CHAPTER TWO | A CURE FOR LONELINESS

"you're better than all of them anyway"

1991

John—no last name—was five years old when Soldier Boy vanished from the public eye, having died a hero trying to stop a nuclear meltdown. Ever since then, Vought had been molding their next star in their secret labs, honing him to what they thought was perfection. Except as he grew older, he grew detached and took on less than favorable traits. He was barely a pre-teen when they realized their attempt at perfection was not only faulty but dangerous.

So, they started all over again—thought not from scratch—trying to right the wrongs they made the first time around. The first and foremost was: the presence of a true parent. A mother, in this case.

Instead of concocting their super-savior in a test tube, they decided to utilize their natural, available resources. Lydia Ellis was quick to volunteer. She was an esteemed scientist working under Vought and more than willing to be at the forefront of this new effort. Her uncle, Jonah Vogelbaum, had pioneered the efforts that led to the birth of John, and this time, he would ensure that everything was perfect with his soon-to-be great-niece.

Experts in genetic engineering were brought on to make their new subject elite in every way. They could only hope that she would be everything that went right with John—his outstanding abilities—with none of the behavioral defects.

Not long after Ariel was born, it became apparent that she had the potential to be the angel—the protector—they all hoped for her to be.

John remembered hating her. He met her for the first time a few months after her birth. She was looking up at him from her crib with wide, hazel eyes and all he felt was disgust. How could anyone love that, he thought. When Lydia Ellis and her uncle stepped out of the room for a moment, Jonah sent John a stern glance and a warning to watch his 'sister'. The blond child leaned closer to the baby and seethed in uncontrolled jealousy. "You are nothing. You are useless and weak. I could just—." But, he couldn't even finish his thought as all his anger boiled inside of him until red-hot beams shot out of his eyes and seared into the baby's flesh, ending her life before it could even really begin.

Except it didn't.

In shock, John stepped back, his eyes going cold and his mouth going dry. He couldn't hurt her. He wasn't able to. This baby—This thing that he had spent the last few months hating from afar was just like him.

At his shocked expression, the baby giggled and cooed, not minding the hole in her onesie. Suddenly, her own eyes lit up a blazing red, and beams shot out of the crib and into the ceiling. John lunged forward, covering her eyes with his hand, and all he felt was a tingle. He glanced worriedly at the baby's tattered clothes and the gaping hole in the ceiling of the million-dollar mansion, concerned about Vogelbaum's inevitable disappointment.

Bits of rubble fell to the marble floor alerting the adults who came running back into the room. "What happened in here?" Lydia almost screeched as she entered the room and saw the destruction.

"John," Jonah started firmly, but the boy cut him off.

"I didn't do it! She did." He answered quickly, gesturing to the baby as he was finally able to remove his hand from her eyes.

The adults exchanged a glance as they realized what he meant. But John was in a state of awe. "She's like me," he muttered to himself. Lydia continued to fuss about the state of the room, but Jonah heard him.

"Yes, John. She is like you. She's the only one exactly like you. Your equal." The older man told him. John straightened at his words. At them, he felt the intense hatred start to dissipate. How could he hate the one thing that could make him feel less alone?

May 2009

Ariel attempted to blink away the spots in her vision as the bright flashes from the camera imprinted on her retinas. It didn't take long, as there was no real damage done to her superhuman eyes. Her wide, genuine smile was still in place as if it had been painted on. But she was just that happy to be there.

All her life, she had grown up listening to her mother and great-uncle and the other higher-ups at Vought rave about her and how she would be the next big hero. However, she also heard the whispers when they thought she was far enough away that her enhanced hearing wouldn't pick it up. The whispers about how she was the "new and improved" and that the "mistakes" made with John wouldn't be repeated with her. She didn't quite know what to make of the comments. The young woman loved her brother, though she rarely got to see him growing up.

The time had finally come, for her to step into the position she was always meant to have as she was officially named a member of the Seven a month after her eighteenth birthday. John had joked that it was a belated gift to her, though Ariel knew that he didn't actually have any say in the decision.

Jade Warrior had been a fill-in for her for the first year the Seven was active, as the boys on 82 couldn't rationalize putting a seventeen-year-old on their premier super-team. The media would just eat that up, calling it child endangerment even though she was indestructible. They might be able to get away with it for Teenage Kix, but this was the Seven.

Ariel had taken a masterclass in patience over that year, wanting nothing more than to step up and be the person she was born to be. She wanted to help people. She wanted to stop bad people from hurting good people. She wanted to save the world.

Some called it naivete, but she was just optimistic.

"Alright, alright. I think that's enough pictures for now. She's not going anywhere so you'll have plenty more opportunities," John—Homelander—said to the paparazzi. His grin stretched across his cheeks almost unnaturally. Exaggerated 'awws' and groans sounded from the gathered crowd, some still yelling to get her attention.

Ariel was glad that John was leading her back into Vought Tower and away from the audience. She still wasn't great with crowds. The plethora of sounds could get overwhelming and sometimes it made her head ring like a gong.

John led her to the elevator and started it toward the 99th floor. "So, how ya feeling?" There was a teasing look in his bright blue eyes, eyes so different from her own.

"I'm okay," she answered. Her hands came up to twist her newly dyed, blonde hair. Because on top of all the other changes happening, Vought's shareholders thought it would be best for Homelander's sister to look more like Homelander. So gone was her warm, brown hair, traded out for the bright, ashy blonde. "Just nervous to meet everyone."

"Oh, you'll do great!" He exclaimed, resting what was supposed to be a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Besides, you're better than all of them anyway. They should be nervous to meet you," he added.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. It sounded like a joke, the words anyway, not the tone. No, his tone had an edge to it, something that made her think that he was serious. But, why would she be better than them? They were all heroes. All a part of the same team. She didn't want them to be nervous to meet her. She wanted them to like her.

The rest of the ride was in silence, not that John seemed to mind. Ariel, on the other hand, let the silence—in the elevator that is, because everywhere else was still loud—eat away at her nerves. She continued twisting and braiding and unbraiding her hair over and over until the ends had little kinks in them.

The elevator doors opened, and John started toward a set of double doors, the young blonde trailing behind him. He stood to the side, grabbed one of the large doors, and held it open for her. As she entered the large, spacious meeting room, she heard him enter behind her, announcing her to the gathered group.

"Team, meet Peacekeeper!"

Five other heads turned away from their previous conversation at the V-shaped table to look in her direction. John walked past her to pull out a chair beside his at the apex of the table. "This is your seat, Peacekeeper. Right beside your big brother!" She raised an eyebrow at him. He wasn't usually this... ostentatious. At least not with her. Now, it was like he was showboating for everyone in the room. She understood why he did it for the cameras, as there was always someone waiting to pick apart their every move in public. But weren't these his friends and teammates? She always knew him to have a bit of an ego, but this was different than how he usually was, even if he was trying to be lowkey about it.

"Hi, everyone!" she greeted. Her voice was soft and did not project into the expansive room as much as she anticipated. It made her seem even shier than she knew she was. She mentally scolded herself. Why was she shy? She should be confident. She was literally born for this.

She was answered with a series of hellos and nods. John still stood beside her, not satisfied by the lack of gusto in their greetings. "That's no way to welcome our newest member," he said. There was that slight edge to his voice again. "Let's just get the introductions out of the way. This is Queen Maeve." He started by gesturing to the woman that sat to his left, while Ariel's seat was to his right—his right hand. He continued down the line of seats. "And next to her is Velocity and the Lamplighter."

Ariel was familiar with the three. Queen Maeve had been the sole woman on the team prior to Ariel joining. She was a warrior and probably the best technical fighter on the team. Velocity was, of course, the fastest man alive. The blonde girl remembered when they televised the tournament for the title and how he had been declared the winner a few months prior to his appointment on the team. The Lamplighter was giving her a charming smile, his staff propped against the table, still blazing.

"Then on the other side we have Black Noir," he continued. The man at the end of the table, dressed all in black, silently nodded at her. "He's not much of a talker. And lastly—" Before John could introduce him, the last member stood, removing his expressionless helmet, and offered his hand to her.

"Phantom," he introduced himself simply. His lopsided smile gave him a boyish charm that made her melt inside. He was tall, taller than John by quite a few inches, and his curly dark hair spilled onto his forehead. Despite the domino mask that threatened to hide them, she was pulled in by his light-brown eyes that sent her heart racing. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too," she answered. Her voice was airy, capturing the pure essence of a love-struck teenager.

Neither of them noticed the way their team's captain tensed at the exchange, teeth grinding and eyes hardening into a glare. No, Homelander didn't like what was happening in front of him at all.

Present

Ariel was patrolling again, as she had taken to doing almost every night since she came back to the city. Daytime was for surveillance and plotting corporate espionage; the night was for kicking ass and slinking around in the shadows to avoid one of seven super-annoyances in the city.

Over the years, she'd gotten better at being able to single out certain sounds while almost muting others altogether when she needed. She could hear the planned busts that Vought organized with Crime Analytics, so she knew which areas of the city to avoid. She could determine the difference between screams of pleasure and those of pain from a mile away. And she could hear the commotion happening at the electronics store a few blocks down from where she was perched on a rooftop.

The revving of the engine was followed by the clatter of shattering glass hitting the linoleum floors along with a myriad of other things. The angry grunts and crude words exchanged reached her ears easily. Something big was going down and she needed to know what was up.

The brunette landed a block away, running the rest of the way to the building so as to not draw too much attention to herself. She walked up to the store, stepping over the pane of one of the shattered windows. "Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me?" she snapped. Her voice was distorted by the modulator in the helmet.

Her eyes landed on Hughie, who was much worse off than the last time she saw him, blood dripping down his face from his hairline. Hughie wasn't even the one she was surprised to see though.

Billy fucking Butcher staggered to his feet before her. She hadn't seen the asshole in years. She didn't know if fate was sending her a big 'Fuck you!' to her by having her run into him now, but it sure felt like it.

"What, princess? Not happy to see me?" He sarcastically shot her way, not even looking at her.

"Absolutely not," she bit out. "Every time I see you, it means shit's about to get a lot worse than it already is." She stepped further into the store, taking note of the invisible body with blood splatted across it. "Don't tell me that's who I think it is."

Ariel honestly had the worst luck in the world. She was going to get an earful from Aunt Grace for this one. Even if she didn't tell the former colonel of this situation, it was only a matter of time before she found out anyway.

"Fucking Translucent," Billy's rough voice rang out, confirming her thoughts.

The woman groaned and threw her head back in irritation. "Is he—Is he dead?" Hughie asked.

Billy sent a few powerful kicks to the supe's side. "Well, he ain't moving."

"Oh, fuck. Oh, shit."

"How'd you know the electric would do the job?" Billy asked with genuine curiosity.

Hughie looked pained as he tried to calm himself down. "Skin's carbon. Highly conductive. Saw it on, uh, Jimmy Fallon."

Billy shrugged, vaguely impressed. "Smart," Ariel commented.

"Would've taken me forever to work that one out," Billy added. "Good job. Let's get him in the boot."

That would've been a great time for Ariel to chime in and let the two men know that Translucent wasn't actually dead. She could hear his heartbeat after all. Hughie seemed like an innocent party, getting dragged into Butcher's schemes and she liked him well enough when they met earlier. But, Ariel was having a hard time deciding between bailing out Hughie or wanting to see Billy struggle later. Because she really loved to see him struggle.

"Wait, wait, what? Wait, what? What?" Hughie asked frantically.

Billy crouched down, grabbing Translucent's upper body with a grunt. "The trunk." He reiterated, using the American terminology.

"No, no, I mean, what are we—what are we—what are we doing with him?" Hughie was scrambled, barely able to form coherent thoughts.

"Well, Hughie, you just offed one of the Seven, mate." Ariel cocked her head, her eyes narrowed although they couldn't see them. Close, but not quite, she thought. She had decided to keep quiet and see how this all played out if only to get some amusement when Butcher realized he wasn't really dead.

"Me? I—You-You hit him with a fucking car!"

"Yeah, it definitely wasn't the car that did this," Ariel said.

Hughie waved to her. "Who-Whoever you are. Not helping."

"Look, potato, fucking po-tah-to," Billy started to argue back. "We're both in a shitload of trouble."

"That's fair," Ariel chimed in.

Billy glared at her. "Kid's right. You're no fucking help. You're just standing there while you're the only living supe in the fucking room, acting like we don't need to get this cunt in the goddamn car. Either fuck off or help us before I come for you next."

"Please... like you even could." She mumbled, knowing he could still hear her.

"No, no, no, we're not!" Hughie shouted, joining the argument again. "It-It's—He-he attacked us, okay? And you're-you're a federal officer, you know? Just-just call the fucking FBI."

Ariel burst into laughter, loud guffaws escaping her until she was leaning over, bracing her hands on her knees. "A federal officer?" she wheezed out between laughs. "This guy? In what fucking world?"

Hughie stared at her as she tried to catch her breath before his eyes looked back to Billy. "What the hell is she talking about?"

Billy grew quiet. "Yeah, o-okay, so, look, technically, I'm not a Fed."

"What?!" Hughie screamed. "Then who the fuck are you?!"

Sorry, this took so long to get out! I've had this chapter written since I published the last but due to the worst week of work since I started my job, I couldn't edit and post it until now. I hope you enjoy it. It's a little broken up, which I didn't like so much, and kind of short. But, it was necessary background to get into the thick of it.