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"I don't really understand…"
Hughie shook his head.
Although he understood some things within Vought, such as filming, collaborations, performances, and other messy stuff.
However, Hughie didn't quite understand the factional divisions within the Superhero community.
Because during this period, he had been working alone and hadn't encountered any 'peers'.
Deep would certainly not tell him.
Deep, who joined The Seven right after graduation, probably didn't even know about the internal factional divisions among Superheroes himself.
The Seven were special; they weren't categorized into any factions, so it was unlikely they would know things that lower-level Superheroes knew.
Eagleshaw smiled and said:
"It's okay, you just need to know that we're together, brother."
"Alright."
Hughie shrugged, not particularly curious about the factions Eagleshaw mentioned.
He drank his liquor, and after a moment of silence, Eagleshaw asked again:
"You're new, why were you assigned here?"
"I don't know, I go wherever they send me, I don't care, as long as I can be a Superhero."
"You didn't offend someone, did you?"
"I said, I don't know."
Hughie shook his head helplessly, indicating that he also didn't know what was going on.
But in reality, Hughie knew that Kevin had explained the reason for sending him here when arranging his work.
However, Hughie couldn't show it in front of outsiders, after all, he was an 'undercover agent'.
Seeing that Hughie really didn't know anything, Eagleshaw nodded:
"Sometimes it's like this, even though we didn't do anything, we inexplicably offended people we don't even know, and then we get assigned to such a godforsaken place."
"…You seem very dissatisfied with the current situation."
Eagleshaw's grumbling made Hughie realize something, and this time he actively struck up a conversation, looking at Eagleshaw.
Eagleshaw sighed, then poured out his grievances to Hughie:
"Of course I'm dissatisfied. I used to be a frontline Superhero. Do you know what a frontline Superhero is? Although not as good as The Seven, at least I was a Superhero who could participate in any major event.
"But what was the result? Just because of one mistake, I was assigned here… Damn it!"
"What kind of mistake?"
"Oh… this…" Eagleshaw looked back at the bow and arrows behind him, "You know, I'm an archer, but… archers always run out of arrows, and once, when I was fighting crime, my arrows ran out at a critical moment, and then…"
Eagleshaw didn't continue.
But Hughie already knew the outcome of his story.
"That's truly regrettable…"
Hughie offered comfort, though it was a bit perfunctory, Eagleshaw certainly looked much better.
He turned his head back to Hughie and said:
"But it's okay, even though I've stepped down from the front line, I haven't gained nothing here. At least I've met a lot of friends."
"Friends?"
"Yes, so would you like to get to know them with me? This might help you get out of your current slump."
Eagleshaw finally stated his purpose.
Hughie scrutinized him, recalling what Kevin had said about the Church of the Collective, and hesitated as he said to Eagleshaw:
"…If I have time."
"Don't worry, for us marginal nobodies, time is the last thing we lack. So…"
At the end of his sentence, Eagleshaw pulled out a bottle of soda from somewhere and placed it in front of Hughie:
"…Would you like an orange soda now?"
"…"
When he saw the orange soda, Hughie instantly understood.
He had hit the jackpot again.
Why did he say 'again'…?
…
Hughie's progress was fairly smooth, but Kevin was encountering a slight problem.
Because the annoying Stormfront came knocking again.
"It's hard to imagine that while we're working on set in sweltering uniforms under a nearly thirty-degree scorching sun, you're comfortably sitting in your office enjoying the air conditioning?"
As soon as Stormfront entered Kevin's office, she said to Kevin.
Kevin glanced at her, not stopping his action of eating an ice cream, and replied:
"I think as the CEO of Vought, I still have the right to enjoy air conditioning and eat ice cream in my own office, don't I?"
"I don't deny that, but shouldn't you resolve certain matters first?"
"What are you referring to?"
"Homelander's matter. Don't tell me you don't know the public opinion online right now. I originally thought you wanted to hype up the public opinion to its peak, and then step out at the critical moment to turn the tide and boost Homelander's popularity…
"But now, it seems you haven't done anything at all."
Stormfront, who had been 'helping' Kevin stir up public anger online for several days, was now finding it a bit hard to bear Homelander's gaze.
Mainly because Stormfront had said she was doing this to help Homelander, but in the end, the anger towards Homelander online was growing, and his fan support was gradually declining.
And Homelander didn't come to Stormfront for help, so Stormfront couldn't execute the next step of her plan.
More crucially, Stormfront couldn't bypass Kevin to execute the next step of her plan now.
She actually thought Kevin would help her.
But now she found out.
Kevin had no such intention at all, at least not what he was showing currently.
He was like a fisherman sitting by the river, quietly watching the turbulent water, waiting for the fish to bite, but doing nothing else.
"Should I do something?"
Kevin asked, spreading his hands.
Stormfront's expression instantly became very strange. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she asked:
"…Do you really dislike Homelander? How did he offend you?"
"Hmm, as for offending me… that was in the past, it's not important now. As for disliking him…"
Kevin paused, took a bite of his ice cream, and then continued:
"Not really, and I said I would help him resolve this matter, you don't need to worry about it."
"If you can make him stop staring at me with those bloodshot eyes every day, then I won't worry about this matter either."
"If you can rein in your 'persona' of confronting everyone, he wouldn't be glaring at you with red eyes every day."
Kevin responded mercilessly, and when Stormfront was about to speak to him, he rudely interrupted her:
"Also, don't skip work casually, and don't barge into my office. Or do you think life is too easy now and you want to find some excitement?"
"Kevin, you… Ugh!?"
Before Stormfront could finish speaking, she felt a sudden sharp pain in her heart, and her whole body trembled uncontrollably. In just one second, she collapsed to her knees from a standing position.
Her whole body was trembling, her breathing was as difficult as a fish jumping from water to land, and her face was as pale as a corpse, as if she would suddenly die in the next second.
After a while, when he felt it was almost enough, Kevin slowly said:
"Don't you like this? You like excitement? Alright, then I'll give you some excitement."
Unlike what Kevin did to Stormfront when dealing with the Supervillain Alliance before.
At that time, Kevin used his hydrokinesis with all his might, and could only make Stormfront's heart stop for a moment.
But now, with his hydrokinesis upgraded and having other abilities, Kevin could do more.
Even with Stormfront's good physique, facing Kevin at such close range, her entire blood circulation would be controlled by Kevin.
Stormfront had truly experienced the pain of prolonged cardiac arrest just now.
That feeling certainly wasn't pleasant.
Even a masochistic person like Stormfront couldn't bear it, and at this moment, a hint of fear finally appeared in her eyes as she looked at Kevin.
Stormfront did like some… painful things, yes, but the premise was that this pain would not endanger her life.
Before this, she could consider all of Kevin's attacks as 'foreplay' because those attacks would not harm her life.
But now, Stormfront felt as if she had truly seen death just now.
She also understood one thing: if Kevin were truly serious now, she probably wouldn't last even a second in front of him.
"You… you've become stronger again…"
Stormfront, trembling and unable to get up from the ground for a long time, murmured.
The stronger Kevin became, the more Stormfront felt fear for his power, but also a faint excitement.
Because Stormfront knew she hadn't misjudged him.
Never before had a Supe been able to endlessly improve their abilities after awakening them.
All Supe abilities had a limit to their improvement.
Including Homelander; his strength was the same since he came out of the lab, and it remained the same now.
Although Homelander was powerful enough to be like a god, he had no future.
In terms of strength, in terms of ability, he had no future.
But Kevin was different.
When Stormfront first learned about Kevin, his abilities seemed to be inferior to even Homelander's, but he had always been advancing, always evolving.
Just as his position within the group improved, his strength also changed almost daily, constantly rising.
This was the real reason Stormfront believed Kevin was the future of Supes.
Kevin, he was the only Supe who could continuously get stronger.
"Whether I'm powerful or not is none of your business. This is my last warning, Stormfront. If there's a next time, I won't give you any chances."
"You… want to kill me?"
"I hate uncontrollable factors, do you understand?"
"…"
Stormfront remained silent.
Kevin slowly finished his ice cream and threw the empty container into the trash can.
"Don't make me think you're worse than trash, Stormfront."
Stormfront knelt on the ground, panting, and didn't respond for a long time.
Kevin was not in a hurry. He unhurriedly opened the small refrigerator next to him again and took out another ice cream.
Just as he was about to open it, there was a sudden knock on the door.
Kevin didn't respond immediately. He glanced at Stormfront on the floor, who managed to stand up and move aside. Only then did he say to the door:
"Come in."
"Sir, I think you… you should see this…"
Ashley pushed the door open. She ignored Stormfront, quickly came to Kevin, and handed him her phone.
"What's wrong now? Did Homelander cause you trouble?"
Seeing Ashley's panicked appearance, Kevin's first thought was Homelander.
But to Kevin's surprise, this time the matter had nothing to do with Homelander.
"No… no, sir, it's Red River… something happened at Red River Institute!"
Ashley said, tapping on the video on her phone.
The video was surveillance footage. In this footage, a group of strangely shaped individuals, clearly Supes, were wantonly slaughtering all the ordinary people in the surveillance frame.
Kevin could tell that few of these individuals had strong abilities, but even if their abilities weren't strong, when they gathered together to deal with ordinary people, the ordinary people had almost no power to fight back.
Watching the surveillance footage, Kevin's gaze was solemn.
Ashley explained from the side:
"They… they are some of the older 'orphans' from Red River Institute, and now, because of Compound V, they are retaliating…"
"Retaliating against whom?"
"…Their families… who abandoned them."
Ashley said so.
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