Metropolis, on a world far away...
Lois held her grip on Superman longer than she probably should have, given he was still in his super-suit, and they were in public, but part of her didn't care. She was just happy to have him back.
"I've missed you." She muttered into his shoulder.
"I've missed you, too." Superman replied with a smile. "Let's go, before people start saying things."
Lois nodded as the tears flowed from her eyes, and reluctantly let Clark leave her grasp.
"I'll see you back home." She said, wiping the tears from her face. "Don't take long, okay?"
Clark nodded, and Lois darted away.
"Glad to see you back in one piece." Batman said.
Superman turned to face Bruce. "It's all thanks to their help." He said, motioning to the place where the portal had been. "Couldn't have gotten back without them."
Batman smiled. He knew Clark wasn't just being modest.
"I'm going home for right now." Superman said. "But later, I have something I'll need your help on."
Bruce raised an eyebrow.
"I want to rebuild the Phantom Zone Generator, and use the data I gathered to modify a Mother Box for interdimensional travel." Superman said, "I've got some unfinished business back there I'd like to take care of."
A while later at an undisclosed location...
Hughie sat around a large circular table with the others, with fingertips pressed together, and his elbows propped on his knees. He hammered a tattoo into the concrete floor with the insistent, impatient tapping of his foot. The others stared at him like he was an alien as his brow furrowed deeper.
Annie reached to put her hand on his shoulder, but Hughie shot up out of his chair before he felt her touch.
"You good, kid?" MM asked. "Ain't gonna help anyone if you give yourself a stroke."
"No, I'm fine. I'm just antsy." Hughie said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Trying to figure out what to do, you know? I think I have it."
"You think so?" MM asked, rising from his chair. "Look, I know how you're feelin', but-"
"No 'buts' about it." Hughie said, cutting Marvin off. "If Butcher's still alive, we need to find him. If he's not, we need to burn Vought to the ground, salt the earth, and burn the salt!" Hughie exclaimed. "Superman left us everything we need to do both of those things! I think he'd want us to do it."
"Hughie," MM replied in a measured tone. "I know that. But look around you. Everyone's scared, everyone's on edge, and everyone, including you, has something to lose, more than you'd think, even if things are as bad as they can get. If we go off on this shit half-cocked, everyone here could lose everything we've got left."
"I know that!" Hughie exclaimed. "But let's use the information we have! This stuff is huge! Bigger than anything we've ever had. Let's start thinking about what to do before the rubber hits the road at least."
"Oui." Frenchie interjected. "As stimulating as exchanging weary glances for the foreseeable future might be, I would like to make use of some of these aces we've been handed."
MM looked at Hughie, then Frenchie, then shrugged as he returned to the table. "Fine. As long as we're not jumping a bunch of guns, let's hear it. Lay our ideas out, maybe it'll help us stay cool."
"So, without Superman in the picture," Hughie began, walking back to the table. "Homelander is the biggest threat to us, to the world, to everyone. He knows what everyone looks like, he knows Annie was working with us, and he knows we were working with Superman. If we're not already burned, he's the guy who can do it, whenever he wants. We need something we can use to keep him off us." Hughie looked at MM. "You were talking about everyone having more to lose than we think. We need to figure out if there's anything, or anyone he values enough for us to twist his arm with."
"I don't think he cares about anyone but himself." Annie said, glumly. "And it's not like we have anything we could damage his image with. If we had video of him doing something evil, that might work, but unless one of you got a shot of him punching Superman in the head..."
"Stillwell." Frenchie said.
The others turned to look at him.
"Madelyn Stillwell has his strings," Frenchie continued. "Butcher's info and Superman's says the same thing, that she's got at least part of 'im wrapped around 'er finger. If we can get to 'er, we might be able to get to Butch-"
Frenchie stopped short as the door unlocked behind them. The group all snapped their attention to the door and stood from their chairs as it opened. Hughie, MM, and Frenchie readied their weapons, and Annie and Kimiko adopted fighting stances.
The door opened, and Billy Butcher walked through it.
Billy froze as he looked up from the lock to the room full of people at the ready.
"If I'm Tom Sawyering my own funeral here, I can come back later." He said with a toothy grin.
Hughie holstered his pistol and the others relaxed their posture.
"No, we were planning a rescue mission." Hughie said. "What the hell happened?"
Butcher walked up to the table, and set a duffle-bag on it, blinking his eyes hard as he did so. "Long story short, he let me go." He opened up the bag, and pulled a blue T-shirt out, and unfurled it to reveal a badly-printed version of Superman's logo on front. "Look at that, eh?" He asked with a barking laugh, and tossed the shirt to Hughie.
"He let you go?" Hughie asked incredulously. "You punched him in the face, and he just let you go?"
"Funny story, he doesn't remember that." Butcher said. "He actually doesn't remember much of what happened, so I told him tall, dark and ugly did it and Superman saved him."
"And 'e bought that?" Frenchie asked in disbelief. "Isn't 'e supposed to be able to sense when people are lying?"
"Probably just one of those things they talk up for publicity." Butcher said. "Either that or he's still weak from that cosmic radiation or red light bullshit that leaked through. By the way, if you were planning to kidnap Stillwell to use her as leverage, he tossed her off a building."
"What the fuck?" Annie asked.
"Had a big, self-righteous speech about it, too." Butcher said as he rubbed his eyes, and retrieved an expensive bottle of whiskey from the bag. "Bad news, he knows we're the ones behind the Translucent thing. Good news is, he doesn't seem to care about that anymore."
"Why the hell not?" Hughie asked as his brow wrinkled with confusion.
"Well, by my reckoning," Butcher said as he circled the table to where the others had placed Clark Kent's briefcase, and retrieved one of the photographic print-outs. "Either I hit him harder than I thought, or he's gone fuckin' mental. Spouted some bollocks about wantin' someone to challenge him..."
"Is that it?" Hughie asked. "Is he- Is he-"
"If you're gonna say 'crazy,' the answer is 'yes.'" Billy said as he slapped the print-out on the center of the table. "Because he brought me straight to Becca." He pointed to the other figure beside her in the picture Clark had taken. "And that little boy is the spittin' image of Homelander in person. Becca's son."
A hush fell over the table.
"Is he-" Hughie asked gently.
"Doesn't matter." Billy said, cutting him off. "Probably. Didn't get a chance to take a DNA test, Homelander dropped me off at Grand Central after about ten minutes with 'em. Knowing Becca, she ain't leavin' that place without the kid." Butcher looked down at the picture forlornly. "Not like he did anything to deserve Homelander as a dad. Fuck, not like I got to pick my father, either."
"So, here's the deal." Billy said as he retrieved glasses from the cupboard. "We're breakin' them out. Both of 'em."
"Just like that?" Marvin asked. "We're gonna drop everything to rescue Homelander's kid?"
"No." Butcher said as he poured shots into each of the glasses and passed them out. "We're gonna change our plan of attack, and we're gonna rescue my wife, and an innocent kid, so we don't wind up with another Homelander, if he does take after the cunt. Superman gave us everything we need to get to 'em, and everything we'd need to burn Vought, and that's exactly what we're gonna do. But before that, we're gonna have a toast to a job well done." Butcher raised his glass. "And to the job we're about to do."
Everyone else glanced around, but took the glasses, and raised them with Billy.
"To a job well done," Billy said, rubbing one of his eyes with the heel of his hand. "And to the man who brought Vought to their knees just by doin' the best he could. It's a shame he won't see it, but we need to remember..." Butcher squinted, and blinked his eyes rapidly. Hughie almost thought he saw Butcher's eyes start to change color between the blinks. "Everything we do from here on out was made doable by Superman."
"To Superman, then!" Hughie said with a wry smile.
"To Superman!" The others echoed.
"To-" Billy shut his eyes as his irises changed from dark green to a glowing golden orange. The glow intensified, and leaked through his eyelids. As the glow faded up, so did Billy's scream of agony. The Boys dove away from the table in a flurry of whiskey and breaking glass as a pair of golden lasers erupted from Billy's eyes. They sliced across the table, barely missing the precious laptop and briefcase Superman had left behind, but still slicing the table in two. Frenchie dove and caught Clark's laptop before it could collide with the concrete floor.
Butcher didn't know what the hell was going on, but he tried to calm himself down as the blinding golden light poured out of his eyes. He slowed his pained hyperventilation as much as he could, but as he did, he felt his feet leave the floor, and not long after, his back collided with the ceiling, sending his head flopping, and the beams of heat-vision with it.
"ANNIE!" Hughie shouted as the golden beams darted her way. In an instant, it seemed like Hughie leapt out of his clothing, and appeared right next to Starlight before the beams hit her. Like lightning, they were both gone, and Butcher's heat-vision sliced through the now-empty costume Starlight left behind as she and Hughie both reappeared across the room, behind Butcher, but completely naked.
The beams from Butcher's eyes shut off like a switch had been flipped, and he crashed to the floor like a brick, kicking up a cloud of dust and concrete chips on impact.
Marvin, Frenchie and Kimiko exchanged uneasy glances as Billy groaned and pulled himself to his feet, and Hughie and Annie rushed to cover themselves.
"What the fuck?" Marvin muttered under his breath as his eyes grew wide.
To be continued in Brewing Storms: A Crisis on Two Earths