It was over in the blink of an eye.
Alex appeared behind Blast Vision and, catching him off guard, snatched the original compound right out of his hand.
Having injected himself with the original compound, Blast Vision possessed extremely fast flight speed and reflexes—his own power ranked among the very top in the entire world of The Boys.
But caught off guard by a calculated ambush, with Doppelganger drawing away his attention as well—
and facing a sneak attack from Alex, whose every ability was maxed out and then some—
even he had no time to react.
Originally, Alex had figured the best plan would be to have Doppelganger get the item into hand first, and then take it from him.
But judging by the present situation, Blast Vision didn’t seem to be quite as strong as he’d imagined.
He’d gotten his hands on it this easily.
“You’re…
Homelander?!”
Blast Vision stared at the Alex who had appeared before him in shock and fury—and seeing the iron box in the other man’s hand, the rage in his heart only burned hotter.
He had no idea how this superhero, who these days appeared on television all year round, could possibly show up before him in such a way.
But!
One thing he knew for certain—the original compound he had set aside for the Golden Geisha had just been stolen!
“The job’s done.
You can all go now.”
Alex paid Blast Vision no mind, instead smiling as he spoke to the kidnappers and Doppelganger.
What came next was no longer something they could be a part of.
The kidnappers had a keen sense for reading the room; without another word they turned and bolted for the stairwell.
And the Golden Geisha sitting in the wheelchair—under Blast Vision’s incredulous gaze—gradually transformed into a greasy, obese middle-aged man, who ripped the bombs or whatever off his body and ran off as well.
Witnessing all of this—
no matter how dumb Blast Vision was, in this moment he understood one thing.
And that was that he had been played.
There had never been any kidnapped Golden Geisha, nor any criminal seeking revenge against her.
It had been nothing but a trap laid purely for him—for the original compound in his hand.
“All of this was deliberate?!”
“As much as I’d love to comfort you—you’re right.”
Hovering in the sky, Alex opened the small box in his hand right in front of Blast Vision and pulled out a green syringe from within.
“You bastard!”
Hearing Alex admit it, Blast Vision, his fury boiling over, let out a low roar and came hurtling toward Homelander at blistering speed.
But Alex, who had been watching him the whole time with his X-ray vision, naturally was not going to let that move succeed.
At the first instant he calmly dodged the attack and flew off into the distance.
Blast Vision, of course, would not let the matter rest, and chased relentlessly after Alex.
“You don’t actually need to do this, do you?”
“Your lover doesn’t even want to use this syringe.
That being the case, you might as well give it to someone who needs it.”
“Even if I destroy it, I will never hand it over to a despicable creature like you!”
Blast Vision roared, putting on a burst of speed in an attempt to catch up to Alex.
However.
The distance between the two of them didn’t close in the slightest—if anything, it was even widening, little by little, at an excruciatingly slow pace.
True, the original compound was more potent than the current version.
But that depended on who you were comparing against.
As the strongest of the current version, Alex—even without injecting the original compound—possessed power that Blast Vision wasn’t even fit to test himself against.
It was an across-the-board lead.
Not just flight speed and bodily strength, but also things the other man simply didn’t have, like X-ray vision and laser eyes.
For Blast Vision to vent his rage on him and take back the original compound was nothing but a pipe dream.
One leading and one chasing, the two of them rapidly pulled away from the urban districts of New York at several times the speed of sound.
Under Alex’s deliberate guidance, in no time at all the two arrived above a desolate, uninhabited expanse of sea.
“Still not giving up?”
Blast Vision said nothing.
Alex smiled, and in the next instant two crimson lasers shot from his eyes, landing directly on his own forearm.
“Zzzt!”
The high-temperature laser tore a gash straight through the combat suit made of that special material.
And on his indestructible flesh as well, it left a bloody, mangled wound.
The pain came rushing in at once.
But the smile on Alex’s face only grew more radiant.
Then, under Blast Vision’s eye-splitting glare, he plunged the original compound straight into the wound and pushed every drop of the liquid within into his own body.
Having done all this—
Alex halted his figure and turned his head toward Blast Vision.
The next second.
Blast Vision slammed straight into him, full force.
“Bang!”
What does it feel like to be struck by something supersonic and built of solid iron and steel?
All Alex could say was that the feeling…
wasn’t half bad.
Blast Vision rammed headlong into Alex, then without the slightest hesitation clenched his fist and brought it crashing down at him.
That mighty, heavy fist whipped up a howling wind, leaving no doubt as to its terrifying destructive force.
But.
Blast Vision’s attack was caught by Alex, who clamped down hard and seized his wrist in an iron grip.
His first punch foiled and his left hand caught, Blast Vision’s right fist followed immediately after.
But it too was calmly caught by Alex.
Blast Vision was unfazed; without a word he launched a headbutt once more.
Yet Alex neither dodged nor evaded, taking Blast Vision’s headbutt head-on.
“You….”
“Is this all you’ve got?”
A curve tugged at the corner of Alex’s mouth, baring his pristine white teeth.
But looking at that smile, an ominous premonition surged up at once in Blast Vision’s heart.
And Alex did not disappoint him.
With a sudden surge of force, the positions of the two abruptly reversed.
With the sea at his back, Alex looked at the shifting expression on Blast Vision’s face before him and, smiling, spoke words that sent a chill down the spine.
“Good night.”
“Blast Vision.”
The words had scarcely fallen.
Blast Vision watched as the pupils of Alex’s eyes contracted slightly, and then, under his gaze, the deep blue at the bottom of those eyes rapidly began to change.
From a clarity like the sea, it swiftly became a terrifying red glow, blazing like the sun and impossible to look upon directly.
The instant he saw the change in Alex’s eyes, Blast Vision knew things had gone very wrong, and strained to break free of Alex’s hold.
However.
That struggle was so utterly feeble—and indeed, with his every movement, he could clearly feel the force gripping him growing ever stronger.
Even his wrist began to faintly emit the sound of bones cracking.
From the very moment he was seized by Alex, everything had already been decided.
For an Alex who had just injected himself with the original compound, the Blast Vision before him was the perfect subject for testing out his own power.
Let him go?
Absolutely impossible.
From the moment he set the trap for Blast Vision and snatched the original compound from his hand, the two of them had already been locked into a fight to the death.
After all, he was no Soldier Boy—he didn’t possess the ability to nullify the other man’s superpowers.