By Alex Shannon with help from Ben Page.
Events of The Female of the Species have been rearranged to fit inside this plot.
The plane rescue had been going great until one of the hijackers blew the pilot's brains through the windshield. Even then, it might have been salvageable if John hadn't immediately lasered through the terrorist's torso and melted the controls.
Queen Maeve pushed through the harsh incoming wind to the grab the pilot's headset off what remained of his head.
"ATC!" She shouted into the microphone. No response. "It's dead!" She screamed over the incoming wind. "Can you fly a plane?!" She asked Homelander.
John shrugged. "Wouldn't matter if I could!" He said, gesturing to the panel he'd just destroyed.
Maeve sighed, and felt herself die a little inside. "What do we do?" She asked.
Homelander looked around the cockpit, turned around, and exited into the cabin with a smile as fake as the muscles in his padded suit plastered across his face.
"Alright everybody, remain calm!" John commanded the passengers. "Stay in your seats! Everything's under control."
Maeve followed him out of the cockpit and shut the door behind her as quickly as possible. "You've got to go out there!" She said insistently. "Lift the plane up!"
Homelander scoffed. "'Lift the plane?'" He whispered, mockingly. "How? There's nothing to stand on. It's fuckin' air."
"I don't know!" Maeve growled. "Fly at it, ram it straight!"
John shrugged. "No. At this kind of speed, either the plane goes ass over-"
The faint sound of a sonic boom cut through their conversation, and mere moments later, the plane shook briefly, then straightened out into a smoother trajectory, faster than it had moved under its own power.
"...Elbow." Homelander continued, a look of confusion and outrage on his face. "Maeve, keep these idiots calm while see what the hell is going on outside."
And with that, John ducked out of the boarding hatch in a brief gust of wind.
Maeve turned back to the expectant passengers. "Uh, everything's under control." She said nervously. "Homelander is making sure the plane is flying straight so we can land it.
With another gust of wind, Homelander ducked back into the cabin, absolutely fuming.
"What the hell was that?" Maeve whispered angrily.
"Some dickhead with a letter on his chest just stole our rescue." John said, his face twitching with rage.
Earlier...
Annie January stepped up to the lane... And threw a gutter ball. She turned away with a shrug.
"Okay." Hughie said with a smile. "If I'm being honest... I'm a little suspicious of you."
Annie raised an eyebrow. "You are?"
Hughie nodded. "Yeah. I mean... You said you bowled a lot... And you have like... Superpowers. Yet, you are a remarkably shitty bowler!" He said, jovially. "I think you're holding back for some weird... 'Not gonna show me up on a first date' reason. You wanna quit stroking my ego and show me what you've really got?"
Annie appeared to ponder the question, then grabbed her ball from the ball return and walked back to the lane. Her eyes lit up, and she bowled straight down the middle. The ball rolled, and rolled, and the second it hit the head pin, a purple line appeared just above the pin return.
"Holy shit." Hughie said. "Now that's a-"
Suddenly, the bowling alley was rocked as the line tore a hole in reality itself, and a gigantic mass of black tentacles burst through, with a man in a red and blue suit and a red cape clasped in a purple-tipped tentacle.
Annie and Hughie turned around toward the source of the destruction.
"Homelander?" Annie asked as the mass of tentacles poured into the bowling alley. It was a gigantic, pitch-black octopus, larger than the building they were in, it seemed. The thing finished pouring through the purple hole in reality, showing a window into something that wasn't the bowling alley behind it.
"-perman!" A gruff voice called through the window.
Annie's eyes lit up as the thing laid waste to the bowling alley with its tentacles. Its' wild thrashing sent bowling balls flying through the air, and dislodged portions of wall and roof. Patrons tried to flee, but got caught up in the monster's flailing tentacles and the falling debris. Annie threw sparks at flying debris, exploding bowling balls into chunks of plastic and resin. One of the tentacles lashed toward Hughie, but Starlight sent an explosion its' way, making the creature recoil. The creature turned its attention from the man it had restrained toward the roof of the building. The octopus shredded the roof to pieces in an attempt to flee, but the man in its clutches punched the tentacle restraining him, and tried to drag it back through the shrinking purple window between realities.
"Hey!" Starlight shouted at the creature. It turned to face her, and she shot an explosion of sparks at what she thought was its' eye. When the explosion hit it, the thing recoiled and roared in pain. She almost fist-pumped triumphantly, but the creature whipped one of its' tentacles at her and Hughie's feet, knocking both of them to the ground.
The creature brought one of its tentacles, one tipped with a venom-green blade up in the air as the window behind it shrank to the point where it would barely fit a man. The man in red and blue looked at the portal, then to Hughie and Annie in less than the blink of an eye. Then, he looked down, punched the purple-tipped tentacle holding him, and shot what appeared to be bright red concentrated lasers from his eyes and severed the tentacle.
Annie and Hughie clutched each other tightly as the green-bladed tentacle dove through the air toward them. Then, in a blur of colors and a burst of air, the blade stopped in the bare hands of blue-sleeved arms as the red cape of their owner billowed and flapped in the blinding speed of the motion. The purple window winked out of existence as the red cape came to a standstill, and Hughie and Annie could make out a golden shield with what appeared to be a letter "S" inside on the cape. The man in the cape grabbed the green-tipped tentacle tight, and dashed into the thing's body with a sound like a thunderclap. The octopus stumbled up and out of the building, smacked the man away into the street, creating a crater in the pavement, and cut a sickly yellow hole in thin air, escaping before the man could recover.
Hughie and Starlight picked themselves up, and checked themselves over for injuries, thankfully finding none.
"You know this guy?" Hughie asked as the man picked himself up out of the hole in the pavement and returned to the bowling alley. They could see he also had an "S" symbol on his chest as well as his back, this one was a red shield with a yellow background. His suit appeared to be made from some kind of latex, the material not quite straining to contain his godlike musculature, but doing absolutely nothing to disguise the fact that his muscles rippled with every motion he made. The suit was a deep blue and the cape was a bright red, with a golden belt at the waist and red boots upon his feet.
"Is everyone alright?" The man asked in an unmistakably midwest accent. His voice was deep, warm, and reassuring.
"Uh, yeah, I think so." Hughie said.
The man looked around the rubble, seemingly at nothing. Then, he spied a soda machine on top of a pile of debris, and zoomed over to it. He lifted the soda machine with seemingly no effort at all, and cleared the chunks of building away, revealing a woman underneath. The man loaded her up in his hands, flew up into the air, looked directly in what Hughie knew was the direction of the nearest hospital, and flew away quickly. He returned, and continued to clear away debris, and fly the injured away from the scene to medical attention.
Starlight and Hughie did their best to help in whatever way they could. The fire department arrived shortly, followed by the police. Once everyone was attended to, the man approached Hughie and Starlight.
"Thanks for your help!" He said, extending a hand to shake theirs.
"Uh, no problem." Hughie said as he shook the man's hand. The handshake was gentle, but Hughie could tell there was a lot of strength behind it.
"We have received a phone call from a passenger on Trans-Oceanic Flight thirty-seven stating that the plane has been hijacked." A somewhat garbled voice said over a broken TV in the debris. The man, Hughie, and Starlight all turned to look at it. The man looked over in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean, and levitated into the air.
"Wait!" Hughie shouted as the man was about to fly off. "Who are you?"
The man shot him and Starlight a warm smile. "A friend." He said kindly. The man shot off in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean with a roar, followed by a sonic boom.