Hughie was all excited that he had just done something most people would never even remotely think about doing. Seriously, did Butcher do this all the time? He was feeling that adrenaline rush. "And I look him right in the eye, and I smile. Like it was no big deal! Holy shit! That was the - Brooklyn, do you do this on your internship?" Brooklyn looks up at Hughie, who is all jittery from his adrenaline rush from meeting A-Train.
Brooklyn falters for a second because she doesn't know how to lie. She hates lying, it makes her feel sick. Butcher picks up her side of the cover story though. "Nah, nah she just does paperwork." Butcher tells him in response.
Butcher is mostly quiet on the ride there, but Hughie was still babbling about how intense that was, how he wished Brooklyn were in there with him so she could see what he had just witnessed. "That was awesome, man, just getting to stare that asshole down!" Hughie breathes a sigh of relief, he needed that. He didn't know it was something he needed, but he was glad he got to experience it once. "I get why you dig this job! Brooklyn, you must get this feeling too because, woo." Hughie takes a deep breather as Butcher pulls up to a familiar set of buildings. This makes Brooklyn frown, and Billy looks almost saddened that he had to do this to the boy. "What are we, uh, what're we doing here?"
"Well, you gotta go to work, don't you?" Billy looks at Hughie, his voice actually a little soft as if he were sorry to see the boy go so quickly. He was glad to help people who were stuck in the same situation - well, similar situation as Billy was - but that was a story for another time.
Hughie looks at Butcher and then at Brooklyn, a little confused as to why he wasn't doing anything much more to help. He wanted to do more, if there were more people out there who were payed off by Vought to keep their accidents a secret and as if nothing even happened then he wanted to get closure for all of them. "Yeah, but, um... I don't..." he looks out the car window, frowning a bit and Brooklyn feels her heart shatter.
Well, she doesn't know why. She was technically in on a lie; she doesn't do this with Butcher, this was her first little adventure with him and while she didn't feel the exact same adrenaline rush as Hughie did, she felt excited. Now all she feels is worn out and tired and she wants to go home and sleep for a week. She didn't do anything at all but knowing she was an accomplice to the mission was enough to rile up her anxiety.
"Well, I mean, that's all I need you for right now, yeah?" Butcher tries to reassure the kid that there might be a time where he'll need him again, but he just doesn't need him right now.
"Yeah, I mean, but I-I can..." Hughie pauses and tries to persuade Billy to let him tag along a little bit longer.
"I think it's best that I take it from here," Brooklyn looks at Butcher and she wonders if he doesn't want Hughie to get hurt in his line of work. Then she wonders where the hell that left her in this scheme of things. "Brooklyn and I gotta lot of work to do." He adds on, making Brooklyn raise an eyebrow.
We do? She thinks to herself.
Hughie looks saddened and a little bummed, but he understands. Hughie wants to say something but all he does is let out a sad little sigh. Brooklyn climbs up to the front seat, taking over where Hughie was sitting and before Butcher could drive her back home Hughie stops him for a second.
"Hey, you ever see an asshole tear up forty-five k?" he tears the check in one swift clean movement and turns around, but Butcher calls out his name.
"Hughie!" the scrawny kid turns around, looking at his new friend with a raised eyebrow. "You're a good lad." Brooklyn smiles, thinking that was sweet of Butcher to say. He certainly did not look like the type of guy to give compliments out to any stranger. Hughie just gives Butcher the kindest smile, Brooklyn looks at Butcher as he starts to rev up the engine and starts to drive himself and Brooklyn home.
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They didn't go far though; in fact, they didn't even leave the area. Butcher had a bad gut feeling that something was going to go wrong, something always goes wrong right before things seem to be going well. He pulls into an ally way and turns off the engine, waiting.
Brooklyn's confused, "Why aren't we back at the apartment?" she asks him, Butcher just leans back and watches the electronics store from afar. He's parked the car out of sight and Hughie wouldn't see him coming back if he did.
"You ever get that feeling that somethin' terrible is 'bout to happen?" Billy asks the ginger, she frowns.
"The second you broke into my apartment." Butcher snickers, understanding how that must've been for her. "Why?"
"I don't think we're done with wee Hughie yet," Butcher says, "sorry I dragged you into this but you already knew him and I figured havin' you 'round would've made this go a lot smoother." And it did, but Brooklyn didn't mind.
"No problem, this was a lot easier than I thought it would be."
Butcher raises an eyebrow. "What made you think it'll make it harder?" he asks.
Before Brooklyn could answer, she jumped when she heard a loud noise coming from the Audio Visual store Hughie works at. She feels her pupils grow in shock as she sees Hughie get pulled out from behind the desk, something invisible was doing this to him because there was no way he had just done that on his own. The only invisible hero Brooklyn knew of was Translucent. "We have to help Hughie-"
"-Hold onto somethin'." Butcher is starting up his car, he's done a lot of stupid shit throughout his time and this was nothing new. However, he wasn't going to let some girl get hurt in his shenanigans, but this was the only way to help Hughie out - or to buy him a little bit of time.
The ginger faulters a bit and stammers. "Hold onto what?"
"Anything!" Butcher revs up the engine, Brooklyn looks between him and Hughie being tossed around like a rag doll in the store. Before Brooklyn could protest though, Butcher slams his foot on the gas pedal as he rams them into the store, knocking the invisible asshole out of the way so Hughie can get to his feet.
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It had happened so fast and Brooklyn knew she got whiplash from it.
With a cough, Brooklyn unbuckles her seat belt and rolls her head back. "Ohhh, fuck!" she feels her forehead pounding in pain, "The fuck Billy!" she's aggravated, she's angry, she's tired, she just wants to go home and he rams them into the fucking building. He just gives her a shit eating grin as he tumbles out of the car himself.
"Sorry about the mess," he's not in that much pain as Brooklyn is, he's used to these kinds of stunts. Brooklyn gets out of the car though, powering through the pain as she heads over to Hughie. He's got blood trickling down his forehead and from where Brooklyn was standing, Butcher did too but he ignored it. "You should fuck off, Hughie." Brooklyn helps Hughie get up, "Unless if you an' Brookie wanna stay for the shit show, you two should run." He grabs a crowbar. Hughie looks at Butcher, panting as he catches his breath and looks up at Brooklyn. "You two run!" Hughie finally grabs onto Brooklyn's arm as she helps him up, London's Calling by The Clash is playing softly in the background, the store usually played music during the day but now the added music makes this moment more intense to watch. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the invisible cunt." They hear Butcher taunt.
Hughie takes Brooklyn by the hand to lead her through the back room, but he hesitates, and she does as well. They turn around to see Butcher taking a beating and then they turn to each other, "Do we have too?" Brooklyn asks, as much as Hughie doesn't want to get into a fight with a supe he knew they had too.
"Distract Translucent," Hughie says as he looks at the spot that Translucent ripped the TV off of the wall from, "I've got an idea." Brooklyn nodded as she watches Hughie sneaks towards the exposed electrical wire.
Brooklyn watches from afar as Butcher gets the crap beaten out of him; she has an idea though, Translucent won't like it but it wasn't as if she had any other choice. She takes a piece of the building that collapsed when Butcher rammed the car into him and chucks it at Translucent; she can see where he is this time around because Butcher had spit blood on his face, outlining where he was.
"What the fuck?" Translucent hisses in aggravation as he turns around, looking at the scrawny girl trying to help her friend out. "You're so dead, you ginger bitch!" Brooklyn makes a mad dash towards Butcher to help him up but Translucent is quick and snatches her by the back of her hoodies jacket. She lets out a yelp as Translucent pulls the hood over her face and tightens the hole close with the draw string. He curls up his fist and punches her in the face, Brooklyn yelped as she takes off her hood to see what was going on and then she finds herself being pinned against the wall. Translucent has her by her throat, gripping it tightly with one hand as he snips at her. "Listen kid, you're fucking dead, you hear me?! FUCKING DEAD!" for a superhero, he was sure violent against seemingly innocent bystanders because he honestly thought that she was one when she ran over to that Hughie kid to see if he was okay.
"Y-Y-You sure 'bout that?" Brooklyn wheezes in between gasps of air, Hughie's standing behind Translucent and he doesn't even know because the second Hughie punches Translucent in the back with the exposed electrical wire he drops Brooklyn and she falls to the floor, gasping for air like a fish out of water.
Butcher walks over towards Hughie and Brooklyn, he looks at Brooklyn to make sure if she's okay. "You alrigh' lass?" Brooklyn shook her head no as she rubs her neck, "You two did great, how'd you know that'll work?" Butcher asks Hughie.
"Saw it - saw him talking about it on Jimmy Fallon." Hughie replies as he catches his breath, giving Butcher a proud smile. "What do we do now?"
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a/n - this chapter took so long to write lol i hope ya'll enjoy it :)