Meanwhile, after returning to his office, Ivan immediately began looking into Godolkin University.
It was the first and only university in the world specifically established for young supes.
Every student there was a supe. Just like Starlight's mother, their parents had signed contracts with Vought when they were still children and allowed them to be injected with Compound V.
To Ivan, they were like seeds planted by Vought, carefully cultivated until they finally took root and sprouted ten or twenty years later.
He got up, poured himself a cup of coffee, then sat back down in front of his computer.
Placing both hands on the keyboard, Ivan typed Godolkin University into the search bar and hit Enter.
The first thing that appeared was Godolkin University's official website, along with its distinctive crest.
The crest had a dark blue background. At the very bottom was a small section of the Earth, while above it stood two golden figures, one male and one female, each kneeling on opposite sides.
One held a torch.
The other held a sword.
Obviously, they represented Homelander and Queen Maeve.
Judging from their poses, they seemed to be protecting the Earth.
Though there appeared to be another implication hidden in the design.
"Are they trying to say they stand above the entire world?"
Ivan gave a quiet chuckle.
He lifted his coffee and took a sip before clicking into the official website.
He had to admit, the layout was pretty polished.
Dean Indira Shetty's profile was displayed prominently on the homepage.
Ivan scrolled down.
Below her were profiles for various professors, followed by a section featuring distinguished alumni.
There, Ivan spotted several familiar faces.
A-Train giving the camera a thumbs-up.
Queen Maeve holding her sword.
And The Deep wearing his usual stupid grin.
All three had once attended Godolkin University.
Their outstanding performance had attracted Vought's attention, eventually earning them places in the Seven.
That naturally made them idols to practically every student at Godolkin.
But Ivan wasn't particularly interested in any of that.
What caught his attention was a special ranking system displayed on the website.
The rankings covered every student at Godolkin University, from brand-new freshmen all the way to fourth-year veterans.
"Rank one. Third-year student, Luke Riordan. Alias, Golden Boy. Powers include superhuman strength and the ability to ignite his entire body."
Ivan clicked on Luke's profile and scrolled with one hand while drinking his coffee with the other.
"Interesting. The question is how hot those flames actually get. If he can reach several thousand degrees, there might be some value in fusing that ability."
Ivan then looked at the student ranked second.
Unexpectedly, the number-two student was peculiar... "Third-year student, Jordan Li. Powers include... what?"
Ivan's left hand paused halfway through raising his coffee.
He read the description again with mild surprise.
"Can freely switch between sexes, possesses considerable strength and durability, and can also fire plasma blasts."
Ivan lowered his coffee and rubbed his chin.
"That's quite the stack of buffs."
If Jordan also had gender dysphoria, was a hardcore animal-rights extremist, and suffered from severe depression, the package would practically be complete.
Too bad Jordan was Asian.
Swap that for an even more politically fashionable minority demographic and they could probably run for governor.
The student ranked third was Black.
Andre Anderson, a sophomore.
His father was Polarity, one of Vought's more famous superheroes.
Although Polarity had never joined the Seven, he currently served as the designated protector of an entire city. His reputation was second only to the biggest names in the Seven.
More interestingly, Andre had inherited his father's powers.
He could manipulate metal.
That immediately made Ivan think of Magneto.
Still, Andre's version of the ability probably wasn't particularly strong.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be sitting in third place.
Ivan continued going through the remaining students one by one, though he focused mainly on those ranked in the top ten.
One female student named Cate Dunlap caught his attention.
Her power was particularly interesting.
"She can control other people through physical contact with her hands."
Ivan studied the description.
"Looks like some kind of psychic ability."
Ivan carefully went through the rankings from top to bottom.
Truthfully, there was no way to know how useful any of those powers actually were until he saw them in action himself.
And knowing Edgar, there was no chance in hell the man had arranged for him to go to Godolkin University out of goodwill.
For the moment, Ivan had not found anyone whose powers seemed capable of threatening him directly.
But that was exactly how people got themselves killed.
One careless mistake was all it took to get blindsided.
Arrogance had never been his style.
If there was some freakishly powerful student he had overlooked, then things could become dangerous very quickly.
Especially if that person had psychic powers.
That was one area where Ivan had almost no proper defenses.
"I need to fix that weakness as soon as possible."
He frowned.
Whether it was the Marvel universe, DC, or countless other worlds, there were far too many powerful people who had been fucked over because they underestimated telepathy.
Even someone as powerful as Magneto could not completely ignore Professor X's mind control.
Ivan was no exception.
If he ever ended up in a mutant universe and came face to face with Charles Xavier, Ivan had little doubt that every experience of his life could be flipped through like pages in a book.
So he needed to cover that weakness fast.
At the very least, if he encountered a truly powerful psychic later on, he wanted enough resistance to buy himself a little breathing room.
Anything was better than having no ability to fight back at all.
Ivan lightly tapped the tabletop several times with the tip of his right index finger.
Then an idea came to him.
Mindstorm.
The former member of Payback.
The problem was that if Ivan wanted to draw Mindstorm out, he first needed to find Soldier Boy.
After Payback fell apart, Mindstorm had vanished from public view completely.
Ivan had no easy way to locate him.
All he knew was that the man had hidden himself somewhere deep in the wilderness.
As for the exact location, Soldier Boy might know.
And even if he didn't, that was fine.
Worst case, Ivan would spend the time and resources to search the entire United States for him.
As long as Mindstorm was still alive, there would be traces.
Ivan abruptly stopped tapping the table.
In the next instant, he vanished from the room.
When he reappeared, several tubes of bright green liquid were already in his hand.
...
"This is fucking great. There are protesters everywhere holding signs telling Homelander to fuck off. Looks like they're heading straight for Vought Tower. I can only imagine what kind of mood he's in right now."
Hughie had just gotten home from work.
He shrugged off his suit jacket and casually hung it on the coat rack.
"Starlight?"
No answer.
Hughie leaned his head toward the living room.
"You're not home today?"
Then a voice came from inside.
Hughie froze where he stood.
"Long time no see..."
Ivan, sitting calmly on the sofa, slowly turned his head toward him.
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
"Hughie."
The whole scene looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
Every hair on Hughie's body stood on end.
"I brought you something good this time."
Ivan raised the green vials in his hand.
"Want to try it?"
___
[]~(￣▽￣)~*
Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69