Meanwhile.
Mother's Milk brought Mesmer to the rundown safehouse on the outskirts of New York where Frenchie and Kimiko were laying low.
Ivan had driven past the place on his way to work and picked up Kimiko's unique signal by pure chance.
Every supe gave off a slightly different electromagnetic wave. Ivan could tell them apart just by the frequency.
Thanks to Kimiko's enhanced healing, his own strength, durability, and reflexes had all jumped. That boosted his wave-detection range from a hundred meters to around two hundred. And the ability kept growing the stronger his will got.
He parked a short distance away, transformed into Yuuji, and stood under a tree, silently watching the house. Soon he sensed another supe heading straight toward Kimiko's location.
The second MM walked Mesmer inside, Butcher and Hughie pushed open the door right behind them. Butcher spotted Mesmer and flashed a fake-friendly grin. "Oi, Isn't this the great Mesmer. Big fan. We'll chat later."
Then he spun around, grabbed MM by the collar, and hissed under his breath, face dark as shit. "What the fuck were you thinking? We need to kill him. Right now."
"No, we don't," MM whispered back. "We made a deal. He keeps his mouth shut, he gets five minutes with his daughter once a month. He's just a dad who wants to see his kid."
"He's a supe who wants to see his kid," Butcher growled. "You brought him here? What the hell is wrong with you? Your brain's getting dumber than Hughie's." Butcher didn't trust any supe, especially one who used to work for Vought. One slip and they were all fucked.
MM kept trying to defend the guy. Butcher just gave him a tired, pissed-off look. The supe was already inside. Nothing left to do but roll with it.
"Let's get this over with," MM said, nodding at Mesmer.
"Alright."
Mesmer took the girl's hand and focused. "It's a jungle. There's a camp. She's a soldier there. I see a flag… double-headed snake on it."
Suddenly, a sharp knock sounded on the front door.
The sudden knock froze everyone inside.
Butcher's crew went full combat mode. Their eyes met in silent agreement. Frenchie yanked a rifle out from under the couch while MM drew his pistol and aimed it straight at the door.
"Trouble, we bail," Butcher signaled, then crept toward the door with his own gun raised.
"Who the fuck is it?" he barked.
"Pizza delivery."
"Any of you order pizza?" Butcher glanced back at the others.
All he got were head shakes.
"Sorry, mate. Wrong house," Butcher started, but before he could finish the sentence the lock clicked and the door swung open.
"I missed the part where that's my problem." Ivan stepped inside like he owned the place.
Butcher saw it was just the familiar face and lowered his weapon with a sigh. "Jesus, mate. That line's straight out of my old FBI days. Thought Susan sent a team to drag me in."
"Carry on," Butcher said, not even bothering to ask how the hell Ivan found them. Pointless question anyway.
"Oh, and you mentioned a double-headed snake? Like this…" Butcher crossed his hands and made the snake-head shape. When Mesmer nodded, he added, "Red rays behind the flag."
Hughie looked totally lost. "What the hell is that?"
"Shining Light Liberation Army banner," MM answered, eyes flashing with pure hate. He turned to Frenchie. "Frenchie, your girlfriend's a fucking terrorist."
Ivan hadn't expected them to move this fast. They'd already dug up the Shining Light connection. It wouldn't be long before Stormfront showed her face. Her powers were solid and had real potential.
Frenchie stared at Kimiko from beside the couch, stunned. "You're a terrorist?"
"...." Kimiko just looked back at him with a blank, confused face and puppy eyes.
"Bullshit. She can't be a fucking terrorist," Frenchie snapped, refusing to believe it.
They'd all been dragged through hell because of a terrorist attack. Butcher's hatred for terrorists ran just as deep as his hatred for supes.
"Goddamn it, you need to keep her under control," Butcher growled, clearly losing patience.
MM, however, connected the bigger dots. "Vought smuggled an extremist terrorist into the country, pumped her full of Compound V…"
"Then once she got her powers they turned her loose to tear shit apart," Butcher picked up. "Only fucking Homelander could clean up the mess after."
"Why the hell would Vought use a terrorist?" Hughie asked, confused.
"Because a supe terrorist is way worse than a regular one," Ivan said casually.
His real focus stayed locked on Mesmer. The guy's power was genuinely useful, but from what Ivan remembered, he had zero control over it. Touch someone and the mind-reading kicked in automatically. No off switch.
That made it a double-edged piece of shit. Getting random flashes of an enemy's dirty memories mid-fight would fuck up anyone's focus.
He'd only consider fusing it once he figured out how to control the damn thing.
Still, right now Mesmer had solid value. He could do everything a doppelganger could and probably more. Vought tossing him aside was straight-up stupid. Like killing the golden goose for one shitty omelette.
"Got a business card on you?" Ivan asked. "I might be able to get you what you really want."
In the original timeline, Mesmer only learned the ugly truth after hugging his daughter: she didn't want to see him. She only showed up out of politeness because the social worker dragged her there.
Once he realized his dream was dead, he decided to cash in the only thing he had left: information. He sold out Butcher's crew, took photos straight to Homelander, and demanded fat stacks of cash plus a cushy executive seat at Vought.
___
Ivan pays homage to Tobey. Sorry for the short chapter!
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69