[Homelander's POV]
It wasn't hard to find our fugitive once we knew from the analysts where he had been just a few minutes ago.
They had been tracking him since yesterday and had only not reported it due to orders from higher-ups.
Now that we had the green light, all information on the subject was delivered to us.
What happened next was just a matter of technique.
We started only at night when he had stepped out for a while.
It was expected that Kenji was hiding, most likely having learned what had happened to the other terrorists who had been fortunate enough to gain powers without turning into "something else."
It was unclear how there were more than two of them.
Usually, a group only has a maximum of two "supervillains" due to the harsh selection process, and I would even say a natural one.
There have been dozens, if not more, failures to make supers in emergency situations.
The main question now was whose side Kenji was on.
According to Mesmer, they were abducted from home and used as cheap labor after a telepathic session with Kimiko.
However, this doesn't mean his brain couldn't have been washed.
These guys seemed to have experience in that.
It would have been better if he had been neutral towards us, but the reasonable doubt troubled me that our team would be lucky.
"Are you ready?"
I turned to Kimiko, standing next to me, who simply nodded, not intending to take her eyes off the person she was closely observing.
It was a young guy, no older than twenty, and his clothes looked like they had been picked from a trash can, and I don't rule out that possibility.
It's easy to find clothes for the homeless, and there are even places where you can drop off your old things.
He was carrying a transparent bag with food, which was most likely stolen. He didn't seem to have any money; otherwise, he wouldn't have been here.
Kimiko didn't wait for her brother to reach the abandoned house where the homeless gathered.
She jumped from the fifth floor, landed lightly on her feet, and headed straight towards him.
He had already noticed her and tensed slightly. He was scared, but Kimiko threw herself at him and hugged him tightly.
I stepped back calmly, continuing to observe through the walls.
It looked like everything was going well so far.
Kenji was glad to see her and hugged her in return.
They then started a conversation, or rather, Kimiko communicated through gestures while Kenji responded with words.
He had somewhat forgotten how to use gestures and spoke in a language I didn't understand.
It was hard to follow the conversation. I had to rely on their facial expressions and the tone of the spoken words.
Unfortunately, the outcome of the conversation was not good.
Kimiko took extreme steps to relax because she and her brother couldn't find common ground.
She made a couple of gestures to calm Kenji down and hugged him again.
While Kenji was distracted, she pulled out a special syringe from her pocket and promptly injected it into his shoulder.
I sighed quietly when I saw the needle bend, failing to penetrate his skin.
This meant his durability was at least on par with Starlight's, which complicated things significantly.
"Switching to plan "B.""
I reported with frustration into the earpiece to contact the others.
At that moment, Kenji frowned, and Kimiko was thrown away from him like a ball, straight into the wall.
He at least knew about supers' enhanced durability and didn't hold back.
I stopped hiding and walked toward the edge because it was harder to catch him off guard now.
Kenji immediately noticed me and frowned upon seeing my red eyes.
A blurred silhouette sped towards him with a characteristic thud, reaching him almost instantly.
However, it turned out that the surprise from him was not over.
He had noticed the A-Train even on approach and used his abilities in time.
This time, Kenji showed that he had been holding back with Kimiko as A-Train crashed through the fifth-floor wall of the building, where I continued to observe everything from the rooftop.
However, I wasn't worried about him because he was tough enough to withstand that.
Afterward, Kenji ran inside an abandoned building, apparently thinking it would help him hide.
"Starlight, Maeve, he's gone inside."
"Copy that!"
In fact, it was a smart move, as catching him in an open area would have been easier.
I didn't think I was a complete fool, but I knew going up against such a strong super without any preparation would be stupid and overconfident.
Kenji then saw Starlight right in front of him. Starlight pushed him back and blinded him with a bright yellow light.
It had an effect, but not the one we were hoping for.
Who would have thought he was so well-acquainted with his powers that he could use them blindly?
A second later, I watched in surprise as half the building collapsed after a few swipes of his hands.
It literally flattened several drones filming it.
Starlight barely managed to shoot herself as far away from the center of the destruction as possible.
A few falling stones couldn't do much to her, and I didn't know she could do that.
However, she chose to rest immediately afterward, showing that it had worn her out.
There were no energy sources nearby, and she was out of the game for now.
The situation was worse for Maeve, who was buried under debris but was relatively intact.
She didn't manage to take down him while Starlight distracted him. She seemed to be okay, and she should be able to leave on her own.
But I'd have to join the operation if I didn't want Kenji to escape or, worse, something worse to happen.
"Wow."
Deep remarked in shock, standing next to me.
Black Noir and Stormfront were also present.
"He has excellent potential."
I nodded, watching how easily he got out from under the debris.
"Are Maeve and Starlight alright?"
"Completely. Stormfront, with me."
Without waiting for a response, I simply dropped down, quickly covering the short distance.
Stormfront landed next to me while releasing lightning from her hands and using it to propel herself through the air.
At that moment, Kenji emerged, taking a deep breath of fresh air.
"Maybe you should just give up?"
I asked just for formality knowing full well he wouldn't give in so easily.
"Fuck off!"
He shouted, raising his hands, but that was all he managed to do.
He was hit by spreading purple lightning.
Stormfront watched with a smile as he convulsed, feeling her superiority over him.
"Stormfront."
As soon as she heard my voice, she stopped torturing him and let him catch his breath.
"You'll have to come with us, Kenji."
I said calmly, even slightly bored to hide my surprise.
"If you don't agree immediately, she'll be more than happy to repeat the recent procedure, and she won't give a damn about you, unlike your sister."
Kenji gritted his teeth, reluctantly stretching his hands forward.
At that moment, a jolt of lightning ran through his body. I decided to end his suffering and approach the convulsing body.
Meanwhile, Stormfront finished playing the role of Palpatine, allowing me to wrap things up.
He was knocked out for at least thirty minutes by a sharp, accurate blow that hit him right where it hurt.
The only thing left was to tie up his quick hands with something.
"Homelander! Maeve is trapped under the rubble! She needs to be rescued!"
Starlight cried out in panic, having reached us and bypassed the destroyed part of the building.
"She's fine. For her, those rocks are like foam, annoying but not damaging."
I shrugged, continuing to watch the monotonous process of the very irritated heroine making her way to the surface.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes, completely."
"Great. The journalists will be arriving any minute now."
The next few hours were spent conducting interviews on various TV channels.
Fortunately, I could deploy the entire team to discuss the details of the operation, and it went very successfully without going into detail.
However, the plan was pretty good for being created in only two hours.
We managed to evacuate everyone discreetly and then ensured that no witnesses with cameras were around.
It was a relief that I wasn't the one handling it.
It was also lucky that the mere word "supervillain" had a sobering effect on people, making them very compliant.
That means no one was home at the time of the damage, and there was no chance of random casualties.
Deep and Black Noir were also useful.
Since the Seven were the ones who stopped the supervillain, it would have been at least suspicious if some team members were missing.
Unfortunately, Deep was nearly useless on land, even vulnerable.
On the other hand, Noir didn't participate in this operation because we had no intention of killing Kenji.
This meant that he was just as useful as Deep this time.
After it was all over, Stan Edgar arrived personally to speak about how heroes are essential in our current reality.
He also mentioned that he would investigate the whole V-Compound story, of which he claimed to know nothing.
It will be interesting to see where this "investigation" leads.
...
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