Chapter 26
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Adam was still above the Believe Expo.
He had changed the way he looked before coming back into the sky. He wore normal clothes under the cape. Black trunks sat over them. His face was covered by a zinc mask he had shaped with his own hands. The mask was not random scrap now. It had a cleaner shape, with two holes for his eyes.
Below him, the crowd looked up.
Some people pointed at his cape while others stared at the zinc mask. The covered face matched the man from the plane rescue, but now he was floating above Believe Expo with Homelander standing below him. More heads turned as people recognized him.
"Is that him?" "The one who saved the plane?" "Why is he here?"
The questions moved through the crowd, first as whispers and then in voices loud enough for the people nearby to hear. More phones rose around the stage as the crowd understood that Homelander now had to answer the masked man in front of everyone. The news would play that fear again and again.
One by one, people turned from Adam to Homelander.
Homelander felt those eyes move toward him. The cheers from a few moments ago did not matter now. The crowd was waiting to see what he would do.
Homelander was still looking up at Adam.
'Why is he here?' Homelander thought. 'What does he want?'
Homelander knew the confrontation had to happen one day. He wanted it away from cameras, not before this crowd.
If he hesitated for too long, people would see it. And Homelander could not allow that.
He rose from the stage and flew straight toward Adam. He stopped in the air before Adam and spoke low enough that only Adam could hear.
"What do you think?" Homelander asked. "You saved one plane, and now you think you are close to me? You think you are the second Homelander?"
Adam looked at him from behind the mask.
For the first time, he understood how Homelander and Superman saw other people. His sight passed through skin and muscle. He could see the heart moving inside Homelander's chest. Adam could follow every beat through that vision. Homelander looked calm outside, yet the muscles inside his body remained tense.
Adam did not show any reaction to it. Homelander tried to do the same to him. It failed.
The zinc covering Adam's face and body blocked Homelander's sight, leaving only the mask and covered shape visible. It hid Adam from Homelander and every camera below. Being denied the face behind it made Homelander's mood worse.
Adam spoke in a calm voice. "You have one big misunderstanding." Homelander narrowed his eyes.
Adam moved a little closer. "You think I am another Homelander, but I am not some cheap copy of you."
His eyes began to glow red. "I am Superman."
Homelander's own eyes widened. He did not want to fight in public. Adam had left him no easy way to back away. His eyes also turned red.
Then he remembered the plane. He remembered his own heat vision being pushed back.
Adam let the red glow fade from his eyes first. He came closer and looked straight into Homelander's eyes.
"Do not make this dirty," Adam said. "I will not kill you that easily. For now, enjoy this. Stay afraid, like a goat that knows a lion is standing in front of it."
Homelander laughed. It was not a happy laugh. No one had mocked him like this before.
He opened his mouth to answer. Adam flew away before he could speak.
For a second, Homelander stayed in the air and watched him leave. Rage moved across his face. He did not chase Adam.
He wanted to fight, and sooner or later he would. He only refused to do it here.
Here, the crowd watched him. Raised phones could record the entire fight, and one weak moment could prove that the strongest man alive could be pushed back.
The memory of the plane had already planted a doubt inside him. His heat vision was one of his strongest powers, and the masked man had pushed it back. Even if Homelander believed he could win, he also knew he would be hit. He could win the fight and still take blows before the end. The crowd would remember every time Adam pushed him back. The public did not need to watch him lose the whole fight. If Adam landed a clean punch or forced him backward, people would start asking whether Homelander could be beaten. The godlike image Vought had built around him would weaken. He would not risk that today.
If the public saw him take even one beating, his image would crack. People treated him as a god standing above them. One hard hit in front of their cameras would prove that he could be hurt. That could not happen.
'I will find him,' Homelander thought. 'Alone.'
Some distance away, Frenchie looked down when his phone rang. The number made him go still. It was Cherie.
He answered.
"Frenchie," Cherie said, "your old place is being watched. I cannot tell if those men are police or another agency." She paused. "They already raided the building, and they are still watching it. Do not go back there."
Frenchie's face changed. "You are sure?"
"I saw enough. Do not go there."
"Thank you," Frenchie said. Cherie ended the call. She took the phone apart before crushing it.
Frenchie kept holding his own phone after the call ended. Cherie did not scare easily. If she had destroyed her phone, the danger around the old hideout was real.
Frenchie immediately called Butcher. The moment Butcher picked up, Frenchie spoke quickly.
"They are watching me," Frenchie said. "And maybe they are watching you too. They went to the old hideout."
Butcher did not waste time.
"Change your location now," Butcher said. "And destroy that bloody phone."
Frenchie understood that Butcher had heard the danger in his voice, and he knew there was no time left to argue.
===== Upcoming Teasers =====
1. Chapter 27: Starlight speaks her truth while Adam watches from the crowd.
2. Chapter 28: Madelyn tests Homelander's fear while Kimiko faces Black Noir.
3. Chapter 29: Adam steps into Black Noir's fight and turns it into a warning.
Read ahead on P@tr3on "AlphaBoss169'' page and unlock +20 extra chapters.
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