The wounded look on Holander’s face vanished the mont he heard his father invite him to dinner.
He even straightened his cape impatiently and followed after Benjamin.
Benjamin stepped out of the RV. As he passed Annie, his steps paused slightly.
Benjamin said, "Wait for at the apartnt, Annie. I’ll co find you tonight."
Annie’s pretty face flushed at the aggressively suggestive hint.
"Yes, sir... I’ll be waiting."
Holander glanced at Annie, clearly not thrilled.
Benjamin and Holander soon left the RV.
After watching the father and son leave, Starlight turned around, looked at Stormfront in the wreckage of the RV, and let out a helpless sigh.
"Well, guess my work’s not done yet."
Muttering to herself, Annie walked over and grabbed Stormfront by the arm, hauling her up like a dead dog.
She needed to get this world-domination wannabe Stormfront to Vought’s secret hospital for ergency treatnt, fast.
...
...
The New York night breeze carried a faint chill threaded with the city’s noise.
Neon lights sliced the skyline into strange, dazzling fragnts.
The father and son had just finished tomahawk steaks at a high-end restaurant, and now they were walking side by side down a relatively quiet street.
Because of the violent clash that had broken out in the RV earlier, the atmosphere between them still held a faint, awkward stiffness.
Holander trailed half a step behind Benjamin with his head lowered, like a kid who had screwed up and was terrified of pissing off his parent again.
Benjamin walked ahead with an unlit cigar between his teeth, his brow slightly furrowed as his mind raced over a troubleso question.
How was he supposed to completely root out Holander’s sick, love-starved personality?
Benjamin knew Holander’s nature all too well.
In the original storyline, Holander’s "giant baby syndro" and "extre lack of love" were practically terminal illnesses buried deep in his bones.
Even as the story moved into Seasons 4 and 5, he kept abandoning his own humanity.
And yet, even at the very end, he still never fully succeeded...
In the end, Holander still had humanity. He still craved love.
Just like Vought International had said.
He could never break free from his humanity.
Originally, toward the later part of Season 4, Holander had seed like he was about to sever his mortal emotions and fully awaken into darkness.
And then what happened?
That low-tier female Supe called "Firecracker" used a dose of motherly, glowing breast milk to force him right back down.
Benjamin realized that Holander’s education had hit a bottleneck.
It had been a long ti since the system had given him a notification that Holander’s education had succeeded.
That ant continuing the transaction, making Holander change again and beco better, was proving difficult...
"John."
Benjamin suddenly stopped, turned his head, and fixed his deep gaze on Holander’s slightly uneasy face.
"Dad, I’m here."
Holander straightened at once.
Benjamin took the cigar from his mouth. His tone was no longer as cold as before. Instead, it carried the weary clarity of soone who had seen too much.
"You need to understand sothing, John. The world has never been black and white."
"So people will love you because you saved them. But there will always be people who envy you, fear you, or even hate you for no damn reason just because you’re powerful. Otherwise, where the hell do you think internet trolls co from? I’ve been through all of it..."
Benjamin continued, "You can’t build your self-worth on the poll numbers of a bunch of stupid civilians. You have to let go of that sick obsession with making the entire world love you unconditionally."
Holander froze where he stood and said nothing.
Confusion flickered in his bright blue eyes.
Let go of the obsession?
He didn’t need everyone’s love?
To him, that was as impossible to understand as telling a fish to leave the water and breathe air.
Benjamin did not care whether Holander understood right away.
He turned around, his back to New York’s glittering nightscape, and left him with two lessons.
"Rember this. Love is mutual."
"If you want soone’s real love, then you need to learn how to love others, and how to respect life."
After saying that, Benjamin paid no further attention to Holander, who had sunk into a storm of thought.
He casually tossed the cigar into a trash can and strode into the darkness at the street corner.
In his luxury apartnt, a blonde, blue-eyed beauty nad Starlight, dressed in a white-and-gold Supersuit, was waiting for him under the warm covers so he could burn off his excess energy.
"Love... is mutual?"
On the empty street, Holander stood alone beneath the streetlight, repeating those words over and over.
A breeze stirred the Stars and Stripes cape behind him.
In the thirty-plus years he had grown up inside Vought Labs, the scientists in white coats had taught him how to kill, how to use his Superpowers, how to gain other people’s love, how to fake a smile in front of the caras, and how to maintain his approval ratings...
But not a single person had ever told him that love was mutual.
Holander felt as if a slit had been torn open in his brain.
So emotion he had never experienced before was quietly sprouting inside that wound.
He did not imdiately fly back to Vought Tower. Instead, like an ordinary person, he walked aimlessly down the broken suburban road, step by step, thinking over what his father had said.
...
...
The night grew deeper, and the suburban streets beca utterly desolate.
Just as Holander was completely lost in his father’s lesson.
"Help! Please... don’t co any closer!"
A woman’s shrill, desperate plea suddenly tore through the night sky and reached Holander’s sharp ears with perfect clarity.
Before he t Benjamin, Holander would not have so much as lifted an eyelid for so mortal’s cry for help, as long as there were no caras or dia around.
Holander quickly headed toward the sound.
About two blocks away, in a pitch-black, filthy dead-end alley.
Under the faint moonlight, two drunken, tattoo-covered pieces of human trash had cornered a heavily pregnant woman against the wall.
"Run, you filthy bitch! The fuck happened? Thought you could run!"
One of them, a bulky bald man, pulled a switchblade from his waistband and waved it across the pregnant woman’s pale face. His eyes glead with disgusting lust.
"Now take your clothes off. Right fucking now! Or I’ll kick that little bastard in your belly to pieces!"
At those vicious words, the pregnant woman went weak with terror. She clutched her swollen belly in despair as tears stread down her face.
"Heh, gotta say, boss, this hot little momma with the big belly’s got a different kind of flavor than those skinny street sluts."
The other man, his face covered in pockmarks, licked his lips and let out a filthy laugh.
The two of them kept threatening her, and the beautiful woman kept sobbing.
"Just fucking with you, bitch!"
The bald man’s face suddenly twisted with malice.
"I think I’ll kick that kid in your belly to mush right now! Then I’ll squeeze out so shampoo and make you service while you bleed and scream! Hahaha!"
...
...
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