Chapter 337: The Boys Deeply Despairing and Powerless
If he remembered correctly, Mindstorm himself seemed to suffer from a severe psychological illness that required a certain special medicine to stabilize his condition. And only Soldier Boy had seen that special medicine and knew its name.
Selling special medicine in the United States required very strict qualifications. It could even be said that buying drugs like M and B powder was easier than buying special medicine.
Furthermore, the buyer needed to provide a real and valid address, as well as identity information.
So, as long as they knew what illness Mindstorm had, or the name of the drug he used, they could easily find him.
As for Cate, although her superpower was also quite good, Xia Shang had a clone by her side, so there was no need to worry about her suddenly disappearing or suddenly dying.
But Mindstorm was different. If Soldier Boy found him first, he might kill Mindstorm on the spot. At that time, a mind-related superpower would be lost for nothing, which was something Xia Shang could not accept.
After thinking about what was more important, Xia Shang quickly made a decision.
Beep beep beep... Just then, the phone on the coffee table suddenly vibrated.
Without looking, Xia Shang knew it must be the Media calling.
"What happened? Why did Jack and the others lose contact? And when my people arrived at the Scene, it was simply a pile of Ruins. I thought aliens had attacked the United States," the newspaper boss on the other end of the phone said, his tone extremely agitated. This was because his people had found many severed arms and remains at the Scene, all with traces of scorching. Although they hadn't found the corpse of their own Reporter, they had discovered the remains of other Media Reporters in the Forest.
"Who knows? I'm only responsible for providing information, not for the cleanup," Xia Shang hung up the phone with a flick of his wrist.
"What the f***?!" The newspaper boss on the other end of the phone, seeing the call hung up, immediately cursed angrily, countless vulgar words spewing from his mouth.
Of course, Xia Shang couldn't hear any of this.
However, after this incident, it would be almost impossible to easily mobilize news reporters again.
Xia Shang picked up his phone and pressed the power-off button.
Then, he pulled out a spare phone from under the coffee table and called his contacts at Vought Tower. Although he was no longer a Vice President of Vought International, he could still mobilize some people to help him do things.
"Help me investigate information about Mindstorm, the Mindstorm from Payback forty years ago. See if you can find out what kind of psychological illness he suffers from.
Okay, notify me immediately if you find anything."
...
"Ugh! Ugh!!"
In the Basement not far from Vought Tower, sounds of vomiting echoed. Starlight, who had rushed over upon hearing about the failed operation, stood at the Bathroom door, her face full of worry.
"Are they okay?" Starlight looked at Mother's Milk, whose complexion was grim.
Mother's Milk's face was dark, his brows tightly furrowed, as if he were millions of US dollars in debt. He looked completely spiritless.
"I... I'm fine." Hughie, his face completely drained of blood from vomiting, leaned against the wall and managed to walk out of the Bathroom. But the next second, his legs gave out, and he fell forward. Fortunately, Starlight reacted quickly and reached out to support Hughie.
"You're fine like this? Do you need to go to the Hospital?" Starlight asked with concern.
Hughie gently shook his head and pushed away Starlight's supporting arm. "It's a side effect of the temporary Compound V. I'll be fine in a bit, I just need some rest."
"Are you sure?" Starlight looked at Hughie's right ear and said in surprise, "It looks like some kind of viscous liquid is flowing out of your ear. Could it be your brain matter?"
Unexpectedly, Hughie looked indifferent. He casually picked at his ear, walked into the Living Room, and plopped down on the sofa.
Looking at the utterly dejected Hughie, Starlight asked in confusion, "What the Vought? What exactly did you guys go through? Even if the operation failed, it shouldn't be this bad, right?"
"Soldier Boy attacked Billy, and Mr. Jervis chose to cooperate with Homelander. It's over, everything is over." Hughie closed his eyes in pain. He couldn't suppress his inner pain. A huge despair and frustration completely crushed him. He could only close his eyes now, trying to escape reality.
"How could this be..."
Starlight was stunned after hearing this, standing rooted to the spot. The situation was clearly looking so good, how could such a shocking turn of events suddenly occur?
"You guys aren't thinking of giving up, are you?" Her gaze swept across Mother's Milk and Hughie's faces.
Mother's Milk remained silent, not speaking.
To be honest, with how things had developed, even he felt a deep sense of despair and powerlessness. The three most powerful Supes had joined forces, as if the story's ending was already set in stone.
"Who said we're giving up?" Billy, enduring the discomfort, strode out of the Bathroom, then went to the refrigerator and chugged beer. The beer flowed down the corner of his mouth, all the way to his neck.
"Ugh!" However, before Billy could finish the beer, he suddenly bent over and vomited all the beer he had just drunk onto the ground.
Hughie suddenly opened his eyes, like a deranged mental patient, and came before Billy.
He violently shook Billy's shoulders, looking at Billy with eyes full of bloodshot veins, and questioned, "Do you think we still have a chance to win? Do you think we can still turn things around now? We're finished, completely finished..."
Hughie's eyes were filled with tears. As he spoke, he weakly let his hands drop.
"We can't win, we can't win. We've already lost, lost completely."
"I don't know what you guys went through, but I can see that you're in a really bad state right now." Frenchie's voice suddenly came from the stairs in the Basement.
Billy looked in the direction of the voice. He saw Frenchie holding Kimiko's hand and walking into the Basement.
"Congratulations on getting a reliable Supe helper."
"You injected her with Compound V?"
Billy asked.
"Although I kept hesitating, because I hoped to live a peaceful and ordinary life with Kimiko, when I heard the news of your failed mission, I realized I still couldn't let go of the past. So Kimiko came with me."
Frenchie and Kimiko's appearance lifted the spirits of everyone present considerably.
"Welcome back." Hughie hugged Frenchie, but was pushed away by Frenchie, who looked disgusted.
"Do you have to make things so sentimental? And you smell awful! Also, what's that stuff in your ear? Brain matter?"
"Go to hell."
(end of chapter )