Chapter 34

I thoughtfully observed the young man glaring at me with fury in his eyes.

He couldn't shout because his mouth was gagged, and he'd been screaming like a madman before.

He had typical Asian features, possibly from the same country as Kimiko.

Why couldn't others if she did?

This guy seemed far more radical than her.

"Hello, Homelander."

A fat man with a short beard was standing in the doorway, and his gray eyes looked at me with a mix of reverence and a hint of fear.

"Come in, Mesmer."

I nodded, watching him hastily enter the room.

"You know what to do."

"Yes, right away."

 He exhaled, calming himself before touching his skin.

Telepathy.

The only downside is that the one being read can feel it.

The Asian with regeneration saw every detail of his mind being invaded.

He tried to get away by shaking uncontrollably, but he couldn't stop the process. He screamed louder as he was in more pain with each resistance.

"It's them again. The Shining Light Liberation Army."

Mesmer muttered, mentioning the organization Kimiko came from.

"They arrived at the port last night. Someone from their group lifted a ship and hurled it onto the ground."

"Where did they hide? Even a rough location will do."

"They split up immediately; one of them left."

Mesmer squinted as if trying to see something clearer.

"I can't understand what they were planning next. I don't know their language."

"Is there anything else?"

"Kenji, Kimiko's brother... He overturned the ship. He's the last one."

Mesmer sighed, wiping sweat from his forehead.

This telepathy session had been quite taxing for him.

"Are you alright?"

I asked out of courtesy when noticing his labored breathing.

"I'm fine. Just need a bit of rest."

Mesmer smiled timidly.

"Don't overexert yourself. We don't have many employees as useful as you."

I smiled, giving him a light pat on the back.

"And thank you for your work."

"No, no, I should be thanking you. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to reunite with my daughter or get a job. They gave me a role, even if it was an extra. But still, I'll be acting alongside Blindspot. It's a great start."

"Congratulations."

I smiled politely, gesturing towards the door.

 "Now, can you leave us alone?"

"Of course, Homelander. Good luck."

Mesmer replied hastily and slipped out.

I turned back to the Asian and studied his face closely.

"So, Kenji."

I muttered thoughtfully, considering where he might be hiding.

"Sir, Miss Stillwell wants to see you."

A young girl peeked in through the door and addressed me.

"And who are you?"

I asked, remembering that Ashley had been fired after Starlight's outburst.

Madelyn hadn't wasted any time on that.

"I'm Ashley."

She responded without hesitation.

"I'll remember that."

I nodded, barely suppressing a smile.

She looked at me in confusion before leaving.

Snorting, I shook my head and headed towards the elevator.

We acted very swiftly, and only two hours had passed since the memorable robbery.

This meant that the topic of discussion could now turn to the harsh treatment of criminals, which had undoubtedly made its way to the internet in that short time.

I arrived at Madelyn's office which had already moved to the ninety-ninth floor, next to Stan Edgar's.

I entered without knocking knowing she was only expecting me and was not busy.

"Good afternoon, Madelyn."

"Homelander."

She nodded, sitting in her chair.

"How is the investigation progressing?"

"Not bad. We only need to find one more, and there shouldn't be any problems with that."

"That's good. But what's not good..."

Stillwell sighed and turned her laptop screen towards me.

The video clearly showed me breaking a man's legs who was shouting in my face combined with my bright red eyes.

It looked downright spectacular, and the number of views this would get in a day... disgusting.

"And what do you want to say?"

I asked her resignedly, rolling my eyes.

"I'm not asking you to be some kind of saint."

She stood up from her chair and approached me.

"But you should have tried to use less... blood."

"Madelyn, I tried. The circumstances were what they were, as you know."

I replied, looking at her with a question in my eyes.

"What have you come up with?"

"We'll have to do an emergency news broadcast with your interview. We're already actively removing the video, but that will only delay the inevitable. We need to act quickly."

She returned to her desk, pulled out a stack of papers, and handed them to me.

"This is your script. Make revisions where there are differences. And no improvisation."

"Understood, boss."

I replied cheekily and she also smiled.

"Alright, filming is in thirty minutes. You know which floor."

...

Sitting at the head of the table, I looked at the assembled team members, who were ready to listen to me.

A-Train was unable to attend the meeting for obvious reasons.

However, the absence of another team member was unclear. She had never missed a meeting before.

"Where is Maeve?"

I asked the team who seemed unusually silent, and only Starlight hesitantly raised her hand.

"Starlight?"

"She left due to... family circumstances. Someone from her family was admitted to the hospital. That's what she said."

"I see, so waiting for her now would be pointless."

I nodded, understanding such circumstances, but something still seemed off.

"Let's begin the emergency meeting. As you should know, today's bank robbery involved two supervillains. Fortunately, there were no civilian casualties."

I stood up and, taking the remote, displayed on the screen a video from the bank's security cameras showing how we prevented the robbery.

"I have a theory that our appearance there was not planned. This is further confirmed by the fact that there were three supervillains, and the absence of the last one indicates that the robbery was random. Otherwise, they would have used all available forces."

I then switched to the following video, showing terrorists disembarking from the ship.

It's unclear who was responsible for their transport, but the search for them is already happening.

In the following seconds, the video shows two of them having a disagreement, with one of them extending his hands towards the ship, pulling it out of the water, and throwing it onto the shore, thus hitting his enemy.

The team's reaction was as expected given that the super was powerful enough to kill at least three of them.

That destruction could destroy the city, and our reputation would be severely damaged.

"How will they find him? His face isn't visible."

Deep said worriedly.

"The other two were Asians, so it's likely that this narrow-eyed one is too."

Stormfront suggested, receiving a disapproving look from Starlight.

"What? It's a fact."

"Mesmer managed to get into the mind of one of the captured supervillains, and according to him, we have a picture of the last one of them."

I pointed to a drawing of a thin Asian on the screen.

"He is already being actively searched for across all available city cameras."

"So what should we do?"

Stormfront asked, hinting that the information provided was useless and suggesting we get to the point.

At that moment, the doors opened, revealing an Asian woman who calmly walked towards me with an empty expression.

Kimiko showed me the last page of her notebook with a smile where she had been writing notes.

"Not bad, Kimiko."

I smiled at the pretty Asian girl.

"It looks like you need a new notebook."

She nodded affirmatively and glanced around, freezing when she saw the drawing of Kenji.

She quickly turned to me with a worried look.

"Don't worry, no one will hurt your brother."

"What do you mean?"

Stormfront asked with a hint of anger, pointing to the screen.

"Is that her brother? And who is she herself?"

"Kimiko, this is Stormfront."

I introduced her and then turned to Stormfront.

"Kimiko is our official prisoner and a former supervillain. Get used to it; her brother will be here soon."

"But they are terrorists."

Stormfront frowned, seemingly trying to understand the logic behind my actions.

"First and foremost, they are supers, just like us."

I responded passionately.

"They're not to blame for being born in the wrong place."

"You know... you're right."

She looked at me in a different way, which was strange.

"I was wrong. I'm sorry, Kimiko."

Kimiko looked at her with suspicion and nodded cautiously while Stormfront looked at me with a question in her eyes.

"She doesn't speak."

I replied and looked at Kimiko.

"Kimiko, you can go back now."

She shook her head sharply and started making some hand gestures. It wasn't the first time, of course.

So I had a fairly good understanding of what her gestures meant.

"I see, you want to participate in his capture. Fine, you can participate."

After I spoke, she didn't move and kept looking at me demandingly.

"I promise."

After that, she finally nodded and left the room.

"She's very worried about her brother."

Starlight tried to justify her behavior, receiving a knowing nod from me.

"To summarize. I gathered you here to keep you informed and up-to-date. Also, I want you to be prepared for a possible urgent call and to know that this capture will be broadcast on our channel. So no improvised actions, Stormfront."

I looked sternly at Stormfront who was the only one likely to disobey my orders.

"Understood, sir."

She responded affirmatively.

"Excellent. That's all. You can go."

Maeve's chair caught my eye when I was by myself in the empty room. It was strange that she left due to family circumstances.

As far as I knew, none of her relatives were still alive due to natural causes.

So where did these family circumstances come from?

I should look into this.

...

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