The Hijacking

"You look well. Things must have been going pretty smoothly for you lately."

In a restaurant, Rorschach glanced at Starlight, who looked much more vibrant than before, then idly moved the food around his plate.

Honestly, the Eight Great Cuisines and a pair of chopsticks were much more to his taste.

But authentic Chinese food was hard to find here. They even served General Tso's Chicken, a "Chinese" dish that wasn't Chinese at all.

Still, he could accommodate her and eat what she liked.

"Yeah. Vought's been swamped lately, so they haven't asked me to change my costume again."

"The one they originally wanted me to wear probably had less fabric than a quarter of my cape."

"It would've been sexy, but I get the feeling you wouldn't have liked it."

Rorschach swirled his wineglass, letting the wine breathe.

Then he drained it in one gulp.

"Yeah. But things have been good lately. When I was signing posters at the sports center, I saw a little girl wearing my costume."

"My heart just melted."

Starlight was in high spirits. Lately, her supervisor, Ashley of the Crisis Public Relations Department, had been gaining more and more authority.

Madelyne had only just given birth, after all. She had work to handle and milk to pump for her baby.

Sometimes she even brought the baby to her office. She was a single mother!

Vought hadn't made a major marketing push out of that, but the bill's progress had been anything but smooth. Shapeshifter hadn't performed as expected.

And as for the person who had barged into the congressman's room with a gun, the Criminal Investigations Division hadn't found a single lead.

With Ashley pushing her forward, Starlight now truly had a chance to shine across the country.

At an upcoming church event, she would get to interact with young people from New York.

She would also give a short speech before Homelander took the stage.

For someone who had grown up immersed in the church, it was a tremendous honor.

Rorschach mainly wanted to know what Vought International had been doing lately. From the sound of it, things were as they appeared: the company was busier, but nowhere near panicked.

Besides, having dinner with someone as lovely as Starlight beat eating with three grown men and a mute.

Especially when the mute grabbed food with her hands and stuffed it into her mouth.

Rorschach had even bought her a pair of chopsticks for nothing.

"Could I come? Maybe bring a few friends?"

"Of course!" Starlight looked surprised by the question. Then, eyes shining, she struggled to get her next words out.

"That thing you do... making people suddenly disappear. Is it a superpower?"

In this land of freedom, a tiny fraction of children were born with "superpowers."

That, of course, was another of Vought's commercial lies.

Those powers also came with bodies many times stronger than ordinary people's.

Starlight was one of them. Back in Iowa, her daily strength training had involved lifting cars and the like.

Most of those children, though, became heroes, signed with Vought International, and embarked on careers in show business.

"Actually... yes. But my body isn't as tough as yours."

Rorschach smiled. He wasn't very good at refusing a young woman's curiosity.

"Then why haven't you signed with Vought? With an ability like yours, we could absolutely be on the same team!"

To be fair, Rorschach was quite handsome—the sort of handsome that appealed to most people.

"I don't really like being in the public eye. Being a hero also means spending an awful lot of time making money."

Rorschach shrugged and continued, "And I'm not exactly short of money."

"But... at least you could set an example."

It took Starlight a while to get those words out.

"If you truly become a symbol and keep helping this world," Rorschach said, his voice tinged with wistfulness, as though something had come back to him, "the world will remember you. You won't need some 'interview' to tell people you're still here."

After they said goodbye at an intersection, Starlight disappeared into the city streets.

Hopefully no idiot thugs bother her today.

With that thought, Rorschach opened his system panel.

"Just as I thought..."

Tomorrow morning, a passenger plane would be hijacked over the Atlantic.

If nothing unexpected happened, Homelander and Maeve would be sent to deal with it.

After all, their image as a "golden duo" still had more appeal than the relatively unknown Stormfront.

And if the operation succeeded, the bill to bring superheroes into the Defense System could recover lost ground. It might even have a chance of passing.

But Rorschach knew it probably wouldn't succeed.

Unlike Superman, the hero he was modeled after, Homelander was a giant man-child with no Bio-Electric Aura.

In other words, he would have no idea how to save an out-of-control plane in those circumstances.

Nor would he string the passengers together in chains like Iron Man had. To him, it would be too much trouble, and the slightest mistake could get someone killed.

But as far as Rorschach was concerned, anyone who chose a course of action had to be ready to accept its consequences.

Join a gang and inject an innocent girl with Compound V, and one day she might gouge out your eyes.

Become a superhero, put yourself in the spotlight, and attract legions of fans, and you had to endure the moment your carefully crafted image fell apart.

But buying a plane ticket to fly west across the Atlantic?

In Rorschach's eyes, that should not be a reason for those people to die.

Their good lives should not be destroyed by a giant man-child.

Looking at the points his efforts had finally earned him—barely enough to redeem what he needed—Rorschach let out a long breath.

"I have to get the timing right..."

Rorschach returned to his place, ignored everyone still hard at work, and poured himself another cup of coffee.

The congressman had been right. Even Rorschach barging into his room with a gun was less frightening than having to rely on Homelander to save him in a crisis.

Many people believed heroes were gods, or perhaps divine messengers.

But those who knew the truth understood that they were only human. Worse, they made no effort to hide their desires.

By morning, Rorschach had finally made up his mind. He strode out into the world.

This choice would probably consume every point he had worked so hard to plan and save up.

At the same time, Homelander and Maeve followed Madelyne into her office.

"Seven minutes ago, a plane flying from Paris to Chicago was hijacked."

"How many hijackers?" Maeve was experienced in this. During many terrorist attacks, that was the first thing she confirmed.

"According to our intelligence, three."

"Under normal circumstances, you shouldn't intervene in incidents outside our borders. But this is a special case, and it isn't on another country's territory."

Madelyne looked at the silent Homelander and spoke gently.

"If this operation succeeds, we may be able to win some people over and get the bill passed."

"Go on, you two. I know you can do it."

Once he was ready and had confirmed that Homelander had departed, Rorschach raised his eyes to the clear blue sky.

The sunlight was a little dazzling, but to Rorschach, that was a good thing.

He pushed off the ground and broke the sound barrier in an instant, flying toward the ocean to the west.

The ground beneath his feet had lost only a little dust.