To save them or not?

At forty thousand feet, Homelander hovered among the clouds.

His attention was focused entirely on the stricken passenger plane.

Meanwhile, the plane's abnormal turbulence was gradually stirring unrest in the cabin.

An intense sensation of weightlessness hit, and every passenger realized what was happening.

The plane was going to crash.

Some began crying, some prayed, and others clutched their armrests, their faces deathly pale.

Homelander's Super Hearing picked up these sounds with ease. He said nothing, only watched the descending plane, his mind in turmoil.

"Fuck."

He cursed under his breath and darted away, leaving a small sonic boom cloud where he had been.

"Homelander!!" In Maeve's arms, the little girl reached out excitedly. She held a Homelander doll whose gold cape was already worn.

With the hero she worshipped appearing before her, her little face flushed red.

No one paid the little girl any attention.

The turbulence left Maeve struggling to keep her footing, too. Seeing Homelander steadied her a little. "Homelander, the plane's control panel is broken. Hurry, save them!" she urged.

"Save them? How am I supposed to do that?" Homelander's brow furrowed deeper and deeper. He was already in a daze.

"Go hold the plane up!" Maeve shouted anxiously.

As one of the people who knew Homelander best, she knew full well that his extraordinary strength was enough to support the plane.

Countless thoughts flashed through Homelander's mind. At this rate of descent, everyone aboard would be dead within three minutes.

As for holding the plane up, that was completely unrealistic.

To him, the plane was a thin tin can, while he was a steel needle.

One gentle jab would punch him straight through it.

Then everyone would blame him. He had killed the monster; he had failed to protect the passenger plane.

He could already imagine tomorrow's news headlines, all condemning him, and his approval rating plummeting off a cliff.

"Homelander! Hurry, the plane's about to go down!" Maeve shouted with all her strength.

It was so noisy that only by doing this could she barely make herself heard.

The situation was so urgent that Maeve had forgotten the man before her had Super Hearing.

The passengers' screams, Maeve's urging, the plane's alarms-all passed through Homelander's ears.

They intertwined, as chaotic as someone playing a hundred instruments at once.

Homelander stared wide-eyed, his ears seeming to ring.

No, I can't let anyone know the plane crashed because I failed to do my job.

I just need to watch it go down, then tell the media that Vought's intelligence wasn't as good as the Department of Defense's, which was why I arrived too late.

As long as I blame that monster and the White House for refusing to let superheroes into the national defense system, all these problems will resolve themselves.

I'll just let these idiots on the plane die.

Vought can handle the PR afterward. That's what Vought does best.

I just need to take Maeve away... and destroy the black box while I'm at it...

"Fuck!" Homelander cursed irritably, inexplicably unable to move.

Soldier Boy's repeated taunts of "pussy" hammered at his heart. The night three days earlier remained vivid in his mind.

The balcony, the night breeze, the beer, and the foul-mouthed man sitting in a chair.

"Superheroes?" Soldier Boy sneered disdainfully.

"Don't make me fucking laugh. What kind of hero poses for cameras all day? All you can fucking do is act."

"Vought's rotten. They got a bunch of idiots to cosplay as superheroes. Sooner or later, I'm digging out the rotten parts."

The corner of Homelander's eye twitched. The images in his mind grew clearer and clearer. Soldier Boy's face had been flushed with drink, but he had kept right on swearing.

"You don't save people because you became a superhero. You become a superhero because you saved people."

Under the moonlight, Soldier Boy had talked at length about his ideals, swearing all the while.

Homelander fell silent. If he left today and let this plane crash, what would Soldier Boy say?

The answer hardly required any thought.

"Useless fucking coward. You don't even have the guts to save a plane."

"A dog I raised would have more balls than you."

At the thought, Homelander's expression darkened further and further. "Fuck."

Maeve looked at him in confusion, a trace of wariness entering her eyes.

"Homelander, what are you thinking?"

His tone, his expression, and the little movements as he repeatedly glanced outside showed no willingness to save anyone.

At that thought, Maeve held the little girl in her arms tighter.

Homelander did not answer. Instead, he looked into the cabin again.

"Homelander, hurry and save us!"

"Oh God, Homelander, what are you doing?"

"Fuck you, Homelander, and you too, Maeve!"

"Take my daughter down first, please."

With death approaching, everyone in the cabin revealed their true colors.

Homelander looked at the tips of his shoes and lowered his head.

Whatever happens, I'll try first.

There was a whoosh.

Homelander appeared in front of the nose and slammed his entire body against the plane.

Terrifying force erupted, and the entire plane shook violently.

The next instant, the nose buckled, a human-shaped dent appearing in it.

Homelander's expression changed instantly.

No, any more force and I'll punch through the plane. The powerful winds will tear it to pieces in an instant.

"Fuck!" Homelander gritted his teeth, veins bulging. For the first time, he discovered how difficult saving people could be.

Inside the cockpit.

The captain stared at the figure outside the window, utterly stunned. "God... Homelander can definitely save us..."

If the nose won't work, I'll try the wing.

Homelander turned nimbly and flew to the left wing. The plane was banking left.

He wanted to push the wing up and level the plane. Perhaps there would be a chance of a smooth landing.

Using the same method, he pressed his entire body against the underside of the wing, maximizing the area bearing the force.

The moment he pushed, there was a crack. Half the wing broke off, and the powerful winds instantly shredded the broken left wing into tiny fragments that fluttered down.

Inside the cabin, the crying gradually stopped as more and more people saw Homelander through the windows.

They saw the man desperately trying to hold up the plane.

One passenger's phone was casually wedged in a gap between the seats, its recording function capturing this scene from just the right angle.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

On the verge of breaking down, Homelander unleashed a torrent of curses.

He had tried every method he could think of, only to hasten the plane's crash.

The plane was only thirty thousand feet above the ground, its nose tilted downward at nearly forty-five degrees. At most, three minutes remained.

"Maeve, I can't do it. The plane's about to crash."

Homelander returned to stand in the boarding doorway.

The tremendous wind pressure sent his cape whipping wildly.

"How could this happen?" Maeve was dumbfounded, too.

It was the first time she had seen something Homelander could not do, and the first time she had seen him so utterly helpless.

"Then take them down one at a time!"

Maeve grabbed Homelander's arm, her manner slightly pleading.