Free Web NovelChapter 31: Chapter 31: Don’t Disparage My Hero! [Bonus]
Chapter 31: Don’t Disparage My Hero!
Before long, the setting sun had dyed the Atlantic into a sheet of dark gold. On the sea, over a hundred dolphins formed a spectacular phalanx, each carrying one or two soaking wet but living humans on their backs as they made a grand procession toward the East Coast. That second-tier speedster Supe and The Deep led the way at the front of the phalanx, constantly adjusting their speed on the crests of the waves to ensure no dolphin fell behind.
---<>---
On a beach somewhere on the East Coast, reporters had long since received the news, their camera lenses lining the entire coastline. Live broadcast helicopters circled in the sky, and CNN’s breaking news banner scrolled across screens: "Homelander, Maeve, The Deep, and Soldier Boy Successfully Rescue All 123 Passengers of Downed Airliner; Zero Casualties."
On the beach, passengers wrapped in blankets sat inside temporarily erected rescue tents. Some wept while clutching hot coffee, while others recounted their experience to the cameras in terms so exaggerated it sounded like they were recapping a Hollywood blockbuster.
Mia was bouncing up and down on the sand. This was the most thrilling moment of her life—free-falling from the sky and riding dolphins. She could totally brag about this experience to her classmates!
Homelander stood at the very front of the beach, his hair blown into a total mess by the sea breeze, but he was smiling. Maeve stood to his left, pulling a strand of seaweed tangled in her hair and tossing it onto the ground. The Deep stood a bit further away, leaning against a massive dolphin that was nudging his shoulder with its snout; he reached out and patted its smooth forehead.
Across the beach, the sea breeze carrying a briny mist blew off the Atlantic, tangling the reporters’ hair and microphone cords. The thrum of the live broadcast helicopter’s rotors roared overhead.
Benjamin walked out from the crowd. He had also been brought over by a second-tier speedster Supe. That guy’s speed naturally didn’t compare to A-Train’s, or even the other speedster leading the dolphins, but carrying a massive guy in a deep green suit down here within two hours was well within his capabilities. Benjamin’s own speed was still lacking. According to his analysis, Homelander and A-Train should both have Super Speed Lv5, Shockwave was Lv4 (close to Lv5), and these two second-tier Supes were likely Lv3.
Homelander was standing at the front of the beach fielding relentless questions from several reporters. Catching a glimpse of the deep green silhouette out of the corner of his eye, he instantly turned his head and raised his arm to give a vigorous wave.
Benjamin walked up to him, sizing him up from head to toe. "Good job. Just be a hell of a lot more careful next time, alright? This whole incident could’ve been handled cleanly from the start."
Homelander nodded, his lips moving. "I just... the hijackers just..."
"The hijackers destroyed the cockpit controls, sir," Maeve said calmly, stepping up beside them. Soldier Boy knew damn well it wasn’t the hijackers, but since they were live on air, they had to let the hijackers take the fall.
Benjamin glanced at Maeve, then back at Homelander. "Forget it. Just be extra careful next time."
"Right, I will," Homelander nodded.
The reporters had already swarmed them. Their camera lenses gleamed under the setting sun as a dozen microphones thrust toward Homelander simultaneously, questions buzzing at him like a hornets’ nest that had been kicked. Homelander cleared his throat, squared his shoulders, and plastered that standard corporate smile back onto his face. Benjamin stood right by Homelander’s side.
"Mr. Homelander, why did the plane’s control console malfunction?"
"It was the hijackers," Homelander’s tone was steady and certain. "During the crossfire with the hijackers, they destroyed the cockpit console. It was an unforeseen accident. Upon realizing the plane was out of control, I immediately contacted my father, Soldier Boy. He advised me to carry the passengers down in pairs while coordinating with The Deep to lead a pod of dolphins to intercept us on the ocean surface. Throughout the entire rescue operation, The Deep and his marine mammal team played a pivotal role." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
A male reporter wearing glasses thrust his microphone forward a few more inches. "Something doesn’t add up. How did Soldier Boy know to deploy The Deep ahead of time? Based on the timeline, The Deep set out even before the cockpit console was destroyed. Does this mean you knew beforehand that the plane would encounter trouble? Was this entire incident a meticulously engineered publicity stunt?"
Homelander’s smile froze. The corner of his mouth twitched. He had saved one hundred and twenty-three people, flying back and forth trip after trip, the sea breeze caking his suit with salt, his back still damp even now. He had carried Mia all the way from thirty-eight thousand feet down to the back of a dolphin without losing a single strand of her golden pigtails. And now this reporter was asking him if it was a publicity stunt.
A deep fury surfaced in Homelander’s blue eyes. He glared dead at the reporter with the glasses, his pupils contracting slightly, his fingers curling unconsciously at his side. He could burn a coin-sized hole right through this man’s skull in less than a tenth of a second with his Heat Vision. For some reason, the reporter with the glasses felt a sudden chill run down his spine...
But soon, Homelander forced a shred of composure. "No, that’s not true. It’s just that Soldier Boy is exceptionally brilliant. He anticipated that unexpected complications might arise, so he had The Deep move out ahead of time—after all, I am the most powerful..."
"Still, it doesn’t make sense," another reporter chimed in, cutting Homelander off. It was a female reporter wearing a gray trench coat, her tone even sharper than the guy with glasses. "Soldier Boy deploys The Deep in advance, and then the cockpit console conveniently gets destroyed, right above a pod of dolphins waiting directly beneath the plane’s flight path? It’s all too coincidental. Can you explain why rescue assets were already in position before the accident even occurred?"
Veins bulged on Homelander’s forehead.
"And what about compensation for the passengers?" a third reporter shoved his way forward. "They lost all their luggage. Someone lost a laptop, someone lost crucial documents, someone—"
Benjamin’s eyes flickered. Something was off with these reporters. Were they not Vought’s reporters? Or was someone targeting Vought? Butcher’s crew didn’t have this kind of leverage right now; these reporters were definitely Vought assets... Meaning, they weren’t targeting Vought as a whole. They were targeting Homelander. Even though Homelander had indeed breached the cabin, he had genuinely saved everyone, which was a hell of a lot better than what happened in the original timeline. Besides, Vought International would compensate them for their losses anyway. For these reporters to be this aggressively confrontational, they were absolutely gunning for Homelander—maybe even targeting him as well.
"Enough." Benjamin’s voice wasn’t loud, but he took a step forward, shielding Homelander behind him, his gaze sweeping across the reporters still trying to crowd them. Locked under his glare, the male reporter with the glasses instinctively pulled his microphone back half an inch.
"Listen up," Benjamin’s voice was coarse. "Homelander could have easily abandoned every single one of them and flown off with Maeve. That would’ve been the easiest path for him. Everyone on that goddamn plane dies, nobody left alive to tell the tale. Homelander could’ve completely washed his hands of the whole thing."
He took a step forward. The reporter with the glasses took a step back.
"But he didn’t. The criminals destroyed the plane, and he saved every single soul who should’ve died up there. One hundred and twenty-three people, not a single one missing. And now you’re standing here, hounding the man who just saved over a hundred of your fellow citizens, asking him if it’s a fucking publicity stunt?"
He took another step forward. The female reporter backed away too. free𝑤ebnovel.com
"Keep talking that goddamn shit, and I’ll rip your fucking heads off right now and dump them in the ocean. Fuck you."
The beach fell dead silent for three full seconds. There was nothing but the sound of the crashing waves and the distant thrum of the helicopter rotors. The lips of the reporter with the glasses trembled, his microphone slipping from his hand and hitting the sand with a dull thud. The female reporter lowered her head, shoving her voice recorder into her pocket, not daring to look up again. The rest of the reporters collectively took half a step back; not a single soul dared to test him.
They were used to superheroes smiling, waving on camera, and saying, "It’s what we do." They weren’t used to a veteran in a deep green suit standing before them and threatening to rip their heads off and toss them into the sea. And the look on his face left absolutely zero doubt in anyone’s mind—he wasn’t just throwing out empty threats; he genuinely meant it.
Homelander stood behind Benjamin, staring at his father’s broad back shielding him. The badgering from those reporters was still buzzing in his ears. Although the violent urges within him hadn’t completely faded, he just stood there, watching his father tear into them on his behalf. Looking down at his footprints in the sand, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly before he lifted his head and stood tall once more.
Maeve stepped in to smooth things over. "Alright, look, we would never waste this kind of operational overhead to engineer a publicity stunt out of a standard hijacking, okay? As for the destroyed console, a catastrophic failure like that is the last thing we want to see, but it happened. Vought International will fully compensate every passenger for any property loss sustained. There’s zero incentive for us to throw that kind of money away on a stunt that achieves absolutely nothing."
...
"Sir, ma’am, Homelander is a hero! He saved me, he saved my mommy, he saved everyone! If it weren’t for them, we would’ve died because of the bad guys! Stop talking bad about my hero!" Mia ran over, her childish voice ringing out clearly.
---<>---
A/N: Next goal: 400 Power Stones = 1 bonus Chapter!
And if you want to read ahead and find out what happens next right away, you can get up to 20 Chapters ahead on my p@tr~on:
[email protected]/ForgottenDaoist (@ = a, link is in my profile).
