Starlight caught the grin Ivan couldn't quite hide and rolled her eyes. "Fine, I admit my powers aren't as flashy as laser eyes or super speed. But I'm still a hell of a lot better than that fish-fucker."
"I'm curious," Ivan said, leaning in. "If you pulled in a massive amount of electricity, could you turn yourself into actual light? That would be fucking terrifying."
Starlight shook her head. "No. My body can't handle that much power."
"Shame. Would've been badass."
While they kept chatting, Starlight spotted two thugs down the street roughing up a girl.
"Fucking assholes." She wasn't supposed to go off-script as a member of the Seven, but the anger she'd been swallowing since The Deep showed up needed an outlet. She stood up and started walking.
Ivan stayed seated, calmly pulling out his phone and recording the whole thing.
Starlight made short work of the punks. A couple quick light blasts, some screaming, and the girl was safe.
"How'd I do?" she asked when she dropped back into her chair, breathing a little harder.
"Just a couple of cowards who only pick on the weak. You were badass."
Starlight checked her phone and winced. "Shit, it's getting late. I should head back."
She was still paranoid about The Deep's threat. One leaked dating rumor and her whole perfect supe life could go up in flames.
"Want me to walk you home?" Ivan asked, all smooth French charm.
"No thanks, I'll be fine," Starlight said, flashing a quick smile toward the groaning thugs still sprawled on the pavement.
Once her figure disappeared down the street, Ivan kept sipping his coffee. The corner of his mouth slowly dropped. Under the dim café lights his face twisted and shifted, melting into a completely different person.
"Looks like you're really addicted to this shiny new life. Let me give you a little push."
...
The next morning.
Starlight had just rolled out of bed and was brushing her teeth when Ashley from PR burst into her apartment.
Ashley shoved her phone in Starlight's face. The screen played last night's video of her blasting the thugs with her powers.
"Fuck," Starlight muttered, stomach dropping.
"Yeah, fuck is right. Lucky for you that you were in civilian clothes, otherwise the internet would've already ripped your secret identity wide open. Listen to this shit." Ashley sneered and scrolled to the comments.
"Oh my God, I know her! That's Annie January from Hoover High! She had anorexia."
Ashley read the comment in a mocking tone, clearly pissed off. She jabbed a finger at Starlight. "First, that was stupid. Second, getting filmed doing it was even stupider. Always locate the fucking cameras before you play hero."
"They were about to rape a girl," Starlight tried.
Ashley cut her off instantly. "What girl? There's no girl in the video. Do you even know her name?"
"No… she ran off."
"Perfect," Ashley snapped. "She ran off. You don't know her name. Think you can find one random girl out of the millions in New York?"
"You know those assholes you knocked out? They're claiming they were just having a few drinks on the sidewalk until you showed up and blasted them for no reason."
Starlight had nothing to say. The video online had been sliced and diced perfectly to fuck her over.
"Someone set me up on purpose," she said quickly. "If we check the street cameras we can find out who—"
"You think we're the fucking FBI?" Ashley cut her off, stunned by how naive she was. "We snap our fingers and pull any footage we want?"
"Look, this is blowing up fast. The internet is already on fire. Cancel every single appearance you had today. You're going straight into meetings with Risk Assessment, Crisis Management, and Legal. All day."
"I'm gonna lose my mind. fuck." Ashley was so pissed she actually swore out loud.
...
Down in the Vought Tower security office on the first floor, Ivan Greevs lounged back in his chair with a can of Coke, lazily watching a sitcom on his monitor.
"Damn, man, you're slacking off again. Even Jesus would be jealous of this cushy life you've got," Baruk said as he pushed open the door and dropped into the seat next to him.
"I think the old man upstairs would be more jealous of you," Ivan replied with a smirk.
"You hear the news? Whole internet's exploding. New girl in the Seven, Starlight, using her powers to beat the shit out of random civilians. The video title is pure gold. Ashley's probably having a fucking aneurysm right now." Baruk bent down, grabbed a Coke from under the desk, and grinned like it was Christmas.
"Online shit spreads fast," Ivan said, pulling out his phone.
He opened Twitter and checked Starlight's profile. Her followers had crashed from 18.63 million down to 15.42 million. Over three million gone in hours. Her comment section was a war zone, nothing but people calling her a power-abusing bitch.
He switched over to Homelander's account. 72.31 million followers and climbing. Business as usual.
Homelander's comment section was pure sunshine and rainbows.
Ping. Homelander had just dropped his first tweet of the day: a selfie with that blinding, all-American smile.
"Who's saying it isn't," Baruk muttered. "Guess I gotta watch my ass more carefully when I go out."
"You some kind of diplomacy supe now?" Ivan shot back. Baruk burst out laughing.
They were still bullshitting when Ivan's phone rang. Starlight.
"Hey, I saw the video. I know you got set up. I get how pissed you must be right now."
"Oh God, I need you to back me up," Starlight blurted, voice cracking with panic. "Tell them I only used my powers because those guys were about to rape a girl. Please."
Ivan stayed cool as ice. He even clinked his Coke can against Baruk's without missing a beat.
"But everyone knows I work for Vought. My word won't mean shit to the internet."
Starlight went quiet. The desperation hit her like a truck. She slid down the bathroom wall until her ass hit the cold tile floor.
"You still there?" Ivan asked. "I might have a way to fix this. I saw someone filming last night. If we can get that full video, it'll clear you."
"Really? Where is he?" Starlight sounded like a drowning woman spotting land.
"I'll use my connections and track him down. Shouldn't take long."
"Thank you. Seriously, thank you so much."
Starlight stayed on the bathroom floor, clutching the phone to her chest, and let out a shaky breath of relief.
___
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69