As The Deep In The Boys

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….

Arriving at a classic, snow-white, two-story American dream house, Kevin stood on the opposite side of the street and, stretching an invisible cover in front of the door of the currently empty house, began to wait for Starlight's conversation with her mother to end.

Right now, in the house opposite, Annie was confirming the information she had received from Hughie about the nature of superheroes. 

For the idealistic girl whose world was cracking more and more every day, this information was the last straw. 

Even with the unpleasant picture of superhero life, there was still a light for her; she had been chosen for something, God had given her these powers. 

But now, the foundation of her aspirations and life path was completely broken.

As Kevin remembered, she suddenly started looking for the good in everyone she used to dislike or consider her enemies. 

She began to defend her father, who had abandoned their family in her childhood, even though there was no excuse for such an act. 

And no amount of not wanting to lie to her daughter could fix that. She still decided to help a terrorist and the murderer of Translucent—a supe, mind you, whose only illegal actions were theft and spying on women in the bathroom.

If it weren't for some clips from the old world's internet, Moskowitz would have thought that the first season had put an end to Starlight's legal superhero activities; she had knocked out The Boys' guards, and A-Train had found out about her. 

But to Kevin's surprise, even though it was a logical end to Annie's story arc in the first season, she appeared again in the team's ranks, which raised a sea of questions for The Deep.

He didn't believe she was capable of murder, but of all the options, the most realistic was that she had either helped A-Train not make it to the hospital, or Hughie's girlfriend's killer simply hadn't survived until help arrived. 

The guards had somehow died from Starlight's non-lethal light blasts or had been finished off later by The Seven's "kindest" heroine.

All these questions bothered The Deep greatly and were one of the reasons for his presence in front of this house today. 

The other reasons were to discover The Boys' new lair and to pocket the compound that Vought was using on Kimiko. 

Kevin was very interested in what kind of chemical the scientists had managed to mix up, since that crap had put a supe whose main power was instant regeneration in a wheelchair.

Seeing an enraged Starlight storm out of the house, Kevin followed. After an hour and a half of aimless wandering filled with rather dangerous situations, January finally entered a church. 

These were some of The Deep's most tense hours in recent days. He had never been a spy or a secret agent, and the most realistic thing he knew about surveillance he'd learned from Jason Bourne. 

So, several times, the king of the seven seas flinched when the girl abruptly changed direction, constantly making him think he'd been discovered. 

What made it especially nerve-wracking was that he remembered Starlight talking about her childhood crush on The Deep, and she would definitely recognize his face in a thousand.

Following the girl into the church, Kevin went further in and settled by a column to discreetly watch his target. 

Looking at the girl's sad and lost face, Moskowitz instinctively felt a desire to comfort or cheer her up, but remembering who he was now, The Deep abruptly suppressed the surging feelings and exhaled bitterly as he saw her ex-boyfriend sit down next to Annie.

And although they say it's one step from love to hate and vice versa, Kevin didn't believe he could achieve a normal relationship with January after he had been her guide into the real world of superheroes. 

He felt he had taken her inner innocence... in a more metaphorical sense. After that, he would have to do something beyond fantastic to start any kind of relationship with such a pure character in this story.

Watching the couple leave the building, he admitted with a bitter smile that it would be easier for him to win Maeve's heart than to heal the wound the previous owner of his body had inflicted on the girl's soul.

Stepping outside after the pair, Kevin listened to their conversation.

"Please, just hear me out," Hughie pleaded, catching up to her.

"Why?" Annie asked irritably, walking away. "You want to tell me some more horrible secrets? What, they shot me up with some other drugs as a kid?"

"It just slipped out," Hughie tried to justify himself. "I thought maybe you'd want to know the truth."

"Right, so now you think we should tell the truth," Annie said sarcastically, restraining herself from shooting a light blast at the guy walking behind her.

"Vought is giving Compound V to very bad people, just awful. Like that supe-terrorist," Campbell dropped a bomb on the girl's already shattered worldview.

"That's bullshit," the girl said, stopping and turning around, refusing to believe such a horrifying truth. 

She could remotely grasp that almost all supes were pieces of shit who didn't care about ordinary people they promised to protect on TV and phone screens, but the idea that Vought could be sponsoring terrorism was something too soulless and sinful for the simple girl to comprehend.

"No, it's true. My friends want to stop it, but they were caught on Vought's orders, and I thought that since you have access to classified information, you'd agree to help find them," Campbell made an extremely audacious request, completely unconcerned about the girl's future and her life. 

Unlike Starlight, he knew what The Seven was capable of, and most importantly, what Vought was willing to do for profit.

Hearing her ex's request, Annie shook her head in disbelief at the guy's audacity. 

Even without knowing all the horrors her employer committed, she was still amazed at the request to help terrorists and risk herself by taking the guy's word for it.

….

If you want to read ahead by 10+ chapters from here you can check out my patreon.

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