Chapter 6: [6] : Deep: A Test of Loyalty
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"Is... is there anything I can help with, Homelander?" Deep sat in his seat, looking at Roger with a hint of fear in his eyes. He seemed to know why Roger had called him here.
Roger nodded and said, "Yes, of course there's something you can help with. I heard from Stillwell today that you found some plane wreckage underwater, the wreckage of the Baltimore mayor's plane, right?"
Cold sweat seeped from Deep's forehead. His heart was beating frantically with nervousness and fear. He knew why Roger was asking about this.
"I... I... I don't know... Homelander. Actually, I didn't know about this before. No... I... I actually didn't see anything underwater. That... that area was very murky, dark and gloomy. I... I..."
Deep spoke nervously. Roger could see with his super vision that Deep's body was shaking, and cold sweat had almost soaked his body.
Seeing this, Roger smiled and said, "Don't be nervous, don't be nervous. I haven't said anything yet, have I? But you're right, that area was indeed very murky. You really couldn't see anything clearly."
"Yes... yes, that's right, exactly."
Seeing Deep's fearful appearance, Roger knew that no one else would ever know about Homelander killing the Baltimore mayor.
Although Roger didn't do this, Homelander did, and now Homelander was Roger. Of course, Roger couldn't let this kind of thing come to light.
"Alright, relax. Let's pretend this never happened. Let's talk about something else," Roger suddenly changed the subject.
Deep was stunned. "Something else?" His heart, which had just settled down, was lifted again. He looked at Roger anxiously, unsure of what else he might have done to displease him.
Roger nodded and said, "Yes, something else. On Starlight's first day of joining the team, you did something to her, didn't you?"
"!!"
Thump thump!
Cardiac arrest!
Hearing Homelander say this, Deep felt as if his heart had stopped beating.
He thought no one else would know about what he did to Starlight, but now Homelander had brought it up.
This was different from him discovering that Homelander had killed someone. If he discovered Homelander killing someone, he just had to keep quiet and Homelander wouldn't do anything to him. Deep understood this very clearly.
But... bullying Starlight, once exposed, would end his career as a superhero. He might be kicked out of The Seven because of this, which was unacceptable to Deep.
He instantly broke out in even more cold sweat than before. His mouth gaped open like a fish out of water, his eyes widened as he nervously looked at Roger, and he unconsciously shook his head.
"What? You want to say you didn't?"
"No... no, Homelander. I... I don't know..."
"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous. Look, you're nervous again. We're just chatting now, and I haven't said anything, have I?"
Roger walked behind Deep, his hands gripping Deep's shoulders, and whispered in his ear:
"I just don't want to see any discord within The Seven. Starlight is in a very bad mood now, which might affect tonight's activities. So you should know what to do, right?"
"Apo... apologize?"
"Very smart."
Patting Deep's shoulder, Roger left him and returned to his seat, saying:
"Go apologize to Starlight now, and make her forgive you. You don't want to leave The Seven because of this in the future, right?"
Deep nodded repeatedly.
Roger continued, "Alright, go prepare. Also, if you have time, you could take me out to play at sea. To be honest, I'm quite curious about those animals in the sea."
"...?"
Deep, who was about to leave, was stunned in place when he heard Roger's words.
He looked at Roger in disbelief, as if he was looking at an alien he had never seen before.
Feeling Deep's gaze, Roger looked up at him and asked, "What's wrong? I don't think I said anything wrong."
"No... no, I might have misheard. You just said you wanted to go to the sea to meet my... friends..."
"You didn't mishear. I do want to meet your friends. If possible, I hope to see animals like blue whales. I've never seen such enormous creatures in my life. I believe you can fulfill my wish, right?"
"Of course, of course!" Realizing he hadn't misheard, Deep suddenly became excited. He said, "I'll definitely make you satisfied!"
"Go back now, and don't forget to apologize to Starlight."
Roger waved at Deep, indicating for him to leave.
Actually, Deep was easy to please. Because people looked down on him, thinking he had no other abilities except talking to ocean animals, Deep was very insecure.
He had no friends among humans because no one could understand him, so he treated those ocean animals as his friends, family, even lovers.
The dolphin he rescued from the marine park was even his lover.
This might seem disgusting to others, including the members of The Seven, who didn't have a good attitude towards Deep. The original Homelander was the same, he looked down on Deep and sneered at Deep's feelings of treating animals as friends.
But Roger thought there was nothing wrong with this. After all, sometimes animals are much simpler than humans. Deep, who had been with marine life for a long time, was actually psychologically healthier than other superhumans in many ways.
Although he wasn't that healthy, he was at least the tallest among the short.
Roger felt very at ease with Deep like this, more so than with A-Train and Queen Maeve, because Deep's simplicity in this aspect made him very easy to manipulate.
As long as he catered to Deep's interests, Deep would become Roger's number one fan.
This was Roger's first step in changing Homelander's self-centered image.
Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in The Seven's office, looking at the scenery outside, Roger used his super vision to observe everything below.
Because there was a party in the evening, Roger and Queen Maeve had no activities in the afternoon. They had to memorize the lines prepared by the company for them, to lobby those politicians to support the bill for superheroes to enter the national defense field.
The previous Homelander cared a lot about this, because it would bring him more attention, and would make Madelyn look at him more.
But Roger now was not the original Homelander. He didn't want to deal with those political issues now, and he wasn't suitable for doing such things. Roger only wanted to do one thing.
He left The Seven's office and flew from the rooftop to patrol the entire city.
When he encountered people in danger, he would descend from the sky and save those people.
Saving others, receiving gratitude from others, this feeling was very enjoyable for Roger.
Before crossing over, he might have been nothing, just an ordinary person, an ordinary wage slave. But after crossing over, he could choose to become a superhero.
A real superhero.
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