50 Good Byes

[Date: January 2023]

The wind moved with strengthening speed from the north bringing a crisp cold chill to anyone foolish enough to be in its path.

The wind was a preview of the snow storm that was supposed to hit the east coast in the next two days.

The storm was going to be a giant mess of icy rain and snow that the networks have been raving for the last few days striking much needed fear and caution into regular folks urging them to stay inside and be safe.

Even with the best efforts of state and local officials it was inevitable that a whole lot of people would be in danger either caught outside in the storm or even in their own homes.

All incidents were of course excellent PR opportunities.

Truthfully that's what winter was a giant PR opportunity for Vaught. There was no better opportunity for our heroes to go out there and make themselves useful than a big natural disaster.

The wind picked up again catching my cape and pushing sidewise on me strongly that I had to 'steady' myself in the air.

It didn't help that I was about two miles high up where the intensity was much higher than the ground.

As I steadied myself in position I didn't take my eyes off the group I was watching on the ground 'foolish' enough to be outside.

Was I surveying a group of thieves? Murderers? Criminal masterminds? Super villains?

No of course not.

I was watching a motley crew of supes, heroes and regular humans all dressed in black gathered around a hole in the ground saying their last goodbyes to Hughie Campbell.

And yes the petty part of Homelander that was still a part of me enjoyed every moment of it.

Truthfully 'I' did was well. Hughie had clanged on to life longer than I expected. Hell for a moment I even thought he was going to recover when I heard he regained consciousness.

That wouldn't have been good for me. With Hughie alive even if comatose there was no way I could make a move on Starlight, her thoughts would always wonder to him. There was just too much bad history and association between the two of us.

But with him finally kicking the can and with my hands metaphorically clean of the whole ordeal, after all I'm not the one that gave him V-24, hell I even warned her about it, the coast was clear.

Maeve was there as well. I know that by now she knows she is pregnant. She hasn't told the team yet but she will. She won't have a choice she's going to start showing soon.

Victoria was there, as Hughie's boss at FBSA, along with some colleagues, some other regular folks that I assumed were friends and family of his or his father all looking sad and cold.

And of course 'The Boys' were there as well braving the weather to acknowledge their own fuck ups.

As I saw and heard his father finish his last remarks and cry into some unknown woman's shoulder I couldn't help but feel a surging sensation of satisfaction.

The 'Heart' of 'The Boys' was dead.

Now all I needed was for that ragged looking Butcher to also die.

-

Author Note:

I estimated HL's net worth based on what it would be for a high value celebrity athlete like LeBron James who is supposedly worth $600M. I figured HL, unlike LeBron, probably doesn't care about expanding his wealth aggressively since Vaught provided everything he ever needed or wanted. Of course the SI has different views.

Maeve thinks it's Butcher's kind since she hasn't fucked anyone else and has no reason to suspect HL doing anything to her while she was unconscious. In this timeline her and HL never had that big fight and the SI never mentioned her worth for baby eggs.

And yes there is enough HL influence for the SI to be petty and watch Hughie's death.

Like I said before the time skips are now in play so pay attention to the dates and years, sometimes they might even go backwards.

It won't all be random events, there is an actual plot that I have in my head for how I want things to evolve.

Once again thank you for reading and reviewing. Ya'll have given me some great ideas in the reviews keep them coming.