Chapter 120: 120: There’s only one hero in God’s green earth. Me!
"Well? Aren’t you supposed to be attending a movie premiere?" Edgar asked, lifting his arm to check the time on his watch.
Homelander stayed silent, forcing down the rage boiling inside him. He turned and left without another word. He flew straight to the villa where Becca lived, looking for comfort from his son.
Before knocking on the door, Homelander dialed an unknown number. "Begin the operation."
He spoke only those three words before crushing the phone in his hand. "Edgar, I’ll make you understand — I can’t be replaced. There’s only one hero in God’s green earth. Me."
...
The scene shifted to Hughie. The next day, he woke up as usual.
While wandering around the basement like always, a blood-soaked man suddenly stumbled in, supported by his buddies. Mother’s Milk rushed out of his room to check the injury.
He unwrapped the towel from the man’s arm. The sight was horrific — the arm looked like it had been dipped in acid. Muscle fibers and yellowish bone were completely exposed to the air.
Hughie had to look away. His stomach immediately started doing backflips.
"His arm bones are all shattered. Half his ribs too. There’s nothing I can do. Get him to a hospital," Mother’s Milk said urgently. Honestly, the fact the guy was still alive was a miracle of sheer willpower and pure luck.
The injured man was part of Frenchie’s smuggling crew. Seeing one of his own in that state, Frenchie knew his boat was fucked. "Get him to the hospital! Now! Right fucking now!"
After they rushed the wounded man out, Frenchie paced anxiously by the window. It was still early morning. Going outside now meant a high chance of getting spotted.
"Frenchie, what the hell happened?" Mother’s Milk asked after cleaning the blood off the table.
Frenchie’s crew were all minorities, so their rapid conversation was completely incomprehensible to the others.
"My boat’s been hit."
Frenchie clutched his head in despair. He’d had to make deals with gangsters to secure this basement hideout and lent them his boat. He never expected shit to go south this fast. "Those bastards. They’re fucking dead."
It wasn’t until late at night that the group finally slipped out of the basement and headed for the docks.
When they arrived, they found Frenchie’s boat completely capsized.
"The security room. There should be cameras," Frenchie said, rushing toward the monitoring station.
Beside him, Kimiko suddenly tensed up. She stared at the wrecked ship with a strange look in her eyes.
"Did the cops find your boat?" Mother’s Milk asked, standing in front of the monitors.
"No, this is a private smuggling dock. Only a few people know about it." Frenchie replied while pulling up last night’s security footage.
Soon enough, they saw the boat dock and several crew members herding a group of ragged-looking refugees off the ship.
"Oh shit. My God, Frenchie, you’re actually smuggling people? That’s fucking insane," Hughie said, stunned.
Frenchie’s voice grew more agitated. "Those bastards never told me they were using my boat for human trafficking."
"You didn’t ask?" Mother’s Milk’s question left Frenchie silent.
Then the footage showed one of the crew members getting into an argument with a man.
Suddenly, the entire ship started rising into the air, controlled by the man’s mind. With a wave of his arms, he hurled the massive boat straight at the smugglers.
"Holy fuck..." Hughie and the others stared in complete shock.
In the end, the mysterious man walked out of the camera’s range and vanished into the darkness.
Back in the basement, Kimiko seemed to remember something, but she still couldn’t speak. She used what little she knew to write the word "boy" on a piece of paper. When she handed it to Frenchie, he had no idea what she meant.
"What do we do?" Hughie asked Mother’s Milk.
"What do we do? I’ve got a great idea. You can make an anonymous call to the mayor, beg for help, and have him send the army after that supe criminal. Of course, when they find you, you can explain how you’re just an innocent kid that Vought framed, right?" Mother’s Milk said sarcastically.
He couldn’t understand where Hughie got all this bleeding-heart bullshit from. They could barely keep themselves alive, yet here he was worrying about other people. It made Mother’s Milk miss the version of Hughie who had injected Compound VI — the ruthless, quiet one.
"Then we go to Starlight. She can help us," Hughie insisted, refusing to give up.
"Go ahead. I guarantee her phone is being monitored by Vought. The second you call, Homelander will show up and laser all of us into fucking chunks!" Mother’s Milk finally snapped and roared at him.
"That guy might kill a lot of people..."
"Hughie, let someone else handle it, alright? Or go find that mysterious guy and shoot yourself up with another dose. Then you can turn into a real superhero and save America," Mother’s Milk said, spreading his hands.
"You need to understand — you’re not a soldier, and you’re definitely not a supe. You’re just a guy who used to sell shitty electronics..." Mother’s Milk tried to reason with him.
But Hughie shot back immediately. "No, I’m not. I lost my job and my whole life fighting Vought. I might not be a soldier like you, but I can be Harry Potter... or John Connor..."
"The point is, I can be the guy nobody believed in at first, but who ends up being badass as hell. Just like when I took that Compound VI shot. I saved you guys. I can do things I never could before."
His words left the others in the room silent, thinking hard.
...
Meanwhile.
Just as Mother’s Milk had predicted, Ivan stood behind one of Vought’s surveillance officers, reviewing the supes’ call logs.
"Operation begin?" Ivan frowned at the words on the screen. What kind of operation could Homelander be running? The only thing that made sense was those super-terrorists overseas.
Could Homelander have smuggled more of them into America just to prove how important he was?
Honestly, that sounded exactly like something Homelander would do.
It looked like yesterday’s talk between Homelander and Edgar had gone badly. Otherwise Homelander wouldn’t be in such a rush to prove himself.
For all his power, Homelander’s maturity level wasn’t much higher than his own kid’s.
___
[]~(￣▽￣)~*
Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69
