The Boys: I Became The Soldier Boy

Chapter 73: Chapter 73: This is What a Real Superhero Looks Like

Chapter 73: This is What a Real Superhero Looks Like

Shoved back by the sheer force, Homelander staggered back three large steps.

Homelander froze.

His eyes widened, staring dead at Ryan standing a few meters away.

He wasn’t shocked because the little brat actually dared to defy him. More importantly, Ryan had just generated a massive surge of strength—enough force to knock him back several paces.

Right now, Ryan stood firmly in front of Becca, shielding her. His clear blue eyes, filled with anger, flared with a crimson glow. The twin beams of piercing red light made him look like a pint-sized version of Homelander.

Staring at those crimson eyes on the verge of unleashing lasers, Homelander felt a wave of joy. Devoid of any fury over being attacked by his own son, he praised, "Good boy..."

Meanwhile, Ryan panted heavily after unleashing that freakish strength. The crimson glow in his eyes slowly flickered out, fading away. The little guy looked down at his hands, then up at the father he had just shoved back several paces, a sudden wave of lingering fear surfacing in his eyes. He seemed to realize he might have gone too far.

He stared at Homelander, completely at a loss for words. But his dad had been genuinely terrifying just now, and it looked like he had almost hurt his mom... Ryan bit his lip, staring at Homelander with a deeply conflicted expression.

"Ryan..." Becca violently pulled Ryan into a tight embrace, using her body to completely block him from Homelander’s sight. Holding Ryan close, heart churned with sheer terror. She glared fixedly at Homelander, consumed by a deep rage. It was entirely because of Homelander that her son had turned out like this, yet she didn’t dare provoke him any further... Becca loathed Supes to her very core, and now, her own son was awakening powers of his own...

Without another word, Becca quickly carried Ryan back inside the cottage.

Seeing this, Homelander’s face twitched slightly a couple of times. "Quite a fucking temper..." he muttered helplessly. Homelander shook his head, a wry smile playing on his lips. He didn’t force his way through the front door.

"We’ll take it slow, my little superman," Homelander murmured under his breath. He spun around, and with a resonant boom, rocketed straight into the sky. It would be better to wait until the kid cooled down before coming back in a few days with a new Lego set. Next time, he’d just bring a Soldier Boy Lego set; Ryan would definitely love that.

---<>---

Vought Tower, Benjamin’s private office.

In front of the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, Benjamin reclined on the sofa, swirling a glass of whiskey over ice, his eyes locked onto the tablet resting on the coffee table. On the screen was a highly pixelated street surveillance screenshot. Captured in the frame was a slender boy with distinct Asian features, navigating the dim alleys of downtown New York with absolute vigilance.

Standing nearby was the Vice President, Anika. Adjusting her gold-rimmed glasses, she reported, "Sir, our intelligence division just intercepted this high-risk target. Cross-referencing our data indicates a high probability that this Asian youth is the latest Supe-Terrorist to infiltrate American borders. To prevent widespread public panic, I intend to immediately deploy Starlight and Queen Maeve to conduct a classified extraction."

Listening to Anika’s brief, Benjamin downed the straight liquor in a single swallow. He recognized the Asian teenager in the image at a single glance. It was Kimiko’s biological brother, Kenji.

So Kimiko’s brother had finally surfaced? In the original timeline, Kenji wielded a devastating level of telekinesis—not only could he snap necks out of thin air, but he could easily capsize a yacht with his bare hands. He was an incredibly formidable asset.

Furthermore, Kenji’s appearance signaled one definitive development. Going by the original show, Billy Butcher’s crew, The Boys, would inevitably try to get their hands on him. Granted, Benjamin couldn’t say for certain if things would play out exactly the same, considering the current timeline had completely diverged from the original script.

"Cancel the deployment, Anika," Benjamin said, rising to his feet. "Assemble The Seven immediately. We’re holding a briefing in the top-floor conference room in ten minutes."

"Right away, sir!" Though slightly taken aback, Anika immediately took her orders and withdrew.

---<>---

Ten minutes later, on the top floor of Vought Tower, inside the circular conference room that symbolized the corporation’s absolute power. The heavy double doors were pushed open.

Homelander had already arrived; he had happened to be en route back to Vought anyway, so he made it back in no time. Right on his heels, Queen Maeve, Starlight, The Deep, A-Train, and Stormfront—who had been systematically slacking off lately—filed into the room one after another. frёewebηovel.cѳm

Settling into the head seat, Benjamin tossed the tablet featuring Kenji’s photograph onto the center of the table. "This target isn’t some minor, two-man deployment. I’ll be leading the team personally, and I want the entire roster of The Seven mobilized for the extraction."

A wave of surprise rippled through the room at his words. Queen Maeve furrowed her brow, noting with clear surprise, "Sir... deploying the entire roster of The Seven for a single Asian target? Isn’t that a bit excessive? If he’s just a standard rogue Supe, Starlight and I could probably neutralize him ourselves."

Seated across from them, Stormfront also narrowed her eyes, a flash of suspicion crossing her gaze. In her mind, for Soldier Boy to raise such a massive stink and insist on running the operation himself, there had to be something unusual about this target.

"Shut up and let me finish," Benjamin continued. "The reason the entire roster is going is because intelligence indicates he isn’t operating alone. Besides the boy, his older sister is also active, and she’s a rogue Supe too." Benjamin paused, his gaze hardening into steel. "Furthermore, I have one strict rule for this operation: I want them alive. No lethal force, and no life-threatening injuries. Once secured, you bring them back to Vought International completely intact."

The mandate left the room entirely dumbfounded. Starlight blinked in confusion, asking out of pure curiosity, "Why, sir? They’re rogue Supes."

Facing Starlight’s inquiry, Benjamin formulated a rationale and explained, "Because they aren’t like that ice-wielding psycho slaughtering civilians wholesale on the streets. According to my tracking, this brother and sister haven’t touched a single innocent civilian. They’re victims—kidnapped by insurgent cells and forcibly injected with Compound V. They’re nothing more than tragic anomalies manufactured for pure profit by that capitalist suit, Stan Edgar. Every single person they’ve put in the dirt so far was someone who kept them under lock and key or brutalized them."

"If Vought blindly executes a pair of desperate victims like them, what the fuck separates us from the old corporate machine that slaughtered people without a second thought?!"

Starlight’s eyes went completely wide. "That... actually makes a lot of sense..." Starlight nodded, her gaze shifting to Benjamin with even deeper adoration.

Now this was what a real superhero looked like.

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