Had they not been supes the heat and smoke would have been overwhelming. They soon stopped and were now maybe a few hundred yards away from the fire line, not that it was a straight line.
A-Train saw that Homelander had stopped and looked all around in silence with only the crackling of fire being heard. A-Train would bet that Big Blue was using his super vision, if he was a betting man which he was.
"Homelander what's the plan here man?" Shockwave asked.
It took a moment for Homelander to respond.
"We'll start making a clearing from here heading north along the fire line. I want every tree in a fifty foot radius to be taken down and pushed back." He pointed towards the town. "We'll make sure to starve the fire once it reaches here."
"What? How? There's no way we can do that!" Shockwave asked…shocked.
A-Train saw Homelander look at Shockwave like he was a child.
"Shockwave you are super-strong, super-fast and incredibly durable. Push, punch, rip them out or cut them." Homelander said as he lifted his left arm and started oscillating it back and forth in short movements going faster until it was a blur.
The vibrating arm cut right through a tree like a hot knife through butter.
A-Train was amazed.
"Wow!" Shockwave was too. "I don't think I can do that." The younger speedster said as he lifted his hand and tried to vibrate it the same way with mixed sputtering results.
"Yes you can." Homelander said forcefully. "And if you can't you will learn now." He said as he closed the distance between them and grabbed Shockwave by the shoulder. "You heard the fire chief. People's houses and lives are at stake and you are a hero. Not because of your powers but because in a time of crisis you step up to the plate. You understand?" Homelander continued, his tone was dangerously low in contrast to the positive pep talk.
A-Train could also tell that Homelander was squeezing Shockwave's shoulder just a bit too hard for comfort.
"We'll handle it." He said suddenly out of guilty interrupting Big Blue's intimidating pep talk. "What about you? What are you going to do?"
"Me?" Homelander turned to him. "I'm going to make a trench. It will be the line you to will follow to clear the area."
Now A-Train was confused.
"How are you going to do that?" He asked before he could stop himself.
To his surprise Homelander smiled at them and unclasped his cape throwing far away to the side.
"By digging of course."
Before he could continue his line of questioning A-Train saw Homelander hover above their heads in the air.
To both of their surprise they saw Homelander switch position almost horizontal body slightly angled so that it's not completely flat.
Next Homelander moved his hands above his head looking like a diver but with hands clamped together.
He stood a in that position for half a moment then he started spinning.
Within a moment he was spinning so fast he was blurry and within a blink of an eye A-Train saw Homelander plunge into the ground.
The sound was deafening.
"What The Fuck!?" He heard the younger speedsters voice his exact thoughts.
Dirt, rock, trees everything was pulverized or thrown out of place with only a shallow trench left in place. The ground might as well have been putty against the force that was Homelander.
He'd never seen anything like it. He didn't even know Homelander could do that.
His thoughts were broken by the younger speedster.
"What do we do?"
A-Train looked at him and focused.
"Like Big Blue said. We clear out everything. He's the bulldozer we're the clearing team."
Scene Break.
Mini-Ashley opened her mouth to make a sound but nothing came out. She remained slack-jawed.
"…it appears that massive trail of destruction is Homelander along with Shockwave and A-Train…"
She heard the TV say over the practically yelling voices of the executives.
"…HE COULD DO THAT?"
"HOW COME WE DIDN"T KNOW THIS?"
"…my god it's like a drill through jello!"
"…that wasn't in his files! How come we didn't know he could do that?"
"I didn't know either!" she barley registered the voice of her boss.
"Do you think he can do that through solid rock?"
"…he can crush steel like paper so probably?..."
"…how come we never used Man of Steel?"
She watched with morbid fascination as the tail of destruction split the forest pulverizing everything in its path at astonishing speed, as if someone was drawing a black line on a canvas of green, the helicopter moving fast to keep everything in frame. Two blurs trailing behind cutting trees and chucking debris at also impressive speeds.
"…copyright, there's another supe…"
The execs conversation continued all around her.
"…if he could do that to the new bypass line being built!"
"…If only we were so lucky we could have it built this century!"
"…Ha! Tired of sitting in traffic?" she heard a sarcastic voice, likely Rhonda's.
"…we get who we vote for…"
Mini-Ashley shook her head and tried to clue in back to the conversation.
Everyone was cracking jokes but she could tell Ashley was thinking deeply and plotting.
-
AN: Alright! So I wanted to show that there is more to Vought than just PR smoke and mirrors. They do actually have competent people and response strategies and a whole structure where they do make their heroes do actual hero work and not just commercials and TV shows.
Additionally I wanted to expand a bit on Vought operations and that there is a whole org structure that does things like in any normal business.
We also have HL(SI) bypassing that whole structure because he can and doesn't want to wait for all the 'red tape' process. As well HL showing some leadership initiatives and working with other heroes not only The Seven.
I specifically wanted to show that when HL calls you answer, a subtle tightening of HL's power and influence over other heroes.
Some Starlight and A-Train thoughts on the past year. Wanted to showcase A-Train being 'loyal' to HL as he's ridden by guilt. So HL has him by the balls.
We can also see that for all Vought's efforts not everyone is happy to have the heroes around. They don't fool everyone.
HL showcasing new capabilities to show how much Vought was holding him back but mostly how freaking lazy he was before. The HL(SI) keeps training and pushing his boundaries as well he is forcing other heroes to push their boundaries. In this case A-Train and Shockwave. After all super-fast, strong and incredibly durable people can be used for a whole lot of applications ;).
As well don't worry there is an actual plot that will be building and an end game in mind. But like I mentioned before it will be done through snippets and time skips instead of a play by play story.
Once again thank you for reading and reviewing.