After eating and drinking his fill, Homelander left Madelyn's office.
Although he still had doubts in his heart, Homelander chose to temporarily trust Madelyn, operating on the principle that whoever provides sustenance is mother.
It wouldn't be too late to investigate after the taste of milk vanished from his mouth.
So, he habitually went to look for his brother again. Fang Yuan was currently with Kimiko.
"John? You came at a good time. Kimiko said she was forcibly injected with compound v and modified. Do you have any leads?" Fang Yuan asked directly upon seeing Homelander.
Homelander was instantly sobered up.
"Leads? I... of course not." he answered haltingly.
His eyes darted around. Kimiko, who had been cleaned up and revealed her pretty face, was currently drawing and writing on the table.
Homelander glanced at Kimiko's drawing, which depicted a Sun-like pattern, and his expression changed again.
He recognized this item; it was the symbol of the Shining Liberators, one of the radical organizations he "cooperated" with.
Homelander provided compound v, and the Shining Liberators selected suitable individuals for experiments to create Superhuman Terrorists.
After all, this kind of thing was dishonorable, and Homelander didn't want his brother to know.
"Do you recognize this?" Fang Yuan asked, pointing at the symbol.
Homelander subconsciously shook his head: "I don't recognize it."
But then he realized this organization was quite famous, and it wouldn't make sense for him not to recognize it. So, pretending to examine it closely, he replied, "Oh, I recognize it now. It's the Shining Liberators. The drawing is a little... haha, hard to make out."
His words made Kimiko glare at him angrily; she had drawn it very seriously.
Fang Yuan didn't press the issue, but changed the subject: "Kimiko is looking for her younger brother, named Kenji Miyashiro. Perhaps you can help look for him?"
"Of course, no problem!" Homelander immediately agreed, patting his chest, and then fled as if escaping.
Kimiko, meanwhile, cast a grateful look toward Fang Yuan. She was immensely glad she had chosen to stay with Fang Yuan; now, not only did she no longer have to constantly hide, but she also had the most famous Superhero helping her search for her brother.
Sensing Kimiko's emotions, Fang Yuan secretly smiled. However, Kimiko was celebrating too soon, because the appropriate time hadn't arrived yet; no matter how much they searched, Kenji Miyashiro could not appear.
But while Kenji Miyashiro did not appear, someone else did.
Invisible Man.
To be precise, it was Invisible Man's body—or certain parts of it.
It was impossible to tell which parts they were, because by the time they were found, they were already minced meat.
"This box was buried underground, and the damaged box allowed a signal to transmit," a member of the Armed Division reported to Madelyn.
"Seal off the information, and then call the Marketing Department," Madelyn said, rubbing her forehead.
Once Ashley arrived with her people, she immediately instructed: "Prepare a script. Say that Invisible Man unfortunately died during an anti-Terrorist operation. We need to emphasize the dedication and sacrifice of Vought's Superheroes to further push Vought's inclusion into the Military-Industrial Complex!"
That's right, this was the first disposal method Madelyn thought of: using Invisible Man's demise to satisfy her own needs.
As for how Invisible Man died?
Madelyn already had a guess.
"Black King!" she said bitterly.
Not long ago, the hospital laboratory where Vought distributed compound v was raided, resulting in the loss of compound v.
She found it hard not to connect these two incidents. After all, everything was fine before Invisible Man disappeared; nothing had ever gone wrong.
Madelyn guessed that after Invisible Man was captured, he disclosed some internal intelligence, allowing Black King to follow the trail and find the laboratory.
Although Invisible Man shouldn't have known the location of the lab, considering that Invisible Man's favorite pastime was voyeurism, it wasn't surprising that he knew.
And aside from Black King, Madelyn couldn't think of anyone else who could capture Invisible Man, raid the laboratory, and have a motive for doing so.
Moreover, Black King had a history of trying to capture Lamplighter.
If that was the case, the situation was serious.
With compound v leaked into MIB's hands, there was no need to guess that they would certainly cause a lot of trouble.
Therefore, Madelyn planned to strike first, giving the outside World the impression that Vought's Superheroes were desperately fighting to save the World. This way, even if MIB exposed the truth that Superheroes were man-made, Vought could still defend itself with the excuse, "The gift is fake, but the hero is real."
However, even though the truth of Invisible Man's Death was concealed from the outside World, members of The Seven still learned through various channels that Invisible Man had met a violent end.
Upon learning that their teammate of many years had been blown to pieces, the other members of The Seven were extremely—
Indifferent.
They were merely teammates on the surface. Could anyone really expect them to howl at the sky and complain about the injustice of heaven?
Of course, that's exactly how they acted in front of the cameras: perfectly harmonious and united within the team.
But privately, they often stole resources from each other.
Well, The Seven was essentially an idol group.
In fact, if Fang Yuan were to comment, the member of The Seven who cared most about Invisible Man would have to be Starlight.
Because, in order to avenge Invisible Man, Starlight killed the child of Invisible Man's murderer... *manual facepalm*.
Invisible Man's Death indeed caused a huge stir, because the excuse Vought provided was too perfect: dying while fighting Terrorism was arguably the most appropriate way for a Superhero to die, especially a member of The Seven!
For a time, in terms of public opinion, Vought joining the Military-Industrial Complex received unprecedented approval, and even many senators changed their stance.
But Madelyn wasn't happy for long, because she soon heard about MIB's new move.
"The Superhuman Registration Act?"
Madelyn frowned deeply, staring intently at the document she had obtained from a certain senator.
After learning that compound v had fallen into MIB's hands, Madelyn began close surveillance of MIB and finally found a clue.
"That is truly... malicious!"
Even Madelyn, with her deep cunning, couldn't help but curse out loud.
The general content of the Superhuman Registration Act was to fully register the information of all Superhumans, accompanied by a large number of clauses restricting Superhumans, especially requiring Superhuman actions to be officially approved, which essentially cut Vought off at the root.
If the Act were truly implemented, Vought would become merely a Superhero talent agency, no longer able to fully control Superheroes.
Moreover, Vought's laboratories concealed many unknown Superhumans. Should they register them or not?
Registering them would expose Vought's dark side, with negative consequences far exceeding those of compound v.
Not registering would be illegal, and Black King was probably waiting for Vought to show such a flaw.
Nobody on the side of the Superheroes would like the Superhuman Registration Act.
"We absolutely cannot let this Act pass!" Madelyn resolved.
Fortunately, the Act had only just been proposed by MIB, and no senator had formally submitted it yet, so Vought still had room to maneuver.
At this moment, Madelyn suddenly thought that if Vought had announced the compound v situation itself, Vought would at least not face such immense public pressure when the Superhuman Registration Act was announced.
Unfortunately, she didn't have the final say on this matter.
Madelyn's predicament also reached Homelander's ears. He understood that this was the time for Superhuman Terrorists to make an appearance.
But Homelander suddenly hesitated. He was worried that if his brother found out about what he had done, he might hate him.
Just as he stood atop The Seven's building, feeling utterly conflicted, Fang Yuan suddenly walked up.
Fang Yuan frowned slightly, his expression somewhat serious: "John, you know the inside story regarding the Shining Liberators creating Superhumans, right?"
Homelander's heart skipped a beat, and he felt somewhat helpless.
"I..."
He wanted to deny it, but he had already hidden the truth from Fang Yuan once, and he didn't want to lie again. So, after squirming for a long time, he finally blurted out, "I... I can't know."
"So..." Fang Yuan asked with complex eyes, "Did you really do it, John?"
Homelander immediately froze, looking exactly like a child caught doing something bad by their parents, and quickly lowered his head, afraid to speak.
"I want the truth, John." Fang Yuan's tone instantly became severe. "Or if you don't want me to look after you, I can stop looking after you entirely from now on."
"No!"
Homelander blurted out in panic.
"Brother, don't abandon me!"
"I said... yes, it was me."
Then, Homelander spilled everything to Fang Yuan about secretly giving compound v to the Terrorist organization.
"John, you... really shouldn't have done that."
Fang Yuan sighed heavily, as if deeply pained for those who had been harmed as a result.
Homelander knew the relationship between Kimiko and Fang Yuan, and knew Fang Yuan might blame him, but when it actually came down to it, he felt a little wronged.
"I clearly just wanted to raise my status so I could help Brother," he thought to himself.
Unexpectedly, Fang Yuan suddenly changed the subject and asked, "How many outsiders know about your involvement? Can we eliminate them all?"
Homelander raised his head in shock, unable to believe that such bloody words had come from his brother.
As if knowing Homelander's confusion, Fang Yuan sighed and patted Homelander's shoulder: "You are my little brother. No matter what mistakes you make, I will definitely protect you!"
Homelander's eyes instantly reddened. He was incredibly moved and hurriedly took Fang Yuan's hand and placed it on his head.
He knew that Fang Yuan's action was completely contrary to his usual personality, but in order to protect him, Fang Yuan had chosen to go against his own life motto.
"Brother is the best!" he said sincerely.
From this moment on, what was Madelyn? What was a wet nurse? She was completely crushed by Fang Yuan.
Afterward, the two brothers discussed countermeasures, mainly focusing on stopping the creation of Superhuman Terrorists and figuring out how to extricate Homelander from the situation.
But watching Homelander rack his brain for solutions, Fang Yuan was calculating inwardly.
"The time is just about right."
Sure enough, just after they had finalized their initial countermeasures and returned to the 99th Floor together, Maeve and Starlight suddenly rushed over, bringing them an unexpected piece of news—
"Superhuman Terrorists have appeared overseas! The Military has actively requested Vought to dispatch Superheroes to be stationed with the troops to defend against potential Superhuman attacks!"
You will get 90 chapter ahead for this fanfiction.
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