Chapter 131: A Month Has Passed
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
During that month, The Deep and Black Noir II officially teamed up and took over the mission of tracking down The Boys.
Ever since Adana screwed him over with V24 in that abandoned warehouse, The Deep had been nursing a gutful of rage, and no one was more eager than him to hunt them down.
He dragged Black Noir II all over the United States, searching for traces of Mallory and Adana.
They had little to show for it, but on the surface, at least, they looked busy as hell.
Black Noir II, on the other hand, was having a good time. He finally did not have to spend every day keeping a straight face and pretending to be mute. He still had to maintain Black Noir’s silent, taciturn persona while on missions, but at least around The Deep, he could talk freely.
The Deep had a filthy mouth, but when it came to bitching about how boring the missions were, the two of them were surprisingly on the same wavelength.
Black Noir II also started treating The Deep like a bro, and the two of them grew closer and closer.
Benjamin, meanwhile, was enjoying the peace and quiet.
Vought’s daily operations were handled by a professional management team, with Ashley and Anika overseeing things. He only stepped in to make the final call on major decisions. The rest of the time, he preferred to be hands-off.
During the day, he would occasionally make a round through headquarters to check how the various departments were running. Sometimes he would run into Starlight, then drag her into his office and teach her a proper lesson.
Teaching Starlight a lesson had become a regular pastime during his Vought inspections.
He did not even have to lift a finger. One look, and Starlight understood.
As for his nights, Benjamin’s schedule was even freer.
He spent most of them alternating between Neuman’s villa and Rena’s apartment.
Neuman would always wait for him at the door in a different dress, or sometimes in nothing at all. Rena preferred those sheer lace nightgowns that showed just enough to tease. Their styles were completely different, but each had her own appeal.
Sometimes, he would also visit Stormfront.
But ever since Stormfront submitted her resignation from The Seven, she had become almost like a different person. The insane plans that had once filled her head, absurd crap like building a pure-blooded Aryan Supe empire, had all vanished.
She no longer tried to build factions inside Vought, no longer plotted anything in secret, and even took the initiative to remove herself from The Seven’s official roster.
Because Stormfront knew Benjamin would not support her.
Benjamin did not care either way.
He did not need Stormfront to be ambitious. As long as she behaved and did not cause trouble, that was enough.
With her personality, she probably would not fall apart just because those grand plans had collapsed.
Mainly because she was not crippled now. She was alive and perfectly fine.
She also looked forward to Benjamin’s occasional visits each day. Most of the time, Stormfront was already satisfied being a little woman possessed by someone stronger than her.
Honestly, this arrangement was not bad.
Homelander, meanwhile, kept to his usual routine.
During the day, he handled The Seven’s daily affairs at Vought. At night, he went to the cabin in the Secret Community to spend time with Becca and Ryan.
He was becoming more and more like a real father.
His bond with Ryan was growing stronger too.
But Homelander did not spend all his nights in the Secret Community.
When the night was deep and quiet, after Becca and Ryan had both fallen asleep, he would sometimes fly alone to remote corners of the country, wandering through dark places where police were scarce and the law barely reached.
He took down one criminal after another who had slipped through the cracks, and dismantled one hidden criminal den after another.
No one asked him to do it. There were no cameras following him, no media releases, and even Vought’s PR department knew nothing about it.
Maybe he did it because he had already come to see himself as a god...
And yet, these acts of justice did not win him more applause.
On the contrary, plenty of politicians who had done more than their share of dirty shit started getting nervous.
They watched Homelander sweep across the country cleaning up crime. They watched his reputation among the public climb higher and higher. They watched those cold blue eyes appear on the news again and again, as if passing judgment on someone, and their fear grew by the day.
What if, one day, Homelander stopped looking at street criminals and turned his eyes toward the well-dressed "respectable people" inside the Capitol?
Compared to street criminals, whose sins were heavier?
And so, the crackdown began.
Congressional hearings were held one after another. Every proposal tried to put new shackles on Homelander, restrict his law enforcement authority, review his action records, and cut back Vought’s autonomy over Supe affairs.
The politicians thought this one-two punch would force Homelander into retreat, but they forgot one thing:
The seats in Congress were not filled only with enemies.
Neuman made her move.
As a congresswoman, she used astonishing political skill to cleanly defuse every attack aimed at Homelander.
At the hearings, Neuman spoke with confidence, defending every one of Homelander’s actions with irrefutable data and logic.
Behind the scenes, she used trades of interest and intelligence pressure to pull wavering moderates over to Vought’s side.
And if none of that worked,
Neuman would simply show up in person and smear certain damn bastards’ body tissue all over the walls.
...
She was Benjamin’s woman, and Homelander was Benjamin’s son. That connection made what she did feel completely natural.
The politicians tried to suppress Homelander, only to find they could not do a damn thing. Meanwhile, the blond man seated at the hearing table watched their sweaty little performance like he was watching a bunch of clowns.
Homelander saw all of it.
He was not stupid.
He knew exactly how much work Neuman had done behind the scenes for him to win every hearing.
As Homelander sat at the hearing table, watching the politicians grit their teeth in helpless frustration, a thought quietly began to take root deep inside him.
Power...
He possessed the strongest power in the entire world.
But power was not everything. He understood that better than anyone.
He could smash anyone’s head apart with one punch, but he could not smash all of Congress.
And yet Neuman, that weak little woman, had done with a few sheets of paper, a few words, and a few closed-door meetings what he could not accomplish through strength alone...
Of course, Neuman was only "weak" compared to Homelander. To ordinary people, there was no difference between Neuman and Homelander. They were both terrifying Supes.
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