章 34: Chapter 50: The Furious Patriot
Inside the office, Vought's Vice President Madeline reviewed the PR documents Ashley handed her and nodded in approval. "This is your idea? The methods here aren't what I'd usually associate with you, but I must say, this plan is excellent. We should implement it as soon as possible."
"It's Jervis Cyrus's idea—the security guy from before. He's a PR genius."
Ashley praised him without hesitation.
"If his plan succeeds, I'll consider giving him more responsibility. After all, Vought never shortchanges employees who contribute to the company."
After leaving the Vice President's office, Ashley began preparing for the plan's execution.
She first found Starlight and said, "I have good news. I've obtained the full video of the incident, and it can help you out of your current predicament. But before that, you need to follow my instructions. Listen carefully, beautiful lady, this might be your last chance, so don't mess it up, okay?"
"Okay, I promise I'll do everything you say." Starlight forced herself to stay calm and sighed with relief, thankful that the worst-case scenario hadn't come to pass.
Meanwhile, Patriot had flown over Jersey City, hovering in the sky with his Stars and Stripes cape billowing in the wind.
He quickly pinpointed the area where The Invisible Man had gone missing.
At that moment, Billy and the others were in a truck and happened to spot Patriot diving down from the sky.
"Damn, he really came," Franky said, his heart racing as if it were beating two hundred times a minute. Fortunately, Billy reminded them, "Stay calm, guys. We've handled what needed to be handled. Don't panic. If Patriot catches on to anything wrong, we're finished. We mustn't panic now."
The three of them took deep breaths in unison.
Little did they know, this action saved their lives.
Patriot glanced at them briefly before flying toward the abandoned diner.
After all, there were very few things that could block his x-ray vision, and the diner, not far away, contained one of those things.
Thus, it was highly suspicious.
"Oh, he didn't recognize me," Hughie said in disbelief.
"He's a superhero. There's no way he'd notice small-time players like us," Billy said, pulling his hat down over his face and sticking his head out the window to watch Patriot's flight path.
Billy mentally counted down as he held a remote control.
Clang! Patriot ripped open the iron door of the cold storage in the kitchen and casually tossed it aside. Looking inside, he saw a body wrapped in zinc sheets. Red lasers shot from his eyes, causing the temperature in the cold storage to rise rapidly. The areas where the lasers touched the zinc sheets turned white-hot almost instantly.
When the zinc sheets were completely cut through, The Invisible Man's body was exposed.
Patriot's face turned ashen as he approached the body slowly. Suddenly, he raised his right arm to shield himself.
With a muffled boom, the bomb hidden deep in The Invisible Man's body exploded, obliterating the corpse into fragments. In an instant, blood and meat splattered across the room, including onto Patriot himself.
When Patriot lowered his arm, his once-clean suit was now covered in bloodstains.
But Billy had more prepared. With the ignition of two firebombs, gasoline mixed with roaring flames quickly filled the entire space.
"Damn it!"
A furious shout erupted.
Immediately, a figure crashed through layers of concrete, eventually bursting through the roof and hovering in the air.
At this point, Patriot could no longer contain his rage. His eyes shot out red lasers that quickly reduced the entire abandoned diner to rubble.
At that moment, a truck was driving towards New York, and Hughie, hearing the explosions from behind, excitedly said, "This might just blow Patriot to bits."
"If Patriot could be easily killed by a blast, I'd have had nothing better to do than find dirt on superheroes using every trick in the book. Why not just blow them up directly?" Billy sneered, then with a malicious grin continued, "But I'm sure Patriot will love the gift I prepared for him."
...
The next day, with the PR department's efforts, the online sentiment was shifting in the direction Cyrus had anticipated.
Then Ashley released the full video of the incident.
At the same time, the girl involved in the incident came forward to thank Starlight, and the thugs admitted to fabricating the story. This one-two punch caused a dramatic reversal in online opinion, with countless "kind-hearted" netizens coming to Starlight's defense.
In no time, Starlight gained a massive influx of both female and male fans.
Her follower count on Bluebird skyrocketed to over 23 million and continued to grow.
Starlight was then called to Madeline's office.
"Please, have a seat," Madeline said with a smile.
"Has the issue been resolved?" Starlight asked cautiously.
"Of course, it was resolved perfectly."
Even Madeline hadn't anticipated such a great outcome. Due to the unprecedented online abuse Starlight had faced, she had garnered sympathy from women, children, and the elderly alike. Her popularity now ranked among the top in The Seven.
Ashley, holding a cup of coffee, added, "Currently, your support across the states is soaring. It's not only because you punished wrongdoers and protected women's safety but also because of your American spirit of sticking to public service even on the brink of collapse. This has moved the majority, earning you a substantial number of male supporters as well as female fans."
Ashley then showed Starlight a new costume.
Starlight looked at the costume, which resembled lingerie more than anything, and said she couldn't accept it.
"Bold, courageous, strong—this costume perfectly embodies your feminism. Most importantly, it tells the story of your transformation," Ashley urged.
But Starlight remained adamant.
"I believe I have the right to refuse."
"Of course, you have the right to refuse. Just remember, in The Seven, we don't need those who refuse us," Madeline said with a smile.
This blatant threat left Starlight torn, as she stared at the costume, struggling internally.
Meanwhile, Cyrus had discovered that the price for Vought's Compound V was two million dollars, and it was only sold to the U.S. government. To get his hands on Compound V, he would need to employ some special methods.
Cyrus's attention turned to the TV, which was airing a preview of a race to see if A-Train could retain his title of "World's Fastest Man" under the Shockwave's challenge.
(The End of This Chapter)
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