Hello everyone. Back again with Omni Boys. I really appreciate all the reviews you guys wrote. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
New York, Vought Towers
Outside Vought Tower Homelander stood behind a podium, flanked by his teammates. 2 of whom had light make up on to depict the 'injuries' they sustained in battle. In front was a bunch of reporters from different networks. He tapped the microphone to test it before speaking.
"Yesterday, around this time, this country was invaded and attacked." He started looking out towards the audience. "Now this attack was not by a foreign power, or any current terrorist organizations. So far we have counted 2, possibly 3 different individuals, individuals that have obtained powers. Powers which up until now have been relegated to Vought Heroes."
"My teammates, Black Noir, Queen Maeve and A-Train investigated a crash reported by a concerned citizen. What they found was a beast unlike any other, we do have video footage but much of it was lost during the action. We also have the incident which occurred at a shopping mall during the event with Ice Prince and Ice Princess."
"Now we are still gathering information. But we believe this is the first stage of an attack, for what purpose we have yet to find out. Like Pearl Harbor and 9/11 we were caught off guard, but rest assured we at Vought are doing everything we can to find these individuals and stop them."
"We shall defend our country. No matter what enemy we come against and no matter how much pain they try to inflict upon us. We are your heroes and we will protect you." He finishes, then in a split second reporters begin shouting questions.
New York, Upper East Side
In a studio a crew was getting ready for a photo shoot, lights and cameras were being placed. People running around, trying to accomplish their individual missions for their job, knowing they'd be fired if they didn't.
One woman however was not like this.
She was attractive with black hair in her mid twenties. She had a robe on as individuals were doing her hair, makeup and the nails on one of her hands. The free one was occupied with a cell as the woman checked her social media. Even before the shoot started people were already filming her.
Soon enough they all finished and walked away to get out of her way. "Ready?" A man with a headset asked and he received a nod from the woman of the hour. "Great let's go." The man turns around and heads towards the set. But he looks back after he hears a whooshing sound and see's the model was gone. He then screams in horror.
Roof
The model looks around notices she's on top of a building and looks around frightened. She eventually comes face to face some sort of black and blue creature with sphere's on it's feet, a tail and a helmet.
"Holy shit!" She screams as she jumps back.
"Not here to hurt ya." The raptor thing speaks through the closed helmet. The visor opens up to reveal a blue skinned alien. "The name's XLR8, like the letters and number, not the word accelerate." He introduces.
The woman just has her mouth agape and doesn't respond. "Not a talker, that's fine I know who you are. And frankly don't really care that much." XLR8 says. "I just need you to film me on the insta-live thingamajig." He tells her.
"What?" The woman replies, looking down at her phone confused.
"Well I need to get the word out that aliens like me are not here to cause trouble." He begins to explain. "Where I'm from Facebook doesn't exist let alone all that other stuff. So I need to find someone with big enough cloud stuff, or whatever it's called, to help." He finishes.
"So you picked me." She replies, pointing to herself.
"Well I was trying to find The Rock , but he's filming a movie somewhere so." XLR8 tells her. "You on the other hand we're basically bragging about modeling for a what was it." Taps his chin. "Cheese Saint Lawerence." He guesses.
"Yves Saint Laurent." She corrects him.
"Whatever doesn't matter." He shrugs. "Look can I have your help?"
"If I say no?" She asks.
"Then I have to go find those singer girls. Ariana Grandi and Nick Mirage?" The alien replied.
"Ariana Grande and Nicki Manaj." She corrected him again, and like before he wasn't phased.
"So will you help me?" He asked, then when he saw her hesitance added. "Please." She finally relented with a 'ok' then started live streaming.
"We rolling?" He asked and when she confirmed he cleared his throat. "Uh hi." He greets with an awkward wave. "Uh... Wow I really should've written this down."
"You should see the comments." The woman tells him.
"Comments? Like what?" He asks, totally clueless.
"Well some are calling you a freak." She informs.
"I've heard worse." He shrugs off without a care.
"One person say's you should be an extra in the Predator series." She tells him another.
"Is that a compliment or an insult?" XLR8 asks.
"One wants to know if you're an experiment gone wrong?" She lists.
"Oh I'm actually an alien. This is just how they look on their planet." He answers. "Call me-" He starts before moving around quickly in view of the camera. "XLR8." He finishes. "Like X, L, R and 8 not the word." Though he didn't see it, multiple people complimented about his speed and his name.
"One wants to know if I'm being abducted." She tells him.
"Nah I don't do that. I just needed someone who could help spread the truth about me." He explains.
"And that is..." The model drags on, though it's unclear if she's asking the question or one of the viewers.
"Oh right!" XLR8 gasps in realization. "Right now the red, white and blue Homeboy of America is trying to say that the aliens you've seen are invading. For one thing they're all one person, me. I was Diamondhead when I crashed m Upstate, I was Wildmutt when his three goons attacked me and I was Heatblast when I was fighting in that mall." He tells them.
"I'm also not invading, I was born in America, maybe not this dimension's America but still. I just gained the ability to turn into these hero's. Real hero's not wannabe's who try to make a quick buck."
"And while these Vought money grabbers are doing tours and signing autographs I'm gonna be doing the real saving. Not the staged kind that was supposed to happen when I was Heatblast. Because for me when lives are on the line, (lowers the visor) it's Hero Time!" He finished before running off.
"Did he just leave me?" The model asks, camera still rolling.
"Actually I just did that for a dramatic exit. Time to go back." XLR8 speaks before whisking her away.
Scene cut
In the same studio set people were running wild. They had just lost their star and everyone was panicking. Until another whoosh was heard and the model returned. "Oh thank you lord!" The manager cried out when she returned and they began the shoot.
Scene cut
Ben walked out of a store with an apple as it's logo. He just bought a new phone and finished setting it up. After the incident at the mall he needed cash, so he turned into Grey Matter and invested in stocks. He did have to spend the night in the park with a nice hobo that was in something called A.A.
But by morning he had a Bank of America account with six figures. Then he bought a place in Manhattan, the lady at the desk asked if was pulling a "Home Alone" which he never heard of. He then had to pay an extra 10 percent so she wouldn't call the cops and overlook that he was a kid.
As he was scrolling through his phone he saw a news headline. "Kylie Jenner abducted for Instagram." It read, with a picture of the woman. "I knew it was something with a 'K.'" Ben commented as he kept scrolling.
A new headline popped out. "Gunpowder shoots down prostitution ring." Upon further reading Ben saw that Gunpowder, a gun advocate supe, busted a massage parlor whose main business was really prostitution. Unfortunately it housed a bunch of Asian women who were abducted from their respective countries. Meaning they are going to be deported unless they are granted asylum or have the proper paperwork. Which none will likely get or have. At best they'll sign a deal to incriminate themselves that will buy them some time.
Despite only knowing the basics of Vought he knew there was something else going on. So Ben decided to take a little trip to the most horrific place he's ever known. The Library. (DUH DUH DUH).
He was able to walk in just fine and luckily for him he found an area with nobody in it and a few computers. Granted it was the kids section, but that wasn't important. What was important is that there were no cameras by the old Dell desktops. "Time for a little brain power." He whispered with a smile as he went under the table.
A flash occurred and Ben became Grey Matter. "Time to go to work." The Galvan spoke as he began hopping around the computer and after a few minutes was nearly done. "Now to leave a trojan and the program will be done." Hits enter and a completion bar appears and after a few moments reaches 100%.
"Now for phase two." Grey Matter say's before sending an email to a legal clinic specializing in cases like housing court and immigration. "Lilly Choi, hmmm. Harvard graduate, immigrant family that's making seven figures, before that growing up poor. Her reviews." Reads what people have said about her. "Stubborn okay, committed nice and oh that is some colorful language. She'll do nicely." He finishes before directing the message to Ms. Choi.
"Now can they handle it?" He questions before researching the clinic. "50,000 cap for each case, most go into settlements, only 1 class action that was won in court." Keeps reading. "Oh limited funding. Let's change that." Begins hacking into bank accounts. "Interesting, guess that Bozo guy was real after all. Net Worth 151.9 billion, he won't miss a few million."
"And done." Grey Matter say's with a smile before hopping off the computer. "Now to aid Ms. Choi."
Scene Cut
In a legal clinic an Asian woman was working tirelessly on a case. A single mother was being forced out of her home after the company her late husband worked at claimed the insurance said she didn't qualify because it was suicide, not an accident. But the Fire Marshal, Detective and Inspector confirmed that the fire was caused by improper wiring. Still she didn't give them any loopholes to use.
"Hey Lilly. Got a minute." A young man called out, rushing out.
"Busy." She spoke not even looking up.
"We just got a big case and it's for you." He continues, before handing her a thick Manila folder. "It involves Gunpowder and that prostitution ring." He informs.
This peaks her interest and she takes the folder and opens it. What's inside it shocks her. It's a mug shot of one of the girls, then list's their name, country of origin and her US citizenship status, which was fully approved. It also states she is in the custody of either the NYPD or ICE under illegal circumstances with no phone calls or legal counsel. A complete infringement of their rights. This goes on for dozens of pages.
"Shit." She gasps flipping through it.
"Nathan is okay if I take this?" She asks, since the last big case she took on the clinic almost got shut down.
"Right now he's on the phone with the bank making sure that the 20 million dollars that we just got wasn't a joke." He tells her instead, further widening her eyes. "Whoever the fuck sent us this wants you to take it."
"How do you know?" She questions.
"The fact we just got messaged that the cases you're working on are requesting a change in attorneys here." He answers, before pulling out more papers. "And these." Hands her another fold labeled 'For Miss Lilly Choi' on it.
Lilly opens it. "Holy. FUCKING shit." She gasps in shock. Inside was a warrant 'signed' by three judges and 'approved' by both the governor and senator. After that was a picture of gunpowder from a CCTV camera going inside the massage parlor days before. Next was a note, 'Go get them right away, before Vought does.'
"There's no fucking way this done legally." She says, knowing that this is too good to be true.
"Well it'a legally legit." He tells her.
Lilly then gathers all the legal materials and begins walking out. "I'll be back later." She simply says.
ICE Detention Facility (A/N Don't really know how these work so just guessing)
Lilly walked up to the front desk, going past the lines of relatives and other lawyers then headed straight to the door housing the IA's. She was immediately stopped by a guard. "Ma'am you can't go in there." A slightly overweight guard told her.
"Unless you want this entire agency sued, you'll get me your superior because at the moment you have dozens of my clients in custody who are legal American Citizens." Lilly told him.
"Lady please just go wait in line-" The guard tries to order but is cut off when tries to grab her.
She slaps his hand. "Excuse me according to code (lists off a bunch of numbers) unless I am making a physically threatening gesture then you do not have the right to touch me. Now I can charge you for assault." She informs him.
"Ma'am please." The guard tries again, his patience wearing thin.
"Get me your superior." The lawyer tells him. "Because in one hour I'm going to press charges for wrongful arrest, harassment, incompetence and 20 other crimes which come with arresting kidnapped women and witness tampering legal American citizens. The penalty which is millions of dollars per plaintiff should the accused and anyone involved afford it. But for guys like you that's jail and you losing all your benefits."
The guard had nothing to say.
"Get me. Your superior. The head hancho. The big cheese. Tell him Lilly Choi has a class action against both the NYPD and ICE with air tight evidence against the two." She orders. "You have 5 minutes." The guard just stands there and she adds. "Starting now!" And he walks away.
Much later, Legal Clinic
The Clinic was empty, save for Lilly Choi. It had been a long day for the lawyer. After the guard brought the man in charge she showed him the folder full of names that she received earlier. Naturally he was flabbergasted since he checked their green card status and saw they were never even registered for it.
He did call her out on the miraculous citizenship and she explained that he could check. Which he did and found that within 12 hours they were all suddenly granted American Passports. He did say he was gonna release them in a few days but she got them a spot in a women's shelter for that night. As well as legal counsel to advise them of their rights and citizenship.
After that she headed toward the NYPD precinct and threatened them with wrongful arrest, harassment, forced confessions and violating civil rights if they did not toss their statements. They called her out on blackmail, but she stated that in a court of law since none of them got a phone call or lawyer any confession or testimony was inadmissible. Especially since there was reasonable doubt and probable witness tampering. All charges related to the prostitution ring were cleared for them as they were kidnapped and forced into it.
Her next step was Gunpowder. He knew of the prostitution ring and even paid for their services but only stopped it when cops were close to sniffing it out. However all the criminals were killed, couldn't talk or paid off. But bad publicity for Gunpowder was bad for Vought so there was definitely gonna be an attempted payoff. Now she was waiting for that payoff, with only a camera and mysterious new friend as her security.
"Nervous?" A techno like voice asked in the ear piece behind her hair.
"You scanning my heart rate or whatever?" She asked, while going over the documents.
"Don't need to. You're about to meet some sleezy corporate slime ball that will do anything to keep their money and power. Plus he's bringing a lawyer to." The voice responded.
At that moment a man wearing a suit came in, and he came in alone. "Lilly Choi." He spoke upon seeing her. "Thomas Rand, from Vought." He introduces while holding out his hand.
Lilly looks behind him and see's no Gunpowder. "Where's Gunpowder?" She asks.
"I've been given power of attorney as he is dealing with important matters at this time." Rand answers.
"This'll be easy." The voice comments in Lilly's earpiece.
"Now let's begin." Rand says as he sits down and opens his briefcase. "Let's start with-."
"5 million dollars per client." She interrupts him.
"What?" He asks in shock.
"Five million per client." She say's again. "Also has to be on the DL no way Vought is gonna spin this into some charity thing. Gunpowder is also gonna be using rubber bullets as his primary choice and he's gonna take his donations from Samaritan's Embrace to the shelter those women are staying at. And finally he's gonna move away from his stance on pro guns and is instead gonna start supporting laws to restrict peoples access to them." She finishes.
To her surprise the man chuckles. "Bold, I like that. But naive, look the highest I can go is 70,000." He countered.
Lilly smiles at this. "You must think I'm an idiot, because if you think I'm gonna budge there's no way. Take it or I'll announce the court date tomorrow."
"Bullshit." Rand replies.
"It's not." She tells him.
"You take this to court you'll lose." Rand tells her. "You have nothing except the words of women who aren't even citizens and have gone through traumatic events and were involved in the crime itself."
"Wooooow." Lilly drags on. "They really do hire from anywhere." Slides him several documents.
He opens them and sees the legal citizenship status of all the women. Then see's that all their confessions they signed have all been tossed. And finally see's CCTV photographs of Gunpowder entering the establishment days before the raid. "Circumstantial." He plays off.
"So you're telling me." Lilly begins. "A bunch of testimonies from kidnapped victims and images placing him at the scene of the crime are all fake? Because let me tell you something, if I can bluff a Fortune 500 company into pleading guilty and make them pay back half a billion dollars with nothing but bullshit then I can put Vought out of business by next week with fucking shit like this."
"You take this to court, we'll cut your funding, bury you in paperwork and delay this for months and appeal for years." Rand threatens.
"Well it's a good thing my schedule cleared up and we just got a 20 million dollar donation, all in advance." She tells him. "Plus a guarantee that more is coming."
"I never said I was gonna get you more." The voice tells her.
"They'll never go for this." Rand say's.
"They don't have too." She replies then gestures to him. "You said it yourself you were given power of attorney. Meaning you sign that they have to follow it or I can sue them for both things."
"Now sign or else there will be legal consequences." She threatens, then at that exact moment a green dot appears on the man's tie. He seems to have taken notice of this and looks around frantically. "Something wrong?" Lilly questions with faux ignorance.
"You'd really kill me?" Rand asked, and before he goes any further the door bursts open. Stepping in was Black Noir. He immediately takes out a knife in throws it. While it's in midair one of the camera's shoots out a laser destroying the knife.
Noir looks at the camera and some sort gooey substance comes out and morphs into a body. It was a mix of white, and black with green circuitry lines. On it's stomach was a familiar symbol. "Not so sharp are ya."
Black Noir didn't speak, instead he took out more knives and threw them at the alien. Upgrade's eye lit up as he fired his optibeam blowing up the knives.
"Jesus!" Rand cried out as he and Lilly ducked down.
Noir then began menacingly walking over towards the alien, ready to get up close and personal. Upgrade charged however, but not at the Vought supe, but to the computers. Once there he placed his hands on two of them. The color scheme immediately morphed into his and suddenly the cords became tentacles that launched at his opponent.
Believing himself to be impervious to the attack Noir let the tentacles wrap around him. However he soon had a tough time breaking them so he stopped and put more strength into it. This allowed Upgrade to morph the screens so that guns popped out which fired lasers at Noir. The impact sent Black Noir crashing into the wall, leaving a huge hole.
A few moments of tense silence followed. Since the commotion stopped Lilly and Thomas rose up from their cover and looked at Upgrade and then the smoking hole. The alien turned to Lilly and asked. "Your insurance covers this right?"
Before she could reply Noir's hand shot out of the hole to pull himself in. Immediately Upgrade readied his computer guns and optibeam to fire at a moment's notice. But Noir didn't attack, he just stood there, with his front kevlar burnt off and smoke coming his chest.
"Wanna go again?" Ben asks with confidence.
Noir replies by pulling out a phone and he began typing. He then flipped it over and it showed Upgrade firing at a walking Black Noir, twisting the narrative. When it's over he points at Thomas, indicating he wants them to sign Vought's deal.
"Blackmail really?" Upgrade sighs, then his head morphs to one of the security cameras. Then he projects the entirety of the events onto one of the walls, when it was over he say's. "That's why I was in the camera, so you couldn't pull one over on me."
Noir's reply is silence.
"Also you guys need to remember, there's one weakness you all have that I don't. That includes Homelander." Upgrade speaks, causing Noir to tilt his head in intrigue. "Reputation." Pause. "You all care about it I don't." He tells him.
Just then Noir's phone rang, after two rings he answers it and soon points it Upgrade. The alien hero then relaxes a bit and shoots a tentacles to grab the phone and comes face to face with a older blonde woman. She start's talking but no sound comes out.
"I can't hear you?" He say's and she presses something on her end, but there's still no sound. "Still nothing." Ben comments. The woman appears to swear in frustration as she starts typing things. "Oh wait." Upgrade raises the volume. "My bad, I accidentally muted you on my end."
The woman takes a breath. "Hello. I'm Madelyn Stillwell, I'm Vice President of Super Human affairs at Vought. Here's our new offer." Ben doesn't let her finish, instead he hangs up, drains the battery and tosses back the phone.
Noir catches it.
"Sign that or we keep fighting. Then cops will come, unless the paparazzi or anyone with a working phone shows up first." Upgrade begins to tell him. "Then they'll want to investigate what happened, then it would look suspicious if on the night Vought goes to meet a famous lawyer she goes missing or disappears. Sure you can blame me but Vought is gonna have to be investigated and if both Lawyers goes missing to that gives them right to search the tower top to bottom." He lays it out.
"So sign it, honor it and leave her alone and next time we fight it'll be easier for you to spin it against me." He tells him plainly. Noir is quite for a few moments before he looks at the terrified Rand and nods. The corporate lawyer scrambled to his feet and signs the deal Choi offered. Thankfully it's still in one piece and on the desk. With that Noir walks away casually as Rand sprints.
"Wow you really weren't lying when you said you were the best." Lilly comments straightening herself out.
"Do I look like a liar to you?" Upgrade ask's detaching himself from the computer and popping the camera out.
"Well you did steal 20 million dollars and hack into US government files." She reminds him.
"That's true." He admits.
"You know you're supposed to deny that by saying allegedly." She replies him, not expecting him to openly admit to committing crimes.
"Well you're my lawyer so now it's privileged information." Upgrade counters. "Right?" He asks, not entirely sure if he just incriminated himself.
Vought
Madelyn Stillwell tossed the tablet on her desk with a swear. First the incident upstate, then the mall and now one of Vought's own heroes had to do a complete 180. Which means less constitutes to support putting Supes in the military.
Just then Stan Edgar comes in. "I take it that something went wrong." He tells her, knowing the answer.
"We just lost Gunpowder's fan base." Stillwell tells him. "And he's pulling from Samaritan's Embrace and he's gonna be paying even more money than he donated to them."
"He's also gonna support laws and policies to prevent people from getting guns. The complete opposite of our demographic to get Vought Heroes in the Armed Forces." Edgar adds in.
"Noir failed." Stillwell tells him plainly. "He never fails. Which means we need to take care of this quickly."
"First of all it's not a we problem, it's a you problem." Edgar corrects. "Second of all, the solution to this is simple. You get Gunpowder a new fan base, one that shows that Vought heroes are politically diverse, but share the same goal." He tells her.
"Finally." Edgar begins. "I want that alien shapeshifter brought in alive."
"He'll never go for that." Stillwell tells him, referring to Homelander.
"We need to know how one single individual is obtaining multiple powers that has beat 3 members of the Seven and publicly humiliated two other members of Vought." Edgar reasons. "This is my company and this is a direct order. This Shifter comes in alive, no matter what. I don't care what some spoiled, self entitled man child wants."
"He's America's hero and we are a hero company." Stillwell responds.
Edgar chuckles and replies. "So you've been working somewhere else this entire time."
"What?" The blonde replies not understanding.
"You, just like everyone else here, are under the delusion that we are a Superhero company." He begins while gesturing to the building. "We are not. What we are in fact is a pharmaceutical company that is disguised as that. Homelander is not our biggest asset, that is the vials of Compound V. So bottom line is, we lose all the hero's we can make twice as many more." Takes a pause and walks to the window.
"It wasn't to long when Soldier Boy was this country's greatest Hero." He resumes, while looking down at the statue. "But before that it was Wrench and unlike Soldier Boy he actually fought. The V he was induced with just enhanced his combat skills, and he served in North Africa, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany in some of heaviest fighting.
"Why are you telling me this?" Stillwell asked, not seeing the point.
"Because you need to know the harsh truth that Homelander keeps denying." He starts to answer, then turns back. "He's replaceable. They all are. Soldier Boy, Wrench, every member of Payback, all were considered either one of the best or the best. Then suddenly nobody cares about them, the Seven is just this generation's flavor of the month." He concludes, before walking out.
"Alive." He emphasizes before he closes the door shut.
"Prick." Madelyn say's before her work phone rings. "Hello." "So you've heard."
"Well you know what to do." She says before hanging up.
Next Day
On the streets of Manhattan a truck full of money was driving crazy to avoid the cops. However it wasn't the cops that stopped it was a red skinned, four armed alien jumping in front of the vehicle, stopping it with his bare hands. The criminals inside then gave up and were waiting to be arrested. However at that moment Homelander touched down.
Fourarms looked and saw the supe with the American flag cape. "Well well well. You're trespassing." Homelander calls out.
"Well someone has to be the real hero and it's not you." Fourarms replied.
"Who are you?" Homelander asked, giving him a once over with a face showing he wasn't impressed.
"Right now, the name's Fourarms." The Tetramand introduces himself.
The blue eyed supe chuckles at this. "Four arms?" He replies amused.
"Better than Homeloser." Fourarms counters.
"This is your only warning." Homelander begins. "Turn yourself in or I drag you in." He offers.
To his surprise Fourarms bellows out laughing. "HA HA HA HA OH HA HA HA." He cries as he uses his two lower arms to clutch his lower abdomen. After about a minute he wipes a tear and replies. "If you think I'm gonna give up to a bunch of jealous greedy wannabes than you're a bigger dweeb than I thought."
Homelander smirk's "In that case." Then in a blink of an eye he closes the distance throws a punch at him. This sends him flying into the truck the criminals used, thankfully nobody was in it. This action caused everyone nearby to stop and look.
Homelander then turns to Maeve and smiles arrogantly. "See wasn't that-" Gets cut off when the same truck he punched Fourarms into is thrown at him. It didn't do much, but it did distract him so that Fourarms could run up and deliver a two armed punch. Mimicking what Homelander did before to him.
Homelander got back up from the pavement he crashed into. "Nice shot." He comments as his eyes began to glow red.
Ben noticed this and quickly grabbed an empty car to throw. Homelander merely fired his heat vision at the vehicle, but since he hit the gas an explosion happened right in front of him. "Seriously." He scoffs, brushing off any debris.
As Homelander dusted himself off Fourarms, who jumped up when the explosion happened, came down right on top of him. Causing the blonde to fall on his back and be pushed into the pavement.
"Yeah!" The Tetramand screamed as he soon began delivering multi armed punches.
Before Homelander could stop him, Queen Maeve shoulder tackled the alien off of him from the side. Though due to his size and her having less strength than Homelander she only made him go back by several feet. The Amazon like warrior then ran at the alien, intending to pay him back for the incident upstate.
Fourarms then tried to swing at her with his right arms, but she leaned back to dodge. Then delivered a punch to his exposed side with her left fist. Before he could recover from that Homelander flew straight at him and threw a punch, sending the Tetramand into the side of a building.
"Ugh." Fourarms groaned as he pulled himself out of the brick wall while rubbing his head. "Wish Grandpa and Gwen were here." He spoke to himself as he shook his head to get rid of the ringing.
When he regained his footing Ben saw that Homelander and Maeve were both taking their time walking towards him. He also saw Homelander's cape flowing to the side a bit and had an idea. "If that's all you got then you're dumber than your outfits. I mean who's the idiot who thought having an American flag as cape was a good idea, it's just tacky and lacks imagination."
Unbeknownst to Fourarms Homelander's eye twitched.
Fourarms starts walking as he talks. "You also basically embody the ideal Nazi. Blonde, blue eyes, with a might makes right mentality. No wonder anyone who knows how to use more than 2 brain cells thinks you're losers."
That did it.
Homelander flew straight at Fourarms in anger, ready to go straight through him. But to his shock the Tetramand was able to lean to the side and grabbed his cape. The cape was made of an expensive special polymer that was infused to the suit so it wouldn't rip or burn. At least not very easily. So when Fourarms pulled the cape he threw him on the pavement. The alien then kept lifting and throwing Homelander via, his cape, like a pioneer trying to dry clothes on a rock. This prevented the blonde hero from trying to recover as he kept getting pulled in one direction and thrown down in another place.
At some point Fourarms had his back turned from Maeve, which she tried to take advantage of. But when she was close the alien used Homelander as bat to send her to the side of a building.
Ben then began spinning Homelander round and round for a bit until he let go with a. "Yeuh." Tossing the caped hero down 2 blocks, skipping the ground like stone on water several times. Miraculously nobody was hit since just before Homelander arrived an inspector with an accent called in a dangerous potential gas leaks in multiple areas. So the authorities cleared those but were unable to check when Fourarms, Homelander and Maeve began fighting.
Fourarms turned to the hole that Maeve made when she was hit into it. But when he saw her she was talking into an earpiece instead of fighting. Someone was giving her orders to not to fight.
Meanwhile Homelander was fuming as he stood back up. "Go Homelander!" He heard. "Get that sunburnt shit!" Another. "You're the shit." Another. "He's just a pussy with little dick." With his eyes glowing red he slowly flew up and then launched himself at Fourarms from an upward angle.
The Tetramand stood is ground and waited. Timing it just right he clapped both sets of hands to make a large boom sound. Not only did all nearby glass shatter, but because of Homelander's hearing it was the equivalent of a person hearing a sonic boom at close range.
Grabbing his ears and shutting his eyes in pain Homelander lost his concentration and his flying became more erratic. Which slowed him down but was able to adjust to despite the pain and ringing. Slamming into his torso Homelander crashed into Fourarms creating a trench as they went across the pavement.
Both self proclaimed heroes then proceeded to slowly get up. Homelander couldn't hear anything besides a prolonged ringing. Fourarms was breathing heavily and knew he needed to book it before this guy either captured him or worse. But he couldn't just run, and it was too noticeable to just change into human.
Then they ran at each other (in normal speed) colliding punches, creating a shockwave that pushed them both back some distance. Homelander into an empty street that was cleared and Fourarms near a crowded area of civilians, all with their phones out.
Fourarms then saw large a truck carrying a large amount of dirt was abandoned nearby. Seeing his chance he went over, picked it up and waited. Homelander, not caring if civilians got hit, fired his heat vision and Fourarms tossed the truck at the beams. Since the Tetramand adjusted the throw so that the heat vision would hit the gas it exploded. Creating flames near the civilians, though still a safe distance, and a giant cloud mixed with smoke and dirt.
The smoke and dirt screen covered where the civilians were and people started running while covering their mouths hoping to not inhale it. During which a red flash appeared and those not blinded by the screen could only make out that Fourarms form was gone.
Homelander, with his hearing nearly better, flew by and tried to look for his enemy. But even with his sight there was no large red, four armed muscle man. Just panicked ants (people).
"Fuck." He grits out having lost his target.
Short while later
As Ben walking in the sea of New Yorkers he felt someone grab his left shoulder. "Don't scream." A man simply say's in a British/Australian/New Zealander accent, while guiding Ben in a different direction.
The 10 year old glanced down at his watch to see that it was recharging at red. "Planning on shifting to some flying fucker, well don't." His possible kidnapper spoke again. "Cause if ya do that flying cunt is gonna set about clobberin' ya."
"Who are you?" Ben asked.
"The only fucker that want's those shit heads at Vought to be taken down more than you." The man answers.
"Do you have a nickname?"
"Fuck off." The man answers, while looking around to make sure nobody was eyeing them.
"Later then fuffy." Ben told him, swinging his watch arm into the man's crotch. This caused him to let out a grunt, giving Ben a chance to run. Since everyone else was leaving quickly it didn't look as suspicious and Ben was able to quickly blend into the crowd. While he may have gotten away, he was unaware of the tracker.
Vought Tower
The Seven were in their meeting room discussing today's events when Stillwell walked in. "What the fuck was that?" She asked not even bothering to be polite. "You said you would bring him in."
"And we will." Homelander answer's with a stern expression.
"Today." Stillwell reminds him. "You said you would get that fucker today."
"I said as soon as possible." Homelander tells her.
"Either way you screwed up." Madelyn affirms. Then goes to their tv and turns it on.
On the screen was Kylie Jenner being interviewed for E! News. "At first I was like terrified cause I was basically just kidnapped. Then when talking to him it just seemed like he generally wanted to share his story and that he was here to help."
"Now did he threaten you or-?" The interviewer asked?
"No actually." The celebrity answered. "He even offered to send me back if I didn't want to."
"Why do you think he chose you?" Was the next question.
"Um cause I'm famous." The model answers simply with a chuckle. "I don't think he really knew who I was or my family, just that I had a lot of followers." Laughs. "He actually said he wanted The Rock, but I was easier to find."
"Really?"
"Yeah. He said I said no he would go find Ariana Grande or Nicki Manaj, but didn't know their names." She continues.
"Oh my."
Stillwell then hit mute and glared at Homelander.
The Seven just chuckled. "So what. He talks to a Kardashian, big whoop." He shrugs off not impressed.
"She likes him." Stillwell points out. "She and her family have a huge fan base, so now he has a huge fan base. Especially since an hour after fighting you, a big bug called Stinkfly saved a window washer. Then after that a little grey frog calling himself Grey Matter snuck in court, and brought a file showing some obscure law that stopped the closing of a community center."
"So?" Homelander questions, not seeing the problem.
"The window washer was ours and is suing us for endangerment. That community center was being shut down by the city, but we were gonna show up and save it. But now it has 90 more days where they don't even need to pay for bills, which means delays on the Vought brand Community center." Madelyn clarified.
"Offer the guy 5 figures to drop it and and just wait the 90 days." Homelander said, seeing the solutions easily.
"Does your idiot brain get by on stupid?" Stillwell asked, and before he can reply the VP continues. "The bug told him only settle if we agree to replace the equipment with brand new ones. And we already signed the contract for the construction, but now we have to pay for the extra 90 of nothing which thanks to Harvey Specter we can't get out of." She tells him.
"It can't cost that much right?" The Deep asks. Being the first of the other members to interject.
"So glad you asked." Stilwell replied, feeling cheery. "Because since capturing him was your responsibility any damages Vought has to pay for from now on is coming out your paychecks. Starting now."
"What!"
"Bullshit!"
"Fucking kidding me!" Soon erupted, all with upset tones. Noir just shook his head and counted his blessing that it didn't start before his previous mission.
"Now hold on!" Homelander called out and they all turned to him. He then got up and began walked around the table. "Look I underestimated him. That's on me and I'm sorry." Pause. "And to show how sorry I am, I will personally pay for the damages."
"You're serious?" Stillwell questioned, honestly expecting that.
"Get it writing if you need. But until we catch him, just take out however many Benjamin's, Jackson's and Washington's you need from me." He assured her.
"Me too." Deep calls out.
Homelander turns to him with a smile. "Thanks Deep." Goes back to Madelyn. "Deep and I will cover the damages."
"Alright. I'll tell the board." Stillwell accepts.
"But you better fix this quickly. And Edgar wants him alive."
"So do I." Homelander agrees. Though it was unclear if he was being honest or not.
Ben's Apartment
Ben walked in with a takeout bag from an establishment called 'Shake Shack' while whistling a tune. Despite nearly getting his butt kick by Homelander today had been productive. About an hour after he ditched that heated dude he saved a window washer as Stinkfly and a community center as Grey Matter. Then after letting the Omnitrix recharge he went XLR8 and helped people around the city. Now though he was hungry and tired.
"Evening shifty." A cheerful, but familiar, British voice called out.
"What the!" Ben jumped throwing his bag in the air and watching it fall and spill on the ground. "Aw man. That cost me like 25 bucks." He whined, more upset at the waste of food.
"Sorry bout that mate. Be happy to buy you a new one." The Brit offers with a smile.
"How'd you find me?" Ben asks.
"Let's just say the initials are G, P and S." (Someone Guess That Reference) The intruder replies, holding up his phone. Ben then checked himself and found some small tracker in one of his extra pockets.
"Thanks by the way for landing where ya did when you were that sunburnt four armed piece of shite." He tells him. "Wasn't sure you would need an escape, let alone that specific one."
He get's up, walks over and holds out a badge. "Name's Billy Butcher. FBI." He introduces himself finally.
Ben goes to reach for it but he pulls it back. "Keep your grubby hands to yourself mate. Who knows when the last time you washed your hands." Butcher told him.
Ben shrugged and introduced himself. "Ben Tennyson."
"Now let's have us a chat shall we." He requested then holds out his hand to signal Ben not to touch the watch. "Now before you tinker with your fancy time piece you should know that I know that you haven't been the Road Runner in at least an hour." Points to the dropped food. "It took you 17 minutes and 44 seconds to walk here, plus the additional 3 minutes and 57 seconds to walk there from when you stopped being a supe. Let's not forget the wait time" He adds.
"So ya see." Butcher resumes. "It's plain as day that you either can only be a supe for a certain amount of time or when you go back to being your puny self you need to let that cool down before you can turn it back on."
The look on Ben's face tell's him he's right.
"You're buying." Ben answers, knowing this guy wasn't gonna stop coming at him. He just needed to keep him busy at least until the Omnitrix recharged. Plus who know's what he say's might interest him.
Shake Shack
At a table Ben and Butcher are waiting for their order. After the 10 year old agreed to the meeting he made it clear he was only talking if he was getting food. What followed was nearly 35 minutes of awkward silence, except for when they ordered the food.
When their device buzzed, signaling the food was ready, they went up.
"Here you are. 2 burgers, order of fries, extra of our shack sauce, a black and white milkshake and a water." A cheerful employee in her late teens, early twenties, said while placing the food by them. "Anything else?"
"Yeah. A less hungry kid to feed." Butcher replied with a phony smile to match her honest one. She giggled politely before telling them to enjoy their food.
"Eat." Butcher ordered, tossing the food on the table as they sat down.
Ben quickly dug in and with a mouthful of burger said. "Okay talk."
"Come work for me." Butcher told him, not missing a beat.
This caused Ben to choke and take a few sips of his milkshake. "What?"
"Ever since World War Two all supes have been working in Vought. All of them, not one has ever not worked for Vought. Others either never get a moment in the spotlight or get paid not be a supe." Butcher tells him.
"Except you." He adds.
"Now I don't two fucks of a rats ass why." Butcher continues, while leaning forward and crossing his arms on the table. "All I care about is that in 3 days you gave half a dozen of those cunts a good spanking. The kind of spanking people like me can only dream of, but you did it like there was nothin' to it."
"What's a cunt?" Ben asked, naively while grabbing some fries. At that moment a mother with one of her children was walking by and her eye's widened before covering her child's ears as she walked away.
"You'll figure it out." Butcher simply answers then adds. "So you in?"
"Why do you wanna spank Vought so much?" The ten year old asked.
"Cause I fuckin' do that's why." Butcher simply say's sipping his water. "Why do you care? A kid like has to have some sort of squabble otherwise you wouldn't be so set on ruining they're reputation."
"Not really." Ben tells him instead, wiping some sauce on a napkin. "They're just the bad guys. And Heroes fights bad guys." He adds.
Butcher snorts in amusement. "You gotta be jokin'." He replies, but then see's that he's telling the truth. He still has that naivety in his eyes of a boy who just wants to do the right thing because it's just simply the right thing to do. When Butcher looked into M.M.'s eyes and mentioned Soldier Boy, he instantly saw a fire for revenge. This kid, nothing.
"Nope. That's why I want to know why you want Vought." Ben say's, while starting his other burger. "So who was it? Speedy Train, Transparent, the man in Black, Homeloser?"
Butcher's jaw clenched and he mad a fist to contain his anger. "Piss off that's who." He answers.
"First you came to me." Ben points out, gesturing to himself, before holding two fingers up. "Second you want my help you have to tell me what he did to you. Because you need me, not the other way around."
Butcher looked into the sea of patrons and contemplated. It should an easy choice, but it's not. It was bad enough that it happened, he didn't want to relive it. "Homelander did something to someone I care about and Vought made them disappear." Pauses to look back at the kid. "For good." He adds.
"Your family?" Ben guessed. And the look Butcher gave told him he was at least close.
"Do we have a partnership, or not?" Butcher slowly asks one last time. "Cause I already had a plan before you showed up on my doorstep. I don't really need ya."
"I'm in." Ben agree's holding out his hand. But when Butcher goes to shake it he pulls back. "Just one thing. I see something not right I will go Hero on you." He warns.
"Of course." Butcher replies then the two shake on it. "Now let's go see a trojan about a horse."
"What?" Ben asked, finishing the last of his meal.
"Just come on." Butcher tells him not bothering to explain. Working with a kid was gonna be an adjustment. The ten year old then followed him, but not before running back to get his Milkshake.
Scene Cut
As they drove up to the electronic store Ben noticed the dog toys and asked. "You have a dog?"
"No." Butcher answers with a stern expression.
"Then why the-." Ben was asking, but was cut of when Butcher exited the vehicle. "This better not be a thing." He tells himself as he follows.
When they get in Butcher goes to the nanny cam section and starts examining a bear.
"Why are we here?" Ben asks.
"Just wait." Butcher mumbles.
"You interested?" The store worker asks.
"We're having a special on nanny cams actually. Popular bear, there's cameras in the eyes so." He tells them.
"Tell me." Butcher begins. "How many nannie's shake their babies?"
"What?" "I'm sorry."
"Like a real hard shake." Butcher continues, shaking the bear for emphasis. "Like tryin' to get ketchup out of a bottle. One percent? Less?"
The store worker just gives him a confused look. "I-I don't really know."
"Funny that." The Brit say's, putting the bear back. "Sell a billion dollars worth of that shit world wide." Takes a few steps to the employee. "Just goes to show you. The bollocks people will believe, if you get them scared enough."
"Cool... Cool cool." The man replies, with a nod. "Um is there anything I can help you with today or?" He ask's feeling uncomfortable, while glancing to the side.
"I'm not gonna piss you about, Hughie. I heard what happened to Robin." Butcher starts to tell him.
"I'm-I'm-I'm sorry who are you?" Hughie asks, more nervous than ever.
"She wasn't in the street she was one step off the fucking curb." Butcher continues. "And you didn't take the pay-off." He finishes with a bit of pride in his tone.
"What's going on?" Ben ask's, getting ready to use the watch.
"I said who the hell are you and how do you know that?" The worker asks in slight fear.
"The name's Butcher." Pulls out his FBI badge. "Billy Butcher." Hughie looks at the badge and is surprised. Billy then goes closes this distance to Hughie to just a few inches and in a hushed tone. "Listen, I was thinking that, uh, you and me should have a little bit of a chat."
Hughie looks at him, still and shock and before he can reply. "Why are you whispering?" Ben asks, struggling to hear Butcher and not understanding why he was being so quite.
"Who's he, what's he doing here?" Hughie wonders, pointing at Ben.
"Bring your kid to work day." Butcher answers.
Scene Cut
"Y-You're a Fed?" Hughie asks, with him and Ben following Butcher in the crowded streets of New York. "You don't sound like a fed."
"What, I can't immigrate?" Butcher replies, before telling him. "There's a giant green slapper with her ass in the harbor that says different."
"A what?" Ben asks, not knowing what Butcher was saying either from his accent or not understanding what that meant.
"You don't look like a one either." Hughie points out.
"No? What do I look like?" Butcher wonders, not at all bothered it.
"Like you're staring in the porn version of The Matrix." Hughie tells him.
Ben turns to the older kid and asks him. "The what in the what?"
Hughie looks to the younger kid. "Right. There's a kid." He say's, berating himself slightly for not watching what he was saying."
"Don't worry 'bout it." Butcher brushes off, before adding. "And it's all right there in black and white." Referencing the badge Hughie was still holding.
"Okay." Hughie accepts, walking faster so he was by Butcher's side. "Uh, exactly can I do for you?" He wonders, not knowing how he could help someone from the FBI.
Especially someone who found out about what really happened to Robin without actually being there.
"You got it all wrong Hughie. It's what I can do for you." Butcher begins. "You see, you ain't alone son. It happens a lot more than you think. The fact is Supes lose hundreds of people a year as collateral damage." He informs both Hughie and Ben, who are surprised.
"No. Come on that'd be all over the news. People would be calling bloody murder." Hughie tries to reason.
"Aren't they just scammers and con artists?" Ben asks. His own ignorance of this dimensions 'Heroes' as well as his lack casualties blinding him to the reality.
"Yeah, look there may be the odd mention of it now and again, like with Robin." Turns to Ben. "And con artists don't care who they hurt as long as they make a fuckin' buck out of it. Cause they'd fuck their granny and put in on Pornhub sooner than owning up to the truth."
"What are you saying?" Ben ask's. "Cause with the accent it's like you're both underwater and calling me from a tunnel."
"There's a whole fuck-sight more happening that just get's swept under the rug." Butcher answers.
"Why though?" Hughie questions, not comprehending why anyone would do that.
"Ain't it obvious?" Butcher stops and gestures to the Vought based advertisements all over. "Movie tickets, merchandising, theme parks, video games." He lists, before continuing. "A multi-billion dollar global industry supported by corporate lobbyists and politicians on both sides."
Ben's eyes were drawn to one ad showing a supe named Starlight being a new member of the Seven.
"But the main reason that you won't hear about it is 'cause the public don't want to know about it." Butcher tells them before going on. "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."
"So basically for money and power." Ben surmises.
"Part of it." Butcher agrees before adding. "if you knew half the shit they get up to... Ooh... Fuckin' diabolical." The Brit then takes a showy step back and with a smile say's. "But that's where I come in."
"Come in to... to do what?" Hughie asked, curious to know.
"Spank the bastards when they get out of line." Butcher told him, shifting his expression into a serious one.
"What's with you and the spanking?" Ben wondered, seeing that as a red flag.
Hughie though had his own question. "How do you spank a supe?"
"Come on, son." Butcher say's, ignoring the questions and turning to walk somewhere else.
"Uh, where?" Hughie called out.
"You'll love it." Butcher shouts back, not stopping.
"Uh, not likely." Hughie disagrees, before telling him. "Uh, listen. I think this is good; I'm good. Uh, thank you for an extremely weird conversation, but, uh, I don't want to go to a second location with you. So, I'm gonna get back to work." Starts to turn around.
Before Butcher could Ben stops him. "Dude I don't know who Robin is, or who you are or even him or whatever universe this is." He starts to say and adds. "But five seconds after this deal is gone you're gonna wonder how much of a dweeb you were for not taking it."
"Who are you?" Hughie asks.
"Name's Ben."
"Well Ben you seem like a good kid." Hughie replies. "But what can I do to help him? Wha-What can you even do?" He ask's.
"Well if he didn't think you could help then he wouldn't have tracked you done." Ben pointed out, then held up his left wrist with the Omnitrix. "And unlike the people at Vought I can actually go Hero."
"He's right mate." Butcher agree's. "What have you got to lose that you ain't already lost?"
Eventually Hughie agreed, but when they began walking to a second location Butcher stopped Ben. "Now hold up. The next place we going to ain't exactly age appropriate. Best you head on home." He tells the kid.
"Aw come on." The shapeshifter whines.
"I'm serious." Butcher affirms. "Tomorrow morning, meet us at this address." Hands him a slip of paper.
"A bar, Saweet." Ben replies, reading the paper.
"Don't be late." Butcher warns and they go their separate ways.
Arctic
In the middle of the Frozen tundra, there was a crater. There was no debris from either a plan crash or drone, just a hole. Suddenly a cracked crystal hand grabbed the top.
So how was that? I want to point that while it may look like Ben is beating them easy, you have to remember something important. Vought Hero's don't really fight anyone with actual powers, except for Maeve and Noir none of them have any real combat skills or experience. Ben has fought multiple individuals as both a hero and a civilian, so he has actual experience to go on.