Incident Report
The accident in Brazil that took Nina's life and seriously injured Athena was a terrorist attack. To be precise, it was a super-powered terrorist. He had the power to create explosions by throwing things. When he threw anything with his hands, it turned into a bomb that exploded on impact.
It was still under investigation what triggered him, maybe he was disgruntled about the government, perhaps he was upset with society, or he could've just been a psychopath who was drunk on his newfound powers. None of those things mattered now.
After taking the lives of over 15 people and injuring over 100 more on a busy market street, the terrorist was stopped. More than just being stopped, he was bisected. The most famous superhero in the world, Homelander had swooped down from the sky, fired his laser eyes, and flown away with a smile. He hadn't even bothered to stay and grandstand like he does in the US.
Since it was a market street famous as a tourist attraction, a lot of the victims caught up in the attack were foreigners as well. 8 of the dead and 43 of the injured were identified to have been tourists from different countries. Countries around the world mourned this senseless tragedy.
In the meantime, Homelander's popularity continued to grow for stopping a terrorist threat on foreign territory. In an interview, when he was asked about the legality of his actions, Homelander choked up and replied, "It is my duty and responsibility to use the powers given to me by god to protect the weak and innocent. I couldn't ignore the actions of the supervillain even if it meant ignoring some laws."
In the court of public opinion, Homelander was already declared innocent. No government was stupid enough to persecute the strongest being on the planet when he had just stopped a major terrorist threat. Public opinion was overwhelmingly on Homelander's side, making it impossible even to question him much less to investigate the legality of his actions.
Some voices demanded an explanation for why Homelander was able to find out about the attacks and arrive at the location within 12 minutes of the first explosion. But nothing came out of it except theories that were branded as conspiracies, like Vought having military-grade satellites spying on the entire world, and that Homelander was expecting an attack like this.
Homelander's fans drowned out the questioning voices with talks about his top-flight speed, super hearing, and whatnot. They tried to create an image of a Homelander who is always alert and waiting to take action against threats all over the world.
Chris looked through the reports with a constant frown on his face and anger dripping out of his eyes. He then looked up at Alex and asked, "What about the terrorist? What have you found about him?"
Alex looked at Chris' expression for a moment before answering with a sigh, "His name is Oscar Correia. He was an undergraduate student in the political science department at a local University. On the surface, there was nothing remarkable about him other than his involvement with some climate change protests. His views were quite radical but overall, he was just a timid and lonely guy who wanted to belong somewhere."
Chris glared at Alex and growled, "I don't need to know about his sad origins. Get to the point."
Alex calmly nodded, "He was being increasingly radicalized by ELF, one of the Eco-terrorist groups. Their plans to assassinate the Brazilian minister of forestry were found and Oscar took the fall for the entire thing. He was tortured severely by the police for information for a few weeks. A few days before the incident, he suddenly got superpowers and ran away from prison.
He went off-grid after that so we are still investigating what happened during that time but the next time he surfaced, he started an indiscriminate attack."
"If he was angry, he should have gone to blow up the government buildings. Why did that bastard target innocents, why?" Chris slammed the desk while shouting out in anger. His voice contained a lot of desperation and helplessness.
"From what we have gathered, even with the powers he would have had a lingering fear of the authorities after having been tortured by the police. The only way he could lash out was to inflict violence on the general public who could not fight back." Alex answered, still in his calm voice. But despite his calm tone, his eyes under the glasses were red.
Chris' anger calmed down when he made eye contact with Alex. He massaged his temples and asked, "What about the other thing I asked you to investigate?"
"As you had guessed, on the day before Oscar's escape, we found incident reports where three people complained about extreme pain before spontaneously blowing up a few hours later. We have confirmed terrorist links for two of them. The guard on duty in Oscar's cell block also testified that he heard loud painful shouts from Oscar's cell. He ignored it since everyone knew the guy was being tortured."
Alex didn't know how Chris was able to guess incidents like that when he didn't even know Oscar before the incident but he didn't ask. Many mysterious things about Chris were unexplainable. He couldn't explain it in words but it was different from the superheroes and their powers. That was one of the reasons why he came to work under Chris.
Chris on the other hand was lost in his own thoughts after listening to Alex's report. There was no doubt that the terrorists were injected with compound V. He remembered in the show, Homelander distributed Compound V all over the world through A-train to create supervillains.
The show focused on the super-terrorist in the middle-east but Chris couldn't even imagine that they would do it in a country like Brazil. But it made sense when he thought about it. If the purpose was to create the fear of super-terrorists then the closer to home they were the better. A threat in the South American continent is much more credible than one in the far-off Middle East.
A few cartel bosses, gang leaders, and terrorists in the south of the US becoming super-powered was enough to rile up the general public and punctuate the need for heroes in the military and security forces like the police. Vought would get what it wanted while the rest of the world burned.
Chris was sure. The cause for all of this was Homelander. The psychopath had managed to harm his family even after Chris had been so careful all this time. He did everything in his power to protect his family from the superhero bullshit. He moved to a different continent to avoid them.
Cautious of the unchecked powers of the heroes, he banned his family from traveling to America. He even opted to bring his father-in-law to Europe while being called paranoid by everyone. It had even become well-known among the people close to him that Chris had some kind of phobia regarding America. He endured it all, only explaining that America was dangerous.
Knowing about Homelander's sinking of planes, he even forbade his family from ever boarding a plane to America. He didn't mind being called crazy for the safety of his family. It wasn't even a price worth mentioning for the safety of his family. Despite his weirdness, his family accepted it and they had been living a happy life.
But all of that came to nothing when his family became a victim of Homelander's scheme to create supervillains. His wife Nina died, and his father-in-law soon followed after Nina because of a heart attack. His daughter Athena had been in a coma for a month and her recovery was still uncertain.
Chris had tried his best to avoid the heroes and to live a normal, happy life far away from them. But that was no longer possible. There was a fire of anger and revenge burning deep inside of him, threatening to consume him whole. The only thing keeping it in check was the love for his daughter, the only family he had remaining in this world.
My thoughts were wrong from the start. This is a crazy world where monsters are idolized and revered as heroes. This is not a safe world where my daughter can live a happy and carefree life. So, I will make it safe. I will change this world so that my daughter can grow up in a better world.
An alarm went off on Chris' phone, bringing him out of his thoughts. He checked the phone and stood up, "Begin investigating Vought without raising any alarms." He paused, went back to the table, wrote something down, and handed it to Alex, "Investigate these people as well. They should be easy to find since they are always on the periphery of Vought."
Alex took the paper with a nod and read the names. Just as Chris was about to get out of the door, he turned and spoke urgently, "Don't forget the Red Pony videogame. You promised Athena that you'll get it today."
Chris looked at Alex with a gentle smile, "I remember. But thank you for reminding me anyway." Alex rolled his eyes at that, "It's my job. I should do this much to justify my salary."