Chapter 66: Holander Gets Angry Again
In the night sky, the cold wind howled. Holding Ryan in his arms, Holander streaked through the clouds like a teor, flying rapidly toward Vought’s secret community.
Along the way, Ryan buried his face deep in Holander’s cape. The little guy had lost the excitent he’d felt on the way out, his clear blue eyes now filled with a timid, fragile anxiety.
"I’m sorry, Dad," Ryan muttered, clutching Holander’s suit tightly, his voice timid. "I shouldn’t have cried about wanting to co back. Back at the barbecue joint... did I embarrass you and Grandpa?"
Hearing his son’s apology, Holander’s expression softened instantly.
"Don’t say silly things, son." Holander shook his head, extending his broad palm to gently pat Ryan’s back, his tone tinged with self-reproach. "I didn’t think things through. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have brought you to a place crowded with so many eyes, scaring you like that."
Hearing that Holander didn’t bla him, Ryan’s anxiety finally eased. But he quickly beca conflicted again. Earlier, because the crowd had terrified him, his instinct had been to flee back to his familiar "ho." But now, looking down once more at the gated community locked behind those soaring concrete walls, he rembered his mother’s deceptive lies.
"Dad..." Ryan lifted his head into the night wind, asking in a low whisper. "Will you... will you still take out again? To see other places?"
"Of course," Holander replied, his lips curling into a brilliant, fond smile. "Whenever you want, buddy. Don’t forget, you have a phone now. Just call , and wherever you want to go, Daddy will take you."
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A few minutes later, in the yard of the cottage.
Becca sat slumped on the cold lawn in absolute despair. Her eyes were red and swollen, her fingers gripping those scissors tightly. As the minutes ticked away, the dread in her heart deepened. She didn’t trust that devil Holander to keep a single word of his bullshit promise. If Holander didn’t return Ryan tonight, she had already resolved that even if she had to risk her life to break out of the community, she would hunt down her son.
Right as Becca was on the verge of a total breakdown, a sudden rush of air swept down from above. Becca looked up to see the man in the Star-Spangled suit stick a perfect landing in the middle of the yard. Safe in his arms was Ryan, completely unhard.
"Mom!" The mont his feet touched the ground, Ryan squird out of Holander’s arms and sprinted straight into Becca’s embrace.
"My baby boy! Oh God, my sweet boy!" Becca squeezed Ryan with everything she had, her tears instantly breaching all floodgates. She showered Ryan’s hair and cheeks with kisses, her voice thick with lingering terror. "I’m sorry... Mommy is so sorry, baby. Mommy failed to protect you..."
Standing a few steps away, Holander watched Becca coldly.
"Becca," Holander adjusted his cape, his tone dripping with mockery. "Don’t you dare go around telling people I don’t keep my word. I said I’d bring my son back after barbecue. He wanted to co back, so I brought him back."
At the sound of his voice, Becca lifted her tear-streaked face. Though shocked that he had actually brought Ryan back, her expression remained intensely hostile.
"If you genuinely loved Ryan, you would stay the fuck away from him forever! Your presence is only going to ruin him!"
Hearing Becca preach at him from her moral high ground yet again, Holander’s temper flared instantly. He rembered her implication from earlier that he wasn’t a normal human being. By her logic, he didn’t even deserve to be a father! He shouldn’t have even co looking for Ryan!
But by what goddamn right?! It was Vought International! It was Madelyn! They were the ones who conspired to hide his son away, systematically stripping him of his right to be a father for eight fucking years!
Holander’s face remained blank, but the depths of his eyes flared with a volcanic rage, instinctively beginning to glow crimson.
"Mom! Stop it!" Ryan, still clutched in Becca’s arms, suddenly cried out loudly. The little guy squird out of his mother’s embrace, spun around, and shouted, "Dad’s a good guy! He didn’t bully , he took flying, and he even bought a phone! You’re not allowed to yell at him anymore!"
At Ryan’s defense, the volatile crimson glow in Holander’s eyes flickered before rapidly ebbing away, returning to their natural deep blue. Holander leveled a long, hard look at Becca and Ryan, then bent his knees slightly. With a resonant boom, he launched skyward, vanishing into the vast dark within a split second.
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Watching Holander fly away, Becca’s tightly strung nerves finally slackened.
"Ryan, listen to Mommy..." Becca pulled her son close, her voice urgent. "He isn’t a good man at all. He is an absolute monster, a psycho. He just wants to steal you away and corrupt you! We live hidden in this place specifically to keep you away from him forever..."
But Ryan violently shrugged off Becca’s hand. Looking at his mother with a mix of deep confusion and disappointnt, the little guy took two paces back. His dad had been nothing but great to him, hadn’t mocked his ignorance of the outside world, and had held him securely when he was terrified. So why did his mother keep lying to him inside this "fake world" and talking trash about his dad behind his back?
Taking in her son’s untrusting glare, Becca’s heart sank into an absolute abyss. She let out a heavy sigh, her hands dropping uselessly to her sides. She knew Ryan had already been completely manipulated by Holander; nothing she said would break through to him now. She would have to wait until he was a bit older to lay out the brutal, unvarnished truth of how that monster had assaulted her years ago...
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Elsewhere, though Ryan’s defense had stopped Holander from exploding at the house, a toxic rage still simred inside him. He rocketed through the New York night sky at hypersonic speeds, his eyes clouded with a volatile confusion.
"Goddamn Madelyn..." Holander grew increasingly furious the more he dwelled on it. He felt like the first half of his life had been a pathetic joke back when he thought he had no father and no son.
But Madelyn had already been executed by his own Heat Vision, and Vogelbaum had his neck snapped by his father, Benjamin. They were already rotting corpses; who the hell was left for him to vent his fury on?
Then, a sudden spark ignited in Holander’s brain. He thought of his father, Soldier Boy. Whenever Soldier Boy was in a bad mood, he usually just went and beat the shite out of soone. Actually, scratch that—even when the man was in a good mood, if he felt like cracking skulls, he just did it.
I can do that too...
But who was left to act as his punching bag? Before long, an answer surfaced. Hovering in mid-air, he pulled out his phone and fired off a text. Then, altering his vector, he flew at maximum velocity toward a highly classified safehouse nestled in the New York suburbs.
Pushing open the safehouse door, the interior was dimly lit. Kneeling on the carpet, trembling uncontrollably in a corporate suit, was a short-blonde woman. It was Madelyn Stillwell.
"Madelyn" remained on her knees, lifting her head to look up at Holander as he strode inside, his face entirely devoid of emotion.
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A/N: Don’t forget to send Power Stones for more Chapters!!
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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