Hughie

"Not now."

The refusal came quickly. Over the phone, Hughie seemed to realize how strange he sounded and hurried to explain.

"I'm on the toilet. I'd be embarrassed if you came over now."

"You've never been in a men's room before?"

"Anyway, I've got something to take care of."

With that, Hughie hung up. Just before the call ended, Ryan clearly heard someone calling Hughie's name.

Meanwhile, the Technical Department gave Ryan the location they had tracked.

Ryan wasted no time. He flew out of Vought International toward the location they had given him.

He followed the Technical Department's directions toward Hughie.

Elsewhere, Hughie glared angrily at Billy, and Billy glared right back.

A smashed phone lay beside them.

Billy pointed at it and roared.

"Is your head full of shit? Do you know what we're doing? We're kidnapping Translucent, a superhero. Phones can be tracked."

"Ryan called me."

"Ryan? You said you'd seen him at the Seven Tower. That means he's definitely not on our side."

"Ryan's different."

Hughie summoned his courage and tried to argue, but it was no use. Billy wouldn't listen.

Instead, Billy looked toward a cage meant for dogs.

The cage was electrified. A naked man crouched inside, and the moment he touched the wire along its edge,

electricity crackled through him, making him scream.

The screams reminded Hughie of yesterday, when Translucent had come looking for him with the bug Hughie had gone to such trouble to plant.

Hughie had wanted Translucent to put it back, but Translucent had refused and beaten the hell out of him in the Video Store.

Hughie had been about to get beaten to death. Luckily, Billy had driven over to help.

Then, instead of Hughie getting beaten alone, they had both gotten beaten.

If Hughie hadn't accidentally discovered during the beating that Translucent was vulnerable to electricity and connected a live wire to his rectum,

knocking him unconscious, none of this would be happening now.

Hughie watched Translucent in the cage. Translucent gingerly touched its edge, only to be zapped again and again without mercy.

He looked pitiful, but if Hughie took pity on him and let him out, the fate awaiting Hughie would be worse than hell.

Knowing that, Hughie turned away.

Beside him, Billy raised a finger to his lips.

He motioned for Hughie to be quiet.

Then Billy pointed upward. Hughie looked toward the sky, where a sonic boom had sounded.

"Why is Homelander here?"

Hughie had lived in this country long enough to know Homelander on sight.

He watched Homelander circle overhead, unable to tell what he was looking for.

Uneasy, Hughie turned to Billy, who replied, "Didn't think we'd be exposed this fast."

But things had already come this far. They would have to deal with whatever happened next. Hughie looked at Billy.

Billy looked at the floor.

"There's a basement under here. It's lined with Tin Foil to help hide us. We need to move Translucent down there."

"Okay."

Hughie's heart hammered as he and Billy shocked Translucent unconscious and carried him into the basement.

Billy turned on the basement light, and Hughie saw dust motes dancing in its glow.

He had never done anything like this before: kidnapping a superhero, hiding from Homelander.

Every new experience left his mouth dry. It was all far too intense.

His nerves jangling, Hughie pressed a hand to his chest and watched Billy take a pile of parts from the basement.

The parts looked familiar.

"Those are gun parts. What are you putting together?"

"An Anti-Materiel Sniper Rifle. With Armor-Piercing Rounds, it can punch through a Steel Plate."

"Oh. Right."

Hughie nodded rapidly, then realized what Billy meant and grabbed his arm.

"Stop, for fuck's sake! Kidnapping him is bad enough. You're going to kill Translucent too?"

"No great loss if scum like him dies."

"What did Translucent do to make him scum?"

"We can make him confess under interrogation."

"Isn't there a more peaceful way?"

"He saw our faces."

"..."

Hughie had no answer. He poured a glass of Hangman's Water and brought it to Translucent.

It was the last kindness he could offer.

Billy soon had the Sniper Rifle assembled. He released the safety. At this range, he didn't even need to aim.

Then Billy pointed it at Translucent's eyelid.

His finger squeezed the trigger.

Bang.

The deafening shot made Hughie clamp his hands over his ears and shut his eyes.

After a while, he opened them.

He saw smoke rising from the barrel, Billy's grim face, and Translucent, unhurt after the bullet had bounced off him.

"Monster," Hughie said, staring at Translucent.

Translucent had learned his lesson. He stopped touching the electrified cage and started mocking them instead.

"You can't hurt me. In the end, my teammates or Vought International will find me. Then you'll learn what cruelty really is."

The threat worked on Hughie. Sweating, he took an involuntary step back.

Somehow, even though Translucent was the one locked in a cage, Hughie felt as if he were the one trapped.

"What do we do?"

Frightened, Hughie turned to Billy for help. Billy had no answer either. He tossed the Sniper Rifle aside.

"He's really that tough? Translucent, when I first saw you, your chest was bandaged up. Who managed to hurt you like that?"

"Ryan..."

Looking as frightened as Hughie, Translucent hugged his knees inside the cage and curled up.

"That guy's a lot scarier than you two."

Hughie recognized the name and repeated it to himself.

"Ryan? About this tall, wears clothes like this?"

Unsure, Hughie gestured to show what he meant.

Before he could finish, Translucent clutched his head in distress.

"Yes. That little bastard who doesn't know how to hold back."

For the first time, Hughie began to understand what kind of person the regular customer at his store really was.

Curiosity flickered in his eyes as he turned to Billy.

"Why don't you fix the phone? I can call Ryan and have him take care of Translucent."

"I should fix your brain first. Ryan's one of them."

"I told you, Ryan's different from them."

Muttering, "Don't know how he's different," Billy stormed off, unwilling to keep arguing with Hughie.

The basement was stuffy. Billy went upstairs for some fresh air.

In the simple room above, he poured himself some Vodka. The clear liquor burned down his throat.

The kick chased away some of his weariness. He picked up the remote and turned on the television.

A wildlife program was on.

Onscreen, a Komodo Dragon was hunting one of its favorite foods.

A large turtle.

It had left the sea and was ambling slowly along the shore.

The Komodo Dragon spotted it. The turtle's hard shell did nothing to protect it.

The Komodo Dragon thrust its head into the shell, tearing out chunks of flesh with each bite.

Before long, only the empty shell remained.

The sight made Billy hungry. He took another swig of Vodka to settle his stomach, his eyes fixed on the shell on the screen.

The shell lay overturned, rocking on the ground. Hard as it was, it had protected the turtle from nothing.

Barnacles clung to it. Even before the turtle was eaten, it had endured a miserable life infested with parasites.

A shell.

As Billy stared at it, an idea struck him. He saw the similarity between the turtle and Translucent.

Perhaps both hid their vulnerable parts inside a hard exterior.

Translucent's body might be too tough for a Sniper Rifle to penetrate, but his organs could still be as fragile as anyone else's.

The more Billy thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

"Worth a try."

With that, he turned and headed straight back to the basement to get to work.

"Gunpowder. Fuse. Remote."

Hughie had been guarding Translucent the whole time. With Billy gone, the quiet basement had grown rather dull.

Bored, Hughie was rambling at Translucent, hoping to annoy him to death, when the basement door opened again and caught his attention.

Billy was back.

He wore a grin that said he'd found a solution.

Curious, Hughie moved closer to see what Billy was doing. It soon became clear.

"You're making a bomb. A remote-controlled one."

Delighted, Billy held up the little device and toyed with it in front of Hughie.

"A Small Remote-Controlled Bomb. What do you think would happen if we slipped this into Translucent's rectum like a suppository?"

"It'd help him poop."

"I'll slip one into yours someday."

"Please don't."

Hughie waved the idea away, which only made Billy more excited. He kept fiddling with the little bomb.

"In your hand, it's a quiet little thing. But press the remote and boom—it'll leave a crater in the ground."

"So where are you planning to set it off?"

"I told you. Inside Translucent's rectum."

"Huh?"

Once the bomb was ready, Billy shocked Translucent again until he passed out. Hughie was the one who put it in.

Afterward, Hughie washed his hands.

"With that in him, Translucent will cooperate, right?"

"We've got the remote. If he doesn't cooperate, he turns into a jigsaw puzzle."

"Then what can we make him do?"

"Anything we want."

Hughie's eyes widened.

Given the chance, who wouldn't want an obedient superhero at their beck and call? Whenever someone got on his nerves, he could send Translucent out to rough them up.

He was considering how to use Translucent to beat up A-Train when Billy brought up something else.

"Ryan. I've thought about it. If he's really as strong as Translucent says, he'd make a terrifying enemy."

"Yeah. Hard not to be scared of him."

"On the other hand, he'd make a reliable ally."

"Yeah. Hard not to trust him."

"So we should try to stay on good terms with him."

Billy was about to say more when a sonic boom sounded closer. He raised his head.

He stared at the basement ceiling. Even without X-Ray Vision, he could tell Homelander had come nearby.

Something around here had apparently caught Homelander's attention.

"Damn it."

Billy cursed, then told Hughie to keep a close eye on Translucent while he went upstairs to stall Homelander.

He would see if he could put Homelander's suspicions to rest.

Whatever happened, hiding here and praying they wouldn't be found wasn't Billy's style.

He opened the basement door and went out.

In the basement, Hughie watched Translucent.

After a while, Translucent slowly woke.

Hughie was about to ask how he felt when he saw Translucent pick up the water Hughie had just given him.

Then Translucent threw the water onto the cage. Sparks leaped as the electrified cage—powerful enough to kill an ordinary person but only knock a superhero unconscious—short-circuited.

It no longer worked.

Hughie stared in shock. With a hard pull, Translucent tore through the cage's wire and climbed out.

Hughie felt every hair on his body stand up, as if he had fallen into a tiger enclosure at a wildlife park.

A sense of danger flooded his mind.

He shouted.

"Get back in your cage, or I'll press it."

Hughie wanted to call Billy for help, but when he looked around, Billy was nowhere to be seen.

Billy had gone to face Homelander. Hughie had no one left to rely on.

He snatched up the remote beside him.

It controlled the small bomb inside Translucent's body.

"I'll say it again. There's a bomb inside you. I'm going to press the button."

"No, you won't."

Translucent flinched at first. Then he saw that Hughie was the one holding the remote, and his expression calmed.

"You're soft. You're a good person. You won't kill a superhero. Let me go, and I won't come after you."

His gentle tone and promise left Hughie unable to think. He stood there, dazed, as Translucent passed him and stepped onto the stairs.

Translucent's parting words echoed in his ears.

"But that black-bearded Billy? I'll make sure he knows what it feels like to be locked in an electrified cage."

The threat made Hughie turn. He looked at Translucent, then toward the doorway.

The door opened. Hope flashed in Hughie's eyes. He hoped it was Billy.

But it wasn't. A boy stood in the doorway.

Hughie knew him. Ryan.

The moment Ryan came into view, Hughie somehow felt a strange surge of confidence and courage, as though he could do anything.

Ryan had followed the directions all the way here. He had X-Ray Vision, and though the basement was well hidden,

he had pieced together its location from the clues.

Now he opened the door to this scene.

Translucent looked relieved, like a man who had narrowly escaped death. Hughie stood there, torn, with the remote in his hand.

Ryan knew enough about the original story to understand what had happened. He also knew someone had stuffed a bomb up Translucent's ass.

And Hughie's finger was brushing the remote's button.

At this critical moment—for Translucent—Ryan looked at Hughie.

"If you take a life, there's no going back."

"That's exactly what I want."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Hughie pressed the red button on the remote with all his strength.