140. Chapter 140: Is Stormfront Liberty? (Bonus Chapter!)
"Whoa! Are you planning to blow up The Pentagon? If you wanna die, don't drag me into it..." Judy on the other end of the phone immediately cursed.
Her spit seemed to travel hundreds of kilometers and spray onto Billy's face. Billy subconsciously wiped his face and moved the phone further away: "What? My signal's not great here, beautiful lady. I'll visit you in a couple of days."
"You son of a..." Before Judy could finish, Billy hung up.
...
"I've contacted him. He agrees to cooperate with you, but he has a small request." The next morning, Xia Shang walked into The Seven's Meeting Room and saw Homelander, whose complexion was gloomy and full of anger.
On the screen in the Meeting Room, memes about Stormfront were scrolling.
For example, Stormfront's name was printed on a newspaper, occupying 90% of the space, while Homelander was in a corner of the newspaper with the caption "Haven't you heard of Stormfront? Please keep up with the times, okay?". Besides that, there was a meme of Stormfront laughing, captioned "Laughing at Homelander."
Of course, there were many such memes.
For instance, Stormfront's head was swapped with the Goddess of Liberty, and the torch she held was replaced with the Vought International logo.
Some mischievous netizens even captioned a photo of someone covering their face and crying, expressing emotion, with "My comment was actually replied to by Stormfront."
And these weren't the most outrageous. The most outrageous was a Vought promotional poster. The original content of this poster was a group photo with Homelander standing in the lead and the other six standing beside him. As a result of netizens' editing, Homelander and Starlight completely disappeared, and Stormfront stood in the lead with her hands on her hips.
Then, red arrows were used to mark the location of Homelander and the others. At a glance, their portraits weren't even as big as Stormfront's nostril. The original author might have been worried that people couldn't see clearly, so they thoughtfully wrote in bold black font, "Homelander is here."
*Whoosh!* The display screen was cut in half from top to bottom by Homelander's laser eyes!
"The Captain of The Seven can only be me! Not her!" Homelander's eyes were red, and the muscles in his jaw twitched constantly. "I will never allow anyone to snatch it from my hands!"
If anger could be materialized, Homelander could probably set the entire Vought Tower ablaze.
"Agree to his terms! Agree to any condition he asks for! If he can't kill Stormfront, I'll make him feel what it's like to be cut into pieces!" Homelander clenched his fingers tightly, suppressing his voice with great effort.
"Tell him that the people I arranged will arrive the day after tomorrow. I don't care what means he uses, there's only one result I want to see: personally attend Stormfront's funeral and mourn there!"
"Understood." Xia Shang nodded slightly, then left the Meeting Room.
Meanwhile.
Hughie and Mother's Milk took an airplane back to New York overnight.
In the basement less than a kilometer from Vought Tower, Billy and the others sat around a table, listening to Hughie recount their findings from their trip to North Carolina.
"When we arrived at that address, we found that the person living there wasn't Liberty, but a Black family. They were very wary of Vought. Only after we repeatedly assured them we weren't from Vought did she let us in. The owner's name is Valerie, around fifty or sixty years old."
"At first, she didn't want to tell us about Liberty, so Mother's Milk and I pretended to be FBI investigators, saying that the FBI was very concerned about this matter."
"Well learned." Billy praised.
"It's all thanks to your teaching. I was originally a good human."
Hughie irritably took out a newspaper and continued: "Under our threat, she finally told us what happened 48 years ago. It was a rainy night, and her brother was driving her home when their car was stopped by Liberty. Her brother was accused by Liberty of being involved in a robbery. No matter how much her brother argued, Liberty didn't listen at all."
Finally, under Liberty's beating, her brother died on the spot. Afterward, Vought only compensated two thousand US dollars and signed a non-disclosure agreement with her."
"That's very typical of a Supe's style, and Vought's handling of it is also normal. Is there a problem?" Billy reached out and put the newspaper in front of him. "Hmm? Isn't this Stormfront? 'The Storm that Looms Over Criminals', that's a good title."
"The problem is right here. Decades have passed since the incident, and ordinarily, what should be forgotten would be forgotten. But Valerie still looked terrified and uneasy. Facing us, she was so nervous she could barely speak, and at the same time, she handed us a newspaper, the one you have in your hand."
After listening to Hughie's account, Billy, who was beside him, frowned. He picked up the newspaper in his hand and said in a deep voice: "You mean... Stormfront is Liberty? How is that possible? If she were still alive, she should be over seventy now, but Stormfront looks like she's in her twenties."
Mother's Milk, sitting beside him, reminded Billy: "Don't forget, Compound V affects everyone differently. Maybe besides controlling lightning, her superpower can also extend her lifespan."
"That possibility can't be ruled out."
Billy nodded, agreeing with Mother's Milk's statement.
"However, none of that is important, because she's going to die soon. By then, who cares if she's Liberty or not?" Billy sneered, then recounted what happened last night to everyone.
When they heard that Billy chose to cooperate with Homelander to kill Stormfront, Frenchie and the others nearly dropped their jaws. Kimiko, on the other hand, who only wanted revenge, nodded excitedly again and again. She used gestures to indicate that she also wanted to participate. Although Frenchie couldn't communicate with her normally yet, under Kimiko's guidance, he could already understand some of the gestures. "Just us?" Hughie's expression was complicated.
It was as absurd as someone whispering in his ear and telling him to take down Homelander.
"Homelander will send a few helpers to assist us, but in my opinion, they are more dangerous than Stormfront. Once we kill Stormfront, they might murder to silence us, so we have to take them and Stormfront out together." Billy always assumed the worst intentions of others, especially Homelander.
"Get ready to pack your things. Go to my aunt's place immediately. She has the ingredients for making chewing gum there."
"Chewing gum?" Hughie was a bit confused.
Frenchie, who was beside him, explained: "It's C4, a highly destructive plastic explosives. Because it's very stable, it can be stuck onto any object like chewed chewing gum, hence the name 'chewing gum'."
"How many ingredients did you prepare?" Frenchie looked at Billy.
A hint of madness flashed in Billy's eyes. "Not much, just a few dozen kilograms."
"A few dozen kilograms?!" Frenchie sprang up from his chair. He said, shocked and disbelieving.
You know, just five kilograms of this stuff is enough to completely blow up a two-story building. A few dozen kilograms is enough to collapse half of Vought Tower.
"That's just a conservative estimate. How much you can make depends entirely on your speed before the mission starts. You're the expert in this area." Billy patted Frenchie's thigh, telling him to sit down.
"Right, Hughie, I have a mission for you. Contact Mr. Mystery. Whatever the cost, get him to agree to help us." Billy's idea was simple: since they were going to kill a Supe anyway, they would use Xia Shang first, then just blow him and Stormfront up together.
Hughie didn't have so many schemes. He thought Billy just simply wanted Mr. Mystery to come and help.
"Should I ask him for some Compound Six? Maybe it'll be useful at a critical moment."
"Unless I'm dead, you're never using that stuff in your life." At this time, Billy wasn't yet desperate, so he naturally wouldn't consider using serums like Compound V to gain superpowers.
"Okay, I'll contact him now."
...
At a steak restaurant by the road in New York, Xia Shang received a phone call from Hughie.
"You guys are planning to take out Stormfront? That's commendable courage. It's not impossible for me to help, for ten million US dollars." Xia Shang held a knife in one hand, slowly cut open the steak on the plate, then picked up a piece and put it in his mouth.
"No problem, you'll get the ten million after it's done. Besides that, I also want a vial of Compound Six, the kind you gave me last time." In the small, dark room, Hughie covered the phone and spoke softly, afraid of being heard by Billy.
"Okay, send me the address when the time comes."
After hanging up the phone, Xia Shang put down the knife he was holding and wiped the oil from the corners of his mouth with a tissue.
Just in time, the efficacy of the Compound V in his body was about to end. As for when Stormfront would die, it completely depended on the fusion condition of her superpower. If the fusion condition was simple, and he could fuse just by killing her, then Stormfront's death date would be in a few days.
If the fusion condition was complex, like needing contact for two hours or even longer, then Xia Shang wouldn't mind crippling Stormfront!
"Hello, the check please."
After paying an extra twenty US dollars as a tip, Xia Shang walked out of the steak restaurant.
Afterward, he acquired a batch of Compound V from various hospitals through some unsavory means. Under the threat to their life, Xia Shang's transaction partners changed from the previous Ezekiel to the directors of various children's hospitals.
"Pleasure doing business." Xia Shang, looking like Yuuji, shook hands with the white director in front of him.
The white director at this moment looked at the man in front of him in terror.
Finally, he watched as the man left the hospital with a briefcase containing Compound V.
Obtaining Compound V wasn't difficult for Xia Shang. As long as Compound V could circulate out of Vought, even Billy and the others could get it with a little effort.
[Telekinetic Pull Fusion in progress, current progress 72...74...81%...]
Finally, the fusion degree on the Panel stopped at 82%.
(End of Chapter)