The Boys: I Became The Soldier Boy

Chapter 19: Chapter 19: The Plan Against Soldier Boy

Chapter 19: The Plan Against Soldier Boy

Benjamin sat in his office, took a sip of his coffee, and looked at a newly created file on his tablet.

It was regarding Hughie, Butcher, Frenchie, and Mother’s Milk. Not a single one of the four was missing.

Honestly, Benjamin had originally thought that if Robin didn’t die, Hughie wouldn’t walk down this path. But he was still involved, which didn’t make much sense.

Now Translucent had vanished—no sign of life, no body found—and no one across Vought International was investigating or asking questions.

And as for whether Translucent was dead or alive, truth be told, it didn’t have a damn thing to do with him. Forget it, Benjamin didn’t intend to interfere. In his eyes, Translucent’s life or death wasn’t even as important as those beautiful, sexy female characters.

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The bottom floor of Vought Tower, Stan Edgar’s private conference room.

No windows, acoustic panels on all four walls, and all electronic devices were left in a shielded locker outside the door. Here, they could ensure that their conversation wouldn’t be overheard by Homelander.

Several core board directors sat around the long table, with Madelyn sitting to Edgar’s right. The lighting was dim.

"Get straight to the conclusion," Edgar’s voice was completely devoid of emotion. "The losses since Soldier Boy took office."

Madelyn opened her tablet. "The Compound V black market has been shut down, with projected profits dropping by twenty-three percent. The Deep has been fired, reducing revenue from his IP merchandise to zero—that’s a loss of at least eight hundred million. Furthermore, due to that previous incident, three of A-Train’s sponsors are negotiating to terminate their contracts."

She paused, then continued, "Soldier Boy has no weaknesses. He doesn’t care about money, maybe isn’t even into women, and has no personality flaws. He won’t care about his reputation the way Homelander does. We can’t find any leverage... And because Soldier Boy is Homelander’s father, Homelander doesn’t resent Soldier Boy for having greater authority than him."

A silence fell over the conference table.

A white-haired director took off his glasses. "What about Homelander? If Madelyn can keep a tight grip on him, it could at least create some sort of balance, which might be better than Homelander holding total dominance like before."

Madelyn set down her water glass, her movement half a beat slower than usual. frёeωebɳovel.com

Edgar spoke up on her behalf. "Over the past two days, Homelander hasn’t gone to Madelyn for milk. Their relationship appears to have fractured since Soldier Boy’s arrival."

"Why?"

"Because Soldier Boy is his father," Madelyn’s voice was dry. "When someone who has been starved of affection his entire life suddenly has a biological father drop out of the sky, who do you think he’s going to choose?"

"Perhaps, Madelyn, you can give Homelander more love than Soldier Boy can. Soldier Boy doesn’t have milk."

Madelyn rubbed her temples, not knowing what would be best to say.

Silence pressed down once more. The second hand on the wall clock ticked around three times before someone finally spoke.

"Soldier Boy can’t be killed, but he can be contained. The Russians managed it back then."

"You mean—"

"He’ll have to leave Vought Tower eventually. The members of Payback are still around, except for Black Noir. Them, plus a few compliant Supes—we pick a time when he goes out alone, ambush him, control him, and lock him away. Just like back then."

Several gazes shifted toward Edgar simultaneously. Edgar didn’t answer immediately. He stared at the desktop, and after a long moment, he looked up.

"A two-pronged approach," his voice carried no inflection. "Madelyn, satisfy Homelander as much as possible, pull him back. Whatever he wants, give it to him, placate him. As for the other side—"

He looked at the director who had made the suggestion. "Reach out to Payback. They’ll follow Vought’s arrangements—they despise Soldier Boy. Have them on standby."

Madelyn nodded. She knew full well that winning over Homelander used to require nothing more than a glance, or maybe pulling down her collar. But now, it had transformed into a task demanding she "satisfy his every request as much as possible."

But she had no other cards left to play. Yet Madelyn didn’t know what to do either; aside from certain parts of her own anatomy, what else could she even offer?

But soon, Madelyn thought of Soldier Boy. Could she use the same method she used to seduce Homelander to seduce...

The meeting adjourned. The directors filed out one by one, leaving only Edgar sitting alone at the end of the long table.

He let out a sigh. Soldier Boy’s return had certainly caused a fair share of trouble, and... he apparently intended to be a real superhero. Vought didn’t need real superheroes. Vought... only needed compliant products.

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A/N: Next goal: 100 Power Stones = 1 bonus Chapter!

And if you want to read ahead and find out what happens next right away, you can get up to 20 Chapters ahead on my p@tr~on:

[email protected]/ForgottenDaoist (@ = a, link is in my profile).