"Everyone! Everyone!!"
Aldrich Killian roared, his voice cracking with hysteria.
"Get him! Tear him apart! Melt him down!!"
The deck erupted.
More than twenty Extremis soldiers, glowing like walking furnaces, charged from all directions at once—
a pack of enraged beasts intent on burning the blond bastard alive.
"No—Homelander! Get out of there!" Rhodey shouted instinctively.
"Danger!" Tony raised his remaining repulsor, heart slamming.
Homelander stood at the center of the storm.
He slowly… closed his eyes.
"So loud," he murmured softly.
"Sometimes I really hate super-hearing."
Then—
He opened them.
The blue vanished.
In its place: molten crimson.
"Zzzzz—!!!"
Twin beams of death erupted from his eyes—5,000 degrees Celsius.
And he began to turn.
Like a ballet dancer, calm and precise, Homelander rotated in place—
one elegant circle.
The heat vision became twin blades, sweeping the battlefield with surgical grace.
Time seemed to slow.
Through his cracked faceplate, Tony Stark witnessed a scene he would never forget.
One Extremis soldier leapt high, arms outstretched, charging Homelander mid-air.
The beams passed across his waist.
His upper body continued forward.
His lower body… did not.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Seven—eight soldiers at the front line were cut clean in half, torsos slamming to the deck, still twitching.
"Ah… ahhh…"
One soldier stared down at the empty space where his legs used to be, screaming in raw disbelief.
"Not done yet."
Homelander lifted his gaze.
The beams changed shape—
no longer slashes, but precision tools.
"Zzz—! Zzz—! Zzz—!"
Vertical cuts.
Horizontal cuts.
Diagonal cuts.
Arms.
Legs.
Torsos.
Heads.
Cold. Efficient. Beautiful.
In three seconds, every remaining Extremis soldier was reduced to pieces.
Three minutes later—
Homelander shut off his heat vision.
His eyes returned to blue.
He stood alone at the center of the deck—
surrounded by severed limbs and smoldering remains.
Not a speck of blood on him.
The star-spangled cape behind him remained pristine.
"…!"
President Matthew Ellis broke first.
He turned away and vomited violently over the railing.
"My… God…"
Rhodey disengaged his armor with a clatter and hurried to steady the President.
Tony Stark didn't move.
He stared at the scattered remains.
Then at the smiling face.
A chill crawled up his spine.
"Monster…"
Killian staggered backward, sanity visibly cracking.
"You're a monster!!"
"Oh?" Homelander tilted his head.
"You're still alive?"
"No—don't come any closer!" Killian scrambled back in terror.
"I—I still have a hostage!"
Realization hit him.
"Pepper!!"
Tony's heart dropped.
Killian lunged to a half-open container and dragged out a woman.
Pepper Potts.
She was weak, her body glowing faintly with the orange light of Extremis.
"Don't move!" Killian clamped a burning hand around her throat.
"Tony…" Pepper whispered weakly.
"Let her go, Killian!" Tony aimed his repulsor, shaking.
"You want someone—take me!!"
"Too late!" Killian shrieked, face warped by madness.
"You're all going to die! I'll kill her—right in front of you—!"
"Hey."
A voice spoke directly beside his ear.
Killian froze.
"…What—what the f—"
The deck was gone.
Tony. Pepper.
Below him.
Killian was in the sky.
Homelander hovered face-to-face with him, thousands of meters above the ocean.
"Deep breaths," Homelander said gently.
"Dizziness is normal…"
"Ahhh—put me down!! You freak! You can't kill me!!"
"Why not?"
"Because—I'm—"
Homelander's eyes lit again.
This time, the beams didn't slice.
They pierced.
Two razor-thin lines burned straight through Killian's eyes.
"Zzz—!!"
No scream followed.
In 0.01 seconds, his brain was flash-cooked into charred protein.
Homelander released him.
Killian's corpse tumbled like discarded trash, falling back toward the dock below.
On the oil rig—
Tony finally tore free of his ruined armor and ran to Pepper, holding her tightly.
"I've got you, Pepper. I've got you—
I can fix this, I swear—"
"Ahem."
A polite cough interrupted the moment.
Homelander descended slowly, boots touching down before them.
"Thanks," Tony said at last, voice strained.
"For saving her. For saving all of us."
"I'm just saving the world, Tony."
Homelander smiled effortlessly.
He glanced at the scattered Iron Man wreckage.
"Your little tin cans…"
"…didn't hold up."
Tony clenched his jaw.
"And her—"
Homelander's X-ray vision swept Pepper's body without restraint.
"Extremis. Fascinating.
Unstable, though."
"Don't look at her!!" Tony snapped, stepping in front of Pepper like a lion.
"Relax," Homelander said calmly, turning away.
"You'll figure it out."
His gaze shifted—to the trembling man still retching in the corner.
"Mr. President."
Ellis hurried forward, pale and shaken.
"Thank you—thank you for saving… saving America!"
"Just doing my job."
Homelander patted his shoulder.
"I'll escort you back to the White House.
The press is waiting."
"And… them?" Ellis hesitated, gesturing to Tony and Pepper.
"Oh. Mr. Stark?"
Homelander smiled.