"A YEAR AGO, Alan Kupperberg, the billionaire CEO of Waresoft and pop singer Vandalia perished in a plane crash," Murn relayed to the team as Economos played his PowerPoint presentation he made. "During the autopsies, small insect-like winged creatures, presumably extraterrestrial, were found in their skulls. This is when we first became aware of the butterflies. Since then, we've found the creatures in a handful of high-profile politicians, celebrities, and titans of industry."

Jada slightly dozed off, staring right at Adrian as she did so. She couldn't help but notice that he was an attractive guy, so she couldn't stop herself from staring. It would honestly be a crime not to stare.

"They enter the human body through one of its orifices and burrow through to the brain, where they then are in control of the body," Murn continued, making Jada look over at the presentation. She furrowed her brows at the picture of a butterfly going up a person's butt, not knowing why that had to be included.

"They go through the butt?" Smith asked in shock.

"I think that's just some, uh...creativity on the part of whomever did the animation," Murn answered, looking right at Economos.

Economos sighed. "The butt is an orifice, okay?"

"That means they'd have to crawl through poop. Just 'cause they're aliens doesn't make them gross. Bigotry," Adrian told him, a serious look on his face. Jada held back her laugh, looking between the two in amusement.

"Superman's an alien. He's got a poop fetish," Smith revealed to them all.

"What?" Adrian exclaimed.

"Get the fuck outta here," Adebayo rolled her eyes.

"No fucking way," Jada shook her head, agreeing with Adebayo.

"Oh, yeah. He uber-liebes the old scheisse, as I understand it," Peacemaker continued, making Adrian laugh.

"Where do you get this nonsense?" Harcourt questioned loudly.

"Google," Smith answered plainly.

"Well, it's not true," Harcourt disagreed.

"You know more than Google? Well, congratulations," Smith said sarcastically before he turned back forward.

"The butterflies' unique genetic structure and chemistry interact with the hosts' bodies, giving them strength far beyond that of a human being," Murn continued on, ignoring them all.

"And what's the chimp for?" Adebayo asked since the presentation showed a person next to a chimp.

"Yeah, I don't get it," Jada said as she narrowed her eyes at the screen.

"Chimpanzees have four times the strength of human beings, so they're both strong," Economos told them with exasperation in his tone.

"Yeah, and we're supposed to get that just by looking at this, Dye-Beard?" Smith questioned, making Economos roll his eyes.

"I thought that man and the chimp were friends. I was thinking they were about to go on an adventure together," Adrian admitted dumbly, making Jada snort to herself and the others give him annoyed looks. Jada quickly stopped laughing, making brief eye contact with Adrian before she looked back forward.

"The viscous amber fluid has been found on the premises of all the dead butterflies. Lab studies show the fluid's genetic structure is dissimilar to anything on this planet. The fluid seems to be the butterflies' only food source. Which makes what Leota discovered last night potentially significant," he carried on, making Adebayo smile proudly. "This," he pointed to the Glan Tai card on the screen, "was on the bulletin board in the Goff home. Leota noticed that this is also where Annie Sturphausen was employed."

Economos then clicked a button on his remote, making the picture explode so that another one could come up. Smith laughed out loud, "You fucking suck at PowerPoint, Dye-Beard!"

"Yeah, well, you can do it next time," Economos bit back. "It's not like I enjoy doing this."

"Yeah, you do! It's amazing, the incredible amount of time you put into this presentation, and how incredibly shitty it still is!" Smith exclaimed as he laughed.

"Okay, Peacemaker, shut up," Murn scolded.

"Dude, I didn't mean to put your father in prison," Economos told him, making Jada's eyebrows raise.

Smith slammed his fist down on the table, "Then why'd you put him there, you fat fuck?"

"Because I couldn't think of anybody else —"

"What about Ariana Grande, or Drake?" Smith suggested angrily, making Jada glance at Adebayo and Harcourt.

"What?!"

"Brad Pitt, or Payne Stewart, or Doug the Pug? Khloe Kardashian, the Red Tiger from Voltron, Fran Tarkenton, Joe Montana, Joe Mantegna..."

"What the fuck!" Economos yelled in a high pitched voice at Smith's listings.

"...Eddie Murphy, Michael Jordan, Michael B. Jordan, BTS?"

"Not Michael B. Jordan," Jada muttered under her breath, and Harcourt nodded slowly in agreement since she heard her.

"Eugene Levy? John Lovitz?"

"Fuck, dude, half—"

"Shut the fuck up and listen, man! I'm giving you a list of people you could've done. Danny DeVito, Will Ferrell, Howard Stern, Baba Booey, Robin Ophelia Quivers, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Sharon Osbourne, Bill Cosby, he just got out, he's got time on his hands! Amy Winehouse—"

"Dude, Amy Winehouse is fucking dead!" Economos shouted.

"Optimus Prime, Shipwreck, Cobra Commander, the fucking cunts from Riverdale!" Smith went on, making everyone cringe.

"Oh, yeah, those Riverdale jerks need to go," Jada agreed quietly with a nod of her head, making Adrian chuckle.

"All right, next time I fucking have to frame somebody, it'll be one of all those fucking thousands of people you just mentioned," Economos told him sarcastically.

"Yeah, tell that to my dad," he replied.

"Peacemaker, shut the fuck up!" Murn yelled out angrily. "Do you all want to be here till tomorrow?"

Adrian raised his hand and asked, "Do you have cable?" Murn gave him a look. "So, I don't want to stay here overnight if there's no cable. Fargo's on tonight."

"It was a rhetorical question," Murn explained with wide eyes.

"Oh, okay. Well then, I change my answer to just ignoring the question. Not another word," Adrian corrected, pretending to zip his mouth shut. Jada raised her eyebrows before she looked back over at Murn. Normally, she would have been extremely pissed off right now, but she felt good letting all that shit off her chest last night. It relaxed her for a bit for some reason.

And it made her a little more...partial towards Adrian.

"The point is...the raw amber fluid is potentially processed and bottle at Glan Tai Bottling Company. Glan Tai is in Little Cork, about two hours northwest of here, so you all are gonna take a field trip and see what you can find out. I'm going to stay back and deal with the White Dragon situation."

Smith then held up a piece of paper where he wrote, 'EAT A DICK DYE-BEARD!' on it. Adrian leaned over to look at it, finding it funny.

"Nice penmanship, asshole," Economos complimented sarcastically as he got up from his seat. "And Fargo's not on till tomorrow night, you fucking nerd!" Adrian started to laugh out loud, not getting insulted by the comment at all whatsoever.

-♡-

"Fucking game day, bitches!" Peacemaker shouted from the passenger seat of the truck as he listened to some heavy rock music. Adrian, wearing his helmet, also jammed out in the back next to Jada, causing her to give him a wide-eyed look before she sighed and leaned back against the side of the truck.

"All right, that's enough!" Harcourt yelled after she turned the music off since she was the one driving. "I can't take it."

"Thank you!" Jada called out in a singsong voice since the music was awfully loud, making Adrian tilt his head at her. "Too loud," she told him and he shrugged.

"Not a fan of the Swedish metal, eh, Harcourt?" Smith asked the blonde.

"Not especially, no," she answered bluntly.

"We could always do a Whitesnake power ballad," Smith suggested, making Jada arch a brow. She had no idea what kind of music that was. She usually just listened to whatever was on the Hits radio, not really caring all that much.

"How about some jazz?" Adebayo proposed coolly.

"Jazz? I'd rather listen to Vigilante's quiet farts back there than jazz," Smith replied mischievously.

"No, I didn't!" Vigilante exclaimed. "I swear, I didn't," he assured Jada since he was worried she would think he was gross.

"Didn't think you did," she replied with a short laugh. Adrian nodded swiftly, feeling better.

Smith then imitated a fart noise. "Bloop. Bloop-bloop-bloop-bloop," he babbled.

"What's that?" Adebayo asked.

"Jazz," he responded with a laugh.

Adebayo chuckled, "Oh my, God, get the fuck out of here, man."

"Hey, don't we need some sort of search warrant going into this place?" Adrian pointed out, and Jada shook her head.

"Anytime anyone officially starts to deal with the butterfly situation, someone higher up in the government shuts them down," Harcourt answered for her.

"Which is why this task force doesn't officially exist. Waller is funding us by secretly diverting funds from other operations, which...leave us on our own," Adebayo continued.

"Unfortunately," Jada added since it would have been helpful if they had more hands on deck. Wait, did I just think it would be better to work with other people? Huh? she thought for a second, surprising herself.

"So, it's just the six of us against an alien invasion?" Smith questioned with wide eyes.

"And Murn," Harcourt said.

"Well, I was counting Murn, just not Dye-Beard back there 'cause he's fucking useless," he told her.

"Dude! What'd I say?" Adebayo spoke, holding her hand out incredulously.

Smith scoffed, "Sorry, Economos. Geez."

"That sounded very sincere, thank you very much," Economos responded sarcastically as he laid his head back against the wall.

"Yes, it's just the seven of us," Harcourt confirmed with an eye roll.

"Ooh, we could do some pop metal. Poison?" Smith offered as she changed the subject back to music, holding up the CD.

"Are those men?" Harcourt asked in confusion.

"I believe their preferred pronoun is 'long live rock', and you are sounding awful awesome-phobic," Smith told her. "Uh, B.T.-dubs...governmental insiders blocking your efforts sounds a lot like the deep state."

"It's not a deep state," the blonde argued. "It's a collection of people, you know, deep within the government, who are...manipulating the..." she exhaled deeply, giving up. "All right, it's kind of like a deep state." Smith smirked proudly at his win.

"You guys got any Hanoi Rocks up there?" Economos called out.

"You...know Hanoi Rocks?" Smith queried in disbelief.

"Who's Hanoi Rocks?" Harcourt questioned.

"Only the greatest band of all time," Smith answered, making Harcourt roll her eyes. "They're the original glam metal. They started it all...leather, teased hair, spandex—"

"Hey, they sound like you with the spandex, Smith," Jada joked, making Adrian snort underneath his mask and making Smith roll his eyes.

"Hard to believe their contributions to culture aren't more widely heralded," Harcourt spoke sarcastically, giving some props to Jada's insult.

"I mean, so many streets in this country named after Martin Luther King Jr., but not a single Hanoi Rocks Avenue. What's up with that?" Adebayo questioned, pretending to actually to be offended.

Economos then rolled up his sleeve, showcasing a tattoo on his forearm. "'Lith Street Kids'?" Adrian read aloud, causing Jada to give him a look.

"No, it says, '11th Street Kids'," Economos corrected him.

"Dude, that's one of their best songs!" Smith exclaimed excitedly.

"Yeah. I saw them in Finland when I was fourteen during a year abroad. Got this right after," Economos told him.

"Fuck yeah, dude. Hanoi Rocks it is. Sorry, Adebayo, no Spyro Gyra or Kenny G for you," Smith said before he put on 11th Street Kids by Hanoi Rocks.

Harcourt then shut off the song and voiced, "What a shame. We're here,"