Ch.25

I bring Queen Maeve to my place where she quickly grabs me pulling me in for a kiss. From the way she is quickly using me, I can tell she is doing this for an outlet as she appears to be very stressed. The night is a very long one, for both of us as neither wanted to concede first. 

We ended up enjoying ourselves for several hours finishing long after sunrise, before we both came to a silent agreement to not continue. Queen Maeve then stood up and began to put on her clothes. Out of all the women I've been with, she was by far the best one in the bedroom because she like me has superhuman endurance. 

"Not many men or women have satisfied me like that… You should pat yourself on the back," Queen Maeve says to me with a smirk as she grabs my cigarette from my mouth to smoke it herself. 

"I could say the same to you… The women part at least, I don't swing the other way," I say correcting myself before she believes I'm Bi or anything similar. 

"So, you just gonna leave?" I say to her curious as she finishes dressing herself. 

"Don't tell me you want to cuddle? Plus I have to get to work, if I'm any later, it might make my boss call for me and I'd rather avoid that," Queen Maeve says to me and I believe she is referring to Homelander. 

"Well, can I atleast get your name before you go," I say to her to see if she would tell me her name without me having to somehow know it already. 

"Maggie… You can call me Maggie," Queen Maeve or Maggie, says to me with a hesitant face. 

"Oh, before you go… take this," I say standing up and I can feel her gaze on my body as I'm still naked. I then hand her a piece of paper with my phone number. 

"Call if you are looking for another stress reliever, anytime," I say as she gives me a hard look before pocketing it. 

"How'd you know?" Maggie asks me just before she leaves, stopping at the door. 

"Cause I've been there before too," I say to her while putting on some boxers. Maggie just takes her leave not saying anything else. 

'Well, now we might have another way into the Seven… Now I just hope she reaches out to me again,' I think to myself as I watch her quickly walk toward the city center from the streets below. 

In the next few weeks, I hear nothing from Queen Maeve/ Maggie, but Grace does officially retire. Then Susan Raynor takes over, coming out to meet us, and seems already annoyed by us. As Butcher was a vengeful loose cannon, only held in check by me, with Frenchie a loaded Gun ready to strike at my call, MM the field medic and unregistered group therapist. 

Then one day as I was smoking in the corner of our warehouse with MM and talking with Frenchie who was having a bad day, Butcher walked in with an excited look on his face. I raise an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to speak, as Frenchie and MM turn toward him too curious about his behavior. 

"You have our attention," I say motioning for Butcher to start. 

"Seems, A-Train fucked up. Check this out," Butcher says and walks over to the ghost laptop and plugs in a flash drive. He then opens up a video file. 

"This is now the only copy I believe. I was able to get it before Vought made it disappear," Butcher says and presses play. 

The video shows just another street on the outskirts of the city, with people going about their day. Then Butcher points to a couple walking on the sidewalk, one is a tall lanky white man who appears to be the embodiment of a nerdy 90s high school kid all grown up. The woman was a fairly attractive lighter-skinned black woman with shoulder-length curly hair and wearing a yellow shirt and blue jean overalls. 

The couple appeared to be talking about something, and then the woman stepped into the street, just off the curb of the sidewalk. Two seconds after she stepped off the curb, a blur passed through her and sent her body exploding outward in all directions. The blur came to a stop a few dozen feet down the road and showed it to be A-Train. 

A-Train said a few words to the young man who appeared to be still holding the young woman's hands in his before A-Train just as quickly left. The young man then let out a scream as other people ran over and called the emergency services. Butcher then stops the video since the rest doesn't matter. 

"A-Train could be our next way into the Seven," Butcher says since I didn't mention my one-night stand with Maggie to the group in case it turned into nothing which appears to be the case. 

"Possibly… I want to know more about the victims. Butcher, MM, go find out more about this unfortunate couple. See what you can learn and if you can convince this young man to not take Vought's hush money but potentially come forward. We can then maybe force A-Train's hand," I say to them as Butcher and MM nod their heads before quickly leaving.

"Frenchie, you and I are friends right?" I say to Frenchie wanting to talk to someone about my one-night stand with Maggie. 

"Oui," Frenchie says to me since he and I've grown the closest over the years due to our similar upbringings. 

"Don't tell the others, but a few weeks ago I met up with Queen Maeve. We hooked up and I gave her my number in case she wanted to do it again. She hasn't contacted me since, though I just wanted to tell you since it might be a way for us into the Seven. Though at the same time, it might blow up in our faces… should I tell the others?" I say to him as his eyes widen hearing the part we hooked up, and then he turns serious as he thinks. 

"No… As you said, it appears to be a one-time thing. No need to make a big deal out of it, plus if it blows up in our faces, we can deal with it then," Frenchie says to me as I nod my head thankful for his input and coming clean to someone finally. 

A few hours later, as Frenchie and I shoot the shit, MM comes back but not with Butcher. MM says Butcher is staying back since he believes he can convince the kid to join our cause. We all then head home, the following morning Butcher walks in with a nervous-looking skinny white kid, the one we learned was called Hugh Campbell Jr.

"Guess who I got to join us!" Butcher says while patting the shoulder of Hughie who finches at the touch. 

"Hey kid," I say as he nods his head to me nervously while Frenchie is giving him a look over. With MM smiling at him, happy he agreed to help us. 

"So, did Butcher tell you what we want from you?" I ask him curious as to what Butcher told him to get him to join us. 

"Uhm… Butcher said you guys are a group that takes down Supes and makes sure they become exposed to the world for who they really are," Hughie says as I shrug my shoulders. 

"Close, though we haven't exposed anyone yet. Mostly because we need to get solid evidence against them. Plus we technically don't have the government's backing, only off-the-books support. So until we get something solid, we have to be very careful about how we operate," I say to him as he nods his head. 

"Though now with you here, we might be able to force A-Train to come forward about what he did. However, we will first need to set up a meeting with him. There you can bug A-Train, with this," I say as Frenchie brings over a small circular bug that Hughie can use to place in the headquarters of the Seven. 

"Wow, wow, wow! I don't think I can do that! I mean I'm not a spy, plus can't you guys find someone else to do that?!" Hughie says as his nervousness reaches even higher levels. 

"We used to have someone on the inside, but they were removed for different reasons. Now we are blind in the ongoings of the Seven, so we need to get ears in there. Plus none of us can get inside since we don't have a reason to be there… You have a reason to be there if you force their hand to give you the reason," I say to him as Butcher nods his head while patting Hughie's shoulder in reassurance. 

"Robin would want this, she deserves the revenge," Butcher says playing on his feelings for his recently deceased girlfriend. Hughie gives him a nervous look, before letting out a deep breath and nodding his head. 

"Ok, I'll do it," Hughie says as everyone smiles and pats his shoulder bringing up his confidence. 

"Then you need to call a meeting with the lawyer, saying you want to meet A-Train in person at the Tower. That you want him to take a few pictures and sign some things, then you will sign the NDA and move on," I say to him as Hughie gives another nervous look but nods his head.

"Butcher and MM will be watching over you, so don't stress too much," I say to him as he nods his head looking slightly more confident. 

Then Hughie pulls out his phone and calls the lawyer, he then does as I say, making the arrangement with the lawyer. The next day Butcher and MM go with Hughie to the tower, dropping him off. Then once everything was done, Butcher dropped Hughie back off to his work, since we didn't want to include the kid in the rest of the work. However, an hour later Butcher called me as Frenchie and I were closing up the warehouse. 

"Code Red! We have Translucent, he found out about Hughie and we managed to subdue him. Though we have to bring him back," Butcher says as Frenchie and I quickly open the warehouse back up and prepare for their arrival. 

Butcher then drives into the Warehouse, with MM and Hughie getting out of the car quickly too. I motion for MM and Frenchie to secure the area, as Butcher walks over grabbing a stun gun and motioning me over. Hughie and Butcher looked beat up, Butcher looking at the trunk with bloodthirst eyes and Hughie like he was about to throw up in nervousness. 

"He's inside it," Butcher says opening the trunk and inside we see nothing, but I can smell and hear the heartbeat of Translucent inside the trunk. I then grab him as Butcher runs over to a cage opening it and we throw Translucent inside. 

"Hughie, says Homelander can't see through Zinc. So we grabbed a bunch of Zinc rolls," Butcher says as Hughie grabs a bunch of rolls with Butcher while I drag the cage into a smaller room used for interrogation. 

We then quickly cover the room in the thin foil Zinc everywhere making sure there is no opening. Then Hughie and Butcher make the cage bars electrical by connecting them to several car batteries. MM and Frenchie come back after securing the area, and MM, Butcher, and Hughie catch us up to speed about what happened. 

"So our operation is burned and now the Seven knows someone is watching them… Fuck! Ok,... what do we do with him?" I say as we look into the room with Translucent inside. 

"Get some answers to our questions… Then dispose of him, there is no way he won't rat us out once loose, then Homelander will be on our asses," Butcher says as Frenchie nods his head. 

"Fine, wake him up then we ask some questions before disposing of him," I say as Frenchie grabs a cattle prod. Butcher smiles hearing my order, while MM steals his emotions and Hughie looks extremely stressed hearing them.