Who can help me?

Vought Tower, The Seven's Private Conference Room.

A few minutes after Homelander and Maeve left.

"Ashley, who are you calling?"

Madelyn's gaze was hostile.

"Ma'am, no, I just wanted to..." Ashley Barrett instinctively stood at attention.

But the next second, she frowned.

You fired me. Soldier Boy's my boss now. Why the hell should I be scared of you?

"What's it to you? This is The Seven's business."

A comeback unlike anything she had ever delivered. Ashley felt as though a weight had lifted off her chest.

She held her phone to her ear, and an impatient voice came from the other end.

"Ashley, you'd better fucking have something, or I'll shove your head down a toilet."

Soldier Boy was soaking in the bathtub, holding a bottle of vodka.

He had power and money, Homelander was handling The Seven's affairs, and the system hadn't issued any new missions.

He rarely had time to relax, yet the calls kept coming.

"Sir, something's happened." Realizing the situation wasn't simple, Ashley decided to notify Soldier Boy anyway.

She wasn't looking for credit, just to avoid blame.

On the other end, a chill ran down Soldier Boy's back when he heard that standard opening line.

In the original show, whenever Ashley said those words, something went wrong.

Ashley continued, "A giant flying creature appeared in the sky. Homelander's already gone to deal with it."

"Details." Soldier Boy climbed out of the bathtub.

As far as he remembered, this hadn't been part of the original plot. It seemed the butterfly effect caused by his arrival in this world was kicking in.

"Uh, it's huge, looks like a snake, over two hundred meters long, and then..."

Ashley described what she had seen in detail, but Soldier Boy interrupted impatiently. "All right, I'll take a look myself. I'll be right there."

"Oh, sir, one other little thing. A passenger plane is about to collide with the unidentified creature," Ashley added.

"What?!" The voice on the other end rose several pitches.

Ashley froze for a moment. "But with Homelander there, I'm sure it'll be fine."

Before she finished, she heard the beeping of the disconnected call.

Beside her, Madelyn's face was livid, her stare fixed. She wanted to say, "Ashley, you're fired." But she quickly realized she had already said that not long ago, only for that bastard old soldier to overturn it with a single sentence.

"Damn Soldier Boy." Her teeth ground audibly.

Ashley's words, "This is The Seven's business," had landed like a stinging slap across her face, sparing her no dignity.

Meanwhile, hearing the word "plane," Soldier Boy instinctively thought of the tragedy Homelander had single-handedly caused.

"Fucking Ashley, you call that a little thing?" Gritting his teeth, he headed straight for the conference room.

He didn't take the elevator. On the top floor, running to the conference room through the emergency stairwell would be faster.

Bang!

The conference room door burst open.

Everyone jumped in fright.

Soldier Boy was glad he now had level-two Super Speed.

"What's the situation?" With no time for anything else, he headed straight for the conference table.

Still shaken, Ashley pointed at the big screen. "See for yourself, sir."

It happened to show the moment Homelander finished killing King Cobra and an enormous quantity of venom sprayed out.

Then the plane shuddered, began to jolt, and fumes rose from its nose.

"Fuck." Soldier Boy knitted his brows.

Seriously? Why were planes in the world of The Boys so easily damaged?

But two more serious questions lay before him. Would Homelander save the people on the plane?

"A-Train, go to the city's fire stations right now. Bring all their rescue air cushions beneath the plane."

"Clara, Starlight, fly over there and help Homelander save people."

Soldier Boy spoke rapidly, making preparations in advance.

The situation was very different from the original show. The plane had only just left the city, and this would minimize the losses.

Of course, that depended on Homelander being willing to save people. Otherwise, his arrangements would be a joke.

"Sir." A-Train raised a hand, swallowing under Soldier Boy's murderous glare.

"My leg hasn't healed yet. I can't run fast right now."

"And me." Starlight looked at him in despair. "Sir, I can't fly."

Meanwhile, high in the sky.

Homelander stood with his hands on his hips, furious and frantic.

One hundred and twenty-three passengers, two pilots, and over ten flight attendants.

The plane was still falling. How many could he take down at once?

How many trips would it take to get all these people safely to the ground? Was there enough time?

"Maeve, at this altitude, I don't have enough time to save everyone." Homelander spoke extremely quickly, reaching for Maeve's arm.

Maeve stepped back.

She saw the madness on Homelander's face.

"What are you trying to do? Abandon them?"

Homelander said, "Fuck you. There's no time to explain. I'm taking you down first."

"Are you really going to do this? The satellites will..."

Before Maeve could finish, Homelander caught her around the waist.

Then the sky rapidly receded.

Fifteen seconds later.

Maeve was set down on the ground. The little girl in her arms was bleeding from her ears, but she wasn't crying, because she had passed out.

"What the hell?"

Maeve was dumbfounded, swallowing the unfinished threat she hadn't managed to voice.

Sixteen seconds later.

Homelander completed another round trip, bringing down two more unconscious passengers.

He had taken one second to fly back to the plane, grabbed two passengers at random, then spent fifteen seconds bringing them down.

That was the limit of what ordinary people could withstand.

Forty thousand feet, roughly ten thousand meters, down to the ground in fifteen seconds was just the right speed. Any faster, and their internal organs would burst, killing them instantly.

Queen Maeve's eyes widened, her eyelashes trembling.

Was this still the Homelander she knew?

Judging by Homelander's expression, wasn't the script supposed to be a plane crash with no survivors?

She had even been ready to threaten Homelander by telling him that satellites would capture their every move. Now, it seemed unnecessary.

"You useless fucks! Why the fuck did you have to take a plane?" Homelander cursed loudly through gritted teeth.

The rescue was too slow. At most, fifty of these ordinary people would survive.

"Fuck."

Two more people were saved.

The passengers inside the plane had long since descended into chaos. Even as the jolting left them unable to stand, they all scrambled toward the boarding door.

"Mommy, I'm scared."

A mother in the crowd lifted her little boy toward the front, and Homelander grabbed him.

He was just about to fly when he noticed something wrong.

Someone had grabbed the little boy's leg.

The man shouted, "Save me first! I'll give you all my money! Please!"

Homelander finally lost his temper, red light flaring in his eyes.

"Fuck you! All of you, get back, or I'll laser you dead right now!"

The passengers grew even more frantic, those at the front desperately retreating.

The plane drew closer and closer to the ground.

The red glow in Homelander's eyes had yet to fade. In that moment, he had truly wanted to kill everyone and be done with it.

But a single change of mind had brought him this far, and there was no time to kill anyone now.

He no longer had a choice. He could only do his best to save one more person.

Huff-

Homelander gulped down air, not from exhaustion, but from the immense psychological pressure.

Two more passengers were saved.

Maeve raised her head weakly. She could already see the falling plane with the naked eye.

It seemed there wasn't enough time.

She slumped onto the ground, numbly holding the little girl in her arms.

At least that soft, warm little body offered some comfort.

"Fuck, can someone help me?" Homelander's face twisted.

After his emotions had settled a little from their initial state, Maeve's words had reminded him. His every move would be recorded by national-level, high-definition satellites.

He could imagine what his fans and the media would say about him if he had really left back then.

He was glad he hadn't abandoned the rescue, and grateful to Soldier Boy. Without Soldier Boy's influence, he would already have made a terrible mistake.

Right, Soldier Boy?

When children faced something they couldn't solve, they instinctively thought of their parents.

Homelander's eyes lit up, as though he had found a lifeline.

But the situation before him reminded him that even a god could do nothing now.

The light in his eyes dimmed.

(Good luck on the college entrance exams! May you all pass with flying colors!)

(Come work at Vought after you graduate, and you might get Homelander's autograph!)