The next day.
Hughie's room.
"Ah—"
Hughie jolted awake in bed.
He immediately tore off his shirt under the astonished gazes of the other members of The Boys and began frantically feeling himself up, checking for the nonexistent gunshot wound.
"How could this be?!"
"How could it be gone?!"
"Annie, did you sneak off to the little woods outside the hotel last night?!"
Hughie demanded with certainty.
"Hughie, what the hell are you talking about?!"
Starlight's voice trembled as she spoke. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought she was shaking with anger.
"But I saw it with my own eyes!"
Hughie pressed on relentlessly.
"I..."
Starlight could barely get the words out.
At that moment—
Leon stepped forward to explain on Starlight's behalf. "Hughie, my friend, as a real man, you should trust Annie."
"Annie was actually with me the whole time last night. I can vouch for her."
The moment those words came out—
Not only Hughie, but the rest of The Boys were dumbfounded. Even Starlight herself, one of the people involved, was stunned.
They all turned their equally shocked yet differently motivated gazes toward Leon.
Wait, bro?!
You just said that out loud?!
However—
What happened next was beyond their expectations—
Leon gestured for Arcee, who was parked outside the hotel, to drive over automatically. He had her hover outside the window and project footage of him seriously teaching Starlight how to use her powers.
But the location wasn't the little woods. It was the secluded underground parking lot with surveillance cameras where Leon had first summoned Arcee and the Soldier Boy Suit.
And in the footage—
Other than the unavoidable fact that Leon and Starlight had been standing rather close while training her powers, they were completely aboveboard. There had been no unnecessary movements