"You don't have proof it was me. You can't do this." Starlight's face had gone scarlet. The crushing pressure on her throat made every breath a struggle.
"You think I need proof?"
Homelander's expression twisted uglier by the second. As his arm tightened, pure agony flooded her face. "Please stop… the person in the video isn't me…"
She clawed at his forearm, trying to pry it loose, but her strength was nothing against his.
"Enough. Let her go. She's still useful. You kill her outright and we'll have a hell of a time explaining it to the public."
Stormfront, of all people, was the one speaking up for her.
"Ivan, announce to the world that we've found the person who stole Compound V. It was Starlight of The Seven. She colluded with the terrorists in secret, sold Vought's internal intel and Compound V. Homelander and I uncovered it. We're shocked, of course, but out of responsibility to the public we've decided to detain her inside Vought Tower for now. Once the full investigation is finished we'll release the details."
Super-terrorists had been popping up left and right lately. Plenty of people already pointed the finger at Vought, claiming the company had deliberately spread Compound V to manufacture the monsters.
Pinning Starlight as the long-hidden mole right now would redirect the public's rage and dump the entire mess on her shoulders. Two birds, one stone.
"No problem. I'll put it out right away."
Ivan nodded.
"In that case I'll let your pathetic life slide for now." Homelander slowly opened his hands. Two deep red palm prints stood out clear against Starlight's pale throat. The second the pressure lifted she gasped like a fish thrown on dry land, sucking air in ragged bursts.
"Come with me."
Homelander marched her down to floor 42D.
The room was purpose-built for holding supes: solid steel, walls two meters thick, designed to block almost every power. Inside it was nearly pitch black, only a few thin light strips giving off a weak glow.
Homelander yanked the strips out. Total darkness. He knew Starlight's power could drain electricity from her surroundings, so he'd already ordered the circuit breakers for the cell shut off.
"Three days. You've got three days. If I don't hear anything useful out of your mouth by then, get ready to spend the rest of your life in here." Standing outside, Homelander pressed the button on the wall without expression.
A massive steel door slid shut and swallowed the last scrap of light in front of Starlight's eyes.
...
At the same time, elsewhere..
Hughie was slumped on the couch in Lamplighter's villa, watching some very healthy educational material with the man himself.
"Pick whatever you like." Lamplighter bent down, dragged a cardboard box out from under the coffee table, and flipped it open. It was stuffed with discs of every flavor.
"Homelander Versus Seven Female Bandits? Or this one—The Invisible Man and His Invisible Tool?"
"You've got this many superhero flicks?!"
Hughie was genuinely impressed. He flipped through the stack: Queen Maeve's Wild Years, Young Black Noir Rides Big, Starlight Under Duress, The Deep and His Ocean Friends.
"Comatose Stormfront… holy shit, wasn't she just launched by Vought?" Hughie stared.
Lamplighter shrugged like it was nothing special. "Never underestimate how fast the studios work. I've got the full Stormfront collection, by the way. Collector's edition. I don't usually dig it out."
"Whatever, this one." Hughie didn't have decision paralysis. Picking a disc could have eaten the whole afternoon otherwise.
"This is how you spend your days?"
"Congratulations, you nailed it." Lamplighter shrugged again. "Reward: you get to watch another one."
Hughie kept going. "How did you talk your way out of the Sage Grove mess? And since you already know Vought's running human experiments on adults, why not show up at the hearing the day after tomorrow and point the finger? That's your only shot at redeeming yourself."
The whole reason he was crashing at Lamplighter's place was to talk the guy into testifying and bringing Vought down cold.
Meanwhile Billy and the others were prepping for the same hearing. Billy had gotten a call from his mother and gone home, only to run into the same violent piece of shit of a father. If that bastard hadn't beaten Billy's little brother half to death, the kid never would have killed himself. The reunion went about as well as expected.
MM had gone with Mallory to find Dr. Vogelbaum and try to talk him into appearing at the hearing. Vogelbaum shut them down cold. Edgar already had the doctor under tight surveillance.
Unless Vogelbaum was ready to gamble his family's lives, there was no way he was saying yes to Mallory.
"Let me think about it." Lamplighter neither accepted nor refused.
...
Early the next morning Ashley walked into Ivan's office carrying a folder.
"Ever since we announced Starlight as the mole, Twitter lost its mind. Top trending right now is 'Vought's long-hidden traitor Starlight.' On top of that, millions of posts are calling for Compound V to be legalized. Mr. Edgar is very pleased. But the hearing the day after tomorrow is a real headache. He's considering sending you to handle the situation."
Ivan's fingers paused on the keyboard. "He wants me to go toe-to-toe with that Congresswoman Neuman? You're sure?"
"Mr. Edgar didn't spell it out, but he wants you there."
"Understood."
Ivan shut down the computer and opened his system panel. Fusion progress sat at 89%. He needed to decide whether to start taking powers from Homelander, but he wasn't ready to expose himself that fast. Maybe he could work it through the movies instead.
Writing in a strong enough villain felt reasonable. Homelander would probably do him the favor.
As for Starlight and the rest of The Seven, he wasn't interested in their powers right now. Nothing special, especially after he'd already absorbed Stormfront's. Ordinary abilities barely moved the needle unless they were something rare like telekinesis he could merge and stack.
Ding. Ivan stepped out of the elevator and pushed open the door to the CEO's office.
"Mr. Edgar, you wanted to see me?"
Edgar looked up from behind the desk, set down his fountain pen, and said, "I called you here because I want you at the hearing the day after tomorrow. I've already arranged your seat. You'll be right next to Homelander."
____
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69