𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄'𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐊𝐄 // 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐎𝐘

CHAPTER 19, america's dad

Butcher tosses a bag of fries and burgers onto the table in front of Ben. Vi managed to find him some blue jersey top for the night. His suit was with Vi, making her way to the laundromat a few buildings away. Ben was almost in a quarantine, they had to keep him away from the public as much as possible. And anyway, would he know how these machines work? Probably not. So now it was up to the others to get everything for him. This was why Butcher agreed to go and get the food, while Vi was waiting at the laundromat for the machine to finish. No need to say that once she got the huge green suit out of the washing machine, she got a few looks from the old ladies there.

Now they were all in the room, with Ben just munching away his food while the others just... stood and watched him, basically.

"Noir's still kicking. He's part of the modern version of Payback," Vi explains. Now was the time to cross-check everybody's plans. Turned out that Ben was looking for payback on Payback. To his luck, all of them were still alive except Swatto.

"There's a new Payback?" Ben questions with furrowed brows, still chewing on his burger.

"They call themselves The Seven. There's only six of them right now so the name doesn't make much sense, but you get the idea," Vi continues, seizing a few fries from Ben's meal, sitting down at the table next to him.

"Why don't they just call themselves The Six?"

"It would be hard to rebrand, I suppose."

Butcher gets out another paper bag, emptying its contents on the table. A beer and Benzedrine.

"Man, I missed bennies," Ben breathes out, observing the tiny orangish container between his fingers. Vi extends her hand, gesturing for Ben to hand it over. Instead, he just places a tiny white pill in her hand, completely mistaking the sign.

"No, I meant the whole container," she words it out, much to the dismay of Ben, who just takes back the previously handed over single pill in response. A whole bottle of Benzedrine was not in good hands with Ben, and Vi knew it. This was the same thing he and basically every soldier abused in World War ll to stay awake and keep their confidence, and Vi witnessed it all.

"Hand it over. Now."

"No, why the hell would I?" he exclaims, now turning his attention to Hughie. "It's how we won D-Day, you know. We were wired to the fucking gills. Not her though," he adds, lazily pointing at Vi.

Hughie was certainly not amused by the fact. He just watches as Soldier Boy places a few pills on the table, grabs his combat knife, and smashes it right into the pills, grinding them into a powder-like substance. Vi snatches the rest of the pills away, earning a hateful glare from Ben.

"Why'd you take it?" He questions.

"Because you just woke up from years of sleeping, I don't think this should be your first meal," she conjures up. Ben didn't need to know this was partly a lie.

"Exactly, this right here will keep me focused enough. I want the rest back."

"No, it's better here with me. You'll get some when it's fit, but that's more than enough for you right now," she replies, patting her coat's pocket with the container in it.

"Listen," Butcher cuts in, "let's have a little chat about this teamup, yeah?"

"Yeah, what the hell do I need a team for? The last one handed me to the Reds. Not you, Vi, you're amazing," he adds upon remembering that she was part of Payback too.

"And we got you out of that pickle," Butcher speaks, looking around the group. "We wrapped up Crimson Cuntess and delivered her like a fucking christmas turkey, and I even sorted Gunpowder for you."