The Grey Zone (Black Noir / The Boys Fan Fic)

Ch 9 And The Award Goes To...

Jess arrived at Phil Madison's townhouse 15 minutes after The Agency team that Reggie had sent. In a bid to provide some form of privacy for Mr.Madison, the 4 team members from The Agency arrived in a catering van and entered as if they'd been hired for a private event at his home.

Jess walked in the doorway and was greeted by a team member dressed all in white. "May I help you?"

"I'm with The Agency." She nodded knowingly at the man in a catering uniform.

"Gotcha. Ok." He dropped the professional act immediately. "Purp had left by the time we got here. The place was completely vacant."

"How did he even get past the initial alarms?" Jess asked.

He sighed in return, "second-floor window was left open."

It wasn't Jess' usual place to victim blame, but she couldn't help wondering why a stalking victim would be careless enough to leave their window ajar. Then again, if Phil had been experiencing a trip from whatever was in his drink or perhaps even withdrawals from his own poison of choice - he may not have been in the right frame of mind to even remember opening the window.

"Let me take you on a walkthrough of what we know." The man in white gestured for her to follow him through the house.

The two of them walked upstairs, past the cameras that Jess had been glued to in the cab. Everything seemed to be in its place. You would never have known that an intruder had been there.

"We believe the purp entered through here." The man stood on the landing area and gestured towards Phil Madison's bedroom which was being searched by two other team members. "No noose this time, but we're going over everything just to make sure no little gifts were left."

She looked over to the window, which was slightly ajar. It seemed too easy for the stalker, but sometimes things were. "I have a couple of the cameras connected to my phone. I saw him come out onto the landing." Jess explained, hoping the team member would fill in the blanks.

"Yes. That's where things get interesting." With his words, he lifted up the iPad he was carrying to show her footage from the incident. Finally, she could get a good look at the mystery intruder instead of trying to zoom in on her phone.

The first clip was from the bedroom. It showed the man in black appear into the frame from the window area, but unfortunately, the actual entrance wasn't caught on camera. After looking around the room at Phil's belongings the intruder headed to the door. They cracked it open, ever so slightly, before taking a couple of steps back. It appeared as if they were taking a few deep breaths before walking out, but why? Was the intruder trying to hype themselves up? Were they nervous?

They grabbed the doorknob, building anticipation, and turned back again as if changing their mind.

Jess looked up at the man showing her the footage.

"Yeah, it's weird. That's what we thought. I don't get this guy's deal." He quipped.

The intruder rolled their neck, gave themselves a shakedown and faced the door again. They opened the door confidently, stepped out into the landing and headed to the sitting room on the north side of the townhouse. They knew exactly where they were headed, almost as if they had rehearsed.

The man with the iPad switched to a different camera angle and both of them watched a clip of the intruder barging into the sitting room. The lighting was much better and you could see the figure more clearly. They were dressed head to toe in black, with a chest piece that outlined every muscle on their body and what looked to be two blades tucked into the back of their outfit.

Jess had been investigating Homelander for so long that she'd become familiar with other Vought supes as well. "Is that...?" She began.

A voice piped up from behind her, one of the other 'catering team' members peered over her shoulder. "Don't say it. If it really is Black Noir we're all dead."