"All right, you can turn around now."
Hearing Homelander's voice, Ryan turned around and looked around.
He didn't see Storm, so he asked, "Where's that woman?"
Homelander shrugged, "Dead."
"If you want to see her, you should be able to spot her body out on the ocean."
Ryan immediately flew up.
Sure enough, he saw a corpse floating on the sea.
It was Storm.
Most of her head was gone, and she had no hands. It looked disgusting.
Only after seeing that did Ryan finally unclench the fists he had been keeping tightly closed.
But then he suddenly said, "There's still Wilson. That damned old man lied to me. I'm going to kill him, using the method he taught me."
"Don't worry. Wilson is already dead."
Homelander walked over to him.
"And don't go around talking about killing people all the time."
"You're just a kid."
Ryan looked at him, "You knew about all this from the beginning?"
"No."
Homelander smiled and shook his head, "I decided to kill Wilson before I got that video."
"I already knew the Secretary of Defense had been trying to get rid of me. I ignored him before, but he kept coming after me again and again."
"So what was I supposed to do?"
"I could only get rid of him."
Wilson was dead.
Storm was dead too.
For a moment, Ryan felt completely empty.
He looked up at Homelander, "Are you really my father?"
"No! No! No!"
Homelander hurriedly said, "You don't have to believe Storm about that. Trust me, we're not related."
A trace of disappointment flashed across Ryan's face.
He lowered his head, "They do this on TV all the time. It's okay. I understand."
"Adults don't like having a kid following them around, especially when it's a son who suddenly appears out of nowhere."
Homelander sighed, "You don't have to put it like that. I never said I wouldn't look after you."
Ryan was basically a walking nuclear bomb.
Before, when they didn't know each other and had never met, that was one thing.
But now that the kid was standing right in front of him, Homelander couldn't just dump him somewhere.
Who knew what kind of disaster might happen in the future?
'Still... this development doesn't feel right.'
'Is this turning into a single-dad novel?'
Homelander complained beneath, then patted Ryan on the shoulder, "From now on, don't use those powers unless you absolutely have to."
"I'm going to find you a place to live and someone to take care of you."
"You'll go to school like other kids your age."
"You'll make new friends."
"You might even have your first puppy love. Maybe in a few years you'll even have kids of your own. Hahaha!"
Ryan glanced at him, "Do you really think that's something you should be saying to a kid?"
"I'm only eight. Well... almost nine."
Homelander shrugged.
Ryan finally smiled a little, "So... are we going back now?"
"No. Wait a bit first."
Homelander patted his shoulder, "Stay here for a while."
More than a hundred nautical miles away, aboard the cargo ship that had launched the nuclear missile, Colonel Rodrigues collapsed into a chair in despair.
Then he shouted, "Get the ship moving! Get us out of here!"
"Before that devil realizes what happened."
As he spoke, he glanced at the monitor.
Only Ryan remained on the screen.
Homelander was nowhere to be seen.
Colonel Rodrigues immediately jumped to his feet.
"Where's Homelander? Where did he go?"
At that moment, a tremendous crash sounded over his head.
A hole had been blasted through the ceiling of the cabin.
Sunlight poured down through it like a stage spotlight, illuminating the area in front of them.
Standing in the beam of light, a figure straightened up and smiled.
"Civilians?"
"Civilians carrying a nuclear weapon? Then you must be terrorists."
"In that case..."
"I'll be delivering justice."
As soon as he finished speaking, golden light ignited in his eyes.
A golden beam swept back and forth, cutting the cargo ship apart piece by piece.
Then the engines exploded, sending flames soaring into the sky.
Amid the fire, Homelander flew out and disappeared into the sky.
———
[New York, Chinatown]
Dressed in a plaid shirt and a baseball cap, Homelander rested both hands on Ryan's small shoulders.
"You'll be living here from now on."
Standing before them was a somewhat worn apartment building.
Caitlin, Kimiko and her brother, Levin, and Cindy all lived there.
Now it had another tenant. Ryan.
Homelander rubbed his nose and muttered, "Why do I suddenly feel like I'm collecting superhumans?"
"This apartment building isn't going to turn into a superhuman community, is it?"
He brought Ryan to Cindy's apartment and knocked on the door.
A moment later, the door opened.
Cindy, whose hair had grown back a little, looked surprised.
"Mr. John."
"Mr. John?"
Ryan looked up at Homelander.
Homelander glared at him, "What? That's my name. Don't I get to have a name?"
Ryan gave an "Oh."
Then he held out his hand.
"Hello. My name is Ryan."
Cindy looked confused.
She had no idea why Homelander had brought a child to her door, but she still shook Ryan's hand.
After entering the apartment, Homelander looked around, "How are you settling in here?"
"It's been fine."
Cindy opened the refrigerator, took out two boxes of ice cream, and looked at Ryan.
"Want one?"
Ryan turned to Homelander for permission.
Homelander sighed with a headache, "You can decide for yourself."
"I'm just your guardian, not your father."
"You don't have to ask me about everything."
Only then did Ryan accept the ice cream from Cindy, "Thank you."
Homelander turned on the TV and switched to a cartoon channel.
As Ryan sat eating ice cream and watching cartoons, Homelander called Cindy out onto the balcony, "He's a friend's child."
"I don't have time to take care of him, so I'm leaving him with you for now."
"Treat it as a job I'm assigning you."
"Take good care of him."
"Most importantly, keep an eye on him. Don't let him kill anyone."
Cindy froze. She looked at Ryan in the living room.
"He looks like a good kid to me."
Homelander chuckled and pulled up the video of that "good kid" killing Chimera at the quarantine camp.
After watching it, Cindy looked at Homelander suspiciously, "Are you sure he isn't your son?"
Homelander answered seriously, "No."
Cindy shrugged, "All right. But I'm not very good at taking care of children."
"I can tell."
"You don't have to fuss over him too much."
"Just make sure he eats three meals a day, take him to and from school, and make sure he doesn't lose control."
"If he does lose control, don't try to stop him. Contact me immediately."
Homelander patted her shoulder.
"I'm not looking down on you, but if this good kid goes berserk, I don't think you're a match for him."
Then he took out a bank card, "There's a hundred thousand dollars on it."
"Use it for now. Let me know when it's gone."
Cindy whistled, "Mr. John, you're really rich."
"Don't say that. I just have a tiny bit of money."
Homelander slipped the bank card into Cindy's collar, "So spend it carefully."
"Don't waste it on weird things, like donating to handsome male streamers."
After finishing his instructions to Cindy, Homelander returned to the living room and spread his hands.
"All right, Mr. Ryan."
"From now on, you'll be staying here with Miss Cindy."
"She'll take care of you."
"I'll come visit when I have time."
"If anything comes up, you can contact me directly."
Homelander placed a newly bought phone into Ryan's hand.
Then he pinched his cheek, "And one last thing."
"Eat more vegetables."
[T/N: Don't eat lettuce though guys. I heard it is givng Explosive Diarreah. Stay safe.]
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