Chapter 17: Starter Gun
Mechelle's upgrades went smoothly. It was mostly a matter of transferring her data out of her body, making the changes needed to her body, then transferring it back. Took a while to do though. I had to remove a lot of her inferior parts. Her musculature needed no upgrades, nor did her weaponry, but her software had to go, replaced with faster more advanced systems of my own design, with much larger storage space. One day she'd get the advantage of quantum and emerald computing, but this was a good stopgap measure till then.
Colin did his own upgrades in the meantime. And while both of them were getting more advanced, I kept an eye on The Boys.
Hughie
"Butcher, I'm not so sure about this," Hughie said as he stared at the ray gun in front of him. "I'm not great with guns."
"Oh come on, it's barely a gun!" Butcher said excitedly. "It's mostly electronics. I just want you to take a look, make sure there's no tricky buggers in it."
"I already told you there wasn't, just some of the most beautiful internals I've ever seen," Frenchie said in his thick accent, walking over with a drink in his hand.
"Yeah, but a second look never hurt, now did it?" Butcher said, sounding just a bit annoyed before giving Hughie a devilish smile. "Come on now. Ain't ya just a little bit curious?"
Hughie stared at him. "Okay, Butcher, what's the real reason you want me to look into this?"
Butcher's smile fell. After a moment, he sighed. "Look, you damn… you ain't a supe, right?"
"Not last I checked."
"But you're a pretty bright shit. So if you can look into this and understand the tech in this water pistol, then I know this Eggman doesn't need to go on the list."
"You have a list?" Hughie asked.
"Everyone has a list," Frenchie said helpfully.
"I don't!"
"A-Train." When Hughie stopped to stare at Butcher rather than respond, the Brit only smiled. "Come on, Hughie, take a look at let me know if you think this guy is a supe, or just a fella with magnificent fuckin stache."
Frenchie rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, Petit Hughie, I'll pull you away if anything happens, okay?"
Weirdly enough, that helped. Frenchie was weird. Confidently awkward, some might say. But he was also a nice guy.
Sighing, Hughie reached for the tool box Frenchie had left nearby. The gun had simple screws holding it together, which, even with the metal giving the gun heft, still made it seem very toy-like. Hughie opened it gently, then stared at what was within.
"...Wow."
"Wow as in, 'this is impossible supe shit', or-" Butcher asked before Frenchie interrupted.
"No no, I agree. It is very wow. But not supe."
"Yeah, I mean," Hughie slowly and carefully looked over the guns internals. "It's, uh, probably expensive as hell to make one of these. But I can recognize some of it. That's from an Apple phone, some of the new Ivotech chips there, the lenses are from Microsoft, maybe? It's like some genius brought together the pieces of regular tech to make, well-"
"A fucking laser gun." Butcher said, smirking. "So. He might be a supe?"
"Ahhh, I disagree, Butcher," Frenchie said, rubbing his chin.
"Yeah, I mean, this shit is pricey. You'd be spending like ten thousand dollars to rip out pieces from the phones and stuff you'd be getting, but I think even I could make one of these."
"...Can you?" Hughie glanced up. Butcher had a wide grin on his face. A very dangerous one. Hughie swallowed.
"U-Uh, maybe. No promises though. This is just after a glance, maybe there's a component in the inner workings that I can-"
"Relax," Butcher patted him on the shoulder. "We'll leave it for next time. For now, I need to go meet someone. See you lot at the truck, okay?"
Butcher left, leaving Frenchie and Hughie to stare at the open laser gun, then at each other.
"You should not have mentioned that," Frenchie teased. "I think he was about to kiss you, eh?"
Hughie shuddered in horror at the thought.
As I watched Hughie shudder under Frenchie's teasing, I leaned back thoughtfully in my chair. In truth, Hughie being able to replicate the laser gun was impossible. Well, improbable, really. Without certain components installed in a precise order, the gun would simply be very expensive paperweights. But the fact he was even able to figure out where most of the pieces went was to my benefit.
I kept an eye on Hughie and Frenchie, and tracked Butcher's movements. He was heading to Mother's Milk, as expected. Everything was going well… Too well.
Frowning, I looked at another screen. This one was focused on the factory floor, where the spy was working.
Yes, a spy. Granted, he was barely a spy. When he'd applied it was under some pseudonym with a very solid story behind it. Not enough to really throw me off of the trail, but good enough. After some research I'd found he wasn't a corporate spy, but a national one. I was unsure what nation, but obviously one interested in the technology behind the US military's new toys.
Except that the spy was incredibly, boringly, patient. He ate with people during lunch, did his job efficiently on the line, never seemed bothered by the fact he couldn't sneak out any files, photos, or technology, and all around was a model employee. If it wasn't for me tracking down CIA and NSA files from a decade ago showing him sharing classified knowledge with Russia, I would have thought he was great.
Ugh. That was what sucked about real life spies. They were boring!
Still, whoever he worked for, I'd find out down the road. Right now it was all a waiting game. I'd wait until he acted, then I'd spring on him. And hell, maybe when he was done trying to betray me, I could keep him on. As I'd said, he was a model employee.
Putting that aside, I looked over at the AI I'd been developing. Almost done. Soon enough I could make some larger moves. Starting with the day that I'd been waiting for.
Race Day!
A-Train vs Shockwave, the race of the century! A poster on the wall declared as I walked in. Mechelle was right behind me as we roamed through the stadium. The two of us made what I considered impressive figures, striding towards our seats. We'd paid for the best ones. Not VIP, since those tended to be for people Vought wanted to personally impress, dignitaries and the like, but still damn good spots.
Sitting down at the small table with a good view of the race, I sighed.
"All this money, all this ostentatiousness, for a race that will last all of a second," I mumbled to myself. "You would think someone would have suggested something more. An obstacle course maybe. A run around the city. Anything beyond a sprint that lasts less than an eyeblink."
"Cost benefit, sadly," Mechelle said, a charming smile on her face. "Renting out a simple track field is cheap, and people will come just because it has superheroes in it. They can draw in the numbers, stretch out the airtime with advertisements and long speeches… Ah. There is our girl."
I looked where she indicated. My sadly organic eyes weren't as good as hers, but I could still easily make out the white uniform and almost blindingly bright blonde hair, standing next to a black clad figure.
"...I cannot believe they still put her in the same damn uniform," I grumbled. "I mean, the gauntlet and boots are great, but leaving that much of her chest open is just screaming for a weapon to slice her heart out."
"You knew that they would," Mechelle pointed out. "Besides, this is still better than what happened last time, isn't it?"
"Barely," I sighed. "I don't like the idea that I'll have to make her bleed to get her into better armor."
"She can take it," Mechelle said mildly. "How long do we wait?"
"Until all the major players are available," I said. "Once we know the Boys are here, then we make our move. Colin?"
Over the tiny earpiece hidden in my skull, the man himself spoke. "Everything is prepared, as you ordered. I do find it funny that you are complaining about this event being boring, considering your plans."
"I am, at heart, a showman," Even as I said that, Homelander came dropping out of the sky, landing next to where Queen Maeve was being interviewed. As everyone cheered, I checked my watch. "Hm. He's on time. So Noir and Starlight should be…"
Both heroes stepped away. For a moment, just a moment, I thought about interrupting what was going to happen next. A bunch of assholes interrupting what was going to be a sweet moment. But I had to let it happen. Hughie and Starlight would need to meet.
That didn't mean I couldn't benefit from it. I got up, Mechelle following. "Let's go meet the pair."
In a small crappy restaurant, the kind all stadiums had with overpriced junk food, Starlight and Hughie sat across from each other, talking happily. Hughie said something, Annie giggled a bit. She said something, he blushed while grinning goofily.
It was adorable. I almost felt bad for casually chewing on a very leathery salad just behind them while cloning their phones.
Phone cloning, as it turns out, is easy, but I needed access to the phones in question to do it. It didn't take long, thankfully. Annie and Hughie had their meet-cute, and I stole their information. Later, both walked away, and Mechelle and I went back to our seats. I was genuinely surprised it went so smoothly. I'd expected something insane to intrude. Explosions or something.
Back at the race, I checked the clock again. Almost time. Things had to be perfect. Before A-Train could ruin things.
"Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer said. Shockwave walked out jauntily. A-Train was eyeing him carefully. I grinned. "Here comes Shockwave!"
As everyone cheered, I felt my grin grow almost big enough to hurt. "Now."
The music in the stadium stopped. The screens went black. And in a moment, the Eggman appeared on screen.
"HELLOOOOOOO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" Eggman's voice echoed in the stadium, blowing through the place. "WELCOME TO THE MAIN EVENT!"
Mechelle and I shared a look, then looked back at the screen, watching as Eggman laughed jauntily. The crowd murmured, confused, while Homelander's smile fell. "Sadly, what Vought had is boring! A simple sprint around a track? That's the best you have!?"
Music began to play over the speakers. Metallic Madness Zone Act 2 Sonic Mania
The camera zoomed out from his face, revealing Eggman standing before a giant map of the city. "No, no, no! What kind of contest is that!? Where is the punch, the pizazz, the wow factor!?"
Eggman spun around, pointing at the map behind him. "You should demand better! And thus, I bring you, the Eggman Obstacle Course! A full map of the city, with enemies to fight, items to obtain! Believe me folks, the Eggman knows his speedsters, and I refuse to face any less than the best!"
Eggman then leaned into the camera, grinning just a bit. His small glasses fell. Dark pits could be seen underneath them, small pinpoints of red glowing out of them. "Of course, you need an incentive. So here it is. I have placed bombs within the whole arena. Each one defended by my Badniks. If anyone who isn't able to run at superspeed tries to leave the arena, every single one goes off. And to prove I'm serious…"
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
Screams began to echo around us. Eggman's voice continued to echo. "That would be the entrances. How lucky that no one died. But that can change. HAHAHAHA!" Eggman clutched his belly, laughing. "You see! Far more fun! So, A-Train, Shockwave! You have your task. Race across the city, fight my badniks, compete! And no cheating, Seven! That means you, Homelander."
I could see the blonde supe scowling angrily, glaring at the screen.
"The race begins in 5! 4! Counts too slow, 321 NOW!"
Shockwave and A-Train hesitated. They looked over at their managers, A-Train sharing a look with his brother and asking him something. I rolled my eyes.
"Colin."
BOOOOOM! Out in the parking lot, cars exploded apart. Eggman glared out of the screen.
"I. Am. Serious. Run. Now."
"GO!" Someone in the crowd shouted. Others began yelling, until the whole crowd was screaming at Shockwave and A-Train. Someone in a business suit, presumably from Vought, came running towards them, shouting as well while he held a phone to his ear. The pair finally read the room and disappeared, rushing out into the city.
"FINALLY! Now, let's follow our heroes, shall we!?" Eggman disappeared, replaced with footage of Shockwave and A-Train sprinting.
Yes, of course I was able to film them while they ran. It didn't matter how fast they were, even the slowest versions of that damned blue hedgehog could run circles around them. Mechelle and I rose, and I cracked my neck dramatically.
"Well Mechelle. Let's go be heroes."
The Boys and the Seven should have still been on site. I could see Homelander speaking to reporters further in the arena, smiling with false confidence and assuring them. I ignored him, moving on to enter the arena. Eggman was speaking as well, dramatic and confident.
Colin was doing a great impression thus far.
While that went on, the arena was full of shouting civilians. Queen Maeve was somewhere, trying to speak to the crowd, and I could see Starlight doing the same. I approached her.
"Annie!" I shouted, rather than the people yelling her hero name. That brought me attention. She looked at me.
"Sir, I know this is scary, but we're going to keep you safe-"
I cut off her attempt to calm me down. "I can help find the bombs."
Starlight's mouth slammed shut. She stared at me now. "You can?"
"I can. I'm Julian Ivo, I'm a tech specialist. If you can get me the right tools, I can figure out a way to find the bombs and disable them. As long as you and the rest of the Seven can help me fight off the Badniks, we might be able to stop this."
As Starlight stared at me, surprise on her face, I fought the urge to smile evilly. All according to plan.
Chapter 18: Track and Field
Chapter 18
A-Train
"What the fuck!?" A-Train shouted, running through the streets. His legs and arms pumped, his heart beating hard. "You guys can't give me anything?!"
"We haven't found the bombs in the arena, so this is our only option. Eggman says you and Shockwave need to follow the rules of the race or he'll blow up the bombs. So, as of now, we play his game," Madelyn Stillwell said in A-Train's ear. "Starlight is working on the bombs. You just run."
"The newbie!?" A-Train spat out. "What's Homelander doing!?"
"Homelander is currently running damage control,"Madelyn's voice changed, becoming biting, accusing. "Keeping the press from asking why our number one speedster isn't winning the race in seconds to prevent them from blowing up. Because if you do end up losing now, while lives are on the line, no one is going to question why we decided Shockwave is our best bet. Understand?"
A-Train stopped for a moment, breathing hard and trying to focus. Goddamn it. He'd tried to grab his dose of V, but he'd been forced to run with all the cameras watching him. So now he had to depend on his own speed, with actual lives on the line.
He took a deep breath, then started running again. His feet clapped on the pavement, his perception moving up to match his speed. In his ear, a different voice began to speak, some random Vought chick. "A-Train, our trackers show you're close to the first target, an abandoned warehouse. Shockwave, you're about to reach the rock quarry. Eggman's badniks are visible on our satellites. The challenge is to defeat the badniks in the shortest time. It's a race."
Suddenly another voice broke into the line. Unlike the previous normal radio fuzz, this one was crystal clear, enough to shock A-Train momentarily. Eggman, shouting like he was a few feet away. "AND THE NAME OF THE CHALLENGE! BADNIK BRAWL! START!"
He ran through the open gates of a fence area next to a bunch of warehouses, a few trailers dotting the area. Some kids were nearby, skateboarding, about five of them. They didn't notice him approaching, not at the speed he was moving. The doors of the warehouse up ahead exploded outwards in a burst of air and dust. A-Train had a moment to see the dozens of eyes lighting up in the shadows. Then he was getting shot at.
And so were the kids. He almost screamed as he avoided one of the bee ones shots, smashing his fist into them. Like last time, the funny robot animals were a fuckton stronger than they looked.
They were fast. Not as fast as him, but it was like they were designed to give speedsters a fight. They were tough too, and coordinated.
A pair of praying mantis robots came slicing at him. Green and human sized, with giant mandibles. More importantly, they had a pair of bladed arms rather than pincers.
They still moved like praying mantis' though. For a moment, he was reminded of when he was a kid. With Nathan. Hanging out in the backyard, watching insects.
The sudden burst of memory was cut apart by the mantis badniks rushing him. One snapped his hands out the way a mantis would, trying to hook over him to stab him in the back. With all the speed he had, he slid to the right, then left when the next one did the same. He screamed at the red hot feeling of a blade barely stabbing his back just before he got away. He'd never been stabbed before. Not really.
A-Train grit his teeth, dodged the next attack, then rushed in, moving around the leftmost bug and grabbing its head before spinning around at high speed, letting go to send it flying into a bee that had been trying to get an angle on him.
"Enjoying my Slicers?" Eggman said in his ear. "Ah, it would be a shame if you died here, A-Train. Then again, at least you're fighting. Shockwave is just running around."
A-Train didn't have enough time to appreciate that fact before the other Slicer cut at him. Then Eggman spoke again.
"Take out the children," Eggman said casually. "I'm sure A-Train won't mind losing the distraction."
A-Train went almost still. Take out the children? What the fuck?
Up until the Slicer had stabbed his back, this had almost seemed… well. Like all the other Vought shit. Another publicity thing. If he fucked up, his career was ruined. That was his worry. Then he got stabbed. And he remembered.
Eggman was a goofy fucking villain. But he didn't fuck around. Back at the arena, A-Train had to actually fight. He'd seen the bruises and scratches left on the Deep and Starlight, seen footage of Black Noir getting the shit kicked out of him across the city.
This shit was real. He was in danger. He had to leave, to run.
But now a contingent of those ladybug robots, five of them, was rolling towards the screaming kids. The Slicer attacked again. And A-Train spun around it, before rushing towards the kids.
"Oh, look at you! But it's too late. They're already dead."
"RAAAAGH!" A-Train screamed, smashing the first bot with his shoulder. The next one shot him in the chest, destroying the clear material that covered his chest before he could bash his fist through it. The third one actually smashed into his stomach before he grabbed it and used it to break the next.
The last began shooting at the kids. A-Train twisted on the pavement, the concrete cracking beneath his feet. Running towards them, he grabbed two and shifted aside, dodging the hail of plasma shots, still screaming. The two kids screamed as well, in slow motion while A-Train moved them behind a trailer, then ran back out. The fucking ladybug robot was still shooting at the last of the kids. A-Train hurdled a set of the plasma bolts, grabbed the last kids, and rushed back into cover again.
"You know you don't get points for saving the kids?" Eggman asked while laughing.
"Who gives a fuck!?" A-Train shouted, rushing back out to smash the ladybug before the Slicer got to him again.
"Ha! Good answer. Shockwave didn't do that," Eggman was still chuckling even as A-Train continued to fight, forcing the Slicer into the bee's line of fire long enough for him to smash it apart. More bots came out of the warehouse, and A-Train forced himself to keep fighting. The whole thing only lasted a few minutes.
When he was done, A-Train was panting. His back and chest were on fire. He rested his hands on his knees and looked around.
Mantis, ladybug, and bee robots were smashed to pieces around him, around four of the mantis and a few dozen of the weaker bugs.
"Is that it!?" A-Train shouted, trying to catch his breath.
"For now," one of the bots chests, where a small light unit lay, glowed suddenly, then projected a hologram. Eggman. The mustached fatman was grinning. "And the score is tallied. You were barely a few seconds behind Shockwave. I'm afraid saving those civilians took up some time."
The kids. A-Train glanced over. He stilled.
The skateboarders were staring at him. They had awed looks on their faces. One began to smile. A-Train felt the brief chill that had entered him when he heard he'd lost just… not fade away. But something good was there now.
He hadn't needed to save the kids. Just did it without thinking. And now they were staring at him like…
"Of course, as I said, this is as much a test of heroism as it is one of speed," Eggman continued. "And Shockwave saved no one directly. So A-Train gets a few more points on the board."
Before A-Train could register that, a new hologram appeared. A scoreboard.
Shockwave: 1500
A-Train: 3000
"Oh that's bullshit!" Shockwave's voice was followed by his hologram image, looking pissed. "I didn't know we got points for saving people."
"I didn't realize heroes had to be told to do so," Eggman chuckled. "Of course, the score for doing so now that you know will be less substantial, but since you, a proclaimed superhero, apparently need incentive to do your job, here. Saving people will give you points."
A-Train hadn't needed to be told to do that. He'd just done that. And the kids were grinning at him, skating over. Eggman continued to speak as A-Train's breathing calmed.
"There will be two more Badnik Brawls. For now, an obstacle course has been set up! First to finish wins! Oh, but do be careful of the Falcos! Hehehe, hehe, hahahaha, MUAHAHAHAHA!"
As he laughed, they came down towards him. A-Train shouted at the kids. "Fucking run! Get off the streets, idiots!"
That ruined the awe on their faces a bit, but he couldn't help but panic a bit.
The kids took cover. And the red falcon badniks dropped out of the sky, moving at hundreds of miles per hour and shooting lasers at him. A-Train grit his teeth and followed the sudden path of glowing checkpoints that began sprouting up along the way, leaping over a fence, sliding across a railing, then up a wall before leaping across, dodging the shots along the way.
It wasn't over yet. But something had changed today. And everyone knew it.
Starlight
Minutes Earlier
When she brought Julian Ivo over to Madelyn, Annie had been a bit desperate. She had no clue who this guy claiming he could help was, but she had to try.
"Mrs. Stillwell!" Annie shouted. Ivo and whoever that intimidating lady with him was followed close behind her as she approached Madelyn. Queen Maeve moved to follow as well, looking curious.
"Starlight, focus on the crowd," Madelyn said, not even looking at her as she continued to hold her phone close to her head. "I need to convince the stockholders this won't-"
Stockholders? What?
"I can find the bombs," Julian Ivo said again, his voice loud and clear. Maeve and Madelyn focused on him, showing the same surprised look Annie imagined had been on her own face earlier.
"You can?" To Annie's surprise, the voice that asked that wasn't Madelyn, Maeve, or anyone else. It was Hughie, stepping forward from the crowd.
"I can," The dark skinned and bearded man said confidently. He held up a phone. "I understand Homelander won't be able to aid us, due to the security measures on the bombs, but that doesn't prevent the rest of us from working."
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Madelyn said in a suspicious tone.
"Julian Ivo, of Ivotech," he said. "I'm a tech expert, working for the military. I was hired by them to study some of Eggman's technology. I'm sure some of your contacts can verify that, but in the meantime, we need to work."
"Uh," Hughie asked as Ivo took the phone in his hand and moved to a table nearby, opening the device up. The bearded man pulled out a set of tools from his pocket and began working. "What are you doing?"
"The bombs are likely networked with the Badniks. And thanks to my work, I have some familiarity with that network," Julian winced. "I had hoped not to reveal that at such an early stage, but needs must as the devil wills."
"The same network?" Hughie leaned over to watch what Julian was doing, his eyes focused. "So we can loop into the same network? Use it to track them?"
"Exactly," Julian said, ignoring Maeve, Madelyn, Starlight, gathering around to listen, Black Noir coming over as well. The intimidating lady standing just behind him simply looked them over under her sunglasses, giving Starlight a short smile.
"I had planned to use the network to hack into them, possibly set their self-destructs to activate, but in the short time we have, I'll settle for simply finding them. I need phones. As many as we can gather, smart ones of course."
"Why?" Madelyn snapped.
"I can jury-rig them to become trackers, as well as to interfere with the bombs. It won't prevent them from exploding when Homelander approaches, considering Eggman obviously placed special priority on that, but we can allow the rest of the heroes to do their job," Julian lifted up the phone he'd been working on. The screen now displayed a familiar Eggman symbol, glasses, mustache, and a grin.
"Sadly, I have to use his network, so you'll have to settle for his rather… bombastic design choices," Julian said with some disgust. "He may be one of the greatest geniuses in history, but his taste leaves something to be desired. Starlight?"
Annie took the phone and looked down at it. Seconds later, a map of the arena replaced the Eggman symbol. With sixteen groups of glowing dots.
"Are those-" Starlight asked, already wincing.
"Badniks," Julian confirmed. "Groups of them, each defending bombs."
"Fuck," Hughie mumbled under her breath. "That is a lot to take care of."
"I'm sorry," Madelyn said, finally noticing Hughie. "Who are you?"
Hughie jumped, startled. "Me? I'm uh… a photographer?" he said weakly, lifting his camera to display.
"Phone," Ivo said, holding a hand out to Hughie.
"What? Oh, yeah," Hughie pulled out a smartphone and passed it over.
"The rest of you, do the same," Julian said firmly. "Sixteen groups, we'll need to break into teams to track the bombs."
"And do what, shove them up our asses?" Maeve asked sarcastically even as she handed over her own phone.
"That's why I'm connecting all of us through this network," Julian said, pulling open the phones and working on them, his fingers moving nimbly across the circuitry. "We don't have enough superheroes. I'll need normal volunteers. Get security, civilians, anyone who can help, anyone with a weapon to fight."
"We can't just-" Annie was about to say.
"I'll try to find people!" Hughie shouted, grabbing his phone back and running off.
"Hughie!?" Starlight asked, stunned.
"You know that twink?" Maeve asked, confused.
"Here," Julian handed Maeve and Black Noir back their phones. "I suggest connecting your headsets to those. We need to work fast. The bombs are on a timer. We're all dead in twenty minutes."
"WHAT!?" Everyone around them, including some civilians listening in, shouted.
"We're fine, just get to the bombs, fight off the badniks, then I'll walk you through disabling them. Mechelle, you and me!"
"Yes, sir," the intimidating lady said, following him out.
"Madelyn, you too."
"Excuse me, I'm not-" Madelyn was about to say, before a voice came from her phone, loud enough to hear, if barely over the crowd.
"Follow him."
Madelyn froze. She pulled her phone to her ear. "Sir-"
Whatever she had been about to say stopped. Madelyn looked around. At the camera crews. This was all being filmed.
And when Madelyn smiled, Annie knew she had been told what to do. For the cameras.
"Don't worry everyone! Vought will be working on this personally. Just sit tight and you will all be safe. Mr. Ivo!" Madelyn went after the bearded man, her steps quick and confident. She stopped long enough to point at two security guys to follow her, then left.
The picture of someone in control. Except that she wasn't.
Feeling a little sick at another display of marketing, Annie spun around and focused on her screen. People had to be saved. Running with all her might, she barely noted that she had a shadow in her wake, his swords in hand.
Madelyn
"The media believes we are working with Julian, that you pulled him in to aid on this with decisive action. The last thing we need is for you to continue to question him on camera. He has a plan our people say will work. Follow it. Right now, our stock is in flux. Play this right, and we'll turn this debacle into a win. Understood?"
Understood. Like hell. This fucking guy came out of nowhere, hijacked the whole situation, and just started ordering them around? Who the hell was he?
Actually, she knew who he was. Sort of. Fuck Nubian Prince. She still remembered that, if barely. The robot guy who had caused a brief but manageable headache for her. And now he was here.
A tech expert. To help them fight another tech expert. A tech expert who had come out of nowhere, got the military eating out of his hand, and made giant robots! He had to be Eggman. Or working for him.
But now the cameras were on him. This was a hell of a publicity stunt.
Entering the hallways after him and the fuckdoll who seemed to never leave his side, her guards at her back, Madelyn spoke up.
"What the hell do you need me for?"
"An extra set of hands," Ivo said immediately. "And someone who can lead the heroes. I imagine you have Homelander on damage control already? I can handle the technology, but I think the main reason your people listened to me was surprise. From here, I think they'd rather someone they trust."
That wasn't her. But intimidation would be fine.
They climbed a set of stairs as Madelyn spoke. "So I tell them what to do, what is the plan then?"
"First, we need eyes." They came to a pair of doors. When he tried them, they were locked. Ivo looked at his fuckdoll. "Mechelle."
Her foot kicked out in a blur, smashing the doors open. Madelyn quirked an eyebrow, but was otherwise unimpressed. Hard to be, when you'd seen what she had seen. Beyond the doors was a security room, with dozens of screens all along a wall.
Inside, a security guard tried to scream, but his mouth was covered by his captor. A badnik. This one was a cute looking violet scaled robot snake, wrapped around him and holding him down to his chair. The snake hissed at them. Mechelle, without missing a beat, ripped a gun out from one of the Vought security guards' holsters and fired it. The first shot missed, the next ones destroyed its head, and the ones that emptied the clip destroyed the second snake that came out of the shadows to attack.
"Good work," Ivo said, ignoring Madelyn while the Vought guard hesitantly took back his gun from Mechelle. The tech expert moved forward, ignoring the arena security guard pulling himself from the broken robot snake to focus on the screens. He looked across them, frowning. "Okay. So they aren't exactly hiding. I think, in some ways, the bombs are as much a part of the show as the rest of this."
He wasn't wrong. The badniks were very clear on screen. They were in hallways, in receiving areas, locker rooms, storage areas. Not all of them, but about ten or so groups of them, circling certain areas.
"None of you could get a call out about this?" Madelyn asked the security guard in annoyance.
"I tried!" He said, sounding terrified. "Those damn things came out of nowhere and wrapped me up, I couldn't-"
"Whatever," Madelyn grabbed her phone. "I'm going to call A-Train and Shockwave, make sure they focus on Eggman's 'contest', then we can start on the bombs."
"I'll need your help to make sure I coordinate them efficiently," Ivo said. "Obviously I don't have as much experience as you do guiding superheroes through combat."
Technically, he had as much experience as she did. Madelyn hid her emotions to focus on the call.
Moments later, a Vought guard had his phone out, showing the live footage of the contest, and Madelyn held her breath. "Okay. Let's begin."
Julian smiled devilishly. And Madelyn kept her eyes on him. Depending on how he acted… well. Homelander might be capturing Eggman earlier than he thought.
Chapter 19: It Takes Eight Hits
Hughie Campbell
"Hughie, we can't get involved," Butcher told him, and the rest of the Boys gathered around the Brit. They hadn't left the arena, having been trapped as well, and were forced to simply talk in a corridor away from anyone else.
"We have to!" Hughie said. "They don't have enough people for this. Look, there are other civilians helping, and the badniks aren't that tough!"
"Tough enough to beat the shit out of Black Noir," MM pointed out, the fatherly black man sounding exasperated. "Hughie, we can't be out here fighting fucking robots next to supes!"
"It does seem slightly against our mission, eh?" Frenchie pointed out with a joint in his hand.
"Is it?" Hughie snapped. "I thought we were in this to help people! Well, people need help. We don't need to do much! Just go to the bombs, shoot some robots, then follow the instructions to disable the bombs."
Butcher rolled his eyes. "Hughie. We can't be showing up on Vought's radar. Bad enough you're getting all moon-eyed at Starlight, now you want to be a supe?"
"No," Hughie snapped his mouth closed, looking at the other three men. He took a deep breath. "Look, you guys don't have to do this," Hughie reached into a bag and pulled out a gun, a handgun. He hesitantly looked at it, then swallowed. "Just a few robots. You guys can do what you want. Okay?"
He looked them over. Butcher was eyeing him with an unreadable expression on his face. Frenchie took a deep pull of his joint, staring at the gun in Hughie's hand. MM stroked his beard, looking over at Butcher.
Hughie put the gun into his pants and was about to walk away when MM spoke. "Fuck. Fine. Just to keep your dumb ass from blowing your dick off."
"Really?" Hughie tried not to sound excited, before the rest of MM's sentence caught up. "Wait, blow my-"
"Safety, you bleeding idiot," Butcher pulled the gun from Hughie's pants, flicked on the safety, then pulled a holster from the bag, handing the gun to him. "Seriously kid, you're American. Crying shame for you not knowing how to handle these things."
"He's right, wee Hughie, it's in yer blood," Frenchie teased while pulling out a handgun of his own.
"My family is Scottish," Hughie said hesitantly, watching the other Boys gear up. "You guys are all going to help?"
"Help? Nah," Butcher said even as he grabbed a crowbar from the bag. He gave Hughie his signature savage smile. "But fucking hell, if this phone app you got can tap into Eggman's network, maybe we can get some murderbots of our own. Get our own soup fucking robo-cunts."
"Good idea," Frenchie said cheerily. "And if we impress enough, maybe Starlight will give our Hughie some pussy, no?"
"That's not why-"
"Sure, I'm doing all this to let the kid get his dick wet," Mother's Milk said sarcastically, cutting off the banter to begin walking. "Now come on fuckers. Let's get this done before I regret it."
Starlight
"Sometimes I wish you could talk," Starlight said to Black Noir as they ran through the halls.
Black Noir glanced at her, then nodded, before going back to sprinting. Starlight sighed with some exasperation.
They turned a corner, and Black Noir got shot in the face with a ball of light.
"Shit!" Starlight ducked another light attack, sliding across the floor until she slammed against the opposite wall. She looked over the attackers. A polar bear robot like the one she'd fought with the Deep, some of those MotoBugs that Eggman seemed to love using, and a pair of praying mantis ones. Behind her, Black Noir flipped up, pulling his sword out of its sheath.
Behind them was a very big and obvious cylinder with a massive red logo in the shape of Eggman's face on a screen in the center. Starlight's phone helpfully sang out to confirm what she could already see.
"Got one of the bombs!" Starlight shouted, leaping out of the way of another Motobug's fire and back into cover. "What's next!?"
"One sec," Julian Ivo announced. "Once you get close enough, I can interfere with it. You just have to, well-"
"Fight through the small army?" Starlight asked sarcastically.
"Hey, you're the superhero. Do something super, hero."
Starlight clenched her fist, then went spinning around the corner. Black Noir met the two praying mantis robots in battle, his sword parrying and slicing as the three of them put on a dramatic display of swordsmanship. Starlight ran past him, blocking a Motobug shot on one of her new gauntlets, then smashed apart the badnik with a punch.
The giant polar bear robot met her charge, Starlight barely avoiding his claws as the lights around them began to flicker while she absorbed the ambient electricity around them. When she punched the polar bear, it was with a fist powered by light, the explosive force of it sending the polar bear stumbling.
It caught itself, spinning back around to throw an elbow at her. She barely blocked it, gritting her teeth. The Polar Bear threw a punch, hook, uppercut, pushing her back as she parried and blocked the superpowered blows.
Starlight was trained in several martial arts. Enough to recognize them being used… by a metal polar bear?
"What the hell!?" Starlight shouted, ducking back and blocking a shot from one of the Motobugs on her gauntlet, focusing on the martial arts robot bear… and what a sentence that was. "Since when could these fight like this?"
Julian hummed over the line. "Clearly this Eggman's robots are either learning or receiving new programming. Fascinating. A safe bet then that you should expect harder fights than mere punching bags in the future Starlight."
Starlight growled under her breath. Rather than answering, she rushed forward. All around, the machines, the lights, even the bomb, flickered, electricity filling the air, the bear freezing up briefly.
"RAAAAAGGGGHHHH!" She roared like a raging demon as she reared her arm back then fired it forth. When she hit the polar bear this time, her fist slammed through its chest in an explosion of light. Behind her, the sound of metal shearing through metal was followed by a pair of mantis bodies sliding across the floor.
A Motobug squeaked, turning to run, before she blasted it, sending chunks across the floor.
Black Noir finished off the last of the Motobugs while Starlight kicked the remains of the polar bear badnik aside. The blonde found herself smiling. That had been exhilarating. Hard, but worth doing.
"Well done," Julian said over the earpiece. "I'll let you know when I'm ready. Just waiting on the other teams."
"Should one of us go help them?" Starlight asked, looking over at Black Noir as he… bowed before the bodies of the praying mantises? Did he consider them worthy opponents or something?
"No need. They have it handled."
"They do? I mean, Maeve obviously, but Hughie-"
"He's doing fine. Have faith in your boyfriend, Starlight," Julian said, sounding amused.
"He's not my boyfriend, I just… UGH. It doesn't matter," Starlight groaned, looking back at Black Noir.
"..." Black Noir waved at her with a pair of the praying mantis scythes in his hands, the bladed edges of them shining in the light.
"Least somebody is happy…" Starlight mumbled, crossing her arms to wait.
Hughie Campbell
Running through the stadium halls, Hughie unknowingly had a problem that Starlight and Black Noir didn't need to deal with.
When heroes ran somewhere, people parted for them. They weren't cops, but people tended to think of them on an elevated level. Only an idiot stopped a hero who was clearly running to a problem, especially in a crisis.
Hughie, on the other hand, did not wear a fancy costume. None of the Boys did. So when they rushed through the crowds filling the hallways, they had to do it with some… creativity.
"Move, goddamnit!" Mother's Milk shoved his way around a group of guys trying to complain to a very exhausted looking stadium worker, only to have to move around a family.
"Come on you fucking wankers, move!" Butcher shouted, pushed a group of fans wearing A-Train's merchandise aside with a growl. "These cunts-"
Hughie didn't hear the rest of the swearing that followed, focused as he was on the phone in his hand. "Down that hall, about, I don't know, thirty feet down?"
"You don't know?" Mother's Milk asked.
"It's using the metric system!" Hughie shouted. "I have to translate it!"
"Putain d'américains, give it," Frenchie took the phone, running along with Hughie. "Oh, he's right, 9 meters."
They reached a set of double doors, Butcher kicking them open and pulling a crowbar out from under his coat. The group ran down the blank white hallway beyond the doors, reaching another pair. Butcher stopped them at the door, turning to grin. "All right Boys. Let's go be heroes, eh?"
He kicked the next door. And a coconut slammed into his stomach.
"Guh!" Butcher stumbled back, leaning over in shock. "What the fu-!?"
Mother's Milk pulled him aside before another one could smash into Butcher's head. Hughie had time to realize both coconuts were metal. And… were… ticking?
"Baise-moi!" Frenchie shouted, grabbing the closest coconut and throwing it, then tossing himself over Hughie before both coconuts-
BABABOOM!
Exploded!? "What the fuck!?" Hughie shouted, shocked.
"Fuckin hell!" When Hughie looked up, he met eyes with Butcher. Who was grinning. "Exploding goddamn coconuts!"
He then lifted up his crowbar and ran into the room.
"Goddamn it, you crazy British bastard!" Mother's Milk shouted, running in after him.
"Come on, wee Hughie!" Frenchie lifted him up and pulled him along, Hughie yelping.
The room they entered was big and covered in lockers. Not for athletes, but for employees, just big blue metal ones arranged in rows, with wooden benches in the aisles between them.
On top of the lockers were monkeys. Fucking robot monkeys. Throwing metal coconuts.
"Ha!" Butcher used his crowbar to smack one of the exploding coconuts back at a monkey, laughing maniacally. "Fucking DIABOLICAL!"
An explosion punctuated his shout, which only seemed to make him more excited.
"Oho, he's happy!" Frenchie yelled, getting into cover and bringing Hughie with him.
Mother's Milk was more professional. He leaned out of cover, firing two shots with the pistol in his hand, taking out one of the monkey's in a cloud of sparks and metal. He then ducked back into cover before a coconut exploded on his cover, blowing open the lockers beside him. "Hughie, you owe me for this shit!"
"Sorry!" Hughie shouted.
"Less sorree, more shootee!" Frenchie shouted back, leaning out of cover to fire back at the monkeys. They were making robotic monkey noises, hopping from lockers, hanging off the pipes above, swinging as they tossed coconuts and dodged bullets.
They were monkeying around.
Hughie swallowed and pulled out the handgun he'd borrowed. After a hesitant moment, he leaned out of cover, only to pull back when a coconut came flying at him from a monkey swinging past. The explosion that followed shook the locker Frenchie and he were using as cover. "JESUS CHRIST!"
"Calm down, they're basically fireworks!" Butcher shouted. He fired his hand gun with one hand and swung his crowbar at approaching coconuts, grinning all the while.
"Fireworks can still kill people you fucking limey!" Mother's Milk jumped up and grabbed a monkey as it swung past, dropping to the ground and bashing its robotic brains in against a wooden bench.
Hughie still appreciated the support. He leaned out of cover again and fired wildly. He missed five shots, hit a monkey in the chest, then missed another two before ducking back into cover.
"I got one!"
Frenchie turned to look at him as four of the monkey's he'd destroyed fell into the aisle beside them. "Good job, wee Hughie!"
Hughie grinned excitedly.
"Okay!" Butcher grabbed a monkey off a locker and smashed it with his crowbar, grinning. "If this all Eggman's got, we've got an easy job!"
That was when a locker was lifted up and tossed in their direction like a child throwing a toy. Butcher barely dodged it, while the others fell to the ground as the locker sent all the others tipping over, destroying some of the monkeys. Hughie looked up, coughing up dust, to see who had attacked them.
"Ah, shit…" He mumbled, scrabbling to his feet.
Out of the dust, a tall being stepped forward. His silhouette was familiar, a round upper body, and a pair of glowing red eyes. Until Hughie noticed the metal gray skin, the round joints, and massive fucking gun in it's right hand.
"An Eggman… robot?" Hughie squeaked.
"INDEE-Oh. Hm," On a screen in the center of the robot's chest, Eggman stared out at The Boys. "You aren't supes? What commendable bravery! Eggrobo, set blaster to stun. PAINFUL STUN! I want to see if they're worth the effort!"
"Order Acknowledged. Unconsciousness commencing." The robot raised his gun and blasted it at Mother's Milk, who desperately dodged the blue beam that came out. The energy splashed across the concrete wall behind him, sending up bursts of smoke as the concrete briefly burned.
"FUCKING HELL!" Mother's Milk rolled behind a broken locker, shooting a monkey out of the air. "That's stun?"
"I don't know. But I want it," Butcher said, grinning as he joined Mother's Milk.
"What, are you starting a collection?" Hughie asked, barely able to keep any sort of calm as he popped out of cover to shoot at the Eggrobo.
Only for the bullets to bounce off, mostly, one sinking into a soft red shoulder pad before stopping.
"Its bulletproof?" Hughie yelped, ducking back down just as the beam passed overhead, the smell of his own hair burning following the pass.
"Bullet resistant, mon ami," Frenchie rose up and tossed, of all things, one of the coconuts the monkeys had been throwing, the explosion that followed sending the Eggrobo back a step. "We simply need better bullets."
"We need a better plan. Kid, you said that app told you where the bomb is?" Mother's Milk asked.
"Yeah, yeah, let me just-" Hughie excitedly pulled out the phone. He stared at it. Then he waved it around, making sure it was pointing the right way, before staring in the direction of the Eggrobo.
Mother's Milk, seeing that, groaned, closing his eyes tight. "Don't tell me."
"It's in that guy."
"FUCK!" Mother's Milk barked. "So if we destroy it, that thing might blow up?"
"I guarantee you it will," Eggman's voice was followed by a hand grabbing the top of their cover and lifting it off the ground, tossing it aside. The group scattered as the Eggrobo came at them. Frenchie and Hughie ended up beside each other while Butcher faced the Eggrobo.
"Ah, don't worry," Butcher grinned, reaching into his coat. "Watch this, boys."
Then he pulled out the laser gun and spun out of cover. "Open wide, sunshine!"
The beam that blasted out smashed into the Eggrobo's left arm. The robot stumbled, spinning to aim that massive gun at Butcher, who fired another shot.
"The fuck is that!?" Mother's Milk shouted.
"His laser gun!" Hughie shouted back.
"What moron gave Butcher a goddamn laser gun!?"
A cough came from the Eggrobo's chest screen that went ignored.
"Butcher, be careful!" Frenchie shouted. "Do not blow up un robot!"
"I'm being car-FUCKING HELL!" Butcher ducked under a retaliatory shot that nearly blasted him in the chest.
Then the Eggrobo activated rockets in its back, blasting forward to slam into Butcher. It lifted him with it's left hand and slammed him into a brick wall.
"Gaaaaah!" Butcher screamed. He grabbed at the steel arm pressing him against the brick, only to scream again as the Eggrobo crushed him against the wall.
"Butcher!" Mother's Milk ran forward, grabbing a piece of one of the benches that had been destroyed by the chaos, and slammed it into the Eggrobo's back. Which did nothing. "Ah, fuck me-"
The Eggrobo's right gun arm twisted around on its joint in an inhuman way to point at Mother's Milk.
Hughie was tackling him out of the way before he even thought about it. The beam from Eggrobo's gun sliced across Hughie's back, scorching him with pain.
"Ahhhhh!" Hugh screamed, instinctively grabbing at his burning back. "FU-"
The Eggrobo kicked a foot back, hitting Mother's Milk and Hughie. Hughie felt something in his chest crack, while Mother's Milk let out a groan of pain next to him.
"I…fucking hate this job," Mother's Milk groaned, rolling over on his back.
Hughie saw the laser gun then, fallen from where Butcher dropped it. Near Frenchie.
"Frenchie!" Hughie screamed. When the other man looked over, Hughie pointed at the gun.
Frenchie didn't hesitate, rushing over and picking up the gun. He fired the last at the Eggrobo's leg, sending it stumbling enough for him to get a clear shot at the arm crushing Butcher.
The Eggrobo dropped Butcher, spinning around to face Frenchie. The robot stomped towards him.
"Hughie!" Frenchie dived aside as the robot swung its arm at him, tossing the laser gun to Hughie, who grabbed it and shot the robot in the same leg Frenchie had. This time, the blast shattered the limb, the robot falling over and catching itself on an arm. It twisted an arm to face Hughie, which was when a thought blasted into his brain.
It was a robot. It had an AI program. Which meant it had programming. Including on how it targeted people. Everytime one of them attacked it, it had targeted its attacker. Over and over, it prioritized its attacker.
"We need to draw its aggro!" Hughie shouted, barely avoiding the next shot. He tossed the laser gun at the same time, the chonky metal landing in the hands of Mother's Milk.
"Aggro?" Frenchie said questioningly.
"Fucking gamer talk," Mother's Milk grumbled. Still, he fired the gun next, aiming at the robot's left arm, this time shattering it to pieces. When the Eggrobo faced him, he was already tossing the gun to Butcher and ducking into cover. He was a second too slow, the Eggrobo's beam firing and scything across the air to aim towards him.
Thankfully, Frenchie shot the robot from behind, drawing its attention from Mother's Milk before the beam of light could slice across his chest. The Eggrobo spun to face Frenchie, who couldn't get out of the way before it used its rockets to fly across the room and smash its metal head into him. Frenchie slammed into a locker, the metal bending, portions slicing into his skin.
"Oy, roboshit!" Butcher shouted. This time, when he shot, it was multiple times. He hit the remaining leg twice, shattering it into pieces and leaving the robot to fall over. It tried to rise up with its remaining arm, letting go of its gun, but Butcher fired twice more, destroying it and leaving the Eggrobo as just a torso rolling on the ground.
Together, the Boys, bruised, bleeding, and broken, gathered around the Eggrobo, looking down at it, Eggman's face laughing from the screen in the center.
"Look at that," Eggman chuckled. "Just need a red moon in the background."
"Ey?" Frenchie asked, brow furrowing.
"Nothing to worry about. I must say, this all went swimmingly. I've always wondered how it would go, fighting the Boys."
Butcher, Frenchie, Mother's Milk, and Hughie all stared down at the screen with varying levels of shock and surprise.
"The government is very bad at hiding secrets," Eggman grinned under his massive mustache, his pince-nez glasses glittering. "I guess I'll see you later. And Butcher? Keep the gun safe. You've given me some incredible data for the future."
The screen cut out, leaving The Boys looking down at their own reflections.
"W…W-what does that mean?" Hughie looked over at the others. "This guy knows who we are?"
"No, he knows who The Boys are," Butcher corrected. "Maybe the bloke worked in the CIA. Maybe he hacked them. Doesn't matter."
Mother's Milk stared at him like he was crazy. To be fair, Hughie was doing the same. "How could it not matter, Butcher? Some robo building son of a bitch knows who we are!"
"Yeah," Butcher gave him a grin. "And he doesn't give a shit. You heard him. He wants to play his games with supes. So let him."
Then Butcher leaned down and lifted up the gun the Eggrobo had been using, grinning savagely as he looked it over. "And we'll keep picking up these fun little toys of his when we can."
Hughie sighed, staring down at the Eggrobo, then at the phone app Julian had installed. Well. They'd done their part. Now they just had to hope Starlight and Maeve had done the same.
Queen Maeve
When Maeve entered the gym, a whole host of badniks turned to look at her. She trailed her eyes across them. Lady bugs, praying mantises, bumblebees, and a big bear too, all dotted around a room filled with exercise equipment, various shades of metal shining under the bright lights. Maeve walked over to a squat rack and lifted a barbell off of it, spinning the metal pole like it was a wooden staff.
"Okay, Eggman. Let's see what you got."
The shots started firing, but Maeve was already moving. She swung the barbell in her hand outwards, smashing apart a motobug. She ducked under a bumblebee robot as it tried to shoot her in the face, she came back up with a single stabbing thrust that drove the barbell through the bumblebee's thorax.
Running through the room, she leaped over a bench to smash a knee into a praying mantis robot, blocking its blades on her barbell before kicking it back to shatter the mirrored wall behind it.
Then a bear punched her in the face, metal claws scraping across her skin and sending her flying. The world's strongest woman smashed through a set of weights, landing in a roll as metal bent and shattered against her.
"RAAAGH!" She roared, thrusting her makeshift weapon through the badnik bear's head. A series of blasts from some of the motobugs and buzzers around her landed across her skin, sending bursts of pain through her. Using the bear at the end of her barbell like a makeshift missile, she spun around and sent the sparking hulk at a group of badniks, destroying them.
"Ha!" Maeve grinned, her hair waving behind her. "Gonna need more than these shitty mechs."
"You're right," That was when one of the walls shattered apart, a wave of cement flying at her like bullets from a gun. Maeve lifted her arms up, blocking the stones. It was a good thing she did. It meant she blocked the hammer that smashed into her.
Queen Maeve was sent flying through one wall, then another, then one more, destroying desks, tables, and computers on the way, before suddenly she was in the open air. She landed on grass, sliding back and creating a big divot in the ground.
"...F-" She coughed painfully, grabbing at her ribs as she rolled over. "F-Fuck me."
"Hello!" From the hole she had created, her attacker stepped out.
It was around ten feet in height, with massive shoulders and arms, stocky legs, and a pair of green eyes over a false mouth of sharp teeth. It was also carrying a giant fuck-off hammer, which it hefted easily. The end of it was the size of her torso across, and the whole of it was the same purple and red coloration as the robot.
"Allow me to introduce the Egg Hammer!" Eggman's hologram appeared behind the robot. "One of a new line of beatsticks. For those updating the wiki, any of my badniks with the name Egg attached is an elite unit!" He laughed, slapping his rotund belly as he did. "Ah, and I want this to be a one on one, boys and girls! So no Homelander, no Black Noir. Or this baby goes BOOM! HAHAHA!"
The Egg Hammer approached Queen Maeve. She swallowed and raised her fists up.
With a roar of hydraulics and thrusters on its back, the Egg Hammer sped towards her. Maeve gritted her teeth and rushed towards it as well, the two titans smashing together in a shockwave of power.
Madelyn Stillwell
Julian Ivo was, if nothing else, immensely smart.
He'd been working at the computers ever since they entered, working quickly. First he'd connected the computers of the stadium to Vought's own computers, allowing Vought's support network to chip in and help with their own technology. From there, he'd begun using the cameras to coordinate teams, keeping those in the stadium calm and collected despite the madness.
Watching him work was fascinating. He manipulated technology like it was his own body. Suspiciously so.
Madelyn's main job had been to use the Vought name and Homelander to help with that. Homelander was speaking to people with that All-American smile plastered on his face, reassuring them that the Seven had things in hand. Vought was keeping cops from rushing in and triggering the bombs, while food had been distributed to the civilians inside to keep them calm.
That job got harder when Maeve was suddenly fighting a giant robot in the center of the stadium.
"God fucking damnit," Madelyn swore. "Can she beat that thing?"
"You would know better than me," Julian hummed. "It doesn't matter. The bomb is inside it. I have two of the bombs in my grasp thanks to Hughie and Starlight. Once Maeve has kept in close to that thing long enough, I can deactivate all three. But that still leaves your speedsters."
Madelyn looked at the monitors currently watching A-Train and Shockwave. Julian had set up four of them. Two were showing real-time footage, while the others showed it slowed down. Currently, the speedster heroes were fighting badniks that had taken over an apartment complex. On the real-time screens, badniks could be seen simply getting turned to scrap, while on the others, A-Train and Shockwave slowly smashed apart the robots, taking care to protect the civilians.
"A-Train is doing well," Julian hummed. "He's rather faster than I expected… no. He's more efficient I should say. He may not be as quick as Shockwave on the straight-line, but he's by far the better fighter."
"You got a point to make here?" Madelyn asked, arms crossed when she looked over at the Arabian tech mogul.
Julian gave her a smirk. "Do I need one? We're done."
"What do you mean we're done?" One of Madelyn's guards asked.
"There is nothing else we can do," Julian leaned back in his seat while his assistant, Mechelle, took a position behind him and to his right. "I've already connected what I have to, and the only fight left is Maeve's. Your people are doing their job as well. At this point, it's up to the superheroes."
"We actually don't call them that," Madelyn mumbled. "There's a right's issue."
"Really? Huh?" Julian then leaned back to rest in his seat.
"You're oddly calm." Madelyn noted.
"Am I?" Julian smiled at her, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Someone once told me 'In the midst of a crisis, you can either scream or fight.' I've fought. Now I must wait… and contemplate how irrelevant I've become."
Madelyn blinked. That hadn't been something she'd expected from him. Julian seemed to notice. He chuckled.
"Eggman is… a child. A child with too much power."
Madelyn thought of Homelander.
"He has created the most advanced technology on the planet. Bar none. Nothing anyone has ever created comes close. I was feeling very confident in my own intelligence. But now, I'll need to steal his technology just to start catching up. And he uses it to make cartoon animals that fight supes."
Julian rubbed his eyes with one hand. "I've got government contracts to fulfill, and most of them are complaining that I can't give them anything as advanced as Eggman's tech. It's infuriating. I imagine it's how athletes and celebrities feel competing with supes for attention and sponsorships."
Madelyn stared at him. If he was trying to sell that Eggman was a different person from him, he was doing a good job of it. At the very least, he was painting himself as a lesser rival to him. Still, she kept her thoughts to herself, instead focusing on A-Train and Shockwave.
The speedsters had left the apartment, and were currently rushing to the last location. A-Train, to her surprise, was ahead on points. She genuinely didn't think he had it in him. Now, to see if he could keep that up.
Leaning back, she briefly noted Mechelle's eyes on her. When she glanced over, the other woman didn't turn away. For a brief moment, Madelyn and Mechelle eyed each other. When Madelyn finally turned away, she felt… unnerved.
She had been nervous before. But the only person who ever made her feel that way was Homelander… no. There was another person. Stan Edgar.
That was who Mechelle reminded her of. It was in the set of her jaw, the narrowing of her eyes. The same look like… like whatever she was looking at had been judged, and found lacking.
Madelyn clenched her arms around herself and glared at the screens before her. This was a bad, bad day.
Julian Ivo
Pretending to be an idiot was exhausting. Granted, even if I tried to be as idiotic as possible I'd still be a genius, but pretending to be jealous of my own work was both hilarious and annoying. There was a part of me that wanted to crow my achievements to the world. Usually, I could slip into the Eggman persona to feed my need for validation, but without that option, I was simply stewing.
"...Julian," Mechelle whispered. I glanced over at her. She gave the briefest smile, which might as well have been a hug. I smiled back and turned back to focus on the work in front of me.
It was easy, if constant, keeping Vought's eyes in the right place. I needed to keep The Boys off any cameras, make sure that they couldn't see where my badniks were coming from, and interfere with police so they wouldn't accidentally run into the badniks before A-Train and Shockwave could fight them.
One day, I'd reveal who I was to the world. It would be the day the world had no choice but to become mine. Funny. For most, the idea of ruling the world was a last step. For me, it was just the point where things would get easy.
For now. A-Train and Shockwave would soon run into the area boss. That would be fun.
Chapter 20
A-Train
Running down a street, A-Train took deep gasping breaths. He was having to pace himself. He'd been worried about a short second of running, now he was at about twenty minutes. Though this was easier, competing not for pure speed but for fighting. It reminded him of his Teenage Kix days. Not competing with anyone, just being a famous kid fighting easy thugs.
Course, badniks were stronger than those thugs. As he turned into the next street, he found himself facing a fuckton of them.
The various badniks apparently had names. After he and Shockwave had a fight with them, the leaderboard would show how many of each one they defeated, and that helped solidify in his mind what each type of badnik he fought was.
What, was Eggman trying to market the damn things?
But now, they were almost done. The final stage was up ahead. Shockwave was running alongside him. A-Train glanced over at him.
Goddamnit, Shockwave really was faster. That hadn't mattered too much during all the chaos, since A-Train was apparently a better fighter, but Shockwave was just barely a step ahead. A-Train thought of the hit of V he hadn't been able to grab before Eggman had shown up.
Maybe he could rush back- What the hell was he thinking?! A-Train grit his teeth and ran harder, just barely catching up to Shockwave as they reached their destination. They stopped on the outskirts of the building and A-Train glanced at the sign on the fence surrounding the facility.
'Red River Institute' the sign said, proclaiming 24 hour security.
Shockwave looked around quickly, befuddled. "Okay… this is the place, right?"
A-Train glanced at his rival, then shrugged. "Fuck man, I don't know. The coordinates led here. What the fuck is this place?"
"An orphanage," A hologram fizzled into existence. Eggman, standing with his back to them. He was staring at the building before them. "The Red River Institute. A place for the forgotten. For those who were labled 'not good enough'. Not 'right'. The problems of those within are solvable. Even without my brilliant mind, those within could be given a life of peace and happiness. But they aren't. Because it ruins the bottom-line."
Eggman's hologram glanced over at them, red eyes glowing under pince-nez glasses. "And they call me a villain."
A-Train looked from Eggman to the building. Inside, a small girl with dark black skin was staring out at them. She met eyes with him, then hid away. He swallowed an uncomfortable feeling down.
"So are we doing this, or…?" Shockwave asked, sounding a bit befuddled.
Eggman's hologram faded away, but his voice remained. "In thinking of who would be the perfect final boss for you, I considered many things. Perhaps myself once again, in one of my battle suits? Maybe a swarm of small robots to flood the area with? A giant bot with the strength to tear cities apart? And that's when it occurred to me… why not go with a classic?"
It came from the sky. A-Train, the hyperfast way he could comprehend information, saw it in near slow-motion as a massive crate came crashing down. He hopped back with super-speed, Shockwave just a step slower, and watched the metal crate smash into the fence around the building, leaving a twenty foot crater around it. A-Train stared at the crate. It was taller than Homelander and around five feet around.
Shockwave had been sent flying from the crate's entrance. Spitting out dust, he tried to stand up. A-Train saw the crate shake, then explode apart. He moved on instinct, pushing Shockwave back into the dirt before one of the crates panels could take his rival's head off. Then he rolled to face the crate, his eyes widening behind his goggles.
"...screeee-chonk. Screeee-chonk. Screeeee-CHONK." Each step sounded with the buzz of gears, then the booming echo of metal slamming concrete. It rose out of the crater. A mane of spiked bright silver hair of pure metal. A pair of large triangular ears. Red-eyes set into a black abyss. It slowly approached them until it was standing over them. Taller than both of them by a couple of feet, built like a robotic linebacker, its hands tipped with claws sharp enough to cut the air.
It should have looked ridiculous,like the other badniks. A weird animal robot, more meant to be a mascot than a fighter.
A-Train swallowed as he stared at it. It didn't look ridiculous. It looked like a killer.
"I'm afraid you won't appreciate the second part of the name, so I'll have to simplify it. Gentlemen. Meet… Silver. The Alpha threat."
"...Fucking get it!" Shockwave shouted, standing up and rushing for the robot. A-Train joined him, going for the robot's right side as Shockwave charged in at full speed.
Badniks were fast, but not a single one was a match for either of them. If they moved quickly and pummeled the thing, they could finish it off in moments.
A-Train pumped his arms and ran around the robot's side as he watched as Shockwave rushed directly towards Silver.
And then… in slow motion, Silver's eyes turned. Red eyes the crimson of blood slid slowly before meeting A-Train directly. A-Train's jaw dropped.
It saw him. It could track him. No one but another speedster could do that. Silver's hand rose up just as Shockwave reached him. The hand didn't move as quickly as they could, but it was fast enough that Shockwave couldn't stop before Silver's claws were wrapped around his throat.
"URK!" Shockwave choked, as much from the sudden impact as from Silver's grip. The robot turned around in slow motion and tossed Shockwave at A-Train. A-Train ducked and spun out of the way, only to have to avoid a claw slice.
One slow step, then another, and another, the robot approaching him step-by-step and forcing A-Train to keep moving.
Silver was slower than him, but only barely. He was fast enough that A-Train couldn't just burst in and attack, he could only dodge.
"...FUCK YOU!" Shockwave shouted, speeding in with a piece of metal from the crate containing Silver had dropped. He smacked the robot in the back of the head, denting the spikes there slightly.
Shockwave had a massive bruise across his throat and a mad look in his eyes. When Silver spun around to claw at him, the robot sliced his arm, sending a burst of blood outwards. Shockwave cursed, running back.
A-Train struck, zipping forward and jumping with both of his feet forward in a flying drop kick. His feet smashed into the robot's side, denting the steel there.
His brief surge of joy was followed by horror when he realized something. When he was in the air, he didn't have super-speed. He could move and perceive things at super-speed, but until he could touch the ground, he was at gravity's mercy. And gravity was slow. Slower than him. Slower than Silver.
As he slowly fell, Silver spun around and punched.
"GAAAAH!" A metal fist blasted him in the stomach, sending A-Train bouncing across the ground as he screamed in pain. His scream was cut off by a flood from his stomach, then he threw up across the grass.
Woozily, he forced himself to his feet, barely stepping back when Silver attacked him again.
Two dents. They had caused two dents, and nothing else. But A-Train's mind was racing now.
"He focuses on whoever hit him last!" A-Train snapped out, spitting out the last of his vomit.
"I fucking noticed!" Shockwave ran forward, smacking the metal piece in his hands across Silver's neck. The robot spun around, kicking Shockwave and sending him through the fence and then through the doors of the building, Silver following him inside.
A-Train grabbed one of the metal poles of the now destroyed fence and rushed in. He found Silver and Shockwave inside the halls of the building as kids and their caretakers ran. A-Train had a moment to realize some of the kids were… weird. They had strange body parts, one was running on the walls, and another straight up jumped like a frog.
Refocusing, A-Train ran into the hallway just as Shockwave had been forced back into a wall, unable to dodge the next hit before A-Train rushed in and speared Silver with the metal pole in his hands.
The pole smashed through the casing of the robot's back, barely stabbing in a couple of inches. The robot spun its head 180 degrees, its arms spinning to do the same. Claws sliced through the metal pole in a set of four cuts, leaving A-Train with a foot shorter metal stick.
A-Train backed up, but this time when Silver turned around fully and started slashing at him, he used the remains of the pole to parry each strike, barely diverting Silver from cutting into him. The bot adjusted quickly, and soon A-Train was getting shallow cuts all across his body. Metal knuckles scraped across his chin, leaving him stumbling. His chest was exposed in a cutting slash, then punched, leaving him cut and bruised.
Shockwave rushed in, smashing Silver across the back of the head, but Silver ignored him.
"What the hell!?" A-Train ran back, Silver following him like a metal demon.
"I think you made him mad!" Shockwave shouted, continuing to bang and dent Silver's back while getting ignored.
"Target: Prioritized." For the first time, Silver spoke.
"Jesus Christ he sounds like the Terminator!?" A-Train ran up some nearby stairs as clawed hands reached for him.
Scarlet eyes glared. Then, in almost slow motion, the robot's arms and legs curled in. It turned into a ball of silver spikes, then began spinning.
And suddenly A-Train was running from a spinning ball of spikes.
"HOLY FUCK!?" A-Train ducked Silver, then kept running up the stairs, barely avoiding getting sliced in his hip by another pass. The damn thing bounced, going from wall to wall, forcing A-Train to keep dodging and running, sometimes using the pole in his hand to parry the slower bounces.
On the next floor, he had room to really push himself, zipping down the hallway. The spin dashing Silver tore the tile floors to pieces, sending shrapnel flying into the walls, slicing apart crayon drawings and brightly colored posters.
A-Train saw the kids in moments. They were being guarded at the end of the hall by a series of adults. The kids were all clearly supes of various ages. Toddlers, teens, one kid had to be his oldest nephew's age. They all stared in horror as A-Train approached with a metal demon spinning after him.
If he didn't stop himself or the robot… he refused to think about it as another idea came to him, ironically inspired by the very death machine chasing him and his younger days playing sports before he got his powers.
He spun around, metal pole in hand. Silver bounced upwards, aiming for his chest.
"RAAAAAAUGH!" With everything he had, A-Train spun around and around and around, turning himself into a living top, sending wind bursting out from around him. When Silver got close enough, A-Train swung harder than he ever had before.
The pole smashed into silver quills. The pole was sliced apart even as it bent against the robot's body. A-Train spun around again, adding to the blow with his fist. His knuckles split across the metal, his forearm bent the wrong way, and he screamed.
Silver went flying back. Behind him, Shockwave thrust forward the piece of metal in his own arms. The metal panel stabbed through the robot before Shockwave was hit by the giant ball of spikes and steel, smacking him into the floor.
A-Train gasped, grabbing at his forearm and staggering. Shit… was it broken? He was bleeding everywhere, his clothes were ripped down to mere scraps covering his legs, and his goggles had fallen off at some point. He felt like hell. He checked on the kids behind him.
They were staring at him with the same eyes as the ones he'd saved earlier. Kids like him. Supes. But they were looking at him like he was… a hero.
"Creator Authorization Granted."
"Feels good, doesn't it?"
A-Train turned to see Silver struggling to kneel. Eggman was projected from his chest, staring into A-Train's eyes. "Being treated like a hero. A real hero. No cameras, no fakery. Just you and knowing you did the right thing."
Eggman smiled sinisterly. "It's too bad that you aren't one."
A-Train scowled, staggering forward. "Fuck you man. Just tell us the score, turn off the bombs, and get the fuck out of here."
"Oh, I will… But I have to ask, what kind of hero, after running through a woman at full-speed, reducing her to a messy smear, complains that he swallowed her tooth? Lies about feeling sorry about it to the face of the man she loved? Blames her for the horrific crime of standing on the edge of the street, when he knows it was his fault?"
Every word slammed into him. A-Train stared at Eggman. The super-villain chuckled, adjusting his glasses.
"Don't worry. When it comes to superpowers killing people, you are in good company. The only difference is, you weren't punished."
A-Train swallowed. He glanced behind him.
The kids were staring at him. And their eyes had changed. They were judging. Understanding. Guilty. And envious.
What… what was this place?
"Ah well… questions for later. Silver, try killing him one more time."
"Order Acknowledged."
The robot began to rise, struggling. Fucking hell! A-Train stumbled over to a nearby trash can, grabbing the lid off of it. It was thicker and heavier than normal, probably because the kids were supes.
A-Train spun in place again, not as fast as before, but fast enough. Just like his days in track and field. He let go of the heavy piece of metal, the heavy lid acting like a discus and whistling through the air. The thick metal sliced deep into Silver's head. Sparks flew around the embedded piece of metal.
Silver's red eyes faded away. It fell to its knees, the sound of gears and metal fading away slowly. For a moment, sitting there, it looked almost… holy. A silver monstrosity at peace, shining in the light as sparks stopped shooting out of it.
"FUCK YOU!" Shockwave smacked it to the ground. He began to stomp on it over and over again, screaming. "Son of…fucking…piece of… Filthy motherfuck-!"
"Awwww… that's mean," Eggman grumbled. "Anyways, the bombs are disabled. All but one, left for Queen Maeve. As for the score…"
A holographic board appeared next to him. A-Train stared. And stared. And stared some more. "A tie."
"Yes. A tie."
"A FUCKING TIE!?" Shockwave shouted, a piece of Silver getting thrown through Eggman's hologram with no effect.
"Well, better luck in the next game," Eggman gave them both a cheeky smile. "Buh-byyyyyyyeeeee! Hahahaha!"
The screen left. Shockwave kicked Silver's corpse, spitting out some blood. "Fucking asshole!"
"Yeah… yeah," A-Train looked back at the kids. Swallowed. Then looked at the adults.
"T-Thank you," One woman said.
"No problem," A-Train stumbled, walking forward slowly. When he almost fell, Shockwave, to his surprise, caught him.
"What a fucking asshole," Shockwave said again, throwing A-Trains arm around his shoulder and helping him walk. "Right? A tie. I mean, we both kicked ass, one of us deserves to win."
"I'll beat you next time," A-Train said. To his surprise, he didn't feel any real heat behind it.
Shockwave laughed. "Keep telling yourself that."
The two speedsters stumbled out of the building as police and Vought personnel arrived.
Still… what had Eggman meant when he said he left one for Queen Maeve?