There was a giant truck and an SUV parked on the grounds of the safe-house when Mason arrived.
His meeting with Starlight had gone swimmingly. When that and Stan Edgar’s arrest was factored into the list of day’s events, he had no choice but to give it an excellent rating.
The only time he’d been this happy ever since he woke up in this world was too many to count. It had barely been a month since his awakening, yet he’d experienced so many exciting and happy things he couldn’t rank them properly.
And despite the awful and depressing things added into the mix, he couldn’t shake this sunny disposition. With a bright smile, he walked into the house towards the lone heat signature.
“Grace? Is that you?”
“In here.”
He found her in the living room seated on the main couch, legs crossed while she fiddled with a tablet.
“Hey. I saw the truck out there.”
She didn’t look up. “Yeah. Your stuff’s in there. How did the meeting go?”
“Pretty great. Apparently, she wanted to leave The Seven this whole time but was too afraid. Turns out enabling superpowered abusers creates a work environment that is hostile to all intelligent life. Who knew.”
There was a chuckle from the old woman.
“You and your insults. So what’s the plan? Still aiming for that Justice League of yours.”
Mason bristled and suddenly grew self conscious. “It’s not the Justice League. I just used it as an example. Right now, the only superhero team is The Seven. If another team that is more competent and more focused on actually saving people appears, that will be another step in the right direction.”
“So, the Justice League.”
He sighed. “We’ll not be calling ourselves that.”
“So you have a name?”
“Not yet.”
“You have your work cut out for you. No supe name, no team name, no miracle suit, no money. Vought should come over and see their competition.”
“I know what you’re doing. It won’t work.”
“If you mean mocking you so you put that work ethic of yours to use, then yes.”
Shaking his head, Mason turned around to leave. Mallory’s next words paused his stride. “Come back when you’re done unloading the truck. There’s something I need to show you.”
“Okay?”
Stowing his confusion for later, he rushed to his room, changed into more comfortable wear and went to the rec room he’d cleared out days ago.
It was large and spacious enough for the computers and machinery in his mind’s eye, so he wasted no time scanning it to determine where he’d start setting things up before going outside.
Some of the things in the list he provided were delicate and as such needed to be transported carefully, so the sight of durable-looking plastic boxes and crates filled him with relief.
Flight really came in handy when you were alone in a situation like this. A simple flex of intent sent him off the ground, several inches off the ground and straight into the vehicle’s interior.
Using careful movements, he checked the content of the two topmost containers, grabbed and placed them on his shoulders before levitating out of the truck and back into the house.
Things remained smooth sailing from this point onwards, his speed increasing with the repeated trips. On the last of said trips, two barrels rested on his shoulders as he lowered himself to the ground and walked the rest of the distance to his workshop.
The barrels dropped with heavy thumps when he lowered them and he stood up, dusting his hands as he looked about the wealth of items scattered about.
Checking the contents of each box and going back and forth had allowed him to arrange things into separate categories. This made the next part easy. Shifting the tables into place and unloading the boxes.
It wasn’t yet time to put together the setup he needed to synthesize Edna’s wonder materials, but placing the separate parts for each component in one place, or in this case, on one table would dramatically speed things up once he got going.
So he dove into it immediately. For a good thirty to thirty five minutes, there were multiple, intermittent cracks of plastic being unsealed, the clink of glassware, and the shifting of tables.
The first thing he checked after finishing up was Mallory’s location with heat sense. Almost an hour had passed, yet she hadn’t moved this whole time. He didn’t like making her wait, but he also didn’t want to leave.
The stuff was right there. By his calculations, if he started working right this instant, three days from now he’d have a working model of what he promised. His need for rest and sustenance, which was nil, had been factored into this.
He could almost taste it, the joy of focusing on something continuously. Sadly, his situation had changed. He wasn’t alone like he was in the beginning. There were people he had to speak to before going into this mini seclusion.
“I’m here. Sorry I took so long.” He announced himself upon entering the living room, situating himself opposite the old lady who didn’t seem to be in a hurry whatsoever.
“It’s alright.” She looked up from the tablet. “Get everything you need?”
“Yeah. You really came through. Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet. You only get to do that after.”
He replied with a mock salute.
“There’s a lot riding on this. People in pretty high places are watching you. If you fail to deliver—”
“I’ll be causing you a lot of trouble. Got it. Can we move on to the stuff you wanna show me?”
Honestly, Mason got why no one believed him. The things he claimed the suits could do were too fantastical. An actual bulletproof—not bullet resistant, bulletproof—vest that could stand up to HMG’s and theoretically, superpowered punches?
Yeah right. Homelander waking up and suddenly being able to shoot lasers out of his butt was more believable.
“Here,” Mallory handed him the tablet. “Take a look and tell me what you see.”
Keeping any questions he had to himself, he accepted the device and tapped the play button. It was a black and white footage, the hue, the angle, and objects in frame telling him it was from some sort of camera.
Of course, the date and CAM C watermarks already did that, but he liked to put his deductive skills to work. Either way, the camera had to be the kind mounted on street lamps, judging from the park benches and other lamps in the footage.
This wasn’t the most intriguing thing about the footage however. Though it was quite short, something stood out enough that he rewound it to the beginning to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
He did five more reruns before looking up. “Who’s she?”
“Rebecca Saunders… Butcher.” Mallory showed no reaction to his surprise. “See anything.”
“Yeah.” He sunk into the cushion. “She reminds me of someone. Her body language… the way she’s closed off, protective even. It’s all very familiar. What happened to her?”
“What do you think happened?”
“I’m not a hundred percent sure but if you ask me, she was raped. And not just that, she’s pregnant. Her whole body screams fear and conflict about what she’s about to do.”
“And what do you think that is?”
Mason sighed. This reminded too much of Maya. He didn’t want to keep talking about it. Still, Grace had done so much for him.
“I don’t know.” He forced out. “I don’t think it’s an abortion. The way she’s cradling herself… it doesn’t scream I don’t want this baby. It’s more… ugh, I don’t know. Impossibility? Like having the baby means she’ll lose everything. I’m scrambling here.”
“Next video.” That was all Mallory said.
It took him a second to find the next button and tap it. He pressed the giant play button as soon as the thumbnail changed and he shifted in his seat when an obnoxious cape entered the frame.
He paused it again and held the bridge of his nose, taking a long drag of the surrounding air. After taking a bit to calm down, he hit play again.
Homelander helped Rebecaa into the room, his smile and the way he palmed her back already ringing alarm bells.
There was a jump after the door shut, there had to be. Because Burcher’s wife stumbled out of the room not long after it closed, clothes disheveled and looking positively distraught, drained of all life, and worst of all, ashamed.
“Mallory.” He covered his face and tried not to focus on the memories and emotions being dredged up. “Why did you show me this?”
“Butcher’s wife… Becca… she went missing not long after the first video was taken. It was a shot in the dark, but I was wondering if you'd spot anything. See something we didn’t.”
“What about Homelander?” He asked, even though he knew full well the futility of releasing this video to the public. One, the victim was nowhere to be found. Two, there is no way Homelander would face punishment based on her word alone.
Most idiots assumed every incident of rape or abuse of a similar caliber needed to include violence or force. What they failed to realise was that violence and force also fell under power dynamics.
A victim of sexual assault didn’t need bruises or other physical signs to make a claim. In this case, Homelander had clearly used his power to intimidate her into compliance, whether he knew it or not.
However, the idiots wouldn’t see it like that. They would say that she cheated and was now making up stuff to not be the bad guy. They would also say he was Homelander, he didn’t need to resort to rape because women threw themselves at him.
The most deviant ones would even say she was lucky to be chosen by him.
“What are we going to do about this?” Mason couldn’t catch a break. How had his life been more chaotic in less than a month than the entire twenty years he’d spent before this?
Still, chaos or not. He could not in good faith go back to making clothes after seeing this. Screw that.
Sadly for him, his enthusiasm never got to shine.
“We… are going to do nothing.” Mallory poured a bucket of ice on the heat building his chest and limbs.
“Mallory—”
“I know. But there’s nothing you can do with what we have now. You said she might be pregnant, right?“
“Yeah.”
“Well, there’s a problem with that. Homelander can’t have kids.”
“Oh.” He was wrong after all.
“But it’s still worth looking into. We know Vought had something to do with her disappearance. If there’s someone who knows exactly what happened to her—”
“Stan Edgar.”
“Yes.” She opened her hand and he passed the tablet back to her. “I’m going to give him a visit. He’ll have what we need. No, you can’t come with me.”
“I wasn’t going to ask.”
She gave him a look that said ‘liar.’
“Fine. I was. But Mallory. He can’t ever get out.”
“I know. I’ll make sure of it.”
They both stood up and he escorted her to the door. It was then it suddenly hit him; his perfect day was no longer perfect. And it couldn’t have been something like a stubbed toe or a shirt caught on a door handle.
No, it had to be something like this…
‘Is this why you gave me fire powers eh Maya? So I can burn everything down?’
In his absentmindedness, he’d summoned a flame and lost himself in it. Mallory’s worried stare snapped him out of it. He shut his open palm and extinguished it.
“I really should come with you.”
She gave him a disapproving look.
“Fine. Keep me updated. However I can help, I will.”
“I know. Now please get back to work.”
They shared a small chuckle before she went to her car. He waited till she left the grounds completely before returning to the overhauled rec room. The recent revelations had somehow made the upcoming seclusion even more enticing.
How else was he supposed to keep his mind off things?
He took out his phone to text Lexi and paused halfway. Ignoring her for three days would surely tank their fresh off the shelf relationship, but it wasn’t even that he was worried about.
Her worry is what concerned him. That and how hard he found it not to be an asshole. What else could you describe leaving your girlfriend on read for three days with no explanation?
After a brief war with himself, he gave in and removed himself from the premises. Even if it was rushed or not properly accepted, he needed to speak with Lexi in person before he started.
.
.
.
.
“Three whole days, where I won’t see or hear from you.”
The way Lexi said it made Mason narrow his eyes. It didn’t sound better or even good when it came out of her mouth. He could swear it didn’t sound that way when he said it.
“Let me rephrase, I’ll be confined to a single location, working non-stop. We can still text and call, but I may miss some of those depending on what stage of the work I’m on.”
She did say anything, just watching him like a hawk.
That prompted him to touch his face. “Is there something… why are you looking at me like that?”
“Nothing.”
Okay. Here we go.
“You think I’m cheating.”
“Woah! I did not say that.”
“What did that nothing mean then?”
“Nothing!”
“In the dictionary, nothing means nothing. When you say it, it means a whole lotta something.”
She recoiled like she’d been struck. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Let’s not go there.” He suddenly grew tired of this, waving his hands between them. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Like a naughty little child, Lexi’s offended face shifted into a wry smile. She squealed and leaned in, raising her phone to take a picture of them both.
“Our first couple’s fight.” She pecked him on the cheek. “And you gave up so easily.”
His mouth flapped open and shut a few times before he shook his head and fixed the most disapproving stare he could manage. “You play too much.”
“Ugh… are you kidding? I don’t play enough.”
“So… you didn’t actually think I was cheating?”
She laughed like he said a bad joke. “Honey, I don’t think you even know how to cheat.” She pecked him on the lips and deposited herself in his lap. “Aww, don’t look so salty. It’s a compliment.”
“Like I said. You play too much.”
“You like it when I play. Besides…” She brought her mouth close to his ear and whispered more reasons why she didn’t believe he could cheat.
It took both of them a few minutes to calm down.
“So I’m in the clear then? Your anger meter won’t go up while I’m away?”
“Anger isn’t what you should be worried about.” She walked her fingers over him.
He smirked and recalled the discussion he wanted to have about her “voracious appetite“ but there just wasn’t enough time. It could only happen after things had settled down.
“You know, when I’m done. I’ll be pretty loaded. We can go anywhere in the world. For a real vacation.”
That got her cat-like clinginess to stop. “Really?”
“Dead serious.”
“Oh this is amazing. How loaded are we talking?”
“Hmm…Enough to buy a huge house with a pool, a view, and a fleet of cars loaded.”
She got off him and grabbed her phone and laptop. “That’s it. I’m making a list.”
After less than a minute of staring at the screens, she stopped and looked at him. “What? You’re still here? Go on, shoo.”
Unable to hold back his smile, Mason went over. They shared a long goodbye kiss, both using it to convey how much they’d miss each other before he left the apartment.