Time to Get to Work

You returned to Vought Tower several hours later, a neutral, or the closest thing you could manage, expression on your face. Starlight, after you'd left her unsupervised, had proceeded to air some of Vought's, or at least The Seven's, dirty laundry, claiming that Deep had **** her to 'service' him, as well as the fact that Vought had tried to cover it up.

You expected the angry phone call that followed, but you were still holding tough. Deep would face reassignment, after a lengthy public apology, where in the American Midwest, Sandusky, Ohio if you remembered correctly, so now you'd been **** to step up your time table on finding a replacement for the Seven.

None of that explained why, shortly after arriving and heading towards your office, A-Train saw you, and proceeded to sucker punch you in the face.

You'd like to say you took the hit on the chin and didn't flinch, but that would be a lie. He may not have been going full steam at you, but he had certainly added a little extra umph to it, sending you reeling backwards into the wall.

You shook your head, clearing away any remaining fuzz as you noticed the hallway had cleared, apparently not wanting to get caught in the middle of whatever was about to go down.

"What the hell, A-Train?" You growled out, the black man staring you down like a bull eyeing the red flag. But he'd caught you offgaurd with that first hit, you were ready now if he tried to continue the fight.

"What the hell? I'll tell you what the hell! I found the tapes, Nick, I know your little secret." The speedster snarled back, launching himself forwards, as you ducked, his fist cracking the stone wall as it hit.

"Yeah, that's all well and good, if I knew what the you were talking about!" You yelled, touching the wall behind you as it changed to a thick viscous rubber cement, effectively holding A-Train in place while you talked.

"The tapes Popclaw made, I saw you two having sex!" A-Train threw in your face, his expression somewhere between smug and pissed.

"Okay A) That's very hypocritical given the number of times I know you've been 'running a train' on some piece of tail, and B) I'm sorry for your loss." You said, as A-Train surprised you, planting his other hand on the wall as he swung his leg at you, narrowly missing as you took another step back.

"Don't give me that bullshit, you know that's different, I had to sleep with those girls to keep up this image that you gave me of the eternal bachelor." A-Train said, his anger slowly leaking off.

"Once again, that's incorrect, that's the image Vought wanted for you, I was fine with you dating Popclaw, she's a nice girl, I mean other than the **** problem... I really thought she would kick the habit after she got pregnant, but I guess she was just in too deep." You said, shrugging your shoulders.

It was like a bucket of cold water had been poured over the raging African American before you, his body sagging as his eyes fell to the ground.

"She was pregnant?" Was all you heard.

"Yeah, did the examination myself. She was about 8 weeks along, I told her if she just told you that you'd drop those other girls and be exclusive with her, and Vought certainly wouldn't complain, but the girl was a romantic apparently. She said that she'd tell you either after you went solo with her, or when she couldn't hide it anymore." You said, your every word seeming to drag something out of A-Train as he didn't even notice when you fixed the wall, leaving him to fall against it for support.

"Seeing as how you look like you need some time, feel free to take a couple of days off, I don't know if you caught Starlight's shining moment, but Vought is going to be making some changes over the next few days... but you didn't hear anything from me, got it?" You muttered as A-Train nodded, his eyes staring at the wall across from him, seeing something that only he could see.

Shaking your head, you wondered how it had come to this, it seemed like no matter what you did the world was determined to keep following the track it had laid before it.

You reached your office shortly, entering the tiny room, this time, and fell into your chain, leaning back as you tried to have a moment of peace. A moment that was instantly ruined by Stillwell's shadow darkening your door as she came in without knocking, a pissed look on her face.

"One simple job, and you blow it! No, worse than blow it, you let her cause irreparable damage to Vought Industries name, and worse still, you haven't even looked at the files on potential new members of The Seven." Madelyn's voice broke whatever sense pf peace you had going, and you sat up, standing before her, your frayed nerves taking over for you as you lose the closest thing to your real appearance and suddenly towered over the blonde executive.

"Blow it, BLOW IT! It would take an act of God not to let the cracks show in this dysfunctional team! Deep is a serial ****, which we've been covering up for years, A-Train has a massive **** problem, don't argue, I'm also the doctor in case you forgot, Maeve is off getting sauced at this moment problem, Translucent, God rest his soul, hung out in the women's restrooms, and peeped on everybody! And don't even get me started on John, who I'm almost positive is a bloody sociopath, who only cares how the public sees him! And the icing on the cake, the cherry on top of the sundae is that I WAS CONSULTED ABOUT ADDING STARLIGHT TO THE FUCKING TEAM! If I was, I probably could've warned that this was coming, Deep has done it to every, and I do mean every, new female employee of Vought Industries, and Starlight is from the Midwest, Des Moines of all places, so she doesn't have a clue that that just happens. She's so self-righteous and naive that of course she's going to take it to the court of public opinion, look at Harvey Wankstein! So did a massive blow hit us today, YES, are we going to have to change some things around here, YES, but are we going to bleed out from this, NO! Now get out of my office so I can go through the myriad of possible replacements for not just one, but two now, of The Seven's members!" You roared, as Stillwell looked at you, your face gone beyond flushed and straight to apoplectic, your hair shifting to a deep black, and deep as in she was fairly certain that it was less hair and more outer space.

You stared at each other for a silent minute before she turned on her heel and left, her only remark being a lingering, "If you showed that much passion in your work this would've never happened." before the door shut.

Sighing a deep sigh, you fell back into your chair, a glass appearing in your grasp as it filled with a amber liquid, the fizzy bubbles barely displacing the sudden ice as you knocked the glass back, the soda burning on the way down as you spun around, feeling like a little kid again for just a moment before locking on to your computer as you got to work, sifting through the literal thousands of applications for interview into the hallowed halls of The Seven.