Billy Butcher

Evening.

Lu Heng wrapped up his routine patrol of Brooklyn.

The haul was nothing special. He caught two armed robbers and a burglar, and rescued a cat stuck in a tree along the way.

The cat's owner was an old woman in her eighties. She was so excited she nearly spat out her dentures.

Naturally, the media had "coincidentally" captured footage of him doing good deeds.

He was less than twenty thousand points away from reaching Lv. 3.

Just as he was about to take off and head home, his super hearing picked up a strangely familiar voice.

Someone was talking in the alley below.

Two people.

What they were saying caught Lu Heng's attention.

"...Are you sure he patrols this area every night?"

"Y-yes. I've been following him for three days. His route's pretty much fixed. He starts over by the Brooklyn Bridge, heads south along Atlantic Avenue, then wraps up around here."

"Good boy!"

Lu Heng's mouth twitched.

That bastard Butcher had someone tailing him for three days?

Two familiar faces stood in the alley.

One wore a black trench coat. He was burly, with a rough ring of stubble around his chin.

He also held an unlit cigar between his fingers.

Billy Butcher.

The other one...

Lu Heng narrowed his eyes.

A lanky young man with curly hair and a nervous look on his face.

Hughie Campbell.

Even though he'd already changed the original course of events, those two had still ended up together!

He jumped straight off the rooftop.

With a dull thud, a web of cracks spread across the concrete.

The two men in the alley both jumped.

Hughie dropped to the ground on his backside, horror written across his face.

Butcher reacted much faster. His right hand instantly slipped inside his coat.

"Good evening."

Lu Heng glanced at them, pleased with their reactions.

"You've been following me for three days. Aren't you going to introduce yourselves?"

Hughie swallowed hard.

Was Guardian one of the superhumans Butcher had described?

He didn't want to accept it, not after the man had saved him and Robin.

Unlike Hughie, Butcher remained composed.

He put the unlit cigar between his lips, pulled out a lighter, and lit it.

He took a deep drag.

"Phew!"

"Billy Butcher!" He grinned. "Friends call me Butcher."

"Fine, Billy. Tell me why you've been following me."

Butcher's eyes were like a hungry wolf's. He was an ordinary man, yet he treated superhumans as prey.

As far as Lu Heng was concerned, Butcher posed virtually no threat.

Even if he developed the super virus like he did in the original series, it wouldn't hurt a Viltrumite.

"Hughie. Long time no see."

Hughie froze.

"You... remember me?"

"Of course. You're the guy from the electronics store. I bought a charging cable from you last time. And I was the one who saved you and your girlfriend, wasn't I?"

Hughie clearly hadn't expected a superhero to remember an ordinary store clerk.

Butcher's gaze shifted back and forth between the two.

"Looks like you know each other. Saves me the trouble of making introductions!"

"Billy boy," Lu Heng continued with the subject at hand. "You had someone follow me for three days. Surely you didn't do it just to ask for an autograph."

"I don't want some useless scribble." Butcher spat out the cigar and ground it under his shoe. "I want information."

"About what?"

"Vought."

Butcher was asking him for information?

Lu Heng was a little confused.

Did he even know who Lu Heng was?

And he was still this bold?

"Be specific."

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Butcher took a step forward, closing the distance between himself and Lu Heng to less than two meters.

For an ordinary man to face a superhuman from that close took real guts.

But Butcher didn't care.

"I know what Vought's up to," Butcher said, lowering his voice. "They aren't raising superheroes. They're making weapons. Compound Five. Ever heard of it?"

Lu Heng didn't answer.

"It's a drug. Inject it into a baby, and you can turn them into a superhuman."

"Vought's been doing it for decades. Every superhuman in America, including every member of The Seven, is a product of Compound Five."

"You're not chosen ones. You're products rolling off an assembly line."

As Butcher said that, he seemed to be thinking about what Homelander had done to his wife. His eyes were full of hatred.

Butcher knew about Compound Five. Vought's enemies wanted to use this mad dog to drag the whole company down.

The CIA, for example.

"So?" Lu Heng asked. "You've told me all this. What do you want me to do?"

"I want to know which side you're on."

"Which side?"

Butcher raised both hands. "Vought's side, or humanity's."

Lu Heng laughed.

"Butcher, there's a flaw in your logic."

"What?"

"You're setting superhumans against humans, as if we can only stand on one side or the other."

"Isn't that how it is?" Butcher's tone sharpened. "You have powers ordinary people could never possess. You can kill anyone whenever you like and get away with it. That imbalance is what puts us at odds."

"And now you're standing in front of a superhuman who could kill you whenever he wants."

"Not afraid?"

"Afraid?" Butcher grinned, showing a row of yellow teeth. "I've been afraid of plenty in my life. I'm just not afraid of dying."

He really did have guts!

No wonder he'd dared to take on Homelander in the original series with a ragtag bunch of misfits.

Lu Heng suddenly thought Butcher might make a very useful tool.

A tool to go after Vought!

"You can't understand what I am, but I'd be happy to give Vought some trouble." As he spoke, Lu Heng pulled a USB drive from his pocket.

He'd originally planned to quietly leak its contents himself.

But now, he could let the Boys draw Vought's fire instead.

"What's that?" Butcher eyed the little device warily.

"Some internal Vought documents. Should be enough to give them a real kick in the ass."

Butcher didn't reach for it. He didn't trust how smoothly things were going.

"You already had this ready. Even without us, you were planning to leak it secretly?"

"You're a smart man. You know what to ask and what not to ask."

Lu Heng didn't explain. He simply flew away.

"He... really left!" Hughie said, as if he'd just woken from a dream. His pants were soaked.

Butcher walked over and picked up the USB drive.

"What if there's a tracker in here...?"

Hughie wiped the sweat from his crotch and, still shaken, said, "I don't think Guardian cares about you. He didn't even know who you were until now."

Butcher nodded. "Boy, that hurts Daddy's feelings. But I can promise you this: one day, Vought will remember us."

"Then I'd better buy two accident insurance policies in advance."

The two disappeared at the end of the alley.

Lu Heng hovered ten thousand meters above the ground, watching the numbers appear on his panel.

[Key Character · Billy Butcher — Alert, probing, open to cooperation]

[Ability points gained: +3,476]

[Key Character · Hughie Campbell — Fear, confusion, uncertainty]

[Ability points gained: +1,102]

Current ability points: 86,917 / 100,000

Butcher alone had contributed more than three thousand points.

No wonder he was a key character.

As for the USB drive...

It really did contain internal Vought documents.

But nothing too sensitive.

Just some internal Vought PR Department memos about handling superhuman scandals.

A few victim statements they'd suppressed.

And surveillance footage of The Deep, along with a report on A-Train's drug use.

Only high-level insiders knew about these things.

And they'd all signed confidentiality agreements that could bankrupt them if they broke them.

But Lu Heng didn't need money. He just wanted to stir things up.