Free Web NovelChapter 20: 20: William J. Butcher
I would rather let the world down, than be let down by the world.
~ Fang Yuan
____
Nighttime.
Hillel finished his daily patrol in Brooklyn.
The haul was mediocre: he only caught two armed robbers and one burglar, plus saved a cat stuck in a tree along the way.
The cat’s owner was an old lady in her eighties who got so excited she nearly spat out her dentures.
Of course the footage of his good deed got "coincidentally" picked up by the media.
He was less than 20,000 points away from hitting Lv.3.
Right as he was about to fly home, his super hearing caught an unusually familiar voice down in the alley below. "Oi.."
Two people talking..? And this ’Oi’..
The conversation grabbed his attention.
"...You sure he patrols this area every night?"
"S-sure, I’ve been tracking him for three days. His route’s pretty fixed: starts at the Brooklyn Bridge, heads south along Atlantic Avenue, and wraps up around here."
"Good boy!"
Hillel’s mouth twitched.
That damn Butcher actually sent someone to tail him for three days?
Two guys stood in the alley, both familiar faces.
One wore a black trench coat, built solid, rough stubble on his chin.
He held an unlit cigar.
Billy Butcher.
The other one...
Hillel narrowed his eyes.
Tall and skinny, curly hair, looking nervous as hell.
Hughie Campbell.
He had clearly changed the original plot, yet these two had still found each other.
He dropped straight down from the rooftop.
A heavy thud cracked the concrete in a spiderweb pattern.
The two men in the alley jumped.
Hughie landed flat on his ass, face full of terror.
Butcher reacted faster. His right hand shot inside his trench coat.
"Good evening."
Hillel looked them over, pretty happy with their reactions.
"You’ve been tailing me for three days. Aren’t you gonna introduce yourselves?"
Hughie swallowed hard.
Was The Guardian one of those supes Butcher always talked about?
He didn’t want to believe it, especially since the guy had saved him and Robin.
Compared to Hughie’s hesitation, Butcher stayed cool.
He stuck the unlit cigar in his mouth, pulled out a lighter, and sparked it up.
He took a long drag.
"Haah!"
Nice.
"Billy Butcher!" He grinned. "Friends call me Butcher."
"Alright Billy, tell me why you’ve been tracking me."
Butcher’s eyes looked like a hungry wolf’s—an ordinary man treating a supe like prey.
To Hillel, Butcher’s threat level was basically zero.
Even if he cooked up that super virus from the original story, it wouldn’t touch a Viltrumite.
"Hughie, long time no see."
Hughie froze.
"You... you remember me?"
"Of course. You’re the guy from the electronics store. I bought a data cable from you last time. Plus I saved you and your girlfriend, right?" frёewebηovel.cѳm
Hughie clearly didn’t expect a superhero to remember some random store clerk.
Butcher’s eyes flicked between them.
"Looks like you two already know each other. Saves me the introduction!"
"So Billy." Hillel went back to the main topic.
"You had people tailing me for three days. Can’t be just for an autograph."
"I don’t want that useless scribble." Butcher spat out the cigar butt and ground it under his shoe. "I want intel."
"About what?"
"Vought."
Butcher asking him for intel?
Hillel felt a bit thrown.
"...."
Do you know who the fuck I am?
Being brave or just nuts?
"Be specific."
Butcher took a step forward, closing the distance to under two meters from Hillel.
For an ordinary guy to stand that close to a supe took serious balls.
But Butcher didn’t give a shit.
"I know what Vought’s really doing," Butcher said, voice low. "They’re not managing or capitalising superheroes. They’re building them. Compound V. You heard of it?"
Hillel didn’t answer.
"It’s a serum. Inject it into babies and it makes supes."
"Vought’s been doing this for decades. Every supe in America, including every member of The Seven, is a fucking product of Compound V."
"You’re not chosen ones. You’re assembly line shit."
When Butcher said it, his eyes burned with pure hatred, probably thinking about what Homelander did to his wife.
Butcher knew about Compound V. Vought’s enemies wanted to use this mad dog to tear the whole company down.
Like the CIA or some shit.
"So what?" Hillel asked. "You tell me this, what do you want from me?"
"I want to know which side you’re on."
"Which side?"
Butcher spread his hands. "Vought’s side, or the human side."
Hillel laughed. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
"Butcher, your question’s got a flaw."
"What?"
"You set it up like supes and humans are two separate teams, like you can only pick one."
"Isn’t that how it is?" Butcher’s voice sharpened.
"You’ve got power normal people will never have. You can kill anyone anytime and walk away clean. That kind of imbalance is pure confrontation."
"Then you’re standing two meters from a supe who could kill you right now."
"Aren’t you scared?"
"Scared?" Butcher grinned, showing a row of yellow teeth. "I’ve been scared of plenty in my life, but death ain’t one of them."
Real balls.
No wonder the guy went after Homelander with a ragtag crew in the original story.
Hillel suddenly saw Butcher as a damn good tool.
A tool against Vought.
"You can’t understand what I am, but I’m more than happy to fuck with Vought." Hillel pulled a USB drive from his pocket.
He had planned to leak the contents himself quietly.
But now he could let these troublemakers draw Vought’s fire.
"What’s this?" Butcher eyed the drive warily.
"Some internal Vought data. Should be enough to kick them in the nuts."
Butcher didn’t reach for it. He wasn’t buying the easy handoff.
"You had this ready the whole time? You were gonna leak it even without us?"
"You’re a smart guy. You know what questions to ask and which ones to keep shut."
Hillel didn’t explain. He just took off and flew away.
"He... he actually left!" Hughie felt like he’d just woken from a nightmare, his crotch soaked.
Butcher walked over and picked up the USB drive.
"You think there’s a tracker in it..."
Hughie wiped the sweat from his pants, relief all over his face. "I don’t think The Guardian gives a shit about you. Before tonight he didn’t even know who you were."
Butcher nodded. "Kid, you’re breaking your old man’s heart! But I guarantee Vought will remember us soon enough."
"Then I better buy two accidental life insurance policies right away."
The two of them disappeared down the end of the alley.
Hillel hovered ten thousand meters up, watching the numbers update on his panel.
[Key Character · Billy Butcher — Vigilance, Probing, Intent to Cooperate]
[Ability Points Gained: +3,476]
...
[Key Character · Hughie Campbell — Fear, Confusion, Bewilderment]
[Ability Points Gained: +1,102]
...
[Current Ability Points: 86,917 / 100,000]
Butcher alone dropped over three thousand. Deserved his key character status.
As for that USB drive...
It really was internal Vought data.
Nothing too core though.
Just PR department memos on handling supe scandals.
A few suppressed victim statements.
Plus surveillance of The Deep and reports on A-Train’s drug use.
Only high-level insiders knew about this stuff, and they’d all signed NDAs that could bankrupt a small country.
But fuck it. Hillel didn’t need the money. He just wanted to stir the pot.
____
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