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....
"How have you been doing?"
In a bar, Hughie and Starlight were sitting together, and Hughie was asking her about recent events.
Starlight, dressed in casual clothes, responded to Hughie, "The company said they would deal with The Deep, but... but was what I did too much?"
Starlight looked up at Hughie, seeking his opinion.
After the rally, Starlight and Hughie had entered into a vague and ambiguous relationship. Hughie had confided in Starlight about his girlfriend's death, and Starlight had shared her own burdens, things she was too scared to speak about.
It was Hughie who had encouraged her to speak up, leading Starlight to reveal on a program that The Deep had once assaulted her.
While she had felt relieved at the time, now that the impulsiveness had passed, Starlight began to feel a bit sorry for The Deep.
Yes, she had indeed been assaulted, and for a woman, that was unforgivable. However, The Deep had since apologized, and Homelander had personally interceded on his behalf. Starlight had initially decided to let the matter go.
But now, caught up in the scandal surrounding Vought, and with Hughie's "persuasion," she couldn't resist bringing the issue up again.
The Deep was being held accountable by the company, and that was his own fault. But to bring up something that had supposedly been resolved didn't make her feel as righteous as she had expected.
Starlight wasn't sure how to face Homelander now.
Sitting beside her, Hughie thought for a moment and said, "No matter what, The Deep did something wrong. And besides you, weren't there many other innocent girls who were bullied by him? Even if not for yourself, you should have exposed this guy for their sake."
The Deep had quite a few skeletons in his closet. After Starlight exposed him, many women also found the courage to share their own stories of being harassed by The Deep while working for Vought.
Starlight wasn't the only one, but hopefully, after this, she would be the last.
Although Hughie wasn't sure how much of the rumors spreading online were true, he leaned towards believing them. After all, Tek Knight had mentioned that, compared to other heroes, the Seven had far more scandals and dirt.
A-Train had killed people before, The Deep had bullied women before, and even Queen Maeve and Homelander had incidents where they hurt others during their "heroic" acts.
Moreover, Starlight, having experienced Vought's manipulations firsthand, knew that most events were just staged performances by the company. The so-called robbers were more like actors. And these actors rarely survived their encounters with Homelander and Maeve.
So, Hughie believed The Deep likely did commit those acts. Some of the rumors might have been false, but a significant portion was probably true.
Thus, Hughie felt Starlight had no reason to feel guilty; she hadn't done anything wrong.
"Starlight, so this is where you are."
As Hughie and Starlight chatted, a voice suddenly interrupted them.
Both of them jumped in surprise, turning to see who it was. Almost in unison, they exclaimed, "Homelander?!"
"Shh!"
Their voices were too loud, and Roger (Homelander) quickly covered their mouths in alarm. Fortunately, the bar was noisy, and no one else seemed to notice their outburst.
Roger breathed a sigh of relief and let go of them, saying, "Keep it down. I'm not Homelander anymore."
"?"
Both Hughie and Starlight looked at him in confusion.
Roger explained, "I killed Black Noir. he was chasing down Tek Knight, and I couldn't help myself. Now the company probably already knows, so whether I'm still Homelander remains to be seen."
Starlight was about to ask who Tek Knight was, but Hughie jumped in, asking, "Black Noir was after Tek Knight? Does that mean we've been exposed?"
"Probably not yet, but it won't be long," Roger shrugged.
With Vought's ability to gather information, Roger believed they would soon discover who was behind everything.
Listening to Roger and Hughie's conversation left Starlight dazed. She glanced back and forth between Hughie and Roger, her expression growing increasingly confused as she asked, "Wait... you two know each other?"
Roger raised an eyebrow at Hughie and asked, "You haven't told her?"
"...No, you never said I could," Hughie responded.
"But I thought, since you like Starlight so much, you should've told her," Roger replied.
"Wait, wait, wait, gentlemen!" Starlight interrupted their cryptic exchange. "Can you please explain what's going on here?"
...
About ten minutes later, in a private room in the bar, Starlight sat there, stunned.
During that time, Hughie and Roger had told her everything about The Boys, including what Vought had been up to and the truth about Compound V.
And it was the truth about Compound V that Starlight found hardest to accept.
Her superpowers weren't something she was born with; they were the result of being injected with Compound V. She wasn't some divine chosen one but rather a product of human experimentation.
This was a tough pill for Starlight to swallow.
Throughout her life, her mother and the people in her church had always told her she was a divine angel sent to Earth to save the world, and so Starlight had always dreamed of being a hero.
She wanted to save people, as many as she could, to live up to the powers she had.
But now someone was telling her that she wasn't an angel from heaven, nor was she born with these abilities. She was just an ordinary person who had been injected with a substance called Compound V when she was a child.
After sitting in silence for a while, Starlight suddenly pulled out her phone to make a call.
Roger stopped her just in time, asking, "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to ask my mom. She must know something!"
"And then what?"
"And then..."
Starlight froze. The rage that had been building inside her seemed to be doused with a bucket of cold water, extinguished in an instant.
Yes, even if she found out the truth, what could she do? Was she going to beat up her own mother? She couldn't bring herself to do that.
At most, it would lead to a big argument with her mother.
But what would that accomplish...?
"Listen, Starlight, we can't act right now. Vought is a powerful company. Without solid evidence, even if you tell others, no one will believe you," Roger continued to counsel her.
"But... we can't just do nothing..." Starlight said.
"Who said we haven't been doing anything?" Roger glanced at Hughie and said, "Do you think Vought has been in chaos recently for no reason?"
Starlight's eyes widened as she pointed at the two of them and asked, "It was you...?"
"Not just us, there are others. And now, Starlight, I need your help," Roger said seriously. "Do you want to become a true superhero, one not bound by any corporation?"
Roger's idea of creating a force independent of Vought was why he had sought out Starlight.
Now that he had openly opposed Vought, Roger was done with pretending. He wanted to create a real superhero team in this world, a Justice League of his own!
...
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