The wind in the abandoned industrial district was cold, cutting across the metal structures like a knife and drawing out faint, whimpering sounds.
Butcher breathed slowly, as though deliberately suppressing his emotions. After so many years apart from Becca, the lingering hatred in his heart had long since become a deep obsession with revenge. He had long been ready to abandon everything to settle things with Homelander.
This might be the closest he had ever come to revenge.
Butcher raised his wrist and checked his watch.
Soon. The time he had arranged to meet Homelander was almost here.
The clearing in the distance was the "stage" he had chosen. A faded American flag stood in the middle of the ruins, fluttering slightly in the wind. He had deliberately left it as a marker for his meeting with Homelander.
He muttered, "Come on, you cunt. Let me see if you really are that invincible."
The next second, Butcher heard something slicing through the air in the distance. He instinctively looked up, but could make out nothing clearly. All he saw was a tiny black dot streaking across his field of vision, falling from the sky and slamming into the ground with an instant roar.
It was too fast, so fast that his vision could not even capture its outline.
Butcher's heart clenched. Almost reflexively, he raised his binoculars and aimed them at the American flag on the ground again.
In the instant he had looked up, a man had appeared on the previously empty ground.
Blond hair, hands on his hips, a cape trailing behind him. Even from this far away, Butcher could feel the confidence and composure radiating from him.
Butcher's pupils contracted. "Fuck..."
Only by witnessing Homelander's power firsthand could someone understand just how incredible this sight was.
Beside