The Boys: I Became The Soldier Boy

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: I’m Homelander, and I Can Do Whatever the Fuck I Want

Chapter 6: I’m Homelander, and I Can Do Whatever the Fuck I Want

In the conference room on the top floor of Vought Tower, Madelyn sat at the head of the long table.

Seated before her were the currently available members of The Seven: Homelander, Queen Maeve, The Deep, Translucent, and Black Noir.

Madelyn spun the tablet around and slid it across the long table. On the screen, the footage of Soldier Boy beating A-Train played on a loop.

"I want The Seven to bring Soldier Boy back to Vought Tower within three days. Dead or alive—though alive is preferable."

From the other side of the table, Homelander replied, "I’m not going." freewebnσvel.cøm

The other four all looked toward Homelander in unison.

Queen Maeve’s brow furrowed slightly.

Silence hung in the conference room for three full seconds.

Translucent, sitting adjacent, had just rushed back from a fan meet-and-greet at Times Square and uncomfortably shifted his posture in his chair.

The Deep kept his head down, staring into the water cup on the table, lost in thought.

Queen Maeve stood with her arms crossed, looking first at Homelander and then at the Soldier Boy on the screen. She was somewhat confused by Homelander’s refusal. Could he actually be afraid? Thinking of this, Maeve felt it was a genuine possibility. This was Soldier Boy, after all.

"Homelander?" Madelyn froze for a moment.

Homelander finally raised his eyes.

Those eyes, a blue too intense to belong to a human, reflected the frozen frame on the screen—reflecting the face of Benjamin, of Soldier Boy. His expression held no anger, nor any of his usual emotions.

"I said I’m not going."

Homelander stood up, planting his hands on the table as he leaned slightly forward.

"Madelyn, I want access to Soldier Boy’s entire file. Until I find out why he’s still alive, and why he looks exactly like he did forty years ago—before I uncover the truth, The Seven doesn’t touch him!"

"He attacked A-Train. In public. In front of a crowd. Our stock opened three points down today!"

"Then let A-Train get his own payback." Homelander shrugged, his lips curling into an entirely heatless smile. "Oh right, I forgot. He currently has a brace clamped onto his knee, crying like a twelve-year-old girl down on the medical floor." fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

Translucent parted his lips, seemingly wanting to say something, but a lethal glare from Homelander instantly forced the words back down his throat. He knew all too well what that expression meant. You don’t chime in when Homelander is in a foul mood.

Madelyn slowly stood up, her high heels clacking sharply against the marble floor as she walked over to stand in front of Homelander.

"Listen, Homelander. Putting aside the fact that he is highly likely an impostor pretending to be Soldier Boy, even if he is the real deal, he still severely injured A-Train."

"Like I said, let A-Train handle it himself."

"The rest of you, leave."

Madelyn dismissed the others, leaving only Homelander behind in the room.

Once Queen Maeve and the rest had exited, Madelyn reached out to stroke Homelander’s face, intending to use her old method...

However, Homelander wasn’t as utterly captivated as he usually was. "I’m going to look at the files. Wait for my word. And until I know the whole truth, you are not to move against him!"

With that, he turned and left. He didn’t even waste a spare glance on Madelyn, who was already preparing to undress.

The conference room door slammed shut heavily the moment he crossed the threshold.

Madelyn stood in place, staring in the direction where Homelander had departed. Her right hand unconsciously clenched into a tight fist, her expression incredibly dark. This was one of the very few times Homelander had openly defied her.

---<>---

Forty-three floors beneath Vought Tower, the Records Management Center.

The lighting in the corridor was as stark white as an operating room. Every three meters stood an identity verification terminal, with a guard posted every fifteen paces. All security personnel were equipped with standard-issue gear heavy enough to suppress a C-class Supe.

This was one of the highest security sectors in all of Vought International, second only to the core Compound V research and development labs.

Homelander’s boots struck the epoxy flooring of the corridor, each stride carrying a tightly restrained fury.

He had already hit three separate departments: Records Management, Historical Archives, and the Board Secretariat.

Every single time, the staff had responded to him with the exact same standard, corporate smile:

"I’m sorry, Mr. Homelander, you need Ms. Stillwell’s written authorization to view files at this classification level."

Or, "I’m sorry, the data is currently undergoing digital migration, so it’s temporarily unavailable for review."

Or even more directly—"This file does not exist."

Does not exist?

Homelander came to a halt in front of the final service window, planting his fist heavily on the counter.

The surface of the counter, constructed from bulletproof glass, shattered into a web of spider cracks radiating outward from his fist. The clerk inside flinched violently backward in pure terror, his chair flipping over onto the floor with a loud crash.

"Soldier Boy," Homelander’s voice bled through the heavily fractured glass, every single syllable sounding as if it were being ground through his teeth. "A World War II hero, a core member of Payback, and one of the founding pillars of Vought. And you are telling me his file—doesn’t exist? Or is it because his file contains some dirty little secret you’re all trying to hide!!! I’m Homelander, and I can do whatever the fuck I want! I want to look at Soldier Boy’s file! Now! Tell me!!!"

The young man sprawled on the floor used a trembling hand to adjust his glasses, his voice shaking so violently it was barely coherent. He knew that the next words out of his mouth might very well get him killed:

"M-Mr. Homelander... the records... the tracking system shows that all of Soldier Boy’s files have been archived under maximum security. Access privileges require a joint authorization signed by at least three members of the Board of Directors..."

---<>---

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).