— Next Day, Adem's Apartment, General POV —
Cate and Adem were sitting on the sofa, she had a vPad in her hand, going over the latest data regarding the movie, and he was staring at the ceiling, lost in thought.
"After the recent approval from NFA (National Film Administration) the movie got the green light for release in the Chinese market, elevating the estimated box office to 1.5 billion. Far better than A-Train's movie, not to mention since they agreed on the 5% Gross Participation, it should bring your total compensation to 80 million dollars. That's pre-tax, of course. It should still leave you with 48 million." Cate explained but she could see her boyfriend was thinking about something else entirely. "What's wrong?"
"What do you mean?" He said as he continued to stare at the ceiling, doing his best at avoding eye contact.
Cate was a telepath, so she normally knew what others were thinking- at least most people, sufficiently powerful Supes can block her out to certain degrees and her boyfriend was more than sufficiently powerful.
Regardless, after spending years together she became adapt at knowing when he was troubled. "There is something wrong, you are doing that thing where you tap your foot to the beat of the Imperial March."
"I don't do that-" he said as he realized he was indeed tapping his foot.
He stopped immediately and took a deep breath. "Something happened in the Studio yesterday, he showed up."
"You don't mean… Homelander? I thought he was supposed to film the cameo next week. Why did he show up?" She asked as she placed a hand on top of his and gave a gentle squeeze.
He finally looked her in the eyes and recounted to her about the talk he had with Homelander.
How he showed up, asked to have a one on one talk, and seemed genuine in his offer to work together.
"I don't know what to think," he said in the end. "What do you think?"
She processed everything he said.
Adem looked conflicted. She never saw him like this before, he was always so… sure of himself, but now he looked like he needed support.
"I think Homelander is a dangerous, self-centered man with god complex. But that does not mean he is fully evil." She said making him look at her in shock.
"You saw the Flight 37 video Cate. The guy is pure ev-" he began but she cut him off
"He cares more about his public image than he does civilians, that's for sure. He is a bad guy, but even worst of people have good in the." The blonde telepath said and decided to expand. "I hate her with all my being but Dean Shetty loved her husband and daughter. The scientists in the lab who were developing genocidal virus were only doing so because they were scared of Supes. And even Homelander must have a bottom line. Maybe the Seven is his bottom line."
"He did say he considers Seven a family… But Cate, the way he looked at me, it felt like he was really considering me as family, as a little brother. You can't fake that, at least not to me." The Supe with superhuman senses told her, it was almost impossible to lie to someone like that if they were paying particular attention to subtle cues.
She remained silent for a moment, a thought passed through her head.
*Who let the dogs out? Who, who, who, who, who? Who let the dogs out? Who, who, who, who, who?*
Adem's phone rang, and he quickly answered.
"This is Khan. I see. Where? I am on my way." He closed the phone and flew out of the window, leaving Cate there to ponder why Homelander might be treating Khan- a hero who might potentially be on par with him, who was considerably younger and had the same powers- as a family.
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— Adam West High, General POV —
In the halls of Adam West High a fat blond kid who looked too young to shave could be seen walking with an M16 in his hand.
"BRANDON! Where the fuck are you?!" He screamed as he pointed the gun at the ceiling and fired. "I know you were the one who fucked Connie behind my back! Come out or else I'll kill everyone in- huh?"
The blond kid looked down as he noticed the gun he was holding was gone, and standing in front of him was a large metal star with wings spouting from its side stood in front of his eyes.
"Wha- What?" The kid said as he slowly looked up and saw the face of the Supe that was making quite a bit of the headlines past couple of months. "You- You are Khan."
"Yeah. And you are going to jail." He said as he placed the blond in his knees and handcuffed him before flying him over to the police that were waiting outside.
"Here you go Officer," Adem said as he gave the blond kid to the police and then looked around the school. "I don't see anyone hurt, but you might want to have a sweep of the school, and do a headcount."
"Ri- Right, we will. Thank you very much Khan." He said as journalists began to swarm him.
There were quite a few of them, all from different outlets. Some of them were local channels he did not here and there were even people from Fox and CNN.
While he did ignore them, and was about to fly away like he usually does one journalist drew his eye. There was somethings special about her.
"Khan! Khan! Jackie Denardo from Channel 5 News!" An exceptionally attractive blonde journalist said as she put her microphone in front of his face. "Can you tell us what happened?"
[Image of Jackie Denardo]
It took Adem a second of staring at… somethings before looking her in the eye and telling her "Crazy kid got his hands on a gun, I stopped him before he can do something dumb."
"Steven Smith from CNN. Do you believe lack of sufficient gun control was the reason for this almost tragedy?"
"Wha-" he stopped and looked at the guy for a second, it was a young journalist that wanted to advance his career by using gotcha journalism.
Before he had to answer Vought News journalist asked a rather flattering question and Fox News journalist asked whether or not the blond kid was on drugs.
"Look, I am sure all of you have more questions, which I believe Officer could answer. Thank you, and have lovely day." He said as he flew away, leaving behind half a dozen journalists with unanswered questions.