The Falling Plane

Edgar smiled, an emotionless smile that concealed a viciousness ready to devour its prey.

At his command, a researcher brought up a high-resolution image.

On the left was an adult king cobra. On the right was an enormous creature.

"A snake caught at random in the wild. After three milliliters of Red V, it turned into what you see on the right in ten hours."

Vogelbaum stared at it several times in astonishment, with only one thought in his mind.

Soldier Boy had driven Edgar insane.

At forty thousand feet, fierce winds howled.

Holding Maeve, Homelander finally saw the creature in its entirety.

Both fell silent.

Even with everything they had seen, the sight before them left them too stunned to speak.

It hardly looked like a creature that should exist in nature. A monstrous head slowly emerged from the sea of clouds, its head alone over twenty meters long.

Dark green scales covered its entire body, each nearly the size of a car.

As the beast writhed, its scales reflected a metallic sheen in the sunlight.

Strangest of all was its forehead, where two pitch-black bony horns protruded. They were not long, but they lent its otherwise serpentine appearance some of the majesty of a legendary creature.

From a distance, it looked remarkably like a flood dragon from Eastern mythology.

Maeve could not help swearing. "Fuck, what the hell is that thing?"

Homelander did not answer. Combining his super vision with his X-ray vision, he tried to see what allowed it to fly.

His X-ray vision penetrated its flesh and bones.

Everything was normal. Its internal anatomy was extremely similar to a snake's.

Suddenly, the beast in the clouds made a movement characteristic of king cobras-the sides of its neck abruptly expanded, fully spreading the enormous hood previously concealed against its body.

For an instant, it was as though a green city wall had unfurled across the sky.

Countless black markings appeared across the hood, forming the king cobra's most distinctive "spectacle markings."

But magnified hundreds of times, they were enough to provoke a visceral fear.

The king cobra's slit pupils locked onto Homelander.

"Maeve, it's spotted us," Homelander said softly.

The next instant, a deafening hiss swept across the sky.

Inside the cockpit of the distant passenger plane, alarms blared wildly.

The pilot discovered to his horror that the sound waves were making the entire plane shudder violently.

The king cobra twisted in midair, slowly opening its enormous mouth.

Thick green venom dripped from its fangs, passing through the clouds before the wind scattered it into countless "raindrops."

Seconds later, sizzling sounds of corrosion rose from the ground, along with the screams of unlucky people splashed by the venom.

Its enormous body was not cumbersome. It surged toward Homelander.

"Maeve, I'll get you onto the plane first," Homelander said with a smile.

A sonic boom exploded in the air.

The king cobra saw a blur, and its two prey suddenly became one.

This enraged it further. Homelander licked his lips excitedly and hurtled straight into it at astonishing speed.

Bam!!!

The two collided head-on.

A red-gloved hand struck the top of the king cobra's head.

A fist-sized bloody hole burst open in its head, which snapped backward.

But Homelander felt a trace of resistance as well. Though very faint, it was certainly there.

"Interesting."

The king cobra let out a shrill hiss. Its massive body began thrashing wildly, shredding the entire bank of clouds.

Meanwhile.

Inside the passenger plane's cockpit, half the passengers watched the battlefield outside the windows, while the other half watched Maeve.

"Maeve, I'm scared." Tears streaked a little girl's face.

Maeve smiled faintly and picked her up. "It's okay, sweetheart. Homelander and I will protect you."

As she spoke, she held the girl and pointed out the window.

"Look, Homelander will take care of that monster any second now."

Throughout the cabin, passengers raised their phones to record.

Several men exchanged covert glances. With both Maeve and Homelander here, they had to cancel the hijacking plan!

In the sky.

Homelander lost patience. He planted his hands on his hips, his irises glowing scarlet, like a god.

His heat vision swept across the king cobra, slicing it in half as easily as chopping vegetables.

Inside the cockpit, alarms blared wildly.

"Abnormal turbulence. Oh God, what is that thing?!"

The captain gripped the control stick tightly as the plane shook continuously. The king cobra, over two hundred meters long, was in its death throes, and even the disturbances it caused were enough to affect the passenger plane's flight.

The king cobra's upper half writhed, its lower half having already fallen. It seemed unwilling to die like this, its enormous mouth still open.

Homelander's smile faded slightly. "Oh, still trying to attack when you're dying?"

The night he had spent drinking with Soldier Boy three days earlier flashed through his mind, and he suddenly smiled.

"Old man, I saved a hundred and twenty-three people. You won't yell at me this time, will you?"

The next instant.

His heat vision erupted, two scarlet beams piercing the sky and blasting into the giant snake's open mouth.

Flesh exploded. The king cobra let out a piercing, agonized hiss and finally could no longer hold out. Its remaining upper half lost the power to fly.

It fell, its two fangs simultaneously spraying large quantities of venom.

Homelander puffed out his chest and dodged casually, allowing a little venom to land on him.

"Fuck," he exclaimed.

A single drop landed on his arm, instantly burning through his suit and reaching his skin. It actually stung a little.

But Homelander was more concerned about his cape than whether he was hurt. He turned back nervously to check whether it had been corroded.

Inside Vought's laboratory.

The research director suddenly exclaimed, "The test subject is dead. Homelander appears to be injured!"

Edgar's expression shifted.

On the satellite screen, wisps of smoke could clearly be seen rising from Homelander's arm.

Vogelbaum watched closely for a while. He, too, wanted to know whether a test subject injected with Red V could actually pose a threat to Homelander.

Then he scoffed. "It didn't even burn through Homelander's outermost layer of skin. The Red V project can't deal with that father and son."

Edgar did not respond to the mockery. "This is enough," he said evenly.

"The test subject was just a snake."

"What if a supe were injected?"

Vogelbaum froze, then smiled bitterly. "Do you want to destroy this country?"

Edgar said nothing. He turned and left.

High in the sky, a gust carried some venom onto the passenger plane's exterior, easily burning through its shell and the central control console.

The highest-priority alarms blared wildly as the passenger plane shook violently.

The captain and copilot clung to each other, shouting in despair, "Engine fire! We're going down!"

The plane went out of control, flying diagonally downward.

Homelander realized the problem as well. His cape certainly was not important, but the plane was in trouble.

His pupils constricted slightly as he stared fixedly at the falling passenger plane.

For the first time, Homelander did not think about Vought or the media. There was only one thought in his mind: That old bastard is going to yell me to death.

What should I do?

Homelander kept shaking his head. At the thought of Soldier Boy's disappointed gaze, he could only feel himself struggling to breathe.