Storming the Laboratory

Black Noir froze in place.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Homelander's voice was soft, as soft as the last second of calm before a storm.

The Deep lay beside the shattered conference table, trembling all over, not even daring to breathe too loudly. Translucent clutched his collapsed nose, blood dripping down his chin.

Even an idiot like The Deep could see how serious things had become.

He had only one question: did losing to Soldier Boy really warrant Homelander going this crazy?

Translucent wanted to leave the conference room right now, but he did not dare move.

Homelander could take his anger out on him at any moment, and his invisibility was a joke before Homelander's X-ray vision.

Black Noir stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, his body trembling slightly.

His cartoon friends were all crying together.

"We're done for!"

"He knows! Don't look at him!! Don't make eye contact!!!"

But Black Noir still slowly raised his head and met the eyes of Homelander, who hovered in the air.

"You knew Soldier Boy was my father." Homelander landed.

He made no sound at all. His control over his flight was extremely precise.

Black Noir shook his head.

Homelander continued as though he had not noticed. "You knew. You knew all along."

Black Noir's breathing quickened, and he instinctively took half a step back.

Homelander advanced on him. "You were involved in betraying Soldier Boy. You were one of the masterminds."

"Vought lied to me for decades. You knew that too."

Homelander's eyes grew redder and redder, not with heat vision, but with the heartbreak of discovering betrayal by someone he trusted.

Homelander walked up to Black Noir, their faces almost touching. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Black Noir's throat worked. He wanted to speak, but only indistinct breaths came from his mouth.

"Oh, right." Homelander suddenly smiled, a smile so twisted it made the scalp crawl.

"I forgot. Your brain damage. You can't talk."

Black Noir shuddered, because those words stabbed into his heart like a knife.

Homelander's gaze suddenly fell on Black Noir's mask. "Take it off."

Black Noir froze, his eyes beneath the black mask showing some disbelief.

Homelander stared at him. "I said, take it off."

A few seconds later.

Black Noir slowly raised his hands, his movements stiff, facing something he could not accept.

The mask came undone.

Click.

That crisp sound marked the last boundary of Black Noir's dignity. A severely burned face was exposed to the air.

His skin was twisted, his scars hideous, and half his scalp could not even grow a full covering of hair.

The Deep sucked in a breath.

Even as a fellow member of The Seven, this was his first real look at what lay beneath Black Noir's mask.

Homelander froze for a moment.

He had always known what Soldier Boy had done to Black Noir.

The cartoon friends huddled in a corner, clinging to one another and trembling. The rabbit sobbed quietly. "It really hurt so much back then."

"So what? That's your reason for lying to me?!" Homelander punched Black Noir.

Black Noir, who had just crippled two superheroes in a two-on-one fight, went flying and slammed into the wall.

The entire conference room shook violently. The Deep immediately crouched with his hands over his head, playing ostrich. Translucent wet himself.

Black Noir struggled painfully to his feet, but he did not fight back. He merely looked around frantically for something.

Finally, he snatched a marker and a document off the table and began writing furiously, his movements so fast they trembled.

Homelander stared at him. In fact, he had not put much strength into that punch, or Black Noir would certainly have died.

He was waiting for an answer, an answer expressed by Black Noir himself.

Homelander had always considered Black Noir one of his own, the closest thing he had to a friend.

He had trusted him countless times, and countless times had called him, from the heart, "Brother."

So Black Noir's deception was not simply, "You lied to me."

It was, "Even you lied to me."

Now he wanted to kill Black Noir, yet at the same time hoped Black Noir would explain.

A few seconds later, Black Noir held up the sheet of paper.

Scrawled crookedly on it were the words:

[I didn't want you to get hurt.]

[The truth would destroy you. I wanted you to be happy.]

Homelander's face twitched. He finally could not hold it together anymore. Everyone was lying to him, everyone was using him, and Black Noir was no different.

He finally lost control of his emotions completely, lunging forward and placing his hand against Black Noir's chest, his fingers curled like hooks.

Black Noir knew he was about to die.

But he did not resist.

Not because he did not dare, but because he felt guilty. He saw hurt in Homelander's eyes, like a child who had been betrayed.

The little beaver that represented Black Noir himself hugged Black Noir's head. "Black Noir, I think we should say we're sorry to Homelander."

Black Noir's gaze trembled for a moment. His eyes flicked toward the paper and marker on the floor, and he reached for them.

But Homelander's hand had already plunged unstoppably into his chest and was sinking deeper little by little.

Homelander did not dare look at Black Noir, keeping his eyes fixed outside the window, so naturally he did not notice Black Noir's movements.

At that moment, Soldier Boy's final words echoed in Homelander's mind again:

"Once you have the results, spare Black Noir."

His movement paused. Why had he specifically mentioned Black Noir? Spare him?

Homelander hesitated a little, but it lasted only a second.

In his mind, Black Noir had indeed hurt him and had to die.

New York, Redwell Biological Research Center.

This was one of Vought's core secret experimental facilities, and also the place where Homelander had grown up.

There were no superhero posters here, no media cameras, no spotlights, only cold white laboratory buildings.

Thunder split the night sky, and torrential rain began to fall.

Lightning illuminated the entire experimental facility. Security personnel patrolled its perimeter, yawning and cursing tonight's weather incessantly.

If someone could fly into the sky at that moment, they would discover a strange phenomenon.

Above the entire facility, one patch of dark clouds was far denser than elsewhere, its overlapping layers packed tight.

Rain ran down Soldier Boy's hair as a patrolling security guard approached him with an umbrella.

"What are you doing here?"

A flashlight shone on Soldier Boy's face. He did not move, staring at one of the laboratory buildings.

Homelander had grown up there, like a dog, like a laboratory animal.

"Fuck," Soldier Boy cursed under his breath, shoving the patrolling guard away with one hand.

The unlucky guard instantly went flying, so fast that he tore a vacuum trail straight through the downpour.

He finally landed in a small lake. Apart from a few broken ribs where he had been shoved, he suffered no serious injuries.

Still reeling from the shock, he sounded the alarm.

Every networked alarm in the research center blared at once.

"We're under attack!!"

"We're under attack!!"

"What the hell?!"

Large numbers of security personnel immediately rushed over with their guns raised.

Soldier Boy glanced at the alloy gate that required a passcode to unlock and considered it for a moment.

"My super intelligence tells me it's time to use my super strength."

He kicked, and the steel gate buckled and burst apart like paper.

The tremendous crash made even the rain tremble.

"Good evening, you bastards."

Soldier Boy shook the rain from his face and grinned at the mass of approaching security personnel.