The Longest Day

Several hours passed before you got the news, Homelander and Maeve had left to stop a plane hijacking in-progress, a hijacking that you knew would result in untold deaths.

Among the news was a report from Madelyn that Vought 'invader' had got loose somehow, you knew how, and she'd sent A-Train after her, so he was unavailable.

That left Black Noire, Deep, and Starlight, who was avoiding you as best she could. She hadn't even come to you for help about her new uniform, so that relationship was probably shot, although that did open a door you hadn't considered.

Rising from your plush chair, you left your office, quickly walking through the halls in search of... "Deep, just who I was looking for." Your smile didn't seem to assuage Deep's look of fear.

"I haven't done anything!" He argued, taking a step back as you watched him.

"True, but you're going to." You said, placing a hand on his shoulder that seemed to root him in place.

"So what if I was going to steal one of the dolphin's from Sea World, they're living in subpar conditions there, all the animals are, I can't just leave them there!" He shouted as you gave a wry chuckle.

"Okay, well how about a deal then, I'll help you with Operation: Free Philly if you help we with something more in line with your occupation." You suggested, and for the first time, you saw that cloud of abject fear that hung over his head lessen.

"Deal, now what is this job you have for me?" He asked as you began heading for the nearest elevator.

"Oh it's really rather simple... We're going to hijack a hijacking, and save a plane-load f people, and if all goes well, maybe show the world that you are just as capable as Homelander and Maeve." While Deep didn't smile, the cloud seemed to be vanishing quickly.

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Within thirty minutes you were underway, although those thirty minutes might as well have been hours given your 'competition'. Not only could Homelander fly, and fast enough to give jets a good race, but you were tracking the plane, since you'd decided to go rogue with this mission, you were following Homelander and Maeve's tracking chips, which meant at best you'd arrive after them and have to clean up there mess. But as stated, Homelander could fly so you expected to be in this position.

Said position was arriving with Deep's armada in tow, both of you perched atop a whale that had made decent speed; Homelander and Queen Maeve nowhere in sight as the falling plane drifted further away, and closer to a watery grave, so either you'd arrived so late that they'd already headed back, or they were still on the plane arguing about saving the passengers.

"Well, looks like it's my turn, just follow along Deep, and try to stay as close to that plane as you can, okay?" You didn't await an answer, a pair of wings bursting from your back in possibly the most awkward move ever.

Luckily, you though as you rose higher and closer to the plane, you'd practiced with wings before so you didn't look as awkward in the air as you first did. Although judging from the screams of terror as you perched alight the crashing plane, you may look like a harpy from a Greek tale.

"We can't leave them all to die, just... just her." You recognized the voice of Maeve as you crawled along the outside of the plane, apparently neither Supe realizing that they had company.

"No! If we take one, she'll just tell everyone that we left the rest to die!" Homelander shouted back, and you could envision the scene in your head.

"But-" "Get back, everyone of you or I swear to God I will laser you!" That felt like the appropriate place for you to interject.

"Hey, why so angry Homelander, you're scaring the kids." You said, pulling yourself into the plane as the wings vanished, the insides of the planes not allowing you enough space to keep them around.

"Nick, how did you get here?" Maeve was the one to ask, judging from Homelander's clenched fist, he probably wasn't as happy to see you.

"Oh you know, AirMail Express. After I heard about you leaving, I though you might could use some back-up so here I am."You made sure to use the dopiest tone you could, which only seemed to infuriate Homelander even more.

"We've got to handled here, so you can leave." He hissed out between gritted teeth.

"Oh, okay, so what's your exit strategy, gonna carry everyone, I mean I know you've been working out at the gym, getting swole and everything, but I'm not sure you can handle that many people. Or were you going to try and carry the plane on your back, all the way to land, because I gotta tell you, I think things like that only happen in comic books and cartoons." You said, not phased by Homelander's bravado.

"Okay boys, you can pull them out when we get back to land, but for now, did you have a plan Nick? Can you fix the plane?" Maeve, ever the voice of reason, asked.

"Well, given that I have zero clues as to how to pilot a jet, I think that option has, flown the coop, no pun intended. I'm pretty sure I can manage parachutes for everyone, provided they can tread water for a few minutes." You suggested, and while most people seemed at least accepting of the crazy idea, you saw a few people subtly shake their heads.

"That idea is even worse than just leaving them on the plane, we're miles from the coast, there's no way they can make it! You be dooming them to a slow and painful **** between drowning, being eaten by sharks, dehydration, and starving to ****." Homelander said as you saw numerous people pale in fear.

"You left out sunstroke, Homelander, and really neither dehydration nor starvation would occur, the minute the body starting suffering like that, it would shut down, which means they'd sink and drown. And I planned for that, you can float along with them, and keep them safe while I make a boat for everybody, okay?" You dropped the dopey voice for a condescending one as Homelander looked ready to rip your heart out, and may very well have if he thought he could get away with it.

Seeing as no objections were raised, you continued with the plan. "Okay, if everybody could please rise from your seats, I'll be needing them more than you." You said as you spread your arms out in what you hoped was a placating manner, slowly walking down the middle aisle, letting your hands draw over the tops of the seats as they rippled, turning into compact parachutes.

"Now then, there should be enough for everybody, so no need to fight over them otherwise you have to be forcibly removed. So please collect your parachute and head for the back of the plane to the exit door." You said, adopting your best airline stewardess voice.

"Maeve, you've used parachutes before right, I forget if you parachute in, or if they just throw you out of a plane every time. Just make sure everyone knows how to strap in, and release the chute at the appropriate time, okay?" You said, and Maeve nodded, apparently despite our differences, she was willing to follow my orders when people's lives were at stake.

And so within twenty minutes, everyone was suited up, and diving out, and moments later you saw parachutes begin to open.

"Now that that's taken care of, Homelander-" Whatever you were about to say, he didn't want to hear it as he dove out of the crashing plane without a word. "Okay, I don't know what I was expecting. Maeve, if you ever need anything, you know where my office is." You said with a genial smile.

A smile that Maeve did not return. "I'm fine." She said, before following Homelander's example and leaping out of the open door.

"That's what I expected, right." You muttered to yourself as you knelt down, making sure that nobody was left on the plane as you felt the ripple pass underneath you before where once was a crashing metal plane, a lonely cloud now was as you plummeted towards the world's biggest high-dive.

"Oh, the changes they are a-coming." You sang as the ocean drew nearer.

SPLOOOOOOSH!

You sank abut fifty feet before a dolphin appeared beneath you to bring you back to the surface, your one hand around its dorsal fin as it brought you over to Deep, who was still atop the whale, now surrounded by a small pod of whales, all holding people who were soaking wet.

"I'm guessing Homelander didn't stick around when he saw you had everything well in hand?" You muttered, giving a single shake as the water separated itself from your clothes.

"Well, you're probably right since I never even saw him in the first place." Deep said, an actual smile on his face as he looked at all the people that he'd helped save.

"How about we all go home now, you may be built like some Atlantean prince, but the rest of us are cold and mostly wet." You suggested as Deep nodded, giving a call out as the pod of whales turned as one group and began heading for shore.

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Said trip seemed to take a lot longer than it took to get to the plane in the first place, but you didn't really care, the best points were met. You saved the day in the end, and that was all that really mattered.

Judging by the crowd of people on the beach however, you didn't think your day was over just yet.

You had maybe ten minutes to prepare a speech that hopeful would keep the military deal alive.

The moment your foot hit the wet sand, the crowd of reporters began to swarm you, questions filling the air.

Holding up a hand to silence them, you looked around to make sure that nearby ambulances were gathering the survivors to take them to hospitals where they would be checked over. Seeing that they were taken care of, you turned back to the thronging crowd.

"Hello, my name is Nick, I'll try to answer your questions as best I can." You said simply, despite your best efforts, ten minutes wasn't enough time to prepare a speech, so you hoped to simply fill in the blanks as best you could without sticking your foot in your mouth.

Pointing at a middle-aged blonde, she took that as her queue to ask the question that everyone seemed to have. "Cecilia Walters, can you explain what happened here?"

"Well Cecilia, in the simplest terms, a plane was hijacked." You replied, once again simply before pointing at a different reporter, this one a young man with thick eyebrows.

"Thank you, Paul Galespi from 'The Uptown Download', sir, can you tell us who you are affiliated with? Is this statement coming from the government or-"

"My name is Nick, and I am your friendly neighborhood coordinator within Vought Industries." You answered with your best soft smile.

That brought many more questions, most drowning each other out until you held up your hands again.

"I suppose that requires further explaining?" Seeing the common nod of ascent, you sighed, running a hand through your hair. "Despite our best efforts, we have yet to include either GPS tracking nor communication into the Seven's uniforms. Sometimes, a public coordinator is sent out with a team to help everything run smoothly. This was such a case." You said with a resigned look.

"Can you tell us more about the hijacking, do you feel this speak to a larger issue with the upcoming vote allowing Supers into the military?" You didn't call on that person whoever they were, but as your eyes slid through the crowd to try and find the owner, they caught on a young women, a knowing smirk on her face as she shot you a thumbs up, careful not to be seen on the cameras, you did know her, she was one of Vought's in-house public relations liaisons, apparently they'd caught what you were doing and were going to see if you could finish reeling it in, so to speak.

"Perhaps I should start at the begin to answer that question. This hijacking was very nearly a repeat of possibly the greatest tragedy to befall America, 9/11. If the military had their way, Vought Industries would've never been on that plane, near the plane, we wouldn't have even know there was a plane until it turned into wreckage at least. Thankfully, some people in the power can recognize that the future is right around the corner, things are changing and we'll either change with them, or get swallow beneath the tide. These people reached out to us, let us in on the hijacking, and Vought quickly deployed a two-man team of Homelander and Queen Maeve to attempt to subdue the hijackers, and if possibly rescue the people on that plane." You said, glancing over your shoulder as Deep finally finished helping people, and began to come ashore as well.

"I personally, organized a secondary team of myself, and Deep to follow behind just in case things didn't as planned. Many things had to be considered all at once, and some things were possibly overlooked in the initial decision. For instance, I considered that that once the hijackers had gained control of the jet, they would kill the pilots, since they only needed to crash the plane to inflict mass casualties, I considered that in this scenario, Homelander and Maeve wouldn't be able to carry everyone to safety, so I called upon Deep who was able to use his aqua-linguistic powers to gather a pod of whales to rescue people as they leapt from the plane." You continued, pointing to Deep as he did what he usually did when in front of the camera and smiled.

"I'm only sad to report that we couldn't save everyone. I'm told two people died of heart attacks before they could be saved, and one young man didn't know the proper way to dive. Further injuries include 17 people with gunshot wounds, and three with broken bones. But, at the end of the day, The Seven managed to save everyone they could and stopped a personal attack on America! All applause should go to Homelander, Queen Maeve, and Deep, The Seven as a whole, and most importantly, Vought Industries." You declared only to be met with a cheer that rose from the crowd as you chuckled, slinking away with a smile of a job well done.

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Said grin did not last after you got back to Vought Industries. Madelyn had been angry, Homelander was smug as you got chewed out, and perhaps worst of all, you'd learned that soon after you'd left Deep had taken advantage of the crowd of reporters, fresh off a victory to start badmouthing Sea World and their mistreatment of the animals. Personally you could care less about the last one, well you did care about dolphins, orcs, and seals, but you did care that Deep stuck not only his foot, but Vought's collective foot in his mouth.

All the same, Madelyn had finally admitted that a few waves in the water to be expected (your words, not hers) and since you had performed so admirably in your new added role of personal press agent, or whatever she called it, for the Seven, you'd be accompanying Starlight to Believe Expo to help out. Overall seemed like everything worked out, and you were looking forward to the coming days.