Chapter 10: Ch.: 10. Butcher,flight beating Deep, Hughie meets A-Train, Translucent, Meeting (I)
"Name's Butcher. Billy Butcher" Man replied, taking out his FBI badge and flashing it in front of hughie.
…
Outside waiting manav saw Butcher and hughie come out. Hughie followed him for a while but suddenly stopped, butcher said something near to Hughie's face, definitely saying that if you don't come you will lost opportunity and I once gone always gone.
Butcher was back on his way, hughie who was just standing there once turning his head back or once to butcher.
After a while he decided and ran behind butcher Manav also started following them with a fast pace keeping his distance and only looking at Hughie not butcher.
Manav knew that once he looked at butcher, butcher will immediately know that someone was keeping their eyes on him.
Following them for a while they stepped in and empty alley and stopped in front of a iron door.
Butcher knocked on it and a small bracket was opened and a man wearing black suit and comms in his ear looked at the butcher.
"Why are you here, police, if they knew that I let you in they will do very bad things to me." Guard said.
"Not bad as I will do to you." Butcher replied and guard opened the door.
Butcher stepped in but hughie didn't followed just turned and started looking around.
Butcher grabbed hughie from back and pulled him inside, guard locked the door.
Manav left knowing that if he stays at this place for more time he will become suspicious.
Manav arrived at the hotel, he was staying.
…
Starlight followed Deep to the seven's main conference.
"Wow." Annie exclaimed when the door of the conference room opened.
"Pretty cool, huh? Oh, hey, check this out. We have two WorldView-4 satellites in geocentric orbit. We can essentially read a getaway car's license plate from 380 miles up." Deep said boasting about Vought's wealth.
"That is just... I mean, I was working with a police scanner that I bought on eBay." Annie said, recalling her scene of listening to police reports every night.
"Yeah, well, not anymore you're not. Oh, and wait till you check out the dining room. We, uh, may or may not have stolen Miro from Gramercy Tavern. Yeah, he's fan-fucking-tastic." Deep replied and introducing the kitchen's chef.
"That's his, isn't it?" Starlight said, looking at the chair of the homelander.
She looks at the chair at the head of the main table.
"Homelander's? Yeah. But you'll have your own soon. Here. Come on." Deep nodded.
He pulls out the Homelanders chair.
"Give it a test drive. Come on. Oh, you, you okay?" Deep said pulling out the homelander's chair.
"It's just… I used to stand in the mirror, pretending to be where I am right now." Starlight told her past too deeply.
"You know something? On my first day, I, uh... Well, I felt like a fraud. Yeah. But the good news is, everybody feels that way." Deep also expressed his feelings.
"Thank you." Starlight thanked and walked to the window looking out.
"And, hey, we're a team now. We'll help each other out. I bet growing up you had a poster of Homelander on your wall, huh?" Deep asked.
"I, uh, have Queen Maeve's poster." Starlight replied hesitating, recalling that warning from earlier.
Starlight turned and saw deep standing there with no pants.
She walked away disgusted.
"Whoa, whoa, wh-wh-whoa, hey. Look, you're gorgeous. I'm not I'm not talking about sex, just a little bit of pole-smoking. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It's just a question of how bad you want to be in The Seven." Deep said, trying to intimidate starlight.
Starlight stopped and looked at face of deep, trying not to look at his d*ck.
"Excuse me?" Starlight used her powers, which caused every screen in the room to shatter, lights and her eyes flickering.
"Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Take it easy. Settle down. We're just, we're just talking. And look, I know that you're powerful. I get it. Your powers are no joke. The thing is I am number two around here. So, like, if I say so, you know, you'd be out of here. Especially since you attacked me." Deep said, stepping towards her.
"I what?" Starlight asked her head, lights and her eyes still flickering.
"I mean, Iowa's sweetheart, the Defender of Des Moines, just went psycho on the Deep. I mean, that could put you out of the business. Yeah. I mean, home to Mommy, tail tucked between your legs. Just think of all those kids. I mean, the kids. Those kids who look up to you, they'd just be shattered. I mean, that's not what you really want, right? Or, we come together as a team. You and me, we just roll with the punches, for, like, three minutes, maybe. It's not a big deal. And then you know what happens? All your dreams come true." Deep said, raising his hand to the head of starlight.
Starlight raised her hand and the energy beam was shot out.
Deep was hit and flew out, hitting the glasses which cracked like spider webs, but didn't break.
Starlight turned and walked out of the conference room, heading to the bathroom.
…
Next day.
Hughie called and told the lawyer that he will accept the money and sign only when A-Train himself apologizes.
Lawyer of Vought cut the call, saying it's not possible.
After a while a call came, asking hughie to come to vought.
Butcher took Hughie to vought building and asked him to go in and plant the bug in seven conferences.
Hughie was hesitating, but the butcher says to him, reminding him that A-Train was laughing at his girl.
Hughie stepped out of the car.
…
"Starlight. Don't want to be late to your first official meeting. I had a whole welcome speech planned." Homelander complains to Annie.
"Sorry, sir." Annie apologized.
"Please, Homelander's fine." Homelander said with humility.
Deep didn't said anything, just sat quietly.
"Okay, Homelander." Annie says sitting down.
"Can we get back to this, please? This is a serious crime. These assholes pirated my movie three weeks before release, and you can't walk down 5th Avenue without bumping into a table of unlicensed Homelander shirts. Copyright infringement is costing Vought $1.2 billion per year. That's money out of our pockets. We've all got, what, four points each?" Translucent says with anger.
"What the fuck? You got four points?"" A-Train was surprised and asked.
"And clearly better lawyers." Maeve said bored.
"Hey, hey, hey, guys, come on. Stop. What's Starlight gonna think? Listening to us haggling over nickels. We're The Seven, for God's sake. Whether we're out there or we're in here. Now, what I do want to hear is who you saved this week. Huh? Who's up for that? Black Noir. Let's start with you, man." Homelander said.
…
Hughie was asked to wait as seven is in meeting.
After half an hour, he was taken to the conference room by Ashley.
After entering he saw A-Train standing in the conference waiting.
But what he sees was not a normal A-Train but a bloody one, from the day he killed Robin.
"Just to be clear, A-Train's apology isn't an admission of any sort of culpability whatsoever. Do you understand?" Lawyer said.
"Hey man, I'm sorry what happened to your girl." A-Train apologized.
Hughie started to pant badly, as he heard laughter of A-Train from the footage in that secret hero pub.
"Hey dude are you okay?" A-Train asks.
"I, I'm okay, can I use the bathroom." Hughie asked after returning to normal.
"You can, but please do the paperwork after returning." Ashley said permitting him.
Ashley pointed to the bathroom's location and hughie follows it and sat in the bathroom.
"Should I do it or not?" Hughie asked himself, panicked not lowering down his voice.
An invisible figure heard the voice and was confused.
Hughie took out a bug from his mobile's back cover and held it in his hand.
Hughie gets out of the bathroom and returns to the conference.
While signing the papers, Hughie secretly sticks the bug under the table.
Invisible man bowed down and looked at the bug installed under the table and at Hughie's flushed face.
Hughie lefts the vought tower, with an invisible man following him secretly.
At night, they reached Hughie's shop.
Butcher asks Hughie to go to work, hughie confused nods and walked in his shop.
Before he entered the shop Hughie turned and tore the 45k dollar check saying that he is an asshole.
Butcher left.
Hughie entered the shop and saw Gary on the counter who nods to him.
After a few minutes, Gary stood up and asked Hughie whether he would close the shop.
Hughie nods to him and said to go home freely.
Gary thanked and walked out of the door, before the door closed, translucent enters.
Translucent walks in front of hughie invisible and showing him the bug.
"What the fuck?" Hughie cursed looking at the bug confused.
"Do you think, no one will know? Tell me who was that other guy, he put you up to this, hughie?" Translucent throws Hughie away and asks him, reading the name on Hughie's work card.
"He was an uber guy." Hughie says not to telling him about the butcher.
Suddenly a car slams in, hitting translucent to wall.
"Ain't it invisible c*nt!" Butcher say while stepping out of the car holding a crowbar.
Before translucent can stand up, butcher arrives in front of him and waves the crowbar in hand at translucent's head.
Translucent still half awake, moans in pain.
Butcher waved his crowbar again, hitting at translucent's head and not stopping until he became visible.
Butcher bowed and held the leg of translucent and drags him to his car.
He opened his backseat of the car, putting translucent in.
Manav was looking from the sidepath opposite of shop.
"Now's the time to invite visitors into my mind world and meet with a butcher." Manav said to himself and stepped ahead, walking to shop.
"Hello guys, nice meeting you." Manav introduced himself, standing in front of alert butcher and hughie, removing his hood slightly, enough for them to see his face.
…
On the other side, Homelander blews up a plane using his laser eye beams and smiles with satisfaction.