Instead of killing Kimiko, Ron threw her, a former Terrorist, to Madeline.
Edgar and Madeline didn't know that Kimiko's ability was extremely rare self-healing and immortality; otherwise, their goal wouldn't have been to eliminate her, but to capture her.
Every superhuman with self-healing abilities is a rare and valuable asset for laboratories.
Once he obtains Vought, this will be his property, and it cannot be wasted.
...
Homelander, who had just given a speech on the beach near where the plane crashed, returned to his Vought room with a triumphant sneer, intending to rest a bit before going to find Madeline.
Having accomplished this, Madeline couldn't possibly offer him nothing in return.
Pushing open the door, the sound of the television reached him.
"We only arrived three minutes after the plane crashed. Why?
Because I'm not part of the Department of Defense's command system."
On the TV screen, Homelander, being interviewed, spoke with tears in his eyes, delivering a sorrowful speech that was incredibly moving and brought people to tears.
"I could have saved their lives. Over two hundred mothers, husbands, and children would have reunited with their families after a slightly bumpy journey, but..."
His own voice from the TV, combined with the familiar figure in the armchair, made him suppress his anger as he walked into the room.
"Nice speech."
Before he could say anything, Ron turned the chair, chuckled, and slowly clapped his hands, as if praising his speech, speaking first.
"What inspiring rhetoric! Vought's entry into the Department of Defense is a sure thing."
"Why are you here?"
"Madeline will surely reward you handsomely."
He propped his head up and continued.
"Perhaps you'll get to drink your favorite fresh, direct-from-the-source breast milk."
"I asked you—why are you here!"
Upon seeing Ron, all of Homelander's good mood vanished. He snarled, each word distinct, his expression twisted in rage, and his eyes lit up with laser beams.
"Oh, look at you. You're so scary like that. How sad your fans would be if they saw you."
Ron, whose expression hadn't changed, pulled out a phone and tapped it lightly.
"Almost exactly like this."
A video played on the phone, clearly showing the tens of seconds when Homelander, on that plane, threatened and intimidated passengers to retreat, then heartlessly abandoned them to die.
Meanwhile, on the other TV, a scene of him giving a mournful speech for the people who died on the plane was still playing.
"How ironic and hypocritical."
He glanced at the TV again and chuckled.
If this video were leaked, Homelander's carefully cultivated good image and his recently acquired immense popularity would collapse overnight. He would immediately become a public enemy.
"How did you get this?"
With evidence of his misdeeds discovered, Homelander's face turned ashen, a mix of anger and fear. He snatched the phone.
An electric spark flashed, and the phone was crushed into slag. His heat vision blasted the TV that was playing his speech.
Those damn guys, they had the nerve to film even when they were about to die?!
"You didn't think I wouldn't make a backup, did you?"
He acted as if he hadn't seen Homelander's actions.
"What do you want?"
With his hands pressed on the table, Homelander stared intently at him, his expression grim as if he wanted to devour him, speaking quickly in a cold voice.
"You want to use this to threaten me?"
"If it leaks, there'll be nothing left in this World that I care about. I wouldn't mind killing everyone and destroying the World!"
He immediately retaliated with a threat to destroy the World.
Ron's strength was only enough to match him; he couldn't completely stop him.
"I'll make you live in a desolate ruin for the rest of your life. Then you'll regret threatening me!"
"Whatever, go ahead and try."
With a cold, disdainful look in his eyes, Ron wasn't swayed by his tactics and sneered playfully.
"I also want to know, when the Earth becomes a ruin and no one loves you anymore...
Will you go insane from loneliness, find a doll to be your 'Friday,' talk to it as if it's your only fan, and accept its adoration?"
That one sentence struck Homelander's weakness.
Whether it was inadvertently caused by Vought or deliberately controlled, Homelander's tragic birth and childhood resulted in a distorted and severe psychological defect of lacking love. He would rather die than accept being unloved or unnoticed.
Click-clack!
His teeth ground together audibly.
Homelander struggled to suppress his anger, his face filled with humiliation, his fists clenched.
He could sense that Ron truly didn't care about his threats, but he couldn't lose the people who loved him now, especially since there were more people who liked and adored him than before.
The scene Ron described, just thinking about it, made him feel suffocated and breathless psychologically.
"Just be obedient. As long as you don't go against my will..."
Seeing him remain silent for a long time, Ron stood up and passed him, patting his shoulder like a mob godfather encouraging his subordinates, then turned sideways with a friendly smile.
"You'll still be the Homelander admired and loved by millions."
...
Ron left, and Homelander sat on the sofa, his eyes vacant, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Suddenly, a phone call came, the voice trembling, whether from pain or fear.
"Respected Homelander, it's me... A-Train.
Something unexpected happened."
"Someone found my girlfriend and, by threatening her, discovered one of my delivery locations and let an experimental subject escape."
In the hospital, A-Train, who had narrowly escaped death and whose knees were almost ground to a pulp, was tortured beyond recognition. He couldn't rest and quickly tried to save himself.
"When I found her, I discovered that Dark Star was there for some reason. He broke my leg, nearly killed me, and took the person away."
He deliberately emphasized Ron in his words, implying that he might be the mastermind.
After speaking, he sent Homelander a video.
It was surveillance footage from a hidden pinhole camera in his girlfriend's room, showing two people threatening his girlfriend.
The anxious and fearful A-Train wanted to redirect Homelander's anger towards the troublemakers and Ron.
But he didn't know that Homelander's fatal weakness was already in Ron's hands, so what could Homelander do to Ron?
"Ron, you do hold a 'nuclear bomb' that can destroy me, but a 'nuclear bomb' is never used lightly, unless absolutely necessary."
However, Homelander believed he could retaliate and annoy Ron, for example, by killing the subordinates who worked for him.
"Do you think I, Homelander, the strongest superhero on Earth, will just yield and obediently be your dog?"
He grinned savagely.
Would a cold person like Ron really fall out with him over a few subordinates who worked for him?
He would just suppress his disgust and endure it.
But after watching the video A-Train sent, he suddenly frowned.
"This person looks familiar. Where have I seen him before?"
One of the people threatening A-Train's girlfriend in the video, a burly, bearded man with a fierce appearance and foul mouth, looked somewhat familiar.
"Who is he?"
A sudden intuition struck Homelander that this matter was incredibly important to him, but he just couldn't remember.
"Billy Butcher..."
Turning to Vought's Crime Investigation Department, he searched by image, went through the archives, and muttered the information. Homelander's originally sinister expression became somewhat strange.
"It's him? The husband of that woman named Becca?"
His eyes suddenly narrowed.
"Wait a minute, the file says his wife Becca has been missing for eight years?"
...
After controlling Homelander, Ron, in a good mood, partnered with Starlight, who had a case, and went out to fight crime together.
A case of robbing an armored car.
He and Starlight walked amidst a hail of bullets, dealing with criminals and chatting at the same time, not taking those vicious criminals seriously at all.
"Ron, what are you doing this afternoon? Do you want to go to the coffee shop from last time?"
After dealing with the criminals, listening to Starlight's question, he quickly glanced at the system and was slightly stunned.
Ability: 240,000
"What happened?"
How, after threatening and controlling Homelander, did his ability points surge again in a short period, reaching an unprecedented 240,000?