News of the attacker's second appearance quickly reached Vought's senior management.
They were livid about this threat to the corporation's reputation. This mysterious vigilante made Vought look vulnerable, severely damaging their carefully cultivated public image.
"Can't Homelander handle this?" the Vought president asked his secretary.
"According to the vice president's report, Homelander is completely outmatched by the armored figure. He was literally treated like a baseball and batted around."
The secretary delivered this assessment after reviewing the vice president's detailed report.
While someone being stronger than Homelander was conceivable, beating The Seven like a comedy act seemed abnormal.
Even the president frowned. Though he didn't particularly care for Vought's so-called superheroes, Homelander's strength was undeniably impressive.
For such a powerful individual to be so thoroughly beaten was almost incomprehensible.
"Continue monitoring The Seven, and if necessary, we can deploy new heroes appropriately."
With that, the president returned his attention to the documents on his desk. He wouldn't waste time worrying about The Seven—dealing with paperwork was more productive than focusing on those packaged celebrities.
The supposedly all-powerful Homelander knew nothing of the executive discussion.
He'd returned to The Seven's meeting hall, sitting at the conference table waiting for everyone's return.
Soon, the rest of the team arrived, though everyone was in poor condition.
A-Train had broken bones throughout his body and was carried in on a stretcher by Vought's medical team. Upon entering the hall, his entire form was encased in plaster.
Despite being superhuman, A-Train's healing factor wasn't accelerated enough—he'd need considerable recovery time.
Beside A-Train lay The Deep, similarly wrapped in plaster from head to toe. Though The Deep hadn't suffered the most obvious attacks, he was actually the most severely injured.
His internal organs had been beaten and ruptured. If he weren't superhuman, he would have died on the spot.
Even with his enhanced physiology, The Deep remained critically wounded, looking worse than A-Train.
While Queen Maeve and Black Noir were also scarred, they didn't resemble mummies like The Deep.
Among the group, Starlight appeared the most battered superficially. Despite looking terrible, she'd only suffered surface injuries with no real internal damage whatsoever.
"Looks like everyone's back!"
Homelander spoke slowly with his back to the team, deliberately concealing his own injuries. He didn't want his wounds visible to subordinates.
As leader of The Seven, if he appeared covered in scars, wouldn't that make these people lose respect for him?
Homelander stared out the window, his voice echoing through the hall.
"Your strength is pathetic. While that armored man is powerful, we're not weak either. But what about you? You were knocked down one after another by that bastard!"
His words clearly carried gritted teeth.
"Whatever you're thinking now, next time we encounter that guy, everyone attacks together to maximize our abilities!"
With that declaration, Homelander flew from the hall toward the vice president's office.
The remaining team members exchanged glances before A-Train, lying in his plaster cast, spoke up:
"Homelander's right. Our individual strength is decent, but you all seem too restrained."
He'd managed to endure longer against Marcus than the others, who couldn't withstand even half the clone's assault—each defeated with single attacks.
These people weren't performing normally. If they didn't start fighting seriously, wouldn't he have to expend more energy? This significantly affected his power enhancement rate.
With A-Train's confession out in the open, everyone stopped hiding their thoughts. Those corrupted by void energy no longer cared about secrecy.
In their view, only cooperation between them could achieve victory.
Everyone expressed their hidden intentions, but Starlight was stunned.
The void energy that had corrupted her body had been completely removed by Marcus, leaving her functionally normal. Even residual void influence had been neutralized.
But this made her the odd one out. While The Seven discussed their conspiracy, Starlight listened in shock.
She'd never expected these seemingly harmonious superheroes to harbor such ulterior motives.
Right in front of her, they'd agreed on a plan to overthrow Vought International.
Though she hated The Seven because of The Deep's assault, she'd never imagined these corporate-employed superheroes harbored such ambitions.
Subverting Vought and seizing control of the corporation was beyond anything Starlight had previously considered.
She couldn't even imagine what would happen when The Seven confronted Vought directly.
Having never experienced real combat, Starlight couldn't comprehend the implications. She didn't understand why working for Vought wasn't sufficient. Why did everyone choose to betray the corporation?
The meeting ended with Starlight in shock while everyone else had exchanged opinions.
Of course, Starlight's opinion didn't matter—how long had she been here anyway? What input could she possibly have?
After the meeting, the heroes departed individually. The injuries they'd sustained were far more serious than previous encounters—they needed time to recuperate.
On the other side, Hughie's mission was complete. With help from Billy's friend Mother's Milk, he'd installed extensive surveillance equipment throughout Popclaw's apartment, keeping her under constant observation.
Returning to the surveillance van, Hughie looked at Billy monitoring the feeds.
"How's that? Told you I'm professional with this stuff!"
They'd made a wager beforehand about how many monitoring devices Hughie could successfully install.
Billy had guessed three maximum. In his opinion, while Hughie was technically skilled, the guy was sloppy and unsuited for fieldwork.
But Hughie's performance had startled him. Hughie and Mother's Milk had walked openly into Popclaw's home, and she'd actually watched Hughie install every monitor in her apartment.
"You won this time. When it comes to electronic equipment, you definitely know more than us."
Praised by Billy, Hughie laughed. Compared to Billy and his CIA contacts, he indeed wasn't professional enough in most areas. But regarding electronic equipment, he surpassed everyone.
"Told you I could help. Remember—A-Train and I are mortal enemies now!"
Hughie's declaration made everyone chuckle sympathetically. They genuinely felt for him—after all, his girlfriend had been reduced to nothing but two severed hands.