Glass fell like guillotine blades toward the street below.
The cause? Homelander's body. The sheer force of his casual stride through the window.
A taxi waiting for passengers sat directly in the debris field. Tempered glass slammed through the roof with the weight of a falling anvil, shearing the vehicle cleanly in half.
The driver never had time to scream. The glass edge caught him at eye level.
Red and white matter exploded across the side window. The screaming started immediately after.
Homelander stepped out of Vought Tower like he was descending a staircase, hovering in midair. He looked down at the panicked crowd below with the detached interest of a god observing ants.
A bright, sunny smile spread across his handsome, all-American features. His eyes remained ice-cold.
The truth was simple: Homelander despised ordinary people. Powerless. Weak. Beneath him. He only maintained the facade because of his identity as America's protector, the same way Stormfront hid her racism behind a thousand-watt smile.
Homelander's arrogance was bred into his bones.
From his elevated position, the panicked crowd looked like performers in a stage play. The chaos soothed his earlier irritation considerably.
If it goes undetected, he thought idly, it was probably terrorists.
His gaze rose. X-ray vision activated, scanning through steel and concrete to a high-floor office where Madelyn Stillwell would already be mobilizing damage control.
Madelyn will handle everything.
His fists clenched. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed.
Then Homelander bent his legs slightly and kicked off from nothing.
The red and blue figure shattered the sound barrier instantly, shooting skyward in a violent sonic boom that rattled windows across three city blocks.
Inside Vought Tower, a cluster of executives stood before the shattered window frame, making absolutely certain Homelander had vanished into the distance before they dared speak.
"My God, has Homelander gone completely insane?"
"Come on, everyone in this building knows he's always been like this."
"I heard A-Train also killed a civilian this morning. PR is going to be very busy."
"Shh! Be careful! Don't let him hear you!"
Nobody mentioned the civilian who'd died. Nobody discussed how much the incident would cost Vought. It was all commonplace.
Compensation settlements, infrastructure repairs—none of it amounted to what a single superhero appearance earned. The legal department would silence the victim's family. Public outrage would fade in a few days. Ordinary people and the internet had goldfish memories.
Business as usual.
Beneath Mind Network's omnidirectional coverage, Jordan Evans frowned as if he'd witnessed Homelander's actions firsthand.
Unprovoked brutality. A man dead because Homelander sensed a threat. Not confirmed danger. Not an actual attack. Just the possibility of surveillance.
This cold-hearted nature, this casual disregard for human life—it was exactly what Jordan had expected.
As expected, Jordan thought darkly. Typical corporate practice. Living up to the reputation.
At that moment, Homelander soared into the sky, super-senses extended to maximum range, conducting a thorough sweep of New York to find whoever was spying on him.
Watching the other man's irritable behavior—like someone who'd just discovered his girlfriend of three days had cheated on him at a bar—Jordan cracked his neck twice.
[Hello. Are you looking for me?]
The message carrying Jordan's sincere greeting flowed through Mind Network toward Homelander's consciousness, but the moment it touched his biomagnetic field, automatic resistance kicked in. The electronic signal couldn't penetrate.
Telepathy wouldn't work easily on this one.
Having failed to deliver his greeting, Jordan shrugged. Even a discount Superman is still Superman. Not surprised.
"In that case, let's be direct."
Jordan clenched his fist. His heart began to race like a power plant coming online.
Between expansion and contraction, energy comparable to a sustained nuclear reaction surged through his cardiovascular system, flooding every cell with raw power.
The next moment, natural energy passively absorbed by his body combined with the internal reserves. Pure Sage Chakra crystallized from the fusion.
Within seconds, faint dark green eyeshadow appeared around Jordan's eyes.
Sage Mode activated.
The explosive energy pushed aside surrounding air, creating a deafening thunderclap. Blue spiritual flames erupted from his body like particle effects from a Super Saiyan transformation, spreading across his form in crackling waves.
To show respect for Homelander, Sage Jordan makes his debut.
With Sage Chakra enhancement, power several orders of magnitude beyond his base state roared through every cell. As psychic energy and electromagnetic fields layered over the enhancement, the almost rampaging power stabilized and returned to complete control.
Jordan glanced down at his casual jacket and jeans. Something felt missing.
In the distance, Homelander—transformed into a red and blue streak—completed his scan of half of New York. His enhanced hearing caught the sound of Jordan's transformation. His flight trajectory changed instantly, angling toward Jordan's position with a trail of sonic boom clouds marking his passage.
Oh. I understand.
After tracking Homelander's approach, Jordan realized what he was missing.
As the distance between them closed rapidly, he calmly spread his arms.
A complex force field structure, precise down to the cellular level, constructed itself starting from his chest. The transformation mimicked nano-armor technology, extending and covering his entire body like flowing mercury.
Unlike the gold and red spider-armor he'd worn before, this time Jordan manifested a jet-black, form-fitting suit. Interlocking woven patterns across the material reflected metallic hardness in the sunlight.
A dark red force field cloak extended backward from the chest seam, billowing like flames in wind.
Dark gold lightning patterns adorned the belt, wrist guards, and other sections—dazzling bolts piercing darkness on a stormy night. They highlighted the wearer's powerful muscle definition while adding raw energy to the dark-toned aesthetic.
Obviously a high-quality counterfeit Superman black suit. Except the large "S" on the chest had been replaced with a "J" rendered in radiating lightning bolts.
More unrestrained. More wild. Perfectly complementing the lightning patterns across the armor.
As Jordan finished his transformation, Homelander locked onto him—a figure that absolutely should not be hovering in open sky—and accelerated.
The blond, blue-eyed American icon executed a sudden stop that defied physics, positioning himself opposite Jordan.
Pressure differential from high-speed flight created powerful airflow that made both their capes snap and flutter violently. Their hairstyles remained perfectly intact, styled like shaped wire.
Two figures hung in the sky above New York City. One in red, white, and blue. The other in black and dark gold.
Superman versus Superman.
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