"What did you say, Soldier Boy?"
A loud "buzz" suddenly rang out in Mallory's mind, and some long-buried memories surged up like a tide.
"That's impossible."
"That's impossible."
Frenchie raised his head and looked at Mallory, "What's wrong?"
"Is there something you know about Soldier Boy?"
Mallory's body trembled, then she shook her head, "No, it's nothing. I…"
"Ma'am!"
Frenchie suddenly jumped to his feet, "Mother's Milk is dead!"
"Killed by Soldier Boy."
"Damn it. Soldier Boy may be powerful, but I never knew he could fire a cannon-like radiation beam from his chest."
"That thing blasted Mother's Milk into pieces."
"Mother's Milk also had a daughter. That poor kid doesn't have a dad anymore."
"So what do you know? Can't you just tell me?"
Mallory fell silent.
She stared at Frenchie for a long time without saying a word.
Then she took out a pack of cigarettes, pulled one out, and started smoking.
"That was a long time ago."
"At the time, we were at war with the Soviet Union."
"I was commanding a unit on the front line."
"But back then, military funding was tight, so in order to keep things going…"
"We had to do some work to supplement the military budget."
"I won't go into the specifics."
"Anyway, while we were already damn busy, Vought sent some superhuman idiots to the front line."
Frenchie tried asking, "Soldier Boy?"
Mallory blew out a smoke ring, "Him."
"And Crimson Countess, Gunpowder, and those people."
"That is, the Payback team, the predecessor of the Seven."
"At the time, Vought reached an agreement with the federal military. They would fund the military, but in exchange, they would assign superhumans to join the war in order to collect the necessary data."
Frenchie spread his hands, "So they sent the Payback team over?"
Mallory nodded, "That's right. Those idiots had no military sense whatsoever. They were purely there to cause me trouble."
"There was a damn idiot with wings growing out of his back. He actually flew into the sky on the battlefield, and as a result, attracted the Soviet Union's attention."
"He was blown to pieces on the spot, but he also exposed our position, which brought an attack from the Soviet Union."
At this point, Mallory gritted her teeth.
"If it had only been the Soviet Union attacking, that would have been fine. I knew I could still drive them back. But those superhuman idiots whose heads were full of mush couldn't even tell friend from foe."
"In that battle, at least half of my men were accidentally killed by them."
"The only good news was…"
"Soldier Boy was taken down, and the Soviet Union took him away."
"I thought that after he was killed, the Soviet Union would at most finish studying him and then feed his corpse to the dogs."
"But I never expected you to say that he's still alive."
Frenchie nodded, "He really is still alive. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it either."
"God, so many years have already passed, but he hasn't changed at all."
"And his power has become even stronger. I don't know whether he evolved it himself or whether the Soviet scientists altered his genes."
Just then, Mallory suddenly raised a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet, then pointed toward the television.
A news report was playing on the television screen.
"…Just this morning, a superhuman villain caused a destructive incident on the streets of New York. Not only did this dangerous superhuman destroy a building, he also caused the deaths of several innocent bystanders."
"This is footage captured by a nearby surveillance camera."
The image on the television changed, showing a street corner.
At the corner, a man was bent over, clutching his head, seemingly enduring some kind of pain.
He suddenly shouted and straightened his body, firing a torrent of light from his chest. The entire screen instantly lit up, and then the footage ended.
Smack!
The cigarette in Mallory's hand fell to the floor.
Frenchie jumped up, "It's him! It's him!"
"Soldier Boy!"
"He escaped."
"He's back in New York."
Mallory froze in her seat, then stood up, "Come on, Frenchie. Let's go take a look at the scene."
In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the scene.
A security cordon had already been set up. From a distance, they could see the ruins of a building. It had been blasted straight through by the violent energy, and many places were still burning and giving off wisps of blue smoke.
Mallory took out her identification, a forged FBI ID, and then went with Frenchie to the vicinity of the building ruins.
She gave Frenchie a look, and he took out an instrument and placed it nearby to test the area.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The instrument began to sound.
The readings on it made Frenchie's expression ugly.
He turned around and said to Mallory, "Ma'am, the readings are off the charts. There's an abnormal amount of radiation remaining here."
"It was Soldier Boy, no doubt about it. Back at the military base, he also fired a beam from his chest, blasting a passage straight through the base."
Mallory looked around, "Now that he's escaped and returned to New York, who will he go looking for?"
Suddenly, the two of them said at the same time, "Crimson Countess!"
She was Soldier Boy's old lover.
After returning to New York, he would definitely go looking for Crimson Countess.
"Let's go."
Mallory headed toward the security cordon.
Frenchie followed behind her, "Ma'am, you're going to look for him?"
Mallory nodded, "You saw the destruction caused by Soldier Boy."
"Maybe we can use him to deal with Homelander."
Frenchie said quietly, "That's too dangerous."
Mallory laughed, "Which thing we do is safe?"
The woman, already no longer young, still had a brisk stride and quickly slipped through the security cordon.
Frenchie had no choice but to follow her.
———
Meanwhile...
[In the Seven Tower Command Center]
As soon as Homelander walked in, he saw Starlight, Maeve, and the others gathered around the television screen.
He cleared his throat and smiled, "Did I miss something?"
Starlight turned around and said nervously, "Sir, you need to take a look at this news report."
"There's a superhuman villain."
Homelander raised an eyebrow and walked over. He saw a man on the television screen firing a beam of light from his chest.
"Aha."
'Isn't that Soldier Boy?'
'So does that mean Mallory and the others have returned from Russia?'
'Butcher is dead, yet they still released Soldier Boy?'
'Now, this is interesting.'
"Sir."
Starlight, overflowing with a sense of justice, asked nervously, "Shouldn't we deploy?"
"This superhuman villain is too dangerous. If we don't get him under control as soon as possible, more people will get hurt."
Homelander put his hands behind his back and smiled at her, "I admire your initiative, but Starlight, don't forget that we're no longer carrying out hero activities for free."
"If the federal government needs us, they'll notify us."
"But before then…"
Homelander looked at Maeve, "Have the Crime Analysis Department investigate this superhuman's identity first and gather detailed intelligence so that we can use it if necessary."