Chương 53

Homelander flew into the passage and stopped across from Adam.

"I finally get to show you what the original can do," he said.

"You're nothing but a cheap copy." Adam looked past him. The tunnel divided farther back, giving the rest of the Seven more than one way to reach them. Stormfront and Black Noir should already be nearby. His synchronization had reached about thirty-nine percent. He was close to forty now, and the power inside him no longer felt like something he had to borrow one piece at a time. If the entire Seven attacked here, Adam believed he could fight them. He could kill them as well. Homelander's eyes turned red.

Twin beams crossed the passage. Adam fired his own heat vision, and the attacks struck between them. Red light filled the tunnel as the two beams pushed against each other. Stone melted where the clash drifted near the wall. Heat rolled through the passage and forced Hughie to shield his vision from where he stood. Homelander tried to angle his beam past Adam, but Adam matched every change and kept the attack away from Hughie. Stormfront walked into view behind Homelander.

"This is him?" she asked.

"He doesn't look as dangerous as I expected. Leave some room for me to work." A-Train arrived beside her and lowered himself into a runner's stance. Black Noir waited behind them with his weapons ready. Stormfront looked at A-Train.

"Clear the path and catch the Supe terrorist. Homelander will keep this one busy." A-Train launched himself through the tunnel. He passed the point where the beams met and aimed for the route behind Adam. Adam vanished from his position. His heat vision never left Homelander's beam. Adam appeared in A-Train's path with one arm still turned toward Homelander. His other hand closed around A-Train's throat. A-Train's feet left the ground. His speed ended against Adam's grip before he understood that Adam had moved.

The air behind A-Train reached them a second later and struck the tunnel wall. He kicked at Adam's chest, but each blow failed to move him. Adam held Homelander in the beam clash while suspending A-Train beside him. Hughie pushed himself up from the floor. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Go," Adam told him. Hughie did not wait. He ran toward the passage Butcher had taken. Stormfront stared at Adam. Homelander's expression changed as well. Starlight remained near the wall, caught between the Seven and the man she loved. A-Train grabbed Adam's wrist with both hands and tried to pull free. Adam did not loosen his fingers.

"Where do you think you're going?" Adam asked. A charge built in the tunnel. Adam heard it gathering before Stormfront raised her arms. Starlight saw the electricity forming around Stormfront and still could not decide which side to help. Adam filled his lungs. Stormfront released her lightning. Adam answered with freeze breath. The wind struck everyone in front of him. Homelander slid backward in the air while trying to keep his heat vision steady. Stormfront planted her feet and leaned into the blast.

Ice formed between Adam and the lightning. It spread into a thick barrier across the passage. Stormfront's attack hit the frozen wall and crawled over its surface, but it could not reach Adam. Electricity flashed through the ice and lit Stormfront from below. She increased the current, expecting the barrier to break, yet each damaged layer froze again under Adam's breath. The clash forced frost into every crack along the tunnel. Pieces of ice broke away under the lightning and struck the floor.

Adam kept breathing until the barrier became thick enough to hold. Homelander stared through the glow. Adam had matched his flight and heat vision before. Now he had shown freeze breath and speed fast enough to catch A-Train. The idea that Adam was only a weaker copy no longer fit what stood before him. Adam stopped blowing. The ice barrier remained between him and Stormfront.

"Your turn," Adam said to Homelander. His eyes burned brighter. The pressure behind his heat vision increased, and Homelander's beams began to bend back toward him. Homelander increased his beam. It did not stop the advance. Adam's heat vision broke through and struck Homelander in the chest. The impact threw Homelander along the tunnel. His back hit the ground, and he tore through a section of the floor before stopping. Adam ended his heat vision. A-Train was still trying to escape his grip.

"You wanted to reach Kenji," Adam said.

"Reach him now." He threw A-Train after Homelander. A-Train struck Homelander as he tried to rise. Both men went back into the damaged floor. Black Noir shifted his gun toward Adam, but Stormfront raised an arm before he fired. She watched Adam step around the ice wall and walk toward her. Starlight stayed where she was. She knew Adam had protected Hughie, but the sight of him forcing Homelander and A-Train back left her unable to move. Adam stopped several steps from Stormfront.

"You remind me of someone," he said.

"An old woman who wore another name. She had ties to the Nazis and stood beside the man who helped build Vought at the beginning." Stormfront's expression stiffened. Adam had not said Liberty. He had not said Frederick Vought. He did not need to. Stormfront understood that Adam had connected her current identity to the life Vought had buried from the rest of the world. She looked past him. Homelander was rising from the broken floor. A-Train struggled beside him.

The ice wall still carried the marks of her lightning, and Adam stood without an injury. Stormfront had watched Adam drive several members of the Seven back. A direct fight against him was not one she could win. She had entered the tunnel believing Homelander would control the fight while she hunted Kenji. Homelander had been thrown away. Adam had used A-Train as a weapon, and her lightning had failed to cross his ice. Sweat appeared on Stormfront's face.