"Butcher, did you intercept any useful messages?" Hughie asked nervously, speaking to the person on the phone.
"Do you remember where I told you to put the bug?" A man's deep, husky voice on the other end of the phone asked, like a gloomy, irritable Beast.
"Under The Seven's conference room table."
"Where did you put it?" A displeased query.
"...Opposite the conference room door."
Two cold chuckles came from the other end of the phone, and then silence.
"Two days ago, as you said, I went to Vought to accept A-Train's apology, but Vought didn't arrange the meeting in The Seven's conference room, saying an important person was using it, and just found another room." Hughie explained, feeling depressed and a little annoyed as he recalled the experience from two days prior.
Using the excuse of going to the restroom, he circled the tightly closed conference room and found a steel relief of The Seven on the wall opposite the conference room. So, he could only place the bug in a gap in the relief.
Conducting a spy operation in the headquarters of Vought Corporation, which had single-handedly created over two hundred Superheroes, was a terrifying and extremely risky endeavor for him.
"What's the use? Do you think those bastards would choose to discuss private, unspeakable matters in a conference room, or standing in a hallway?" But on the other end of the phone, Butcher, nicknamed Butcher, mocked him mercilessly.
"So… does that mean there's no useful information?" Hughie lowered his head, deflated and frustrated.
"..."
"No, consider yourself lucky, you bastard." After a long silence on the other end of the phone, Butcher sneered.
"I heard a piece of news, don't know if it'll be useful."
"Who is it about?"
"A-Train." Butcher replied.
"It's him!" Hearing A-Train's name, Hughie gritted his teeth, his face contorted with hatred.
He would never forget that more than ten days ago, he and his girlfriend were walking on the street, sweetly discussing cohabitation, when A-Train, running at high speed, suddenly crashed into his girlfriend, turning her into a pile of minced flesh.
Without any warning, in the blink of an eye, his girlfriend, who had been smiling gently at him, was gone, leaving only her remaining hands clutched in his, and he was covered in blood.
He lost his girlfriend, and he lost the beautiful life he had envisioned.
"That shameful liar actually said on TV that he was chasing a villain at the time, and Robin was standing in the middle of the road, blocking the way, which caused the accident.
Is he blaming Robin for everything? And then he even mocked Robin. I must make him pay the price!"
He and his girlfriend were clearly standing by the roadside, not in the middle of the road, but Vought Corporation and his family advised him to accept compensation and let the matter rest, but he was too angry to comply.
It was then that Butcher found him, revealed the darkness of Vought to him, and took him to a club that only Superheroes could enter.
In the surveillance footage, he saw A-Train discussing the incident with someone else, showing no remorse or guilt, and talking about his girlfriend's death in a jocular tone, which further enraged him.
"Alright, I know how much you hate A-Train. He killed your girlfriend. Coincidentally, the news I got this time is related to A-Train's girlfriend." Butcher said with a malicious laugh.
"He was on the phone in the hallway, talking to his girlfriend, the faded Superhero, Demon Claw Woman, who is not known to the public. They sounded like they had a good relationship, and she should know a lot of inside information."
"If you want, you can do anything to his girlfriend."
"I'll help you, an eye for an eye. Anyway, they're a pair of Super bastards."
After something happened to him eight years ago, causing him to lose his beloved wife, he believed all Superhumans deserved to die, no exceptions.
"N-No, I can't." Hearing this suggestion, Hughie quickly waved his hands, stammering.
"That's not good."
"Oh, you bastard, I meant torture and interrogation, what were you thinking?" On the other end of the phone, Butcher's voice was low and mocking, full of dark humor.
"I was thinking of torture and interrogation too!" His face flushed with anger, he quickly hung up the phone, deliberately emphasizing that he was indeed thinking of torture and interrogation.
"Vigilante justice is not allowed by law!"
...
Swish, swish, swish.
Early in the morning, at Vought headquarters, Starlight was brushing her teeth in front of the mirror. Having been with Ron last night, she had to go to bed very late and came to the company's dressing room to wash up.
She was preparing to put on makeup and then go back to her room to change into her battle suit.
She felt a bit helpless, wondering when being a Superhero had become just a job.
"F***, what are you doing, Starlight!" Suddenly, Ashley burst through the door angrily, swearing and holding her phone, rushing towards her.
She showed Starlight a video and demanded to know what was going on.
The content of the video was very familiar. Starlight had gone back to her hometown to see her mother yesterday afternoon. When she returned in the evening, she encountered two men harassing and assaulting a girl. She intervened and rescued the girl.
"They had that girl pinned against the car, about to do something, I couldn't just stand by." Starlight argued, wondering if she wasn't even allowed to fight crime.
"Girl? What girl?"
"Now the online video only shows you hitting people, there's no girl in it. Do you know the impact this has caused? Those two people had no prior criminal record and insist they were drinking in an alley at the time, and you knocked them out indiscriminately."
Ashley raged again, scolding Starlight for her foolish behavior. Now, public opinion online was very unfavorable to Starlight and Vought. She asked if Starlight knew the girl's name.
"I don't know." Starlight paused, stating that the girl had run away in a hurry at the time.
"Very well, according to past cases and experience, that girl won't come forward, and you, having just joined the team, are already dragging Vought into a public opinion storm."
Ashley analyzed the situation based on past cases, furiously bombarding Starlight with accusations, and finally informed and commanded her.
"I don't know what your plans are for this beautiful day, but drop everything and go to CEO Madeline's office at ten o'clock. She's very displeased with you, and people from Risk Assessment, Crisis Management, and the Legal Department are all waiting there to see how to resolve this matter."
Then, leaving a stunned and sad Starlight, she turned and left.
...
"I just wanted to save someone." In the private room arranged by Vought for The Seven to rest, Starlight complained sadly to Ron.
She had only wanted to save someone and fight crime, but she never expected such a result, being condemned online.
"Do you think they'll fire me?"
"Someone online said she was a classmate of yours from high school." Ron said, holding his phone, which was playing the video of Starlight teaching those two men a lesson. He casually scrolled through the comments below the video, then reached out his hand to her and asked.
"She commented, revealing that you have anorexia?"
"Mild anorexia." Seeing Ron's calm demeanor, she grabbed his hand and nestled into his arms. Her anxious and worried emotions also calmed down a bit.
"Anorexia generally has two contributing factors: one is an excessive psychological pursuit of thinness, and the other is usually due to overly strict parental control in the family, or symptoms caused by abuse or single-parent households from a young age. Which one are you?"
"Both, I guess, but although my mother was very strict with me, she didn't abuse me." Listening to Ron's questions, Starlight felt a wave of warmth and reassurance, and she answered softly.
The small details of life were touching. Ron was concerned about her condition and health. Among so many comments, Ron had immediately noticed this particular one.
"You're thin enough, and your mother can't control you anymore, aren't you already an independent Superhero?" He felt that Starlight would look emaciated if she got any thinner; being too thin was neither attractive nor healthy, even for Superhumans.
"There's no need to control your diet anymore." Starlight smiled, accepting Ron's concern. Then she remembered what had just happened and murmured, puzzled and dejected.
"I really don't understand, shouldn't I be presumed innocent until proven guilty?" Those two people had no evidence whatsoever, yet based solely on their one-sided account, the online condemnation against her was almost entirely one-sided.