Homelander stepped into the private elevator first. Half an hour later, on the helipad atop Vought Tower, enormous rotors roared, whipping up fierce winds. A heavy tactical helicopter stood ready to accommodate the members who could not fly.
Lucian glanced at the coordinates sent through Vought's internal communications channel on his phone: offshore in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly forty nautical miles from the New York coastline. A note indicated that Deep had already arrived to patrol those waters.
At the same moment, offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.
A white yacht cruised at a steady twelve knots.
In the lower cabin, Frenchie held a can of Homelander-branded energy drink in one hand and a bag of tomato-flavored chips in the other as he cautiously approached Kenji, who was tightly bound with tape.
"Have something to eat." Frenchie made a few clumsy signs. He had learned them from Kimiko. Kimiko cared deeply about her younger brother, and Frenchie cared about Kimiko, so he had to find a way to ease tensions with this extremely dangerous superhuman. After all, they had only just abducted him by force.
"Hey, I know you must hate our guts." Frenchie offered him the drink and chips. "But your sister... she's worried about you."
Kenji turned his head away, completely ignoring the attempt to win him over.
Frenchie made two more signs, roughly meaning "I'm a friend." Kenji's lips moved, forming a silent word. Frenchie could not read lips, but the contemptuous expression gave him his answer.
Rejection. Utter rejection.
"...All right." Frenchie stood, casually setting the opened can on the cabin floor beside the chips. "Call me if you get hungry."
The footsteps faded.
The cabin door closed.
Kenji sat motionless the entire time. Five minutes later, he shifted position, aiming his hands, bound behind his back,