Chapter 202: Victoria: What the fck?
Bang!
But the next second a figure dropped from the sky and landed hard on the stage.
Homelander slowly straightened up and forced a smile at the crowd below.
"Morning, folks."
His sudden appearance killed the noise dead. The entire plaza went quiet. Every pair of eyes locked onto him.
"Mind if I say a few words?" Homelander took the microphone from Victoria’s hand. "Thanks."
He looked out at the sea of faces again.
"Appreciate Congresswoman Neuman giving me the chance to speak. Honestly, when I looked down from upstairs and saw all of you, I thought there was a fire under Vought Tower. Nothing but black and yellow as far as the eye could see. Good thing I didn’t call the fire department. I wouldn’t have known how to explain it to the firefighters."
"Just a joke, don’t take it the wrong way. I’m genuinely glad so many of you came all this way. Can you tell me where you’re from?" Homelander stepped down into the crowd. People automatically parted to let him through.
"Florida? That’s a long trip."
He brought the mic back up.
"As for Paige’s death, I’m sorry. It was an accident. If I hadn’t stopped him, a lot more innocent people could have died.
I believe I’m a hero, not some criminal."
Homelander climbed back onto the stage.
"You still killed him! He was already dying and you didn’t let go!" a white man shouted. He wore a shirt with Paige’s face on it and the words "Murder Must Be Paid" in red. He was also holding a can of soda. His challenge set the crowd off again.
Homelander raised a hand, trying to calm them. "Hold on, everyone, don’t get worked up. I had no idea how bad his condition was. His death was an accident."
"We don’t believe a word of your bullshit! Murderers pay with their lives! Murderers pay with their lives!"
The situation was seconds from exploding. Homelander tried again. "I understand how you feel, but don’t forget we share the same goal: protecting every citizen of this country..."
It did nothing to cool the rage.
"Protect American people? You only protect white people!"
"Wait, you all need to take a breath." Homelander’s sudden appearance had scared the hell out of Ashley, who was trying to keep order. She ordered security to stop any riot from starting, then ducked behind a pillar and called Ivan.
"Mr Greevs, how long until you reach Vought? Homelander’s situation just went critical." Ashley kept her voice low and urgent.
"About three minutes. Give me the details, I’m on my way." On the other end Ivan kept one hand on the wheel and held the phone to his ear.
While Ashley filled him in, the crowd’s fury kept climbing. They raised signs with Homelander’s face on them and roared in perfect unison:
"You have no right to speak for us!"
"You have no right to speak for us!"
A lot of them flipped him off.
The smile on Homelander’s face faded. The next second red laser beams shot from his eyes and tore straight through the protesters in front of the stage.
Homelander’s mouth stretched wide in pure excitement, pouring out every drop of the rage bottled inside him.
Only after every sound finally died did he reluctantly pull the red lasers back in.
But that had only been a fantasy. The noise never stopped. He had been about to cave when the crowd suddenly exploded outward.
"Don’t stop me, that one’s mine!"
"Shit, someone’s grabbing stuff behind our backs!"
"Son, hurry up and go! Bring some extra cash home for the family!" The protesters’ eyes lit up with pure hunger. They stopped caring about appearances and started smashing every shop around them. Some even drove cars straight through the glass fronts and frantically loaded merchandise into the vehicles.
Their actions hit like a match tossed into gasoline. More and more people, willingly or not, got sucked into the rare free-for-all looting spree.
Store managers and clerks could only stare, frozen, at the chaos unfolding in front of them.
A few people even started brawling over a single pair of shoes. In the middle of the mess Hughie stood blank-faced as someone knocked the sandwich right out of his hand. He didn’t even react. "What the hell? One second it was a speech, next second it’s a full-blown violent robbery?"
MM beside him had no answer either.
Someone clapped him on the shoulder, grinning. "Hey man, what are you standing around for? If you don’t move there won’t be anything left."
Then a shout cut through the noise: "Run! Cops are coming! Don’t let them catch you!"
In the blink of an eye the chaotic plaza went quiet at a speed the naked eye could track. Ivan walked out of the dense crowd holding a phone that was blaring police sirens, stopped right in front of Homelander, hit pause, and slipped the phone into his pocket.
"Buddy, how the hell did you pull that off?" Homelander stared at him in disbelief, then threw both arms around him in a hug.
"I just smashed one window with a rock and told them people were already looting. As for why it turned into that.. it’s just human psyche and the fear of missing out, right?"
Ivan shrugged and spread his hands, the picture of innocence.
"Beautiful work. I owe you an apology for earlier." Homelander hadn’t expected Ivan to bail him out. The gratitude right now was completely genuine.
"We’re both part of Vought. It’s nothing." Ivan patted Homelander’s shoulder and started walking toward the tower entrance.
"Either way, you saved my ass. Honestly, I really wanted to laser every last one of them. If I hadn’t held back because of... forget it. I’ve never felt that fucking stifled since the day I was born." Homelander’s smile was blinding.
All the earlier bad blood had evaporated in an instant.
The two of them walked into Vought Tower together, leaving Victoria standing alone on the stage.
What the fuck?
Victoria’s eyes drifted upward toward the top of the tower on pure instinct.
Inside the highest conference room, Edgar watched Homelander and Ivan on the monitor, arms around each other’s shoulders. His face went dark as he picked up the phone on the desk.
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69