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"What exactly does your Vought want to do?!"
In what was originally The Seven's conference room, now Kevin's 'reception room' for congressional members, the bearded Secretary of State asked Kevin, his face a mix of anger and confusion.
Kevin rested his elbows on the table, fingers interlocked beneath his nose, seemingly deep in thought. Hearing the Secretary of State's shouting, he looked up and glanced at him:
"We are only responsible for the world's safety."
"This is not something you should be concerned about!"
"Mr. Secretary of State, the world has changed. Super Villains are running rampant, and with just your army… forgive my bluntness, but you probably can't catch them at all."
Although Homelander was dead, the mess he and Edgar left behind remained.
The Supervillain Alliance that Edgar had formed initially sparked a rebellious spirit in some Supes. Homelander's inaction, or rather, his rigid approach of labeling all Supe criminals as Super Villains and sentencing them to death regardless of the crime, further exacerbated the conflict between them.
Supe criminals still existed and did not decrease because Kevin introduced Compound V.
In fact, on the contrary, Supe criminals increased because of it.
They were worried that Kevin would take away their Superpowers, and thus wanted to use their Superpowers to seek their final benefits before that happened.
Not everyone was like Ghost and her friends, whose abilities were weak and deformed.
There were also some Supes whose abilities were quite decent, even capable of becoming their allies.
The Hero Association would have to face this group of people in the future.
With Compound V potentially being inherited by future generations, this group of people would not disappear.
And asking the police and army to deal with these Supes was somewhat difficult for them. Kevin created the Hero Association for their own good, but unfortunately, these people did not appreciate it.
"That's because of your Vought—!"
The Secretary of State was about to speak, but Kevin raised his hand to stop him:
"Mr. Secretary of State, please choose your words carefully. I am not the one who did these things, and I am also helping them clean up this damned mess."
"No matter what, even if the Hero Association is established, it will never be able to have cross-border law enforcement power as you said! Even if we allow it, others will not!"
"I reiterate, Mr. Secretary of State, you and the people behind you still don't understand that the world has changed, and there is a greater crisis awaiting us. I'm serious."
"Then what crisis are you talking about?"
The Secretary of State didn't believe Kevin.
Even if Kevin was indeed a respected Superhero before this, he had to act according to his position.
Having been the CEO of Vought for so long, he might no longer be the pure hero he once was.
Everything he said could be taken as an excuse to seek benefits; in any case, the Secretary of State would not believe a word of it.
Kevin took a deep breath, picked up the remote control on the table, and was about to show the prepared materials to the other party.
But before he could act, Ashley walked in from outside. Her expression was slightly anxious. She looked around and her gaze landed on Kevin.
"Sir…"
"Is something wrong?"
Kevin knew that Ashley wouldn't interrupt him at this time unless it was a special circumstance, so he asked.
Ashley was about to speak when the Secretary of State's secretary suddenly answered a call, then his expression changed and he handed the phone to the Secretary of State.
Their actions made the conference room much quieter.
Kevin motioned for Ashley to stand aside and not speak, quietly waiting for the Secretary of State to finish his call.
A minute later, the Secretary of State, having finished the call, looked up at Kevin with a serious and uncertain expression:
"Just now… on the President's desk, a human… limb appeared out of thin air. Is this the crisis you were talking about?"
"…?"
Hearing the Secretary of State say this, Kevin was slightly startled and looked up at Ashley.
Ashley was also stunned by the Secretary of State's words. Seeing Kevin's gaze, she first subconsciously shook her head, then said:
"I… what I wanted to say wasn't that. It's… it's Starlight. She… she just now, while patrolling, when passing a warehouse, discovered some… some broken limbs… After investigation, we found the body tissue of Sound Head among them…"
"Sound Head?"
"He was one of the children who went missing in Red River."
"…?"
Kevin fell into thought upon hearing this. He then turned to the Secretary of State and said:
"It seems we both have a lot to deal with. So, let's end this conversation here for now. We can have a proper chat when we have time later, Mr. Secretary of State."
The conversation with the Secretary of State came to an end. Kevin temporarily ignored the situation at the White House; in any case, the Secretary of State didn't seem to want him involved.
So, after the meeting, Kevin rushed to the warehouse where Starlight Annie made her discovery.
Unexpectedly, this was a warehouse located within the city, belonging to a well-known supermarket nearby, storing various goods.
Starlight Annie was patrolling in this area and felt that the current inside the warehouse was a bit off. Fearing a short circuit or similar problem that could lead to a fire, she used her hero authority to enter and check.
As a result, she found a pile of broken limbs.
Vought had already dispatched a security team, along with local police, to cordon off the area for investigation.
Currently, Tek Knight Robert, whom Kevin had placed in the Hero Association to temporarily fill numbers, was also here conducting an investigation.
Kevin saw him and asked directly:
"How's the investigation going?"
"...Sir, after confirmation, the… remains found here indeed belong to those missing children, but strangely, their time of death seems very recent."
"You mean, they only died a short while ago?"
"Yes, please come and see."
Robert led Kevin to a spot covered by a white sheet, lifted a corner of the sheet, and pointed to the scorched area on it:
"You see, this spot, if you touch it, you'll find that it still retains some warmth. This proves that from the time of this person's death until now, absolutely no more than an hour has passed. Also…"
Robert swallowed here. He paused, his expression slightly horrified, and said:
"…Based on the traces, the person who killed them was… was…", "It was Homelander."
"!!!!"
The speaker was not Kevin, but Ghost, who suddenly emerged from underground.
She didn't know how long she had been watching there, but before Robert could state his conclusion, she popped out next to Kevin and spoke.
The sudden appearance of Ghost startled Robert; he nearly cried out. Seeing that it was Ghost, he slightly relaxed.
Thankfully, it wasn't a real ghost at least.
"Are you sure?"
Ignoring the startled Robert, Kevin asked Ghost.
Ghost said decisively:
"I wouldn't be mistaken. This is Flashback's body. I was right beside him when he was pierced by Homelander's laser."
"So you're saying that after all this time, the limbs of your companions who died in front of you back then have traveled through time to this present moment?"
"I don't know… I can't make a judgment. I'm just stating what I saw."
Ghost indicated that making such judgments should not be left to her.
She merely stated what she had discovered; the final conclusion would be up to Kevin and them.
Kevin didn't expect Ghost to truly answer his question. He just looked at the limbs before him, deep in thought.
When Ghost was initially teleported, Kevin had never fully understood one thing.
That was, where did the original Ghost and her friends go?
From a normal perspective, since Ghost from another world appeared before them, it proved that the Ghost from their world should have gone to another world.
But why only Ghost?
Why were the others nowhere to be seen?
After talking with Ghost, Kevin at the time thought that Ghost's original friends had already been killed by Homelander, that they had lost their lives, which was why they hadn't been teleported over.
But now it seemed that they were indeed teleported to this world as well.
However, for some unknown reason, they crossed time and arrived in what was, to them at the time, the near 'future'.
Is it because of the presence of life versus the absence of life?
But how did Ghost make her judgment? Did she belong to the living or the non-living?
Kevin looked back at Ghost, whose eyes were filled with tears. She looked at her friends on the ground and couldn't help but cry again.
However, because her crying was silent, no one noticed her tears except for those near her.
After thinking for a long time without an answer, Kevin temporarily put the matter aside and stood up to ask Robert:
"Are you sure all the limbs here belong to the missing children?"
"Almost all of them, but… none are complete."
"Hmm?"
"Here we only have Sound Head's upper body, Big Chest Face's arm and severed leg, some tissue from Tongue Man's body, Big guy's one foot… and here, Flashback's half-body…"
Robert pointed one by one, naming the owner of each limb.
The limbs here were all incomplete, as if they were toys taken apart, their parts carelessly discarded by a child who didn't know how to preserve them.
This also turned the place into a horrific scene straight out of a horror movie.
However, since the limbs found here were incomplete, it meant that the limbs at the White House indeed belonged to the 'Payback Team' from another world.
Perhaps they were a part of those related to the ones in front of him.
"Is it an exchange…?"
Kevin pondered, and suddenly a flash of insight struck him.
In the Ghost squad of the other world, there were no Supes with the ability to travel through time.
But in this world's Ghost squad, there seemed to be a Supe who could transfer people.
It was he who transferred Ghost and the others, who were then still wanted.
This was the conclusion Robert had given, and Kevin also believed this conclusion was extremely close to the truth.
He even thought that person's ability was space transfer, but that he accidentally teleported people to another world, like Hughie.
But now it seems that this is not the case.
The true ability of that unknown Supe might be able to exchange certain existences between two worlds.
He transferred Ghost and the others, exchanging them with their counterparts in the parallel world.
That's why Ghost and her group from this world disappeared, and Ghost and her group from the other world appeared in this world.
And because the 'Payback Team' from that world, except for Ghost, had already died, only the corpses dismembered by Homelander were teleported here.
Kevin felt that his guess was likely close to the truth.
But the only thing he couldn't understand was why Ghost and the 'corpses' of the others had such a large time span when they were teleported.
And since some limbs were teleported to the 'future', does that mean some limbs were also teleported to the 'past'?
What exactly is the ability of this unknown Supe who can teleport people?
"Preserve all of these and take them back for investigation. Also… this area needs to be cordoned off. Whose company does this supermarket belong to again? Never mind, it's not important. Just buy it directly, and then bring in a few physicists to explain this matter to them thoroughly."
Kevin, who had thought for a long time without understanding, finally ordered his subordinates.
This matter still needed to be handled by professionals.
And in Kevin's opinion, those scientific researchers studying physics might be able to uncover something.
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