"Listen, idiot. I'm taking Ryan, and he's staying with me from now on."
Becca clenched her fists. "I won't let you take him."
"Only by staying with me can Ryan have a safe, stable childhood you could never give him, without shouldering the fear and burden of superpowers from an early age."
Homelander's blue eyes narrowed slightly. Becca's words kindled anger in him, but at the same time, he instinctively began to wonder whether things really would turn out as she said if Ryan came into contact with superpowers.
"What brain-dead idiot told you having superpowers was a bad thing?" Soldier Boy chuckled disdainfully.
Becca gritted her teeth, wanting to argue again. As a former Vought employee, she had seen the entire superhuman ecosystem up close and knew better than anyone what superpowers really were, so she would rather Ryan be an ordinary person.
"Forget it. There's no explaining this to you mortals without superpowers."
Soldier Boy shook his head and sat on the ground, intending to leave this mess to Homelander as well.
Becca's outlook was too narrow. She had no idea that power was neither good nor evil: used for good, it was good; used for evil, it was evil. He couldn't be bothered to argue those principles with her.
Homelander put his hands on his hips and swept a cold gaze around:
"There are walls everywhere, and those goddamn patrols."
"Hundreds of cameras watch you without a single blind spot. There are even hidden cameras in Ryan's bedroom. You tell me, is this a place for a child to grow up?"
Becca didn't answer, because she knew he was telling the truth. Vought had explicitly informed her of all this when signing the agreement with him.
But she didn't want Ryan living in a twisted world full