Chapter 133: 133: Everything According To My Plan
"Buy us some time. Hope the CIA gets here fast."
While Butcher and the crew stalled the NYPD, a bombshell report about Compound V exploded across every major news outlet and shot straight to the top of every social media platform.
The story spread like someone had poured gasoline on dry hay. One spark and the whole damn country was on fire.
"NBC bringing you the latest on Vought. According to the CIA, they now have key evidence of Vought’s criminal activity. The company faces criminal charges and civil lawsuits for illegally injecting children with dangerous substances and multiple other offenses.
It’s hard to believe our superheroes were manufactured by Vought. It’s shocking and infuriating.
If the charges stick, it means the slogan ’Superheroes are God’s chosen’ has been one massive lie for over half a century. I can’t even imagine how many babies died in those experiments or whether their parents knew.
NBC will continue following this horrifying scandal."
Back at the villa, Ivan sat in front of the TV enjoying breakfast: a sandwich, a thick-cut steak, and a glass of pure milk.
After the NBC report, he grabbed the remote and flipped through the other channels.
ABC, CNN, all of them. Every major network had clearly coordinated and was hammering Vought nonstop, pushing the story across America as fast as possible.
Ivan didn’t buy for a second that the government hadn’t put its weight behind this.
On screen, they were now running interviews with Queen Maeve’s father and Starlight’s mother.
"Queen Maeve’s father and Starlight’s mother have both come forward saying they had no knowledge of Compound V. They claim they don’t know if Vought ever injected their children.
Vought has issued no statement so far. We are calling on the company to respond officially!"
Starlight’s mom and Maeve’s dad wasted no time cutting ties with Vought and painting themselves as clueless victims the moment shit hit the fan.
Online, the public lost their minds. Parents everywhere started panicking about whether their own kids had been dosed. Vought’s stock price cratered in a near-vertical red line that looked fucking brutal.
Right then, Ivan’s phone on the coffee table started buzzing hard.
He picked it up. Caller ID: Vought CEO Edgar.
"Mr. Edgar, it’s me, Greevs."
"In twenty minutes we’re holding an emergency meeting. Get every senior executive from Public Relations to the conference room. And when you come to Vought, pick up a copy of the New York Daily. It explains why we’re meeting." Edgar hung up, voice heavy with rage.
On the way to Vought Tower, Ivan stopped at a roadside newsstand and grabbed a New York Daily.
Back in the car, he unfolded it. A full third of the front page was dedicated to Vought. The headlines were as dramatic as possible, clearly designed to grab eyes instantly.
The Biggest Scandal in History! A Full Accounting of Vought’s Crimes!
CIA Speaks Out: Is Vought Finally Finished?
Children’s Hospitals in Bed with Vought, Secretly Creating Supes!
Multiple Superhero Parents Claim They Were Kept in the Dark — They Are the Real Victims!
The End of the Superhero Industry? Will Vought Disappear into the Dustbin of History?
Every single headline and article screamed the same thing: Vought was done. Completely fucking finished.
One whale dies and a thousand creatures thrive. As soon as it looked like Vought was going under, rival companies started throwing a goddamn party.
When Ivan’s pickup truck stopped outside Vought Tower, sharp-eyed reporters immediately spotted the VP’s vehicle.
"That’s Vice President Greevs’ car! Quick, stop him before he gets away!"
Watching the reporters swarm toward him like zombies, Ivan couldn’t help spitting out a curse. "Shit!"
Luckily he reacted fast, drove straight into Vought’s underground parking garage, then took the elevator up to the main lobby.
Inside, the staff were running around like headless chickens, whispering nervously to each other.
Until Ivan walked in wearing his suit.
That calmed things down a bit.
"Vought doesn’t pay you to stand around gossiping. You’ve got three minutes to get back to your desks or don’t blame me for being an asshole." Ivan’s cold stare made every employee in the lobby drop their heads.
At the same time,
on the 99th floor in the hero conference room, Edgar had already gathered The Seven.
"I know I don’t come up to the 99th floor very often, and for that I apologize. But moments like this are exactly what keep us sharp, aren’t they? Don’t forget that we exist in symbiosis with a great, harmonious, and powerful company called Vought.
That is also the key to solving our problems. We must stand united. That has to be our top priority, and it is what will shift the current narrative."
A-Train looked a little confused by Edgar’s words.
"Seriously? You want us to go round up everyone spreading this shit? You’d better give Public Relations and Legal a heads-up first. I don’t want to end up public enemy number one," A-Train said, spreading his hands like he wanted no part of it.
"No time for that." Edgar didn’t even finish before Queen Maeve cut him off.
"Sorry, but I don’t see why we should be cleaning up your mess."
Clearly The Seven weren’t as united as Edgar hoped. Finally Homelander spoke up.
"Alright, in times like this we do need to stick together."
Edgar started to nod in approval, but Homelander wasn’t done.
"After all, it was Vought that raised us, not him." Homelander stood up and pointed straight at Edgar. "He never gave a shit about us. We’re just products to him. So why the fuck should any of us care if Vought lives or dies?"
Homelander’s words turned Edgar’s face steel-gray. A clear threat flashed in his eyes. "I suggest you think very carefully before you open your mouth again."
Homelander ignored the warning completely.
"It wasn’t Vought that made us. We made Vought. We superheroes are the real family." Homelander’s ambition was on full display. In his eyes, Vought could lose Edgar and it wouldn’t matter, but it couldn’t lose him.
Stormfront, sitting in the seat that used to belong to Translucent, watched the whole thing with a big amused grin, clearly enjoying the chaos.
Bang bang bang!
Someone knocked on the door. Ashley quickly opened it and turned to Edgar. "It’s Mr. Greevs."
"Let him in," Edgar said heavily.
"Looks like I showed up at a bad time."
The second Ivan Greevs stepped into the conference room he could feel the suffocating tension in the air.
"Look, I’ll take my family and deal with those bastards myself." Homelander finished with a cold face and walked out.
The rest of The Seven followed him one by one.
The open rebellion from The Seven pissed Edgar off, but he knew this wasn’t the moment to deal with it. Fixing the PR nightmare came first.
"Call Public Relations, Marketing, and Legal. Get them in here for a meeting."
Edgar led Ivan to his usual conference room.
"As you can see, ever since Madeline died he’s become impossible to control. I really should have shoved a remote-controlled bomb up his ass when he was a kid." Edgar sat at the head of the table, put on his rimless glasses, and spoke with a blank expression.
"Mr. President, do you remember Ryan?"
Ivan pulled out the chair to Edgar’s right and sat down. "Homelander is desperate for love. That’s why he clung to Madeline so hard. Now that she’s gone, the leash is off and he’s out of control. All we need to do is put a new leash on him.
Then he’ll go back to being obedient."
"Go on. I’m very interested in this topic." A flicker of surprise showed deep in Edgar’s eyes before he hid it perfectly. He stayed stone-faced, waiting for Ivan to continue.
"Ryan is the new leash."
"What we do is drill the idea of Vought into Ryan’s head nonstop. As long as he stays loyal to the company, he’ll keep Homelander in check." Ivan smiled.
"You remember that plan I mentioned before? I want to create a new department: the Superhero Education Department. I already have the perfect person to run it, Deputy Minister Moland from the State Department."
Mesmer’s mind-reading powers were wasted on simple spying.
The real way to use it was to dig into people’s desires, find out what they wanted and craved, then use human nature to reshape them slowly. That was real brainwashing. A power that had nearly toppled the world once.
"Interesting idea. We tried something similar with Homelander, but you’ve seen the results. It was a complete failure." Edgar had once tried to mold Homelander into a perfectly loyal Vought asset.
It hadn’t worked. The method might control normal people, but against a powerhouse like Homelander it barely did anything and even backfired.
Still, Edgar didn’t completely shoot down Ivan’s suggestion.
"To be honest, looking at you feels like looking at a younger version of myself. Your thinking is solid. Tying Ryan to Vought would definitely help restrain Homelander. But to fully control him, we’ll need an equally powerful rival."
The equally powerful rival Edgar had in mind was obviously Stormfront.
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69
