Summary: A trip to Fort Harmony, what could go wrong?
The woods outside Fort Harmony were thick with the kind of quiet that made your skin crawl. Old pines, moss thick as carpet, and the distant smell of something rotten riding the breeze. Homelander floated a few feet off the ground like the drama queen he was, cape fluttering even though there wasn’t enough wind to move a leaf. His cape gets caught on a branch. “Orson Welles wore a cape to cover his fat ass.” Soldier Boy said gruffly and trudged ahead. USO Girl walked between them, arms crossed tight over her chest, boots crunching on pine needles. She’d already shut down the flying idea twice.
“Well, we could still fly the rest of the way,” Homelander said, voice syrupy with false patience.
USO Girl didn’t even look up. “Fuck no!” Her voice is firm
Soldier Boy says gruffly “I told you, you’re not fucking carrying me or her.”
Homelander’s smile twitched. “All right.”
They kept walking. The trees thinned out after a while, revealing the first horror show. Bodies twisted, melted, half-human, half-something that looked like it had been dragged through a meat grinder. Limbs bent at impossible angles. Skin bubbled and fused. A few still wore remnants of military gear.
“Oh, my God,” USO Girl breathed, stopping short. She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.
Soldier Boy exhaled “What a couple of uggos.”
USO Girl shot him a disgusted look but kept moving. The three of them fell into step again, the mood heavier now.
After a stretch of silence, Homelander glanced sideways at Soldier Boy. “What changed your mind? Yesterday you told me you wouldn’t help me.”
Soldier Boy grunted. “Firecracker said you looked up to me.” He smirked. “Guess you’re not a complete idiot.”
“I never said that,” Homelander replied quickly.
“You want my help or not?”
Homelander’s jaw flexed, but he let it go. The conversation drifted for a minute before he circled back, voice deceptively casual.
“The other day, when Clara Vought’s name came up… I got the impression you knew her.”
USO Girl’s step faltered for half a second. She kept her eyes forward, but her shoulders tightened.
Soldier Boy didn’t miss a beat. “I fucked her once or twice. That’s all.”
USO Girl’s gaze flicked between them, jaw tight, but she said nothing. The weight of old memories with Clara hung in the air between the three of them unspoken, but impossible to ignore.
Homelander’s grin turned sharp, almost delighted. “Then, uh, I guess we’re related in more ways than one.”
“Where is she?” Homelander asked, eyes narrowing.
“Dead,” Soldier Boy said flatly. “Suicide.”
Soldier Boy stopped walking entirely this time. “Horseshit. She’d never off herself.”
“Did you see a body?” USO Girl pressed, voice tight. She stepped closer to Soldier Boy, searching his face like she checking in on him.
The woods gave way to chain-link and razor wire, the concrete bulk of Fort Harmony squatting like a tumor in the trees. The three of them pushed through the half-open gate, boots and cape stirring up decades of dust and decay. Inside the medical facility it was worse sterile halls gone rotten, flickering emergency lights, and that unmistakable reek of old blood and chemicals.
Homelander wrinkled his nose. “Smells like deer piss.”
Soldier Boy stopped for a beat just inside the doorway, staring down the dim corridor like it owed him money. USO Girl stayed right beside him, shoulders squared, refusing to shrink.
“The last time I was here,” Soldier Boy said, voice rough, “I was fresh off the front lines, still picking Nazi brains out of my hair. And only the best of the best got selected for Dr. Vought’s trials.”
USO Girl let out a sharp, cocky laugh that almost sounded real. “Damn right. We were the goddamn originals, V1 didn’t fuck around. Marched in here thinking we were hot shit, came out… well, something else. They wanted weapons, not whiners. I earned these powers the hard way, same as you, Soldier. Turned me into their pretty little USO poster girl after. Propaganda with a smile and a song. Real honor, huh?”
Homelander hummed. “Mm-hmm.”
“Not soft little hog chompers,” Soldier Boy added.
Homelander smirked. “Of course. No, I forgot how tough you were.”
Soldier Boy shot back without missing a beat. “Hey, I’m not the weirdo who doesn’t fuck. I mean, your cock’s as useless as your cape. What’s the point of being famous if you’re not getting your dick wet?”
USO Girl smirked, fully in Soldier Boy’s corner with the same crude edge. “Exactly. Some of us handled our shit back in the day without turning into a fucking monk about it.”
Homelander’s eyes flashed with that dangerous glee. “Oh, oh, my dick was sopping wet when I pulled it out of Stormfront and wiped it on her fucking chin.”
USO Girl made a disgusted sound, wrinkling her nose. “Jesus fucking Christ, You really think that makes you sound like a big man, or are you just compensating harder than usual?”
Soldier Boy grinned. “Ooh, look. More uggos.” He clicked on his flashlight, sweeping it over another twisted, mutated corpse slumped against the wall. “Friends of yours?”
USO Girl stepped closer to the body, voice still laced with that macho edge. “This place always did have shit interior design.” She glanced back at Soldier Boy, and for a split second her eyes betrayed her wide, haunted, the old fear flickering before she buried it fast. It was quick enough that Homelander wouldn’t catch it, but Soldier Boy would. She looked away down the hall. “Trials turned out real winners, huh? Let’s just keep moving before I lose whatever’s left in my stomach.”
They pushed deeper into the facility, the hallway narrowing into a row of old containment cells. Homelander’s chuckle echoed off the walls as he kept prodding.
“What?” Soldier Boy snapped.
Homelander turned with that predatory smile. “You, your whole bit. This whole ‘guts and glory’ thing. What a fucking joke. I read your classified file. Your brother won a Silver Star for bravery at Anzio, and that’s what made you beg your father to buy you a spot in Dr. Vought’s trials. Because it killed you to see your brother dripping in all that glory, making you look all the more feeble in comparison.”
“You don’t know shit about me,” Soldier Boy growled.
“Really? I know that when they tried to inject you with the V, you were so fucking petrified that they had to strap you to the table. And you pissed yourself, crying for your mommy like the whiny, spoiled little rich boy that you are.” Homelander’s voice dripped with mock sympathy. “They gave you the world, and you… you deserve nothing.”
USO Girl’s jaw clenched. “Fuck off, Homelander.”
But Homelander wasn’t done. He turned on her slowly, eyes glowing with cold menace, his voice dropping into something low and venomous. “And you… bright-eyed little Betty with dreams of being a shining star. Shaking like a scared little leaf the second that injection needle came out. Took four doctors to hold you down while you screamed and begged. All that perfect smile, those songs, that USO girl act still just a frightened little girl playing dress-up. How’s that brave face holding up now, sweetheart? Back in the one place that broke you?”
Soldier Boy stepped forward, voice a dangerous rumble. “Hey. You don’t get to talk to her like that.”
Homelander just chuckled softly and walked toward one of the containment cells, peering inside. “Oh, Christ. What’s this shithole now?”
He turned around just in time to see Soldier Boy slamming the transparent door shut and spinning the heavy wheel. The metallic creak echoed as Soldier Boy ripped the handle clean off. Homelander’s expression shifted. “What are you doing? Oh, well done. I’ll be out of here in thirty seconds.”
“Your father and I decided you need a time out.” USO Girl says proudly.
Soldier Boy stepped back, voice cold. “It’s enriched uranium. They’d stick us Supes in there to see if we could survive an atomic bomb. Now, for a normal joe, they’d be dead in minutes, but for you, it’s a stomach flu. Good luck, though, getting out of a Supe-proof cell while you’re bleeding out of your ass.”
The whooshing of radiation started to build.
Homelander pressed against the glass. “Where are you going?”
“I’m gonna go destroy any V1 that I find, you Triple Crown cock jockey.”
Soldier Boy didn’t even look back. “You don’t get it, do you? How much I can’t fucking stand you.”
USO Girl lingered for a second by the cell, staring at Homelander through the reinforced glass with a sharp, satisfied smirk. “Time starts now, kid.” Her words teasing.
Soldier Boy gave a low grunt of approval at USO Girl’s parting shot to the locked cell. “That’s my girl.” He jerked his head down the hall. “We split up. Cover more ground faster. You take the east labs. I’ll hit the armory and main storage. Anything V1-related, we torch it.”
USO Girl nodded, the weight of the place still pressing on her but the mission giving her focus. “Watch your back, Ben.” They split at the next junction, boots echoing in opposite directions.
Soldier Boy moved like a man on a mission, gun at the ready. He kicked open doors, sweeping rooms with cold efficiency. That’s when he caught movement a shadow ducking behind a column.
Frenchie froze, heart hammering, pressing himself flat against the concrete.
Soldier Boy didn’t hesitate. He opened fire, bullets chewing into the pillar in a deafening roar. Frenchie bolted the second the magazine ran dry, sprinting down the corridor. The pursuit ended in a side lab connected to a larger containment chamber. Soldier Boy burst through, breathing hard and froze. There, rooted into the walls like some nightmare growth, was Quinn. What remained of the former U.S. soldier and V-One test subject.
Meanwhile USO Girl had cleared her section of the east labs nothing but empty vials and old paperwork. She doubled back toward the central area, following the distant sounds of gunfire until she reached the connected lab.
She stepped inside quietly and saw him. Soldier Boy sitting shoulders rigid, staring at the horror rooted to the walls. “Ben…” she said softly, moving to his side. She didn’t touch him not yet but her voice carried the weight of shared history. “Jesus. That’s… that’s Quinn, isn’t it?”
Before Soldier Boy could answer, the air shifted. A blur of red, white, and blue slammed through the far doorway. Homelander stood there, radiation burns still healing on his skin, eyes wild with fury.
“The V1 wasn’t here,” Soldier Boy said flatly, not even turning around at first.
Homelander tilted his head, a cruel little smile forming as he studied Soldier Boy’s face. “Were you… Were you crying?”
Soldier Boy finally looked at him, eyes red-rimmed but hard. “Just fucking do it already.”
Homelander’s eyes started to glow red for a moment. He turned around and walked away from both of them.
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