Ivan Greevs pulled up to the villa and killed the engine. He gave a quick nod to the three workers still filling the new pool.
All three were polite and worked fast. Ivan paid even faster.
"Boss, the water's all set. Any problems, just call us. We'll be here within a day," one of them said, grinning as he took the thick stack of bills.
Once they drove off, Ivan stripped down to swim trunks and dove straight into the pool. The second his skin hit the water, a pair of eyes snapped open right below his collarbone, near the base of his neck.
The new eyeballs moved around, bright and curious like baby birds checking out the world for the first time.
When they closed, they left nothing but two faint lines on his skin. After days of trial and error, this was the best he'd managed. Building a working eye was a pain in the ass, so he'd only grown one pair so far. At least they could pop up anywhere on his body he wanted.
He'd tried making them even better, but they never synced perfectly with the rest of him. He'd have to wait until he fused the right talent later.
Late that night, Ivan shifted into Yuuji's form, picked up the delivery from the shop, and brought the package of twenty Compound V vials back to the villa.
He absorbed three of them on the spot.
The panel updated.
[Reinforced Self-Healing Talent Fusion: 100%]
...
The next day.
In the Seven's private meeting room at Vought Tower, Homelander stood with his hands behind his back, staring out over all of Manhattan.
A savage gust of wind ripped through the room as A-Train blurred to a stop in the doorway.
"Well?" Homelander didn't turn around, just glanced sideways.
A few days earlier he'd learned Kimiko had escaped the dungeon. The only people who knew its location besides him and A-Train were Popclaw. So the rat was obvious.
"Heroin overdose," A-Train said. "Didn't make it."
Homelander gave a small nod, satisfied. "That's good to hear. Sad, though. What about the Compound V?"
"She told a couple people, so I thought—"
Homelander cut him off and turned around. "No, no. I'm talking about you."
"Come on, man…" A-Train started.
"You've been hitting that shit hard for weeks. You really thought I wouldn't notice?"
A-Train saw that creepy fucking smile and started backpedaling fast. "I stopped, bro. I swear I stopped."
"You sure?"
"I'm clean. Completely off it."
Homelander didn't push it. He dragged a chair over and sat down. "You really stepped in it this time, kid. But you did the right thing coming to me. I'm proud of you."
A-Train felt the heavy weight lift off his chest. He'd made the right call killing Popclaw.
"Thanks, Homelander. Really. I appreciate the chance."
He smiled and turned to leave.
"Hey, not so fast. Come here." Homelander stood up with a warm, fatherly smile and opened his arms. "We're a team. We're family."
A-Train forced a grin and stepped in for the hug.
"I've always got your back. Always. Remember that."
The crushing pressure hit instantly. A-Train felt his ribs creak like they were about to snap. He could barely breathe, but he kept smiling like everything was fine.
Homelander finally let go. For a second there A-Train had actually thought the bastard might kill him.
He was just about to walk out when Homelander called him back again.
A-Train swallowed hard. "That missing Asian girl?"
"I'll find her," he said. He knew the mess wasn't over. Only by tracking down everyone Popclaw had talked to could he finally breathe easy.
He went straight to her apartment and tore the place apart. After ripping open a teddy bear, he found the hidden camera. It was the exact same model Hughie sold in his shop.
He pulled out the hard drive, plugged it in, and watched the whole thing.
Popclaw playing cop and robber with her landlord. Then the part where she gave him a massive green hat. And finally, the part where she sat on the landlord's face with her dripping pussy and killed him while orgasming.
"....."
A-Train's face twisted with rage. No wonder she'd dodged his questions. She'd been cheating on him the whole time.
"Fucking bitch," he spat at the screen. Every last scrap of guilt he'd felt for killing her vanished on the spot.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. At the end of the footage, he saw the intruders. One guy's face was crystal clear. A-Train froze the frame, took a screenshot, and headed straight to Vought Tower's crime analytics department.
The system matched the face immediately.
Frenchie.
Meanwhile, Frenchie had no idea his face was now in Vought's system.
"How's the taste?" he asked softly.
Butcher's crew had noticed Kimiko only calmed down around Frenchie, so they left him in charge of looking after her in the safehouse basement. He used whatever scraps were left in the fridge to cook her proper meals, treating her like his own daughter.
Kimiko still hadn't spoken, but Frenchie could see the tiny responses in her eyes.
On the other side of town, Butcher's phone buzzed with a text from Ivan.
Meet at the hospital in thirty minutes.
Half an hour later, Butcher and MM pulled up outside Mercy Hospital just as Ivan came walking up the sidewalk.
"Just you two?" Ivan asked, eyeing Butcher in his black coat and MM already wearing a leather jacket like autumn had already hit.
"Smaller group, smaller target. Three's perfect."
Getting inside the hospital was easy. Just sign in at the front desk. None of them used real names. They scribbled down whatever bullshit came to mind. The nurse barely glanced at the forms before going back to scrolling on her phone.
The hallways inside were long, narrow, and maze-like. The place felt less like a hospital and more like somewhere you'd get lost on purpose.
"Wait, we're looking for the neonatal ICU. Most of these rooms are just regular patients," Butcher muttered, checking every door plaque.
"Left up ahead, then straight," Ivan said suddenly.
"How the fuck do you know that?" MM whispered.
"MM, relax, man. You look like you're here to steal organs," Butcher muttered. "Tone it down or everyone's gonna spot us."
___
[]~(￣▽￣)~*
Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69