Exposure

"What did you get the CIA to do?"

Butcher watched Rorschach come out of the room, puzzled.

Susan could authorize plenty of things herself. What was so important that Rorschach had gone to the director personally?

"You'll see when the time comes."

Rorschach offered no explanation. He simply turned on the television.

"The Deep recently held a lavish wedding, and public opinion of him has improved considerably."

Vought was running out of options. It had even pushed a story like this everywhere it could.

But interest in Compound V had not died down. If anything, it was rising again.

The money Vought had spent trying to bury the story over the past few days had already exceeded the compensation it had paid out over the previous ten years.

So far, Vought had done nothing but lose money.

The hearings could not be allowed to continue. If they did, Vought faced nothing but endless losses.

Its stock had hit the daily limit down for a week straight. Vought could accept a falling share price, but it could not let the truth about Compound V become public.

Once that happened, Vought's false image as a "superhero company" would be stripped away.

The scrutiny and taxes that followed would be what truly brought down the company and destroyed its future.

Edgar intended to transform Vought, but not yet.

A forced transformation now would cost Vought more than it could bear.

Rorschach then set out and sent copies of the photographs and footage to major media outlets.

So, while Vought was still barely keeping the "Homelander-Stormfront romance" at the top of the trending charts, two far bigger stories exploded across the world.

One showed Homelander aboard a plane, his eyes blazing red as a laser sliced through both a hijacker and the cockpit controls.

The other exposed Stormfront's past: her ties to several German officers during World War II and her visits to multiple concentration camps.

Holy shit!

Parody videos soon flooded the internet. Vought was paying for having forced the pair's romance to the top of every feed.

This time, dismissing the images as fakes would not cover up the truth.

Stormfront's crow's feet and forehead lines were unmistakable. She looked nothing like a young woman.

The backlash erupted. Even Stormfront's most devoted followers turned against her.

Several media outlets also linked Stormfront to Liberty, a figure from decades earlier.

Nearly ninety-five percent of the people Liberty had gone after were Black. Her racism only made the identification more convincing!

"That bastard!"

Stormfront stormed into Homelander's room, furious.

Homelander had not cooled down either. He was staring at his approval rating.

Like Vought's stock price, the situation had finally begun to stabilize, only to collapse again.

"You know who did it?"

The footage of Homelander came from the plane's black box. Its data had recorded what happened at the time.

Vought had recovered only part of it.

Rorschach had the rest.

The Superman template really could do anything. If Rorschach set his mind to something, there was little he could not accomplish.

He had originally meant to use the footage only to earn a few Defense-Break Points from Homelander. But then he thought about how open Homelander and Stormfront were with each other.

So Rorschach had decided to make it a two-for-one deal.

"Rorschach! The one who showed us that footage before!"

"Starlight's friend?"

That was enough to remind Homelander of the way the man had looked at him.

"He probably made that call I got earlier, too!"

Homelander immediately made the connection and called an emergency meeting.

Once everyone except Black Noir had arrived, Homelander seized Starlight by the throat.

"Was it you?"

He was almost beside himself with rage. Every time he looked at Starlight's face, he thought of Rorschach.

"That little boyfriend of yours went to Sage Grove and killed Lamplighter. Did you help him?"

Stormfront shouted from behind him.

The others could barely keep up. They had expected a routine meeting about their shares of the licensing revenue; now it had turned into a confrontation over a former member of The Seven.

"What? Lamplighter's dead?"

Translucent still looked stunned as he asked the question.

"Yes. Someone twisted his head off and took it."

Stormfront brushed aside her bangs as she spoke flatly.

"I... I don't know what you're talking about."

Starlight struggled in Homelander's grip, but it was getting harder and harder for her to breathe.

"Heart rate rising. Blood pressure climbing. You're like a rabbit caught in a net."

Homelander ignored her explanation and slowly tightened his grip.

The difference in their strength became painfully clear.

"She really doesn't know anything. Let her go!"

Maeve's forceful shout made Homelander turn toward her in confusion.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's figure out what's going on first."

Even Shockwave tried to smooth things over, though fear lingered in his chest.

He had stood so close to Rorschach at that gathering. He was lucky the man had not made a move.

Otherwise, his athletic career—and perhaps the rest of his life—would have been over.

Once Starlight had caught her breath, Maeve stood and patted her shoulder.

"She was used."

"Fine." Homelander shrugged. At this point, he had little left to lose.

He might as well kill Rorschach first and vent some of his anger.

Then he could burn everything in the world to ash.

Homelander believed he could do it.

But he remembered the last time he had been beaten senseless, and the being called "Superman" floating in the sky.

He decided to bring Black Noir and Stormfront along.

If that was not enough, he could drag Translucent in too.

"Fine. Now that we know who's behind this, let's go kill him."

Homelander shot into the air. With his super vision and X-ray sight, he would find the bastard soon enough.

"Sorry. You might be about to lose your boyfriend."

Stormfront gave Starlight a twisted smile and patted her shoulder before taking off as well.

In an unnoticed corner, Translucent quietly swallowed.

Shockwave was still turning his head from side to side, looking lost.

Starlight knew Rorschach was no ordinary man.

But she had never imagined just how extraordinary he was.

First, he had gained the power to swap abilities. Later, he had developed the fighting ability to send her flying with ease.

At least forty percent of the reason Homelander had not snapped Starlight's neck in his rage was the protection of her Bio-Electric Aura.

To Starlight, Rorschach had a dangerous allure. Even when she knew he was up to no good, she could not help drawing closer to him.

He had gone from an ordinary human to someone who could overpower her in such a short time.

Now that he could kill Lamplighter, surely he could escape those two.

That was what Starlight told herself.

Rorschach, however, was not in a basement shielded by a layer of zinc. He was out on a vast stretch of wasteland, idly swinging a chain.