On the balcony, the open-air swimming pool shimmered with a faint, ghostly blue light.
Wade sat on a lounge chair, watching the beautiful figure floating on her back in the pool. "How much stronger is Homelander than you? In every aspect."
Margaret gazed into the night, putting down the wine bottle in her hand. "He can easily toss a fully loaded Mack truck off the highway with one hand; he can fly me from here to Paris in just 10 minutes... I remember when he first debuted, he could withstand a chemical plant explosion, walking out unscathed from a blast equivalent to 1,500 tons of TNT."
Wade took out a small notebook and pen, quickly making calculations. "Strength of at least 50 tons, flight speed of at least Mach 15, with top-tier defense, survivability, and reaction speed."
Margaret lay on her back, kicking her long, pale legs as she continued to swim, whispering, "It's hopeless, right? And that's only a fraction of it; no one has ever seen him go all out."
Wade hovered above the pool, looking down at her. "What if his powers went out of control, or stopped working?"
Margaret brushed back her wet hair and rolled her eyes. "You don't actually think those sonic, gas, or containment devices meant for regular Supes would have any significant effect on him, do you?"
Wade put away his notebook, smiling at her. "No, no, I have a way to temporarily eliminate his powers..."
Margaret swam to the edge, wrapped herself in a bath towel, and said with a cold face, "Since you're so confident... then prove it to me, otherwise, forget it." With that, she walked indoors.
Wade immediately followed her and grabbed her arm. "Wait, the injuries on your body need to be treated; Homelander's X-ray vision is nothing to sneeze at..."
"I'll just say it was a surprise attack from you, that should work..." Margaret said with feigned anger. Before she could finish, she noticed the large bruises on her body and the waves of pain gradually fading away. "You..."
"That won't do; any physical contact leaves traces." Wade glanced at her arm, then let go. "I won't treat the old injury from your fracture; see you next time."
After saying this, he waved his hand and shot straight into the sky at high speed.
The complete silence vanished, replaced by the nocturnal clamor and the sound of whistling wind.
"Hmph, he really is cautious." Margaret clutched her forearm—an injury from ten years ago when she forcibly saved a school bus—and muttered, "All those recent events in the company must have been orchestrated by this ugly man."
She recalled the intelligence the company had compiled on him, combined with his track record of killing Black Noir, escaping from Homelander, and his nearly omnipotent performance in all areas.
"He might actually have a chance..."
...
Downtown, Stanley Children's Hospital.
Inside the infant intensive care unit, bags of medication hung outside rows of transparent incubators.
The liquid in most of the medication bags was transparent, but only a small section of the bags were filled with a blue glow.
A faint, translucent blue humanoid light appeared, standing beside an incubator, and the blue medication bags were becoming transparent at a visible rate.
The door to the intensive care unit was suddenly pushed open, and a medical worker in light green scrubs walked in.
A dark shadow passed through the door, following closely behind, and the surrounding space came to a standstill.
The pale blue light stuck close to the floor and immediately rushed to the feet of the dark figure, merging into it: 'You finally decided to come find me, why did it take so long?'
Wade ignored her and walked straight to the remaining compound v beside the incubator in the corner, carefully dismantling and collecting all of it.
The ghost lay on the mental barrier within his mind, having transformed into an unusually chubby little girl made of blue light: 'I, I got fat, and my ability to enter the network is temporarily unusable, that's why...'
Wade watched as strands of deep blue liquid flowed into his palm, sending a thought: 'If I didn't come, were you just going to stay here forever?'
If it weren't for the constant stream of strange text messages and calls bombarding his backup phone, he wouldn't have known that the ghost had gotten lost and was trapped here.
The ghost rolled over, stroking her bloated body: 'Of course not, I can go back once I digest all this energy, it's just taking a while...'
Wade lifted a basketball-sized blue ice orb, ran out the door at high speed, restored the surveillance in the infant intensive care unit, and asked casually: 'Did you also drain the compound v from the bodies of those children?'
The ghost bit her finger and shook her head: 'No, I was afraid it would affect them, so I didn't touch it.'
Wade vaulted over the balcony, ascended into the sky, and pressed further: "There are still 52 hospitals waiting for you to raid! Is there any way to help you accelerate your digestion?"
The palm-sized ghost flew out from his head and sat in his hair: "I'm not too sure, but it feels a bit faster when I'm scaring those bad guys."
Wade let his mind wander. He had previously considered using a memory cage to keep the ghost captive, and now, combined with what she said about accelerating her digestion, an idea immediately formed.
"Don't move, I'll show you something good." He extended his mental power, grabbed the ghost, pulled her back into the mental barrier in his mind, and wrapped her body up.
"You... what are you doing?!" The blue light energy around the ghost fluctuated violently, exploding like a startled hedgehog as she sent out a sharp thought, 'You're a bad guy too! Do you want to eat me?! Let me go!'
She struggled desperately, but the invisible mental restraints remained immovable.
Wade manifested his body on the mental barrier and held down her head: "Quiet down. I'm going to show you some... good things. Feel it with your heart, and decide whether to continue after you see it."
As soon as he finished speaking, before the ghost could react, a massive stream of information flooded into her core consciousness.
She felt like she was falling continuously, with dreamlike worlds flashing past her.
A sensation of landing on something solid hit her, and the ghost discovered she had arrived in a strange world, where looking around, the flowers, trees, houses, and buildings were all made of snacks.
She walked a few steps curiously, and upon feeling the physical sensation, she clapped her chubby but incredibly real little hands, then touched her own cheeks: "This..."
An indescribable bitterness welled up in her heart, and the ghost said incoherently: "I... I can touch myself? Am I... am I dreaming?"
She began to explore everywhere out of curiosity.
For the first time, she "tasted" the coldness and sweetness of ice cream melting on her tongue; for the first time, she "smelled" the fresh scent of a grassy field after rain; for the first time, she "felt" the warmth of the sun on her skin, as well as the touch of soft fabric rubbing against her body; she even experienced the satisfaction and drowsiness after a full meal...
From the cotton candy sky came a voice like muffled thunder: "Do you like it?"
"I love it!" The ghost darted frantically through a gourmet street scene, greedily tasting various flavors she had never experienced before, shouting excitedly, 'Is this heaven? I want to stay here forever!'
At this moment, Wade was observing her energy body calmly from the outside: as the ghost's consciousness was immersed in these wonderful experiences, the flow of the ghostly blue luster on her body surface clearly accelerated several times over.
"It really works." With a thought, he didn't hesitate to withdraw the mental power covering the ghost.
'What... what is this?' The ghost looked around blankly, revealing deep confusion.
All the sensations of taste, smell, touch, satiety, warmth... vanished without a trace like a receding tide.
A suffocating, extreme emptiness and a hunger that seemed to come from the depths of her soul engulfed her, and she reverted to that weightless ghost who couldn't feel anything.
"No—! Don't!" She let out a shrill wail, frantically pounding on the solid mental barrier beneath her, the huge disparity nearly causing her to break down. "Let me go back! Please... I want to stay inside!"
"Listen, little one." Wade stood before her and restrained her once more. "I discovered that when you sleep, your energy digestion speed increases... until you digest all this energy, you can stay in the little nook I've prepared for you."
"Okay... okay! I agree, I agree to anything!" Heidi agreed hurriedly, afraid he would change his mind. "But, but I have one condition! Inside, I want to be able to change my appearance and clothing at will, and... you have to give me a name, a real name!"
Wade pondered for a moment and said: "Let's call you Heidi."
"Heidi..." The ghost repeated the name over and over, her blue light flickering slightly, seemingly very satisfied. 'Thank you.'
Wade said no more; his mental power surged again, constructing a simple cottage with a small garden on the vast mental barrier beneath his feet, with a plaque on the door that read [Heidi's Nook].
"As long as you close the door and lie on the bed, you can enter that world tailored just for you."
Heidi looked at the cottage dotingly, filled with an unprecedented sense of belonging: "I have a home!"
She didn't hesitate any longer, turning into a stream of blue light and darting inside, lying down impatiently on that incredibly real little bed, immersing herself in it once again.
In the outside world, Wade sensed the small, rapidly swirling blue orb of light in his mind, the corners of his mouth curling up: "What kid doesn't want a fantasy world that has everything? If it's not enough, I'll just create a few more."
He didn't have that much time; it was impossible for him to run around the country, personally raiding every place to collect the compound v distributed by Vought, so cultivating and subduing Heidi was paramount.
Wade held two phones, hovering in mid-air, and made an excuse to decline the invitation to spend the night sent by Jill: "I'm not finished yet; it's time to go handle company affairs with Mena."
Under the night sky, the figure shot out, heading toward the distant Manhattan district.
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