"Hey! Where are you going?!"
Starlight watched The Deep suddenly bolt, her eyes full of confusion.
"I just remembered…"
"I've got an underwater meet-and-greet. Can't keep the fish waiting."
The Deep was talking out of his ass. He didn't care what he was saying—only that he could get away from that damned demon as fast as possible.
"What?!"
Starlight was completely baffled. The Deep had just said he'd show her around The Seven's hall, and now—five seconds later—he was already bailing?!
"You're Starlight, right?"
Before Starlight could keep grilling The Deep, Jovian stood up, clasped his hands behind his back, and walked over to her.
"Oh, you're—"
"Oh my God! I know you. I saw your promo video—you're Freeman."
Starlight looked him up and down, then covered her mouth, amazed.
"So you know who I am."
Jovian chuckled softly.
Vought's efficiency was insane. They'd filmed the promo in the morning, and by afternoon it had already been edited and blasted across every major site. At the same time, every single ad featuring Translucent had been yanked down and replaced with Jovian.
"Of course I know you! Are you really faster than A-Train? And is your body really tougher than Translucent's?"
Starlight asked, clearly excited.
"Absolutely."
Jovian nodded.
"Want to see my powers?"
Jovian suddenly seemed to think of something and asked her.
"Huh?"
Starlight's heart was pounding so hard she barely processed what he even meant.
"Come with me…"
Jovian kept a sunny smile on his face and didn't bother checking whether she understood. He slid an arm around her slender waist.
"Hey—what are you doing?!"
Starlight jolted at being pulled into his arms out of nowhere.
She looked up at Jovian's face. Sure—he was handsome, strong, and carried himself with effortless confidence, basically the exact image she'd always daydreamed about for a future boyfriend.
But that didn't mean she was the kind of girl who let some pretty face just scoop her up whenever he felt like it.
"Don't blink."
Jovian ignored her squirming and kept smiling.
Whooooom—
The next second, a blast of wind hit—and Jovian, carrying Starlight, shot out through a window he'd already opened.
"Oh my God…"
All her struggling stopped instantly. Starlight looked down at the living river of cars and people below, and she clamped onto Jovian for dear life, her cheek pressed tight to his chest.
At this point, nobody on Earth could've convinced her to let go.
"Let's go a little higher."
Jovian carried her up above the clouds…
"So beautiful…"
Starlight stared at the endless blue sky, the sea of white clouds, and the sinking sun bleeding gold along the horizon. It felt unreal—like she'd stepped into a painting.
Whoosh—
Right as Starlight got lost in the view, stunned all over again by how massive and breathtaking the world really was, a white passenger jet cut through the clouds and headed straight toward them.
"Heh. We got lucky."
Jovian smiled as he watched the plane approach.
"What?"
Hearing him snapped Starlight's brain back online.
"Relax. Smile at the windows and wave. Say hi to the people we're protecting."
Jovian coached her step by step on how to be a "proper" superhero: when people see you, you smile.
"Oh—okay!"
Starlight immediately turned toward the plane's windows, put on that classic all-American, wide-eyed wholesome grin, and waved gently.
"It's superheroes…"
"It's Freeman and Starlight—the new members of The Seven! Oh my God, Freeman can really fly!"
"Take pictures! Take pictures!"
Inside the jet, passengers who'd been half-asleep while staring at the scenery instantly whipped out their phones and started hammering the shutter button.
A few seconds later, the plane swept past them and continued on its route…
"Come on. I'll show you around properly."
Before Starlight could even come down from the rush of saying hello to civilians for the first time as a superhero, Jovian wrapped an arm around her again and streaked through the cloud layer…
An hour later, the two of them drifted down and landed lightly outside Vought Tower.
"Oh my God—this was my first time, my first time flying like that. I mean, not flying on a plane—I mean actually flying, like… like a dream, just hanging in the sky…"
"I saw the clouds, I saw birds—I feel like the sun isn't even that far away anymore!"
Outside Vought Tower, Starlight hugged Jovian tightly, shaking with excitement. It felt like her heart was about to leap out of her chest.
Jovian laughed. "Yeah, the first time I flew, I was just as excited as you. But, Miss Starlight… could you climb off me for a second? I don't mind, but, well…"
His eyes flicked around, signaling that a lot of people were watching them.
"Oh—right, of course! Haha, sorry, I'm just… really excited, you know…"
Starlight immediately hopped down, then noticed all the eyes on her. Her cheeks turned pink, suddenly embarrassed.
"I get it."
Jovian answered with an easy, gentlemanly understanding.
"Um… thank you for taking me up there. That's something I never even dreamed would happen. Thank you…"
Starlight clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward slightly. The tight fabric of her suit traced her curves into clean, elegant lines—completely on display right in front of Jovian.
"No need to thank me. We're teammates. Showing teammates what you can do is part of the job."
Jovian made it sound like this was simply what he should do.
"No, no—I still want to thank you!"
Starlight waved her hands in a fluster.
"And… maybe later we could grab coffee, or have breakfast, or lunch… go shopping, watch a movie…"
The more she talked, the more she realized her topic was sliding off the rails. Her face went red like a ripe apple.
"Oh my God. I don't have many friends—really, not many. I'm not very good at this, I don't really know how to invite people…"
She covered half her face with one hand, suddenly unable to look at Jovian. She felt like she was dying of embarrassment.
"Of course. No problem at all. Don't you know? We're partners now."
"We'll be working together from here on out, which means we'll have plenty of time to drink coffee, eat together, watch movies… do anything we want to do."
Jovian smiled at her—warm as sunlight.
"Oh… right. Of course we can…"
"…do anything we want to do together."
Starlight said it, cheeks glowing, then drifted toward the elevator like she was walking in a daze.
"Heh…"
Jovian watched her back—she looked like she hadn't even had a drink, yet she was already acting drunk—and he chuckled softly.
Jovian knew what was going on. That hour in the sky had triggered the suspension bridge effect—her body flooded itself with adrenaline and other hormones, scrambled the signals, and packaged the whole mess as "feelings" for Jovian.
Which was exactly what Jovian had planned.
Until Homelander fully shattered the leash in his head and went on a rampage, Jovian needed something to occupy himself.
And nothing made a better little appetizer than sweet, naive Starlight.
As for The Deep—no brains, no charm, nothing going on upstairs except fucking fish—motherfucker.
In a few days, people would be seeing the superhero The Deep rotting in a sewer.
Why a sewer?
Because in Jovian's eyes, it was the only place rotten fish and garbage belonged.