then floated to her palm. She then proceeded to go find Termite and Doppelgänger. First she wanted to test if she could really control the supes with these and second she felt like have a night with The Rock, even if it wasn't him.
Scene Cut
Madelyn, after some day drinking to calm her nerves, headed towards Edgar's office. When she got to the door she glanced over her appearance one last time to make sure she looks okay. Then once satisfied with her appearance she walks in.
"Mister Edgar I'm afraid-." She begins to say until he interrupts her. Again.
"They said no." The CEO say's, as if knowing before hand, while burning a letter into ashes above an empty waste bin. "Figures." He added as the last of the letter burned.
Noticing his reaction Stillwell frowns. "You knew they would reject the offer." She say's and his lack of denial confirms her suspicions. "Then why'd you tell me to offer them a spot?" She asks, walking closer to Edgar's desk as he sits back.
"A few reasons." Stan begins. "First to see if on the off chance I was wrong then we wouldn't have to look into the wilderness to find Translucent's replacement." Pause. "Second you needed something to focus your mind on instead of being stressed out because of the Chimera incident." He adds.
Madelyn gulps. She was against the whole idea of having the Seven essentially being stripped of all of Vought resources. The resources that made people think they're gods. Starlight performed well sure, but the rest were ok at best. A-Train did get his points up though with the insulin runs and going to his old school's track field. "Is that all?"
"No." He tells her as he pulls out a manila folder. "I needed to keep you busy so I could work on your resignation." He finishes.
"My what?" Madelyn asks, not believing what she's hearing.
"Your resignation." Edgar repeats as he gets up and theatrically walks around his office. "It wasn't easy especially because of someone so dedicated to Vought as you." He continues. "But you're a mother now, your priorities change and you want to put your son first."
The blonde chuckles at this. "You wanna fire me because I have a kid?"
"No, I wanna fire you because you're trying to take my position." Edgar clarifies. "And I said you'd be resigning not getting fired. Your kid is just a good excuse." He adds.
"This is ridiculous." Madelyn tries to play off. "Why would I want to take your place?" She questions.
"Get's you out of babysitting duty." Edgar answers. "At least you think it will. After all..." He drags on as he turns to her. "I've only gotten this involved personally because of Shifter."
"If this is about Shifter we'll get him." Stillwell assures.
"Let's put a pin in that for a moment." Edgar tells her as he goes over to a shelf with a few pictures. One with him and a man with a tacky Hawaiian shirt. "I find that focusing on one thing at a time guarantees success more."
"Fine." Madelyn agrees and still keeps her smile. "I'm not resigning." She tells him. "And you can't fire me for being a mother or the Seven's setbacks since you've made it clear they're to blame." She adds with full confidence. "And if you fire me with no reason, I'll sue for wrongful termination and you'll wish you just gave me your job." She finished as she sits down at one of the chairs by the desk, but still looking at Edgar, who was looking at another photo. This one of his father in his uniform with Wrench.
Edgar turns to her and replies. "How... naïve... do you think I am?" He questions, truly baffled by what she said. "Do you think me, a black man, who was only put in any kind of position of power, a position of which at the time was completely made up and served no purpose but to make this company look less white, would be able to get out of that dead end job, rise to my stature and be a complete and total idiot as to have this conversation without insuring all possible odds are in my favor?" He questions while taking slow and steady steps until he's almost towering over her.
"Nice try." Stillwell tells him, completely unfazed. "Good use of the discrimination card by the way, but I'm used to powerful men thinking they can bully me with just words." She adds.
"Look at my desk." Edgar tells her, with the same bored expression he's maintained the entire time.
Deciding to entertain him Stillwell looked and saw signed affidavits. Curious as to what they might be she began reading it and saw they were signed by other members of the board. All confirming she had met with them to discuss a "replacement" for Edgar should the board deem him unfit as CEO. There was also one from a private investigator she hired to dig up dirt on him.
"Judging by your lack of response you're either taking time to process this or trying to see if this is just a bluff." Edgar theorized. "It's not, in a few weeks you're going to ask for time off, after that you're going to accept a less strenuous position allowing for more time with your son. Or just accept the position now and fully resign with all your benefits in a year." He tells her.
"So either I demote myself, or I quit, or you fire me." Madelyn lists off her options.
"If you're worried about employment I'd be happy to write you a fantastic letter of recommendation to work anywhere else." Edgar offers.
"Except Vought." Stillwell adds.
"You have until the end of the quarter to decide which route you want to go with. Assuming you're still alive." Edgar tells her then adds. "Now would you please leave my office, I have work to do." And with that Stillwell gets up and leaves to contemplate her options.
The Boys Hideout
"Samaritan's Embrace." Mother's Milk began to speak, with a map of North America with pins on it to indicate locations. Next to him was several piles of neatly organized papers and folders with perfectly arranged markers and pens. "Led by Ezekiel but bankrolled by Vought, has been shipping Compound V to 53 hospitals across the country since 1971 and gift wrapping it..." He trails off as the Female comes over to grab several of his writing utensils.
He sucks in a breath briefly as she messes up his perfectly placed set up. "...gift wrapping it as polio vaccine." He finishes.
"Are you telling me." Butcher starts. "God's not reaching up the twats of American girls and blessing babies?" He questions, already knowing the answer.
"Butcher, can you leave God out of this?" MM requested with annoyance.
"H-Hold on, hold on." Hughie spoke up, processing what was said. "So, no hero was born? None of them? They're all just kids dosed with the blue shit." He asks, for confirmation. "I mean, even..." Hughie trails off as Butchef finishes for him.
"Even fucking Starlight." The Brit says, getting some weird looks from everyone.
Hughie decides to shrug this off and continues to ask. "Do you think... do you think they know... what really happened to 'em?"
"What about Homelander?" Butcher asks.
"Homelander's a black hole." MM tells Butcher with a frown. " Never had any public records and never will. However, every single other Supe..." Holds up some of the Compound V they got from the hospital. "Juiced-up lab rats." He finished.
As the Female knocks over some documents it finally tips MM over the edge. "My God. I'm trying to give a tremendous fucking TED Talk here, and this..." He gestures to the Asian.
"Frenchie, can you control her, please?" Mother's Milk requested.
"I do not control her." Frenchie replies, insulted by that accusation.
"Do you see what I'm dealing with?" MM scoffed, looking towards Butcher as he gestured to Frenchie and the Female.
"Well, spot on, M.M." Butcher compliments with a smile as he walks towards the map. "We got Vought for child endangerment, drug trafficking, and possibly the largest fraud in fucking history." He lists off with glee. "Raynor's gonna love it."
"You better hope she does..." MM tells him.
"And she better!" Monique tells them, making her presence known. "How long until we can get out of here?" She demands to know, crossing her arms.
"Relax baby." MM tried to assure her.
"Don't you tell me to relax." Monique tells him and then looks around. "Where is Janine?" She asks.
"The children are just watching a film." Frenchie tells her, gesturing to the living area.
There the Female was drawing the same thing, a circle with some lines in it. It was obviously a symbol for something, but who, what, where and why were unknown. Meanwhile Ben, Elena, Janine and Wraith were watching John Wick killing a couple of agents with a pencil.
"Wow imagine if he had a pen." Ben told them impressed.
"Totally." Elena agreed, popping some popcorn in her mouth.
"So why did they want him dead again?" Janine asked, having never seen these movies before.
"Not sure." Elena answers.
"Should they be watching this?" Monique questions and was about to switch the TV off but was stopped by Butcher. "What?"
"Keep in mind we have a Casper that according to you took on A-Train and Noir, plus we have a very volatile female that tried to kill us when we first met her." Butcher tells her in a hushed tone, then after looking at kids Monique slaps him cause his head to jerk towards the left. "That was a little a uncalled for." He says.
"Get us the fuck out of here." Monique demands then walks away. Her husband, for now, follows her all while Wraith watches with an intrigued expression.
"Right, you lot stay out of trouble, I've got an appointment with Raynor." Butcher tells them as he puts on his jacket.
Hugie then asks. "So your gonna show up unannounced to piss her off."
Butcher smiles at this. "Now your learning." He compliments.
"You think she'll actually be happy to see you this time?" Frenchie asks.
"Happy might be a bit of a stretch." Butcher admits with reason. "But after all thats happened and with this shit, she'll be eating out of the palm of me hand." He adds.
Secret Location
Kevin was waking up, that much he could tell. But his vision blurred and he felt dizzy. "Uhh... what happened?" He groaned rubbing his head.
"Good your awake." A voice spoke up.
Kevins vision focused and he saw Susan standing infront of him, separated by several layers of reinforced glass. "Who the?" He tried to move but saw that his arms were chained to the center of his seemingly glass cage. "What the!?" He tried to break free but he felt sluggish and weak. "Whats going on!?"
"In short." Susan began. "You're in a CIA blacksite. you were taken in after attacking the city and several heroes." She sighed at the last part.
Kevin tried to use his powers but had trouble focusing. "What did you do to me?"
Susan smirked confidently. "We figured you'd be able to break free of whatever we tried to resitrain you with. So we've been pumping enough drugs into you to cause Kurt Cobain to over does 10 times over."
Not knowing who that is Kevin asked. "Who's Kurt Cobain?"
"Nirvana?" Susan simply replied as it was obvious.
Kevin just stared at her and blinked then shook his head. "Stop making up words and let me out!" He demanded.
"Not a chance fucker." Susan answered. "And if you're thinking about smashing your way out you can. But the moment you break your little dog leashes the gas goes from low to high and you'll go from feeling sluggish to to black out drunk." She explains. The CIA, nor any government agency, did not have a way to restrict him physically so they settled for the constant gas use. The chains and glass were just ways to slow him down, should he even gain enough strength to breakout.
"You're not getting out this, but answer some questions and we'll make it better." Susan adds then pauses then adds. "Unless you rather stare at walls all day."
"Isn't there supposed to be a good cop?" Kevin asked, watching enough cop shows to know that.
"Budget cuts." Susan simply replies. "All you get is hard ass bitch cop. Now, how do you know the Shifter?" She asks.
Kevin raises an eyebrow at this. "Who?"
Susan gets annoyed by this response. "Cut the shit Not only did you call him Tennyson and know about his watch, you talked like you two knew each other." She reminds him.
Knowing she was talking about Ben Kevin replied. "What's it to you?"
"Too many unanswered questions." Raynor tells him.
"Why don't you ask the hero." Kevin suggests. "I'm sure he'd love to tell you his life story." Then his brain gets working. "Unless you're afraid of him." He suggests and even with the glass separating them and her keeping a perfect composure he could see a slight shift. This was thanks to his Wildmutt senses, Grey Matter Brain and his other senses working together to analyze this.
"Tell you what." Kevin begins. "Let me go, show him to me and I'll take care of him for ya." He assures her.
"Please." The CIA deputy director says. "I'm not a fucking idiot. You wanna kill him, but can't, you lost to him before and will again
Chimera growls then tries to break his restraints, but Raynor signals the cameras and the red gas fills the cell. Eventually a large thud is heard and the deputy director sighs as she leaves. She knows it's a long shot but she has to try.
CIA
After leaving the blacklist site and returning to her office Susan entered her office she expected to Butcher to be standing there again. But to her surprise he actually called her and said he was waiting in her office.
"Hello Deputy Director." The Brit greeted with a smile as he sat at the chairs by her desk.
"Do you have the Compound V or not?" Raynor asked, wanting to get this over with.
"I've got the V." Butcher begins as he pulls a sample as well as some files. "Along with proof that Vought's injected babies right across the country, and... something even more fucking diabolical."
"Worse than dosing babies?" Raynor replied, baffled by this. "Like what?"
Butcher then scrunched his face as he answers. "Still working on it but with these cunts, there ain't no rock bottom."
"Let's get it to the lab." Raynor said as she tried to grab the V.
"Not so fast." Butcher says as he pulls back the sample and pulls out a list. "First things first, eh?"
"A list of your demands." Susan replies both amused and slightly annoyed. "How in character." She adds as he passes her his list. "Exorbitant salary. Same for your team. Office space, in the Flatiron Building, no less. Security clearance. Indemnity clause. Legal protection. A formal guarantee that Homelander will be prosecuted under the full extent of the law." She reads off list.
"Is that all?" She questions.
Butcher then smiles as he pulls out another list. "From the ankle biters, and one from MM." He informs.
Raynor rolls her eyes and reads it off. "Protection for his family." She reads off with understanding. "Helicopter privileges, of course. Hero Medals, which we don't have. Cool spy sunglasses, which don't shoot lasers. Official badges. Fancy looking expense pen. Face on the 10 dollar bill. Airplane with decent food on it when the time calls." Sighs as she reads there's more on the back.
Unlike the previous demands this one is not as ridiculous, at least not in the same category. "Vought to be taken down and all supes bared from being in the military and be declared criminals until they are proven innocent, must be done with the accused present and cannot be done in absentia, guilty or innocent." She reads then see's another line, the annoys her. "All authoritative parties must come forward, including the CIA, and admit they were idiots for not stopping the dweebs and doofuses of Vought."
"Was all them I swear." Butcher tells her with a smile. "Any of that a problem?"
"No, gonna pass it up the chain." She tells him then adds. "And, uh, while they hash it out, you and I go forward on good faith." Then she reaches again for the V and again Butcher pulls it back.
"Fresh out of good faith." The brit tells her. "Now, you and I both know that you can rubber-stamp all of that. So what's it gonna be... Deputy Director?"
Sighing Susan replied. "I can give you... everything you want on this list. Heck for the kid the only possible deal breaker is the last one."
"But that ain't it." Butcher say's then asks. "So what is it?" Though he knows the likely answer.
"Homelander." Raynor tells him, almost sympathetically.
Instead of lashing out in rage Butcher takes a breath and closes his eyes. "You know what he's done." He reminds her.
The deputy director then gets up with a sigh and sits on her desk by Butcher. "I sympathize. I really do." She tells him with honesty. "But it's suicide."
"Yeah, well." Butcher began finally looking at her again. "That's a small fucking price to pay, isn't it?"
"Not for you. For thousands of people if you push him too hard." She reminds him.
"You're fucking scared." Butcher replies, rage slowly building up.
"I'm fucking terrified." She admits then tells him. "And you should be, too."
"Why?" Butcher asks. "Shifty can take him on, he made him bleed." He again reminds her. "He pounded the shit out Vought's supes, all of the cunts in the Seven and that Chimera wanker." He lists off.
"But thanks to Ben Tennyson we have Chimera and whoever the fuck might've been with him." Susan counters. "Plus all the property damage he caused." Money is always a hot topic. "Plus since the kid used Supes to beat him people now think certain ones can join so long as they have good leaders."
"So?" Butcher questions.
"So..." Raynor begins to reply. "Tennyson may have a way to take down the supes but he hasn't killed them, we don't even know if he can." Susan points out. "Not to mention we don't have a way to stop them and Shifter is the only one with a fancy watch."
Butcher then takes the V and is about to walk out when Raynor calls. "Wait." And he stops. "If you can find something, actually find something that can kill the bastard and we can use it then..." She drags on.
"Yes to Homelander." Butcher finishes.
"Yes to all of that." She tells him then adds. "And I'll do everything I can to get you two alone in a room, a cell or a tropical island." She offers, he then thinks this over and leaves after a few seconds.
Part 1 over
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