Homelander had given the little rock a lot of thought. He couldn't turn it into a bullet, he only had enough material for one, and if he missed, that'd be it. As it was, the rock was almost useless. It had no appreciable sharp edges, and it wasn't big enough to hone one on. Exposure alone probably wouldn't be enough to give him the edge he needed against Superman.

Eventually, John came to a conclusion. He'd tested the crystal, and found that there were a small number of materials its' radiation would not penetrate, even some of the hardest materials on the planet. So, John got one of the R&D guys downstairs to make him titanium-alloy knuckledusters with slots in the broad sides. He used his laser vision and sliced the crystal into thin sheets, then layered them inside the slots and covered the sheets with optically clear aluminum ceramics. Sure enough, the radiation still poured through. Exactly like he wanted it to.

"Ashley!" He said, barging into Ashley's office. "I need a new belt."

"Uh, what's wrong with your old one?" She asked, dumbly.

"Nothing, I just want one kind of like Noire's." He said, placing a USB drive on her desk. "And I want the compartments to be lead-lined." He pushed the drive toward her. "And I want it done tonight. Just match it up to what I've already got and we'll integrate it into the rest of the suit later. I'm due for a redesign anyways."

"I'll uh-" She stuttered as she took the drive. "I'll see what I can do!"

"Good!" John said with a fake smile. He placed a blank proof of his knuckle-dusters, one without the crystal implants, in the spot where the drive had been. "Make sure two of the compartments can fit one of these. One left, one right."


The van trundled along as its' occupants tried not to be crowded out by the weaponry and supplies. They rode along in silence for a while, until Annie leaned over to Hughie.

"So how did you fall in with these guys?" Annie asked Hughie in a medium whisper, not low enough to not be heard, but low enough it was obvious she was trying to not be.

"Butcher came to me after Robin died. She was uh-" Hughie took a hard swallow. "She was killed by A-Train."

Annie looked absolutely stunned.

"Vought has line-items in their budget for human collateral damage." Kent interjected, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Back where I come from, our heroes try to keep people alive."

Hughie glared at Kent. If looks could kill, that one could've.

"Butcher told me about that." Hughie continued. "Showed me... More things. Asked if I could get him some information from Vought when I signed their release. Didn't think it'd go anywhere. Then..." Hughie trailed off.

"Go on, son." Butcher said with a cackle. "Tell your super-girl what he did. What we did to 'im."

Annie's eyes grew wide. "You-"

"He broke into my store and tried to kill me." Hughie sped through the words as fast as humanly possible. "He beat me to a goddamn pulp and the only reason I'm still alive is because Butcher ran him over with a fucking car!"

"Your golden boys are bloody monsters, Annie." Butcher chimed in from the driver's seat. "It ain't just The Deep shovin' his cock where it don't belong. It goes all the way to the top. Translucent would've snapped wee Hughie's neck and Vought would've made it look like suicide over Hassell's hunch, so if you want to play the 'vigilante' card on us, you can shove it."

Annie opened her mouth to respond, but snapped it back shut.

"So, Mister Kent!" Butcher said, changing the subject. "You have any idea where the thing you need is?"

"I have a pretty good idea." Kent said over the rumble of the wheels. "After your encounter with the creature, Vought probably moved it to somewhere more remote, more insulated. I know a few Vought facilities that fit that bill, and a few more owned by shell corporations and subcontractors. We'll scout them out, figure out where it is, and steal it."

Hughie scoffed, and shook his head.

"Yeah right, like it's gonna be that simple." He said, sarcastically. "It's not like they're gonna let us in the front gate."

Frenchie and Mother's Milk glanced at Hughie, then at Annie.

"You can't be serious." Annie said, deadpan. "I just met all of you, you can't ask me to-"

"We're not." Kent interjected.

"Fuck yes, we are." Butcher said. "You wanna get rid of that mutant bag of licorice?"

"Well, yeah-"

"Then work with us on this." Butcher said, firmly.

"That won't be necessary." Kent said, just as firmly.

"Then-"

"'Ow are we going to power this tentacle once we get ahold of it?" Frenchie asked. "Not to interrupt your lovely bickering, but if we cannot make the 'orse go, we might as well not bother stealing it, no?"

"Superman has a miniature nuclear reactor we can use to provide the power." Kent replied. "I'll just need to copy the circuit Vought used to interface with the nerves in the limb last time so we can hook the two up."

"'Miniature nuclear reactor?'" Frenchie asked in disbelief. "And you expect us to-" He cradled his head in his hands briefly. "Monsieur Kent, do you look at me and see a miracle worker?"

"We don't need a miracle." Kent said, matter-of-factly. "We just need to hook a large-capacity battery up to a strange piece of technology. If Vought can do it, we can do it."

"King of the optimists, eh?" Butcher asked with a toothy grin and a chuckle. "What's the plan for the creature?"

"Judging by its' reaction, Yl'geth can tell when they open a portal, so it'll be able to tell when we do it. All we have to do is take it somewhere remote, where it won't do any damage and we can control the circumstances, then we open a portal to somewhere particularly empty. Maybe a black hole. Superman pushes the creature in with our help, and we never hear from it again. Then we set the portal to open to somewhere safe on my world, and you say goodbye to me and Superman forever."

Butcher craned his head to see something out of Hughie's range of vision.

"Would you look at that?" He said with a barking laugh. "Superman's got himself a fan at Vought Tower. They're shinin' his shield up in the sky."

Kent turned to look up at the spot Butcher was looking, then back to the road, unsteadily. A look of discomfort grew across his features, and he appeared to stifle a heave.

"Mister Butcher, could you pull over?" He asked, strained. "I'm sorry, I think I'm getting carsick."

"What, big guy like you?" Butcher asked. "Fuckin' 'ell, you got octopus lag or something?"

"I'm serious." Kent said, panting.

"Shit, he looks like he's about to pass the fuck out, Butcher." MM said, reaching over to Kent's seat. Kent recoiled slightly. "Easy, I was a medic in the army, I can help. Pull over, I don't want to smell his puke all the way to where we're goin'"


Madelyn Stillwell stood by the spotlight with the man of steel's symbol on it, looking intently across the dusky cityscape for any sign of movement, with a large case on a table next to the spotlight.

"It's funny seeing my symbol in the sky like this." A deep, warm voice said from behind her.

Stillwell turned to see Superman hovering above the top of Seven Tower with his arms crossed.

"Well, it was either this or engineering some sort of crisis, and I had a feeling you would've appreciate the latter approach."

"You guessed correctly." Superman replied, coldly. "What do you want?"

"That's what I'm here to ask you." Stillwell said, pointedly. "What do you want?"

Superman raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of question are you asking?" He inquired.

"I mean, 'what do you want?'" She asked again. "You have to want something."

"All I've ever wanted to do was help people."

"I mean in the short term, Kal-El." Stillwell said with a sly grin. "Don't you have somewhere you want to return?"

Superman stared at her studiously, almost wondering how she knew what she did. The silence grew uncomfortable after a while.

"Yes." Was his only response.

"Well then, I believe I can help you with that goal." She said as she opened the case, revealing a purple-tipped black tentacle. "The creature this belongs to is a threat to Vought's bottom line, and hardly any of my people can stand up to it. I propose a little team-up between you and Homelander to finish this thing off. Then, you can return to your world and never return to ours."

"Homelander and I don't exactly get along." Superman said, bluntly.

"Trust me, I have ways of making him cooperate." Stillwell said with a seductive smile. "He'll be a good boy this time. Homelander can read people's vitals a mile away, if you're as good as he is, I'm sure you can tell I'm telling the truth."

"Alright." Superman said, cordially. "I'm working on a plan to take this creature out. We can use this." He said, indicating the tentacle. "To open a portal somewhere in deep space near a black hole, throw the creature through it, and then open a portal to my world, and you can put Homelander back on the top of the list. One question."

"Shoot."

"How exactly are you planning to power that thing?"

"What do you mean?" Stillwell asked. "Vought makes the highest powered generators in the world. We used one to open the portal at the facility the monster destroyed."

"Yes, but that portal was around ten inches in diameter." Superman said. "We'll need a lot more juice to open it up big enough to send me through, much less Yl'geth. Fortunately, I have just the thing to get it started, but I'll need to set some terms before I agree to use it."

Both of Stillwell's eyebrows shot up in disbelief. "You're setting terms for your own trip home?"

"I feel like I might be in a pretty good position to. If you don't agree, you'll have to develop your own power source, and that'll take at least five years. Five years of Yl'geth wreaking mayhem across the planet... Five years of me being the world's most popular hero."

"Whatever." Stillwell said, shaking her head and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Fire away. What do you want?"

"Homelander can come help with Yl'geth, but no other Vought employees or contractors will be present. The rest of the support team will be handpicked by me."

"Name them."

"I think I'll keep that information to myself until the time comes." Superman said as he began to drift up into the sky. "Besides, they already agreed."


Hughie scowled, and looked down at his watch as he leaned against the side of the van just outside the convenience store they'd parked at.

"What the hell is taking them so long?" He muttered. "Tums, ginger-ale and saltines, that's all you fucking need."

"Easy, killer." Butcher said, taking a swig of water from a bottle he'd bought from the cooler near the register. "All that talk of what 'appened to the invisible cunt probably turned the poor man's stomach. Not everyone's as stone-cold as you and me."

A strong sonic boom sounded out in the sky, and all of a sudden, Superman was in front of them.

"Tell Kent there's been a change of plans." Superman stated. "Vought's willing to let us have the item if we work with Homelander to eliminate Yl'geth."

Butcher looked up at Superman, then over at Hughie.

"Hughie, remember what that thing did to his cotton-stuffed arse at Believe?" Butcher asked rhetorically with a toothy grin. "We might be lookin' at a repeat performance if all goes well."