After seeing Sheffield off, Ivan finally cracked open the black box. Inside: a luxury watch and a check for two hundred grand.
Two hundred thousand might sound like a lot to most people, but for Sheffield’s restaurant it was probably just a few days’ revenue. Hell, Ivan’s own dinner bill had run four thousand bucks on its own.
And that was just the tip. The real money would co from Vought. With The Deep’s current popularity, getting him as a spokesman would easily cost them seven figures.
Without Ivan’s help, Vought probably wouldn’t have greenlit The Deep shilling for so random restaurant anyway.
...
The next day.
Ivan had barely stepped into Vought Tower when Madeline summoned him.
In the vice president’s office, Madeline sat behind her desk with a tight frown. "What’s your take on handling The Deep and Translucent?"
Ivan dropped onto the sofa and picked up the glass of water in front of him. "The Deep issues a public apology. Then we get Starlight to co out and forgive him."
"Will Starlight agree?" Madeline rubbed her temples. "She already shot down my request for her to film that reality show segnt. Doesn’t look like she wants to be anywhere near him on cara. I can’t actually fire her right now. Not with the stock in the shitter."
"Leave Starlight to ," Ivan said confidently. "Changing the narrative on The Deep is easy. Just paint him as a lovesick idiot. Say he fell hopelessly for her the second he laid eyes on her. That’s why he did what he did. Now he realizes he crossed the line and he’s begging for forgiveness."
He leaned back. "People eat that shit up. The Deep’s already good-looking. Add the tragic romantic angle and suddenly his harassnt gets rewritten as passionate pursuit. Nobody stays mad at a guy who’s head-over-heels."
"And there’s another upside."
Ivan took a sip of water. "It floods the internet with gossip. Everyone’s gonna be obsessed with whether The Deep actually fucked Starlight or not. People love celebrity dirt, especially when it’s supes. They’ll go feral digging into their private lives."
"anwhile, who gives a fuck how Translucent died? He’s already rotting. His heat will drop like a stone until nobody’s talking about him anymore."
Madeline’s face relaxed into a genuine smile for the first ti. She looked at Ivan with clear approval.
"This is perfect. We don’t even need Starlight’s real consent. Just muddy the waters enough and suddenly it’s not sexual harassnt anymore. Just a little lovers’ quarrel between two supes who can’t keep their hands off each other."
This whole plan made Starlight the only real loser.
The Deep would walk away with his sleazy reputation cleaned up, Vought would ride a fresh wave of buzz, and nobody would give a shit about how Translucent died anymore. Win-win for everyone except her.
And if Starlight played ball, her own popularity would probably climb right along with it.
"Putting you in charge of Public Relations was the right call. You haven’t let down," Madeline said, clearly pleased.
Right then, Holander walked into the office, fresh out of a Seven eting.
"I need to ask you sothing," he said, his face dead serious as he stared at her.
Ivan caught the vibe imdiately. He set his glass down and stood up. "I’ll leave you two to it." He turned and walked out of the vice president’s office without another word.
Once the door closed behind him, Madeline’s phone rang.
"Sorry, give a mont." She picked it up. "Really? Thank you so much. I knew you’d vote with your conscience, Senator. I hope you’ll join us at Vought’s gala next week. Yes, see you then."
The military bill she’d been pushing had just cleared its first major hurdle thanks to the senator’s help.
He hadn’t wanted to agree at first, but Madeline had trapped him nicely. Now every ti he rembered fucking what he thought was a woman only to find out it was a shape-shifting fat ass, the poor bastard probably wanted to puke.
Madeline didn’t give a fuck about his feelings. Results were all that mattered.
She hung up with a wide, satisfied grin. "Three more votes. My source says the Pentagon is backing a thirty-five billion dollar purchase of low-end weapons. That puts us ahead of Lockheed Martin."
"Fantastic. Truly impressive," Holander said, his praise as fake as his smile.
Truth was, he couldn’t care less about any of this corporate bullshit.
"Do you still rember that girl from Marketing?"
Holander started asking about what happened with Becca back then. Madeline’s eyes flickered and she dodged, repeating the old story Mallory’s investigation had turned up. She even tried steering the conversation toward other topics.
But Holander wasn’t stupid. He could tell she was lying through her teeth.
Without another word, he turned around and left the office. He had soone else to see: the long-retired Dr. Vogelbaum.
...
Dr. Vogelbaum had been the head researcher in charge of creating Holander.
When Holander saw him again, the old man’s hair had gone completely white. His eyes were cloudy, but he still recognized the supe instantly.
"Hey, Dr. Vogelbaum. Thought I’d drop by. You’re looking good," Holander said with a genuine smile, hands clasped behind his back as he watched the doctor feeding his dog.
"How long has it been, John?"
Even after all these years, the old man still rembered his real na.
"Long enough that nobody calls John anymore."
Seeing Holander standing there so tall and powerful, Vogelbaum felt a heavy wave of regret.
Truth was, he’d spent years beating himself up over what he’d done — not giving the boy a chance for good parenting, locking him in a lab, and treating him like a fucking lab rat. The guilt had never really left him.
"You wouldn’t co all this way without a reason," Vogelbaum said, leading Holander inside to his study.
When Holander asked about Becca from eight years ago, the doctor let out a long sigh. He told him the truth: a month after Becca disappeared, Madeline had shown up and dropped a bomb.
Becca had been pregnant. With Holander’s child.
He’d examined her himself. Through the skin of her belly, you could see the fetus glowing with that red light.
"Pregnant?" Holander’s face twisted, a mix of shock and barely-hidden excitent flashing in his eyes. "No, I thought I couldn’t..."
"I thought so too. But nature finds a way, apparently."
Vogelbaum continued. After confirming the pregnancy, Vought had forced Becca to sign an NDA and moved her to a secure, high-tech facility to wait out the birth. But things went wrong. She never made it to full term. The baby tore its way out of her uterus. Becca bled out and died. The infant didn’t survive either.
The second he heard it, Holander froze. All the light drained from his eyes.
"Was it a boy?"
"Does that really matter?" Vogelbaum asked quietly.
"..."
Holander’s brow furrowed. "Why the fuck didn’t you tell ?"
"To protect you. That’s always been Vought’s number one job, right? Protecting our most valuable asset."
Vogelbaum stood up and walked over to the window.
"Then why tell now?" Holander snapped.
Vogelbaum turned around. "You don’t get it. The fun part about hybrid breeding is that when the genes click just right, you create sothing perfect. But no matter how perfect it is, it’s never quite enough. Subjects who grow up without their mothers turn violent. Aggressive. Full of rage and hate."
"Well, I turned out to be fine, didn’t I?"
Vogelbaum’s eyes softened with guilt as he sighed. "You should have grown up in a real ho with people who loved you. Not in a fucking lab... I’m sorry."
Holander shook his head, eyes burning with anger. "Fuck you. I don’t need your sorry."
"It’s all my fault."
"What the hell do you want from ? Forgiveness? Right now?" Holander turned away, sucked in a sharp breath, and forced himself to look back at the old man, eyes wet. "When you were poking and prodding like a goddamn lab rat, you didn’t give a shit. And now you want my forgiveness? Fuck that."
"Your repentance doesn’t an shit. It’s way too late." Holander managed to say with a cracking voice.
Vogelbaum lowered his head. "I don’t want anything from you, John. I’m just an old man... reflecting on everything I did wrong."
Holander stared at him coldly. "I am the greatest superhero in the world."
Vogelbaum looked at him with sad eyes. "And you are my greatest failure."
The words hit like a punch. Holander’s eyes filled with tears again. He didn’t say another word. In a flash, he vanished from the room.
When he reappeared, he was already high above New York. He threw his head back and rocketed straight up into the sky, climbing higher and higher until frost started forming on his cheeks.
At the edge of the atmosphere, he spread his arms wide, closed his eyes, and let himself drop. Free-falling like a missile back toward the earth.
...
anwhile.
Ivan had returned to his office. He had just signed off on a funding request he planned to use for sponsoring environntal campaigns.
Only the more unhinged those little activists got, the higher The Deep’s comrcial value would climb.
Ivan kept his word and t Sheffield right on schedule. At first the restaurant owner tried to push for an exclusive deal. He wanted The Deep locked down to only endorse his place and no other restaurants.
Ivan shot that greedy bullshit down imdiately.
"Not happening. Unless you’re willing to pay the real price. For monopoly contracts like that, Vought usually starts at a hundred million and up. As your friend, I gotta warn you — it’s not worth it."
Instead, Ivan laid out a better offer. "I can have The Deep create and promote an official ranking of eco-friendly restaurants. I’ll make sure you land in the top three. Those environntal protesters will stop fucking with your place, and you still get The Deep as your spokesman."
"Best part? You only pay one million. Friend price. Trust , you won’t get that deal anywhere else."
The offer was tempting as hell, especially that last line.
"Deal," Sheffield said.
"Pleasure doing business." Ivan shook his hand.
At that mont, sothing pulled Ivan’s attention to the window. He glanced outside and spotted a tiny black dot way up in the sky, slowly growing bigger.
"Looks like soone’s in a shit mood today."
____
Sry for the late update. My friend got dumped, so I had to accompany him all day and rub the fact that I told him so... hehe.
[]~(￣▽￣)~*
Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69
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