(Stormfront POV)
After having some intense sex with Homelander, I got up and walked to my hidden things from my past. I opened the box and looked inside to see my old life's items, I grabbed the one in particular which was a small file my husband and I collected of the man we both met. The only super we have ever met was a natural-born super, which ultimately took my husband's mind with his obsession with him.
He spent nearly his last ten years dedicated all our resources to digging up any dirt or information on this man who supposedly died. However, my husband did not believe that seeing the man's powers firsthand the day he saved him from dying like his father. The same man who later took my leg and almost my life the day I tried to destroy the evidence from the old camp we worked at.
Finding nothing since it appeared he died, my husband though was in denial until his death. However, it seems my late husband was right, the government did everything it could to remove his existence. Luckily for me, I still kept the things from the past to link him to who he is today.
"What to do…" I mumble under my breath as I hold the file with the papers about that man once named James Howlett an American War Hero.
"What is that?" I hear Homelander say walking over and seeing the files in my hand which I quickly closed.
"Just a new contract for a show they are pitching about 'Girls get it done'," I say playing it off as he rolls his eyes walking past me.
"I see," Homelander says while grabbing his clothes and putting them on.
I can see the three deep scars now lacing his left arm which has him very defensive since the world sees him as invincible. He threatened everyone involved that he was never injured and he destroyed his old uniform's top half stating it was too dirty for his taste. So they made him a new one no questions asked, however, he used makeup to cover his scars from anyone outside the Seven.
"Should've made him suffer," Homelander says seeing me eye his scars which he growls thinking about James.
"Things happen and next time we can kill him slowly," I say since I knew James survived if what I know about him is true. However, Homelander raises his eyebrow in confusion.
"What do you mean next time?" Homelander says giving me an excusing look.
"Just that I think the man survived, you did see the wounds of his heal rather quickly, almost immediately. There might be a high possibility of him surviving and coming back for us," I say trying to play off my previous knowledge.
"Maybe… I have to go, I'll see you later tonight," Homelander says with narrowed eyes, before quickly leaving as I nod my head to him.
'How to kill you?' I think while looking back down at the files.
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(Butcher POV)
After the shit show in the storm drain, we all luckily managed to escape, except for Logan. We sat in the hideout looking at the press release of Stan Edgar, denying knowledge of Compound V, and claiming to do a full investigation on it. He blames it on Madelyn Stillwell and vows to get to the bottom of it. He introduces Stormfront as the savior of the day, and the crowd goes wild in admiration.
Stormfront then calls out Vought for not being able to react quickly to the terrorist attack. Saying that more lives could have been saved if they were given more leeway and the government-backed them. We all just stared at the TV with hatred and anger in our eyes seeing them turn this around for themselves.
"What now?" Hughie says as everyone is grumbling from the press conference.
"I'll call Mallory to see what we should do next," I say grabbing my phone.
"What about Logan?" Frenchie says as everyone goes quiet.
"Frenchie… he is probably not coming back," MM says since he has not contacted us in hours and was last seen fighting all the Seven.
"He wouldn't die that easily! Right!" Frenchie says translating Kimkio's hand signals and agreeing with her. No one says anything as we all feel he is not coming back.
"Grace… we need help," I say ignoring them and calling Grace since they are trying to make Frenchie see the high possibility of Logan being dead.
"Meet me in a few hours, I'll text you the place," Grace says before hanging up.
I let the group know before making my way there in a couple of hours. I arrive and discreetly walk over to Grace who is standing at the new memorial placed for those who died in the 'terrorist attack' earlier today. I walk next to her and she just lets out a sigh before speaking.
"I ever tell you about my recurring dream?... I'm on stage, alone, at Carnegie Hall. The audience is made up of every poor bastard who got killed by the superheroes," Grace says to me with pain and despair in her voice.
"What are they doing?" I say to her knowing the answer most likely already.
"Nothing. They're all just watching me… Waiting for me to do something," Grace says not giving me the answer I was expecting. Though I nod my head seeing her point.
"We hit a dead end on Raynor. I'm sorry," I say since we have no idea how she died or who killed her.
"Christ, I don't want to hear sorry. Sorry's not an option. We can't have anonymous skull-exploding assassins walking around. What if they hit the speaker next? Or the president?" Grace says to me with an annoyed and very stressed face.
Then she goes into her purse before digging out a small file, then hands it to me. I take it and open it just enough to see what is inside. I see an old magazine cover from the late sixties/ early seventies, with an old famous supe called Liberty.
"Liberty? You mentioned her before," I say giving Grace a confused look.
"A second-tier supe, active in the seventies. She was all over Susan's private server. Get Marvin to talk to this Liberty. The address is on the back, North Carolina," Grace says as I turn the file and see the written address.
"All right… We'll see what we can find," I say before taking my leave since even I'm not sure if Logan is alive or not.
"Wait… Logan, where is he?" Grace says as I wince at the question.
"He hasn't checked in… he isn't gone, is he?" Grace says with a surprising amount of emotion in her voice, which I only saw the day her grandkids almost died.
"I… we are not sure… He was last seen fighting the Seven," I say to her as Grace goes quiet for a few seconds before nodding her head.
"I see… Before you leave Butcher, have this… I found Becca. Or, at least, our best guess where she is. A Vought facility, armed to the teeth. Won't be easy," Grace says handing me a small note with an address on it.
"We had a deal. We didn't come through," I say confused as I take the note.
"Jesus, Butcher, I'm just giving it to you," Grace says annoyed once again, but then lets out another sigh.
"It's my fault you stopped searching for her. I put a target on Homelander's back and pointed you right at him. I didn't know Beccas was still… It'd be good to have one less person in that audience staring at me," Grace says as I feel an influx of emotions threatening to overwhelm me, but I push them back down. So I just nod my head and take the not leaving.
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(Logan POV)
After getting kicked by Homelander and getting forced into the ground several dozen feet, I lay there in pain for a few seconds as my body immediately healed. Then I used my claws to dig my way out, however I quickly ran out of oxygen. I tried reaching the surface before passing out, but was unlucky too, as I passed out before I could.
When I wake back up I see that I'm still buried under the debris, however, this time I can feel my breathing has drastically changed. Like I evolved to be able to survive on the smallest amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. With a grunt, I finish digging my way out, once out I see that it is midday.
I look around and see they are slowly, but surely starting to repair the place. I sneak out covered in dirt and walk my way to the hideout. When I walk in, I see only Butcher and MM talking. They both stop and look at me with guns drawn, then quickly put them away upon seeing me.
"Logan?!" MM says seeing me as I nod my head and take a seat on the couch.
"Where've you been?" MM says as Butcher nods his head.
"Buried underground after Homelander kicked me into the ground. How long have I been gone?" I say while sighing and feeling more relaxed already.
"A couple of days," MM says as I nod my head.
"What did I miss?" I say as Butcher grunts in response.
"A lot," Butcher says and then explains to me how Vought played their way out of the Compound V being leaked, with Grace asking them to look into this Liberty.
"I see… I will shower and change, then come with to look into this Liberty, she looks familiar," I say as I get up.
"Butcher, where are you going?" I say seeing Butcher grabbing his jacket ready to leave.
"He's storming an off-the-books Vought compound alone," MM says with a disapproving voice. Butcher just ignores him continuing to get ready.
"Butcher, how is it possible that you're dumber than you look?" MM says as I stop to dissuade Butcher too.
"Mate, it's Becca," Butcher says as he grabs his handgun and cocks it.
"No shit. But win or lose, you ain't coming back," MM says to him as I stop and think.
"We will," I say making both turn to me, with surprised looks.
"You guys can handle the Liberty issue on your own. Butcher needs back up and I want to make sure he doesn't get himself killed," I say as Butcher gives me an excited/crazed smile.
"Fuck… you both are crazy motherfuckers," MM says throwing his hands up and walking away.
"Be ready in a few, you leave without me and I'll track you down and drag your ass back here," I say to Butcher who nods his head while grabbing a few other supplies for the mission.
I come back with Butcher anxiously waiting with two filled bags for the mission. I grab one as we walk to his car. We throw the bags in the trunk before Butcher drives off a few hours deeper into New York State far away from the big cities. We arrive in a forest where Butcher parks off and we sit waiting for night to come.
"Let's scout ahead," Butcher says as we walk to the trunk and he grabs a pair of binoculars and a scoped rifle.
We walk a few miles toward the location Grace gave him as he explains to me how he found this place on the way here. I reached out to Grace on the way and informed her I was still alive, which she was grateful for. As we walked we saw a huge concrete wall in the distance at least twenty feet tall. It had several guard towers every few dozen feet at the top, cameras covering every corner, and armed guards walking around.
"Well shit," Butcher says seeing this we then sit there taking note of the guard schedules while trying to guess the cameras' blind spots even though there appear to be none.
I look at Butcher thinking maybe we should leave, but I can see he is desperate about finding Becca. So I throw the thought away and help plan a way in and way out, as we prepare for the nighttime mission.