"No... no! Absolutely not!"
The waitress suddenly snapped back to her senses. In a panic, she tried to push the dining cart through the door, but because her movements were too frantic, the cart slammed into the doorframe. A glass of fresh milk shook violently, nearly spilling over.
"I'm sorry! I am so sorry! I'm so clumsy..." The waitress apologized, at a total loss. she didn't even dare to look Homelander in the eye again, only stealing glances from the corner of her eye, her legs feeling slightly weak.
The endorphins secreting wildly in her body gave her a strong urge to throw herself into this man's arms.
She had to use every ounce of her professional discipline to suppress such a terrifying thought.
"It's alright, just leave it there." Homelander didn't make things difficult for her.
The waitress pushed the cart into the room and practically fled out of the suite.
The moment the door closed, Homelander clearly heard the sound of her leaning against the corridor wall outside, gasping for breath.
"The effect is outstanding." Homelander picked up the milk and took a sip with satisfaction.
The skin of this "Heartthrob Arsonist" perfectly matched every effect in the description, and the disguised appearance did not affect its functions.
He turned his attention back to the system panel.
With a thought, he opened another deep blue star vortex.
"Let's see what kind of high-quality goods the superhero blind box can give me."
The blue light receded.
A somewhat flamboyantly styled metal cylinder fell into his palm.
The surface of the flashlight was coated in a matte silver-grey finish, with anti-slip knurling on the grip.
The front end was ringed by a hemispherical transparent lampshade, and on the side was a sliding toggle switch marked with '+' and '-' in red and blue.
At the tail end was a precision adjustment knob with an LCD screen.
[Obtained Special Equipment: Enlarging/Shrinking Light (Military Tactical Version).]
[Equipment Description: From a 22nd-century military department store, this product perfectly integrates the particle irradiation technology of the Shrinking Light and the Enlarging Light. By changing the spatial transformation state of the target object, it achieves absolute synchronization of mass and volume.]
[Usage Restrictions: Shrinking range can go down to the nanometer level. Theoretically, there is no volume limit for the enlarging range; the enlarging effect depends on the amount of external energy input. Without external energy access, the built-in power source can enlarge an object up to 100 times.]
[Military Version Features: No need for continuous irradiation; transformation thresholds can be set on the device in advance. Automatically takes effect after a single trigger.]
[Duration: The duration of the effect is related to the volume change ratio, with a maximum of 24 hours. In the absence of supplementary light from the device, the target will automatically return to its original state once the time runs out.]
"Absolute synchronization of mass and volume..."
Homelander muttered these words under his breath. He gripped the handle, pushed the toggle to the blue '-' side, aimed it at a lamp on the bedside table, and pulled the trigger.
"Vroom—"
A pale orange fan-shaped beam of light enveloped the lamp.
The moment the light touched it, the half-meter-tall floor lamp was like a deflating ball, rapidly shrinking with a'shoo' sound until it became a miniature model only the size of a fingernail.
Homelander walked over and pinched the miniature lamp between two fingers.
It was as light as nothing; its weight perfectly synchronized with its current volume.
The principle of the Enlarging/Shrinking Light is the absolute binding of mass and volume. If it gets smaller, the weight becomes lighter. If it gets larger, the weight increases.
Whereas Pym Particles are able to shrink an object's volume while retaining its original mass and density.
Homelander's thinking was not limited to this.
He narrowed his eyes slightly as a crazy tactical concept took shape in his mind.
"What if I combine these two things?"
"Suppose I first use the Enlarging Light to enlarge myself 100 times. According to the principle, my mass would also expand to the corresponding level."
"Then, I use Pym Particles to shrink my volume back to my original height!"
He looked at the Shrinking Light in his hand, his eyes growing fervent.
"In that case, my body mass would have increased by a million times out of thin air!"
A million times!
Even an ordinary person could directly become a human aircraft carrier, not to mention this was just based on the basic functionality without an external power source.
Homelander's interest in Pym Particles reached its peak at this moment.
Something that could exploit the bugs in the physical laws of the Universe must be held in his own hands.
He immediately picked up his dedicated encrypted phone and connected to Skynet.
"Skynet, it's me."
"What are your orders, Sir?" Skynet's voice immediately came from the other end.
"Do you miss me so soon, Sir?" Miss Skynet added, "I can turn back right now."
"Work comes first, we must not let debauchery interfere with business." Homelander quickly refused, even blurting out Chinese.
"Give this identity I have now an arrangement within the Stark Industries."
"A Senior Executive Vice President, plus the halo of a physicist."
"Understood, Sir. Data forgery and personnel file insertion will only take three minutes." Skynet's answer came without any hesitation.
"Not only that," Homelander continued to instruct, "in the name of the Stark Industries, send a formal business meeting invitation to the current chairwoman of Pym Technologies, Hope van Dyne. Say that the Stark Industries is very interested in the new technology they are about to release and wants to discuss deep strategic cooperation. Set the time for this afternoon."
"Very well, Sir. I will send the invitation with the highest level of business specifications."
After ending the call, Homelander threw the phone on the bed and turned to walk into the spacious bathroom.
For Skynet, creating an executive identity out of thin air within the Stark Industries was easier than breathing.
As the parent company behind Vought International, the Stark Industries was now a super giant with tentacles extending into every field globally.
Aerospace, medicine and biology, military manufacturing, energy development—the shadow of the Stark Industries was everywhere.
What the outside world didn't know at all was that on the Stark Industries's board of directors, those old-school capitalists who once tried to resist Homelander or play little games behind his back had long since been replaced by Terminators months ago.
...
San Francisco, Pym Technologies Headquarters.
The current chairwoman, Hope van Dyne, stood with her arms crossed in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the city streets below, her brow furrowed.
Her signature ear-length short hair made her look capable and aggressive.
Just ten minutes ago, the company CEO, Darren Cross—who was also her father Hank Pym's former star pupil—had just made grand claims at the board meeting.
He stated that he was about to unveil the mystery of the "Wasp Suit" and intended to sell it as a military weapon at a high price to S.H.I.E.L.D., and the person who came to negotiate was Mitchell Carson, who had once had his nose broken by her father, Hank Pym.