20 Breaking News
"A house that I might add was hosting an orgy."
"Now if you could please get dressed, because as much as I enjoyed the view earlier it is not conducive for working…quite the opposite, very distracting."
She felt his eyes roam up and down her body, practically touching her and suddenly she felt very naked even with the towel on.
"Plus you're dripping water all over your living room." He finished.
"Ah shit. Fine. Give me a moment." She finally said and quickly tiptoed to her bedroom.
She quickly dried off, changed and came back out, where she saw him already typing at the laptop.
"Ok, so what do you want to go over first?" She took a seat across from him on a chair.
"Well, first the reason you were in the area. We can say Deep contacted you, we'll need to find a reason why you weren't in costume, which shouldn't be too hard and as for after the explosion, we can say your clothes were damaged and you changed in whoever you could scavenge. You might not even be asked any of these questions but it's good to have something prepared for it just in case."
She listened to him and gave her input along with ideas how to approach the whole situation, the next steps they would present and what they will be doing.
Before she knew it his questions drew her in the conversation and over an hour had passed when they realized it was midnight.
"Let's call it a day." He finally said closing his laptop. "I think we went over most points. If it's something you're not sure just say 'I don't know at this time we'll have to look into it', I'll do the same it works most of the time."
She felt a skip of a heartbeat and a trickle of shame as she nodded both to his statement and to the realization that she had actively enjoyed this impromptu work session, a part of her was slightly sad to finish it.
"Oh, and tell Hughie, that whatever this little game Butcher rope him in with Soldier Boy will only end up with him dead if he keeps playing. He's only alive because of you however my patience can only stretch so far."
He said with a fake cold smile and left.
Anxiety and anger swelled up within her again.
-
The spacious Vought conference room was packed to the brim, with reporters and officials while the serious mood of the situation was betrayed by the cheery sun peeking through the edges of the see through minimalistic blinders adorning the windows.
The incessant clicking sounds of the cameras had slowed down as Homelander and Starlight answered questions about last night's events.
"…unsanctioned CIA operation in Nicaragua in 84…." She watched Homlander answer calmly.
It hadn't been easy to organize all this last minute, well technically getting the reporters here was, it was the city and state officials that were always prickly about things.
'Fucking assholes' she thought, after all Vought was doing all the heavy lifting for them.
"…conspiracy between US government, Vought and the Russians as far as we know…"
Last night's events were a giant mess for her, for Vought for the dead and wounded for everyone really. A real rogue supervillain, a Vought mistake coming to bite them in the ass, just as she finally reached the top, it wasn't fair.
"…cover up on a massive scale, we can only speculate on the deal with the Russians…"
Her hand twitched but she resisted the urge to play with her hair.
'Homelander wouldn't like that…no John, you have to call him John now' she chided herself mentally.
Something was wrong with John as well, he was …unnerving. Before she was afraid he could snap at any moment, crush her in his hands, and slice her in two with his eyes but now he felt…different.
"…he wants revenge on Vought, on superheroes, on the US and Russian government…" She heard Starlight answer.
He was calmer, colder more methodical. He had a sudden interest in all things Vought, suddenly he'd become a workaholic when before he'd never shown any interest in Vought operations outside of the Seven.
"…we believe he was turned into an anti-super weapon by the Russian and US governments…"
The scary part for her was how knowledgeable he was of actual operations in a big corporate environment. The jargon he was using the insights he was drawing and the general comfortableness he had in meetings, like he'd been doing it his whole life.
"…we believe clandestine government involvement as he was helped by former CIA operative one William Butcher and an unknown teleporter…"
On one hand the company seemed revitalized. It's one thing to say you work for Vought with 'The Seven' and it's a completely different thing when Homelander himself attends your meetings understands what you do and gives you practical advice.
The mid-level managers and analysts were practically buzzing with excitement.
"…we are working closely with state and local authorities to locate him...due to the danger involved we do not recommend for any law enforcement to approach him…"
On the other hand the he had the executive team was running on fumes trying to get him all the information requests.
Not to mention working on his space idea.
She thought it was stupid, the telecom idea might work but space, will that really work with the public and the shareholders?
Probably not, she couldn't see it but if it kept him…not homicidal she would endorse it, she would work on it. If they succeeded they would reach the stars, literally and if they failed…well hopefully she wouldn't end up like Stan or worse…dead.
