"Sorry." Homelander poured cold water on Thor. "I'll only give competition slots to registered Vought heroes. This is a commercial event."
"I am! I'm a Vought employee!" Thor hurriedly thumped his chest. "I'll go back to Earth with you right now and complete the formal hiring procedures!"
Seeing this, Star-Lord quickly stepped forward and raised a hand.
"I want to join too! Boss Homelander, please make me your employee!"
Rocket Raccoon also came over on his short little legs to join the fun. "Our ship crashed while passing through the Sakaar wormhole. If you can get that engineer called Tony Stark to build us a new ship, we'll join too!"
"I'm Groot!"
Homelander looked at the eager Star-Lord without immediately agreeing, carefully weighing things in his mind.
Star-Lord really was an unstable factor.
But from a business perspective, the Guardians of the Galaxy had considerable fame across the major civilizations of the universe.
Bringing them under Vought would definitely earn him a nice share of off-world Popularity Points.
"Very good. You're hired." Homelander made the decision.
Having settled these new hires, Homelander turned to the Grandmaster.
"What exactly are the rules for this gladiatorial match?"
The Grandmaster explained:
"Each side can send up to seven people to compete as a team in one-on-one arena battles."
"It's first to four wins in seven rounds. That's the basic contractual rule of the Gladiator Coin."
"However, as the coin's temporary holder and the event organizer, I can add some supplementary rules that are fair to both sides."
Hearing that, Homelander got an idea.
"Since we can add rules, we can't just let the audience sit there and watch."
Homelander's eyes gleamed as he voiced his proposal.
"First, the Duel Blind Box Mechanism." Homelander raised one finger.
"Before each one-on-one battle begins, the terrain