Step by step, I carefully made my way toward the foul line, focusing on every movement.
I stopped with my left foot landing about fifteen centimeters from the beginning of the lane.
On my final step, I leaned forward and released the ball as it passed my ankle.
The ball rolled down the lane while I watched its progress with intense concentration.
Then I let out a disappointed sigh.
“Not a bad throw,” Annie said with a smile, giving me an encouraging pat on the back.
“What? Really?” I replied, unable to hide the sarcasm in my voice as I looked at the completely untouched pins.
“Yep. Going eight frames without knocking down a single pin takes some real effort.”
The blonde’s smile twisted into a grin before she burst out laughing, clutching her stomach.
“And it’s not my fault the ball is too light,” I scoffed, picking it up and casually tossing it into the air like it was nothing more than a rubber ball.
“Maybe I should order one made of platinum.”
“Better make it iridium, just to be safe,” Annie said with a smirk.
“It’s radioactive, but I doubt that would do much to Homelander.”
“Homelander is more worried about it hurting Starlight. Let’s stick with platinum.”
I smiled and slipped an arm around her.
“Bowling definitely isn’t for me.”
“Well, I thought the same thing until I spent months learning how to play,” Annie said with a smile.
She leaned in, gently kissed me on the lips, then pulled away.
“I even competed in a few tournaments, but I never had much success.”
With that, she took my ball from me and casually walked toward the lane.
She released it without much effort.
The ball rolled straight down the middle and knocked down every pin except one sitting at the very edge.
Annie didn’t even react.
She simply picked up another ball.
“That’s why I never made it very far,” she said with a shrug.
Her next throw finally finished off her opponent, yours truly.
Spending time with a beautiful girl had definitely done me some good.
Somehow, all those schemes and plans Edgar had been making to gain leverage over me had slipped out of my mind.
As for all those different events I was supposedly “required” to attend, I didn’t even want to think about them.
At this rate, I was going to start throwing up every time someone mentioned a milk commercial photoshoot.
Those not-so-bright thoughts were interrupted by the ringtone of Annie’s phone.
“It’s Ashley,” she said with a sigh after looking at the screen.
“You can answer it.”
“Hi, Ashley,” she said, nodding as she picked up the call.
I stared thoughtfully at the pins in the distance, slowly sinking back into my thoughts.
I needed to do something about Butcher.
The man wasn’t afraid of me at all.
If anything, he looked at me with pure, unrestrained fury.
Someone like that wasn’t going to stop with what he’d already done.
Not unless I could prove that the reason behind his actions was based on a lie.
Butcher had it in for me because Rebecca had disappeared, and there was a good chance he blamed me for it.
So if I showed him that she was alive and perfectly healthy, he’d lose his motivation to keep hunting Supes.
The problem was, I had no desire to do that.
For the past week, they had been watching one of the locations where Compound V was being transported.
And honestly, I’d rather they exposed the place.
I’d already spoken to A-Train about stopping the distribution of Compound V to outsiders, specifically terrorist organizations.
I couldn’t allow that to continue, if only because I had absolutely no interest in dealing with that damn military contract, unlike Homelander.
And the last thing I wanted was terrorists getting their hands on Supes.
Fortunately, only around twenty doses had made it to them.
It was almost frustrating that I couldn’t just fly over there and take them by force.
Unfortunately, that was outside my jurisdiction.
The kind of uproar that would cause would be ridiculous.
I might as well blow up the White House while I was at it.
Obviously, I was exaggerating.
“Sorry, but I have to go,” Annie sighed, interrupting my thoughts.
“Want me to give you a ride?” I asked with a smile, turning toward her.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind.”
I smiled back.
“Linda, could we get the check, please?” I called to the waitress.
“How do you always remember their names?” Annie asked, looking genuinely surprised.
“Good memory,” I said proudly as I paid for the meal.
Once we left the establishment, we headed into an alley so we wouldn’t attract too much attention.
Unfortunately, things worked out completely differently. The source of this chapter is g.com.
“Alright, hand over the cash!”
An African-American man approached us with a knife.
Annie and I automatically exchanged glances, both of us finding the situation more amusing than threatening.
I shook my head at her silent question before looking at the guy.
“Put the knife down, kid. You really don’t want any trouble.”
That only seemed to make him angrier.
“I’ll fucking stab you!”
He clearly hadn’t noticed how calm we were.
“You’re really leaving me with no choice.”
I sighed and grabbed the hand holding the knife.
The guy stared at me in shock as he felt the steel grip around his wrist.
A second later, I released him and took the kitchen knife from his hand.
“I’d recommend getting a job instead. Less stress that way.”
I looked at him with pity before bending the knife between my fingers right in front of his eyes.
“Holy shit!”
The would-be robber screamed in shock before simply running away.
“Wasn’t that a little harsh?” Annie snorted, watching the whole thing with amusement.
“He deserved it.”
I smiled and scooped her up into my arms like a princess.
Then I slowly rose into the sky, keeping our flight quiet as we headed toward Vought Tower.
It was amazing how few people actually looked up.
Most people preferred staring at the ground or the road.
More often than not, they were staring at their smartphones.
That meant Supes could fly through the daytime sky without their costumes and remain completely unnoticed.
We reached our destination without any trouble.
Not long after that, we went our separate ways.
Then I received a message from Madelyn.
Ignoring the fact that I was still dressed like an ordinary person, I stepped into the elevator and headed for the required floor.
At one point, the elevator stopped and the doors opened.
Queen Maeve stood there in all her glory.
She gave me a quick once-over before stepping inside.
Apparently, she didn’t recognize me as Homelander.
Then she glanced at the buttons before pulling out her smartphone and looking at the screen.
…
I had absolutely nothing to say.
If even Maeve couldn’t recognize me, Madelyn definitely wouldn’t have a clue.
The elevator reached the required floor, and Maeve stepped out first, apparently heading toward the meeting room.
I followed her.
She couldn’t have failed to notice, but she chose not to acknowledge me.
Our boss was already waiting at the entrance, typing something on her tablet.
“Why did you call me here?” Maeve asked immediately, drawing her attention.
“You finally made it. And where is… Homelander?”
The woman narrowed her eyes as she looked at me.
“Homelander?” Maeve stared at me in shock.
“What? Am I not allowed to dress like a normal person now?”
I snorted and took off my glasses.
“Why did you call me, Madelyn? Is this something urgent?”
“Yes… yes, it’s very urgent.”
The woman quickly composed herself.
“Seven minutes ago, a plane flying from Paris to Chicago was hijacked in midair over the ocean.”
“So seven minutes ago…”
“We have people there.”
“How many hijackers?” Maeve asked.
“There appear to be three.”
“So there may be three,” I corrected her.
“Please leave us,” Stillwell said, ordering the others out of the meeting room.
“International waters,” I muttered as I looked at the location of the plane on the screen.
“Yes. If you intervene, no one will object,” the woman said with a smile as she looked at us.
“If you bring all the passengers back alive, not a single congressman will vote against our bill.”
I nodded, staring grimly at the dot on the screen.
“Get changed, and quickly. Every second counts. You’ll receive a brief on how to handle the situation right now.”
Stillwell sent an assistant to retrieve my suit while we were given instructions on how to deal with the situation without causing any casualties.
The plan was simple.
Open the plane’s door, then close it again before the cabin depressurized.
After that, neutralize the terrorists as quickly as possible.
Ideally, we also needed to keep at least one of the pilots alive.
That was it.
We got to work the second I put on my suit.
I grabbed Maeve around the waist and flew toward the plane at full speed.
As expected, opening the aircraft door wasn’t difficult.
Strength wasn’t the problem.
The real challenge was making sure I didn’t rip the door apart under the force.
Once I forced my way inside, I pushed Maeve through the opening and watched her professionally tear through the terrorists without spilling unnecessary blood.
I decided not to interfere.
She threw the first terrorist out of the plane while the door was still open.
She snapped the second one’s neck.
The third took a brutal blow to the head that left him with a concussion.
It looked damn impressive, I have to admit.
More importantly, it was fast.
“Everything is going to be alright,” Maeve told the passengers, while I worked on closing the door behind me.
“Homelander!”
A little girl shouted when she saw me.
The other passengers immediately noticed me as well and broke into applause.
But I didn’t have time to enjoy it.
One of the pilots was still alive.
Unfortunately, the second pilot had a gun pressed against his head.
Maeve couldn’t see him through the closed door.
I could.
In an instant, I slammed through the flimsy door with my body and knocked the gun away from the pilot’s corpse, just in case.
Another moment was all it took for me to rip the weapon away.
My fingers closed around the terrorist’s neck.
He let out a dying gasp.
Then his life ended with a sickening crack.
My first kill.
For some reason, I didn’t feel anything.
“Sir, are you alright?” I asked the pilot, who was staring at me in shock.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
He nodded before looking at the corpse of his copilot.
“Can you continue flying?”
“The plane is on autopilot,” the man replied, glancing at his dead partner again.
“I don’t feel so good.”
“Homelander?” Maeve called for me, but I ignored her.
“You can go to the bathroom,” I told the pilot, patting him on the back reassuringly.
Once he left, I looked at Maeve.
“What?”
“What happened?” Maeve frowned.
“You’re usually calmer than this.”
“Maeve, we almost lost the plane along with hundreds of passengers. Do you really think I should be calm right now?”
I sighed and glanced at the bodies.
“We need to move them somewhere. The pilot didn’t like looking at them.”
“Alright. Where?”
“Somewhere farther away. We still have four hours to spend up here, and I really don’t like the smell of corpses and shit.”
I grimaced.
Maeve clearly agreed.
Fortunately, there was a hatch in the cockpit that led to the cargo hold.
That solved the problem of the smell and gave us a reasonably comfortable place to stay.
The two unexpected passengers were even given seats next to each other.
All that remained was to wait for the plane to land and, most likely, sign autographs for a hundred people.
What could possibly be easier?