A in the Family

You woke up the next day expecting to having a headache, or to find a piece of your skullcap laying on the floor with grey matter leaking out, but luckily neither of those things happened.

Swiping your hand over your bed, the soft wave washed over it, leaving your desk in its place as you ran your tongue around your mouth, eliminating the grime that had built up overnight in a much more effective manner than brushing your teeth or gargling mouthwash.

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though, as within the hour you were called the the Seven's conference room, finding a small group of people like Deep, Homelander, and Madelyn Stillwell. You also saw a metal box, that looked vaguely damp as memories started to pour in.

"Good morning Nick, did you sleep well?" Madelyn didn't sound pleased, and judging from the glance at the clock on the wall, showing it was far past what time you normally were up, she probably had a point, so you refrained from responding in favor of addressing the elephant in the room, or rather, the crate.

"I thought Christmas wasn't for several more months, whose the special delivery from?" You said, your voice coming out in a growl. You cleared your throat.

"It would seem that our dear friend Deep here located this crate after it was dumped several days ago. The who still remains a question, but the why seems pretty obvious." Madelyn stated as Homelander pulled the locked crate open with minimal effort, revealing both the gory contents and the message scrawled into the back of the lid.

"We've already analyzed the contents, it's him, it's Translucent." Stillwell added as you sighed, running a hand through your hair as it changed to to a turquoise where you touched it.

"So they want a war, and we don't even know who 'they' are. On top of that, either they figured out a way past Translucent's skin, or this is the most literal case of explosive diarrhea I've ever seen." You commented offhand.

"Can you be serious for just a minute, Translucent's skin was like diamond, if they found a way to break that, then someone like me would have no chance of survival! I'm going to die!" Deep lamented, in a are showing of...

Your brain started to hurt as you tried to remember the correct word, deciding it wasn't worth risking potential brain damage, or cartoon-style smoke coming out of your ears, you just invented a word.

A rare showing of anti-cockiness. You awaited the silent applause.

"Yes Deep, so you should probably make sure you don't get caught. Besides, there were ways past Translucent's skin without breaking it, remember that time he got blackout drunk, he was puking every few steps." You snarked.

"I thought some guys already tried poison, it didn't work." Deep shot back as you rolled your eyes.

"I wasn't saying they poisoned him, I'm saying Translucent wasn't as invincible as we made him sound. Now then, if there's nothing further, I'm going down to my lab to run a full diagnostic on myself to see if I can figure out what is wrong with me today. I suppose I can take the crate with me and see if I can pick up anything you guys missed." You said, already looping one hand through the handle on the end.

"Just one thing Nick, I want to have a meeting in an hour with the PR team about how we're going to handle this, come if you can, but if you start making some progress on his remains, then I'll get back to you later." Madelyn said as you through up a half-hearted wave, dragging the closed crate behind you.

An hour later found you entering Madelyn's office, several people sitting around the room.

You'd found nothing to add to the information already available, besides everything you had an unfair advantage knowing, not that that really mattered to you, it was simply that you preferred to have a paper trail for these types of things.

"As I'm sure you have heard by now Translucent is dead." Madelyn cut straight to the chase to the chagrin of the murmuring Vought Industries employees.

"How?" You heard someone asked. Madelyn looked to you as you sighed.

"I could find much extra information from the contents, I did however find trace amounts of explosive residue. So either they were using the crate to transport explosives, or they tried to turn him into a puree with dynamite." You commented, crossing your arms as you leaned against the wall.

"The how matters little for the moment, the real question is what will we tell the public?" Stillwell asked the small assembled crowd of PR agents as you saw small groups begin to form among them.

"Obviously we can't come out with total honesty, the public would be terrified if it got out that some organization had the means to kill Supes, especially one of the Seven." You heard a female voice say.

"Maybe a heroic sacrifice story could work, turn his **** into a martyr, it could rally the public behind us." That was a male voice.

"What about a terrorist cell, like Al-Qaeda and 9/11, if we can mix the story up with the upcoming Bill vote then it would make or jobs much easier. It wouldn't even be a total lie, I mean anyone who kills one of the Seven who're protecting America must be terrorists." That statement brought silence with it as everyone contemplated the idea.

"I feel like that could be our best option, I mean it's not like we can just stick our heads in the sand and hope no one notices..." A male voice started, only to trail off as you placed your hand on his shoulder.

"Hope that no one notices the invisible man?" You finished for him as all eyes were on your instantly. "As much as I agree with your plan, I think we're all overlooking one problem with that. Responsibility... how believable is it that a terrorist organization would manage to kill not only a Supe, which does happen on occasion, but one of the Seven, a high profile target like that. They would be blasting it from the heavens, they would be fighting with other terror cells to claim responsibility. Especially if they manged to accomplish it with basic bitch Humies, maybe if there was a Supe on the other side, people could stomach it easier, and it would certainly help with the upcoming vote. You need Supes to fight Supes, after all..." You trailed off, your eyes locked with Stillwell's as she seemed to get your veiled message.

"So what then?" That was the same male voice you heard before.

Glancing at Madelyn first and then all the enraptured 'reporters', you muttered three words," Russia or China?"

The questioning silence spoke loud enough, so you decided to add a little more fuel to the fire, "Both Russia and China have been trying for years to get a Supe of their own, we could say that one of them captured Translucent, and are studying him, who knows any day now we could have foreign Supes dropping from the skies into Madison Square Garden or Central Park, they wouldn't want it getting out anymore than we did during WW2 that we were taking in all those Axis scientists." You started, only to be cut short by Madelyn raising her hand, not like a kid in school, like a parent silencing her child.

"Just say we received rumors that China had a Supe of their own, and we've sent Translucent undercover, off-the-grid, whatever terms you need to, to investigate. He'll be unreachable for an indeterminate amount of time, prayers and thoughts be with him." Madelyn said as the PR people nodded, making little notations on notepads, phones, most of them had tablets before filing out of the room, already bouncing ideas of of each other.

"As much as I love your mind, I don't appreciate being cut off like a rambling child." You hissed at Madelyn, who took the glare without flinching.

"Even when you sound like one, well I suppose not a child, Teddy is adorable when he rambles, you sounded more like a college professor lecturing his students, and they looked it. They wanted something saucy, something scintillating, not a history lesson." Stillwell said as she began steering you out the door as well.

"Now then, I have an scapegoat to prepare, and you have some research to complete. We're down a member of the Seven, and since your the Senior manager of the Seven, it's your responsibility to interview potential new members, make sure they'll fit in, blah blah blah, have fun." And with that, she shut her door in your face, her tone suggesting she wanted you to do anything but have fun.

And with your memories of what today was, you weren't planning on following her advice.