Chapter 35 : Woke Up
Then the crowd erupted as A-Train stepped onto the track under the morning sunlight.
His image appeared across the giant screens surrounding the stadium while thousands of fans screamed his name loud enough to shake the stands.
"A-Train! A-Train! A-Train!"
The chants rolled endlessly through the arena while cameras followed him from every angle.
From his seat in the crowd, Butcher watched carefully and immediately noticed something off about him.
A-Train looked too energized.
Too restless.
The speedster kept rolling his shoulders and flexing his hands while a strange tension sat beneath the smile he gave the cameras.
Then Butcher noticed the twitch in his fingers and the sharp unfocused look in his eyes.
"That fucker used it," he muttered quietly.
There was no doubt anymore.
A-Train had already taken the Compound V.
Butcher immediately pulled out his phone and sent Frenchie a message.
Come back. That cunt already used the blue shit.
Inside the ventilation shaft, Frenchie checked the message and cursed quietly under his breath.
He had crawled through vents and nearly gotten spotted by Homelander for absolutely nothing.
Meanwhile, the commentators continued screaming into their microphones while Shockwave stepped onto the track opposite A-Train.
"Ladies and gentlemen," one announcer shouted excitedly, "this is what we’ve all been waiting for!"
"The fastest man alive versus the challenger aiming to make history!"
The crowd roared louder.
Both speedsters lowered themselves into starting position while cameras zoomed in across the stadium screens.
Then the starter pistol fired.
The race ended almost instantly.
Two streaks exploded across the track at impossible speed while wind blasted through the lower sections hard enough to shake banners and signs.
Most of the audience barely processed what happened before it was already over.
Then the giant screen flashed the result.
A-Train.
New world record.
The stadium detonated into celebration.
"Oh my God!" the announcer yelled. "Did you see that?! A-Train has done it again!"
"The man is unreal! The fastest man alive just got even faster!"
Fans screamed themselves hoarse while reporters rushed toward the track trying to reach him first.
Near the finish line, A-Train stood breathing heavily with his arms raised while cameras crowded around him from every direction.
And from the stands, Butcher watched silently with narrowed eyes.
Because now Butcher understood what Compound V really was.
Performance enhancement.
A drug powerful enough to push supes beyond their normal limits.
And if A-Train depended on it this heavily just to stay relevant, then Butcher could already imagine how far Vought would go to keep something like that hidden from the public.
The cheering inside the stadium grew even louder when Homelander finally stepped onto the field.
The reaction was immediate.
People screamed louder than before while cameras instantly shifted away from A-Train to focus on him instead. Homelander smiled perfectly for the audience as he walked across the track clapping slowly toward A-Train like a proud teammate celebrating history.
To everyone watching, he looked calm, charismatic, untouchable.
Reporters rushed toward him almost immediately.
"Homelander!" one shouted. "Did you expect A-Train to break the record today?"
Homelander smiled easily toward the cameras.
"Well, that’s The Seven for you," he replied smoothly. "Best of the best."
More cameras flashed around him.
"Honestly," Homelander continued with that practiced confidence, "I’m not surprised at all. Nobody out there works harder than we do, and nobody’s beating The Seven anytime soon."
The crowd roared again hearing that.
Then suddenly—
Homelander felt it.
A stare.
His expression didn’t change outwardly, but his eyes shifted slightly through the crowd.
For a brief moment, his gaze locked directly onto Butcher standing several rows up in the stands.
Butcher didn’t look away.
Neither did Homelander.
The noise of the stadium almost seemed distant during that short silence between them.
Then Homelander smiled again like nothing happened and calmly turned back toward the reporters.
***
The next day, far beneath the surface of the ocean, sunlight filtered through the blue water in faint shifting rays that reached into the depths.
The seabed remained completely still.
Then suddenly—
blue eyes opened in the darkness.
The moment Mark became conscious again, the space around his body distorted instantly.
Water exploded backward away from him in every direction like an invisible force had violently pushed the ocean itself aside. Sand and debris lifted from the seabed while a hollow sphere formed around him beneath the water.
Mark slowly stood up.
His feet touched the ocean floor while the sea around him continued stopping just short of his body, unable to reach him no matter how much pressure surrounded him.
Infinity.
The Limitless technique operated instinctively now.
Nothing could truly touch him unless he allowed it.
Mark stared at his own hand quietly while those glowing blue eyes reflected against the dark water surrounding him.
"Fucking monster..." he muttered.
Now he finally understood why the jujutsu world feared Satoru Gojo so much.
A man born with both the Six Eyes and the Limitless technique wasn’t simply strong.
He was fundamentally unfair.
The Six Eyes reduced cursed energy consumption to nearly zero while granting perception absurd enough to process the world on an entirely different level.
Combined with Limitless—the ability to manipulate space itself—it created something that barely resembled a normal human anymore.
Mark slowly looked upward toward the distant sunlight above the ocean.
Even after only partially adapting, he could already feel how terrifying this power truly was.
*****
A/N: Advanced Chapters are available on Patreon.
👉 /Mark841
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