Maeve nodded and left the command center.
Only Starlight and Homelander remained in the command center.
Starlight was still unwilling to give up, "Sir, I can go track this superhuman first. Once we take action, we'll be able to know his location immediately."
Homelander reached out and gently lifted Starlight's chin, "Fine."
"I approve."
"But be careful. That superhuman isn't a pushover."
"If that pretty face of yours gets hurt, I imagine a lot of people will be heartbroken."
"Also, I can give you a clue."
"Crimson Countess."
Starlight searched her memory for a moment before saying, "You mean Crimson Countess from Payback?"
"Besides her, there shouldn't be any other countess," Homelander lowered his hand, walked behind Starlight, and looked at Soldier Boy on the screen, "He'll go looking for Crimson Countess."
Starlight said in surprise, "Sir, how do you know?"
Homelander laughed, "Want to know the answer?"
"Go on a date with me and I'll tell you."
Starlight froze for a moment, then her face turned red.
Homelander shrugged, "Just kidding. Go to work."
With a pretty girl like Starlight, Homelander would be happy to swallow her in one bite, but he didn't like forcing himself on someone. That would be too boring.
So he was only teasing Starlight.
Unexpectedly, when Starlight reached the doorway, she stopped and said quietly, "I'm free this Friday night."
Then she hurried away.
This time, Homelander was the one who froze for a moment. Then he laughed helplessly, shook his head, and didn't take it to heart.
He looked at Soldier Boy.
As a transmigrator, Homelander naturally knew about the entanglement between Soldier Boy and the Payback team.
Although the television series never explained it all that clearly, Homelander had pieced together the outline of the events from certain fragments in the show, the characters' conversations, and other details.
Soldier Boy could be said to be the predecessor of Homelander.
At the time, Vought created him and made Soldier Boy Vought's most powerful weapon.
However, Soldier Boy was even harder to control than Homelander.
He was an extremely jealous person. Black Noir merely had the potential to become a second Soldier Boy, yet Soldier Boy brutally beat him.
Because of this, Vought made up its mind to get rid of him.
Vought even cooperated with the Soviet Union for this purpose.
That was also why Soldier Boy was eventually taken away by the Soviet Union.
In order to achieve this goal.
Vought funded the military and used that as the condition for having the superhuman army participate in the war.
On the surface, it was to collect data on superhumans in war. In reality, they wanted to use the special circumstances of war to kill Soldier Boy.
At the time, Vought's Edgar also personally arrived at the battlefield. Normally, someone of his position wouldn't have needed to go to the front line, but in order to command the operation and arrange Soldier Boy's death, he still went.
In the television series, there were several details worth examining.
One was that Swatto flew into the sky like an idiot. Superhumans might be arrogant, but that didn't mean they were all idiots.
Even an ordinary person knew how foolish it was to expose one's position on a battlefield.
Would Swatto not know that?
So when he flew into the sky at the time, he had actually done it deliberately to let the Soviet Union know where they were.
Another detail was that the members of Payback were all killing Mallory's men.
In the television series, Mallory believed that they were all idiots who couldn't distinguish friend from foe.
But in Homelander's view, it was obvious that these superhumans had done it deliberately.
Their purpose was to kill all the witnesses and prevent anyone from knowing that they had colluded with the Soviet Union.
There was another detail later, when Butcher and the others went to find Mindstorm. Soldier Boy had said that Mindstorm would trap people in endless nightmares until they died from dehydration.
From this, it could be known that anyone trapped in Mindstorm's nightmares would eventually die from dehydration.
And in the television series, in Mallory's memories, when the Soviet Union attacked, she woke up and saw Mindstorm giving Gunpowder water. In other words, Gunpowder had most likely been attacked by Mindstorm's superpower.
Why Mindstorm attacked Gunpowder, Homelander didn't know. He was more inclined to believe that Mindstorm had taken advantage of the chaos, while Soldier Boy was caught off guard, to use his superpower on him, but the attack had affected Gunpowder as well.
With that, Edgar's plan became quite clear.
Swatto exposed their position and brought the Soviet Union over.
When the Soviet Union attacked the position and created chaos, Mindstorm took the opportunity to use his superpower on Soldier Boy and restrain him.
Black Noir and Crimson Countess were responsible for attacking Soldier Boy.
The others were responsible for eliminating the witnesses.
In the end, Edgar's plan succeeded.
Soldier Boy suffered severe injuries and was taken away by the Soviet Union, leaving his fate unknown.
Vought also used this opportunity to launch a new "product," namely Homelander and the Seven.
After the Payback team's mission ended, the team disbanded. Only Black Noir remained in the Seven, becoming a trump card Edgar could use against Homelander.
But after Homelander transmigrated into this world and replaced the original Homelander, Black Noir's trump card was obviously useless.
And now, Soldier Boy, a character with considerable importance in the show, had finally appeared as well.
His beam, which could turn superhumans into ordinary people, was indeed a "secret weapon," but unfortunately, it could not threaten Homelander.
First, Soldier Boy's chest beam required charging. Not to mention the current Homelander, even the Homelander in the show, if he wasn't restrained, could not possibly be hit by Soldier Boy.
Second, with the current Homelander, even if he stood still, Soldier Boy's beam could not break through his "Absolute Domain."
Homelander didn't believe that his awakened talent could be erased by the ability of a character from the original show.
So he wasn't in any hurry to deal with Soldier Boy.
Just as he knew that Mallory and the others would eventually find Soldier Boy, yet he hadn't gone to stop them.
Because to Homelander, Soldier Boy wasn't a threat. On the contrary, he could use Soldier Boy to draw some big fish out of the water.
For example, the President.
If Mallory's actions didn't have the President's support, Homelander would be the first person not to believe it.
He allowed Mallory to remain alive, pretending that he hadn't seen through the Stormfront plan. His ultimate goal was to draw the President out from behind the scenes.
To expose the President's "conspiracy" to have Homelander killed to the public.
Then, Homelander could justifiably have the federal government replace the President!
"The net I cast has finally reached the time to close."
Homelander said with a smile.