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Pietro felt his eyes well up.
He used to think Anthony was just an arrogant showman.
But now, he felt truly awful.
This was a true hero!
"Ding! Gained special popularity +10000! (From Pietro Maximoff)"
Pietro looked into Homelander's eyes and said solemnly.
"I swear! I will bring Wanda back! Bring her home!"
In fact, Homelander had his own considerations.
Research on Compound V had reached a bottleneck at Vought.
Although Dr. Connor was a genius, Vought was, after all, a conscientious company that had to consider public opinion boundaries and couldn't conduct anti-human experiments as recklessly as HYDRA.
Therefore, there had been no progress on the enhanced version of T-VEX.
Since he couldn't conduct the experiments himself, he might as well outsource them.
Not only would it save R&D costs, but he also wouldn't have to bear any moral burden.
Once HYDRA produced the finished product, he would then "execute justice" and seize all the results.
Fame and fortune, a complete win.
"I'll have Skynet deploy more T850s to Sokovia later," Homelander mused to himself. "Have Rumlow greenlight this shipment."
Thinking of this, Homelander was in high spirits and prepared to fly away.
"Go, Pietro, I'll await your good news."
However.
"Uh... Boss..."
Pietro's weak voice came from behind him.
"What's wrong? Something else?" Homelander turned back.
Pietro was sprawled there like a puddle of mud, his limbs hanging limply, only his eyeballs still moving.
"Uh... I don't think I can go today."
Pietro looked embarrassed, even a little like he wanted to cry.
"The effect of the T-VEX... has worn off."
"Right now... apart from my mouth, there isn't a single part of my body that can get hard."
"..."
Homelander looked at Quicksilver, who resembled a noodle, and his mouth twitched.
"Weren't you running quite happily just now?" Homelander chuckled in exasperation.
"That was when the drug was still active, Boss!" Pietro wailed. "Now I'm a cripple. Forget going to Sokovia, I even need someone to help me pee now."
"..."
Homelander took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to throw him into the sea to feed the sharks.
"Alright then."
He reached out and grabbed Pietro's suit on his back, lifting him up like a sack.
"Then let's head back to Base first."
"Tell HYDRA to wait a couple more days."
"Hey, hey, hey! Boss! Gentle! You're choking my neck!"
Pietro dangled in the air, a look of despair on his face.
"Can you change your posture? A bridal carry would be fine too!"
"I'm a global idol now! If my female fans saw me being carried like a dead dog by you, my image would be completely ruined!"
"One more word and I'll drop you."
Homelander said coldly, carrying Pietro, and turned into a streak of light, flying towards New York... back to V.G.D. Base.
Homelander flew directly to the balcony of the medical center and tossed the limp Pietro to the Doctor sitting there.
"Give him two shots of glucose, or something else to restore his energy."
Homelander clapped his hands, looking at Pietro with disdain.
"What a troublemaker."
"Thanks, Boss... Love you, Boss..." Pietro lay on the stretcher, weakly forming a heart shape with his hands.
Homelander ignored him, turned and left, walking into the elevator.
He needed to go back and catch up on some sleep; acting these past few days had been a bit mentally exhausting... New York, Avengers Tower.
In Stark's holographic lab, the air was kept at a constant twenty-two degrees Celsius, but Bruce Banner still felt a bit hot.
He unbuttoned his shirt collar and rubbed his eyes, which always carried a sense of fatigue.
Before him, a massive blue holographic projection displayed a complex model named "Veronica."
"The data is wrong, Tony." Banner's voice was a bit tired as he tapped on the virtual keyboard. "The parameters for this layer of suppression field... if it's for the Hulk, it's still not enough."
Tony Stark held a glass of chlorophyll juice, leaning casually against the lab bench. Although his palladium poisoning had been cured, he still retained some strange health habits.
"Not enough? Bruce, this is Stark Industries' top-tier force field generator. Theoretically, it can trap a Godzilla in heat." Tony raised an eyebrow. "Are you too stressed lately? Do you need me to arrange a yoga class for you? Or... do you need a therapist for your green half?"
"This isn't a joke, Tony."
Banner looked serious. He pulled up another set of data models, simulated results extrapolated from the T-VEX serum in Tony's hand.
"Look at this metabolic rate." Banner pointed to the frantically jumping numbers on the hologram. "This is my simulation of the reaction after injecting Vought's T-VEX serum. Even at microgram levels of contact, the Hulk cells' activity increased by 300%."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Tony then pulled out a bag of blueberries from under the table. "Faster, stronger, greener. And, we have Anthony. If the Hulk loses control, I don't think that's a problem Anthony can't solve."
"It's not that good, Tony." Banner pointed to the wildly fluctuating curve on the screen. "I've studied the molecular structure of T-VEX. This compound... it's not just an enhancer, it's an extremely potent biological catalyst."
"If injected into an ordinary human, it can give them twenty to fifty times their strength."
"But if..." Banner paused, his throat bobbing. "...if it reacts with gamma radiation. That is, if the Hulk is injected with this stuff..."
The simulated curve on the screen instantly broke through its peak, turning into a dazzling red warning.
"Its effect won't be twenty times, Tony. It's an exponential explosion." Banner's voice trembled. "A hundred times? No, that's just the baseline. The Hulk's rage will be infinitely magnified, and his sanity will be completely burned away."
"A hundred times the Hulk..." Tony whistled. "That does sound a bit troublesome. But who would inject the Hulk? I don't think anyone would dare approach that big guy."
"Determined people will always find a way." Banner shook his head. "Alien madmen, or other madmen."
"By then, he won't be the Hulk anymore." Banner looked at Tony, his eyes filled with fear. "He'll become a walking gamma storm. His punch might not shatter the Earth, but the Impact wave it generates would be enough to level Manhattan. Homelander wouldn't be able to deal with him, and even if he could win, the Earth couldn't withstand that level of battle."
Tony put down the dried blueberries in his hand, his expression finally turning serious.
"You're saying, World-ending level?"
"I'm saying, I've even considered exiling myself to space." Banner gave a bitter smile. "The Veronica system would be like paper in front of that thing."
"Alright, alright." Tony snapped his fingers. "Don't do anything so foolish, Dr. Banner. The Anti-Hulk Armor 2.0... no, the Hulkbuster Ultimate project is launched. We need stronger alloys, maybe I can ask Anthony to borrow some Vibranium, he has connections..."
"Sir." Jarvis's gentle British voice broke the silence. "While I don't wish to interrupt your 'Doomsday Seminar,' a visitor requests entry downstairs."