Compound No. 5

Madelyn had repeatedly tried to talk Li Yue into acting on his own and leaving Homelander's side during the past twenty days, but Li Yue had refused.

Just as he was thinking about this, Madelyn's female assistant came to Li Yue's side and informed him that Madelyn was looking for him!

Li Yue helplessly followed her. It was obvious what Madelyn would talk about: it was to tell him to act independently!

On the way to Madelyn's office, he happened to see Homelander, who pretended to be looking at his own portrait. It was obvious that he was peeping at Madelyn!

After greeting him, Li Yue knocked on the door of Madelyn's office!

"Come in!"

Li Yue opened the door after hearing Madelyn's voice. He walked into the office and sat opposite Madelyn!

This time, Madelyn seemed to be determined to separate Li Yue and Homelander. She used the excuse of helping Starlight's popularity to grow and proposed once again to put Li Yue in a different team from Homelander.

But Li Yue refused as usual.

Madelyn finally lost her patience from the repeated rejection from Li Yue. Her tone was no longer gentle.

"If you still want to stay in Vought and in the Seven, you have to listen to me! Otherwise, you can get lost!"

Of course, Li Yue wouldn't just be obedient. If he couldn't stay by Homelander's side, there would be no point in staying in Vought! So Li Yue retorted back!

"Of course, I cannot object if you want me to leave Vought. But I know that we're in a crucial time concerning the entry of Vought's superheroes into the Ministry of Defense! Do you think that dismissing me like that won't affect you in any way?

"If you believe that it wouldn't affect you, then you can let me go. I promise that I will never return!"

Li Yue even crossed his legs as he fearlessly said these words!

"You...You tactless little!"

Even someone as calm as Madelyn was rattled by Li Yue's provocation, but Madelyn had no cards to play against that.

She had spent a lot of effort and even used a Supe that could transform to secretly record a video of a senator. The blackmail with that video was barely enough to pass the proposal to allow superheroes to enter the Ministry of Defense.

After the proposal go through voting, superheroes would officially be able to enter the Ministry of Defense, but just as Li Yue said, this was still a crucial time for them. Firing Li Yue would definitely affect her negatively.

Madelyn couldn't accept the consequences, so she could only compromise.

"If you have nothing else to say, I will go first. The coffee I just made is going to be cold!"

Without waiting for Madelyn to answer, Li Yue stood up and walked out of Madelyn's office!

But when he stepped out of the office, his eyes met with Homelander's! Homelander's eyes carried a cold, threatening look!

Li Yue ignored the murderous look in Homelander's eyes and simply greeted him, before casually walking past!

...

"Phew...You're here!"

Madelyn took several deep breaths to ease her anger before calmly greeting Homelander!

"Do you need me to teach him a lesson?" Homelander asked Madelyn. He had seen everything that had just happened clearly from the outside!

"There's no need, for now. Let him be cocky for a while longer. We could deal with him in any number of ways after the voting period is over! The most important thing right now is to ensure that no changes would happen in the lobby of the Ministry of Defense. There must be no opposition."

Madelyn had already regained her calm as if nothing had happened. She spoke in whispers to Homelander!

"Don't worry; I already made the arrangements in the Ministry of Defense. I guarantee that we will get those votes."

Homelander was confident about this matter. Indeed, unlike Madelyn, he had never been worried about it. It was unknown where he got that absolute confidence!

...

Li Yue was sipping coffee in the adjacent room while looking at the office, but he withdrew his gaze at that moment!

"You want to teach me a lesson? Unlike before, I'm no longer afraid of you!"

Li Yue had grown rather confident. His current strength had reached 70% of Homelander's. On top of that, he had his God of Thunder state, Adamantium transformation, and weakened version of Black Emperor's energy absorption...

Li Yue was confident that even if his current strength wouldn't be able to overwhelm Homelander, he would at least be an equal match! Therefore, Li Yue had nothing to fear. That was also why he dared to talk back to Madelyn!

Li Yue felt that he had to change his future plan. Originally, he only wanted to obtain Homelander's strength by staying as close as possible to Homelander. But now that he had hit a bottleneck, he might as well find another way to increase his strength!

In this world, the only other avenue that Li Yue knew could help with his growth was Compound V, the secret research project of Vought International.

In fact, the superpowers that existed in this world weren't gifts from the heavens at all. They were all created in secret by Vought International.

Vought International would seek the world for parents who were willing to give their children as experimental subjects, before pumping those children with a large amount of Compound V. Later, when those children grew up, they would develop all sorts of superpowers!

Homelander was the most successful product of this "baby program!" He was injected with an immense amount of Compound V when he was young, resulting in his mutation into a Supe.

He spent his childhood in Vought's laboratory. The lack of care and love in his youth caused him to become a violent and cruel person when he grew up.

His abilities made him almost invincible. There were almost no weaknesses. Vought International gradually grew wary of him, because there would be nothing to stop him if he ever went rogue. He would become a disaster for humanity as a whole.

(The Black Noir in the comic was a clone of Homelander, with all the same abilities but stronger. He was safety insurance created by Vought International to stop Homelander if they ever lose control over him. However, there seem to be some changes to that in the show, so there is no need to consider it here!)

Madelyn had exploited Homelander's longing for a motherly love to firmly control him in her grasp.

...

Li Yue hadn't really considered using Compound V until now, primarily because there were immense side effects when used by adults. Moreover, there was a great chance that it would just fail!

On top of that, Li Yue didn't even know if Compound V would work on him. He had been able to gather strength just by being on Homelander's side, so he never really entertained such a risky idea as taking Compound V!

But now, Li Yue had to change his plan! Even if Compound V was ineffective against him, he could still bring some samples back to Marvel's world and get Tony to analyze them!

"Thunderclap, a plane has been hijacked. We need to go!"

Homelander suddenly came out from Madelyn's office and interrupted Li Yue's thought!