knife_bender | Mallory's House | Late Friday Morning

About half an hour after Annie had left, the meeting with Ms. Neuman concluded, and Butcher and his associates were crowded around Colonel Mallory again for orders.

At least, everyone except Hughie, who was stuck on the couch injured. He flagged down Diego, probably hoping that the person who knew him the least of this group might be a soft touch? Either that or he saw a guy with scars and assumed he'd be cavalier enough about injuries to let a guy with a bleeding stomach wound come along on whatever they were gonna do. "Hey, dude, I'm going with you guys. Tell Butcher I'm coming too."

Because if nothing else, he needed to get the hell away from Lamplighter. They all needed to get away from Lamplighter.

Diego	"Are you kidding me, dude?" Diego asked. "You look like shit; you'd just slow everybody down." He was talking to Hughie like he would talk to Vanya. Not a good sign.
Hughie	"I can like, drive the getaway car," Hughie tried. He didn't even know what they were doing. It did not, actually, involve driving a getaway car in any capacity. "Come on." He gave Diego a significant look as Lamplighter came into the room to fling himself down on the other end of the couch, idly flipping his Zippo open and closed, and Hughie looked from Lamplighter to Diego pleadingly. No one wanted to hang out with Lamplighter, he sucked, don't make him stay with him.
Diego	Well someone had to watch him and Diego didn't want to particularly hang out with him either! "You can ask Butcher," he said. "Maybe he'll be okay with you bleeding out on his watch."
Butcher	"Ask me what?" Butcher asked, overhearing that part as he wandered into the room. "Don't really matter -- we're going with Congresswoman Neuman. Security detail. You two get to stay back and keep an eye on our star witness." He glanced to Diego, giving the slightest incline of his head towards Hughie, as well. Because sure, they were both going to keep an eye on Lamplighter, but Butcher was also clearly tasking Diego with making sure Hughie stayed put, too. "Don't want you gone when Starlight gets back," he added, half-smiling. And yeah, it was possible his tone was a little nicer than it had been when talking about Annie before, so yesterday had clearly been productive in a few different capacities.
Diego	Diego sighed. Great, now he got to play babysitter to the whiny guy and the arsonist. "Yeah, fine. Have fun."
Lamplighter	"You guys wanna watch Deep Does It in the Blowhole?" Lamplighter asked, pulling a DVD out of his backpack as Butcher -- wisely -- got the hell out of there. Maybe this was why no one wanted to hang out with Lamplighter. Maybe.
Diego	Diego looked over at Hughie. Who the hell kept porn in their backpack? "Will me saying no will actually prevent you from watching it anyway?"
Hughie	"You know, you don't actually need the discs," Hughie offered helpfully, shooting Diego a slightly-panicked look. See? See? They should have both gone with Butcher! Been lookouts or something!
Lamplighter	"We've also got Translucent, the Invisible Cock," Lamplighter offered, flipping through his collection. "Queen Maeve, Pleasure Slave. Big Black Noir. Ooh -- here we go." He held up the next DVD for Diego to see. "Starlight Pulls an A-Train."
Diego	"You try watching that last one I will stab your eyes out and not feel even a little bit bad about it." Star witness be damned!
Lamplighter	"Try it and I'll burn your fucking face off," Lamplighter replied expressionlessly, Zippo out in his hand.
Hughie	"How about this one?" Hughie decided in an effort to defuse this a little, and grabbed a title at random to throw it in the player. He could at least try to keep these guys from killing each other. "Though I really don't think this is healthy. You can't watch porn while the sun's out, dude."
Diego	"Don't usually watch it with a group of dudes either," Diego said. He did relax some against the couch, reminding himself that it would probably be frowned upon if he killed this guy. "Don't you find it weird to watch porn based off people you know?"
Lamplighter	"There's a couple with me in them out there," Lamplighter replied with a sense of pride that, like, maybe was a little out of place here? "It's an homage." He glanced at the screen, then over at Hughie with an approving nod. "Homebanger. Nice. You into the cuckold thing? Different strokes." Because this was a very specific porn scenario, as they'd probably notice pretty soon.
Hughie	"Please don't say that in this context," Hughie protested quietly, making a face. Seriously, this was so goddamn weird.
Lamplighter	Lamplighter ignored him, turning back to Diego as the...action started up on the screen. "Did you know I was a prodigy? Lit my first fire at four. Burned the whole house down."
Diego	Diego was doing his very best to not look at the screen, which meant he was putting a lot of focus into staring at his own shoes. "Is that something to brag about?"
Lamplighter	"My dad thought so," Lamplighter replied quietly, fairly introspective for a guy who was apparently able to tune out the sounds on the screen. "He was so proud of me. 'My son's a Supe.'" Lamplighter lit a cigarette, while Hughie held out one hand to stop him, fairly sure Colonel Mallory didn't want anyone smoking in her house, and then decided it probably wasn't worth the effort to try to stop him.
Diego	Yeah that probably would have been a futile attempt, Hughie. "Congratulations." A loud noise had Diego looking up at the screen and, ugh, this was all so gross. "And now you're here watching porn in the middle of the day."
Lamplighter	Lamplighter nodded, looking more sad than angry at the comment, and leaned back a bit against the couch. "I'm like the cuck," he agreed, nodding to the screen like, again, they weren't watching a guy in a Homelander costume taunt some poor actor in a polo shirt about his wife. "While the real heroes are out there doing the fucking." It wasn't the most graceful metaphor, no, but -- look, it's not like Lamplighter enjoyed being stuck on this dumb couch with these two guys, feeling useless. This whole star witness thing for their hearing was just going to guarantee he'd probably get killed in the process, and honestly, at this point, that was kind of fine. At least he'd get to do something before he went out. He still kind of wished Mallory had just shot him on sight, like he deserved.
Diego	Diego looked over at Hughie. Was having a star witness like Lamplighter really worth this torture?
Hughie	Yeah, no, it absolutely wasn't. He'd take the risk of getting set on fire. "Okay, this is insane," Hughie decided, reaching (even though it hurt, damn it) for the remote.
Lamplighter	"Hey --" Lamplighter started, waving his cigarette admonishingly.
Hughie	"Nope," Hughie told him, and maybe the one benefit of having a background in consumer electronics was that he knew just which buttons to press to switch away from the AV input connected to the DVD player. Of course, the news broadcast he flipped to was kind of shocking in a completely different way. The Chiron at the bottom of the screen proclaimed, STARLIGHT A TRAITOR, and shots of Homelander speaking to a crowd were interspersed of photos of Starlight herself. "Starlight has been conspiring with the people who murdered, in cold blood, my brother," Homelander was saying. "The hero Translucent."
Diego	"What the fuck?" Diego stood up, immediately getting out his phone to call Annie. Maybe they hadn't found her yet.
Hughie	Hughie seemed paralyzed, staring at the screen and murmuring, "Oh my God, fuck," before he was looking around for his phone as well.
Lamplighter	Lamplighter watched Diego, glancing back at the screen for a moment. "I bet you she's in 42D," Lamplighter said casually. "And that is if she's still alive, which...." He trailed off, shrugging like that was pretty unlikely. 'Cause it was.
Diego	Diego luckily didn't throw his phone out of frustration when Annie didn't pick up. He tried to smother the panicky feeling at the thought of Annie being imprisoned, or worse. Panicking wouldn't help anybody. "She's alive." He turned to glare at Lamplighter. "42D, that in Vought Tower?"
Lamplighter	Lamplighter nodded, seemingly unbothered by any glaring going on here. "It's where they keep anyone they don't like. Supe-proof, mostly. Steel walls six feet thick." And if they were pissed at Starlight, they either had her in there, or they had already let Homelander and Stormfront deal with her. Again, Lamplighter was not optimistic about your girlfriend, Diego. This was why he stuck to porn.
Diego	"You still work for Vought, right? You could get me in there." Look, he would walk right in there if he had to, but he would prefer the option that wasn't suicide first.
Lamplighter	"What, you're gonna walk up to the front desk and tell them you need to get in to see Starlight, the traitor? They're not going to, like, let you see her, even if I took you," Lamplighter said, gesturing to the screen with his cigarette. "And, I'm sorry, man, but she's probably dead."
Diego	“She’s not fucking dead,” Diego insisted. “You’re telling me there’s only one way into that building?”
Lamplighter	"No," Lamplighter replied, actually seeming to consider this for a second. "There's a few ways in the back." He surveyed Diego for a moment, flicking ash off his cigarette onto Mallory's carpet like an asshole. "But it doesn't matter."
Diego	"Yes, it does matter," Diego said, taking out a knife. "You're taking me there." Uh, yeah, trying to amicably convince Lamplighter to go with him was never going to happen.
Lamplighter	And, of course, Lamplighter flipped open his lighter in response, leveling a look at Diego.
Hughie	Hughie, who had been trying to get Butcher on the phone unsuccessfully, did not especially want to see anyone stabbed or set on fire. "Hey. Look. This is your chance to be a hero again," he said, setting his phone aside and appealing to Lamplighter. "Vought fucked you over, right? Well, they're about to do the same exact thing to Annie." He pressed a hand over his wound so the stitches wouldn't rip, and very slowly and carefully started to get up from the couch. "We can all go." Hughie was not exempt from being an idiot just because he didn't want to see a fight break out.
Diego	Diego wanted to ask what, exactly, Hughie planned on doing aside from distract security by bleeding out on the floor but, whatever, they were wasting time. "See? You can fuck the people who fucked you and not be an asshole at the same time," Diego said. "Win-win."
Lamplighter	Lamplighter hesitated a moment longer, then rolled his eyes and got up from the couch. He reached over and pushed Hughie back onto it. "You're useless. And you move really slow. You're staying put." He looked back over to Diego. "But fine. I'll get you in. I don't know how you're gonna get her out of 42D, though." Though, again, she was probably dead. And really, Lamplighter was starting to form something of a little personal side-plan.
Diego	"I'll figure something out," Diego said. He shrugged at Hughie. "He's right. Stay here, wait for Butcher, don't bust your stitches."
Lamplighter	"I can take you in the back entrance I used to use," Lamplighter told Diego, ignoring the face Hughie was making at both of them. "Hardly any security cameras." Don't ask why he was so aware of that. (Lamplighter would probably share the reasoning. anyway.) "But like I said," he added, nodding to the television where Stormfront was now riling up the crowd about the traitorous Starlight, "I wouldn't get my hopes up. We'd better move fast; if she's still alive, we've got a pretty small window." Because yeah, there was a reason he kept insisting he thought she was already dead. Vought didn't exactly draw this kind of thing out.
Diego	"We'll get there in time." He absolutely refused to acknowledge the possibility that Annie was already dead. He was going to get her and that's all he would focus on right now. "Let's go."

[preplayed with

defenderofdesmoines as Hughie and Lamplighter, and unfortunately taken kind of directly from canon, yeah -- The Boys 2.07, 'Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker' is responsible for all of this. warning for three dudes watching porn during the day, NFB/NFI/OOC welcome]