The aftermath

By the time the arriving fire engines put out the flames, it was already very late.

The next day, Ryan flew to Vought International's conference room as usual.

He had barely set foot on the conference room floor when he saw Homelander smash a tablet onto the ground.

Around Homelander, all the Supes kept their heads lowered, not daring to make a sound.

Ryan grabbed Starlight, who stood nearby.

"What happened?"

"Look at the tablet."

Starlight took out another tablet, swiped a finger across it, and opened the video with the most views.

It was a complete recording of Homelander burning down Madelyn's mansion.

The video had been posted the previous night.

Ryan took the tablet and dragged a finger along the progress bar. He realized the footage came from security cameras. The black-and-white recording lasted five minutes.

It had captured all of Homelander's brutality and cruelty.

Ryan considered where the video had come from. He could think of only one possibility: Madelyn had played Homelander.

Last night, Madelyn had uploaded the mansion's security footage. Even in death, she had wanted to drag Homelander down and ruin him.

She had probably decided Homelander would not spare her child and gambled everything on taking him down with her.

It had worked remarkably well.

Normally, Homelander received nothing but praise online. Now, though, plenty of haters had crawled out of who knew where.

Ryan swiped across the tablet and read the comments.

The comment section was full of accusations.

"I've always thought that wearing the Star-Spangled Banner on his back meant Homelander thought he was above the country. He's an arrogant, conceited bastard."

"No matter what he's done, I still love him."

"He burned down a house? Not my house, so we're good."

There were not just accusations among the comments, but