Ghandi fled without a fight, leaving Maeve momentarily stunned. As she hesitated, a blur of blue shot past the corner of her eye. She turned just in time to see Homelander smashing through the wall, the impact tearing through the concrete and exposing twisted rebar around the gaping hole.
Maeve shook her head before following after him.
Outside the department store, Homelander hovered in the air, watching as Ghandi landed in the parking lot, bathed in sunlight.
Suddenly, Ghandi jerked back as if shocked, the areas of his skin exposed to the sunlight turning red and catching fire.
Frantically, he flailed his arms, extinguishing the flames. His charred skin quickly healed, returning to its normal darkened state.
"Well, he really is like a vampire," Homelander muttered to himself.
On the ground, Ghandi glanced up at the blue figure floating in the sky before scanning his surroundings, searching for an escape.
By this time, Maeve had leapt from the fifth-floor opening, landing on the pavement with a solid thud that created a shallow crater.
As she rose to her feet, Ghandi rushed toward a manhole cover. With one powerful motion, he lifted it like a frisbee and flung it aside, then jumped down into the sewers.
"You've got to be kidding me," Maeve groaned but chased after him nonetheless. Just as she reached the manhole, two beams of red light shot down from above, carving through the air.
The lasers swept across the parking lot, igniting a series of explosions in their wake. Crimson fire pillars erupted one after another, shaking the ground and sending cars flying. Alarms blared from the vehicles that hadn't been destroyed, their sirens merging into a chaotic symphony.
Debris and shards of stone rained down, clattering against the pavement like a downpour.
Standing only a few meters from the manhole, Maeve looked up at Homelander, who was slowly descending. She spread her arms wide in disbelief. "Seriously? You almost blew me up too?"
Homelander smiled. "I wouldn't dream of it."
"See? You're perfectly fine."
He gestured with his chin toward the manhole Ghandi had jumped into. "Besides, you wouldn't want to spend the next week scrubbing off sewer stench, would you?"
Maeve rolled her eyes.
Homelander floated past her, landing amidst the smoke still rising from the explosions. His eyes glowed faintly as he scanned the area, quickly locating Ghandi.
He wasn't dead.
Ghandi was curled up in a ball, his clothes mostly burned to ash except for a single tattered pair of pants. His flesh was shredded, with large chunks of muscle blown away, exposing sections of bone.
But his head remained intact, and as expected, his wounds began to heal at an accelerated rate.
Ghandi sprang to his feet, realizing that escape was futile. With a roar, his muscles started to swell.
"Huh," Homelander mused. "He can still transform? Or maybe he was holding back before."
As he spoke, Maeve had already jumped into the destruction zone, entering the chaotic remains of the parking lot. Passing a rebar that had been partially dislodged from the wreckage, she yanked it free, straightened it with a swift tug, and hurled it like a javelin.
Boom!
The steel rod shot through the air like a missile, aimed directly at Ghandi's head.
Sensing the danger, Ghandi ducked just in time, the rebar grazing his scalp and tearing a deep gash down his back, before disappearing into the depths of the sewer.
The wounds on his back didn't heal; instead, new tissue sprouted from the tear, quickly growing into two additional arms.
By now, Ghandi had swelled even larger, his muscles grotesquely bulging. On his face, new eyes sprouted from his forehead and cheeks.
In a matter of moments, he had transformed into a grotesque half-human, half-spider monstrosity. With a powerful leap, he launched himself out of the sewers.
Landing in the parking lot, he was once again exposed to the sunlight. His blackened skin began to glow red, flames flickering to life on its surface.
"What the hell is that thing?"
"Quick, get pictures! This is huge!"
"God, that thing is ugly."
Voices clamored as a group of reporters, who had been stationed near the department store's main entrance, rushed over. Hearing the explosions from the parking lot, they had moved in to investigate and were now recording the scene with their cameras and phones, eager to capture footage of the monster Ghandi had become.
Ghandi scrambled into the shadow of the building, the flames on his skin finally extinguishing. He glanced up at Homelander, still hovering in the sky, and let out a furious roar. With a mighty heave, he grabbed a nearby pickup truck and hurled it straight at him.
Homelander chuckled softly and, with a flicker of his laser vision, sliced the truck cleanly in half. The two pieces sailed past him harmlessly.
As the wreckage clattered to the ground, Homelander called out, "My offer still stands. Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?"
Ghandi's response came in the form of another thrown car.
At that moment, Maeve leaped out of the sewer, using the flying vehicle as a springboard to launch herself toward Ghandi.
The countless eyes on Ghandi's mutated face began to glow. With a quick motion, he slammed all four of his arms into the ground.
Homelander's keen ears caught the sound of snapping and crackling above him. Glancing up, he saw electrical cables and wires breaking loose from the side of the building, sparking wildly as they shot down toward Maeve like electrified tendrils.
The live wires coiled around her, sending powerful jolts of electricity through her body. Though the current wasn't enough to kill her, it was strong enough to make her muscles seize uncontrollably, leaving her helplessly suspended in mid-air.
Fortunately, two beams of red light shot from Homelander's eyes, severing the cables and freeing her. Maeve tumbled to the ground, still trembling from the shocks, her legs too weak to stand.
"I'll handle it from here," Homelander said softly as he passed her, moving toward Ghandi.
But before he could reach him, Ghandi shouted, "Stay back! Or I'll kill them!"
Homelander paused, noticing that Ghandi had used his ability to manipulate the reporters' ties, camera straps, and even their necklaces, coiling them around their necks to strangle them.
Despite the threat, Homelander didn't slow down. Without even acknowledging Ghandi's ultimatum, he crashed into the monstrous figure with a loud boom.
Ghandi's chest caved in from the impact, his body hurtling through the air. Before he could recover, a second wave of force—the "secondary impact"—blasted him even farther away.
Homelander shot after him, catching up in an instant. Grabbing one of Ghandi's new arms, he spun the creature around several times before hurling him back toward the parking lot.
Crash!
Ghandi slammed into the asphalt, his body demolishing several cars along the way. Dazed and battered, he no longer had the strength to control the objects around him.
The reporters gasped for air as the invisible restraints around their necks vanished, each of them coughing and wheezing as their lungs filled with much-needed oxygen.
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🫣Help this bro guys, I also have planned many more fanfics after it, you can also recommend what you want next, from your wishlist, I am ready to do it. And enjoy~🥳
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