Ch.23

"Frenchie, Logan, can I talk to you?" Grace says walking in as Butcher stays behind to watch Lamplighter. 

"What the fuck happened?" Grace asks us as we walk into another room and close the door. 

"I'm sorry, my friend… they were overdosing and I needed to help. So I called Logan to cover me," Frenchie says looking down in disappointment at his failure. 

"Grace–" I start to say but she holds up her hand before sighing and rubbing her eyes. 

"Serge… This will not happen again, understand?" Grace says looking at Frenchie with a very serious face leaving no argument. 

"Yes," Frenchie says nodding his head. 

"Then go prepare the tools, Logan and I need to talk," Grace says dismissing Frenchie. 

"How fucked are we?" Grace says once Frenchie leaves. 

"Depends… How do you want to handle this? If we kill him, it will be discovered eventually, leaving us a small window to operate. If we force his hand to spy on us… well, he might try something like this again. Your call," I say as she nods her head. 

"Come on," Grace says walking into the room as Lamplighter is looking at Butcher and Frenchie who are discussing what tools to use. 

"Why my grandkids?" Grace says walking over to him and staring him down with hatred in her eyes. 

"She asked you a question, unless you want us to pull it out of you," Butcher says and holds up a piler while giving a crazy smile to Lamplighter since he didn't answer right away. 

"I thought it would've just been you! I didn't know your grandkids were there!" Lamplighter says as Grace narrows her eyes at him. 

"So, you wanted to kill me. What'd you think would happen after you killed me?" Grace says as Lamplighter goes quiet again trying to think. 

Frenchie then walks over and grabs a blow torch before burning Lamplighter's thigh making him scream out in pain.

"Cause I thought you'd leave me alone after!!!" Lamplighter screams as Frenchie burns him, making Frenchie stop the torture. 

"Damn, you really are fucking stupid. We'd only come after you harder and kill you," Butcher says glaring at Lamplighter. 

"What's stopping me from having my men drug you and burn you down in your house making it look like you got high and killed yourself?" Grace says while staring him down. 

"I'll be your spy!" Lamplighter says right away as Frenchie looks excited to burn him again. 

"How can we trust you?" Grace says showing no emotion, having gotten a hold of her anger. 

"We can't," I say before he can answer. 

"You can! I'll… I'll… I'll give you my phone and you can track everything I do!" Lamplighter says desperately trying not to be killed. 

"Anyone can do that mate, plus what's stopping Vought from seeing we messed with your phone?" Butcher says snorting at Lamplighter's suggestion. 

"I say we kill the fucker and find another way into the Seven," Butcher says looking over to Grace who goes quiet thinking. 

"Please!... I'll do whatever you want!" Lamplighter says looking at us all desperately. Frenchie is looking at Grace waiting for an order, while I think about how we can try to assure Lamplighter's allegiance. 

"Frenchie, don't kill him just yet. Butcher, Logan come with me," Grace says as Frenchie smirks and starts burning Lamplighter for fun making him scream out in pain. 

"Any thoughts, I know yours, Butcher," Grace says before Butcher can speak up again about killing Lamplighter. 

"I'm on the fence. We could kill him and do our best to make it look like an accident. However, we don't have any other leads and are not sure when we'd get another for the Seven. Plus I can't think of a way we can assure he doesn't fuck us over," I say as Butcher nods his head agreeing with me. 

"Shit… ok," Grace says nodding her head and going back to thinking as Lamplighter is screaming in pain since Frenchie is having fun with him. 

"Wait… Doesn't Vought put trackers into their supes, we could hack into it and use it to track him. Plus we could make a program that bugs his phone, however, that is if you know someone capable of that," I say shrugging and looking to Grace who nods her head. 

"I can think of a few people… Let me make a few calls and then I'll let you know what we are doing in an hour," Grace says as Butcher and I head back to see Lamplighter passed out from the pain as Frenchie is cursing since the torch is broken. 

"Putain de pute!" Frenchie says while throwing the torch across the room. 

"English Frenchie," Butcher says walking past him to grab his drink. Frenchie just mocks Butcher before turning to me. 

"What did the Colonel decide?" Frenchie asks since Grace's codename is the Colonel. 

"Waiting on her to make some calls," I say as he nods his head. 

"Wake him up," Grace says walking back in. 

Frenchie grabs some water and pours it on his head waking Lamplighter up as he looks around in fear. Grace then walks closer to him as he stares at her in nervousness. 

"You will get to live for now. However, you are our eyes and ears. The second we suspect you of anything or you step out of line, you will die,' Grace says to him. 

"Call whoever it is you report to and tell them you won't be coming in tomorrow on account of your drunken state," Grace says nodding to Butcher to release him. 

Lamplighter nods his head and takes his phone from Frenchie who hands it over to him. Lamplighter then makes the phone call saying exactly what Grace told him to say. 

"Now we wait," Grace says and within the hour a CIA SUV arrives. 

We let them in and walking out of the SUV are three people, the driver who looks to be a standard CIA agent. A young woman holding a laptop and a middle-aged man with a metal briefcase. The driver then opened the trunk grabbing another larger metal briefcase. 

"Colonel," the agent says nodding his head to Grace.

"Get started," Grace says as they put their things down. 

"Butcher grab a table for Lamplighter to lie down on. Logan, hold down our friend. Frenchie stand by in case he tries anything," Grace says as Frenchie grabs his gun cocking it and nodding to her. 

Lamplighter lies down on the table giving Grace a nervous look. I grab him by the shoulders making sure he doesn't move. Then Butcher handcuffs him to the table letting me step back as the middle-aged man uses what looks like a metal detector to scan Lamplighter's body. The machine beeps at his right shoulder and the man nods to the young woman. 

The young woman then begins typing away while opening the smaller briefcase. Inside is a small tracking chip, but it also has a small amount of explosives. The middle-aged man opens the larger briefcase showing medical supplies to operate on someone. 

The man then opens up Lamplighter's shoulder making him grunt in pain. The man takes out the small tracking chip from Vought and hands it to the woman. The woman then begins typing away for about ten minutes. She makes a few annoyed faces before finally sighing and handing the new chip to the man. The man then places the chip back in the same spot as the Vought one. 

The three people then gather their things up before quickly leaving the site. Grace nods to Butcher to release Lamplighter. Grace turns to look at Lamplighter who is staring at Grace with confusion and worry. 

"We replaced your tracker chip with one of our own. But don't worry Vought won't know what we did. However, our chip also has some explosives in it, that way if we feel you fucked us we can push a button and BOOM, your upper torso and head are a fine red mist," Grace says making the hand motions of an explosion at the same time. 

"Here is your new phone too, the same as your old one just… modified. Your handler will be Butcher here. You are to check in with him twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. Failure to do so will lead to you exploding," Grace says while staring down Lamplighter who is staring at her in horror taking this all in. 

"Do you understand?" Grace says as Lamplighter is sitting in silence. 

"Yes…" Lamplighter says with a defeated sigh and looks down like someone killed his puppy. 

"Good, for now, you will report the day after tomorrow like normal. Anyone asks about your injuries, you say you fucked around and burnt yourself. Butcher will contact you later with instructions once we establish a plan of action. For now, keep Butcher updated on any important information on the check-ins," Grace says to him as he nods his head and still looking down. 

"Now get the fuck out of here," Grace says as Lamplighter then quickly leaves but Frenchie whistles to him making him stop. Then Frenchie tosses Lamplighter his staff and he quickly runs off again. 

"You sure this is a good idea?" Butcher asks Grace with a doubtful look. 

"No, but it is the best way for us to worm our way into the Seven," Grace says rubbing her eyes tiredly. 

"Everyone go home," Grace says as we all take our leave. 

Over the next few months, Lamplighter dutifully checks in with Butcher out of fear for his life. However, he is becoming paranoid that Homelander suspects something. Though we doubt it since from what we can tell Homelander isn't acting out of normal for himself. Butcher though, is ready to fight Homelander at the drop of a hat. 

Then by the end of 2015, A-Train took over Mister Marathon's place in the Seven, becoming the first Black man in the Seven. At the beginning of 2016, MM got married to his fiance, now his wife. Their daughter was the ring barrier for them at the wedding since she was two years old then. Surprisingly Butcher was the best man at the wedding, with Frenchie and I being a part of the Groomsmen. 

By 2017 Lamplighter was able to collect a lot of insider information on the current members of the Seven. Giving us plenty of blackmail material for us to use against them. From what we learned, the Deep and Queen Maeve seem to be the weakest links. 

The Deep since he appears to be a total jackass with less-than-average intelligence. While Queen Maeve seems to be wanting a way out of the Seven, as her relationship with Homelander appears to be fake. Plus from what Lamplighter can tell, she was becoming increasingly depressed and turning to alcohol to get by. 

A-Train appeared to be a huge supporter of Homelander and extremely loyal to Vought, willing to do anything if it meant being a part of the Seven. Translucent appeared to be just as dedicated to the Seven as A-Train. While Black Noir was extremely loyal to Homelander. 

"Hey," Lamplighter says walking into the warehouse as we are going about our day. Grace wasn't here since she doesn't appear much in person unless absolutely necessary. 

"Hey Flameo," Butcher says mocking Lamplighter like usual. Frenchie just ignores him, while MM sighs hearing Butcher. I just watch from the side going through the latest files we have on the Seven. 

"Why are you here?" I say before Butcher can continue to fuck with Lamplighter. 

"Butcher asked me in… Said he wanted me to tell you about a way to get another one of the Seven on our side," Lamplighter says to us as we all turn to Butcher with a confused look just hearing about this. 

"Butcher we should have discussed this before he arrived," I say annoyed that we are just hearing about this. 

"But then Flame boy wouldn't be able to tell you the juicy info himself," Butcher says smirking at Lamplighter who sighs. 

"What is it?" I say after letting out an annoyed sigh from Butcher fucking around. 

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AN: Sorry for not posting anything. A close friend of mine passed away a few days ago so I'm dealing with that. Though I hope everyone else is having a good one.