Eric possessed super hearing, allowing him to eavesdrop on everything around him, not only capturing desired information but also overhearing others' whispers.
He could use his super hearing to listen to the noisy sounds of Metropolis, yet he couldn't hear people's inner thoughts.
...
"Ah!"
A dizzy spell came over him, as if stinging needles were piercing his brain.
At Blue Valley Hospital, Henry King clutched his head, trying not to hear the inner voices of those around him.
But these voices followed him like a shadow.
He was Brainwave's son.
Since his father had a stroke and was hospitalized, his abilities had gradually begun to awaken.
He could hear other people's thoughts and move objects with his mind.
Feeling scared and confused, he rummaged through his father's belongings at home and discovered several videotapes.
After watching the videotapes, he realized they were his father's self-recorded confessions.
From the videotapes, he learned that his father was Brainwave, a villain from the Injustice Society, and possessed abilities such as telekinesis, Brainwave control, and eavesdropping.
With shock and confusion, he went to the hospital to visit his comatose father, hoping to get some guidance from him.
Even though he knew his father was in a coma and couldn't offer him any help at all.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked into the corridor, his ability unconsciously activated, and he heard the thoughts of many patients in the hospital.
"These medicines are useless, completely useless, I'm so scared!"
"I hope he dies quickly so his house and car will be mine; I can have everything."
"This damned hospital, I don't want to stay here for another second, I want to blow up the hospital, can I do it?"
All sorts of sordid and dark thoughts flooded into him, overwhelming him.
Distraught by these voices in his head, he hurried to Brainwave's room.
"Father?"
Henry walked towards his father's bed, a confused light in his eyes, "You… can you hear me? Is this the ability you passed down to me?"
Brainwave lay motionless on the bed.
Henry continued to ask his comatose father, "Can you hear my voice? Do you want to communicate with me?"
"Click!"
He was trying to continue communicating with his father when the door to the room was pushed open.
The doctor came in and greeted him, "Hi, Henry."
After greeting Henry, the doctor walked over to Brainwave and checked his condition.
Henry focused his attention on the examining doctor and heard the doctor's inner thoughts.
"I don't like Doctor King. He's been in the hospital for too long. It's time to end his life support and let him die!"
Upon hearing the doctor's thoughts, Henry looked at him in shock.
He didn't know that his father's former colleague would so maliciously curse someone to die!
After a moment of stunned silence, once the doctor left, Henry gripped his comatose father's hand, his eyes turning ruthless.
"You're right, Father, humans are all monsters!"
After accompanying Brainwave in the hospital for a while, the door was pushed open again.
A familiar figure appeared before him—the new transfer student, Courtney!
"What are you doing here?"
He didn't have a good impression of Courtney.
After transferring to the school, she hung out with the nerds and outcasts.
Especially since one of them was Yolanda (Wildcat), whom he had previously played a trick on.
He had pretended to be in a relationship with Yolanda, then made her send him her nude photos.
After getting Yolanda's topless photos, he spread them around the school, leading to Yolanda's social downfall.
Even though that wasn't his intention, the fact that he caused Yolanda's social downfall was true, so he felt a very complex emotion when facing Yolanda and her friends.
"I want to talk to you."
Courtney's original intention was to recruit him to her team; she felt that Henry's nature wasn't bad, he was just being used by others.
Henry stared at Courtney, activating his ability.
Her inner thoughts were instantly captured by him.
"I didn't mean to, I didn't want to hurt you, although your father's death is related to me."
Upon hearing Courtney's thoughts, he instantly fell into a state of rage, "Did you do this to my father?"
"No, no, not me!"
Courtney quickly shook her head in denial, but all her inner thoughts were read by him.
"Your father's current condition wasn't caused by me, it was Homelander. But you can't blame him either; if he hadn't done that, I would have died."
Stealing the thoughts from her mind, Henry became increasingly shocked, "Who is Homelander?"
"Cough, cough… You can hear my thoughts?!"
Courtney was startled; she hadn't expected his ability to awaken so quickly.
She took a deep breath to calm herself, trying not to think of anything, and walked to the room door to close it.
"You don't want to know Homelander, his terror is beyond your imagination, Henry."
Courtney said, setting down her backpack.
"You can choose another path, Henry, help me find other members of the Injustice Society, help me gather more information, so we can stop them from killing more people!"
Courtney took a step closer to Henry, "You know they've killed a lot of people, right? My dad, Rosie, and her father, Taylor (Hourman)'s parents."
"Maybe they deserved it!"
Henry's heart wavered slightly, and he turned his head away, saying.
"Henry, do you really think that?"
"I…"
Henry shook his head, walking painfully to the window, "I don't know, I live in purgatory every day, I can hear other people's thoughts, that kind of thing torments me constantly. You think I'm an asshole!"
He gripped the curtain with one hand, gritting his teeth as he continued, "Believe me, compared to some people, I'm the least asshole. If my father hurt anyone, then he must have had his reasons."
Henry turned to face Courtney, "Humans are all monsters; deep down, they are ugly, greedy, hateful, twisted… That's the truth."
"Life isn't black and white, Henry!"
Courtney's tone was slightly heavy, "People can be very bad, but they can also be very good, compassionate, just, empathetic. Maybe some of the thoughts you hear are malicious, but… sometimes we're afraid of being hurt, we have very bad thoughts, but if you try to look deeper, maybe you can see something more beautiful."
"I highly doubt it."
Henry shook his head.
Courtney was silent for a moment, then continued, "After pain and fear, there is love and being loved. I believe you will see these things, and you yearn for them. I heard from Yolanda how your father treated you, but now you're standing on his side, which means you love him, don't you?"
Upon hearing Courtney mention his relationship with his father, Henry's gaze immediately turned fierce.
His telekinetic ability instantly spread uncontrollably, and everything in the room began to shake.
"Get out! Now!"
Henry roared at her.
"OK, OK!"
Courtney took a step back, picked up the book on the floor, and opened the door to the room.
Before leaving, she said to him, "I know deep down you want to do the right thing. If you change your mind, you can always talk to me."
Bang!
The room door closed, and Henry, panting, stared at Courtney's retreating figure.
After calming down, he collapsed onto the chair, his emotions a complex mess.
He sat there until evening, when the room door was pushed open, and a man in a suit walked in.
"Hello, you must be Henry, right? Your butler said you were here. I'm Green, your father's lawyer."
Henry stood up, shaking hands with the man in confusion, "So, what's the matter?"
"I regret to inform you that your father previously explicitly stated that if he were to suffer such misfortune leading to a coma from which his brain function could not recover, he decided to remove life support after a certain period."
The man holding a file bag explained to him.
Shocked, Henry focused his attention on the lawyer, hoping to read something from him.
"I should have eaten something on the way here."
This was the first thought he read from the lawyer's mind.
"What?"
A bit bewildered, he took a few seconds to react.
This guy is thinking about these things right now?
Calming his emotions, he continued to read the thoughts in the lawyer's mind.
"I need his signature; I need this money!"
After reading the lawyer's thoughts, Henry gritted his teeth, took a step forward, and stared into the lawyer's eyes, "You're lying!"
"Excuse me, what did you say?"
"These documents are forged by you, aren't they? You just want to swindle my father's money!"
Henry's angry gaze fixed on the lawyer as he questioned him.
"No, of course not, this… this isn't forged, it even has the state notary's signature on it, I know this result is hard for you to accept, but…"
Henry couldn't listen to him anymore; his head was now throbbing intensely, like it was about to explode.
Clutching his head, he painfully looked up at the lawyer.
"Don't come near my father!"
As he roared, an invisible energy controlled the lawyer.
His body felt squeezed, his limbs torn in all directions, and excruciating pain assaulted him.
The lawyer made a gurgling sound of pain in his throat, convulsing as he fell to the ground.
He struggled with all his might, blood continuously gushing from his nose and mouth.
After a struggle, he finally stopped breathing, his eyes wide open.
Henry, having completed everything, gasped for breath, staring in shock at what had just happened before him.
"I killed someone?"
He held out his hands, his face showing confusion and panic.
"No, he deserved it! Humans are monsters, and all who deserve it must die!"
Shaking off his confusion, his eyes instantly cleared, "And that murderer, the one who hurt my father!"
He had already read the person's address from Courtney's mind.
...
At night, Eric, in his room, suddenly felt an energy approaching the farm.
Frowning, he stood up and looked outside.
His vision pierced through the heavy, white-misted night.
"Thud!"
Heavy footsteps landed on the ground; Henry got off the hitchhiked ride and walked along the farm road.
The mist permeated, making him feel a chill.
Homelander?
Why did he read such complex emotions as fear, reverence, and gratitude in Courtney's mind?
Who exactly was that person?
As he passed through the thick mist, a huge doubt arose in his heart.
It doesn't matter, now I've awakened the same ability as my father.
No matter who it is, I can easily deal with them!
He took a deep breath and continued walking along the road.
Stepping on the slightly muddy road, he arrived at the farm gate.
Gritting his teeth, he prepared to break in, but as he took a step, he suddenly found someone standing in front of him.
The figure seemed to move in front of him in an instant.
Before he could react, the figure grabbed his collar and lifted him up.
Cold eyes stared at him, like a beast devoid of any emotion.
"What is your relationship with Brainwave?"
Eric felt the same energy fluctuations from him as he did from Brainwave.
"I'm his son, you… you are Homelander?"
Henry, suspended in the air, looked at Eric in horror.
What kind of ghostly speed was this?
And why couldn't he read the other person's thoughts?
Henry gritted his teeth, focusing his attention on the other person, intending to use his telekinesis to attack.
But to his surprise, the other person remained completely still.
His own head was about to explode, yet he couldn't make the other person budge?
"It seems you're here to avenge your old man whose head exploded."
Eric released him with interest, letting him fall to the ground with a "thud."
"Like father, like son, you've awakened the same ability as your father? So you can read the thoughts of ordinary humans, but… I'm sorry, I don't belong to ordinary humans."
Although Eric didn't use much force, the fall still instantly incapacitated him.
Lying on the ground, in immense pain, he desperately tried to stand up, his nose bleeding, and used his telekinesis to control a large rock, throwing it at the other person.
But an enemy with super speed, whose shadow couldn't even be seen when moving, simply couldn't be hit.
Henry, whose mind was plunged into immense shock and unease, blinked and saw the other person lunge in front of him.
Grabbing his neck, cold eyes stared at him.
"Hoo… You are the monster!"
Henry, who used all his strength to utter his last words, had his neck directly twisted by Eric.
The moment a "snap" sound was heard, a shout came from the air.
"No!"
A golden light flashed, and Stargirl flew over on her Star Scepter.
She originally wanted to stop Eric, but she was still a step too late; by the time she jumped off the Staff, she found Henry already lying on the ground.
"No, no, no!"
Seeing Henry lying motionless on the ground, Courtney clutched her head and retreated.
Her entire emotional state was one of collapse.
Whoosh!
Before she could say anything, the Staff in her hand suddenly turned forward uncontrollably.
Stargirl, hit in the chin by the Staff, fell to the ground with a thud.
Eric, gripping the Staff, stared coldly at the fallen Stargirl.
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