Butcher was already cursing.
"I didn't agree to a single one of your conditions, you bastard—"
"Should I put you back where I found you?" Jude raised a fist with casual ease, the way a person lifts an umbrella when they expect rain. "I can leave you near-dead on the pavement and let Translucent take over from there."
Butcher caught himself. He had seen what happened in the basement—from the floor, admittedly not the best vantage point, but clear enough. The fist sitting in the passenger seat had caused it. He reassessed the situation.
He started the car.
"The chip," he said, shifting into gear. "Every member of The Eight has a tracker. Homelander will get a location on us if we stay anywhere too long, and if that happens, neither of us will live to argue terms."
"Right." Jude turned to look over the back seat. "Speaking of which—where is yours installed?"
He knocked on the partition window. From the trunk came a muffled, mechanical whirring, followed by a heavy thud, as if a head had just hit a metal panel.
"He seems disinclined to discuss it right now."
Jude faced forward again. "We'll ask him something else."
"I thought you squeezed him dry last night," Butcher said. "There's nothing left in his head. He already told us everything." He paused. "I really didn't expect The Deep to be doing what he's apparently been doing. With fish. I didn't need to know that."
"That isn't the priority." Jude watched the buildings roll past the window. "A-Train has a girlfriend. She knows exactly where he was the night of the incident, because he was leaving her apartment—not stopping a bank robbery, not on official business. She is a direct witness to what he was actually doing. And then there's Lamplighter."
The name landed heavily.
Butcher fell silent. It wasn't the quiet of a man thinking through new information; it was heavier, more guarded. Jude studied his profile in the passing streetlights.
Butcher rarely feels guilt, he thought. That is what it looks like when he does.
"You knew about Lamplighter," Jude said. "Something happened with him. Why didn't you look into it?"
"None of your business."
"That's a yes."
Jude let it drop. There would be a time to press about Lamplighter, but not now.
"Vought's accessible systems are empty—no documentation, no news archives, nothing in the digital file structure that my people can access. My guess is they're using paper." Jude paused. "And possibly typewriters."
"They wouldn't put any of it online." Butcher's voice had returned to its normal gruff register. "A few years back, a supe showed up who could navigate cyberspace the way you or I walk through a room. Electronic systems, networks, firewalls—it was just physical space to them. That person could have mapped Vought's entire data infrastructure in an afternoon."
"What happened to them?"
"Disappeared. And Vought moved everything sensitive to air-gapped hardware and paper records that same week." He offered a grim, tight-lipped smile. "They know what they're doing. They know their secrets can't see the light."
Jude exhaled.
So that is why. Satsuki could have gutted Vought's operations in a day if the data had been online. Instead, they had been forced to track financial anomalies and connect dots around an information architecture designed specifically to be impenetrable.
"Translucent is more useful to us alive than on a slab," Jude said. "Leave that part to me. Where are you going?"
"To find someone who knows how to put a supe in the ground."
"Turn around."
Butcher glanced at him.
He spun the steering wheel without a word of argument. It was a subtle signal, one Jude noted immediately.
He's already planning his next move. He's cooperating out of convenience, not because he agreed to my terms.
Jude reached into his jacket and pulled out a small, gray object the size of a large vitamin.
"Do you know what this is?"
Butcher glanced at it. "A remote-detonated explosive. Goes off on command or if tampered with."
"Right."
"Why didn't you use it yesterday?" Butcher's voice was tense with irritation. "If you had forced that down his throat, this problem would already be solved."
"The problem would be worse." Jude rolled the capsule between his fingers. "Think about the tracker. If Translucent's chip goes dark, Vought knows immediately. If the chip follows a route that doesn't match his normal routine, Homelander will be at the source in four minutes. Either way, Vought kicks the door in before you finish hosing down the basement."
Butcher absorbed the logic.
"For the record," Jude added, "killing him was never the hard part. He still needs to breathe. A bathtub filled with water and a live wire—the whole process takes under an hour. He can't hold his breath through electroshock, and he wouldn't be able to move. You could do it in a standard bathroom."
Butcher shifted gears forcefully.
"You told me we couldn't kill him," Butcher said. "You told me—while I was still deciding if I even wanted to—that killing him wasn't an option. And you've already mapped out two ways to do it."
"The methods aren't the point."
Butcher stared at him. His expression shifted, the hard lines around his eyes narrowing as he re-evaluated the man sitting next to him.
"Damn it, Jude." He pressed the accelerator. "You're a genius. I have never heard a cleaner way to execute a supe. What is your IQ?"
"Please stop talking like I plan murders for a living."
"Don't you?"
"I am a person of good character, and everything I know I learned from experienced heroes. Watch your tone." He held up the small explosive. "Now. The capsule goes inside Translucent. The casing is designed to bond to the stomach lining—he can't throw it up, and it won't pass naturally. His tracker stays active, his routine stays normal, and Vought suspects nothing. In exchange, Translucent doesn't cause any trouble. Because if he does—"
"You press the button."
"The button gets pressed."
Butcher licked his lips. "Where the hell did you learn all this?"
"Veteran heroes. Honestly." Jude put the explosive back in his pocket. "I have picked up a lot of practical education from people who have been doing this much longer than we have."
They were back at the safehouse in less than an hour.
Dragging Translucent into the basement was easy. Forcing the explosive down his throat was not. He locked his jaw tight, determined to hold out no matter what happened.
Jude dislocated his jaw.
The capsule went down, followed by a cup of water. Jude snapped the jaw back into place with the same clinical efficiency he had used to unseat it.
"The outer casing is designed to grip," Jude said. "Don't try to force yourself to vomit. Don't try surgery. The detonation protocol is highly sensitive." He crouched down to meet Translucent's eyes. "Starting today, you are our inside asset at Vought. Our second cannon fodder, if you need a job title."
Translucent sat on the concrete floor. His face was the color of ash. He stared at the wall, out of options and out of time.
"What do you actually want?" His voice was completely flat. "If it's money, I have enough to pay you off. Why go to war with Vought?"
"Good question." Jude sat on a wooden crate. "Have either of you read superhero comics?"
Butcher stayed quiet. Translucent nodded slightly. "Only my own."
"Right. So you understand the framework. Everyone knows superheroes exist in comics. But supervillains exist too. Light needs shadow. One defines the other." He gestured around the dim basement. "The formula is always the same: someone has a terrible day, their life falls apart, and a specific kind of madman is born."
He stood up and rested a hand lightly on Translucent's shoulder.
"I haven't had a bad day. I'm not crazy. But I look at this world, I look at Vought, and I look at what they are doing—"
He looked at both men.
"We need a supervillain."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing takes time, coffee, and a lot of love.If you'd like to support my work, join me at [email protected]/GoldenGaruda
You'll get early access to over 50 chapters, selection on new series, and the satisfaction of knowing your support directly fuels more stories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~