Free Web NovelChapter 13: Chapter 13: Straightening Out The Seven’s Discipline
Chapter 13: Straightening Out The Seven’s Discipline freёweɓnovel.com
The door opened, and then they saw the shield.
The diamond-shaped shield engraved with the bald eagle entered their field of vision first through the crack of the door. Then came the deep green suit. Finally, that face that had once been sat on by the Queen of England—
A-Train and Translucent froze. The Deep just stood there with his mouth open, knocking over the glass in front of him. Water trickled down the tabletop, dripping one drop at a time onto the carpet.
Seeing this, Homelander cast a somewhat disgusted look at The Deep.
Maeve pushed herself away from the window frame and slowly straightened up. A trace of awe appeared in her usually sharp eyes.
Benjamin walked into the conference room, the shield strapped to his left arm, his combat boots stepping on the carpet without making a single unnecessary sound. He came to a halt at the far end of the long table, his gaze sweeping across every face in attendance, as if inspecting a squad of raw recruits.
"Soldier Boy," Homelander continued, his voice laced with an emotion he couldn’t entirely control himself. "My father."
"And also, my predecessor. Starting today, Soldier Boy will serve as the Executive Director of the Department of Superhuman Affairs for Vought International. All mission assignments, personnel deployments, and operational approvals for The Seven will be entirely under his signature. His authority ranks above mine."
The others hadn’t known about this. They had thought Soldier Boy was simply joining The Seven, never expecting...
Every Supe present digested the meaning of those words at the exact same moment, each displaying varying degrees of surprise on their faces. A-Train’s expression shifted from shock to disbelief, Translucent’s expression froze, and The Deep finally snapped out of it, wiping the water off the table while resuming his usual braindead look.
Meanwhile, Maeve glanced at Homelander, then back at Soldier Boy.
After saying this, Homelander’s gaze swept across every face at the long table. His expression management was practically flawless, the corners of his mouth curving slightly upward with joy and pride... But if anyone looked closely enough... Homelander really was happy. After all, the person standing at the other end of the table was the real deal—his own bloodline, his father.
But at the same time, when Homelander uttered the words "authority ranks above mine," he felt a bit uncomfortable and conflicted inside. Soldier Boy had a higher position and greater power than him, even though their raw strength was pretty much matched. From this day forward, Homelander was no longer the unassailable pinnacle of Vought’s superhuman hierarchy. Naturally, he was quite frustrated. But that man was Soldier Boy... his father. So, Homelander merely bit his lip and didn’t show much dissatisfaction.
Benjamin placed the shield on the long table, the bald eagle paint facing upward, reflecting a quiet sheen under the conference room lights. Planting both hands on the edge of the table, he leaned forward slightly, addressing the group of the world’s most powerful Supes with his first words of the afternoon.
"I’m Soldier Boy. Nice to meet you all," his tone was flat. "But pleasantries aside, starting today, the rules of The Seven are going to change."
Benjamin’s gaze slowly swept from the left side of the long table to the right, as if taking inventory of a pile of defective stock. Then his eyes settled on A-Train. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
A-Train sat in his wheelchair. With his elbows resting on the armrests and his chin slightly raised, he tried to project the aura of a superhero who had been wronged but remained defiantly unyielding. But the instant he was locked under Benjamin’s gaze, his back involuntarily pressed hard against the backrest of the wheelchair.
"A-Train," Benjamin said. "You pussy who only runs through women. Slap yourself twice. If you don’t do it, I will."
Hearing this, A-Train’s pupils contracted violently. Hadn’t he already been beaten? And beaten half to death at that.
His gaze instinctively drifted over to Benjamin’s side. Homelander was already standing right next to Benjamin, looking completely obedient. His cape draped behind his back, his arms crossed over his chest, his blue eyes staring dead at him without blinking. Entirely expressionless.
But it was precisely this lack of expression that made his skin crawl more than any explicit threat. The meaning was crystal clear: My dad told you to do it. You’d better do it yourself.
A-Train’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
Smack! Smack!
Two sharp cracks echoed as A-Train’s palms slammed squarely against his left and right cheeks, the force so heavy that he even stunned himself. Two deep red handprints rapidly surfaced on his face, a trace of blood even leaking from the right corner of his mouth.
Benjamin watched expressionlessly before continuing, "Good. And A-Train, if I ever catch you doping yourself up for your upcoming races again, you’re off the goddamn Seven."
Something buzzed loudly inside A-Train’s brain. Doping. Compound V. He had kept this incredibly well-hidden; nobody should have known. Even if Homelander had him distributing Compound V, Homelander shouldn’t have known he was using it himself. No, maybe he did know—otherwise, how would Soldier Boy know?
He snapped his head up to look at Benjamin. But Benjamin’s expression bore absolutely no trace of interrogation or probing. His demeanor while saying this was exactly the same as when he ordered him to slap himself. Flat, certain, as if stating an open fact.
Then his gaze involuntarily drifted back to Homelander. Homelander must have told Soldier Boy. And Homelander just stood there beside his father, staring at him with a pair of entirely heatless eyes. Swallowing hard, a drop of blood from the corner of A-Train’s mouth dipped down his chin. He didn’t wipe it. "Yes, sir."
Benjamin’s gaze shifted away from him, settling on another figure at the long table. "Translucent."
Translucent’s body stiffened slightly. Honestly, he had been secretly rejoicing inside just moments ago. A-Train had been singled out, and The Deep likely wouldn’t escape either, but aside from his fondness for hanging out in the ladies’ room... he didn’t really have any vulnerabilities that could be exploited. He was supposed to be one of the better Supes.
But Benjamin’s next words made his sphincter instantly tighten up.
"Translucent, if I ever catch your disgusting ass naked in a bathroom peeping again, I’ll shove a bomb straight up your ass, blow you sky-high, and feed your minced meat to the fucking dogs."
Translucent froze completely in his chair. While the exterior of his carbon-metamaterial skin was indestructible, his insides were vulnerable, even if his exterior was indestructible. And that weakness was something he had never told a soul.
An image involuntarily flashed in his mind. The imagery was so specific and vivid that he had to squeeze his eyes shut. Is this the wisdom of the original superhero? An old fossil who just crawled out of a Russian lab after being frozen for forty years. He’d only been back for a few days, yet he already had a total lock on the one fatal vulnerability nobody else had uncovered in his over ten years at Vought?
Translucent parted his lips to speak, but ultimately just mumbled submissively, "Yes, sir. It will never happen again."
Standing at Benjamin’s side, Homelander blinked. The light in his blue eyes flickered slightly. A-Train nearly running someone over, Translucent peeping—he knew about all of it. There was nothing inside Vought that stayed hidden from him. But in his eyes, these were just harmless little flaws. What was the big deal about running someone over? What was the big deal about taking a little peek? It wasn’t exactly a massive crisis.
Homelander had actually expected Soldier Boy to go after the even more pathetic Deep first—after all, that useless piece of shit could only talk to fish. He didn’t quite understand why his father was making an example out of such trivial, petty bullshit. Was this enforcing discipline? Establishing dominance? Or was it... Suddenly, a few images flashed through his mind. His expression froze slightly. It seems... the bad shit I’ve done is way worse...
"Maeve."
Queen Maeve looked toward Soldier Boy. Even before Benjamin stepped into this conference room, she had harbored complicated feelings about "the return of Soldier Boy." But as Benjamin handled A-Train and Translucent one by one, she couldn’t help but see him in a different light. Even if his true motive was just asserting dominance rather than genuine disciplinary reform. Hearing her name called now, her spine unconsciously straightened a bit.
"If Translucent does it again, report it to me."
"Yes, sir."
Maeve’s gaze swept over to Translucent, the contempt in her eyes entirely undisguised. She had worked with Translucent for a long time, and any shred of goodwill she ever had for this "teammate" had long been eroded away by his shady little habits. Now that someone was keeping him in check—and doing it by aiming straight for his throat—she actually felt a long-overdue sense of satisfaction.
Caught between both of their gazes, Translucent ducked his head, repeating, "Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Never again."
"The Deep."
Benjamin’s voice turned to his next target. The Deep’s shoulders visibly flinched. The glass of water in front of him had already been knocked over once, and after a clumsy scramble to set it right, it had left an unwiped puddle on the tabletop.
He looked up at Benjamin, doing his best to make his expression look composed, but the sheer panic bleeding through his eyes betrayed every single internal thought. A-Train had been publicly slapped, Translucent had been threatened with an ass-bombing, and now it was his turn. He had no idea what was waiting for him. I haven’t really done anything bad, right? Probably not.
Benjamin looked at him, the disdain in his gaze needing no words to articulate.
"A useless piece of shit who likes to fuck fish."
The conference room fell into a dead silence for two full seconds.
Ashley didn’t even dare to breathe. She couldn’t believe that the very first thing Soldier Boy did after returning was to discipline—or rather, educate—the entire Seven...
---<>---
A/n: If you want to read ahead and find out what happens next right away, you can read up to 20 Chapters ahead on my p@tr~on: [email protected]/ForgottenDaoist (@ = a, link is in my profile).
