Several words deeply touched Homelander's extremely love-deprived subconscious, like a flash of lightning across his heart. He vaguely felt like he had grasped something, but it wasn't clear.
"Homelander, you are now facing the same dilemma as God, walking on a wrong path without realizing it," Stormfront said at this moment.
"You are as powerful as a god, yet trapped in a cage built by ordinary people.
Have you heard the story of the elephant and the stake in the circus?"
She gently stroked Homelander's cheek, like a wise person trying to reason with him.
"An elephant can uproot a towering tree, but it cannot break free from a thin stake that has confined him since he was young..."
In the circus, trainers would tie a newborn elephant to a stake with a rope.
At first, the little elephant would struggle hard, pulling in anger, but even with bruises all over his body, he couldn't break free from the stake, gradually establishing an unshakable perception.
As time went by, the little elephant grew into a large elephant, weighing several tons, but was habitually confined by a small stake.
"What exactly do you want to say?" Being compared to a timid and stupid elephant, a hint of annoyance flashed across Homelander's face.
"Clever Homelander, you actually understood everything, otherwise you wouldn't be so angry. You are that elephant, and Vought is that small stake."
Stormfront chuckled softly.
"I know what Vought did to you when you were young. You can never leave the feeling of being noticed and needed.
But have you ever thought that with your abilities, you could emulate God and use the same method to get out of your predicament?"
"You mean—destroying the World?"
Homelander's face changed drastically, showing a hint of disbelief and disgust.
Even though he regarded human lives as worthless, he had never conceived the idea of destroying the World.
"I need people's admiration and respect, not a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood surrounded by flies."
"No, no, listen to me. No matter what you do, you are now like a stained piece of white paper in the eyes of the public, forever imperfect.
Wherever you go, you will be accompanied by strange, disgusted looks..."
Stormfront pressed her hand on Homelander's chest, signaling him to calm down. Her seductive and mature voice narrated, inspiring boundless imagination.
"But what if you—a man as powerful as a god—what if you cleanse the World, leaving only those who believe in you and align with your will?
Let the World return to the primitive era, with all rules of civilization set by you. You will be surrounded by omnipresent love."
"The children of the next generation will read doctrines praising you from birth, chanting your name. You will become the God of the new World!"
"God of the new World?" Homelander felt a bit parched, and in his ears, he seemed to hear everyone chanting his name like a choir.
Imagining that scene, he narrowed his eyes in enjoyment, his face flushed with excitement.
Such a world was as beautiful as heaven to him, but one always has to return from sweet, honeyed fantasies to face reality.
"No, no!" Homelander gritted his teeth, struggling to push Stormfront's hand away, "I almost let you persuade me. I won't do that, you crazy woman.
You are truly insane. That's completely unrealistic. One person destroying the World?"
"Not just one person. We can first form an army of Superhumans, with you as the leader. They will become the Angels worshiped in the new century, and you will be their God. Mortals can only kneel wherever we go."
"Vought won't just sit by."
Homelander was once again stirred by that possible future, his face showing struggle.
Few people knew that all Superhumans were products created by Vought.
"That's the problem. You don't understand Vought at all. You are like an elephant tied by habit, guessing the 'strength' of the stake instead of trying again yourself."
"I don't understand Vought? Do you?"
Homelander snorted coldly.
"One could say no one understands Vought better than I do, because Vought was founded by my husband," Stormfront stood up, looking out at the street through the floor-to-ceiling window with her hands behind her back.
"What nonsense are you talking about?
Frederick Vought founded Vought back in the last century. You are Frederick Vought's wife?"
Homelander frowned.
"Search for the name Stormfront," Stormfront reminded. Homelander quickly discovered that the woman before him had been a Superhero since World War II in the last century.
"You are really Frederick Vought's wife?"
The woman in the old black and white photos was indeed identical to the woman before him. There were even photos taken when she walked into the wedding hall with Frederick Vought in a wedding dress. This evidence left Homelander with no choice but to believe. He swallowed, feeling a hint of doubt and excitement.
His perception of Vought International's mysterious power suddenly crumbled in part.
What about Vought? What about Vought's board members? The founder's wife, the grandmother of that group of board members, had just been trying to appease him.
Could it be...
"So, actually, Vought is not as powerful as you think..."
Having planted a seed deep in Homelander's heart, Stormfront was about to strike while the iron was hot, when suddenly her phone chimed, receiving a message.
"In half an hour, in the woods next to Sage Grove Center, Mrs. Vought, there are some matters I need to discuss with you in person. Afterwards, I will arrange for you to join The Seven, as you requested."
The person who sent the message was Edgar.
As she expected, Edgar didn't dare to refuse her small request of simply joining The Seven.
The black butler managing the family business, hired by the younger generation of the family, had found her and wanted to meet to discuss matters. Stormfront's gaze swept over the meeting location, and she immediately understood, a cold smile playing on her lips.
Vought's secret experimental Base for studying adult Compound V, where a group of insane Superhumans were confined.
That place was of great importance and a dangerous, arduous task. Edgar likely hadn't found the best suitable person to oversee and guard that place.
Stormfront had already guessed what Edgar wanted to discuss when he asked to meet her. It was nothing more than a trade: she would join The Seven, and she would be responsible for the security of that experimental Base.
It didn't matter. As long as she could join The Seven and have constant access to Homelander, nothing else mattered.
Her envisioned new Aryan Superhero World would begin to be built from this step.
"I have to go."
Stormfront walked to the door.
"Now? Can't the other things wait?"
Mid-sentence, Homelander's curiosity about Vought's true power had just been piqued, and he was itching for more. Stormfront suddenly ended the conversation and walked to the door, intending to leave.
He requested, somewhat displeased.
"No hurry, we have many more days to meet in the future." Stormfront, holding the doorknob, smiled mysteriously, "Oh, right—"
"Did you know you have a son?"
Before leaving, she dropped a sentence.
"What?
I have a son?"
Homelander was stunned. Before he could react, Stormfront had already closed the door and left.
Whether it's a man or a woman, maintaining some mystery makes others more eager to approach and explore. She wanted Homelander to keep thinking about her until their next meeting.
But Stormfront didn't know that for her, there might not be a next time.
...
Invincible World.
Russell took a drink of Water after returning from The Boys World.
He had been returning here from time to time recently to check, lest uncle Omni-Man make a move, and Aunt Debbie and Mark faced him alone, causing him to miss the chance to stop Omni-Man.
Coming downstairs to get a glass of Water, Russell saw Aunt Debbie standing in front of a discovered bundle, her brow furrowed, looking lost and absent-minded, thinking about something.
"Aunt Debbie?"
He called out several times with no response. He walked over and patted her shoulder.
"You scared me, it's You, Russell." Debbie suddenly snapped back to reality and felt relieved when she saw it was Russell. She pulled Russell over to look at the bundle on the table.
"Russell, your uncle Nolan and Mark are not home. The Global Defense Agency said a meteorite is flying towards Earth and might hit somewhere on Earth. They went to stop it.
I found this..."
Aunt Debbie opened the bundle with a complex expression. Inside was a blood-stained, damaged battle suit.
After that day, Russell had found an opportunity to tell Aunt Debbie that Ciscel had found him, saying he suspected uncle Omni-Man was the murderer, and asked him to protect Aunt Debbie and Mark, and keep an eye on uncle Omni-Man in case of any unforeseen circumstances.
Debbie had also noticed various peculiarities about her husband, and couldn't help but feel suspicious. Since then, the two of them had formed a silent alliance in this home.
She wanted to investigate the matter thoroughly. If it was false, she would clear her husband's name. If it was true...
"Nolan used to always give me his battle suit to clean and repair, but after he took this suit back that day, I never saw it again. Today I found it, hidden in the ventilation duct."
When she actually found evidence that her husband Nolan might have killed the Global Guardians, Debbie's heart was again in turmoil, unsure how to decide.
If he wasn't hiding something, she couldn't think of why Nolan would hide it.
'I wonder why uncle Omni-Man didn't throw away this battle suit...'
Russell glanced at the blood-stained battle suit.
Did he want to keep it as a souvenir, or perhaps take it out from time to time to look at it, telling himself there was no turning back, strengthening his resolve to act?
"Aunt Debbie, are You going to give it to the Global Defense Agency?"
"No, I want... I want to find Arthur to analyze it first," Debbie said, biting her lip, tears welling up in her eyes. "Russell, maybe your uncle is being controlled by someone, or someone is threatening him with our lives, which is why he had no choice..."
Old Arthur could customize battle suits with various requirements for Superheroes. Technically, he was far more skilled than a simple tailor.
What the damaged battle suit had gone through, even the Global Defense Agency probably wouldn't understand as well as him.
"I understand. I support You, Aunt Debbie."
Russell hugged his aunt comfortingly, patting her shoulder. This poor woman was almost being crushed and broken, caught between her husband and justice.
"Thank You, child." In Debbie's eyes, Russell was the first to be told the truth by Ciscel and entrusted with heavy responsibilities. Russell now had to act as if he hadn't seen this battle suit for the time being.
After comforting his aunt for a couple of sentences, Russell suddenly looked out towards the sky.
"What is it?"
"Uncle and Mark are back."
His extraordinary hearing detected the sound of them flying through the air at supersonic speed.
Aunt Debbie quickly hid the bundle under the cabinet, while wiping away her tears and pretending nothing had happened.
The two landed on the lawn one after another. Mark ran into the house beaming, saying to them, "Cousin, Mom, You don't know what I did today!"
"I saved a country!"
He puffed out his chest, somewhat proud.
"Is that so?" Debbie smiled. Mark didn't notice his mother's smile was a little forced. He turned his head and gestured to his Cousin, sharing his experience.
"The meteorite that flew from space today was dozens of meters wide. According to calculations, if it had hit that unlucky small country in the Pacific Ocean, its power would have been dozens of times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb."
"That was a small one," Omni-Man said, walking in from the entrance.
"Dozens of meters is small?"
Mark was surprised. He had barely managed to block it.
"You should have seen the meteorite I stopped last time. It was bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.
But unlike this time, when it was discovered, it was in space without gravity and very far from Earth. It hadn't been captured by Earth's gravity and accelerated again. Otherwise, I would have had difficulty pushing it back."
Omni-Man smiled and shared one of his past experiences of saving Earth with his family.
No one seeing him, with his outstanding achievements, would believe he was the murderer of the Global Guardians.
Russell was silent for a moment.
This was just an insignificant feat among Omni-Man's contributions to Earth. He had saved the World many times.
If it weren't for him causing a Carnage in Chicago while holding Mark, triggering the public's empathy...
Perhaps just for killing the Global Guardians, he could still be requested by the people of Earth, with complex feelings, to be treated leniently and spared the death penalty, at least not ending up unable to show his face on Earth later.
"One can only say militarism kills people."
Uncle Nolan, in a sense, didn't really have a choice. If he didn't make a move, other Viltrumites would, and they would also kill the mixed-blood Mark and his wife Debbie, and take him back for trial and execution.
Russell looked at this family, which was temporarily still whole and filled with laughter, and sighed in his heart.
When uncle Nolan makes his move, he must do his best to stop him, and preferably prevent him from killing anyone else.
At least that way, he could still have a way out.
"Given Aunt Debbie's character, which is gentle yet firm, once she takes the battle suit for testing and confirms that her husband is indeed the murderer, she will surely be unable to control the sadness and anger in her heart and question him for the truth.
At that time, uncle Nolan will be unable to keep up the pretense and will immediately make a move to conquer the World."
"It should be in the next couple of days." Russell decided to return to The Boys World in a while to see the quality of those two temporary Superhumans.
As long as they were slightly useful, he would make a move on Homelander.
'Might as well try.
Anyway, even if I can't take down Homelander, it's even less likely that Homelander can take me down. There won't be any danger, at most, it will just alert him.'
However, given Homelander's weakness of always needing others' love and attention, he wouldn't run off Earth either.
...
In the woods next to Sage Grove Center, fallen leaves covered the ground.
A high-end black sedan was parked in the woods. Stormfront, enveloped in lightning, descended from the sky and saw a young man sitting in the back seat of the car, with the door open, as if waiting for her.
Another person stood respectfully to the side like a servant. It was Edgar, whom she had met not long ago in the Vought top-floor office.
Infinitoid?
Although living far away in Germany, the restless Stormfront had always kept an eye on Vought International.
There was no news from the family, but there had always been rumors within Vought that the newly added Infinitoid to The Seven was a Vought board member.
'Edgar is acting like a servant next to him. It seems it's true.'
However, seeing Russell didn't even get out of the car when she arrived, as if a superior facing a subordinate, waiting for her to come over, a hint of coldness surged on Stormfront's face.
"Edgar, You weren't this careful and respectful when facing me. Is it just because I was expelled from the board? You sure know how to play favorites."
Walking closer, she first sarcastically remarked to Edgar.
"And You, youngsters nowadays are getting more and more impolite. I've been away from the family for many years and haven't heard of You. Looking at your age, are You Franz or Miller's grandson?
Didn't they tell You that You have a great-grandmother?"
Stormfront stood with her arms crossed, then raised her head and looked coldly at Russell in the back seat of the car.