"Hey! Where are you going!?"
Starlight watched the Deep suddenly flee, her eyes filled with confusion.
"I just remembered..."
"I have an underwater meet-and-greet. I can't keep the fish waiting."
The Deep babbled nonsense. He didn't care what he was saying; all he cared about was getting away from the damn demon in front of him as quickly as possible.
"What!?"
Starlight was a little confused. The Deep had just said he'd show her around the Seven's headquarters, and now he was leaving?!
"You're Starlight, right?"
Before Starlight could keep questioning the Deep, Jupiter 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. You're Free Man."
Starlight looked Jupiter up and down, then covered her mouth and exclaimed.
"So you know who I am."
Jupiter smiled faintly.
Vought really was efficient. They'd only filmed the promo that morning, and by the afternoon it had already been edited and uploaded to all the major websites. Meanwhile, all the ads featuring The Invisible Man had been taken down and replaced with ones featuring Jupiter.
"Of course I know you. Are you really faster than A-Train and tougher than the Invisible Man?"
Starlight asked Jupiter excitedly.
"Of course."
Jupiter nodded.
"Would you like to see my powers?"
Jupiter suddenly thought of something and asked Starlight.
"What did you say?"
Starlight's heart was pounding, and she clearly couldn't understand what Jupiter meant.
"Come with me..."
Jupiter wore a sunny smile. Without waiting to see whether Starlight understood, he slipped an arm around her slender waist.
"What are you doing!?"
Starlight jumped in surprise when Jupiter suddenly pulled her into his arms.
She looked up at Jupiter's handsome face, blushing slightly. He was handsome and strong, and radiated confidence—the perfect embodiment of everything she'd fantasized about in a future boyfriend. But that didn't mean she was easy, or that any handsome man could just pull her into his arms.
"Don't blink!"
Jupiter ignored Starlight's struggles, keeping his smile.
"Boom..."
The next second, a gust of wind roared as Jupiter carried Starlight out through the window he'd opened ahead of time.
"Oh my God..."
Starlight had been struggling, but when she looked down at the traffic below, she clung tightly to Jupiter and pressed her cheek against his chest. Now, no matter who told her to let go, she absolutely would not release him.
"Let's go a little higher."
Jupiter carried Starlight above the clouds...
"So beautiful..."
Starlight gazed at the blue sky, the white clouds, and the setting sun. She looked entranced. Everything before her seemed unreal, as beautiful as an oil painting.
"Whoosh..."
Just as Starlight was gazing at the beautiful scenery and gaining a fresh appreciation for the grandeur of nature, a white passenger plane sliced through the clouds and headed toward them.
"Heh, looks like we're in luck."
Jupiter smiled faintly at the plane.
"What?"
Only after hearing Jupiter's voice did Starlight's dazed mind start working again.
"Come on, relax. Smile and wave at the passengers through the windows. Say hello to the people we're protecting."
Jupiter patiently taught Starlight how to be a proper superhero: whenever she met people, she had to smile.
"Oh, okay!"
At Jupiter's words, Starlight immediately flashed the kind of sweet, airheaded smile typical of Free Nation and waved gently at the plane's windows.
"It's a superhero..."
"It's Free Man and Starlight, the Seven's new members! Oh my God, Free Man really can fly!"
"Take a picture! Take a picture!"
The passengers, who had been yawning as they watched the scenery outside, immediately pulled out their phones and snapped away when they spotted Jupiter and Starlight.
A few seconds later, the plane passed Starlight and Jupiter and continued on its way...
"Come on, I'll show you around."
Before Starlight could recover from the joy of greeting people as a superhero for the first time, Jupiter put an arm around her and took off through the clouds again...
An hour later, the two of them gently touched down in front of the Vought Tower.
"Oh my God, that was my first time—my first time flying. I mean, not flying in a plane, but actually floating through the air like something out of a dream..."
"I saw the clouds and the birds. The sun didn't seem so far away anymore!"
Outside Vought Tower, Starlight clung tightly to Jupiter, bursting with excitement. She felt as though her heart was about to leap out of her chest.
"Haha, I know. I was just as excited the first time I flew. But, lovely Miss Starlight, could you get off me now? I don't mind, but..."
Jupiter glanced around, indicating that a crowd had gathered around them.
"Oh, of course, haha. I was just a little excited, you know..."
At his words, Starlight immediately hopped down from Jupiter. She looked at the people around them, blushing and feeling a little embarrassed.
"I understand."
Jupiter graciously showed that he understood.
"Um, thanks for taking me up into the sky. I never even dreamed I'd get to do that. Thank you..."
Starlight clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward slightly. Her tight suit outlined her graceful figure, putting it fully on display before Jupiter.
"Don't mention it. We're teammates. It's our duty to show our teammates what we can do."
Jupiter said it was only what he should do, and there was no need to thank him.
"No, no, I still have to thank you!"
Starlight waved her hands at Jupiter's words.
"I mean, we could grab coffee sometime, have breakfast or lunch together, go shopping, catch a movie..."
The more Starlight said, the more she realized she was getting off track. Her face turned as red as a ripe apple.
"Oh my God! I don't have many friends, really, hardly any. I'm not very good at this, and I don't really know how to invite people..."
Starlight covered half her face with one hand. She didn't quite have the courage to look at Jupiter, feeling like she was making a complete fool of herself.
"Of course! Why wouldn't we? We're going to be partners from now on."
"We'll be working together, so we'll have plenty of time to get coffee, eat together, watch movies, and do anything else we want."
Jupiter turned toward Starlight and gave her a smile as warm as the sunshine above.
"Oh, of course. We can definitely..."
"Do anything we want together."
After saying that, Starlight walked toward the elevator, her cheeks flushed and her mind elsewhere.
"Heh..."
Jupiter watched Starlight's retreating figure, which looked drunk despite her not having touched a drop, and chuckled softly.
Jupiter knew that, thanks to the suspension-bridge effect of flying through the air, Starlight had probably mixed up all the hormones her body had released and mistaken the resulting feelings for attraction to him. Of course, that was exactly what he'd planned.
Until Homelander finally broke free of his inner restraints and went on a killing spree, Jupiter needed something to keep him occupied. Nothing made a better little appetizer than sweet, naïve Starlight.
As for the brainless Deep, with no charm and no talent beyond fucking fish—motherfucker, in a few days people would see the superhero Deep rotting in a sewer.
Why a sewer, you ask? Because Jupiter thought a sewer was the only fitting resting place for rotten fish and shrimp.
Before you continue