"Impossible..."
Something was seriously wrong. Homelander tried other abilities. His Super Speed, which could cross cities in the blink of an eye, was now as slow as a shuffling old woman due to his severe injuries.
His Super Strength, which could tear the ground with a stomp, now only resulted in piercing pain in his foot when he stomped hard, causing him to fall to the ground.
Not to mention the Cyclops.
"No... my abilities, my abilities are gone, what did You do to Me!"
Slumping to the ground, Homelander stared in disbelief at his weak and powerless hands. He looked up at Russell, his face, which always wore an arrogant smile, now twisted into a mask of terror, his voice sharp and trembling.
"Didn't You already say it?
I stripped You of Your abilities.
There is no longer the strongest Superheroes in the World. Now there is only a giant baby and a waste who is lazy and ignorant."
Russell slowly walked closer. Homelander, seeing the devil approaching, scrambled away in fear, no longer acting like a god, no longer having the brutal ferocity of a tyrant.
"Don't come here, no, You are a devil..."
"Illusion, haha... it's all an illusion, I am a god, no one can defeat Me."
On the glass of a fallen billboard not far away, Homelander's reflection looked like a skinned monkey, with only strands of hair sticking to his head, ugly and comical. His perpetually arrogant face was covered in burns.
The most terrifying thing was his eyes.
The fear and terror in them were exactly the same as those ants he looked down upon, who made a fuss over the slightest thing.
"No," Homelander covered his face, "I am a god, I am a god!"
Under the immense shock, his psychological defense mechanism was triggered. He seemed to have gone completely mad, crying one moment and laughing the next.
"Give it back to Me!" Homelander lunged at Russell, but was stopped by a single finger pressed against his forehead. A gentle push sent him tumbling back to the ground. "Please... give Me back My power..."
Even so, he crawled up and clung to Russell's leg, begging him.
Just over ten minutes ago, Homelander hated Russell so much he wanted to skin him alive and break his bones, but now he was like a sandcastle whose most important foundation had been removed, causing it to collapse.
He was completely broken and had no time to think about anything else.
Homelander could not accept it, nor could he imagine it.
He had never lived the life of 'John', and if he was no longer Homelander, who could fly, move mountains, and was invulnerable, then what was he?
Homelander couldn't figure it out.
A person who could no longer tell who they were had become delirious.
Even though she had hated Homelander in the past, Maeve couldn't help but feel complex emotions and a chill down her spine when she saw this scene.
Just then, sensing her unusual emotions, Russell turned and looked at her.
"Infinitoid I..."
Remembering how she had been different from the others just now, releasing Homelander at a critical moment to protect herself, Maeve couldn't help but step back two steps in fear, trembling.
"Don't worry, I won't hold Your mistake against You." Maeve looked at him as if seeing the most terrifying monster. Russell waved his hand.
It was normal for Superheroes who were used to having Superpowers to be afraid of someone who could eliminate Superheroes' abilities, like fearing a tiger.
"Unlike Homelander, who was created by Vought in a lab tube, everything about Him was given by Vought, including His life, but You are different.
It's not a fault to not want to die for the company You work for."
However, Russell's comfort did not immediately reassure Maeve. She forced a smile, clearly still a little scared.
"Infinitoid, You saved this city!"
After the disaster, the surviving people came out onto the streets from their homes, cheering, cheering for the hero's victory once again.
"You are the greatest Superheroes, Infinitoid!"
His cape fluttering behind him, Russell chuckled and rose into the sky, waving to the crowd.
Receiving the hero's response, the crowd cheered even more enthusiastically, looking up at that figure, and the entire city applauded.
Homelander's madness and killing spree ended quickly, but the impact it caused gradually spread. The entire World began discussing the collapse of the strongest Superheroes.
...
The anchor's voice trembled slightly with shock: "...Just yesterday, Homelander, known as the 'World's Most Powerful Superheroes', killed Ms. Madelyn, the Vice CEO of Vought, His contracted agency, in broad daylight..."
The screen switched to shaky footage: Homelander's eyes were bloodshot, His Heat Vision piercing and killing a woman in a suit, letting her body fall from a high altitude and splatter into a bloody mess.
Amidst the screams of the crowd, Infinitoid descended from the sky. The energy unleashed by the collision of their laser beams shattered the windows of several surrounding buildings.
Another webpage: The New York Times front page.
A massive photo filled the entire page: Homelander kneeling in the ruins, covered in wounds, seemingly repenting and begging, while Infinitoid's cape fluttered in the Sun.
The headline was shocking: [The Fall of a False God: Exposing Homelander's Decade of Bloody Lies]
The #HomelanderMurder hashtag trended on numerous social media platforms.
A piece of news footage went viral: the plane the Baltimore mayor was in when He was murdered, salvaged from the seabed, had a break like a laser cut, precisely the distance between two eyes.
There were also video clips filmed by passengers on the plane who unexpectedly 'met' Homelander at high altitude and immediately excitedly pulled out their phones to record.
However, just as the camera was turned on, the next second, Homelander's indifferent eyes in the dark night sky outside lit up with red lasers.
That was long ago when Homelander killed the mayor who knew about the Compound V secret, just to please Madelyn.
But now, the true inside story naturally couldn't be known. Everything was, of course, because of Homelander's inherently brutal and deranged nature, leading Him to attack the plane.
"The latest poll shows Infinitoid's approval rating is as high as 71%." The Fox News anchorwoman's earrings sparkled in front of the camera. "Experts point out that this almost religious worship precisely fills the spiritual void left by the collapse of Homelander's image..."
[Homelander template is being applied]
[Abilities: Laser Eyes, Super Strength, Super Speed...]
[Conquest Points: 32410]
In the top-floor office of Vought Tower, Russell turned off his phone screen. A figure in a black battle suit with a hood stood calmly behind him, like the most loyal servant.
"Vought has announced to the outside World that Homelander is dead and will never appear again. From now on, You are the new generation Black Noir. In fact, with Your current appearance, no one can recognize You.
But to avoid scaring children, You should never take off this mask."
Russell looked back. His X-ray vision could clearly see the face behind the mask, which looked like it had been burned and gnawed by dogs. Homelander, without any emotional fluctuation, bowed his head and accepted the order like a puppet.
"Yes, sir."
All Superheroes' abilities in this World come from Compound V in their bodies. Soldier Boy's Chest Beam can remove Compound V from others, turning Superheroes back into ordinary people.
Homelander, who had become an ordinary person, was not killed by Russell, but had all His memory completely erased, fundamentally modified and brainwashed.
Then He was injected with Compound V, giving Homelander abilities again.
However... the injuries caused by the Chest Beam on Homelander seemed to not fully recover because His healing ability wasn't that strong, or perhaps due to some special property of the Chest Beam. Homelander's skin did not return to its original state.
Click!
The office door suddenly opened. Firecracker walked in excitedly, completely ignoring Homelander's presence. She plopped down into Russell's arms and wrapped her hands around his neck.
"Darling, I finally thought of a way to get revenge on Starlight."