Chapter 86: Homelander is Unhappy Again

After dealing with that overconfident Naqib, Benjamin wasn’t in a hurry to take Starlight back across the ocean to New York. It wasn’t every day he got out like this, so he was definitely going to enjoy himself.

Over the next half a month, Benjamin took Annie along for an exceptionally comfortable "vacation" in this land woven with war and desert sands. By day, they rode in a private, bulletproof SUV specially approved by Vought International, hunting down blind warlord factions in the no-man’s-land. By night, inside a top-tier luxury tent, he enjoyed Starlight’s increasingly practiced and submissive service.

However, thousands of miles away on the top floor of Vought Tower in New York, Benjamin wouldn’t have guessed that Homelander was unhappy again.

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Thud!

Inside the luxury lounge of Vought Tower, a flash of pure irritation crossed Homelander’s eyes. The goblet in his hand shattered instantly, expensive red wine mixing with glass shards to drip from his pure white gloves onto the costly carpet. Homelander’s face was currently so dark it looked like it could drip ink.

He stared fixedly at the massive LCD television screen on the wall. The screen was broadcasting the day’s Fox News headlines. In the footage, Stormfront, sporting short hair and her black suit, stood atop a pile of rubble. Holding a half-dead rogue Supe in her hand, she flashed a confident, arrogant smile for the countless flashing cameras and microphones.

"Yes, protecting the American people is my responsibility! Unlike certain people, I don’t just stand around in the sky striking poses. I prefer to stay grounded and eliminate this trash~"

Listening to Stormfront’s highly provocative speech on television, and hearing the crowd erupt into a thunderous wave of cheers, Homelander felt as if a massive boulder were wedged in his chest. Even his breathing grew heavy and labored.

For a while now, ever since Benjamin and Starlight went on their trip to Syria, Stormfront—who used to do nothing but slack off and coast in The Seven—seemed to have taken some kind of drug. She suddenly began showing off like crazy, driven by a sudden burst of energy. This goddamn Stormfront exhibited a terrifying level of drive, whether actively responding to rescue operations across the country or appearing at various press conferences, talk shows, and interviews.

What Homelander found most intolerable was that just yesterday, a high-profile rogue Supe that had been internally designated for him to handle personally to boost his approval ratings was actually intercepted by Stormfront ahead of time! Stormfront didn’t just take out and kill the rogue Supe; she stole every single media headline that should have belonged to him!

This wasn’t just a one- or two-time thing!! Every time Homelander tried to showcase himself, that woman Stormfront would cleverly swoop in for the steal. To make matters worse, memes about Homelander had begun circulating online, which was what he despised most of all.

Some son of a bitch had photoshopped Homelander’s head onto Stormfront within a lineup of The Seven. Others photoshopped Soldier Boy and Stormfront onto Homelander’s back, showing the two of them holding hands and cruising through the sky, riding a flying Homelander like a vehicle. Soldier Boy was one thing. But who the fuck did Stormfront think she was?! Why her?! The more Homelander thought about it, the angrier he became.

"I’m the leader of The Seven! Soldier Boy and I are the greatest superheroes in the world!"

The veins on Homelander’s neck bulged with raw strain. In the past, if anyone in The Seven had dared to steal his spotlight like this, Homelander would have absolutely used his Heat Vision to slice their head off piece by piece on some unmonitored night. Then, he’d squeeze out a few tears in front of the cameras and announce that they had "tragically fallen in the line of duty."

But when it came to Stormfront, he didn’t dare. Clenching his teeth, Homelander took several deep breaths, forcibly suppressing the red light brewing in his eyes. He knew all too well what Stormfront’s relationship with his father was. Out of respect for his father, Homelander could only swallow his bitter fury, like a slighted child who didn’t dare throw a tantrum. He feared that if he touched Stormfront, he would make Benjamin unhappy.

Exhale...

Homelander let out a long breath, yanked a tissue to wipe his hands, and pasted on the hypocritically perfect smile he usually displayed to the public. Pushing open the lounge door, he walked toward The Seven’s circular conference room. He needed to patrol his domain and find some sense of presence. Homelander loved doing this under normal circumstances. Especially with Benjamin gone, Homelander was the king of Vought!

However, just as he happened to pass the quiet corridor adjacent to the conference room, his super hearing—millions of times sharper than a normal person’s—suddenly picked up a familiar voice. It was Maeve. Right now, Maeve was standing in a blind spot at the far end of the corridor, her back to him, holding a private phone that wasn’t hooked up to Vought International’s surveillance network, conducting a call.

As her former lover, Homelander harbored a deeply morbid sense of possessiveness over Maeve. Even though they had broken up ages ago, in Homelander’s warped logic, since Maeve had once been his woman, she would permanently remain his private property. Homelander could choose not to want her, but Maeve was not allowed to betray him. Halting his footsteps, Homelander stood at the corner like a specter, pricking up his ears.

"I know, I’m so sorry, Elena... I really can’t get away lately..." "Trust me, okay? Once I handle the things on my plate..."

Maeve’s voice was hushed, but the distinct tenderness bleeding through her tone caught Homelander’s attention. The smile froze dead on Homelander’s face.

Elena? That was a woman’s name. Logically speaking, a call between two women dripping with affection could easily pass as a close friendship. However, correlating the frequency of Maeve’s heartbeat with her tone of voice, Homelander’s freakish intuition instantly signaled that something was wrong. The relationship between these two women was absolutely not simple; they were definitely more than just friends!

A few minutes later, Maeve hung up the phone, took a deep breath, adjusted her expression, and turned to walk down the corridor. The exact second she rounded the corner, her pupils dilated instantly. Homelander was standing there with his hands clasped behind his back, his trademark smile pinned to his face as he stared dead at her.

"Homelander," Maeve said, forcing herself to appear calm.

"Hey, Maeve." Homelander took a deliberate step forward, his towering frame instantly casting Maeve into his shadow. Tilting his head slightly, he asked mildly, "Who were you just on the phone with? You sounded so happy."

Maeve maintained her usual cold detachment. "Nothing, just an ordinary friend. Why?"

"An ordinary friend..." Homelander kept his smile pasted on, but he no longer believed a word she said. He could hear it. He could hear with perfect clarity that the moment Maeve uttered the words "ordinary friend," the heart inside her chest was hammering significantly faster than usual.

She was lying. Maeve had an ex-girlfriend, or maybe a current girlfriend, that he had never known about. Maeve had been systematically deceiving him all along! She would rather love an ordinary, powerless woman than open her heart to him! She had even broken up with him because of it.

An indescribable wave of betrayal and profound isolation wrapped itself tightly around Homelander’s heart. First, that bitch Stormfront systematically targeted him, stealing his spotlight left and right. Now, even Maeve—the person he once considered closest to him—kept playing him with blatant lies! What the hell was wrong with this world?!

Homelander felt as though his head were about to split open. In the entire world, it felt as if only his father, Benjamin, and Ryan truly belonged to him! Aside from his father and his son... had everyone else betrayed him? Homelander didn’t dare pursue the thought. He felt an intense sorrow.

Maeve spoke up, "Homelander, I just remembered I have an emergency meeting with the PR department to attend." Keeping her head down, she squeezed right past Homelander’s side. "I’ll be going first."

Watching Maeve’s hasty, ungraceful retreat, Homelander made no move to stop her.

Recalling the deeply unstable look in Homelander’s eyes from moments ago, a wave of profound helplessness welled up in Maeve’s heart. Originally, when Soldier Boy returned to Vought and brought everything under his iron rule, she thought Homelander could finally be reined in. But from the looks of it now, that didn’t seem to be the case. While Homelander had improved considerably during this recent stretch, it hadn’t altered his core essence.

Strip away that outer shell of immense superpower, and Homelander was still that volatile, affection-starved giant man-child. Maeve could only hope that Benjamin and Starlight would hurry back soon.

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