After Homelander's figure vanished completely into the night sky, the street was frighteningly quiet.
Police lights kept flashing in the distance, but not a single officer dared approach.
A-Train stood rooted to the spot, still shaken, his back already soaked in cold sweat.
Homelander had been terrifying just now, especially that final look.
A-Train could swear he had never seen Homelander wear that expression in his entire life.
Queen Maeve slowly withdrew her gaze from the night sky and looked back at Soldier Boy.
"Soldier Boy, what exactly happened?" Maeve asked with a frown.
Soldier Boy held an expensive lighter, his head lowered as he lit a cigarette.
As for where the lighter came from, never mind. He hadn't bought it, anyway.
Click.
A flame sprang up.
With the cigarette between his lips, he replied indistinctly, "Family problems."
Maeve: "?"
A-Train: "?"
A-Train's brain was practically crashing.
Family problems?
Whose family?
"Poor kid grew up without a mom or dad." Soldier Boy exhaled a cloud of smoke and glanced at them. "So here I am."
Everything instantly fell silent.
A-Train's mouth hung open, his mind blank. Queen Maeve was visibly stunned for a moment, too.
Wasn't that a lot to take in from just two sentences?
"Fuck!" A-Train was dumbfounded. "Man, you can't joke about that kind of thing."
"Who's joking?" Soldier Boy frowned.
Queen Maeve's expression turned thoroughly strange.
She suddenly realized Homelander's breakdown earlier really hadn't been an act.
In other words, the Soldier Boy standing before her really might be Homelander's father.
A thought suddenly arose in Maeve's mind: things were about to change. Vought would probably face massive upheaval.
Soldier Boy suddenly looked her up and down.
Black-and-gold armor, a tall, slender figure, straight, long legs, and a sharply defined waist.
"You're easier on the eyes than that blond kid, though."
Soldier Boy made no attempt to hide the appreciation in his gaze.
Yes, appreciation for her figure.
A vein throbbed on Maeve's forehead. This was exactly the sort of bastard described in Vought's old files on Soldier Boy.
Foul-mouthed, begging for a beating, and like a drunken thug.
"Have you always been this obnoxious?" Maeve asked coldly.
Soldier Boy grinned.
"Sweetheart."
"When I was young, women lined up for me to annoy them."
Maeve: "..."
A-Train: "..."
Fuck, what an asshole.
Just then, Soldier Boy suddenly turned toward A-Train. "You're pretty fast?"
A-Train froze, then instinctively puffed out his chest. "Of course. I'm the fastest in the world!"
Has my fame already caught the attention of a legend like Soldier Boy?
Pride welled up inside him.
The next instant, Soldier Boy lashed out with a kick without warning.
It was too fast. A-Train couldn't react.
A teeth-grating crack of bone followed.
A-Train went flying sideways and slammed into a car parked by the road, his knee caved in at a twisted angle.
The car door crumpled inward, and the windows shattered, scattering glass across the ground.
"Aaaah!"
"Fuck!! My leg!!!"
A-Train clutched his knee and screamed, rolling on the ground in agony.
Maeve's expression changed instantly. "Are you insane?!"
She abruptly stepped forward, closing in and assuming a textbook fighting stance, ready to deal with Soldier Boy's rampage at any moment.
Yet Soldier Boy merely exhaled a puff of smoke as though nothing had happened. "I just saved a girl's life."
"What?" Maeve frowned, looking at the screaming A-Train. It felt utterly absurd.
You think you're justified in beating someone up? What do you mean, you saved a girl's life?
Soldier Boy ignored her, strolling over to A-Train before squatting down and patting his face.
The current A-Train was a complete bastard.
In the near future, he would lose control after injecting too much Compound V and run into the protagonist Hughie's girlfriend, killing her.
Afterward, he wouldn't even offer a single heartfelt apology.
Even though he completed his redemption in season five and displayed a fully developed human character arc, that couldn't hide the fact that he was an animal right now.
[Ding] [Detected that the host has completed the mission: prevent A-Train from smashing Hughie's girlfriend to pieces.] [Mission reward: exchange points ×10 issued.]
Done!
Soldier Boy had broken A-Train's leg ahead of time. An injury this severe would take even a superhuman a month to recover from.
Hughie's girlfriend was safe.
Far away in Brooklyn, Robin, who was being lovey-dovey with Hughie, shivered and suddenly felt like crying.
She felt that her fate had undergone an indescribable change.
Soldier Boy was getting a bit of a headache.
Starlight hadn't joined yet, and A-Train wasn't the only piece of trash in the Seven.
The Deep, that sleazy fish-fucker with a dark side.
Translucent, the voyeur.
And his dear son, Homelander.
"Stop fucking running around so much. Next time I catch you losing control on drugs, I'll kill you outright."
A-Train's pupils contracted.
How does he know I inject Compound V?
A chill instantly shot from his tailbone to his scalp.
But something felt off. He clearly hadn't injected any Compound V before coming here.
Before he could speak, however, a heavy punch was already hurtling toward Soldier Boy's face.
Queen Maeve had made her move. She couldn't just stand by and watch her teammate get crippled.
Her small fist tore through the air, packed with power.
This punch could even overturn a speeding car head-on.
But Soldier Boy simply raised his hand and caught it firmly. The instant he caught it, the ground beneath his feet cracked into a spiderweb pattern.
The gust whipped up Soldier Boy's hair. He shook his hand, gaining a new understanding of his strength.
In the first episode of the original show, Queen Maeve had stopped an armored truck with her body alone.
Yet taking her full-power punch had only left his hand a little numb.
"Quite a temper. I like a little spitfire like you." Soldier Boy raised his eyebrows.
Maeve's eyes turned cold, and her other hand abruptly smashed toward Soldier Boy's face in an exceptionally fierce strike.
But Soldier Boy didn't even dodge. He took it head-on with his face.
Another dull thud rang out.
Soldier Boy's hair shook. "Sweet little spitfire, are you trying to tickle me?"
With that, he grabbed Queen Maeve's hand and yanked hard. Maeve instantly lost her balance.
She was bodily flung away, crashing through a convenience store window as glass exploded everywhere.
A-Train watched with his scalp tingling, no longer daring to scream.
Too strong.
They're not even in the same league.
By now, A-Train was starting to get a sense of things.
He thought Soldier Boy might be mentally unstable.
What does my taking Compound V have to do with an old fossil from decades ago like you?
What gives you the right to break my leg?
There's absolutely no restraint or logic to anything he does.
A-Train believed it now. Soldier Boy was definitely Homelander's biological father.
Their mental illness ran in the family.
Unaware of A-Train's thoughts, Soldier Boy rolled his wrists and walked toward Maeve.
"Cough, cough." Maeve climbed out of the wrecked car, blood already seeping from the corner of her mouth.
"Holy shit!" In the distance, a worker who had just gotten off work shouted in despair.
His newly purchased, beloved car was scrap metal, and he hadn't even paid off the loan!!!
No one paid him any attention.
The anger in Maeve's eyes burned even hotter, now with a trace of fear.
She was scared.
Just one exchange had shown her the gap between them.
Soldier Boy didn't press his attack, though. "You're too weak. Like a goddamn woman."
Maeve forcibly suppressed the urge to attack again. Her extensive combat experience told her:
If she kept fighting, she would die.
Soldier Boy looked at A-Train.
"Get lost, dumbass. If you ever see a curly-haired kid named Hughie getting lovey-dovey with his girlfriend by the road, stay the hell away."
A-Train's forehead was covered in cold sweat from the pain, but right now, he was more confused than hurt.
Curly-haired?
What curly-haired kid?
What the hell is this old bastard talking about?
Definitely Homelander's biological father.
Before you continue