The doors open once more, the usual morning rush along with The Boys. "Morning guys what can I do you for?" I say as I toss Homelander legs into Alexander, he'll have a hell of a kick on him.
"Is that the leg of who I think I think it is? I recognise that uniform anywhere." Butcher stood up in shock.
"Ah yeah, one of my doors appeared in something called The Seven's meeting room. So after I beat up The Deep, he came to kill me but my regular chopped off his leg and tried to kill him. Lovely lady, but never piss off a Demigod."
"You weren't having me on with the Demigod bit before? I need a whiskey, on the rocks." He sighed, but an idea came to his head, "How much for that leg?"
"Butcher what are you saying? Why do you even need it?" Annie asked, stupefied by him.
"Ohhhh I know, you want to test the supe virus on it!" Frenchie started laughing to himself, to which Butcher gave quite the scary grin, it send a weird shiver down my spine.
"This leg is basically like the holy grail then? So I want something unique to your world that's damn near impossible to get." They were all secretive and mysterious, so surely they have something in mind.
"How about we get you a little selection then? So we can have a peruse around what you've got" Apparently they have something in mind, works for me.
They take their leave, debating whether or not they should, but Butcher seems determined whether they like it or not.
I got an ASL and french dictionary from them along with some cash. The rest of the morning rush carried on paying with runes as usual, after all they ran out of new things to give or tell me a while back.
[Reading lv13]
[Cooking lv19]
[ASL lv3]
[French lv3]
One thing I've noticed with lv19 cooking is that, though I don't know a ridiculous amount of recipes, when I do they're always at a lv19 standard. So it's definitely one that I won't evolve as I can always toss my hat into the culinary world, since I can combine 2 different realms of ingredients.
A while later, I was doing what I do best and wiping the tables down when a redheaded woman walked in. She shakily stood there before saying, "Thank you".
[Ashley Barrett -
CEO of Vought
Currently in a state of manic relief]
"Take a seat Ashley" I gave her a smile and directed her to a stool. "What's your drink of choice?"
"Wine. Red wine." She was rubbing her face with her hands, ignoring that I just knew her name immediately,
I poured out some red wine from Castle Sol, Kalé traded for it a while back. "Gonna tell me what's happened?"
She drank the glass in one and begun, "Since you did that to Homelander, I've been able to sleep. I've been able to talk, I've been able to do my job. Better yet, I'm able to quit!" She waved her arms in the air like she could finally breathe, what a sweet lady.
"I want to clarify something, what happened to Deep was me. What happened to Homelander was one of my regulars, and now my former teacher. After that event though she did whip me hard enough to put me above that sadist. So I may as well make it clear now since you seem to know people, make it known that screwing with this bar is akin to screwing with the Gods. The evidence is Homelander." I lift up a Homelander leg to accentuate my point.
"He's got it all ready for us, look at that!" Butcher walked in with the entourage.
"That I do, I always follow through on my side. Yours waits to be seen." I signed along to what I said, getting a 'that's correct' from Frenchie and Kimiko.
"Hold on! What's she doing here?" Hughie pointed at Ashley.
"She's a paying customer, whose goals seem to align with your own." She looked back and forth between us.
"Doesn't matter, I got what you want and you got what I want." Butcher held up 2 vials.
[Compound V -
A serum developed in WW2 to create Nazi supersoldiers. Vought defected to the allies and it is now used in babies and rarely adults to develop powers.]
[Compound V24 (temp V) -
A serum developed to give anyone superpowers for 24 hours.
Long-term side effects include: Cancer, nausea, death, haemorrhaging, paranoid schizophrenia, hallucinations…]
"Perfect, catch!" I threw 2 Homelander legs at them, one for each vial. Butcher carefully slid the vials over to me, careful not to damage them.
"That's a deal well made" He pulled out a gun and shot the leg, the bullet crumpling on impact. "Just testing the merchandise."
I brought the vials to one of the fridges, separate from the actual food. Upon placing them in, they duplicated like everything else here. "So if Homelander and The Deep got their powers from Compound V, I could get really unlucky and get something way worse. I'll try one dose of V24 and then see if I want the full compound V."
Outside of Ashley's view, I injected my arm with temp V. It took a moment, but I begun to feel almost bundled together, like I could fall apart. And so I let it, as soon as I did a copy of me fell out of me, turning around to look at me, he said, "Damn, I'm the clone better luck next time I guess."
Definitely using the full compound, I'll wait until this wears off though. For now, I'll go and train, he can tend the bar. Walking past Ashley into the training room, she almost jumped out of her seat when my clone appeared in front of her refilling her wine.
Set on the goal of evolving my CQC, as I felt it stagnating at lv16, some dummies appeared, made of the same flesh as Homelander's leg. Straight punches and kicks were definitely doing damage as I felt it cave in after an extended time, so it is possible to beat him in hand-to-hand. To do so I would need a partner to distra- I can clone myself. I forgot about that, so I would win, especially since he's missing a leg now, and most of his groin area… Malenia violated him.
[CQC lv17]
Even as the next morning's rush came in, I needed to get as much in before the 24h runs out. Though I did stop to see what Ashley left as payment, it was just money, I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. I went back to training, hours and hours passed. I attempted every kind of strike I could think of from every distance and angle possible. Obviously, all of this was done with the sword on my hip, magic is useful unless they are already in your face before you blink.
[CQC lv20]
[Your ability in close quarters combat has now reached the peak of what is attainable. Would you like to evolve?]
I clicked no, throughout all of this I realised that I don't know a single style of martial arts. I could attempt to learn Alexander's Jar forms… I would look ridiculous, but it would give me an evolving boost.
"Hey, time's up." Just as my clone said that, he dissipated into my body flooding me with memories of the day gone by. Naturally, the first thing to do was inject a vial of the compound V into myself, permanently granting the one extra clone.
[Self-cloning lv5]
It counts as a skill now? That's dangerous, for anyone coming in here that is, along with that, my memories show Alexander regaling everyone with how he beat bloody finger Okina. So now I am in possession of an actual Katana, as edgy as it looks it's unfortunately the only one I have.
I set a clone to mimic Alexander's style of fighting whilst I wipe down everything in the front. Just as I finally finished, the door was kicked open.
"How dare you do that to my bro!? What did he ever do to you? He's still in the hospital!" He leapt forwards at me, I simply dismembered his arms and legs, having him fall face and torso first into the floor.
"You bastard! I'll slice your dick off and make you eat it!" A bit of a grotesque description. But then he started flying, head and torso only as his limbs slowly grew back, so I chopped them off again.
Now though, I walked forwards and removed his mask. Having his bloodshot eyes pierce into me now, I decide to amend that.
I place my hand on his eyes and use wipe.
Where once he had eyes now there was simply a graft of skin, and where there was once a mouth, it was skin. Screams muffled through his throat as I remove the new set of limbs that have surfaced.
I take the time to remove his outfit and then grab him by the hair and throw him out of the bar. Closing the door, I look down at the money making possibilities of the full suit and sets of limbs.
The difficulty of all of this revealed itself when I had to sew his suit back together, I was simply grateful I gave him clean cuts.
Setting it up on a new armour rack, the limbs were hooked in the meat freezer. It was about time now for lunch, after that I would be busy for the day again.
(Homelander POV)
Flying around because I'm god damned cripple! I look fucking ridiculous, one leg dangling down, the other is apparently being passed around the city like pass the parcel!
I decided to sit down in the main meeting room of The Seven, looking down at all my fans, my worshippers. Just as I relaxed, forgetting just for a moment what happened to my leg, that dreaded door opens, and Black Noir, or what's left of him is thrown out.
His naked body floated in the air as he screamed into his skin mask, his slow regrowing limbs twitching and writhing in pain. "Oh God… what did he do to you?" I poke a hole where his mouth would be and he immediately starts hyperventilating.
I fly him as quick as I can to the hospital, The Seven is falling apart, Sage warned us not to touch it again, but we want revenge.
No no no, we NEED revenge.