That innocent question hit Holander hard, right as he was trying to maintain his image as a father.
The expression on Holander’s face froze slightly.
"Um... well, fuck... you can think of it as a catchphrase."
"Yes, it’s a way of saying hello. It’s your grandpa’s special catchphrase. Very... very distinctive!"
Ryan nodded, half-understanding. He thought the word sounded fun when it popped out of his mouth, so he shouted in a clear little voice, "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck, Grandpa!"
Benjamin: ?
In the kitchen, Becca stood there holding a coffee cup, her face dark with despair.
She looked hopelessly at the "grandpa" sitting on her sofa with a mouth full of profanity, then at the "dad" teaching her son how to swear.
Damn it.
This damned father and son.
If she let them stay for a few more days, her son would absolutely be turned into a little punk by these two superpowered lunatics.
Becca only wanted these two bastards to leave as soon as possible.
Just then, Benjamin had had enough. He stood up and said, "You two can keep playing. I’m going out for a smoke, then heading back to Vought."
When he reached the door, Benjamin stopped, turned his head slightly, and glanced at Becca. Then he pushed the door open and left without looking back.
Holander did not care. He kept playing with his son.
After leaving the cabin, a notification sounded beside Benjamin’s ear.
[You helped Holander kill Dr. Vogelbaum, the scientist who created Holander. Holander could not bring himself to do it, so you did it for him, and you gave Vogelbaum a relatively decent and dignified death, as well as a funeral. This has helped Holander sever his past to a certain extent. However, if you truly want Holander to completely cut himself free from the past, he needs to return "ho" once.
Reward: Super Self-Healing upgraded from Lv5 to Lv6.]
So far, Strength, Defense, and Self-Healing were all at Lv6.
...
...
Soon, Benjamin returned to his office. There were quite a few ssages on his phone. Starlight had asked him out to dinner, while Stormfront had invited him to get a room. Since he had not been replying much, Starlight occasionally sent him a few cute stickers. Stormfront was much more direct and sent Benjamin photos of herself naked.
There was no need to worry too much about Holander for now.
Just as Benjamin was deciding which invitation to accept, hurried footsteps ca from outside the door.
Ashley pushed the door open, looking as if sothing urgent had happened.
"S-Sir."
Ashley spoke carefully.
"A superhero who was previously fired from Vought just contacted us through an internal encrypted line."
"He said... he wants to see you, or Holander. Are you available right now?"
"A fired loser?"
Benjamin did not even raise his eyes.
"Who?"
"sr."
Ashley quickly flipped through the tablet in her hands. Even though she had already beco CEO, she still kept that habit.
"A forr child star, and a forr mber of Vought’s Teenage Kix team."
"His power allows him to read other people’s mories through physical contact."
"Two years ago, Vought fired him for using his powers to steal trade secrets and commit insider trading."
Ashley paused, then said, "He says he has definitive intel about Translucent’s death."
Hearing this, Benjamin rembered the original storyline.
sr, the mind reader...
If he was showing up now, that ant The Boys, led by William Butcher, had already made contact with the little fat guy.
It also ant Kimiko had already been captured by The Boys, and they were trying to use sr’s power to read Kimiko’s mories.
Now this was fucking interesting.
Benjamin thought to himself.
In the original storyline, Butcher and the others had risked their lives chasing leads and trying to read mories mainly to get hard proof that Vought International was abusing Compound V for human experintation, using it to bring Vought down.
But now?
Why were they still doing this?
Honestly, Benjamin had not expected The Boys to keep following this lead.
And more importantly, he had said a long ti ago that they needed to find Kimiko. Yet a massive company like Vought still had not found her after all this ti, only for The Boys to locate her first.
But soon, Benjamin wondered if this had sothing to do with a deal between Butcher and Colonel Mallory.
After all, in the original series, Butcher found Becca because Colonel Mallory gave him the address.
...
Benjamin said, "Bring him to ."
Ashley looked troubled.
"Sir, sr said he’ll be waiting for you tonight on the rooftop of an abandoned building, and he’ll only et you or Holander."
"Fuck, I can’t fly!"
Soldier Boy sounded speechless.
...
Late at night, on the rooftop of an abandoned building, cold wind howled past.
Benjamin ca anyway. Of course, he took the freight elevator up.
Near the edge of the rooftop, a chubby man in a cheap jacket, looking utterly worn down, was pacing back and forth in agitation.
This was sr.
When he heard the heavy sound of military boots behind him, sr shuddered and turned around.
"M-Mr. Soldier Boy!"
sr stamred out a greeting and handed his phone to Benjamin.
Benjamin checked the photos and surveillance screenshots on it.
In the photos were Hughie, Frenchie, Mother’s Milk, and William Butcher with his full beard.
Benjamin casually flipped through them, then stuffed the phone into his coat pocket.
sr opened his mouth. He wanted to say that was his phone, but he did not quite dare.
Benjamin took out a cigar and lit it, the fla casting light across his cold face.
"Talk. What do you want?"
Benjamin exhaled a smoke ring as he asked.
sr swallowed hard, his eyes shining with desperation.
"Mr. Soldier Boy, I... I want to go back to Vought International. I want to wear the uniform again. I want to be back in the spotlight..."
Benjamin’s fingers paused around the cigar. He pointed at sr and said, "You know why you were fired, right? You couldn’t keep your hands clean. Insider trading. I hate people who don’t follow the rules."
"Thud!"
sr dropped to his knees on the dusty rooftop without hesitation, throwing away all dignity as tears and snot ran down his face.
"Sir! I know I was wrong! I swear, I’ll change all of it!"
"As long as you let go back, I’m willing to be your dog. My power is useful, I swear. Please!"
In the original storyline, after this fat guy told Holander the information, it was not long before an enraged Butcher smashed his head to pulp against a sink in a public restroom.
To be honest, his power was actually pretty useful. Letting Butcher kill him off like that would be a waste.
"Wipe those tears away, you fucking fatass. Looking at you is fucking disgusting."
Benjamin turned and headed toward the rooftop exit.
"Report to Ashley at Vought International tomorrow morning at eight. If you ever dare to use your power for any shady little tricks again..."
"I’ll twist your head off myself. Got it?"
sr was overjoyed.
"Got it! Got it! Thank you, sir! Thank you!"
As he rode the elevator down, Benjamin kept thinking.
Maybe The Seven was a little too small. He could put together a few other teams, like a team of speed-type Supes.
Marathon, Shockwave, A-Train, and those three second-tier speed-type Supes from before all had the sa defining trait: speed. Aside from an all-rounder like Holander, there were basically no other Supes who could outrun them.
Those speed-type Supes could be organized into one team, with Shockwave as their leader.
Besides that, the The Boys universe actually had plenty of powerful ability users.
For example, Lamplighter from before, or Golden Boy at Godolkin University, Marie... that Gender Bender, and so on. If all of them were brought into Vought, Vought’s strength would rise sharply.
There was also Cindy, the telekinetic woman in the asylum.
By now, Benjamin had personally shut down those human experint facilities, but the uncontrollable Supes were still being held. Benjamin planned to go there when he had ti and see whether he could remove the powers of those Supes who could not be controlled, then release them.
As for the controllable Supes, he would see if they could be brought into Vought International.
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