Chapter 56: Making Holander Pack a Gun
When Benjamin returned to Vought headquarters, Holander had also just gotten back from Becca’s secret community. Tonight, Holander was in an exceptionally good mood, a bright smile plastered across his face.
However, the Vought executives who crossed paths with him along the way all quickened their steps, trying to get as far away as possible. In their collective experience, the happier Holander looked, the more it usually signaled impending doom. Nobody could tell whether his joy was genuine or a complete facade.
Holander walked straight into his office. He had a magnificent ti playing with his son, Ryan, today. Honestly, if it weren’t for that bitch Becca constantly nagging Ryan to go to sleep, he would have gladly stayed inside that little cottage for the entire night.
"My son is a literal angel..." Holander poured himself a glass of milk, murmuring to himself. He had already drawn up a roadmap in his mind. The next ti he went to see his son, he absolutely had to bring him the latest iPhone! Right, and so high-quality milk—milk is good for kids, packed with nutrients. Goat’s milk would work too, or if Ryan ever needed it, he could procure so high-quality breast milk. He wanted to shower Ryan with the absolute best things the world had to offer.
But at the sa ti, Holander was intensely dissatisfied with Becca. He utterly loathed the way she raised the boy! She was actually raising a boy who carried his and Benjamin’s bloodline in a greenhouse like so fragile little girl! It was completely unforgivable!
"Ryan is a lion cub, not a house cat." Holander downed the glass of milk in one go, licked his lips, and said slowly, "I have to find a way to train his powers myself. I need to teach him how to fly..."
Right as Holander was lost in these beautiful plans for his son’s future upbringing, the office door was pushed open. Benjamin walked in, throwing sr’s phone onto the desk right in front of Holander with a sharp clatter.
"We have results on Translucent’s death."
Holander blinked in surprise. As his gaze swept across the photographs, finally locking onto the fierce-looking man with a thick beard, his pupils contracted slightly. Very quickly, the mories began to connect—the party eight years ago, the recent race between A-Train and Shockwave... it was that exact face staring back at him.
"William Butcher..." Holander stared dead at the photo, realization dawning on him. "He’s Becca’s husband... ex-husband."
The entire chain of logic finally clicked into place! There was no terrorist attack at all. Translucent had been killed by this re mortal. And the sole reason Butcher and his little crew targeted Vought and murdered Translucent was to get revenge on him—Holander!
"The ss your goddamn dick got you into has turned into a real fucking problem," Benjamin said.
"I’ll handle it. He’s just a goddamn mortal," Holander said slowly, his eyes gradually lighting up. He knew exactly how to screw with that goddamn Becca now. He kind of wanted to drag Butcher straight to Becca’s cottage and make him look at his and Becca’s son with his own eyes... and then threaten Becca using Butcher’s life. At the thought, Holander let out another smirk.
Benjamin had no idea what was running through Holander’s head. He stood up, walked over to the desk, and suddenly did sothing Holander found utterly incomprehensible. From the holster at his waist, he pulled a pitch-black, large-caliber M1911 pistol—the exact sa model he always carried.
Clack. Benjamin laid the gun gently in front of Holander. "Take this," Benjamin said flatly. "For self-defense."
Holander: ?
Staring at the pistol on the desk, Holander was completely dumbfounded. "Self-defense?" Holander pointed at himself. "Are you fucking kidding ? I’m Holander! The most powerful Supe on earth, and you’re handing a pistol for self-defense?!"
Benjamin nodded. "Yeah. Not only that, you carry it on you at all tis. Don’t lose it."
Holander was utterly perplexed.
"Looks like you still haven’t completely figured out what kind of power your old man actually awakened."
"You only know that on the day Edgar sent those Supes to ambush , a blast equivalent to a mini nuclear bomb detonated at the scene, right?"
Holander froze, then nodded. When he had first arrived, the signs of a massive explosion were glaringly obvious.
"That’s the new power those goddamn Ruskies awakened in after running decades of inhumane radiation experints on my body," Benjamin explained slowly. "It’s not just a regular explosion."
"Any Supe caught in my nuclear blast—if they’re a weak piece of trash—will completely disintegrate in an instant. But what if they’re a top-tier Supe with an incredibly resilient build who can tank the explosion?"
"My blast radiation will vaporize the Compound V right out of their blood. aning, anyone hit by it will instantly lose all their superpowers. They turn into a regular mortal."
Holander’s mind went completely blank. Lose his superpowers and turn into a mortal?! Give a fucking break... Holander couldn’t even begin to fathom what he would be like without his powers. Everything he had right now was built entirely on his superpowers. Despite being tortured like a dog throughout his childhood, there was no way in hell Holander would ever give up his powers to beco an ordinary human.
Benjamin looked at the shell-shocked Holander and said, "So, have you ever considered that aside from , there might be other thods in this world to wipe the Compound V out of your body? Or say, when we’re fighting enemies, what if my nuclear blast accidentally clips you...?"
"Also, I’d suggest that along with packing a gun, you keep a dose of Compound V handy. If you ever get caught in my blast, re-injecting Compound V can restore your powers, though it might take a little ti to kick in."
Holander finally understood what Benjamin ant. This was an insurance policy Benjamin was handing him. If one day he fell from his lofty altar and turned into a powerless cripple, the pistol would be his weapon for self-defense, and the Compound V would be his tool to reclaim his power. Holander reached out his hand, wrapping his fingers around the cold steel of the pistol.
Right then, Stormfront started blowing up Benjamin’s cell phone again. Benjamin glanced down at the screen, clapped Holander on the shoulder, and said, "Anything can happen. Even we aren’t completely invincible in this world. Be careful—exceptionally careful. Learn from your old man."
With that, the image of the original show’s finale where Butcher cracked Holander’s skull open flashed across Benjamin’s mind. To put it bluntly, if he’d had a gun or a dose of Compound V handy, things wouldn’t have gone down that pathetically.
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A/N: Want to know what happens next? You can read up to 20 Chapters ahead on my p@tr~on:
/ForgottenDaoist (@ = a, link is in my profile).
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