Sinister

“That is close to what I’ve heard but not the entirety of it.” She watched him close, still unable to get into his mind which as as impressive as it was alarming if she was the type of person to get alarmed. “What I’ve heard is that Compound V is the reason for your superheroes. Artificial and doping. That won’t sell if it gets out.”

   “What you have heard about compound v is nothing but whispers and rumors.” Nathan had found it amusing when others tried to understand his work. Emma Frost was an exceptional mutant but she was more business-minded then scientific. “I can feel you trying to explore my mind you know,” His smile was sinister. “You can keep trying but you won’t see anything.”

“I’m not a puppet for anyone or anything and Ryan will worship me more than he ever has. Kid idolise their dads but I’m the Homelander, I’m the greatest hero and he already thought I was a hero before he knew me. That’s amplified.” He was smug but proud but wasn’t sure if the pride was for him or Ryan. “I don’t think you understand me. I am saying I’ll work with you. What you did with Ryan, that was a great move and I think you can be beneficial in ways that Madelyn couldn’t be. I’m proposing we work together. I just need to know what for so we can come up with something good for both of us.”

   “They idolize their fathers until they realize they can move past them, become more than what you ever was.” Nathan had seen it so many times over the years. Son’s wanting to do better than their father’s and Ryan had the arrogance to believe he could. “I don’t work with partners, if you want to work with me then you have to do what I say. Ryan did and look what he’s become.” 

   Nathan Essex was an Englishman through and through. He liked the decorum and the events that he had attended so many years ago in London and as the years passed, the social standings and accolades had changed, some not for the better. The parties and the ceremonies, on the other hand, had improved significantly and none could quite match up to the ones in New York City.      He was nominated for an award, something to do with his achievements in science and genetics and naturally, Vought wanted their man to win. He won the award but not for the work he had done under vought, no it was for his own company, The Essex Corporation. “Ms. Stacy, I’m surprised to see you here.” Nathaniel greeted the girl politely. “Is your father around or are you simply curious to meet the scientific minds here?”

        The question was in her mind before she asked it as she hesitated before asking. “What can I do to stop this and let you give Ryan some normalcy?” Her son was older now, she knew she could let go a little but she wanted him to have his own control. “I know that, I used to be part of that team.” The smile on his face irritated her but only because she knew she couldn’t do anything. “Try me.”

   “You can’t stop an avalanche can you?” He asked a little condescending. “You can’t stop this, this is Ryan’s normal.” The kid was a hero and one that hadn’t been made or had any divine intervention. He was born a supe and was something even Homelander couldn’t be. “You were part of a social media team, you are nothing without a keyboard and an account.”

“He thinks I’m a God,” Homelander smiled. Fake with nothing genuine about it except the smugness of it, “you shouldn’t underestimate my influence over him.” He could see it now, himself as the leader but Ryan in the Seven learning to be the leader and the two of them loosening the control Vought had over them. “I want answers from you, not to go against you. You’re clearly valuable and you have skills. I see value in that.”

"And how it will hurt when he discovers you are just a puppet of Vougelbaum’s creations.” A smirk escaped him. The boy would certainly idolize his father, he did so without knowing he was related to him but this was just amplified. “And why should I tell you?” He laughed. “You can’t comprehend all that I have done so continue to be a good solider and do as commanded.”

“I saw the briefing, I just have an intolerance for bullshit.” The whole religion part of Vought was the least believable thing they spun but the most obvious lie yet people ate it up and begged for more and more. “To prove it to them. I’ve been inside Vought,” inside the minds of Vought, “I know about Compound V and that your supes are nothing without it. Mutants are born with abilities and don’t need the genetic manipulation of V.”

Nathaniel smiled at her response. Many people had suspected it was false information or fake news as the trend was to say, but they needed heroes so they believed whatever they needed to. “Compound V is nothing but a solution to help our heroes. Normal medicine doesn’t work so this is just a pain killer but for supes.” It was all bullshit but he wasn’t going to admit anything. 

“Since I was born,” he remarked with only a small and slight glare at Doctor Essex. “I am in charge of the Seven, of myself and of Ryan. I know you want to think you have power of me but you don’t. You just do stuff in the shadows because you know you’re no match for us.” He was careful to leave enough distance between them. “So Ryan us the insurance you think you have?”

   “You are the leader of the seven but you have no control over Ryan.” No, Vought would and Mr. Edgar had already been more than enthusiastic in having Ryan bring Vought into a new, more disciplined era. “Try and go against me, please,” Nathaniel smirked. “If you don’t want to risk your son then make a move and see what happens to him.”

      “We have already this discussion about property and people. Ryan is not property. He is a person and he is going to struggle more than he would have because of your actions.” It seemed when everything was starting to calm down, something would happen that would disrupt and shake everything. “A man of science not fiction but you’re okay to spin some fiction so long as it suits you. I’ve agreed to your reasonable terms, I’ve made sure Homelander was in Ryan’s life and you are his doctor and you do this. Why? It has to be more than just Vought.”

   “We have many times and still you fail to grasp it.” Becca Butcher was nothing but a walking womb that could house more supes if only she would accept her fate. Vought was powerful and Nathaniel wouldn’t stop until his creations were perfect. “I’m not the one spinning, we have a whole team for that.” His smile was cocky, arrogant almost. “Ms. Butcher you could not begin to understand what I have planned for your son.” 

“Correct,” she agreed sounding slightly impressed by him for the first time. At the start, she had him down as just another cogg in the Vought machine that created and worshipped supes, validating them while persecuting others. “”Beyond the chance of nature isn’t evolution and what you’ve done with the supes isn’t natural. It’s transhumanism when mutants are post-human. Better, stronger and not because someone manipulated our structure for it. You want to prove your creations against us? Let’s see how they are without their abilities. That is, if you have anything that could do something like that.”

   There was and air of smugness now that Nathaniel could see had done the almost impossible; impressing the white queen herself. As much as he wanted to take full credit for the supes, Nathaniel’s research would be nothing without Vougelbaum and the next batch of Supes, well, improvements would be made. “Supes are given their powers from god or did you miss that briefing?” Honestly, Nathaniel hated that spin but it had already been put out there and changing it now was impossible. “Why prove them when I can improve mutants?” He asked. He could guess her answer already but compound v could intensify their powers.

       "Grateful? You took precious and important years away from me and him because you have some weird obsession with Homelander and his DNA. There was nothing that gave you the right to do that. You aren’t his father or his parent. Just some crazed man in labcoat wanting the power of the people that work for him. God has nothing to do with it, I made sure Ryan wasn’t raised religious. Stay away from him.”

   Homelander was not his obsession, he was all Vought’s and Nathaniel was only doing his job. No, Scott Summers was his but while he was out of reach, Nathaniel could flex his scientific muscles. “Anything that comes from any Supe DNA is property of vought, ergo Ryan is our property and I will do as I see fit.” He snarled and for a flash, his sinister face had shown through his facade. “I’m a man of science not of fiction,” Nathaniel smirked. “I don’t believe in a god only the ones I help create. It’ll give the people a good story don’t you think? That was once your department was it not?”

“I wouldn’t say that surprises will work well for you if you keep them up. This one,” he kept his gaze locked onto the doctor but not glaring, “this one I’ll let you have. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.” He was being civil but there was a hint of a threat. “What insurances? I take it you don’t mean whatever you took from Becca.”

   Nathaniel walked closer to Homelander as he spoke, inching his hand closer to him as if he was reminding the supe just what he could do. Madelyn allowed them to believe they were in charge for too long but his era was different. “Since when did you become in charge?” It wasn’t a serious question but he was curious to see his answer. “Oh I’m not going to give away everything. Just remember, your behaviour can have an impact on your son so I would think carefully about your actions.”

Lexi nods slightly. “Good… something tells me Vought could use a win like that right now.” She smiles thinly. “It’ll be interesting to see how the new blood meshes with the current team.” The brunette found it interesting that he had such faith in the newcomer and part of that scared her. She purses her lips and nods again. “But you understand the drive of wanting to be the one to get that breakthrough and having the ability to say you were the one who achieved the impossible, no?” The vial feels heavy in her pocket, despite her knowing it couldn’t have weighed more than a few ounces. “What’s it to you anyways if I wanted to sleep with him? I’m no Becca Butcher, so it’s not like you’d be getting a supe baby.” She mutters and rolls her eyes at his comment about willingness not being a problem for The Deep.

   Under the management of Madelyn, Vought had been a shadow of its former glorious self. No, the Stillwell era was nothing but a mess but the Essex era would be something history would remember. People would tremble at the very thought of his breakthroughs. “Interesting is the right word, a bloodbath could also be described.” Nathaniel could feel his mask slipped. The scientist that he was had slowly started to slip with the extra power and soon Mister Sinister would reign again. If The Seven didn’t shape up then they would be exterminated one way or another. “My definition of a breakthrough is nothing as mundane as that. Try and set your sights on something more difficult.” His ears picked up with Becca Butchers name. If Lexi was to be another carrier then he wouldn’t make the same mistakes Madelyn did in letting her escape as she did with Ms. Butcher. “Oh if you do have his child I’ll be there in the delivery room. Anything from their DNA is my property and Vogelbaum’s but I doubt you could handle a supe child.”

“An educated mind on the most basic of levels would know that there are different types of educated and most show value.” Some didn’t. She had learnt that from observing the minds of many educated people only to find them stupid but educated. “What potential is that?”

   “But an educated mind isn’t enough these days.” They had been for many years. No, science, if done right, was an art. It needed that creativity to see the potential in something and Emma Frost was one of the mutants with the most potential, especially since her dalliance with a certain mutant that Nathaniel had his eye on. “You brag and boast about being the future, the next phase in evolution but that is all nature, what I have done with these supes is something beyond the chance of nature.”

“I never thought it would be any burdens. Just using my powers, saving people and having fun with what I can do.” The hero thing wasn’t something he was set on but something nagged at him that Vought would ask him to do it just so he could be like Homelander. “Not enough?” his face scrunched up. “I’m Homelander’s kid, my powers should be more than enough.”

   The boy had such childish notions it was almost hard to believe. “You’ll learn that having your powers comes with a cost.” Nathaniel put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and unlike a similar gesture he used on his father, he didn’t attempt to turn off the boy's power. “You are like a god to these people but even gods have their limits no matter who their father is.”

     The nerve of him, the very audacity of him to do something so bold and risky when it could have damaged her son was close to sending her into a range. “Thank you?” she exclaimed in anger. “You did something we can’t take back and that we had no say in. For what? Why did you do this to him?”

   The woman’s rage was everything Nathaniel had expected and more. He imagined what Scott Summers would be like when he found out how Mister Sinister had orchestrated so much of his life. “I thought you would have been grateful, no one likes raising teenagers.” Nathaniel never got the chance but to dwell on that would only hinder him. “I think the story we are spinning is that god came to him and gave the world what they needed, a true hero in the midst of all this pain and anguish in the world.”

Having a grown up son was pretty good and he knew it would be more useful than one that was a child. For that, he was glad that the Doctor did it but didn’t like how he wasn’t involved in it. “I’ve seen him,” he remarked keeping his tone neutral, “and I wouldn’t have opposed to it. You should have let me know what you where doing.”

   Ryan Butcher was everything Nathaniel hoped Nathan Summers would be. The latter had yet to live up to his expectations and the mother was a pain, so the similarities between the two were growing. “What can I say, I have a flair for surprises.” Nathaniel didn’t need The Homelander’s permission, that would be like asking a rat if they could experiment on it. “I won’t lie, it was touch and go for a while but I’m happy with the results and the insurances I’ve put in place.”