The disappearance of his biological son made Homelander act with surprising speed.
Mid-storm, he called Edgar to confirm Edgar was in his Vought Tower office, then brought Stormfront back to Vought Tower with him to meet Edgar.
When they arrived at Edgar's office, the current CEO of Vought immediately spoke, stopping Homelander and Stormfront from talking.
"Don't ask yet, just watch this."
With that, Edgar turned on the television.
The television was broadcasting from a certain location.
The location appeared to be a park near the home of Victoria Neuman, a senator Homelander had recently disliked.
On the television, Neuman was loudly advocating for the regulation of Supes.
The protesters and supporters below were in an uproar.
Just then, Neuman, who was giving an impassioned speech on the stand, suddenly flew backward, followed by chaos on and off the stage, and the television was filled with people's shouts.
The cameraman quickly approached Neuman, wanting to check on her condition, but after rushing onto the stage, he only saw Neuman's body lying in a pool of blood, her skull opened.
The sound of dry heaving could be heard in the footage, presumably from the cameraman.
Normal people rarely don't vomit when seeing such a scene.
Homelander, seeing this, still didn't understand why Edgar was showing him this, and he asked impatiently:
"Why are you showing me this? To show me you had someone eliminate a competitor of Vought?"
"Keep watching."
"Edgar! I'm fed up—"
"I said!"
Edgar, uncharacteristically, interrupted Homelander, his eye twitching, and his eyes a little red as he said to Homelander:
...Keep, watching!"
Homelander tilted his head slightly, a hint of surprise in his eyes.
With his extraordinary vision and X-ray ability, he could tell that Edgar was very sad at the moment.
Sad?
Neuman's death meant Vought lost an opponent targeting them, so why would Edgar be sad?
Homelander didn't understand.
But he quickly 'saw' the answer.
A thick mist rose in the television screen, and from within the mist, a man in a suit elegantly walked out.
He walked to Neuman's body, looked down at her, then faced the camera, as if making eye contact with someone on television, and said softly:
"Edgar, I know you're watching, how does it feel to see your adopted daughter die right before your eyes?"
!?
As soon as this sentence came out, Homelander's eyes widened a bit.
He looked at Edgar in astonishment, then at the Supe on television who called himself 'God of Mist', and asked:
"Neuman...is your adopted daughter?!"
...
Edgar glanced at Homelander, pressed the remote control, and switched the television to another channel.
From a recorded broadcast to a video recording.
That was a recording near Rebecca's secluded cabin.
Homelander instantly became alert.
He was no longer in the mood to gossip about Edgar and Neuman's relationship, his eyes fixed on the screen, wanting to see who had taken his son.
Then...Homelander saw the mist.
On the sunlit path, at a time when there should definitely be no mist, a dense mist appeared.
The mist obscured the cabin, and also obscured Rebecca and Ryan, who were playing together in front of the cabin.
The mist lasted for a long time; even when Edgar fast-forwarded the playback, it lasted for three minutes.
After that time passed, the mist gradually dispersed.
And Rebecca and Ryan, who were within it, were also gone.
God of Mist!!!
First, there was the recorded broadcast of Neuman's death, and now there was the video documenting what happened at the cabin.
Dense mist appeared in both videos.
And through the self-introduction of the man who appeared in the previous video, Homelander, if he wasn't foolish, could guess that the same person killed Neuman and kidnapped Ryan.
That Supe who called himself God of Mist!
"Apparently, we have a new enemy, Homelander."
Only after showing Homelander everything did Edgar turn around and say, seemingly calmly:
"A troublesome guy has appeared among the Super Villains; he can control the great mist, and perhaps has other Superpowers, and even has his own forces. Neuman was killed by him, Ryan was taken by him, and even Starlight was rescued by his people..."
"Wait, Starlight was rescued?!"
Homelander, who didn't know this news yet, widened his eyes even further.
Edgar's tone remained calm:
"Today, while you were giving your speech, a speedster broke into Vought Tower. He took Starlight and her mother, leaving behind the name 'The Reverse Flash, subordinate of God of Mist'. This proves that 'God of Mist' is not working alone; he has his own team."
After Edgar finished speaking, Homelander suddenly became agitated:
"I knew it, I knew it! I said long ago we should have just killed Starlight! Just like we killed The Deep!"
He was talking to Stormfront.
After Homelander captured Starlight, he originally had no intention of letting her live.
He planned to just kill Starlight and be done with it.
But Stormfront said they needed a target to set up, especially since Super Villains hadn't yet openly attacked The Seven.
Or rather, this was something they had fabricated in the first place, and there wouldn't be any Super Villains forming a team to attack Superheroes.
But Starlight's existence could prove to ordinary people that Super Villains were real, and even The Seven's Starlight had been brainwashed by them.
This would establish the fact that Super Villains truly exist, and are even hidden among ordinary people.
This was Stormfront's purpose in keeping Starlight.
But who would have thought that Super Villains would actually appear, and even rescue Starlight?
Now, what was once fictional became real, and they were even stronger than Homelander had imagined, capable of breaking through Vought's blockade, taking Ryan, and rescuing Starlight.
Compared to Homelander's agitation, Stormfront had more questions:
"Are these suddenly appearing Supes definitely unrelated to you?"
Stormfront was asking Edgar.
All Supes originate from Compound V, and the names of everyone injected with Compound V are basically recorded in Vought's archives.
Vought can clearly analyze who is suitable to be a hero and who is suitable to be a villain.
Even those who later became Supes, such as those 'adults' who became Supes through injection experiments, their identity information was also recorded by Vought.
Logically speaking, powerful Supes not controlled by Vought should not appear.
Therefore, Stormfront had reason to suspect that this matter was related to Edgar.
Even though she knew very well that Edgar wouldn't do something as superfluous as kidnapping Ryan.
"While I don't want to admit it, but...yes, I don't know the origin of these Supes."
Edgar answered Stormfront's question, turning to face her:
"Whether it's 'God of Mist' or 'The Reverse Flash', there's no record of them in Vought's archives. I'm also very curious where they came from."
"I will find them."
Homelander's face was gloomy, his eyes filled with anger and murderous intent.
He looked at Edgar: "And if I find out this is related to you..."
"I'm not so foolish as to kill my adopted daughter for a scheme!"
Hearing the threat in Homelander's words, Edgar's tone also became a bit agitated.
His feelings for Neuman might not have been as deep as others imagined, but Neuman was also Edgar's hard work.
To cultivate Neuman, send her into politics, and completely separate her from Vought, Edgar had put in countless efforts.
But in the end, it turned out this way.
Neuman was killed, and he didn't even know who the killer was!
And he didn't know how the relationship between him and Neuman got out!
In all his years as CEO, Edgar had never felt so passive and powerless.
Homelander stared intently at Edgar.
In that instant, Edgar's aura seemed to age a few years.
This wasn't an act; Homelander had seen countless actors, and he could distinguish between acting and sincerity, at least he believed he could.
So Homelander was sure that Edgar wasn't lying.
...I will find him."
Homelander repeated again, but unlike his previous aggressiveness, this time his words were uncharacteristically softened a bit.
After all, Edgar was someone Homelander regarded as a 'father figure'.
As long as he was sure that Edgar wasn't behind this, Homelander was willing to sympathize with him.
However, if this matter truly had nothing to do with Edgar, it meant that there truly were Supe villains in this world not controlled by Vought.
If this matter was not handled well, Vought would likely become very passive.
...
While Edgar and others were on high alert for the newly appeared God of Mist.
God of Mist himself stood in front of an abandoned cruise ship.
It should be in front of the cruise ship.
The reason it 'should' be is because this abandoned cruise ship in front of him was very strange.
Kevin had never seen a cruise ship that looked like it had 'ghosting'!
From Kevin's perspective, this cruise ship had 'ghosting'; to use a game analogy, it was as if the game model inside suddenly had a bug, where what should be one model turned into two, or even more, and they were overlapping!
The key was that they overlapped but didn't completely overlap, still making it clear there was a bug.
What Kevin was seeing now was like that.
Earth OL had a bug!!
Kevin shouted in his mind, but he also knew this wasn't a bug; it was probably something wrong with the Supe near the Ghost who could exchange between the two worlds.
And none of that was the main point. The main point was that Kevin couldn't contact Barry at all right now and didn't know what was going on with him.
Anyway, from the last location he gave, the position should be here, it's just he didn't know why he couldn't be contacted.
"Should I go in and see...?"
Honestly, the situation in front of him was really a bit strange. According to a more cautious approach, staying outside would be the best choice.
But thinking that Barry might be inside, and also the Supe Kevin cared about most, who could exchange between the two worlds, Kevin felt he should go in and see.
Anyway, there was nothing in this world that could threaten Kevin.
Hmm...
Shouldn't exist.
Kevin really wanted to confidently say that he was invincible in this world, that no one could beat him.
But if he really thought that way, Kevin felt he would be setting up a huge FLAG.
Isn't it common knowledge that people who claim to be invincible end up getting beaten up?
So Kevin was slightly more humble, adding 'should' before the adjective 'invincible'.
Thinking about these random things outside, Kevin made some preparations before flying towards the cruise ship's deck.