If the nearly thousand fully armed troops were a long string of firecrackers, Homelander's words were the fuse that lit them.
The fuse burned quietly for a moment, then exploded, brutally tearing apart every semblance of calm around them.
"Lucas is a fake?"
"It's a trap! I saw Lucas himself last week. He didn't look like he was made of silicone."
"Are your fucking heads on backward, the big one and the little one? Homelander means a double."
"What double could pull off Lucas's sleaziness?"
"Shit, this smells like a conspiracy..."
"Are you dumb fucks? Homelander's obviously bullshitting. Look at that smile, like a fake chrysanthemum."
Amid the uproar of discussion, most of them secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed they wouldn't have to risk their lives.
These special forces members had all undergone rigorous training. The counterterrorism procedures they had learned were already etched into their bones.
In principle, when faced with terrorists who dared invade the White House, they should all empty their magazines, then bombard the corpses with mortars, leaving no chance for even their cells to regenerate.
So when Homelander flew down carrying that blood-soaked commander and blew up a flashbang with his Heat Vision, they should have answered with the heaviest possible barrage.
But every rule and every regulation had to make way for a top superhero.
The "Northern Hemisphere Sighting Incident" from a few days earlier, which had looked as if it could pierce the universe, was still vivid in their minds.
Homelander's oppressive presence had long since sunk deep into their hearts.
Soon, under the deliberate direction of the various sergeants major and squad leaders, the discussion gradually subsided, then fell silent.
The federal lieutenant colonel's expression shifted. Of course she knew everything Homelander said was a lie.
She turned