'They're everywhere' Venom said, referring to the nonstop advertising of heroes he's seen ever since Hughie left the house. It's been about 4 hours since Hughie's conversation with his father and after acquiring a massive meal at Popeyes he's been content to just observe and learn about his surroundings.
Sure he's sorted through some of Hughie's memories, but actually viewing the world around him, sensing locations, people, objects, and whenever he wants to see the world in color, looking through Hughie's eyes.
"I know" Hughie whispered, knowing that Venom was referring to all the merchandise everywhere. "No matter the store you enter or place you go, every billboard, every product, every single day across America new things promoting heroes get released."
'How many heroes are out there?'
"Not enough," Hughie said while moving over to a TV and beginning to wipe it down. "Not enough to warrant it being everywhere."
[Translucent stopped a home invasion in Yonkers last night-] Jimmy Fallon is on, albeit at low volume but loud enough for Hughie's new senses to pick up on. Listening to the interview that just came on, Jimmy is recalling how Translucent saved a single mother and her two kids.
'When did they start appearing?'
"Supers?" Hughie questions, refocusing on the conversation he was just having with Venom, no longer listening to the TV.
"I don't know, humanity evolved not too long ago I guess? About 70ish years ago."
Venom hums in acknowledgment before saying out of the blue 'Listen to the TV.'
What? Hughie thought, confused as to why Venom suddenly shifted the topic. Refocusing back on the interview he hears
[- I don't actually vanish.] Translucent says while rolling up his sleeve and holding his arm up. [My skin turns into this carbon meta-material that bends light.]
'Bending light?' Venom pointed out, 'If someone bled onto him or sprayed him with paint his invisibility fades?'
"Yeah, I guess it technically would." Hughie affirms, "His skin also turns into Carbon which is highly conducti-"
Hearing the bell at the entrance of the store Hughie stops speaking to Venom. Turning around he sees someone gripping the neck of a nanny cam teddy bear.
He reeks, Hughie thought, the scent of alcohol being pungent despite his obscene amount of cologne. Is he drunk right now?
"Are you interested in a nanny cam?" Hughie says while walking toward the man. "There are cameras in the eyes and the bear's exterior is making it quite popular these days."
"Tell me," the strange man says, his accent British. Maybe Austrailian, "How many nannies shake their babies?"
"I'm sorry?" Hughie said confused. Where the fuck did that come from? He thought.
"You know, a good hard shake." The man continues while doing a demonstration. Turning around and facing Hughie he lowers the bear to the floor and finishes with "like tryin' to get ketchup out of a bottle."
Hearing Venom start chuckling and still not understanding why the question was even being posed in the first place Hughie stutters out "I-I don't really know."
'Say 15%'
"Funny that, they sell a billion dollars worth of that shit worldwide." The strange man continues in his Hawaiian button-up and tosses the teddy back on the shelf. His outfit is crazy, a trench coat over a Hawaiian button-up? Weirdo.
Walking towards Hughie the man is looking all around the store, at the TVs, all the appliances on the counter by the register, but never once toward Hughie. As he is doing all of that he says "It goes to show you, doesn't it? The bollocks people will believe if you make them scared enough."
Scoffing and feeling a little out of place Hughie replies "Cool. Cool, cool. Um . . Is there anything I can help you with?"
The man turns to face Hughie now, slowly, and while holding intense eye contact he says "I'm not going to piss you about Hughie, I heard what happened to Robin."
He knows what happened to Robin? Hughie thought while Venom stopped his laughing. Focusing his perception entirely on the man in front of him Hughie's senses pick up everything on the man. The gun in his waistband, the wallet he has, some small pocketbook, his keys, and the horrific cologne that is trying to mask the scent of the small bottle of Jack he has been nursing.
"She wasn't in the street. She was one step off-" The man continues noticing Hughie's intense gaze all over his person, understanding he now holds this kid's undivided attention.
"Who are you? How do you know what happened?" Hughie interrupts, with no stutter or change of tone while speaking.
"I'm someone who knows things Hughie, and I know you didn't take the payoff for her death."
"That doesn't answer my first question asshole, who are you?"
Taking a step back the man holds his hands up with an FBI badge and says, "Names Butcher. Billy Butcher."
Folding the ID away after he let Hughie briefly look over it Billy continues. "I was thinking you and me could have a little bit of a chat."
'How interesting...' Venom ponders, wondering how Billy found out about Robin's mishap with one of America's greatest heroes. 'Go with him.'
Turning around and heading outside Billy beckons Hughie over after seeing him not follow, it isn't till the nudge from Venom that Hughie starts moving toward him.
"So you're a fed?" Hughie says after a few beats of silence between the two. "You don't sound like a fed."
"What, I can't immigrate? There's a giant green slapper with her ass in the harbor that says differently."
'Listen to his heartbeat Hughie, he's not being honest about his occupation.'
Trusting Venom and wondering what Billy wants with him, Hughie tries drowning out the noise of the busy street life around him. His senses are continuously being suppressed by Venom so that he doesn't get overloaded, so manually controlling how powerful his own senses are is a difficult task for Hughie.
Listening to the cacophony of heartbeats around him he focuses hard on Billy's back, trying to pinpoint exactly which beat is his.
"So uh, what exactly can I do for you?" Hughie prompts after finding Billy's heartbeat. The drum-like noise slamming into his brain.
"No other questions about me being a fed?" Billy says, turning to Hughie with a surprised look on his face. "Never mind then. You see Hughie, it's not about what you can do for me. It's about what I can do for you."
"Did you know that supes lose hundreds of people each year to collateral damage?"
'Nice.'
"No way. Come on it'd be all over the news. People would be screaming bloody murder." Hughie said in disbelief.
Turning around and stopping to face Hughie, a smug Billy says "Sure there might be a mention here and there about it, like with Robin, but there's a fuck-sight more that happens that just gets swept right under the rug."
'So much Justice to go around.'
"Why?" Hughie says agreeing with Venom but not quite believing Billy.
'It's because they're idolized.'
"Ain't it obvious?" Billy says, unknowingly about to mirror Venom's response. Sweeping a hand out and moving in a half circle, Hughie follows Billy's movement, noticing the dozen Billboard ads for heroes in this small square alone. "Movie tickets, merchandising, theme parks, video games. A multi-billion dollar global industry supported by corporate lobbyists and politicians on both sides."
"But the main reason you won't hear about it is 'cause the public don't want to know about it."
They don't? Hughie thought, flabbergasted at the idea of the public not wanting to know their heroes' misdeeds.
"See, people love that cozy feeling that Supes give them. Some golden cunt to swoop out of the sky and save the day so you don't got to do it yourself."
Billy starts to lean toward Hughie's face, getting close enough that Hughie starts cringing from his enhanced sense of smell being destroyed. "But if you knew half the shit they get up to…" Clicking his tongue and shaking his head Billy says, "Fuckin diabolical."
"But then," he continues, stepping out of Hughie's personal space and pointing toward himself. "That's where I come in."
"Come in? To do what?" Hughie says coughing into his fist trying to expunge the stank out of his system.
"Spank the bastards when they get out of line." Billy says, stepping back into Hughie's personal space which Hughie quickly takes one back to lengthen the distance again.
"Spank? How do you spank a supe?" Hughie questions, while almost being able to feel Venom's curiosity at the answer.
"Come on, son," Billy says in place of an answer, abruptly walking away.
Whispering to Venom when he knows Butcher won't be able to hear it he says, "Should we follow?"
Venom chuckles and says, 'Do it. I'm curious to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.'
As Hughie starts following Billy, Venom continues with 'Besides, even if he wanted to harm us there's no way he could. He's no super.'
"How can you tell?"
'You'll know when you meet one, they'll be different from the other run-of-the-mill meat bags you see here.'
"And how do you know that?" Hughie whispers once again before jogging several feet in front of him to walk side by side with Billy.
'Because we've already met one.'
30 minutes of silence later Hughie says "Where are we" after they stop in front of some doorway in a random alley.
"Keep ya mouth shut," Billy says in response. Refusing to elaborate Billy knocks on the heavy metal door and after hearing the slider open he says "Harry. Got your message. Thank you for being an upstanding citizen."
"You know this is fucking police brutality. Come on man." Harry replies, with his heart rate through the roof and nervous pheromones being secreted from him.
Police? Venom and Hughie think at the same time, wondering just who Billy is.
'
"You know what they'll do to me, they catch me letting you in?" Harry continues, his hand on the door handle shaking from nerves.
Putting on a mean face Billy says "Not half of what I'll do if you don't." Slamming the slider on Billy's face Hughie can hear the man start to undo the locks keeping the door shut.
"Did he just say you were police?" Hughie asks in a quiet tone, making sure the guy on the other end of the door doesn't hear him.
"Yeah, you know, cop, fed, all the same to twats like that." Billy says, and Hughie can hear his heartbeat jump, hardly noticeable but Hughie did catch it. So that is what it feels like when someone is lying? Interesting.
When the door fully opens and Hughie is let inside, he smells a wide variety of curious things. The unique smell of sex, drugs of various kinds, alcohol, death. Such a diverse palate of scents he'd never be able to acquire otherwise, with Venom helping him understand what each smell belongs to.
'And there it is. Supes.'
"Holy shit." Hughie says, seeing these weird auras around a lot of the people in here. Some were faint and weak, and some were just meh, none of the auras were overwhelming or very strong. What do these mean? Hughie thought, wanting to ask Venom but not having the privacy to do so.
"Pick your jaw up off the floor and try to blend in." Billy says, dragging Hughie by the arm farther into the place. "This is where the Supes can scratch their filthy little itch without the paps taking snaps."
"I assumed this place existed," Hughie said, focusing back in on his conversation with Butcher."But I didn't expect it to be this depraved."
Walking past some A-Lister he saw doing a line of Coke, Hughie spots someone on one of the couches he recognizes and says, "Wait, that's Ezekiel. The pray away the gay guy."
"Yep, and now he's the meat in the Manwich." Billy says, watching Ezekiel stretch his body 15 feet across the room to land between two guys. "Fucking hypocrite."
Walking over his stretched torso, Hughie looks away from the sight and continues to follow after Butcher. Turning into a hallway Billy continues toward a door with the words 'Security' on it. Why would security need to be established in a building full of supes? Hughie thought.
Knocking on the door Billy says, "It's me, open up."
Hearing a man sigh on the other side of the door before the lock is undone, Hughie stands silently behind Butcher, wondering how he knows so many of the workers in here but deciding now wasn't the time to ask such questions.
With the door open and the two men going inside, Billy immediately says "Pull it up."
It seems Billy's already done this at least once, Hughie thought, taking a cursory glance around the room and determining that the only thing worth his attention was the security camera station.
Leaning over the man's shoulder Butcher says, "Go furver, furver, wait. There, stop."
Finding the spot Billy wanted Hughie notices that it's A-Train on the monitor. Is A-Train here? Hughie thought, wondering if he could settle the score right now.
'This is old footage Hughie, calm down. Look at the top right of the screen.' Venom interjects, noticing Hughie's spiking levels of anger and determination. Even without speaking to him, Venom ascertained that Hughie was ready to enact some revenge.
Taking Venom's advice, Hughie looks at the top right before voicing anything out to Butcher. Yesterday night, Hughie thought, after giving his speech about chasing two bank robbers and saying Robin stepped into the street.
"Turn it up," Billy says to the man, nudging him on the shoulder before taking a couple of steps back.
[I cannot believe you ran through a bitch.] Some random guy says. Dressed in nothing but a sash and speedo, he slams a bottle of liquor on the table while taking a seat.
Feeling the familiar burst of anger permeating throughout his body even before A-Train speaks, Hughie closes his eyes and tries to get a grip on himself.
[You want to hear something crazy?] A-Train says before chuckling a little, [I ran so fast through this bitch that I swallowed one of her molars.] Setting the drink down on the table and shaking his head he continues with [Like a bug on the fucking freeway.]
A Bug! Hughie thought, opening his eyes and grinding his teeth together. Robin has been reduced to a fucking bug!? Do these pricks not care about the people they're supposed to be protecting? To be saving!?
Hearing them laugh on the monitor is the last thing Hughie needs to stop holding back his anger. Advancing toward the monitor he gets ready to smash it before Billy grabs his arm and Venom forcibly stops his movements.
Billy wasn't strong enough to halt Hughie, but Venom was, and playing off the illusion that Hughie is not a supe can be useful in the face of someone who, allegedly, puts supes back in their place.
"Let go of me!" Hughie says his tone promising pain if Butcher doesn't. "They're laughing. Just… like she's a joke or something!"
"And we'll get them back for it." Billy says, still holding Hughie's arm. "So, what are you gonna do about it?"
Taking a few moments to answer Hughie contemplates the best course of action.
"We'll get justice," Hughie says, turning to face Butcher. Despite anger still being evident in his tone and stature, Hughie still keeps his composure and finishes with.
"Will you help us?"