hatesparadise: (let me explain it again)
Danny 'Danno' Williams ([personal profile] hatesparadise) wrote2021-06-06 07:01 am

Still In That Pawn Shop In East Flatbush, Late Sunday Morning

While Annie and Diego were off trying to find a Supe who'd testify against the company that made them, Butcher and his men were up to more concrete, practical efforts.

Frenchie was studiously assembling a number of speakers and setting them to very, very high-pitched frequencies, while Kimiko occasionally trailed through to offer him a rocket launcher or other large weapon for inspection.

Butcher himself had been engrossed with a young woman who'd turned up just after Annie and Diego had left, and they'd been having intense, huddled conversations and leaving the others to their weaponry.




MM

MM, meanwhile, led Steve and Danny over to a table stacked high with guns and ammunition. "Pick what you'd like," he offered, taking a seat and setting to work adding a scope to a rifle. "We're taking everything when we head upstate later."

Because bullets didn't do much against people like this except slow them down.



Danny

Danny would let Steve pick the weapons because they were just that married Steve was better at that one. And knew what Danny was comfortable using.

"Who's she?" he asked, nodding over at where Butcher was having a very intense conversation.



MM

MM exchanged a quiet glance with Frenchie -- who, in turn, exchanged one with Kimiko -- before replying, "That's the long-lost Mrs. Butcher. We all thought she was dead until about a week or so ago."



Steve

"Huh," Steve said, sorting through the weapons and picking up a sniper rifle for himself and something less ridiculous for Danny. "I didn't know 'pretending to be dead' was something other people besides my mom tried."

Steve's life, MM. Just...don't ask.



Frenchie

Frenchie was giving Steve a curious look as he replied, casually, "Your mom didn't happen to also have a superhero's baby, did she?"



MM

MM heaved a sigh as he got in close to the rifle he was working on, closing one eye to concentrate. "That's what happened to Becca," he clarified quietly, looking up. "Disappearing wasn't her idea. It was Vought's."



Danny

Danny just shot Steve a look because there was Wo Fat in there somehow.

"They still have the kid?" Danny asked, looking more intent than before. Because you couldn't threaten a kid around him or Steve.



MM

MM shook his head briefly. "His father took off with him."

He concentrated on his work for a moment before adding, "That'd be Homelander." And if MM seemed like he was maybe paying more attention to what he was doing than he probably had to, it might have to do with the incongruous, half-finished dollhouse that was tucked off in the corner of the hideout.

Biologically related or not, there was nowhere less safe for that little boy to be, and if it had been Janine, he'd have been losing his mind. The fact that Becca wasn't catatonic was downright impressive, honestly.



Danny

"We're getting that kid back, right?" Because Danny would be the same with Grace, yes.

And MM seemed to be the sort to understand that one.



MM

"We're getting the kid back," MM confirmed. "Little guy's a Supe, sounds like. And Becca knows all about Vought, so...."

So they had some witnesses if there was ever a hearing again! Lemonade out of those lemons, everyone.



Frenchie

"We're setting these to their highest frequency," Frenchie added, as Kimiko held up one of the small speakers they were working on. "It is not easy to incapacitate Homelander, but his sensitive ears, they are a good place to start."

And then from there, all they had was just bullets on top of bullets, and that was why they were putting together as many guns as they'd been able to find, yes. And the RPG.



MM

"You got kids?" MM added, looking to both men curiously. At least he knew Janine was safe with Monique, so that was a comfort even if he couldn't actually be there to see it for himself.



Danny

"A daughter," Danny confirmed for them. Helpfully. "Grace. She's with her mother."



MM

MM nodded, a ghost of a smile crossing his features for a moment. "My Janine is almost five," he offered proudly. "Also with her mom."

And hopefully, if they all made it out of this alive, he'd actually get to see them again.

"The little boy we're getting -- Ryan," he added, "is 'round 'bout seven or so, I believe."



Steve

Steve gestured towards the dollhouse. "That's hers?" he guessed.

Ryan could play with dollhouses too, but it seemed a safer, if sexist, bet to go the other way.



MM

"Hoping to be back home by her birthday," MM said with a slightly-sad nod. "We've been at this awhile. It's been a long time since I've seen my girls."

And if this went on too much longer, Monique was going to start watching that Scottish time-travel romance without him even though she promised.



Kimiko

Kimiko looked up then, and made a quick serious of gestures with her hands. MM would get to see his daughter soon, and Frenchie would get some sleep, and the Butcher family would live happily ever after, and Hughie would get a real job, and she would rip Stormfront's head off her body and display it somewhere nice.

And then maybe they could all go dancing.



Frenchie

"She's optimistic," Frenchie translated, eyeing her with some amusement and getting...most of that.



Danny

Danny nodded like that made perfect sense as a translation.

"Well, we'll help as much as we can to get you there."






Annie

Annie burst into the basement, too excited to be discreet today. (The Haitian rap thing really helped cover moments like this.) "You guys," she called excitedly, waving the folder A-Train had given them around. "You guys. We hit the jackpot."



Danny

"Yeah? What'd you guys get?" Because it better involve evidence whose head couldnt explode.



Diego

"Something even better than a star witness," Diego said. "Spoiler alert -- it involves Nazis."



Steve

"Do we get to punch them?" Steve asked.



Annie

"I hope so," Annie declared, shoving aside some guns (look how comfortable she'd become with those in such a short time!) and setting her folder down, pages within proudly displayed. "Look."



MM

"Holy shit," MM murmured, moving to look at the pictures, "that's...Stormfront?"



Frenchie

"And that, next to her," Frenchie observed helpfully, jabbing a finger at a photograph, "is fucking Hitler?"



MM

"Butcher!" MM yelled. "Hughie! Y'all are gonna want to see this."



Danny

"Huh," Danny said, somehow only a little surprised. Fandom might have finally broken him, you know. "I mean. She was obviously a Neo-Nazi with that name, right? She didn't even really try to hide that."



Diego

"Surprisingly, no one here seems to have caught onto it," Diego said. Even he regarded it as a 'weird, but whatever' thing at first. "Neo-Nazi is good enough to damage her reputation but actual Nazi? That's a whole different level."



Steve

"Wow," Steve said. "I didn't mention it because it was really, really obvious."



Annie

"I mean, I just thought she was a regular racist," Annie admitted, passing the wedding photo of Stormfront (Klara, it turned out) and Vought over to MM, who'd at least know what that was. "She's been shitty to A-Train -- A-Train's black," she added to Steve and Danny, "and she's made comments, but I...are you okay?"



Kimiko

Annie was addressing Kimiko, who had gone completely still with what was obviously either rage or fear or both at the sight of the photos, and was starting to actually shake.



Frenchie

Frenchie put an arm around her shoulders, steering Kimiko away from the photos. "Stormfront murdered her brother in front of her," he said quietly. "In New Jersey."




Annie

And while Annie immediately looked regretful over that, her mind was moving too fast to switch over to comfort mode entirely. "You mean she was the one who took out that entire block of low-income housing?"

Because that was what Annie remembered from New Jersey, mostly.



Danny

"How can we use this to nail them?" Danny asked with some quiet rage flavoring his tone this time. "I'd like to say being a Nazi is enough to destroy people in this country, but I really can't these days."



Diego

"I think it will in this case. Vought and Homelander have been pushing this whole 'America is the best' thing pretty hard," Diego said. "It's not a good look for him to be hanging out with someone who was besties with Hitler."



Steve

Steve hummed thoughtfully. "I think it depends who's been listening," he admitted. "A lot of people who hear 'America is the best' are adding 'white' in their heads. But actual Hitler should still be a deal breaker."



Annie

"She's all about the internet," Annie pointed out quietly, shaking her head. "Like, her image, and her following, and like, she's really into...memes?"

Annie didn't really get internet culture, sometimes, but Stormfront was super into those pictures of herself with big white letters on them.




Hughie

And Hughie, who had finally appeared to peer over MM's shoulder at the photos, caught Annie's eye. "I can help," he said, sounding mystified by this prospect. "I can help with this!"

All right, way to finally be useful to the plot, Hughie.



Annie

"And look," Annie added, glad Hughie figured that out, "she and Homelander are dating. Even if it doesn't bother Vought -- and it should, 'cause that guy in the wedding picture is the founder of the company -- it's a bad look for ol' Red, White and Fascist to be hanging out with her. Everyone's gonna think either he knew about it, or he's a fucking idiot."

And it'd be really nice to turn that around on him, honestly, for personal reasons.



Danny

"So, we go to the media with it?"



Diego

"Definitely," he said. "This will do more damage than any Congressional hearing will do."

Because more people were willing to look at memes than a meeting in Congress, let's be real.


[preplayed with [personal profile] defenderofdesmoines, [personal profile] knife_bender, and [personal profile] grenadesandohana! warning for Stormfront being an legit Nazi. NFB/NFI/OOC welcome!]