Chapter 77
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Butcher's team had reached the place where Homelander and Stormfront were keeping Ryan.
Homelander had already tried to awaken the boy's powers by making him angry. He had tried to make Ryan hate something. Then he waited for something to happen. Nothing had happened. There was no one Ryan hated enough to awaken what was inside him.
That failure left Homelander deeply disappointed and made him even angrier. He believed Becca was raising his son to become a weak human. Ryan held power greater than almost every Supe, yet Becca was teaching him to live like everyone else.
Homelander believed Ryan needed to understand what he was. He wanted to be the one who taught him.
A moment before the sound reached him, he sensed that something had changed beyond the house. Then explosions sounded in the distance.
Homelander turned toward them. "I'll be right back."
He left Stormfront with Ryan and flew toward the blasts.
Stormfront continued speaking to the boy. She filled her words with the same racist beliefs that guided her, hoping something would make Ryan angry. She spoke as if Supes had been born above ordinary people and should never live beneath them.
Ryan was too young to understand what she was trying to teach him. He only watched her without giving her the reaction she wanted.
Kimiko and Frenchie came out from the other side. Mother's Milk was with them.
Stormfront looked surprised, then smiled. "Oh, now I understand what you're doing. I have to admire the nerve, but do you think you're smart enough to pull this off? I mean—"
Kimiko struck before she could finish. The blow threw Stormfront aside and cut off the rest of her words.
Stormfront caught herself and released an electrical blast toward Kimiko. A flattened car shot between them before the charge could reach her. Adult Eleven had flattened it. It looked crushed by a hydraulic press. Lightning covered the flattened sheet until the charge faded without reaching Kimiko.
Stormfront looked past it.
Adult Eleven stood beyond it, her hand raised.
Kimiko moved past the shield. She struck toward Stormfront's chest, but Stormfront caught her wrist and threw the attack aside.
Adult Eleven raised her arm again.
Pressure closed around Stormfront's body. The grip pulled both arms inward. Adult Eleven kept tightening her grip, and Stormfront struggled to remain steady. She stopped watching Kimiko and turned toward Adult Eleven.
Lightning burst from her hands again.
Adult Eleven tried to crush her harder, but Stormfront's body did not break like the guards at Sage Grove. She was too durable to burst like an ordinary human.
As the lightning reached her, Adult Eleven moved the shield into its path. The charge struck it instead and spread across the surface.
Frenchie fired at Stormfront from behind Kimiko. His bullets kept hitting her while Kimiko moved in again.
"God, you're annoying," Stormfront snapped.
Becca came from the other side with M.M. Ryan stood away from the fight, frightened as he watched the attacks around him.
Becca reached toward him. "Ryan, come on. We need to go."
Meanwhile, Annie was still driving with Adam beside her and Hughie in the back seat.
Adam looked at Annie. "We need to hurry. We got what we came for, but the backup mission isn't finished. If we don't reach them soon, I don't think Adult Eleven will last long."
He had brought her into the plan because the rescue team needed another Supe. After Vought captured her again, he returned to the same lab and freed her.
He showed her what he could do. The offer became clear: one mission in exchange for freedom. She remembered what he had done at Sage Grove and agreed.
Adam opened the passenger door while Annie kept driving.
Annie looked at him. "Don't jump while I'm driving! I wanted to tell A-Train the same thing, and now you're doing it too. Can at least one of you follow the rules?"
Adam smiled at her. Then he leaped out and flew into the sky.
Annie kept driving. "Shit. We need to get there too."
She pressed the accelerator, and the car picked up speed.
Homelander reached the area where the explosions had sounded. He sensed movement inside his cottage and went in.
Armed soldiers filled the place. Every weapon was already in their hands. Homelander looked at their uniforms and recognized them as Vought's men.
"What are you doing in my cottage?"
The soldiers shook when Homelander spoke. They knew who stood behind them. As they turned, red light filled Homelander's eyes.
His heat vision cut through them one by one. Each time his gaze moved, another soldier fell. None of the armed men survived.
Homelander looked across the cottage. "It seems Edgar owes me a lot of answers."
He moved forward and flew away.
Back near Ryan's house, Stormfront saw Becca taking Ryan away.
'I refuse to let my plan fall apart this easily.'
Kimiko's attacks became heavier. Her blows tore the material around Stormfront's arms, then ripped through the suit across her chest and stomach. The damaged costume continued to split as Kimiko pressed her.
The pressure around Stormfront kept her from taking control.
Electricity gathered around her and burst outward in a wide arc. Kimiko was driven back. Adult Eleven raised her arms to protect herself, but the blast forced her away as well.
Stormfront used the opening. She pushed off the ground and fled before they could close around her again.
Butcher had been watching from a distance. He saw Homelander leave the cottage and lifted his communication device.
"Homelander is coming."
He threw the device aside and prepared to run.
'Becca, just get yourself out of there somehow.'
Butcher had made another deal with Edgar. Edgar would receive Ryan, and Vought would stop Homelander by any means it could.
Becca had discovered what Butcher intended and made him swear to her. Butcher had abandoned the idea of handing Ryan over. He was only using Vought's forces to buy Becca and Ryan enough time to escape.