A Pawn Shop in East Flatbush | Wednesday afternoon

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie followed the directions Hughie had sent to her burner phone, which were confusing as all get out because of course the address he gave her was down the street, and of course the actual pawn shop was two blocks down.

Eventually, Annie saw the familiar, gangly figure of Hughie Campbell standing outside, alongside a shorter man with goggles pushed up on his forehead. "That's them. I think that must be HQ, then."

Sure looked like quite an operation. Annie had to remind herself that she'd gotten a little spoiled by all the cool gadgets that the bad guys had. The good guys, it looked like, were working on a bit more of a shoestring.

Diego	Diego was not exactly thrilled that these were the good guys. Sure, he had done the vigilante thing on a tight budget but that was against, like, bank robbers. Not superheroes. So, yeah, this whole shoestring budget operation was not exactly filling him with hope. "Great."
Annie	Annie pulled her sunglasses down just enough to look at him. (She was way too recognizable to go out without a disguise these days, especially when en route to a secret hideout, and accompanied by a guy who...looked like he probably knew a lot about secret hideouts.) "You sure you're okay with this? These guys are not exactly -- nice." Like, Hughie was. Sort of. In a manipulative, shitty way. But you know, the leader of this little band of guys had shot her, so there was that, and the rest of them she didn't know at all.
Diego	Diego thought her disguise was adorable and weird at the same time. However he had seen all the advertisements in the city and knew it was needed. It was just a little surreal, that's all. "It's not like I'm a ball of sunshine either," Diego said. "It'll be fine."
Annie	Yeah, considering Starlight was on the side of a bus that had just passed by, she kind of needed to push those sunglasses back up, anyway. "Then you'll probably do better than me with them," Annie decided as they approached the pair in front of the pawn shop, sighing out a little breath as she raised one hand in greeting. "Hey."
Hughie	"Hey." Hughie looked curiously from Annie to the guy with her, as Frenchie quickly motioned them inside the pawn shop. They didn't need to be talking out on the street. "Glad you guys found us okay."
Annie	"You didn't make it easy," Annie admitted, following in after them. "Diego, this is Hughie -- Hughie, this is my boyfriend, Diego." She offered a little half-smile to the guy with the goggles, adding, "I don't think I know your name, but hi." She recognized him from the black site, though. He'd been the one who'd been so protective of the passed-out girl with them.
Diego	Ah, so that was the guy who screwed Annie over. Notice how he was pointedly not going for a handshake. "Hey. Heard a lot about you." Not particularly good things.
Hughie	"Oh, hey -- hey, man." Was Hughie suddenly nervous because Annie's boyfriend was sort of super-intimidating? Or because he hadn't known she had a boyfriend at all? (Not that he thought he had any kind of a shot, but...you know, she was pretty, he'd noticed.) Or was it because that super-intimidating boyfriend seemed like he probably knew about the whole...using-Annie-for-information-without-getting-her-on-board-first thing? Maybe it was all of the above! "Um, thanks for...coming." Like he was the hostess at a baby shower. Fuck's sake. "Uh, this is Frenchie," he supplied a little lamely, gesturing to the man beside him.
Frenchie	And that man beside him corrected, in a soft, accented voice, "Serge. Bonjour, welcome," and gave Annie a little nod before extending a fist out to Diego for a bump. He hadn't done anything shitty to Starlight, so he wasn't especially worried about monsieur commando, here. And if the French rap playing from the speakers was any indication, this was his turf more than Hughie's, anyway. "The others are downstairs."
Annie	"Nice to meet you, Serge," Annie told him, still in her hood and sunglasses because, like, there were people outside who could potentially see in, still. "How many people are involved in this, anyway?" She knew the guy who'd shot her was downstairs, probably, and the other two from the black site, but...okay, please say there were more of them. Four guys (and maybe that girl?) versus Homelander and Stormfront and Vought seemed pretty...not promising, even with their help.
Diego	This was where the scars and resting bitchface came in handy for Diego. He didn't really have to do anything to look intimidating. He did return Frenchie's fist bump because it wasn't like he had done anything to Annie. And he had good taste in music. "I would also like to know that." Because he doubted the amount of people he thought they needed could fit in that basement.
Hughie	"Uh, there's a few of us," Hughie said noncommittally, because guess what, they totally had it right, there were barely any people downstairs! Frenchie took the lead, showing the way to a door at the back of the shop, which led to some dark stairs down to...a real shithole of a place. Like, the pawn shop upstairs was clearly the fancy portion of the hideout.
Annie	"This is where you're living?" Annie had to ask, putting her sunglasses in her pocket as she pushed her hood down.
Hughie	"Yeah. It, uh, has its charms. The rats are like Pokémon," Hughie offered with a nervous little laugh. "With hep C."
Diego	"It's...cozy." Yeah, no. This made his room in the back of a dilapidated gym look like a mansion.
Mother's Milk	"Her chip's out?" MM looked up from a piece of paper he was examining, setting it carefully face-down as he eyed the newcomers.
Frenchie	"Pardon," Frenchie murmured next to Annie as he reached over and tugged her collar aside before she could protest. "Oui," he assured MM with a firm nod.
Annie	Annie, for her part, offered a little wave to the guy as she held still for Serge, since she recognized him pretty well from the black site. "Hey."
Hughie	"Annie, Diego," Hughie said, trying to steel his voice a little bit because he felt even more like the odd guy out with them around, "this is MM."
Mother's Milk	"What's up, I'm Marvin," MM offered, nodding his head at Diego and holding a hand out to him. "Starlight I know, but you're new." And he had actually known Starlight's civilian identity, thanks to her slip-up awhile ago, but thanks for confirming that, Hughie.
Diego	Frenchie was the Klaus touchy type, huh? Well, at least Diego was used to that kind of weird. "I'm her boyfriend," Diego said, shaking MM's hand. "Here for moral support. And whatever else." He'll just be here as the guy good with knives who had no superpowers whatsoever.
Annie	"He's being modest," Annie told MM, slanting a little smile at Diego. "He's a trained fighter. Really, really good with knives. He'd be an enormous asset to your operation." Just a totally normal guy who was good with knives, okay.
Kimiko	Frenchie and MM both turned to Diego with renewed interest, while from deeper within the hideout came a small, slight woman who had her gaze firmly fixed on Annie. She approached, hesitating for a moment as she looked over to Frenchie with something like a question.
Annie	"Um, hi," Annie said slowly, watching her. "Remember me?" Annie didn't know how she possibly could, since the girl had been passed out when all of that had happened, but...she couldn't tell whether she was welcome here or not, based on the blank face she was being given.
Kimiko	But that blank-faced look didn't last long, since Kimiko shortly crossed the distance between them to wrap Annie in a tight hug. Of course she remembered you, Starlight. You'd saved them all.
Mother's Milk	"You special ops?" MM asked Diego, because he needed actual information here regardless of what kind of cute shit was going on with the girls over there. "CIA?"
Diego	"Doomsday prepper father." He figured that was just as good as special ops or CIA.
Butcher	"Well, well, well." And from the same room that Kimiko had come from emerged a big man in a Hawaiian print shirt, looking fairly unimpressed. "What have we here?"
Hughie	"I know what you're going to say." Hughie pushed through the group to go to Butcher's side, primed with nervous energy. "But she took out her chip. Everything's fine. And she brought backup -- he's really, really good with knives." Hughie was totally just going to parrot Annie's assertion there, yes, and just trust her that that actually meant something. (Again, Diego was intimidating-looking enough that Hughie was willing to believe just about anything about the guy.)
Butcher	"Starlight," Butcher said, ignoring Hughie for the moment. "Don't you just light up a room, eh?" He smirked at her. "You're looking well."
Annie	"Yeah, no thanks to the .50-caliber round that you pumped into my chest," Annie replied flatly, lifting her chin as she watched him.
Butcher	"Well," Butcher replied cheerily, taking a few steps closer to give both Annie and Diego a closer look, "what don't kill you makes you stronger." His gaze skirted over Diego, a little less openly hostile. "And you brought a friend."
Diego	"Yeah, she did," Diego said with a frown. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't shoot my girlfriend again." He knew she'd survive it, but still. It had looked like it hurt.
Butcher	"What a cute couple you make," Butcher decided with another bright smile, before turning to Hughie with exactly no good humor. "What're they doing here?"
Hughie	"Annie has a lead on Stormfront," Hughie supplied, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
Annie	"I broke into her laptop," Annie supplied easily, shoving her hands into her pockets. "And I got a look at the inbox. Dozens of emails from Stan Edgar."
Butcher	"Stan Edgar," Butcher repeated with obvious interest. "And what does Vought's big slapper have to say?"
Annie	"How they're close to a breakthrough at the Sage Grove Center," Annie told him, lifting her brows a little defiantly. "It's a psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania."
Butcher	"Well," Butcher decided, "we'd better have us a little dekko at this loony bin, eh lads?" MM and Frenchie wordlessly both moved at the same time -- MM cracked open a laptop, while Frenchie moved deeper within the hideout. "Starlight," Butcher continued, "Starlight's Boyfriend, would you be amenable to joining us on this little caper?"
Annie	Annie didn't respond at first, instead just immediately shifting her gaze up to Diego with a wordless question. Thank goodness they'd spent all that time perfecting their silent communication skills around Danny and Steve, because while she was all in, she wasn't going to agree unless he seemed on board, too. They could do their own thing; she'd given Butcher and Hughie the information they needed to move forward.
Diego	This sounded like it could go terribly. So of course Diego was in. That's why he was here, right? To add to the dumb decisions? "Sure," he said with a nod. He felt comfortable enough answering for the both of them considering the look she gave him. "Sounds fun."
Hughie	"You want them to come?" Hughie was sharp enough to question that, because no one hated Supes the way Butcher did. And Annie -- no matter what else she was, and no matter who else she had brought with her -- was as super as they came.
Butcher	"Oh, most definitely," Butcher replied, walking over to Annie. "If shit goes sideways, who do you think Vought's gonna go after? Us, or their billion-dollar baby turned traitor, who just ripped out her own fucking chip?"
Annie	Annie stayed silent, tension flooding her body as she looked up at Butcher with no indication that anything he'd said bothered her. But, you know, fuck this guy. Fuck this guy so hard, ugh.
Butcher	"Never," Butcher concluded, turning away from her and clapping Diego on the shoulder with a bright, friendly smile, "go into shark-infested waters without chum!" And with that, he walked off to where he'd come from. He had to make sure he got to the van's keys before MM decided he was driving.

[parts of this are adapted from The Boys 2.06, "The Bloody Doors Off." Preplayed with knife_bender! NFB/NFI/OOC welcome as aaaaaaaaaaaalways]