Chapter 23 - Knowledge
(Grace Mallory's Estate- Upstate New York, Adirondack Mountains -22nd April 2020)
The house was quiet as a graveyard as everyone sitting in the living room exchanged glances at each other. Clark wore a borrowed shirt that was slightly too small, while Lois sat nearby on the couch cradling their newborn daughter in her arms trying her best to keep the child quiet. He wasn't sure if he could have assembled a more awkward group of people in a room together if he tried.
Kara sat awkwardly to one side in an office chair that had been wheeled in, as no one else wanted to be near her. Clark really wished he had time to process her arrival and speak to her privately, but Butcher had arrived soon after with both Becca and his mother. The much bigger family reunion hadn't left room for much else, especially when the newcomers learned of a whole new super nearby. It made for a powderkeg that Clark was sure was about to blow up into a fight that he would have to step in and stop, but the day had been saved largely by Kara's complete lack of engagement with Butcher and Lucy.
That had been followed up immediately by Hughie's arrival with Diana and Lois' father dressed in his strange tactical outfit bleeding from one eye with multiple other wounds all over his body. Which apparently wasn't as big of a problem as it seemed, since Hughie revealed Sam Lane's dual identity as an apparent super soldier. The General's daughters especially didn't take that well, they probably would have beaten the truth out of him if everything else wasn't happening. Clark's eyes shifted to Lois and the bundle of cloth she was cradling in her arms as his own mother sat next to her casting her gaze at her granddaughter, the mere thought of that let alone her presence caused him to smile.
"You have a pleasant dwelling, Kal-El," Kara spoke, snapping out of his slight haze as she attempted to de-escalate, she even gave a cordial yet awkward smile. "And your… social unit seems very….nice. Are they all members of the House of K-e-nt?"
Clark blinked, then glanced around. Reactions were mixed; Butcher had a look of veiled disgust, and his mother was letting out a slight laugh at the statement. Looking back, he could see Kara was totally serious in her statement, and although she had picked up on the room's reaction she didn't know what she had said wrong.
"Uh no, they are not. They have their own….. Houses, and this isn't actually my dwelling" Clark gave an awkward smile back at the woman, who he felt oddly at ease around despite his mind recalling the fact she had shot him. "Kara, I don't mean to be rude but who exactly are you? Why are you here? On Earth I mean."
"I am your cousin, Kara of the House of El, Lieutenant in the Kandorian Security Division of the Military Guild, daughter of Zor-El and Alura In-Ze. My father was the younger brother of your father, Jor-El, the Primary and leader of the House of El." Kara stood as she spoke, and the Boys and Lucy all tensed. One of Butcher's hands reached for his gun, while the other dove into his pocket.
Clark could only blink at the new information, although he was surprised at how unsurprised he was at the revelation. Some part of him just knew she was who she said she was. It was an overwhelming yet subtle feeling he had since laying eyes on her much, like what he felt when they had been in Sage Grove. He made a mental note to brush up on Kryptonian physiology as he had clearly missed something in his first pass over it, he opened his mouth to speak but was beaten by MM.
"Military Guild? So you're a soldier?" The man asked, his eyes raking over the woman, the statement doing nothing to alleviate the concern he had looking at the super-powered being.
"In a sense. Your language is limited, and the actual term for the guild is more comprehensive than simply military in our language." Kara became more animated responding to MM's question before sighing and crossing her arms. "I was assigned to the Kandor Security Forces, my duties were mainly protecting citizens and ensuring all ordinances were followed."
"Then…..you were a cop?" MM raised an eyebrow casting a glance to Butcher who just shrugged but kept his hand on his weapon.
"You haven't answered my question," Clark's powerful voice cut back as he crossed his arms, hoping the act had some universal transferable meaning as he looked at Kara pointedly. "Why are you here on Earth?"
Kara tensed. Her eyes suddenly darted around the room to everyone except Clark and Ryan. Clark had hoped her response was going to be along the lines of what he had pieced together about his own arrival that she had merely survived Krypton and Earth had just been the place of refuge selected. But this, paired with what Ryan had told him about what she had done when she abducted him made it clear there was more than simple survival.
"Kal-El, we really should discuss this in private," Kara replied slowly her eyes darting back to Clark and trying to convey the privacy of the matter at hand "This is not a matter for the natives to be concerned with."
"Bollocks," Butcher's statement caused Kara to look at him, although his glare at her was undercut by her look of pure confusion at his word.
"Kara," Clark refocused her on him, she snapped back to him fixing her impossibly blue eyes on his own. "These people are my friends, family, and 'allies'. We are not hiding anything from them. You need to tell me. Why are you here?"
"It is part of the plan that your father and his allies created when they discovered Krypton was doomed and couldn't convince the High Council of that fact," Kara stated her eyes again darting to the humans in the room and clearly uncomfortable speaking about this but compelled to do so "We are here to save Krypton or, to be more precise, the Kryptonian race"
"By replacing us with Kryptonians?" Lois spoke up shifting her daughter in her arms as a look of horrid relation dawned on her as she looked from her daughter, Ryan, and then Clark "That's what V is about, Ryan too, breeding Kryptonians through injections of V until either they replace us or…."
"Or the situation spirals out of control into a war, which the supes would inevitably win." Clark finished Lois' thought, feeling sick to his stomach.
The room fell silent, everyone glancing at each other with Butcher looking over to Beeca who just pulled Ryan closer to her side. The action caused much of the tension to leave his body as he felt his hand in his pocket relax, his eyes darting up to his Becca. It was a shitty situation, but now they knew what was really going on and could fight ba-
"What?! No!" Kara snorted in amusement, cutting off Butcher's thought and causing everyone to look at her as she shook her head in mild amusement, the look she gave the humans Lois in particular made it clear she was not impressed at all. "The contingency was to hide on this backwater until we could construct a Class 1 Ship, use it to open a Zone portal, and retrieve the others, at which point we leave and reconstruct our homeworld somewhere more suitable."
"Wait, what are you talking about?" It was Clark's turn to look as confused as Kara had a few moments ago "Hiding? Ship? Zone portal, and what others? There are more Kryptonians?!"
Kara let out a sigh, which apparently was something that truly had a universal meaning as she crossed her arms and took a few moments to come up with a response. The look she gave the room was one Clark remembered from his early childhood; it was the look a teacher gave when trying to explain something very simple to a room full of young children.
"Many other species were jealous and envious of our technology. So with our planet gone, the plan required a temporary waystation of sorts for us to hide, somewhere we could blend in but also remote and unimportant such that no one would stumble across us" Kara explained slowly looking at the room and making sure everyone was following her "Hence, Earth. We bear a passing resemblance to the natives, and this world is about as unimportant as one could get. We were to reside here briefly, construct a vessel, release the needed people from the zone, and then we would find a suitable system to reconstruct Krypton before releasing everyone else."
"I think you left out the part of shooting people up with drugs to turn them into psychotic super beings to wipe out the locals" Butcher's voice caused Kara to look at the man who didn't flinch as she took a step towards him. "Vought was using you love, and they created some right cunts,"
"I have no idea what you are talking about. I would remind you that until very recently I was unconscious. I have no knowledge about a drug and if I may ask a question." Kara tilted her head as she examined Butcher, her expression clearly unimpressed "What possible benefit would there be to creating modified humans? What value would there be in a world this… . primitive?"
"You said release everyone?" Clark took back control of the conversation, his eyes focused on Kara "What is this Zone you keep mentioning and how were you going to build a vessel?"
"The vessel was to be constructed with a Sunstone crystal, which should have arrived with you to this world. Each pod was supposed to have one, unfortunately, mine did not due to the haste of my departure. It would have been a crystal about this long in length and white in colour." Kara held up her hands about 30 centimeters apart to demonstrate, having no clue as to the units of measurement on this planet. "They were all pre-programmed. Once activated they would have created a Class 1 Ship with everything needed."
Clark's eyes widened. He knew exactly what Kara was talking about and had already used it many years ago deep in the Arctic. He hadn't known what the crystal was called, but it had created the structure that he had taken to calling his Fortress of Solitude. It's a ship! That would explain all that stuff on engines and interstellar charts that I couldn't figure out before.
"The Zone in question, using the limited language of this planet you would understand as an interdimensional realm outside the normal space-time continuum, the Kryptonian term doesn't translate well but you could call it the Phantom Zone," Kara continued focusing on Clark now as she ignored the others. "The Zone has for want of a better word different layers, your father and his allies had Kryptonians place themselves into one of these layers to be retrieved later."
"There are really other Kryptonians? More survivors?" Clark couldn't help but move closer to Kara, his heart beating a mile a minute as he felt something deep inside him move.
"Yes, Kal-El, however, the task of retrieving them is far more difficult now," Kara gave her cousin a genuine smile, which faltered as she recalled the near-impossible task that was now facing them. "I have lost the Zone Index which would have allowed a projector to find the right dimensional layer, not to mention we would need to now build a projector with the absence of a sunstone crystal."
Clark opened his mouth to respond but found himself cut off as the sound of a scraping chair caused everyone to turn. Sam Lane had stood up from the chair he had been unceremoniously dumped into and was dragging it forward as a makeshift crutch as he tried to keep his inside from bleeding with his other hand. However, although still bleeding, missing one eye and looking like he was about to keel over, Clark had to admit Lane still cut an imposing figure.
"Not to interrupt this fascinating discussion, but we still have a pretty large issue at hand," His voice was steady as ever despite his injuries and the clear exhaustion he was suffering from.
"Stopping you from bleeding out on the fuckin' floor gov?" Butcher's snarky comment was accompanied by his gesturing to the floor and the drops of blood coming from his hasty bandages
"I'll be fine, my wounds will heal, well, apart from my eye" Sam admitted shifting slightly so that he could put more pressure
"Yeah, because you're a fucking Supe," MM shot back crossing his arms as he glared at the man who had been lying to them for years.
"I AM NOT A SUPE!" Sam Lane's explosion was accompanied by the chair in his hands snapping into pieces, he stumbled slightly but kept his balance. "Cough, shit, I'm human. I'm just more so than most. That's not the issue, neither is whatever the fuck this is, we just dealt Vought a huge blow. They're on the ropes, so we must take advantage now."
An audible intake of breath could be heard from Diana who was glaring at Lane, her arms crossed over her chest and grimacing on her face. It was clear that she wanted to put her fist through the man's skull because of the shitshow he had just caused. It was only by the lightest threads she was holding back.
"And how do you propose we do that?" Her question caused the man to look at her, and for a moment it looked like he was more likely to spit on her than answer.
"Victoria Neuman, she has a hearing on Vought and Supes all lined up, she's just missing a key piece," Lane answered with a grin.
"And what? You think blonde Leia is that piece?" Butcher scoffed, shaking his head and rudely gesturing to Kara "You want us to go to Congress and convince them to roll out 'aliens are here' and you think that'll sort everything out?"
"No of course not, Vogelbaum is the key, the man has enough dirt on Vought that even Stan Edgar would have to roll over and die." The nearly-dead General actually managed to crack a smile as he looked at the room.
"We already approached him, told us to fuck off," Mallory's face was a grimace remembering how they had already failed to enlist the man's help
"To you, but I am sure Mr. Butcher could convince him, because we need Vought gone." Lane's eye turned towards the man in question, his smile turning dark as if he could see into Butcher's head "After all it's the only way for his wife to be safe."
Butcher moved forward but found himself blocked by Hughie of all people who just shook his head and stopped him from punching his teammate's father.
"Okay, I think we all need to slow down and have an actual discussion," Clark moved into the middle of the group, seemingly calming everyone's nerves.
Well, everyone except Butcher who just looked from Clark to Ryan and then Becca before softening when he saw his wife pull the boy closer to him. Before anyone could say anything the man suddenly turned on his heels and marched straight out the front door. Both Clark and MM moved to say something but Mallory just placed a hand on MM's shoulder and Lois just shook her head at Clark.
(Grace Mallory's Estate - Kitchen - 23rd April 2020)
"So it's really happening?" Clark asked into a phone in the corner, his eyes glancing at the very odd scene of Lois, Annie, and Hughie standing awkwardly looking at Kara on the other side.
His mother was also present, she was seated on a chair that had been brought in and was gently swaying her granddaughter as the newborn slept.
"Yeah Clark. Gotta hand it to Vic, even though this was already in the works she pulled this together damn fast, Vought is reeling and on the backfoot," Pete Ross' voice was as chipper as the day Lisa Davis agreed to go with him to Prom. "It's going to be a Joint Committee, so I'm on it. I promise CK, with Vogelbaum's testimony I am going to nail these SOBs to the wall. Still can't believe the guy agreed to it, how did that happen?"
"Just lucky I guess," Clark shifted uncomfortably at the thought of what Butcher did to bring it about. Even worse, no one knew just where the man was.
"Sorry, my assistant is calling, it's about to start. Are you sure you don't want to be here for this?" Pete asked as Clark heard people starting to move in the background.
"Wish I could Pete, but I've got….. a situation here I need to take care of," Clark grimaced as he watched Kara pick up a frying pan from the island in the middle of the kitchen and put her hand through it as she tried to tap it lightly. "I've got to go. I promise, first chance I get I'll take you and little Clark out for Burgers."
"Oh he'll love that, I'll call you after this is over," Pete hung up, which allowed Clark to refocus on the room in front of him and take a deep breath before it hitched in his throat.
"Kal-El, where is Kon-El?" Kara asked the question before he could start his own questioning "He should be present as this concerns him as well."
"Kon-El?" Clark asked, involuntarily glancing at the others in the room hoping someone knew but they all shrugged.
"Apologise, I am referring to Ryan," Kara stated as she stood proudly, though her tone was deferential and respectful. "By our tradition and the law as a member of my lineage, I have provided him with a name befitting a member of the House of El."
"Okay….. Ryan is with his mother, MM and Mallory are watching them, it's been an intense few days for him." Clark responded feeling awkward, he was expecting restraint or at least confusion from Kara but she was just being…..nice.
"Indeed, I did not mean to cause any stress. I believed he was you. He was near your landing site, had the genetic markers of our house and….." Kara trailed off releasing a very human-like sigh as a hint of sadness flashed across her face. "...and he looks like my own father Zor-El."
"Genetic markers, so Ryan is a member of the House of El." Clark asked, trying to follow the twists and turns that every new sentence his cousin uttered caused.
"Yes, Kelor has determined he is my grandson. Although how that is possible is….. concerning." Kara shifted uncomfortably and gaze narrowed slightly deep in thought "It means I have a progeny on this world, I can only surmise that during my hibernation my reproductive genetic material was taken and used. Which is…..more than disturbing, it should be impossible. We are not compatible with this species Kal-El"
"Apparently though, somehow, we are." Clark couldn't help but glance at his daughter and her existence although it caused him joy beyond was causing him no end of confusion as to how she existed.
"Whose child is that Kal-El?" Kara asked not missing Clark's glance or that her question caused both Lois and Clark to move towards Martha who cradled the child to her chest instinctively.
"She's our daughter," Clark looked to Lois before fixing his gaze on Kara squaring off against her protectively "My daughter."
"What is her name?" Kara asked gently, looking from Clark to his daughter as a broad loving smile on her face that deflated any tension in the room.
"Mia, her name is Mia Kent," Lois answered moving over to Martha and looking down at her daughter who giggled at the sight of her mother, "We named her after my grandmother,"
"Mia….. What meaning does it hold?" Kara asked moving forward herself with Clark shadowing her as she stood to see the child better "On Krypton, names hold meaning, Kara means beauty, Kal means Hope, Dru means selfless. And Mia…?"
"Beloved," Clark answered, remembering how he looked into the name when Lois had decided on it months ago. "It's one of the meanings of the name. Her name means 'beloved.' "
"A fitting name." Kara smiled before she suddenly knelt, the action catching everyone off-guard as she placed a closed fist over her heart and with her free placed two fingers gently on Mia's forehead, the child suddenly became calm and still. "I greet you, daughter of Kal, Primary of the El lineage, direct descendent of Erok, the first of our house. In Rao's light, you are named, Cir of the House of El, for you are and will always be beloved."
Kara retracted her hand which broke whatever she had been doing as she stood back up and Mia suddenly started giggling and wiggling again in her grandmother's arms. Martha just blinked as she looked over her granddaughter who seemed completely fine despite being almost in a trance a few seconds ago.
"What the hell was that?" Lois asked looking from her daughter to Kara moving forward to try to stand in between her daughter and the woman only to be stopped by Clark who gently moved her back whilst gesturing to Kara to back up which she did.
"A Kryptonian naming bond, as the oldest member of the House present it was my duty. Tradition demands it happen as soon as the child's name is spoken, else it invites bad luck" Kara answered calmly "Your daughter is Cir-El, Cir being the most appropriate version of beloved in our language."
"Kara," Clark said. "Please, I need to understand why you were in that pod and how you've been on this planet so long. I only arrived a few decades ago but you've been here at least a century"
"A century?" Kara paused for a second slightly confused before understanding crossed her face as the value was translated although it was again replaced by confusion. "What is the date? By our calendar, a Kryptonian Calendar?"
"Kelex?" Clark moved to take out his phone from his pocket; it was the only method of summoning Kelex until he re-donned a new suit. "Can you provide the date in the Kryptonian Calendar?"
"Of course sir, the current date would be the thirty-fifth Eorx, the fifth cycle of the third lor-pax period, 3331 amzet."
"That's…..not possible" Kara stumbled backwards as if hit by a ton of bricks "I have been in hibernation for 84.6 am-zets. We left at the same time. How long have you been here for?"
"About 25 years from the date my parents gave me" Clark responded. Kara tilted her head at him causing him to sigh and look at Kelex who immediately knew the issue and provided the answer. "18.24 am-zets?"
"Um sorry if you both left…. your planet at the same time how could Kara have arrived so long ago and Clark only recently?"
"Than-Ur's theorem! Our pods must have been moving at different speeds" Kara replied immediately, sighing as if the answer was obvious only to be met with blank stares, causing her to roll her eyes. "It's very basic science, I learned it when I wasn't much older than Cir-El. An object moving near or past the speed of light experiences time differently. My damaged pod arrived first because my drive was at near full capacity, while Kal-El's drive for some reason was not at peak efficiency meaning he arrived much later."
"So wait, you're saying that Clark arrived late?" Martha asked looking at her son and then at his cousin which was still a thought she was getting used to "When was he supposed to arrive?"
"If I understand your unit of measurements correctly and the date is correct… His pod, like mine, should have arrived hours after Krypton's destruction, so by your units roughly 116 years ago," Kara stated honestly although even she grimaced at the news not happy that the plan she was following was so off track.
"116 years."
Clark could only blink in shock, he had always thought he had arrived soon after his planet had been destroyed, that was what the message in the pod had suggested, but he guessed relativity played a factor. However, his mind suddenly started clicking other things into place, Kara said there were supposed to be other pods. If someone arrived on time and undamaged that meant they would have been around since the early 1900s. That someone would have a far greater understanding of genetics, perhaps, than a lowly German scientist, and if they had stalled out in acting on this plan of Kara's then they might have…..
"Kara, who else was suppos-"
"GUYS, GET IN HERE! NOW!" Lucy's voice cut him off as she yelled in a panic from the living room.
Clark and everyone else rushed in finding Lucy with General Lane who was lying on the couch but had propped himself up as he stared at the TV. It didn't take long to see why, the channel was depicting the Joint Committee meeting on Vought and was focused on the wheelchair-bound Vogelbaum, the only issue was he no longer had a head. The scene rapidly turned to horror as another person's head suddenly exploded followed by more and more as the committee devolved into panic.
"Clark we need to g-" Annie turned to her friend only to find she was talking to empty space as Clark had vanished, her eyes snapping to the TV as a crash sounded as Superman appeared on the screen.
Clark quickly tried to gain his bearings; he saw Homelander and Stormfront but neither was doing anything but twisting around to look at the carnage. He saw the lifeless body of Shockwave on the floor along with at least a dozen people, then turned to see that most of the committee members had already left. However, he spotted one that he recognized that was trying to keep order as he tried to direct the abandoned staff members to safety.
"CK!" Pete Ross gave a smile as he shouted at his old friend, already feeling safe that the godfather and namesake of his son was here. "We need to…..we need…."
Pete suddenly trailed off as he suddenly looked like he had a migraine and a small trail of blood leaked from his nose. His oldest friend reached up and touched his nose before looking at Clark who suddenly rushed towards him. He reached him in less than a second his eyes scanning Pete for injuries starting in his head and what he saw immediately alarmed him
"Pete."
SPLAT!
Clark never managed to say anything else before the sickening sound hit his ears and red hot blood struck his face. He reached out to catch his friend, preventing the body of Pete Ross from striking the ground he was only able to stare in horror at the now headless figure of his dear friend. Clark just stayed still for a few moments as his brain tried to make sense of what just happened and for a few seconds, it just couldn't.
"Well, shit." Homelander's voice caused Clark to snap out of it as he turned to see that he, Homelander and Stormfront were all that was left, everyone else was gone. Even the cameras had been taken. "It got on my cape. That's going to take forever to clear out."
"Hey there big blue!" Stormfront gave Clark a little wave glancing at the corpse in his hands before smiling at him, "Yikes, bit of a mess, huh? Oh by the way, when were you going to invite us over for a good old Kansas BBQ? I'd love to meet Ryan."
(Ace O' Clubs- New York City, New York - 24th April 2020)
Butcher stopped as he walked into the hole-in-the-wall waterfront restaurant when he had arranged to meet Stan Edgar himself. A security team was currently standing in his way. One of them lifted up his hand to his ear and whispered into the mic in his collar. The place was an interesting spot for a multibillionaire CEO to host a meeting. Butcher had been expecting a high-rise restaurant or exclusive club, not a cheap bar and restaurant that proudly displayed a sign that read purple-hearts eat for free on Sundays. However, what surprised him most was how insecure it was, the inside was boxed in with no windows so no trained sniper to keep him in line, and the building layout made covering it a nightmare.
"He's good to go in," The guard gave a nod to his colleague who started to pat Butcher down but stopped at another order. "Boss said not to bother, just let him in."
Billy's eyes narrowed at that as he moved into the building proper, no pat down was very unusual, either Stan Edgar was very stupid or supremely confident. Given that yesterday had turned into a bloody nightmare, where instead of nailing Vought to the wall they were now America's saviours. The government and Military were lining up to get their hands on V, hell even the Police and Fire departments across America wanted in. So he was going to go in with all the bravado he could.
"Thanks, Bibbo, looks perfect as always," Stan Edgar's monotone calm voice sounded clearly out of the deserted restaurant as he spoke to a large burly man with grey hair wearing longshoreman clothes with an apron over the front who put down a plate of food in front of the man. "Just leave the pot, I will call if I need more,"
"Yer want anything else for your guest?" Bibbo asked as he gestured to Butcher who was now by the table.
"I'm good, gov." Butcher answered, eyes locked on the man he was here to see, the cook just shrugged before moving off to leave the men alone. "Interesting place, not what I pictured when the big slapper agreed to a meet."
"I've been coming here for years, it's one of the few establishments that all branches of the services come to, or they used to, things have slowed down in recent years." "The Ace O' Clubs was built by Bibbo's father, a WW2 vet. 70 years ago the room where we're sitting was packed with servicemen and veterans of every branch of the service. I used to come for the crowd."
"You're a vet?" Butcher asked as he took the seat directly across from the CEO, a slight tone of disbelief as he looked over the man.
"Yes," Stan Edgar replied bluntly in a tone that told Butcher that he shouldn't knock on that door, however, he quickly returned to his calm detached nature. "Firstly I would like to extend my apologies regarding your wife. Vogelbaum, Stilwell, and Stormfront handled that situation. I wasn't aware of Ryan or you until four years after the boy was born. Needlessly messy situation, wasn't much I could do but clean up as best I could."
"Oh, and I bet you'd've 'handled it differently?" Butcher scoffed, he knew the CEO was as rotten as the rest of them. He may play things differently for the press but everything Stan Edgar ever did seemed to reflect he had no care for the world or human life.
"Well, yes, for one you would be dead and two I would have placed Ryan in a far more suitable setting: actual people, real school, a semblance of a social life" The man's casual statement of both brutal murder and apparent altruism caused Butcher to blink. "Vogelbaum was an idiot, didn't consider anything beyond Ryan and his being Homelander 2.0, never looked beyond the science. I took one look at you and I knew what you were."
"And what's that?" Butcher asked, he wanted to tell the man to fuck off and get to the reason he was here but something was causing him to indulge.
"A soldier, a real one" Stan Edgar gave a small chuckle as he leaned back in his seat as gave his appraisal of Butcher "The type you don't see in the media or people like to acknowledge they need. You're brutal, unrelenting, utterly ruthless but most of all pragmatic. You know anything can be achieved if you're willing to sacrifice for it and you know that in war, rules don't exist."
"Enough beating around the bush, you know why I am here." Butcher shifted his hand slipping into his pocket, his hand going to the gun there but also brushing against his security policy.
"On the phone, you said you could help, with both Ryan and recovering what we apparently lost from Sage Grove." The CEO ignored Butcher's aggression. His demeanour was now slightly bored as he picked up a drink "I am not sure what you mean, Ryan seems to be in a healthy position with Mr Kent and with regards to Sage Grove, just what did we lose?"
"That boy is your only contingency policy against either Homelander or Superman, and it doesn't work if he's playing around with one or both of them. I can fix that." Butcher gave a confident smirk and let go of his gun taking hold of the insurance policy "And as for Sage Grove, you bloody well know what Vought lost. Its dirty blonde little secret, that I am sure you are very desperate to get back."
"Why do you think I would agree to any of this? Betray Mr Kent and Homelander, just to have a boy and the blonde back. We can cultivate the material for making V artificially in this day and age." Stan Edgar counted, his eyes narrowing a little as he assessed Butcher.
"You don't want the world to find out you've actually been shooting kids up with. Drugs are one thing, this though, they'll lose their fuckin' minds" Butcher's smirk deepened as he leaned forward to emphasise his next words "You'll help, because you're a ruthless bastard."
"Am I now?" Stan Edgar took a sip of his coffee rather than defend himself from the accusation.
"You made a racist piece of shite America's sweetheart, what else would you call that?" Butcher pressed, wanting to see how far he could get the CEO to go before he either ran out of defences or else tried to press for a deal.
"Tactics, Vought's position is still necessary so I need to make people want V. Stormfront is good at fomenting anger, if they're angry they want V, therefore Vought's position as the sole provider of V is secure. So she, for the time, is necessary" The man took another sip of his coffee before putting it down and fixing Butcher with a blank stare.
"Maybe you should take a look in the mirror mate, that bitch should bother you," Butcher narrowed his eyes, feeling sick at the man's banal evil.
"In that regard, it's not really a matter of concern for myself." Butcher leaned back at the comment, as the dark-skinned businessman completely brushed aside the rogue Nazi supe predisposed especially against people like himself. "So Mr. Butcher, let's say you'll be able to get Ryan and Becca away from the others. I can control Homelnader and hide them from him but how do you propose I control the 'righteous' fury of Mr Kent he will come after them."
"Firstly just Becca, you get Ryan, Becca stays with me." Butcher pressed, leaving no
"But that's the whole point, to prevent Ryan from becoming his father." The CEO seemed to tense slightly at the exchange "He needs his mother for that."
"Get him a fuckin' new mum, Becca stays with me. That's the deal." Butcher leaned forward jamming his finger in the table to make his point causing the cutlery on it to shake "I'll keep her from showing up on your doorstep, and if she does you just tell her she has to stay away, that it's the only way to protect him from Homelander"
"And you call me a ruthless bastard," Stan Edgar's eyes glanced over Butcher, but his inner thoughts were unreadable. "Very well, but what is the plan for Mr Kent?"
"This, one of my team napped it after tall, blonde, and busty woke up." Butcher fished the glowing green sliver of rock out of his pocket and placed his hand flat on the table to show. "It hurt the blonde, so seeing as she and Clark are fucking relatives it'll work on him too. I use this, and if you give me whatever you were using to keep her under I can knock out the bitch too."
Butcher looked up from the table, up to Stan Edgar and the sight caused him to freeze. Instead of seeing the usual blank emotionless face of the CEO, what he saw was a slight tremble and wince as the man looked at the green rock. That however was not what caused Butcher to pause, it was the front of him. It held a look of pure jubilation, but just a hint, lingering, ready to break forth but held back in case it was proven false.
"What did you just say?" The man's voice trembled slightly as he looked up from the rock pushing back in his chair slightly. As he did so, suddenly the tremble disappeared. "The woman's awake and Clark is related to her?"
"Are you okay?" Butcher asked, pulling his hand back as he felt the tension in the room shift suddenly.
"Answer the questions. The woman from Sage Grove, she is awake, and Clark is what to her? Son, Grandson?" Stan Edgar pressed his tone shifted into something Butcher had heard plenty of times, it was how officers spoke to enlisted men when needing answers without shouting.
"Yeah, she's awake and stuttering around, from the chin wag they were having Clark's her cousin apparently, and the kid's her grandson somehow" Butcher replied more so because of the dark pit he was starting to feel in his stomach than anything else.
He drew his hand back fully and swapped the rock into his other hand so that he could retrieve his gun. Edgar didn't notice or possibly he didn't care as the look of jubilation before a phantom reared to life as he smiled to himself broadly.
"It's him, it's really him, and to think I doubted." Stan Edgar whispered to himself unconcerned about Butcher as he suddenly looked like a kid at Christmas."Kara's awake, the mission, the plan. We can do it… Finally, we can do it"
"Hey! What are you doing?" Butcher jumped back knocking over his chair as Stan Edgar suddenly stood up and then started for the door. "Where are you going?!"
"I am finally doing what I have waited nearly a century for and I…" Stan Edgar stopped as he took in a deep liberating breath like it was the first time he had breathed. "... And I am going home"
(Grace Mallory's Estate- Upstate New York, Adirondack Mountains - 25th April 2020)
"So on a scale of 1 to 'up shit's creek' how fucked are we?" Lois asked, looking over the group that she found herself in charge of, Butcher was still missing, Clark was still taking calls and Martha had just placed Mia down for a nap.
Becca and Ryan were absent too, both were resting, and given the hell they had been dealing with no one wanted to drag them into this mess. Currently, Becca was trying to call Butcher to find out where he was as the man had yet to show up and Ryan was helping Martha with Mia in one of the bedrooms. Frenchie and Kimiko were on their way, Neuman was surrounded by guards, and at this moment they needed all The Boys together to plan more than some politician needed protection.
"Supremely, like our usual level plus Butcher's level of crap and then another mountain of shit," MM crossed his arms as he eyed Kara who was just glancing to the other room where Clark was on the phone. "Vought is fucking king of the hill and Stormfront is dialling up the fear so high it's a miracle there aren't riots in every city in America."
"So what can we do about it?" Lois asked, releasing a sigh as their worst nightmare an avalanche of superpowered people was about to happen. "We need to shut Stormfront up and kill this move to get V into the mainstream."
"I've got something that will put the bitch in her place and slow Vought right down, been working on for 70 years" Diana spoke up a wide smile appearing on her face "I'm going to need to borrow a laptop though and if anyone has a journalist they know please let me know their email address."
"I've got a laptop in the study that you can use," Mallory spoke, nodding in the direction of her study. "Are you sure what you got will do the job?"
"Oh I'm sure," Diana grinned like a Cheshire cat as she moved towards the study, turning to face the room one last time before she left. "Been sitting on it forever, didn't want to risk my kids but now with Vought popping heads there's not much left to lose."
As Diana departed the group moved back into discussing their next move, which ranged from fleeing the country to going an all-out attack on supes and everything in-between and beyond. About half an hour into their discussion Lois saw Clark get more animated as his phone started to ring like crazy, which caused her stomach to drop fearing some new disaster was afoot.
After a very long call, Clark suddenly hung up and just discarded his phone and walked over to them with a grimace on his face. He was dressed in his Superman suit once more although the bright colours seemed as muted as the man's usual cheerful air. Lois knew he was doing worse than he was letting on. Pete's death and the Vought committee fiasco was laying heavily on him. She remembered a few hours ago he had been on the phone with his deceased friend's mother, which had been heart-wrenching to watch.
"Who was that?" Annie asked moving to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"My aunt. Vought's in chaos, Homelander and Stormfront are MIA, no one knows where Stan Edgar is, and apparently there is something over the net that is causing a PR meltdown." Clark responded releasing a sigh as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"That would be me," Diana arrived back into the room with a smile even broader as she carried a laptop on the screen facing the group. It showed a newswire site with a banner headline 'STORMFRONT A NAZI?' "Told you what I had would slow Vought down."
"You did this?" Hughie asked, nodding at the website that had dozens of photos not just of Stromfront's Nazi past but also her racially-motivated arrests and brutality as Liberty.
"This is nothing, just what the networks have verified so far. Coming down the pipe is 70 years of me digging up dirt on the bitch, she's fucking done." Diana smiled and there was a glint in her eye that Hughie didn't like. It was very close to how Butcher's eyes looked.
"Well that's good, I've had calls all day from every branch of the service wanting me to push V into Black ops. This should slow them down." General Lane spoke up, his inclusion in the group was very much still in the air.
"So you didn't lie about being in the army at least," Lucy smirked next to her father her tone far gone from the near reverence she used to speak with. "Did you lie about anything else or just being a supe?"
"Do not call me that." The general's statement was punctuated by him striking the table he was leaning on and causing his fist to go through it.
"Really? Then what the fuck are you?" Lois asked the question glaring at her father who whilst she always felt distant from now felt she didn't know at all.
"It was an army experiment run by Vought…"
Sam Lane whispered before standing up straight wincing as he tried not to pull a stitch and looking at both his daughters.
"Your grandfather was killed by a Supe. A botched save collapsed the building he was in, left me alone in the world. I ran away from home, lied about my age and signed up for the army, it was the late 60s they needed anyone they could get. Especially with the quagmire that was going on."
"Vietnam," MM stated looking at the one-eyed man who he felt sick just looking at, and that was before learning he might be the very thing he had professed to hate.
"Yes, Vietnam. Turned out I was a fucking great soldier, one of the best the army ever had, fucking thrived in combat. However, a year in, a dark-skinned woman in a suit showed up with proof I'd lied. She gave me a choice; court-martial and Leavenworth or a promotion and a chance to serve my country."
"I'm guessing you picked the latter?" Lucy asked her rhetorical question with a snort.
"I did, it was apparently looking for a way to fight the war with fewer soldiers. Fucking thing turned out to be a Vought side project, that bastard Vogelbaum was running it using Frederick Vought's original notes. Didn't understand it at the time, but now I do." Lane looked at Kara and Clark as he made the statement before pushing on with his story "I learned he wanted to see if could alter us, alter our genes to match a specific genetic structure without the use of foreign material. It fucking hurt, a lot, and apparently, after 3 dozen dead groups of test subjects, the army had enough. 8 poor souls survived, including me"
"They wanted to make you super without Kara's blood, make you as close to us as possible without splicing Kryptonian DNA in, all without the randomness of Compound V. Do you know why?" Clark moved forward slightly, his face trying to piece the puzzle together but it still didn't make sense.
"Never learned that, and trust me I've looked. With Vogelbaum dead I guess we will never know" General Lane gave his own snort at the irony of wanting the man alive.
"You said 8 survived?" Lois' voice caused her father to refocus on her, her eyes burrowing into her.
"Yeah, we were broken into 2 fire teams, led by the highest ranking survivors, one team was led by William Wintergreen the other by my CO, Slade Wilson." Sam Lane said both names with a hint of pride and deep respect before his mood turned sour "We operated for nearly 2 decades the US go to black ops squad. By the 80s most of us were dead, I eventually took over what was left, last of my brothers died in 84 because of more fucking supes. So to be clear, I AM NOT A GODDAMN SUPE."
"We nee- CRASH!" Clark found himself cut off as he twisted and watched Ryan's body crash into the wall in the other room.
"That's a shame, seeing as we are going to be the only people left soon." Stormfront's gleeful voice sounded out as everyone was about to move but stopped as Stormfront lifted up her left arm. "I wouldn't try it, we don't want to hurt the baby now"
"WHAAA! WHAAAA!" Mia's shrill shriek sounded as Stormfront held the baby up roughly to show everyone as electricity crackled over her upper arm threatening to cook the infant if anyone moved.
Clark's eyes flashed red at the same time the front door was kicked in and Butcher arrived rushing in being greeted by Ryan's prone figure and the scene of horror. He lifted his gun ready the same as Clark to attack Stormfront but both were stopped by the second floating figure that appeared from the hole Ryan made.
"Hold your horses, slugger, you're not fast enough for all three of them," Homelander remarked as he held Becca Butcher and Martha Kent by their necks from behind. "Now, we all need to talk and get how this going to work straight"
"Clark?!" Lois tensed wanting to move like everyone else but was unable to do so as Stormfront held her child Homelander held Martha and
"Oh, we can do that in a second but first, where's that fucking race betraying dago bitch," Stormfront snarled
"Right here, you Nazi bitch! Let the kid go!" Diana moved forward and slightly away from the group knowing what was about to happen. "I'm the one wh-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Diana screamed as Stormfront started cooking her with a constant stream of lightning, the superpowered woman however didn't go down easily which made it worse. Diana crossed her arms to protect her head and chest but it did little as started twitching and shaking on her feet her denser structure absorbed the attack but did not resist it. Clark looked to Kara hoping the two of them together could end this but he was greeted by her staring at Homelander her eyes wide in shock as she stood frozen.
"Son?" Kara's whisper was lost to the rest of the room as Diana was cooked alive apart from Clark who ignored it and Homelander who looked at her shocked.
"STOP PLEASE STOP!" Clark tried to move forward, stopping himself as his daughter cried pleading with Stormfront before turning to Homelander "JOHN PLEASE! STOP THIS I AM BEGGING YOU!"
"Clark," His mother's voice caused him to look at her. She was smiling at him as her slightly bloody left hand came into view holding a lead-lined box she had somehow kept hold of. "I love you, take care of them."
Before Clark could react his mother opened the box and in an act that caught Homelander completely by surprise twisted slightly in his grasp before jamming the green rock hard into his wrist. The superhero's reaction was immediate as his world suddenly exploded in pain for the first time in his life. He dropped Becca to the floor and instinctively squeezed his other hand. Clark took advantage of Stormfront being distracted by Homelander's yell of pain to shoot forward and before she knew what was happening Clark had Mia in his arm and had struck the woman in the face. The lightning-wielder crashed through the ceiling as Homelander stumbled to the floor releasing Martha Kent as he pulled the green rock from his wrist, which shook as he held it. He quickly threw it away from him as hard as he could, the rock flying into the sky, he was about to yell but quickly paused.
"MIA!" Lois rushed over to Clark ignoring everything else, even Diana collapsing to the floor burns on her arms but still breathing as she checked her daughter "Oh thank god you're okay, Clark we…..Clark?"
Clark was silent as he handed their daughter to her. His face was completely blank, eyes locked on his mother. Lois turned and froze as well. Even Becca, who was still on the floor next to Homelander, stared at Martha Kent who was lying at the star-spangled supe's feet, her neck crushed and her body unmoving. Homelander blinked at the dead farmer's wife at his feet, bathed in the noon sun from the destroyed roof to his wrist which was already starting to heal from her attack.
"What in the everloving fuck was that?" Homelander grunted, rotating his wrist as the pain left him, then looked up to Clark, who he was sure would see what was the real issue here.
'Something hurt me, that means it could hu-'
"RRRRRAAAAAHHHH!" The roar was accompanied by Homelander flying backward as red exploded from Clark's eyes and the room's temperature rose.
Lois shielded her baby from the heat but it suddenly vanished and as she opened her eyes she saw Clark was gone, a powerful burst of air telling her he had followed Homelander. She turned to see Becca scrambling over to Ryan whilst Butcher moved to help her, and Mallory moved towards the slightly charred Diana. Lucy was checking on her father who had been knocked over in the commotion, MM and Hughie ran over to Martha Kent's….body. The thought sickened her but she needed to focus. She turned to look at Annie and Kara only to find Kara gone and Annie trying to rush past Hughie and MM to get to the hole Homelander, Clark and apparently Kara had gone.
"Merde!" Lois twisted to see Frenchie arriving with Kimiko, his gun drawn and both looking horrified at the destroyed house. "What did we miss?!"
Lois opened her to say something but a sudden, loud crack from above caused her to look up and Annie to halt. Both looked up to see Stormfront with a clearly dislocated jaw descending from the skies, her body engulfed in a sea of electricity that was rolling off of her. Lois' face turned to a grimace as she looked over to Annie and then Kimiko both moved forward positioning themselves to protect everyone else.
"HEY! That bitch is mine!" Diana's voice cracked louder than the lightning overhead as she moved forward with her upper body exposed and covered in fresh burn marks "So get in line because I've wanted to do this for a long time."