What are you thinking?

"Butcher, did you manage to intercept any useful information?"

Hughie asked the person on the other end of the line, his voice tight with nerves.

"Do you remember where I told you to plant the bug?"

The man on the other end replied with a deep, gravelly voice, sounding like a sullen, volatile beast.

"Under the table in The Seven's conference room."

"And where did you put it?" came the impatient interrogation.

"...Across from the entrance to the conference room."

Two cold, mocking chuckles echoed from the phone, followed by silence.

"Two days ago, I followed your instructions and went to Vought to accept A-Train's apology. But Vought didn't hold the meeting in The Seven's conference room; they said someone important was using it, so they just picked another room."

Recalling the experience from two days ago, Hughie felt depressed and explained with a hint of agitation.

Using the excuse of going to the restroom, he had wandered outside the closed conference room and noticed a steel relief of The Seven on the wall opposite. He had no choice but to tuck the bug into a gap in the relief.

Conducting espionage at the headquarters of Vought International, the company that had created over two hundred superheroes, was a terrifying ordeal. He had been scared out of his wits; he had already taken a massive risk.

"What good is that?

Do you really think those bastards would discuss their private, dirty secrets in a hallway instead of a conference room?"

But on the other end of the line, Butcher, known as The Butcher, mocked him without a shred of mercy.

"So... does that mean there's no useful information?"

Hughie hung his head, deflated and dejected.

"..."

"No, consider yourself lucky, you bastard."

After a long silence on the other end, Butcher sneered.

"I did hear one piece of news. Don't know if it'll be of any use."

"Who is it about?"

"A-Train."

The Butcher replied.

"Him!"

Hearing the name A-Train, Hughie gritted his teeth, his face flooded with hatred.

He would never forget how, ten days ago, he and his girlfriend were walking down the street, sweetly discussing moving in together, when A-Train suddenly sprinted past and smashed his girlfriend into a pile of gore.

Without any warning, in the blink of an eye, the girlfriend who had been smiling tenderly at him was reduced to nothing but the severed hands remaining in his grip, while he was splattered with her blood.

He had lost his girlfriend; he had lost the beautiful life he had envisioned.

"That shameful liar actually went on TV and said he was chasing a criminal at the time, and that Robin was standing in the middle of the road, blocking his path and causing the accident.

Is he blaming Robin for everything?

He even mocked her afterward. I will make him pay!"

He had clearly been standing on the curb with his girlfriend, not in the middle of the road. Vought and his family had urged him to accept a settlement and let it go, but he couldn't swallow his rage.

It was then that Butcher had found him, revealed the darkness of Vought to him, and taken him to a club that only superheroes could enter.

In the surveillance footage, he had seen A-Train discussing the incident with someone else, showing not a shred of remorse or guilt, and the joking tone he used to speak of his girlfriend's death had only fueled his fury further.

"Alright, I know how much you hate A-Train.

He killed your girlfriend.

As it happens, the news I got is related to A-Train's girlfriend."

The Butcher laughed maliciously.

"He was on the phone in the hallway with his secret girlfriend, the washed-up superhero The Mesmer.

They sounded quite close; she should know plenty of inside information."

"If you want, you could do whatever you like to his girlfriend."

"I'll help you. An eye for an eye. They're both a pair of super-bastards anyway."

Eight years ago, after something happened to him that cost him his beloved wife, he had decided that all superhumans deserved to die, without exception.

"I... I don't think so."

Hearing the suggestion, Hughie waved his hands frantically, stammering.

"That wouldn't be right."

"Oh, you bastard, I meant interrogation through torture. What were you thinking?"

On the other side of the phone, The Butcher's voice was low and mocking, filled with dark humor.

"That's what I meant, too! Interrogation through torture!"

His face flushed with rage, and he hurriedly hung up the phone, taking care to emphasize that what he had experienced was nothing short of torture.

"Extrajudicial punishment is not permitted by law!"

Swish, swish, swish.

Early in the morning at Vought headquarters, Starlight stood before the mirror brushing her teeth. Having spent the night with Ron, she had been forced to sleep late and had come to the company's dressing room to freshen up.

She prepared to apply her makeup before heading to her room to put on her suit.

There was a time when being a superhero was a calling, but now it had become just a job, a realization that left her feeling somewhat helpless.

"Fuck, what the hell are you doing, Starlight!"

Suddenly, Ashley burst through the door in a fury, cursing as she stormed over with her phone in hand.

She shoved a video in Starlight's face, demanding to know what was going on.

The content of the video was all too familiar; Starlight had returned to her hometown yesterday afternoon to visit her mother, and on her way back that night, she had encountered two men harassing a girl. She had intervened and saved the girl.

"They had that girl pinned against a car and were about to do something; I couldn't just stand by and watch."

Starlight defended herself, wondering if she wasn't even allowed to fight crime anymore.

"Girl? What girl?"

"The video online only shows you beating people up; there is no girl in it. Do you have any idea what kind of impact this has caused?

Those two men have no prior criminal records and insist they were just drinking in an alleyway when you attacked them without rhyme or reason."

Ashley flew into a rage again, accusing Starlight of stupidity. She pointed out that public opinion online was currently very unfavorable toward both Starlight and Vought, and asked if she even knew the girl's name.

"I don't."

Starlight froze, explaining that the girl had run off in a panic at the time.

"Great. Based on past cases and experience, that girl isn't going to come forward, and you, having just joined The Seven, are about to drag Vought into a PR nightmare."

Ashley ranted and raved at Starlight, analyzing the situation based on past precedents before finally issuing an order.

"I don't know what you had planned for your beautiful day, but drop everything. Be in Madelyn's office at ten o'clock.

She is very dissatisfied with you. The risk assessment, crisis management, and legal teams are all waiting there to see how to resolve this."

With that, she turned and left, leaving a stunned and heartbroken Starlight behind.

"I just wanted to save someone."

In the private lounge provided by Vought for The Seven, Starlight complained sadly to Ron.

She had stepped in to save someone and fight crime, never expecting it to result in being condemned by the internet.

"Do you think they'll fire me?"

"Someone online is saying she was a classmate of yours from high school."

Ron looked at the phone in his hand, which was playing the video of Starlight teaching those two men a lesson. He casually scrolled through the comments below the video, reached out a hand to her, and asked.

"She claims in the comments that you have an eating disorder?"

"A mild one."

Seeing Ron's calm demeanor, she grabbed his hand and leaned into his embrace, her previously anxious and worried mood beginning to settle.

"Eating disorders generally stem from two factors: one is an excessive psychological pursuit of thinness, and the other is a family environment where parents are too controlling, or perhaps childhood abuse or a single-parent household. Which one is it for you?"

"A bit of both, I suppose. Though my mother was very strict with me, she never abused me."

Listening to Ron's inquiries, Starlight felt a sense of warmth and peace, and she answered softly.

It was the little details of life that moved her; Ron was genuinely concerned about her condition and health, and out of so many comments, he had immediately noticed that one.

"You're thin enough as it is, and your mother can't control you anymore. Aren't you an independent superhero now?"

He felt that if Starlight got any thinner, she would look gaunt—it wasn't healthy or attractive, even for a supe.

"There's no need to restrict your diet anymore."

Starlight smiled, accepting Ron's concern, before she thought back to the earlier incident, murmuring in confusion and dejection.

"I really don't understand. Shouldn't I be presumed innocent until proven guilty?"

Those two men had no evidence whatsoever, relying solely on their own words, yet the internet had turned almost entirely against her.