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 22
Date: July 2023
Cameron saw the conference room doors burst open as Ashley walked in like a fiery hurricane.
The 'mini-me' trailing behind her, struggling to juggle an assortment of phones, laptop, coffee mug and paper files.
A deadly combination in his opinion, one small step and it all comes crashing down.
"Is he there yet?" The Vought CEO asked the room at large.
He could feel the exasperation in her tone.
"Not yet…I mean he hasn't called back nor have we seen him on TV." Shauna, their head of legal, answered promptly.
"Christ! What the fuck was he thinking?" None answered they all knew the question was rhetorical. "What about Starlight and A-Train?"
"They are on-site helping with the town evacuation." Sharon the Chief Emergency Disaster Coordinator pitched in. "Shockwave, Racer and Blink should be there pretty soon fifteen maybe twenty minutes tops if they aren't there already but Inferno and BrightFlame are about an hour away while Torcher, Fireworks and Sparks are all around two to three hours away."
"Great some two bit-rate speedsters and a bunch of C-listers that can barely hold a candle lit. Those idiots are more likely to burn down town themselves." Cameron saw her sigh. "At least Inferno and BrightFlame are competent…if the town actually catches fire. Otherwise they'll all be left standing there looking like schmucks holding their dicks in their hand." She said with annoyed exasperation as her eyes stared intently on the images on TV showing the raging inferno that was the California massive forest fire then turned to the table at large.
Cameron saw everyone in the room give a concerned look.
"What?" Ashley asked annoyed and rolled her eyes. "It's not like I want the town to actually catch fire."
"It will still be great PR." Taylor the head of marketing added in. " 'Brave heroes help evacuate the town!' ; 'Vought acts fast! Sends their fastest team!'" she said with a tone of excitement "We can spin this a thousand and one ways."
Ashley looked at her unconvinced as she took her seat at the head of the giant conference table.
"It's also very, very likely the town will catch fire." Sharon interjected before Ashley could respond. "Our analytics show that at the rate the fire is spreading and due to wind conditions it will likely be within the next two hours. It's probably why they ordered the evacuation"
"Two hours?" mini Ashley asked with her hands now free from the impending disastrous clutter. "There's like over sixty thousand people in that town…is that going to be enough time to get everyone out?"
Cameron felt the room go quiet once more.
"Unlikely but they don't need to get everyone out at the same time. They likely started with the neighborhoods closest to the forest and worked their way backwards from there…that will likely give them enough time and keeping the streets clear." Sharon added reluctantly.
Rhonda their head of legal almost snorted as her eyes were still on her phone.
"Like that ever works. CNN's been reporting massive traffic jams on all ways out of the area." She said and brought her phone to show the report to the table.
Ashley sighed deeply.
"Great this is likely going to be a disaster." She paused as everyone looked at her. "For both us and the town obviously. Homelander's rushing in half-cocked with god knows what plan we can only hope he plays it safe for the cameras." Ashley said and he felt the chord of annoyance in her tone reverberating strongly.
Cameron thought it understandable.
While natural disasters were their bread and butter they required planning and coordination both for operational effectiveness, picking which Supes to go where and coordinating with the local authorities, and also for getting the maximum media and PR boost.
Cameron saw Sharon respond.
"While Homelander hasn't coordinated with us as it would be standard procedure in these cases we can speculate from the heroes he's mobilized that he likely means to act as emergency evacuators. He and the speedsters could rush anyone critical to a hospital while the pyro-kinesis Supes can contain the fires as they spread around the town." She said comfortably. "It's really the only logical thing they can do it's not like he can fight the forest fire itself." She said shrugging her shoulders.
"And my team is already working on various scenarios and are prepping material as we speak." Taylor said confidently.
"Well that's good." Ashley said resigned as her gaze moved her eyes back to the giant TV on the far side wall.
A few moments passed as they watched in a connected silence the aerial view of the ever expanding fire. As they watched the smoke dance on the screen Cameron felt a genuine solemn moment with his fellow coworkers.
A permeating pain when faced with the truth that nature still ruled their world that even with all their power and accomplishments it could all literally go up in smoke.
A connectedness of the human experience.
Ashley broke this feeling.
"Cameron … why the FUCK are we watching this on MSNBC?"
"Ah right…so our helicopter is undergoing maintenance and we weren't able to secure a replacement and our ground teams should be just about setting up. We're scheduled to go live in 15 with Terry and Laura." Cameron replied with confidence.
The answer seemed to mollify Ashley but Cameron couldn't help but wonder if she's just holding back her 'bite' for their next 'stress relief' session.
Their little on–and-off again relationship had slowed down as they both had been swamped with work but while the session's had become rarer they had become that much more intense.
"One small problem." He continued as Ashley and the rest of the room turned back towards him. "They are blocking access to most of the town outside of emergency vehicles for safety reasons so our team might be stuck on the outskirts."
"But so would everyone else's right?" Asked Shauna.
His features scrunched in response. "Not exactly if they were already there before they blocked access in they can stay until the sector is evacuated."
"And let me guess that's where our heroes are?" Rhonda asked.
He answered as both him and Sharon nodded at the same time. "Yes for the most part."
They all watched Ashley sigh.
"So I guess it is CNN and MSNBC all the way?"
Cameron couldn't help but reluctantly nod.
Scene Break.
Starlight watched the screens in the 'command' tent as they showed a steady stream of cars moving slowly but surely all heading out of the city like a viscous sluggish stream of blood.
There wasn't much they could do…well there wasn't much she could do.
A-Train and the other speedsters Shockwave, Racer and Blink could all technically run people to the nearest hospital over fifty miles away…technically because practically if anyone was in that dire danger they likely wouldn't survive the trip.
Still nonetheless in a pinch they could help even if it was a risk while her power set didn't really help much outside of going into an actual burning building to pull someone out.
So with a lack of ability to help outside of lending her face and fame to make a few announcements there really wasn't much for her to do other than watch the screens and try not to be in anyone's way.
She sensed that the fire-chief wasn't too thrilled with them being here and was making it obvious he was doing this as a favour to the governor.
Annie thought likely that Vought had helped in his election campaign but then again she knew Vought donated to both sides of the aisle.
Her gaze turned to A-Train talking with the other speedsters.
Shockwave was A-Train's main rival as the mid-twenties man had been considered as his replacement on The Seven.
Racer was an older gentleman in his sixties from the Midwest. She remembers hearing about him maybe fifteen or twenty years ago when she was a child herself.
Blink was new.
He didn't look older than fifteen and she didn't remember him from Vought's rosters. Rosters she had recently gotten to know quite intimately as she and A-Train had been in charge of the whole re-training project.
A mammoth task had had just recently been completed.
Starlight took in Blink's appearance and judged by the costume or more like lack of costume since it was nothing more than blue and green spandex shorts and shirt, usually worn by cyclists, topped off with sleek goggles, that were currently hanging off his neck revealing his brown eyes, that he wasn't one of Vought's or any of the other lower agencies.
This made her think it was just some boy with powers that decided to play hero, his excitement evident as he was talking with the older speedsters, but it also made her question what the hell was Homelander thinking calling him and how the hell did he even know about the kid.
She and A-Train had been shooting a commercial in LA when the call from Homelander came asking them to meet here.
Of course she had been surprised since responses to these types of natural disasters would usually be pre-planned and involve the Emergency Disaster Coordination Team both for Vought to deploy its resources effectively and to stay on top of the PR game.
Where they went so did the cameras.
This of course had been rushed and with no camera's insight, no coordination of where to go from head office and a fire-chief that wanted nothing more than to throw them out they were stuck holding the bag so to speak, waiting for Homelander to come with his grand plan.
She hoped he wouldn't be too long because even though she had not been included in the fire response command structure she could tell tensions were rising and she could see from the TV that the fire was spreading faster and faster as new plumes of smoke rose in thick spots that were previously green and clear.
The clogged streets didn't give her a feeling a confidence the evacuation will be finished in time…not to mention the fact that most of the roads going out of town were surrounded by forest as well.
Scene Break
A-Train was bored.
He'd been in a commercial shoot with Starlight when they got the call to rush them both halfway across the state to help out.
Only there wasn't much help they could give as the evacuation was in progress and it was obvious the man in charge didn't like them.
His first instinct had been to leave and let the emergency personnel handle this whole thing but Homelander had told them to wait for him there and he wasn't about to go against Big Blue.
Homelander had certainly changed in the past year but one thing was still crystal clear, insubordination was not tolerated. Some of the rowdier Supes that had mouthed off during the re-training project had already felt the brunt of HL's displeasure.
Not a pretty sight.
Surprisingly no casualties but for some it might as well be the end of their careers, some injuries weren't really recoverable. He'd seen Noir do some nasty stuff to some of them…hell he had to apply some of the accidents himself.
Outside of his own personal fear there was also the fact that Vought and by extension Homelander were creating the potential cure for his brother's paralysis.
An event he wholly blamed himself for.
He knew it was likely a long shot no matter what Homelander or the science nerds said but he still had to have hope, he still needed to make things right for himself, for his brother and most of all for his nephew and niece.
It was how they looked at him now that hurt him the most.
He'd been their hero and now he was less, less than a hero, less than an uncle, less than even a family member. Their excitement to see him was gone, they wouldn't really talk to him they treated him like a stranger like someone to stay away from.
It hurt him more than anything else he'd done so far. He couldn't bear how they looked at him. He had to make things right.
So no slacking off for him.
If Big Blue told him to jump he'd ask how high and if he told him to run he'd only ask where and how fast. And if he told him to drop everything and rush half-way across the state to help he would.
Still with no camera's in sight, a command tent that was obviously annoyed to have to put up with them there, he'd wisely let Starlight deal with that she was captain after all, and not a lot of coordination of where to go and what to do there really wasn't much for him to do.
He was both annoyed and relieved when the other speedsters showed up. Annoyed that he would now have to share the limelight and relieved that he had someone else to talk to.
Shockwave was his friendly rival in the media and he knew the younger man had been the first pick as his replacement on The Seven still he couldn't hold it against him the guy was a 'bro' trying to reach the 'top'.
Racer he knew from when he was young in his career and even looked up to the older speedsters at one time. It was always a pleasure to talk to the mild-mannered man though he was somewhat bland, likely due to his mid-west upbringing and persona.
Blink on the other hand was new.
The kid wasn't with Vought but that didn't stop him from venturing out into super-heroing antics on his own in his native San Diego. A-Train could tell the kid was very excited to be here especially having received a call from Homelander personally.
Why Big Blue called a non-Vought affiliated supe, especially one so young, was beyond him.
Definitely not standard procedure.
The only thing he could think of was that Homelander was trying to recruit the kid but even then there were official avenues and procedures to go through.
Still it wasn't up to him to questions the big guy. He'd leave that to Starlight.
As he listened to Racer and Blink exchange stories A-Train couldn't help but think back to how things had changed in the team.
Working with Starlight had been good for both of them. He'd let her take the lead on the project at first thinking he might be able to skate by with a few appearances but soon enough found out that she drove hard and was on his ass constantly.
She held him to deadlines and hadn't let him slack off. He'd attended every meeting, every storm braining session, met with every vendor, read all the materials no matter how boring they were and put in all the late nights that were required.
Between the projects, his training sessions with Ryan and all his other hero responsibilities he'd had little time to himself and to his family.
He sighed inwardly as he thought it was probably for the best since relations were strained.
Still overall he felt quite proud of all that he'd achieved in the last year. A part of him thought for sure Homelander will take all the credit for the re-training project but surprisingly he'd been very hands off.
Though, maybe he shouldn't have been surprised considering Homelander's space project, Vought responsibilities and raising Ryan.
His thoughts were interrupted by the landing of the big guy himself.
"Shockwave, Racer, Blink. Glad you could make it." Homelander said addressing the other speedsters first.
A chorus responded.
"Hey Homlander!" Shockwave said with a nod.
"Glad to be able to help." Racer said calmly.
"Sir! Homelander Sir!" Blink added excitedly.
"A-Train." Homelander said turning to him. "What's the situation?"
"Starlight's in the command tent. Guy in charge goes by Nelson Bricks isn't fond of us being here. Barely tolerates us. Our guys at Vought haven't been very helpful either since their teams can't get through. They were caught-"
"We won't get much help from them." He interrupted A-Train. "This was impromptu on my call it will take them some time to work through the official channels. It's just us here. We'll have to coordinate and work with the emergency personnel ourselves -"
A-Train saw he stopped and looked past him. Starlight was approaching with the fire chief.
"Starlight."
"Homelander." She said in acknowledgement. "This is chief Nelson Bricks."
"Chief." Homelander said shaking the man's hand.
"Homelander." The pudgy chief said, a bead of sweat rolling no his temple.
"We are here to help. A-Train was catching me up on the situation but I would like to hear it from the experts." Homelander said with command in his tone.
A-Train saw that the fire chief was not too happy about it but let it go.
"We've got a ten mile front all on the length of the town, fire is spreading quicker and quicker. The drought hasn't been helping. I've got everyone and everything doing all they can to slow the spread but over all I give it about forty five minutes before we get into the danger zone." He said with reluctant confidence.
"And the evacuation? I saw from above the roads are all packed."
"Closes neighborhoods to the forest were first to go. But the way the wind is blowing and the rate the fire is moving it might not be quick enough. Once the houses catch fire it will burn through the neighborhoods quick and even the roads going out are forested on the sides." He stopped briefly.
"The smoke is the real killer. Once the fire reaches town the smoke will infest everything. It will be really bad for anyone trapped on the road." He stopped once more as the sound of his walkie-talkie went off.
A-Train saw the man say a few words to his colleagues over the walkie-talkie then turned back to their group.
"Inferno and BrightFlame should be here soon ten or fifteen minutes." Homelander said. "Their pyro-kinetic abilities should be able to help contain any fire that starts within the town as long as they get to it in time. We could also-"
"Listen." Chief Nelson interrupted Homelander. "I know you guys mean well but we all know there isn't much for you to do now. This is serious business not a PR stunt, people's lives and homes are at stake. Let us professionals take care of it. Let us do our jobs and don't get in the way." He paused briefly once more and looked Homelander directly in his eye.
"The only reason I'm even allowing you here is because I owe one to the governor. Now all I ask is that you let us handle this and stay out of the way. Your presence here is distracting enough and I know sooner or later your little corporate stooges will want the cameras to be present creating even more distractions."
A-Train had to admit the man was ballsy he even stepped off and didn't let Homelander to respond. Then again the pudgy fire chief didn't know the real Homelander only the media version.
"Wait!" Homelander said to the fire chief. "The evacuation…what if we can give you more time we can slow the spread maybe even contain it?"
Chief Nelson turned around.
"How?"
"What if we could make a firewall make a clearing and remove everything flammable. How big would it have to be?"
"You'd need a containment line of about 30 feet wide if we take into consideration the height of some of the trees, maybe a fifty foot clearing overall. But you'd have to do it over ten miles in under thirty minutes. That's impossible."
"Leave that to us." Homelander said confidently. "We'll take care of it."
The chief just looked at him for a tense moment and gave in.
"Fine. As close as you can to the fire line is better."
"Got it." A-Train saw Homelander turn back to them.
"Starlight, you Racer and Blink stay here and wait for Inferno and BrightFlame to arrive. Coordinate with the chief on containing any fires if needed and help with the evacuation in any way possible." Then he turned to Blink.
"Blink. Can I trust that you will follow Starlight and the emergency personnel's lead?"
"Yes sir of course." The fifteen year old said excitedly.
"Excellent. We'll speak once all this is over."
"A-Train you and Shockwave are with me." He said and sped off giving them no chance to protest.
Scene Break
Had they not been supes the heat and smoke would have been overwhelming. They soon stopped and were now maybe a few hundred yards away from the fire line, not that it was a straight line.
A-Train saw that Homelander had stopped and looked all around in silence with only the crackling of fire being heard. A-Train would bet that Big Blue was using his super vision, if he was a betting man which he was.
"Homelander what's the plan here man?" Shockwave asked.
It took a moment for Homelander to respond.
"We'll start making a clearing from here heading north along the fire line. I want every tree in a fifty foot radius to be taken down and pushed back." He pointed towards the town. "We'll make sure to starve the fire once it reaches here."
"What? How? There's no way we can do that!" Shockwave asked…shocked.
A-Train saw Homelander look at Shockwave like he was a child.
"Shockwave you are super-strong, super-fast and incredibly durable. Push, punch, rip them out or cut them." Homelander said as he lifted his left arm and started oscillating it back and forth in short movements going faster until it was a blur.
The vibrating arm cut right through a tree like a hot knife through butter.
A-Train was amazed.
"Wow!" Shockwave was too. "I don't think I can do that." The younger speedster said as he lifted his hand and tried to vibrate it the same way with mixed sputtering results.
"Yes you can." Homelander said forcefully. "And if you can't you will learn now." He said as he closed the distance between them and grabbed Shockwave by the shoulder. "You heard the fire chief. People's houses and lives are at stake and you are a hero. Not because of your powers but because in a time of crisis you step up to the plate. You understand?" Homelander continued, his tone was dangerously low in contrast to the positive pep talk.
A-Train could also tell that Homelander was squeezing Shockwave's shoulder just a bit too hard for comfort.
"We'll handle it." He said suddenly out of guilty interrupting Big Blue's intimidating pep talk. "What about you? What are you going to do?"
"Me?" Homelander turned to him. "I'm going to make a trench. It will be the line you to will follow to clear the area."
Now A-Train was confused.
"How are you going to do that?" He asked before he could stop himself.
To his surprise Homelander smiled at them and unclasped his cape throwing far away to the side.
"By digging of course."
Before he could continue his line of questioning A-Train saw Homelander hover above their heads in the air.
To both of their surprise they saw Homelander switch position almost horizontal body slightly angled so that it's not completely flat.
Next Homelander moved his hands above his head looking like a diver but with hands clamped together.
He stood a in that position for half a moment then he started spinning.
Within a moment he was spinning so fast he was blurry and within a blink of an eye A-Train saw Homelander plunge into the ground.
The sound was deafening.
"What The Fuck!?" He heard the younger speedsters voice his exact thoughts.
Dirt, rock, trees everything was pulverized or thrown out of place with only a shallow trench left in place. The ground might as well have been putty against the force that was Homelander.
He'd never seen anything like it. He didn't even know Homelander could do that.
His thoughts were broken by the younger speedster.
"What do we do?"
A-Train looked at him and focused.
"Like Big Blue said. We clear out everything. He's the bulldozer we're the clearing team."
Scene Break.
Mini-Ashley opened her mouth to make a sound but nothing came out. She remained slack-jawed.
"…it appears that massive trail of destruction is Homelander along with Shockwave and A-Train…"
She heard the TV say over the practically yelling voices of the executives.
"…HE COULD DO THAT?"
"HOW COME WE DIDN"T KNOW THIS?"
"…my god it's like a drill through jello!"
"…that wasn't in his files! How come we didn't know he could do that?"
"I didn't know either!" she barley registered the voice of her boss.
"Do you think he can do that through solid rock?"
"…he can crush steel like paper so probably?..."
"…how come we never used Man of Steel?"
She watched with morbid fascination as the tail of destruction split the forest pulverizing everything in its path at astonishing speed, as if someone was drawing a black line on a canvas of green, the helicopter moving fast to keep everything in frame. Two blurs trailing behind cutting trees and chucking debris at also impressive speeds.
"…copyright, there's another supe…"
The execs conversation continued all around her.
"…if he could do that to the new bypass line being built!"
"…If only we were so lucky we could have it built this century!"
"…Ha! Tired of sitting in traffic?" she heard a sarcastic voice, likely Rhonda's.
"…we get who we vote for…"
Mini-Ashley shook her head and tried to clue in back to the conversation.
Everyone was cracking jokes but she could tell Ashley was thinking deeply and plotting.
Scene Break
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AN:
Alright! So I wanted to show that there is more to Vought than just PR smoke and mirrors. They do actually have competent people and response strategies and a whole structure where they do make their heroes do actual hero work and not just commercials and TV shows.
Additionally I wanted to expand a bit on Vought operations and that there is a whole org structure that does things like in any normal business.
We also have HL(SI) bypassing that whole structure because he can and doesn't want to wait for all the 'red tape' process. As well HL showing some leadership initiatives and working with other heroes not only The Seven.
I specifically wanted to show that when HL calls you answer, a subtle tightening of HL's power and influence over other heroes.
Some Starlight and A-Train thoughts on the past year. Wanted to showcase A-Train being 'loyal' to HL as he's ridden by guilt. So HL has him by the balls.
We can also see that for all Vought's efforts not everyone is happy to have the heroes around. They don't fool everyone.
HL showcasing new capabilities to show how much Vought was holding him back but mostly how freaking lazy he was before. The HL(SI) keeps training and pushing his boundaries as well he is forcing other heroes to push their boundaries. In this case A-Train and Shockwave. After all super-fast, strong and incredibly durable people can be used for a whole lot of applications ;).
As well don't worry there is an actual plot that will be building and an end game in mind. But like I mentioned before it will be done through snippets and time skips instead of a play by play story.
Once again thank you for reading and reviewing.