Kimiko led the Boys as they ran out of the Iceberg Lounge. Like a lioness, she viciously mauled anyone in her path. The gangsters shot her, but their bullets did no lasting damage. She shoved her fist through one of the gunmen, feeling his heart in her hand. She pulled it out of the man's chest cavity. The gunmen stopped firing briefly, all horrified at what they had seen. Now their gunfire was much more sporadic and unpredictable. All while, The Boys returned fire at the gangsters.
They left the building and immediately ran into a dark alleyway. The shadows encompassed them as they hid behind a dumpster.
The gangsters paused.
"Should we go after them?" One of them questioned.
"You want to deal with Penguin and the rest?" Another gangster remarked.
"I'm not, but what if the Bat is there?" The nervous one brought up.
"Batman's not here!" One of them brought up.
"Yeah, but the rest of his family are there, aren't they?" The nervous one brought up.
"Well, they usually tend to hit less hard than Batman." Another brought up.
"You know what fuck it." One of them said heading into the alleyway. "If you guys want to tell Penguin how you pussed out go on ahead." He told them, flipping them off.
Soon a couple more went into the alleyway.
The Boys were hiding in a parking structure behind one of the cars on the first level. The criminals, had a couple of flashlights on them. The lights scanned through every part of the alleyway, scanning every dark corner.
Butcher signaled the Boys to change locations gesturing to the opposite end of the building. They slowly crept towards the other end, using the pillars for cover. They reached the opposite end of the building. Kimiko and Annie used their strength to tear the chainlink wall that stopped them. Frenchie was the first to go through, then Hughie, Followed by MM when they heard a pair of footsteps at the entrance.
"I'll search up, you search this level." A voice said.
"Alright." His companion spoke. His flashlight pointed at the opposite end of where Butcher, Annie, and Kimiko were gathered.
Butcher was next.
Annie concentrated and drained the battery of the man's flashlight.
"What the fuck?" He said as he slapped the flashlight trying to get it to work. Unaware Annie was three yards away from him.
Annie took advantage of this and climbed out of the building joining the rest.
Ryan stood before Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Martian Manhunter.
"The kids have told us a lot about you Ryan." Superman said.
"Really?" Ryan asked sounding excited.
"Indeed." Diana said.
"There you are, Ryan!" Stormfront's voice announced as she walked over to them.
The Leaguers were surprised to see her up and about so soon. At first glance, her face was spared from any bruises. However, upon further inspection, it was obvious that she was wearing makeup to hide her bruises.
"Stormfront." Superman said.
"I'm sorry to have to take Ryan off your hands, his father wanted to speak with him." She said.
The League hid their discontentment. Though Stormfront's smile seemed to show she was aware of their annoyance and relished in it.
"Sure." Superman said.
"Thank you!" Stormfront said.
"I mean with all that's been happening so far on your world that's okay." Flash said.
"Right." Stormfront said, her smile starting to shrink.
"Could you tell us, the supervillain who attacked you?" Wonder Woman asked.
"It was some zombie-looking freak, he was working with some burned guy." Stormfront replied.
"Grundy and Two-Face. You should have gone to Batman he would have known on what to do. He's had experience with both." Green Lantern said, trying to stop his growing smile.
Stormfront's smile strained slightly especially when looking at John.
"It never occurred to me, I'll be sure to next time." Stormfront said.
"To be fair, Batman was in the middle of an investigation." Flash said.
"True, I can't believe something so deplorable has been going on in your world for so long." Wonder Woman said alluding to "Herogasm".
It only lasted a microinstant, but Stormfront's expression soured before she caught herself. This did not go undetected by the much faster League. J'onn most of all seemed to notice this.
"What are you talking about?" Ryan asked sounding genuinely curious.
"It's nothing, well I'd love to stay and chat, but we have to go." Stormfront said shepherding Ryan away from the League.
As she walked away she saw the prone form of Bluehawk being carted over to the League. Stormfront glared at the sight.
"I know that guy." Ryan said.
"You do?" Stormfront asked.
"Yeah, Irey called him racist." Ryan said as he felt Stormfront's grip on her shoulder tighten. He looked up to her and saw her trying to contain her rage. It disappeared when she saw Ryan's nervous look.
"Sorry, just lost in thought." She said.
As the League watched on they began to strategize.
"Someone has to tell Becca." Flash said telepathically.
"I'll do it." Diana responded.
The Boys had beers at an Irish bar called "Noonan's". There were people playing poker and snooker there and not paying a lot of attention to their surroundings, not even the drunks singing loudly. The Boys sat at the table with the least smell of cigarette smoke.
"People here look kinda shady." Hughie said.
"That's why we fit in." Mother's Milk explained. "Besides, most people in Gotham are shady."
"It's just that in the Cauldron it seems a bit more- -" Hughie saw two drunk men fighting and the bartender broke beers on both their heads to knock them out. "Culturally influenced."
"Don't stereotype." Butcher said.
"What's the plan?" MM asked. "The Gotham criminals have a way in and out of our world, we need that, I need that."
"He's right." Annie said. "We can't stay here, my mom, Maeve, everybody I know is stuck at Earth-Seven with Homelander. And as far as we know, the Justice League may have given your wife wrapped like a gift to Vought."
Butcher gave some thought. He drank his beer before speaking.
"They'll need a chemist. Compound-V is probably child's play for the cunts they have working for them. Frenchie?"
"Scarecrow." Frenchie said. "Used to be Arkham Asylum's top psychiatrist. Made a fear gas and became a supervillain."
"Fear gas?" Hughie asked.
"Oui. Makes you have hallucinations with scary stuff. Maybe even your worst fear. He escaped from Arkham…" Frenchie checked his notes. "3 weeks ago, that seems to happen often."
Suddenly, a shotgun noise was heard. On the floor, the victim of the shot, a short fat man wearing a poorly fitted orange supe costume with a purple cow and a little hat. The man seemed wrecked, but not from the shot in the head, he was just fine from that, but from alcoholism.
"Goddammit, Sixpack." Said the bartender holding the shotgun. "I told you not to fucking come back!"
"I just wanted a drink!" Sixpack shouted as he got up. "How about some gratitude? I'm the guy who ripped off the Anti-Monitors arms! A few seconds earlier and the Flash would still be alive! Then used Anti-Monitors arms to beat up Doomsday!"
"Just get the hell out of here!"
The bartender shot Sixpack again. The impact didn't hurt him but pushed him out of the bar. Butcher watched the strange supe being taken out of the bar.
"Frenchie," Butcher said. "Who's that?"
"I have no idea." Frenchie answered.
"He's a supe. Maybe we ought to ask him a few questions."
"Really?" MM questioned. "You think that motherfucker knows something about Scarecrow?"
"Don't judge based on looks."
The Boys followed Sixpack out of the Noonan's where they found him talking to a homeless man wearing a long-sleeved white (mostly gray and yellow) shirt. The homeless man was shaking his whole body without control.
"Hey," Butcher said. "You have superpowers. You are a superhero, ain't you?" He had a grin on his face.
"Sixpack, leader of Section 8." He said. "Used to have no power but then I reshaped reality itself to bring my team back from death and make myself indestructible…! Which I learned is pretty fucking useless when you don't have super-strength."
"Look," Butcher showed his badge. "I'm FBI, mate. I'm going, to be honest with you, my boss has got her hand all up my arse because I was supposed to investigate the Scarecrow and got nothing. You wouldn't know anything, would you?"
"Scarecrow, funny you mention." Sixpack. "My friend here, his name is Shakes, he has the ability to create this strong wave that goes all through his body and manifests in shakes." Sixpack described what was actually an unfortunate combination of Tourette syndrome with Parkinsons. "The Fear Gas doesn't affect his power, it makes him stronger. So, when he's out, Section 8 assembles to find Scarecrow! And maybe get some stuff for Shakes. We have a list of possible hideouts at Friendly Fire's place."
Butcher grinned at MM, his way of saying I told you so.
"Fantastic, can you show us?"
"Can I see that badge again?" Butcher gave him the badge, confident Sixpack couldn't tell the difference between a fake and a real one. "Okay, let's go."
Aquaman was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean helping with a cleanup project. His command of the sea life allowed them to help while his connection with the clear protected them from any harm. So far, the cleanup was progressing quite smoothly. He brought up this effort with Mera, but she was ruling Atlantis in his stead. However, he estimated there would be another hour or so until it was completed. The volunteers, specifically the women amongst them, seemed uneased by his presence when he arrived. Arthur knew the reason for their discomfort and it had a buzzcut. Arthur sensed a dolphin coming their way, he could feel that it was tired and uncomfortable on account of someone riding it. The King of Atlantis let out a sigh before he overtook the Dolphin and enhanced its own natural strength to throw off the rider. Arthur heard a scream followed immediately by a splash before the Dolphin swam away.
"What the fuck Seabreeze?!" The Deep yelled out.
Aquaman looked straight ahead ignoring his counterpart.
"Your majesty! Hey!" The Deep said.
Arthur ignored him.
"Sorry to crash your volunteer work, I used to volunteer here." He said before turning to the other volunteers.
"You all remember me, right?" The Deep asked them.
The volunteers either ignored him or glared at him. There were some women in the crowd trying to get out of his line of sight. The Deep feigned ignorance.
"So how can I help?" He asked.
"You can leave." Aquaman bluntly told him not even looking at him, focusing his concentration on the cleanup.
The Deep was taken aback by this response before he began to laugh.
"Oh man, that's funny!" The Deep said. "Seriously what can I do?"
Arthur sighed his persistence was admirable, if not for the fact that it was from a depraved narcissist.
"You can help so long as you follow my orders to the letter." Aquaman said.
"Great!" The Deep said diving into the water.
Aquaman turned to the volunteers.
"If he goes out of line come to me. I promise you I'll make what The Rogues did to him look pleasant by comparison." Arthur said addressing the female crowd.
Mallory walked to her living room it was there that she saw Batman standing there.
"Jesus Christ!" Mallory angrily muttered to herself. She had just upgraded her home security.
"Is everything alright over there." The Legend said as came down the hall and saw what was going on.
"I need you to contact Butcher." Batman told her.
"People don't knock on doors in your Earth?" Mallory said.
"Butcher's made enemies with some of the most dangerous crime lords in Gotham City, they could all get hurt or worse." Batman told her.
"Butcher can handle some eccentric Soprano pieces of shit." Mallory said.
"Don't look at me if you want sympathy for Butcher on my account. The others you've got me there." The Legend told Batman.
Batman held out a manilla envelope.
"What's that?" Mallory asked.
"Photos from recent crimes authorized by those aforementioned eccentrics. Feel free to look through them if you want." Batman said.
Mallory rolled her eyes and took the envelope from Batman before tearing it open. Despite her years in the CIA she nearly froze like a deer in headlights upon seeing the first photo dropping it on the floor.
The Legend went up to her.
"Don't." Batman cautioned him.
The Legend backed off as Mallory regained her wits.
"He's not going to listen to me. They'll likely think you turned me against them." Mallory said.
"That's not what I want to hear." Batman told her.
"Well, it's the only answer you're going to get." Mallory said.
"I know you spoke with Waller regarding Soldier Boy." Batman told her.
Mallory's eyes widened.
"Oh, shit…" The Legend said.
"You wouldn't dare…" Mallory spoke up.
"Reveal top secret information to the public, yes I would. You helped peddle narcotics to minority communities all to fund a death squad. Operation Charly, that monstrosity happened in Earth-One as well. Communities even now are still feeling the effects. You and I both know you have very little left to live for, so you tell me why shouldn't I reveal that?" Batman told her.
Mallory tried to think of something to say.
"You were the one who discovered Herogasm, didn't you?" The Legend asked Batman.
Batman turned to The Legend."I'm sorry for interrupting you, but I just wanted to say that was some fucking godlike sleuthing! Even we could never a fucking cum droplet of proof about that shitshow." The Legend said.
Batman remained silent.
"I can see you need some time, I'll let you think it over." Batman said as he left the house and dropped a small electronic device on the desk, only one button in it, shaped like his bat-symbol.
"That guy's a real fucking talent, you would have loved to have someone like that wouldn't you?" The Legend told Mallory.
Mallory turned to the Legend glaring at him.
"Would you shut the fuck up," Mallory said.
"Grace I'm sorry to tell you this, but I think Butcher's fucked if he gets on that guy's radar. The fucker actually managed to uncover Herogasm, I worked with Vought and could never get a hush or peep of information on that soiree." The Legend told her.
"You don't think I know that, but we all know Butcher is not going to budge an inch even if I tell them to." Mallory said.
"So what are you going to do?" The Legend asked.
Mallory thought for a moment until she realized something.
"I have an idea." Mallory told him, the way she saw it was potentially killing two birds with one stone.
Diana opened the door to Becca's house. As soon as she made her way to the living room she caught the liquor bottle lobbed at her.
"Rebecca." Diana simply stated, she turned to Becca and saw that she was heavily inebriated.
"You… You… You lying sacks of shit!" She slurred.
Diana sighed.
"What's wrong?" Diana asked.
"You know that I miss Ryan, and want him away from Homelander. So what does that pointy-eared piece of shit do?" Becca rhetorically asked. "He shows me a video of my son bonding with that rapist monster." She said.
Diana knew that sending Bruce to show her the tablet was a mistake. She was going to have to talk to him about that.
"I'm sorry, Batman has never been a people person." Wonder Woman apologized.
"No fucking shit!" Becca told her. "I take it you are here, to deliver some more bad news." She flippantly stated.
"Stormfront has recovered from her injuries and has Ryan." Diana told her.
"Goddamnit…" Becca muttered.
"If it helps it appears Ryan does not accept her rhetoric." Wonder Woman said.
"It helps a little… You're not going to believe this…" Becca said bitterly.
"I have no reason to doubt your claims." Wonder Woman said.
"When I was at Butcher's base, I remember overhearing that they believed Stormfront was a hero known as Liberty in our world." Becca explained.
"Why the name change?" Wonder Woman asked.
"Liberty was around during the fifties and disappeared in '79." Becca explained. "I know it sounds bullshit, but…" She added.
"It doesn't. You're speaking to someone much older than her, in fact, presently speaking we have a man over ten thousand years old in custody in the Watchtower." Diana said.
"Really?" Becca asked, sounding surprised.
"His name's Vandal Savage. He was either some of the most infamous figures in our history or behind them." Diana said.
"Anyway, I think that might be worth looking up if it helps keep Ryan away from that cunt." Becca said.
"We'll keep that in mind." Diana said. "I know that this is extraordinarily difficult, but we are here to help your world. Exposing Voughts' lies is key to liberating Ryan." Wonder Woman said.
"Fine, just do it as quickly as possible!" Becca asked.
"Do you have any advice? Would you possibly know what Homelander would not want for Ryan?" Wonder Woman inquired.
"I remember he complained to me he does not want Ryan to be raised like a girl." Becca bitterly spat.
Diana rolled her eyes, of course, Homelander would be a misogynist on top of everything else.
"We can arrange for something like that, Supergirl should probably train him on how to use his powers." Diana said.
"No! I don't want him to use his powers!" Becca said.
"I understand your hesitance, but if he never learns to control them he could end up hurting people." Wonder Woman said.
"Haven't you tried to find a cure for Compound V yet?" Becca asked.
"We've looked into it it's surprisingly difficult considering how there are elements in it not common in our world. Ryan, however, is different from most seems that it's quite potent." Diana said.
"Fucking perfect..." Becca grumbled.
"By chance do you know who Homelander's biological father was?" Wonder Woman asked.
"No, I don't know. Voggelbaum and Edgar always went around any questions about that." Becca said.
"I see." Diana said. "I am greatly sorry this is not going well for you, but I promise that it will all turn around."
"Really like how?" Becca asked.
Diana smiled mischievously.
"On this channel, Vought has invited reporters from our world to issue an apology regarding the controversies about Blue Hawk, Herogasm, and other events. Homelander will be there." Diana said.
"A bunch of softball questions is supposed to make me feel better?" Becca asked.
"I can assure you some of the most notable journalists there are not going to ask softball questions." Wonder Woman said smiling.
"Homelander should be able to handle it." Becca said.
"In his current state of mind, no he wouldn't. He's clearly resentful of us being here most of all Superman." Wonder Woman told her.
"You think he might have an on-camera meltdown?" Becca asked her mood slightly improving.
"I'd say there's a chance." Diana said.
Several Earth-One reporters were inside the Seven Tower, Homelander could see them with his X-ray vision. Reporters were usually excited to be there, not them. Homelander heard two lady reporters sharing their disappointment on the Seven Tower being simply a corportative building, a far cry from the Watchtower or even the Hall of Justice. Ashley stood on the podium and adjusted her microphone.
"Hello, I'm Ashley Barrett, Senior Vice-President of Hero Management. It came to our attention that since news of our reality was covered by Earth-One, there's been a degree of distrust towards Vought. I'm here to make it clear that we have nothing to hide."
"Alexander Knox, Gotham Globe." Said a man wearing a trenchcoat and hat. "Don't you think it's ironic you say that after the Herogasm came to light? Puritanism aside, this thing seems to have ruined the lives of many sex workers and even people from your world thought it was just a rumor."
"Vought had nothing to do with said event. We assure you we were taken aback as much as anyone when the Justice League brought it to light. We have no control whatsoever over our heroes' intimacy, it's just sad that it resulted in so much pain."
"Gwyneth Tate, WHIZ-TV." Said a brunette with large glasses. "What do you have to say about all the heroes accused in the scandal who claimed Vought assisted them? One of them said you have, quote, 'A cleanup crew ready 24-7 just in case we kill chick while fucking.' Many others gave similar statements."
"That's purely a lie. Feel free to look for this clean-up crew, you won't find them, because they don't exist. Vought never tolerated this sort of behavior and it's sad these desperate men- -"
"And women." Tate added.
"And women, tried to shift the blame on the company that is here to protect the common public."
"Linda Park-West, WKEY Channel 4 News." Said an Asian reporter, she looked young. "The matter of Stormfront is yet to be addressed. One of your A-listers shares the name of a white supremacist website and her influence on extremist groups makes this quite relevant."
"First of all, all our heroes have fans, to label a section of them as 'extremist groups' is absurd. But in that regard, Stormfront denounces any support from openly racist groups and the reason why we didn't address this fact is that Stormfront is not a nazi and her name has no connection with this website. Matter of fact, our company recently removed superhero Blue Hawk once he was exposed as racist, I hope that serves as an example of how we do not tolerate bigotry."
"Vicki Vale, Gotham Gazette." Said a redhead reporter, she resembled a young Kim Basinger. "What about your stance on killing? Your heroes seem very inclined towards deadly force."
"Despite what has been said, the Seven are not judge, jury, and executioners. They only use lethal force when they feel like their lives are being threatened or that it is for the greater good. Same as Wonder Woman taking the life of Maxwell Lord. The fact is that super-abled people are not as resistant as meta-humans and can not afford to…"
Homelander stopped listening after these words. After the conference, Ashley approached him in the hallway.
"Homelander," She said. "You have an interview scheduled with one of the Earth-One reporters from the Daily Planet."
"Lane?" Homelander asked.
"No, her husband, actually, Clark Kent."
"Wasn't Lois Lane the number one reporter from their world?"
"Yes, but the Planet sent Mr. Kent."
"That's fucking disrespectful." Homelander angrily whispered. "I'm the greatest superhero of all and they don't send me their greatest reporter?"
"I'm so sorry, I can cancel."
"No," Homelander interrupted. "Just roll with it."
Homelander met Clark Kent, a big clumsy man in glasses who towered over most people, however, he soon noticed that Kent's size only made him clumsier. Alongside Kent was a freckled face redhead young man, his bow tie and vest made him look from a different time. Homelander took a look at his watch, which had Superman's logo on it.
"Clark Kent, Daily Planet." Clark said.
"I was disclosed about you, Mr. Kent." Homelander said as he easily played his part with a confident smile. "And you, James Olsen."
"It's Jimmy. Photographer," Jimmy photographed Homelander. "Columnist and Superman's best pal. Between you and me, do you have a version of me here?"
"Sorry, pal, I think things here are a bit too serious to have one of you." Homelander explained. "Love your watch."
"It's my signal-watch." Jimmy explained. "I use it to call Superman when I need help, but he can't hear from a different universe."
Jimmy demonstrated pressing the signal button. Homelander felt what he thought a human would feel if somebody put a drill through his eardrums. The loud noise echoing from Jimmy's wrist made waves of pain hit Homelander's head.
"Turn it off!" Homelander demanded, lighting up his eyes. Jimmy immediately obeyed.
"I'm sorry." Jimmy said, shaken by the pain Homelander demonstrated. "I had no idea this would happen, you have my apologies."
"It's okay." Homelander quickly put back his smile and went back to his part. "I can take much worse than that."
That was a lie.
Jimmy later took pictures of Homelander in front of the Seven's statues and at the conference room where he and Clark had their interview.
"While eliminating a super-terrorist in Africa, the use of your laser-vision caused the death of a young man." Clark said. "You believe this is an acceptable price for safety?"
"Wow, that's a hard ball you shoot, Clark, maybe I judged you poorly. The answer is absolutely not. That was a real tragedy but the blame should be put on the supervillain who made necessary the use of my powers around civilians."
"Your powers were much beyond that supervillain. Couldn't you bring him alive?"
"You expect us to go after these guys, sing kumbaya, and hope for the best? The perception of people from Earth-One is… Misguided. We don't have a magical portal to send supervillains to Wonderland when we can't hold them."
"It's called the Phantom Zone and is only used in extreme cases. But you actively eliminate criminals by Vought's command. In the video of you with the milk bottle…"
"That was regular milk!" Homelander lied.
"Yes. However, we saw you can control your powers but still used your laser-vision at full blast on that occasion."
"You don't know what it's like having these powers, Kent. If I constantly held back I'd be living in a world made of cardboard, who can live like this?"
"You, apparently. But that doesn't seem to stop you from doing what Vought demands from you."
"The American people know why I do this. And it's not for Vought, it's for them. What happened was a tragedy, but would it be less tragic if it happened here? Because that's what would be happening if I wasn't here. No green alien ever tried to shrink my city but that's the kind of thing coming from your world. What people from our America should be questioning is: Would that be a risk if Superman had lasered his enemies in half? If that laser hit an innocent, that would be tragic but which tragedy would be greater?"
The cleanup was a success, Aquaman shook hands with the leader of the effort, Samuel Rose.
"Thank you for your help!" Sam said.
"It's no problem." Arthur said.
Arthur noticed Sams' eyes widened in concern, Arthur took notice of this and saw the Deep pouring lighter fluid on a pile of recyclables he fished out.
"What are you doing?" Arthur questioned.
"Getting rid of this." The Deep said.
"By burning it?" Aquaman asked incredulously.
"Yeah, I mean it's not like polluting the sky will harm the oceans." The Deep said without a single iota of irony.
Aquaman knocked the canister out of his hand.
"Okay, we can do it your way." The Deep said immediately brownnosing the King of Atlantis.
Aquaman grabbed The Deep by the collar of his costume and pulled him close.
"Cease your brownnosing, you and I are not friends and never will be." Aquaman said.
The Deep stood silent."I know that you only regret the fact you were caught for what you did to those women." Arthur said.
"That's not true. Look…" The Deep looked around and spoke quieter. "I have gills, they're disturbing to look at and I can't look like that." He pointed to Aquaman's abdomen. "I only ever did that to prevent them from mocking them." The Deep defended himself.
Arthur rolled his eyes.
"What kind of pathetic excuse is that? I don't care how horrible they are to look at." Aquaman said.
The Deep tried to remove his shirt as an excuse to show him.
"Stop." Arthur told him.
The Deep obliged.
"I also know what you do to sea life when not leading them to their deaths." Aquaman said.
"I don't know what…" The Deep said.
"Don't lie." Aquaman threatened.
The Deep was silent.
"You are a sexual deviant of the highest order. You will never be in the Justice League nor will you be allowed in Atlantis." Arthur told him.
"Dude… Your majesty, I don't know where you heard this but internet rumors are…"
"They told me." Arthur interrupted. "I explored your oceans when I first came to your Earth, I had sea creatures mistaking me for you and making… Advances."
The Deep stood there in embarrassed silence.
"What do I have to do, man? Tell me!" The Deep pleaded as he grabbed the leg of the King of the Seas.
Aquaman freed himself with little effort.
"If you have to ask me after all I've told you, then you will never know." Aquaman said.
"This is the place?" Butcher asked.
"Sure is!" Sixpack said, opening the door to a run-down interior. Inside was a man wearing a red and yellow costume.
"Everyone this is, Friendly Fire." Six-Pack introduced them.
"What the fuck, Sixpack?" Friendly Fire questioned.
"Relax he's FBI. They're looking for information regarding Scarecrow." Sixpack explained.
"Oh alright, there's some info just over by that desk there." Friendly Fire said.
"Thanks." Butcher said.
"So why do you call yourself Friendly Fire?" Hughie asked.
"I want to be a superhero and I have powers, they're great powers…! If I could control them.." Friendly Fire said. "Helping Section 8 from a desk is the best I can do without hurting my friends."
Butcher overlooked a map of the city with pins sticking in at various locations. He took a picture of it on his phone before writing the addresses on the notes app.
"Thanks, you lads are a credit to the superhuman community." Butcher said a smirk on his face.
The Boys left the hideout.
"You found where he might be hiding?" Mother's Milk asked.
"I have a general idea." Butcher said.
"Nooo…" Frenchie said gaining everyone's surprise.
Butcher pulled out his gun expecting someone was on their tail, but couldn't find anyone. Frenchie looked deflated as Kimiko tried to comfort him.
"What is it?" Mother's Milk asked.
"They busted Herogasm." Frenchie said.
"Oh shit, really? I'm sorry man." Mother's Milk said, sounding genuinely surprised.
Hughie and Annie on the other hand were bewildered.
"Herogasm?" Hughie questioned turning to Butcher.
"Annual orgy event held by B-list and C-list supes. It's a fucking shit show from what I've heard, more battered and dead hookers than meets the eye. Witnessing it was always something on Frenchie's bucket list." Butcher explained.
"Yeah, how many years had it been around?" Annie asked.
"When we split up it was sixty, so probably sixty-eight. Just a year shy from sixty-nine." Mother's Milk remarked.
"Such a special number." Frenchie added.
Butcher decided to look up more news from their world from his phone. He found an article that grabbed his attention showing it to Hughie and Annie.
"Here's something you two might like." Butcher said, showing the article of A-Train and The Deep's defeat.
Both of their expressions were mixed to Butcher's surprise.
"I heard about these guys at the museum The Rogues they fight the Flash." Hughie said.
"In those outfits?" Butcher asked.
"Their leader, the Inuit-looking guy, is called Captain Cold. He has a gun that I thought was an ice ray at first, but it's supposed to be a cold gun." Hughie explained.
"So an ice ray." Mother's Milk said deadpan.
"No it's like, I can't really explain it, but apparently it freezes stuff so cold that everything it's pointed at slows down." Hughie said.
"That's crazy!" Mother's Milk said.
Frenchie seemed to perk up out of fascination upon hearing that.
"Guess that's how he stopped A-Train." Hughie assumed.
Annie showed an article to Kimiko from her phone causing her to smile.
"Stormfront was beaten up by a supervillain it's assumed to be Solomon Grundy according to someone who leaked it." Annie explained.
"A-Train is in the hospital for something, apparently he crashed a celebration for the Flash. Apparently, Flash built a big ass number of houses abroad." Mother's Milk said.
"What country?" Annie asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"A lot." Mother's Milk said.
"The Seven are getting spanked, anything regarding Homelander?" Butcher asked.
"There's a meme making headway here of him floating up in the air doing nothing. Apparently, some kind of monster attacked the city, apparently, this was after Superman used his arctic breath on a building to prevent it from falling." Hughie said.
"Arctic breath?" Butcher asked.
"Superman has the ability to blow huge gusts of wind and can also freeze stuff." Frenchie said.
"He's sulking because he's down a superpower." Mother's Milk said.
"I'm assuming he didn't try to even fight the monster because of that?" Butcher asked.
"Wonder Woman killed it before it nearly killed Queen Maeve. Someone in the crowd insulted Maeve, weird enough, the guy doesn't even remember that." Hughie said looking over to Annie who seemed rather saddened by this.
"Good." Butcher said, smirking.
"How is that good? Maeve has her issues, but she's still better than most of the Seven." Annie defended.
"Did you get her to help us?" Butcher asked.
Annie glared at Butcher saying nothing.
"Point proven." Butcher remarked. "Right, let's set fire to this Scarecrow." He said.
RIP Kevin Conroy (1955-2022)