Must Figure It Out

"Dark Star, you're the new member of The Seven, Dark Star, right?"

The robbers were dealt with. Ron and Queen Maeve came downstairs, the rescued hostages trailing behind them. The press, pre-arranged by Ashley, swarmed forward with cameras flashing.

"Over here! Did you and Queen Maeve take down the robbers upstairs?"

"How did you stop them? What's your power? Can you show us?"

Reporters crowded in, firing questions.

"Your turn. I can't be bothered with them."

Glancing at the crowd, Ron stepped back, uninterested, and murmured to Maeve.

Earlier, he'd left the hostage comforting to her as well.

Crimson energy flared around his body. His muscular frame lifted off the ground, and in an instant, he shot into the sky above the city's skyscrapers. A cone-shaped sonic boom cloud burst behind him as he streaked away like a red meteor.

"Oh, look! That's so cool! The new member of The Seven can fly!"

"Another flying hero in The Seven, after Homelander!"

Unfazed by his dismissive departure, the reporters grew even more excited, aiming their lenses at the sky and clicking away feverishly.

"He can fly too."

Queen Maeve was left standing alone, hands on her hips, staring at the sky where Ron had vanished. Her eyes deepened with worry.

"The world just got more dangerous. This can't go on!"

She made a silent decision: she had to figure out Ron's personality and abilities, to confirm he wasn't another Homelander.

"After all, I don't have the ability to move to another planet."

Meanwhile, on a rooftop a few blocks away.

"Impossible. How dare they? How dare they!"

Homelander stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his gloves creaking and tearing from the pressure. He didn't speak a word, but his eyes were twisted with rage, his mind screaming in fury, barely holding himself back from a murderous rampage.

"I was supposed to be the only one. How dare they try to make another 'me'?"

Through his X-ray Vision, he had watched Ron handle the robbers from start to finish—seen the Laser Eyes, the defense stronger than a tank, the flight that easily broke the sound barrier.

Though a brief glimpse couldn't reveal the limits, and the abilities were slightly different from his own, the company's attitude made his mind race with dark thoughts.

"No. No. A god cannot be replicated. At best, he's a laughable counterfeit."

His innate arrogance slowly cooled his fury.

He still didn't know if Ron could truly threaten him.

"I'll find out.

And if it's true—whether you chose this or not—mortals trying to approach a god is blasphemy that must be cleansed!"

His cape billowed. Homelander turned, his face cold and expressionless, and flew off. His immense speed shattered the sound barrier in an instant, vanishing beyond the horizon.

"Homelander Is No Longer the Only One: New Member Dark Star Appears!" "The Red Meteor Streaking Over New York!" "The Silent Hero Who Rescued Hostages and Flew Away."

A cascade of headlines dominated the front pages of New York's major newspapers.

The papers featured interviews with Queen Maeve and a flood of grateful words from the wealthy and influential hostages saved at the Jewelry Exhibition. Though the ordeal had been terrifying, the fact that Ron had saved them was undeniable.

With Vought International's careful control, promotion, and amplification, Ron became an instant sensation—even though he hadn't said a single word to the media. He rocketed to fame right out of the gate, a red-hot superhero discussed on every street corner. People compared him to Homelander.

They compared their suits, their powers, their looks...

"Hey, man, his suit is so cool. I think it's the coolest in The Seven. When his poster comes out, I'm buying one for my room."

"Dark Star's flying style is unique—wrapped in that crimson flame-like light, he flies like a meteor across the sky. He can break the sound barrier too. I wonder who's faster, him or Homelander."

"He's so handsome. He looks like a sculpture of an ancient Greek god..."

"Honestly, I've always thought Homelander's smile looks fake. Am I the only one?"

"..."

"Must be nice."

In the meeting room, Starlight held a newspaper. After reading the reports about Ron's rescue, she found a small, inconspicuous box at the bottom of the page—covering her and Black Noir's bust of the dock drug operation.

She slumped back in her seat, exhausted, and glanced at Ron.

"You didn't even talk to the media, and you got this kind of effect. Everyone's talking about you now.

I followed the people Ashley had arranged, posed in front of the captured gang members, and said all the lines they had prepped for me. We shot it like a movie, took several takes before it passed, and sent it to the press. And this is what I get.

Life had to go on. After the blow, Starlight had, in some unspoken way, made the same decision Maeve had long ago.

She would play along with Vought's "marketing" while stubbornly doing her job as a real superhero—using her influence to change people and her strength to help them.

But the effort to match up, when compared with Ron, was both frustrating and baffling.

"All of it is just Vought's push."

Leaning back in his chair, propping his head on one hand, Ron glanced at the newspaper.

"You forgot—there's someone in The Seven who never speaks, right?"

Ignoring the media wasn't a problem. Not saying a word, not even showing a face—if capital wanted to, through marketing tactics, they could make a person blow up. It all came down to whether it was worth it.

"Yeah, there's Black Noir."

Remembering how she'd tried to greet Black Noir the night before, only for that black-hooded figure to stand like a statue, completely ignoring her, Starlight wrinkled her nose.

She got up and sat on Ron's lap, affectionately wrapping her arms around his neck, her soft body pressing against him as she curiously wondered what Black Noir might look like.

"Translucent has shown his real face in the media.

But Black Noir never has. What do you think the face under his mask looks like?"

Ever since that night on the mountaintop, after something between them had broken through, their relationship had advanced by leaps and bounds.

"I'd say it's a pockmarked face—the kind that'd scare kids into crying just by showing it."

He tossed out a casual reply, then pulled his gaze away from the newspaper.

Every newspaper, overtly or subtly, was drawing comparisons between him and Homelander.

"Coincidence, or is Vought doing it on purpose?"

Ron sneered inwardly.

Testing his attitude toward Homelander... or trying to create a rift and opposition between him and Homelander?

"No one wants to be replaced—especially someone used to being unique and above everyone else."

Even though he grew up without a family, raised in a lab, in the original storyline Homelander had shown great concern for Ryan.

But Ryan had fully inherited his powers. Seeing Ryan was like seeing himself as a child.

He narrowed his eyes.

"If I didn't have my current abilities.

If Homelander saw me as an ordinary person with a short lifespan, he'd probably just think I was a defective product that couldn't inherit his godlike powers. He'd look down on me with contempt, only treating Ryan as his son."

"Besides, the key point is that Ryan is still young—too young for Homelander to see him as a threat."

He could freely unleash his fatherly love on his still-innocent young son, raise the boy according to his own ideas, and gain a family member who would never betray him and would always love him.

But I'm different.

Why did I feel like a stranger when I saw Homelander?

Because I have no interest in being someone's son, and I understand Homelander's personality.

So-called warmth from Homelander—crocodile tears—only comes under certain conditions.

His birth and childhood were a pitiful tragedy. He does crave love, but the foundation of his heart has always been cold and ruthless.

Just like when Ryan chose to leave with The Butcher, Homelander saw it as betrayal, and from then on, he stopped caring about Ryan as much as before.

After his 'deeply loved' Stormfront died, and life went poorly for a long time, he was heartbroken and furious, teetering on the edge of losing control, ready to throw everything away and destroy it all.

But then he discovered that an accidental rant actually boosted his follower count. Overjoyed, he dropped the self-destructive mindset, tossed Stormfront to the back of his mind, and focused entirely on how to keep raising his popularity.

"Homelander is sick with his craving for love and attention, but no one is irreplaceable to him."

"He wants everyone to play house with him, to act out the role of family and love him.

The moment things go wrong, he'll turn on them without hesitation!"