The trunk of the Honda let out a dull metallic thud.
Butcher patted the trunk lid.
“Alright, this piece of trash is going where it belongs.”
Ian glanced at his phone.
“I’ll head off then.
I have a macroeconomics class at eight tomorrow morning.”
Butcher’s hand paused on the car door handle.
He turned his head, looking at Ian as if he were an alien.
“You just helped us kill a fucking superhero, and now you’re telling me you’re going to school?”
“Life goes on, Butcher,” Ian said, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“Besides, I’m on a full scholarship.
Absences will cost me credits.”
Hughie swallowed hard from the passenger seat.
“Ian, you’re really…
just going back like that?
Aren’t you afraid Homelander might suddenly show up and turn you to ash?”
“He should still be at the docks looking for that nonexistent Honda,” Ian replied.
“Have fun disposing of the body.”
Butcher grunted, biting down on an unlit cigarette.
“Suit yourself, kid.
Keep your phone on.
We might still need that mouth of yours that can fool Homelander.”
The car started up, its taillights disappearing into the night.
Ian stood where he was, watching the taillights completely merge into the traffic flow of Brooklyn.
He knew Butcher still didn’t trust him, but that didn’t matter.
The tracking chip left in the box was his true masterpiece of the night.
Vought would soon follow the signal.
Once they found Translucent’s remains, the war would officially begin.
The murkier the water, the easier it is to catch fish.
Ian shoved his hands into his pockets and headed toward the subway station.
The night air in Brooklyn was a mix of urine stench and the sour smell of day-old burgers.
His LV1 Super Senses made him unusually sharp; he could hear a homeless person shifting half a street away.
“Let me go!
Help!”
A sharp female voice suddenly reached Ian’s ears.
The sound came from a dead-end alley to his left, about fifty meters away.
Ian had just stopped walking when he heard another sound—an extremely faint, high-frequency electrical hum, like the buzzing of an old cathode-ray tube TV turning on.
Ian turned into a dark fire alley, using the shadows of the walls to move forward.
At the end of the alley, three leather-jacketed thugs were cornering a young girl against the wall.
Her dress was torn, and she clutched her chest tightly, her face streaked with tears.
But what caught Ian’s attention wasn’t them—it was the figure standing at the mouth of the alley.
A figure in a hoodie, looking like a college girl just out of class—
Starlight.
What was she doing here?
Ian leaned against the brick wall, not rushing out.
“Let her go,” Starlight’s voice echoed in the narrow alley, carrying the anger she’d been suppressing all day.
“Fuck off, bitch.
If you want to play superhero, go to a comic con,” one of the thugs snapped back, pulling a switchblade from his waist.
The blade gleamed coldly in the moonlight.
Starlight didn’t waste words.
She simply raised her hands. This story is hosted at g.com.
“Hum—”
The two streetlights on the alley walls flickered instantly, erupting in a blinding burst of light.
The three thugs screamed, covering their eyes.
Starlight charged forward, punching the knife-wielding thug squarely in the jaw.
The sound of cracking bone was crisp and satisfying.
The thug flew backward like a ragdoll, slamming into a dumpster and lying still.
The remaining two hadn’t even reacted before she kicked them down one by one, clutching their stomachs and wailing on the ground.
Clean and efficient.
Ian stood in the shadows, watching the scene unfold.
He remembered.
Starlight had saved someone in this alley, but what she didn’t know was that someone nearby had recorded the incident.
That video was edited and uploaded online with the title “Vought’s New Hero Assaults Innocent Civilians on the Street.”
The online backlash followed immediately.
Vought’s PR department tore into her mercilessly.
And when Starlight, full of hope, went to find the girl she had saved, hoping she would come forward to testify and clear her name, the girl—afraid of retaliation from the thugs—refused on the spot, even pretending not to recognize her at all.
Should he help her smash that phone?
Ian calculated in his mind.
He dismissed the idea.
Better not.
Annie January was still a good girl dreaming of being a superhero.
Even though he had given her hints at the entrance of Vought Tower, that only made her wary of Deep.
Deep down, she still believed in the whole superhero narrative, still thought Vought was a righteous place that fought evil.
Only something as rotten as being betrayed by the person she saved and getting publicly attacked online could completely strip away that naive shell of hers.
It was better for her to suffer a bit.
It would help her see reality faster.
Ian shoved his hands into his pockets, preparing to slip away quietly.
“Are you okay?” In the alley, Starlight helped the girl up.
“Go home quickly, and don’t walk down dark paths like this in the future.”
The girl stammered out several thank-yous before scrambling out of the alley in a panic.
In her haste, she crashed headfirst into a trash can at the alley’s entrance.
The can toppled over, and several empty liquor bottles rolled out, clattering against the brick wall near Ian’s feet.
The crisp sound of shattering glass.
Ian’s footsteps halted.
Starlight whipped her head around, her palms glowing with a piercing light once more, directly illuminating the corner where Ian stood.
“Who’s there?
Come out!” Starlight shouted sharply.
The light was too bright.
Ian tilted his head slightly and raised a hand to shield his eyes.
No avoiding it now.
He simply stepped out of the shadows openly.
“Relax, I was just passing by.
I heard some noise and came to check.”
The light in Starlight’s palms dimmed.
She stared at Ian’s face for a few seconds, then suddenly froze.
“It’s you?”
“It’s me.” Ian lowered his hand and shrugged.
“The old fan who asked for your autograph at Vought Tower’s entrance.
What a coincidence—do superheroes need Brooklyn midnight snacks too?”
Starlight took a deep breath, and the light in her palms went out completely. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Her tense shoulders relaxed as she quickly walked up to Ian.
Without the harsh glare, Ian could see her face clearly under the streetlight.
She wasn’t wearing makeup, her eyes were slightly red—she looked like she had just been crying or was still riding the tail end of some intense emotional wave.
“What you said to me earlier…” Starlight began, her voice a bit hoarse.
“Who are you, really?
How did you know about Deep?”
“Didn’t I say?
I’m your die-hard fan.
To keep up with my idol, I’ve scoured all kinds of obscure Vought news and internal forums,” Ian lied casually.
“What, did that gill-faced idiot bother you?”
Starlight bit her lip.
She seemed to hesitate about whether to share this with a “fan” she had only met twice.
But she had been through too much today, and…
The feeling of being isolated and disgusted desperately needed an outlet.
“He wanted to force me to give him…” Starlight’s voice trembled with suppressed emotion as she stared intently at Ian.
“Right in The Seven’s conference room.
He said if I didn’t do it, he’d kick me out of the team.”
Ian mentally whistled.
The inertia of the plot was strong—this idiot really couldn’t control his urges.
“So you did it?” Ian deliberately asked in return.
“Fuck him!” Starlight suddenly cursed, the profanity sounding strikingly out of place coming from her.
“I stood there, watching him prepare to pull down his pants.
Can you imagine?
America’s pride, the Lord of the Seven Seas, standing before me like a horny baboon.”
She paused, her chest heaving violently.
“I remembered the image you showed me and your words.
I excused myself to the restroom and went straight to find Queen Maeve.”
“And then?”
“Maeve didn’t want to get involved at first.
She told me to endure it, saying that’s just how things are.” Starlight sneered, a fierce glint in her eyes.
“But I told her if she didn’t intervene, I’d go live and expose everything online.
We might as well all go down together.”
“Maeve compromised.
She went back to the conference room with me.” Starlight spoke faster and faster.
“You should have seen Deep’s expression—he looked like a dead fish stranded on dry land.
Maeve warned him to stay away from me, and I told him if he dared take one step closer, I’d send his scandal to The New York Times.”
Ian smiled.
This was unexpected.
He hadn’t imagined that his daytime reminder, combined with that mentally suggestive image, would directly trigger her resistance mechanism.
The fierceness buried deep within this woman had been forced out ahead of time.
“Well done,” Ian nodded approvingly.
“Dealing with people like that requires being even more ruthless than they are.
As long as you hold their secrets, they can only be your dog.”
Starlight looked at Ian, her eyes filled with an indescribable mix of emotions—gratitude, curiosity, and a hint of wariness.
“You helped me a great deal,” Starlight said.
“If it weren’t for your reminder, I might have really…
I don’t know.
I might have broken down.
Since I was little, my dream was to join The Seven.
I thought this was heaven, but it turns out it’s a sewer filled with perverts.”
“Welcome to the real world, Annie,” Ian called her by her real name.