The Boys: I'm the Origin of Compound V

Chapter 24: Unveiling the Truth

Back at the safehouse, the atmosphere was electric with anticipation as the team crowded around Hughie's laptop. The flash drive Adam had recovered sat connected, its contents loading onto the screen. Lena sat on the couch, her knees pulled to her chest, watching the scene unfold with a mix of curiosity and apprehension.

"How long is this gonna take?" Butcher asked, pacing like a caged animal.

"Not long," Hughie replied, his fingers flying over the keyboard. "But there's a ton of encrypted files here. I'll need time to crack them all."

"Time we might not have," Adam said, leaning against the table.

Frenchie peered over Hughie's shoulder, his brow furrowing. "What do we know so far?"

Hughie opened one of the unencrypted files, and his face went pale. "Oh no..."

"What?" Butcher barked, moving to look at the screen.

Hughie's voice trembled as he read aloud. "Project Ascension. Phase Two. The goal isn't just to create supes. It's to condition them. Train them from birth to be loyal to Vought."

"Bloody hell," Frenchie muttered. "They're making an army, like we thought. But one they can control completely."

Lena's voice broke the silence, soft but filled with dread. "I heard them talking about that in the lab. They called it 'absolute integration.' They said once it was perfected, no one could stop them."

Adam's jaw tightened. "They're not just making weapons. They're making slaves."

Adam ignored the system, his mind racing. "There has to be something in these files that tells us how they're doing it. Some kind of weakness we can exploit."

Hughie clicked through more documents, his face grim. "Here's something. A list of key personnel. Dr. Henshaw is at the top. He's listed as the lead scientist for the project."

"Henshaw," Adam murmured, the name stirring a faint memory. "Lena mentioned him. He's the one who oversaw the trials."

"Then he's our target," Butcher said. "We find him, we put him down, and we burn whatever he's working on."

"Not so fast," Adam interjected. "If we just kill him, someone else will take his place. We need to dismantle the whole operation, not just the man running it."

Butcher scowled. "And how do you propose we do that, sunshine?"

Adam pointed to the files. "These documents. They mention a central hub—a facility where all the data is stored and analyzed. If we hit that, we cripple their ability to coordinate the project."

Hughie nodded. "It's a long shot, but it could work. Without their data, they'd have to start from scratch."

"Then that's what we do," Adam said firmly.

The next few hours were spent planning the assault. The central hub was located in a heavily fortified building in the city's industrial district. Getting in would be difficult, even by their standards.

Frenchie spread out a blueprint of the facility, pointing to key entry points. "We'll need to split up. One team to distract the guards, another to access the servers."

"I'll take the servers," Adam said without hesitation.

Butcher raised an eyebrow. "And what makes you the best man for the job?"

"Because I can get in and out without being seen," Adam replied. "And because I'm the only one who knows how to handle the system if something goes wrong."

Butcher stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. "Fine. But if you screw this up, don't bother coming back."

Adam smirked. "I'll keep that in mind."

Later that night, Adam found Lena sitting alone in the corner of the safehouse, her gaze distant. He approached her slowly, his voice soft. "You okay?"

She looked up, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I don't know. I thought I'd feel better, being away from them. But now... now I just feel lost."

Adam sat down beside her, his expression thoughtful. "I know the feeling. When I got out of Vought's labs, I didn't know who I was anymore. But then I realized... I didn't have to be who they made me. I could be something else."

"Something better?" Lena asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Something free," Adam said.

For the first time, Lena smiled faintly. "Thank you. For saving me."

Adam's lips twitched into a faint smile. "You don't have to thank me. Just stick with us. We'll make sure they can't hurt anyone else."

As the night deepened, Adam stood by the window, staring out at the city lights. The weight of what they'd learned pressed heavily on him, but beneath the dread, there was a spark of determination.

Adam exhaled, letting the faint glow of his energy flicker in his palm. "Yeah," he muttered to himself. "Time to finish what we started."

The battle ahead would be their hardest yet, but Adam knew one thing for certain: Vought's reign was not invincible. And they were going to prove it.