AN: Hi Everyone!
I have been informed that this story is being posted on Webnovel under the name: The Boys: Reborn as Homelander.
It is not me who is posting the story there. Fanfic is the only site where I have posted any of my stories.
Thank you to The Watcher of Fiction for letting me know in the reviews!
I hope you enjoy the chapter.
TIMELINE & DATE:
I think Season 3 happens during 2021 with the last few episodes happening after Homelander's Birthday Special which is July 4th. So I put the action for the last few episodes to happen towards the end of August or first week of September.
For this story I am moving the date up by one year so Chapters 1 through 15 happen during the last week of August first week of September 2022.
My reasoning is that in the show they have a presidential election coming up. In the real world the next election is 2024 and campaigning starts around two years before the election so it fits nicely with the real world and makes future date calculations much easier for me.
AS I'm starting the time skip I won't be providing exact dates only months and years and sometimes only years as we get further along the timeline.
Chapter 18
Date: February 2023
The ding of the elevator signifying the end of the ascent to the top of the tower brought Starlight's attention out of the report and back to reality.
As she entered the cavernous space that once was Homelander's apartment she could see the signs of construction everywhere.
'Renovation not construction' she thought. The actual building construction was done.
Homelander had pushed for the building to be repaired as fast as possible insisting that Vought Tower was a tall, strong and proud shining beacon of power and strength, a symbol of the corporation, The Seven and New York.
'He sees it as his dick' Maeve had remarked and she snorted at the thought.
Ashley had of course obliged and spared no expense in getting the work crews and pushing through the red tape. Even so work had gone slow.
Vaught tower had been just one of the many buildings that faced damage in the 'Fight for New York' as some liked to call it. 'If only they knew the truth.' She briefly thought.
After it was all and done there were one hundred and thirty six casualties and over three hundred people injured all from collapsing floors and falling debris.
She'd been furious at Hughie and Butcher once the reports came out it may not have been them directly who killed them but they were the one that brought that loose cannon Soldier Boy into play so she couldn't help but blame them as well.
How Butcher managed to weasel his way out of landing in jail was beyond her but she suspected the not so invisible hand of the CIA at play there.
As for Hughie, well part of her had been glad that Homelander hadn't exposed him and part of her was furious with him and part of her had been really concerned for him.
Once he had recovered enough she spoke her mind on the whole matter and they fought, apologized and fought again. Admittedly she said some things she regretted and he said some things he regretted.
The problem was that he hadn't truly recovered before she knew it he fell into a coma and all her feelings for him bubbled up to the surface again.
The doctors kept telling them it could happen any moment but Hughie defied everyone's expectations and clung on to life.
When he waded back into consciousness she was relieved, even ecstatic but when she came to see him, when she saw the look in his eyes she it was the end.
The time to say good bye.
Ever since then she buried herself into work.
There was always work and more work to be done, in between patrols, winter disasters, photo shoots, guest appearances, talk shows and working on the new re-training program with A-Train there was always something to be done.
Hell she'd been practically left in charge of The Seven since Homelander was so busy as chairman and the new space venture.
More like 'The Six' now she remarked, they still needed to recruit a replacement for Translucent.
That's why she was here now, needing to talk with Homelander. She wanted to offer the spot to Silver Kinkaid without having to go through the stupid Reality TV contest again.
As she looked around the cavernous space she couldn't see him. What he was doing up here this late she didn't know.
"Homelander?" she asked raising her voice. "Homelander?" she asked again walking through the scaffolding set up in various spots. "John? Where are you?" she asked louder.
"Up here! Third Floor!" he finally answered.
She went up the stairs and found him concentrated staring out the sliding door into the terrace.
"Hey, what are you-" she didn't finish as his right hand went up with his index finger as if to silence her.
"I need a few moments." He said.
She stared at his back, his hair while shaved on the sides was getting longer on top and slicked back was falling into wispy ends. Even with the suit being modified to hide more of his neck you could still see the scarred tissue.
She watched as his head turned to the right side and stayed there for a split moment, the scars on the side of his head clearly visible thought the big eye patch was doing well in covering most of the scaring on the front.
He only stayed there for a split moment then turned to her. Thinking this was her cue she made to speak but his hand shot up again to prevent her.
As she watched him stare directly at her feeling self-conscious under his intense one eyed gaze she realized he wasn't staring at her but through her.
Just as fast the moment came and went and he turned and focused his gaze back to his left.
"Ok got it." He said and turned back to her. "Put that tablet down. I need your help."
"Got what? What's going on?" she asked curiosity now burning inside of her.
"Pakistani grooming gang I've been keeping an eye on. Eighty miles from here in Jersey, Motel 5, they're about to sell a sixteen year old."
"What? How?" She asked confused. "You can see that far?"
She saw him roll his eyes…well eye. "Yes, I can. It's harder with one eye, need to concentrate but yes. Now come one we don't have much time." He said extending his hand towards her.
"Right." She wasn't in costume but she wasn't going to let that stop her from helping someone. She put the tablet down and took his hand as they talked onto the terrace.
"Oh fuck its cold." She couldn't help but exclaim.
"Channel your power, build the energy in your stomach then imagine circulating it around your body, build it up but don't release it." He said firmly.
She did and she felt the sting of the cold winter air abate.
"Now come on." He urged for her to step on his feet. "Stiffen up and hold on tightly to me." He said as he wrapped his right hand around her squishing her further into him. "Close your eyes or channel energy into them to protect them. We're going to go pretty fast."
"Aahh!" she yelped as she barely had time to act on his instructions.
He wasn't kidding they were accelerating at an incredible pace, she felt her clothes pushing onto her bunching up against the air drag.
She brought up more energy as to protect herself from the biting cold wind. She noticed Homlander was flying upside down supporting her weight with the length of his body for better leverage.
Like a rocket they blasted through the sky at ever increasing speeds they were flying low enough that the landscape became a continuous blur.
She felt herself being pushed further down into his raise feet raised acting as a wall for her to push against. She felt his grip tighten on her and she did the same.
She couldn't tell how long the acceleration took, a minute or two or maybe three as she suddenly felt they were slowing down.
Homelander suddenly twirled and they were right side up. She could see the approaching parking lot of a Motel 5.
"You take Room 15, its where the girl is." He commanded her firmly as they landed. "I'll take 7 and have a word with her would be pimps." He finished as he broke off their embrace.
"Right!" she affirmed as her mind went into 'hero' mode. "Wait. John wait." He turned back to her.
"Don't" his intense questioning gaze made her hesitate. "Don't, don't kill them. They need to face justice, real justice."
His gaze lingered on her for a brief second then snorted as if to hold back a laugh and turned around, cape flapping behind him.
'Well it's the best I can get now.' With her mind firm she set out to complete her task.
She banged loudly on the door and yelled "Open up!". A brief look at Homelander she saw he hadn't even bothered with any 'pleasantries' and simply smashed his door.
"Hey maderchod I paid for an hour!" she heard the man yell from inside.
Taking that as all the confirmation she needed she smashed through the door as well.
The sight that greeted her infuriated her.
A slightly overweight brown girl with long hair, a nose earing and poorly done make up was backing up to the corner of the room doing her best to hide her nakedness while a skinny tall hairy brown man in his underwear was scrambling off the bed.
"What the bloody fuck who are you?" he started shouting, his English heavily accented. "You can't come here! I paid the money!" he continued slipping into his mother tongue. Starlight could only assume they were not nice things.
"Shut up!" she barked at him. "You're under arrest you have the right" she didn't get to finish as the weasel looking man now enraged grabbed his jeans and shoes and rushed her. "FUCK YOU BLOODY FUCK!"
Maybe because she wasn't in costume he thought he could overpower her because of her smaller frame or maybe it was the panic and adrenaline but he came straight at her. Whether he was trying to escape or to fight her it didn't matter, it was a stupid move on his part.
She was stronger and faster than him by a very wide margin. As he approached she simply slapped him hard enough that he fell down like a sack of potatoes fully unconscious.
She hoped she hadn't caused any permanent damage.
The girl immediately yelled.
"Wait, I'm not going to hurt you! I'm Starlight!" she said and glowed her eyes. "I'm not here to hurt you! I'm here to help!" She said and gave the frightened girl a bed sheet to cover herself up.
"It's going to be alright! I promise you! It's going to be alright!" the girl only nodded and cowered as she wrapped the sheet around her.
Starlight ripped a power cord from the lamp and secured the now stirring man.
"I see you're done your part."
"Homelander!" both her and the girl exclaimed at the same time.
"Right." He said and nodded to the girl. "All is going to be fine. Police are on the way! We are going to get you help." He said to the frightened girl as he went and picked up her clothing put it in bundle and handed it to her.
Annie couldn't help but ask. "And the other people are they-"
"Secure." He said. "No issues. Now police will be here in a few minutes. Why don't you stay here with-" and here he paused and looked at the girl "eh, sorry what's your name darling?"
The girl only looked at him for a moment then slowly said.
"Inaya sir."
"Thank you." He said and turned back to Annie. "You stay here with Inaya and make sure she is comfortable while I go deal with everything else."
Starlight looked at him briefly then at the scarred girl and agreed.
It didn't take long for the police and ambulances to come. They both gave their statements with her focusing on the state of the girl for both police and EMT workers while Homelander detailed how he'd been tracking the gang.
She was surprised when the two would be pimps both in their early twenties confessed to everything and more on the spot to the police officers.
Whatever Homelander had done or said to them before the authorities arrived had been very effective.
They both watched in silence as the police finished and left as well.
"Do you think they will follow up on the rest of the gang?" she asked.
"They will. Now that we've gotten involved." He said neutrally. "For a while at least."
She looked at him to continue.
"This motel." He gestured to the building. "The owners are part of the gang. They own a few properties around the state. Human trafficking, drug distribution and a plethora of other things are facilitated through them."
"Then why didn't you mention it-"
"No evidence." He interrupted her. "But I know they are part of it. Here we caught these guys in the act. With plenty of evidence. These are dumb young ones, low on the totem pole, they panicked and even confessed." He said with a sly smile. "The older ones are smarter. If we want anything to stick we'll need real evidence. I don't want to spook them. They will eventually make mistakes."
"I see." she said as she absorbed his words. 'Just a few months ago he would have killed all of them' she thought.
"I could go find them and snap their necks one by one. If you would prefer that." He suddenly said. "It would definitely be easier."
Her eyes went wide and she blurted out "NO!"
He let the silence sit for a moment looking at her with his one eye.
"No of course not." He finally said.
He sighed and turned around looking at the clear night sky.
"There's a rot in our society." He started saying slowly. "A cancer that is growing, that is touching every one of us. Supes, politicians, workers, citizens, all of us." He continued.
"It's clouding our vision and killing our minds. Our culture glorifies gangbangers and thugs, our food is making us fat and lazy killing us, our people are homeless and addicted to drugs, our politicians pretend to listen and our corporations pretend to care." He said with more fire and frustration in his voice.
"We live aimlessly, divided with no vision and direction, no dream to unite us all to push us forward to achieve what we could be." He said more wistfully. She found herself captivated by his words.
"All of us pretend to care. We pretend that change happens with us, the individual, that if we do a good deed a day." She felt his tone turned mocking. "We would change the world for the better. But we all know that is a lie."
"Change comes from the top from being forced on people." He said firmly then turned to her. "The local police will now investigate, maybe they will even get the Feds involved all because we forced their hand."
She nodded in agreement.
"If you want to prevent other Inaya's from happening then we have to change how things work, our schools, our police, what we value in our culture. We have to rise to the top and cut the rot from where it starts."
She saw him pause and take a deep breath. She didn't dare take his eyes off him.
He shook his head slightly then looked at her again his features softened.
"Come on. Enough of me ranting. I'll take you back to the tower."
He once more extended his hand to her.
She looked at it for a split second and took it.
As their hands clasped she thought 'Aren't you the most rotten of them all?'
Scene Break
Date: February 2023
"Congratulations!"
Deep was the first one to break the silence. The rest followed with their own remarks to which she smiled and accepted though Maeve's eyes were on the only team member that mattered.
Homelander.
"Well I have to say that is wonderful news!" he said echoing the others. "My congratulations of course! To you and Elena?" he asked leaving the other implied question silent.
"Yes." She replied. Officially as far as the public was concerned she and Elena were still together. Privately was another matter. "Anonymous donor."
Homelander shrugged his shoulders and gave a big one eyed smile. "Well someone out there is a very lucky man!"
"Have you told Ashley yet?" Starlight asked.
"No not yet."
"Oh she's going to love it! The marketing department is going to have a field day with this. You're going to be come #1 Mommy in the world! Super Mommy to the rescue!" Homelander said excitedly.
The implication was clear there was no way to refuse the spotlight. Vaught wouldn't let her and neither would Homelander.
"How far along are you?" Annie asked with concern though Maeve knew her well enough that Starlight was disappointed she wasn't told first.
"6 months."
"Oh, that's pretty far along. I thought you'd be bigger." Deep replied carelessly and A-train punched him.
"You're a moron." A-Train said shaking his head.
"What? What's wrong with what I said?"
"You're wrong that's what!" A-Train replied.
"Enough you two!" Homelander butted in to stop their bickering.
"Maeve, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are all very happy for you." Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Do you know what the sex is?" Starlight asked. 'Leave it to the only other woman in the room to ask any of the relevant questions.' She thought.
"Yes, it's a boy. Found out last month."
"And have you been checked out by our doctors?" Homelander asked next.
"No, I went to Elena's family doctor. We did the tests through their clinic."
"Well I insist you get checked out by ours as well. You are a part of The Seven, we take care of our own and its part of your contract." He paused and looked around the room. "Part of all of our contracts. Vaught takes the health of our employees and heroes very seriously."
'Unless Vought is trying to kill them of course then screw their health.' She thought.
"But" Homelander continued "I'm sure everything is alright and it will be a very healthy and strong boy."
"Now enough with the inquisition, let's move on to todays' agenda. We need a new member. We've been down to Six for a while and now more than ever with Maeve's impending Maternity leave. Starlight has a few ideas." He said and nodded at the blond.
"Thanks Homelander. Here's what I was thinking we have a few options…"
As the discussion continued Maeve couldn't shake the feeling that Homelander had put too much emphasis on the word strong.
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AN:
Here we have some more Homie and Starlight moments.
To clear up some confusion I see form some reviewers. The Vaught scientist did not only harvest all the genetic materials (blood, stem cells, eggs other genetic mumbo jumbo) they could from Kimiko and Maeve they also impregnated them with HL's sperm.
It was implied in the story that Phase 1 was harvesting and Phase 2 was impregnation. Phase 2 , the impregnation, happened because as Dr. Schultz implied 'The Stars aligned' and it was the right time to do it and the eggs received the sperm and all that sciency jazz.
Basically a shot in the dark that worked.
Why would Homelander want to impregnate those two? Because the survival rate of fertilized eggs with his sperm were low. Because the survival rate of his children in women normal and super were very low for both mother and child. He knows that from reading the notes on Ryan and all the other women that died trying to carry his kids. He knows all that from being buddy buddy with Schultz and he knows that because he's an SI that saw the show.
So two strong supes like Maeve and Kimiko are very ideal to carry his offspring.
Now neither Kimiko or Maeve know that their kids are actually HL's. They have no reason to suspect it. Kimiko was at Vaught for like a day or something and it's implied in the story by Butcher that her and Frenchie hooked up shortly after she was released.
After all there is nothing like a shared horrifying near death experience that makes you want to bang. She and everyone else thinks it's Frenchie's kid.
While Maeve has no reason to suspect anything since SI Homelander didn't rave to her about how special her eggs and genetics are. As far as she's concerned and as far as everyone else saw was she was injured and unconscious and Vaught took care of her. There's video evidence, no one was restricted access to her everything is on the up and up. So she thinks it's Butcher's kid since they had drunken spiteful sex together like a day before.
Yes everyone will eventually find out those are HL's kids and there will be some conflicts that arise from that. No it won't be obvious right away.
Once again thank you for reading and reviewing. Ya'll have given me some great ideas in the reviews keep them coming.