The Boys

The spatial rift closed inside an abandoned warehouse.

Starlight steadied herself, light flaring in her palm. Reinforced concrete walls surrounded them, junk was piled in the corners, and the hanging lights swayed with a buzzing hum.

Something was wrong.

Chu Hang's clone stood in the middle of the warehouse, his hands tucked into his trench coat pockets. Benjamin stood behind him, his shadow stretching over two meters across the floor.

"Didn't you say we were intercepting Homelander?"

Starlight turned her head.

"Why did you bring us here?"

Footsteps came from deeper inside.

Seven or eight people emerged from the shadows. At the front was a man with short stubble, a black trench coat, and eyes as sharp as knives. He held a shotgun in his right hand, its barrel aimed at Chu Hang.

"Don't move."

The people behind him raised their weapons as well. Assault rifles, crossbows, and a bespectacled young man clutching a remote, his finger resting on a red button.

Starlight stepped back, energy gathering in her palm.

"Who are you?"

"The Boys," the stubbled man said. "We specialize in killing tight-suited freaks like you."

He stared at Starlight, his eyes filled with hatred. It was not hatred directed at one person, but hatred for all superpowered people.

Starlight had met people who disliked superpowered people, but she had never seen hatred this pure.

Chu Hang's clone ignored the gun barrel and looked at the man.

"Billy Butcher."

Butcher narrowed his eyes. "You know me?"

"Of course. A man seeking revenge for his wife."

Butcher's face darkened, and he pulled the trigger.

The buckshot stopped in midair.

Every pellet hung thirty centimeters in front of Chu Hang, completely motionless. Butcher froze for a second, then fired twice more. The second and third blasts of buckshot also halted in