"You seem very nervous, Hope?" Homelander turned his head, his gaze burning as he looked at her. He omitted her surname, calling her by her first name in a familiar tone.
"I'm not nervous." Hope braced herself and met his gaze, "I'm just curious why Stark Industries would suddenly take an interest in a company primarily focused on Nanotechnology and Communication Technology. Besides, you should know that Darren Cross is the one in charge of Pym Technologies now."
"The vision of Stark Industries has always been ahead of its time." Homelander leaned back slightly, his left arm casually resting on the back of the sofa, almost encircling Hope from behind.
"I have no interest in Darren Cross." Homelander turned slightly, closing the distance between them. "The one I'm interested in is you, Hope."
"Me?" Hope tried her best to maintain a calm expression, but with her heart pounding like a drum, she was secretly expecting something. "I don't quite understand what you mean. It's true that I'm a director at Pym Technologies. But I don't personally manage the company's operations, and I don't hold the core patents."
"Don't be so modest, Hope."
"I know who in this company truly inherited the genius genes. I also know the secret your father, Hank Pym, has hidden for half a century."
"I know about the existence of Ant-Man..." Homelander stated frankly, "and I know about the existence of Pym Particles."
Hope's pupils constricted sharply upon hearing this, and her voice dropped a few notches when she spoke again.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Ant-Man is just a story made up during the Cold War era of the last century."
"My father, Hank Pym, has clarified on numerous public occasions that there is no such thing as Ant-Man, nor any Pym Particles that can change the size of objects."
Hope pointed towards the door, suppressing the fluttering in her heart and speaking with a feigned coldness, "If you've come seeking cooperation based on such unrealistic fantasies, then I can only say you've come to the wrong place."
"Pym Technologies currently has no areas for cooperation with Stark Industries. Please leave."
After saying all this in one breath, Hope immediately looked away from Homelander, fearing that her newly built psychological defenses would crumble again.
Seeing her feigned indifference, Homelander wasn't angry; instead, he smiled gently.
"You're afraid, Hope."
"You're afraid I've come to seize your father's life's work, afraid that Stark Industries will turn this technology into a terrifying weapon of war."
"Put away your hostility. I don't covet that technology."
Homelander raised an eyebrow, his tone becoming high-profile and confident.
"Because I have something better than Pym Particles."
Hope looked at him again, her eyes full of disbelief.
Favorability aside, as a top scientific research manager, she had an absolute understanding of the value of Pym Particles.
It was a miracle centuries ahead of its time.
"Something better?" Hope scoffed. "If you really possessed technology more advanced than the so-called Pym Particles, why would you come looking for me based on an illusory legend? You could just go and change the World yourself."
"I came to you because I feel that in this company, only you are worthy of this technology's future. Collaborative research for the benefit of mankind—that's what I want to do."
Seeing that Hope's eyes were still full of doubt, Homelander knew that charm alone wouldn't make this smart woman yield.
"Since you don't believe me, I'll prove it to you."
With that, Homelander stood up and feigned reaching behind his suit to pull out the Shrinking and Enlarging Ray.
Then, under Hope's puzzled gaze, he pointed the front of the flashlight at himself.
"Watch closely, Hope."
Homelander pressed the activation button on the flashlight.
"Buzz—!"
A faint orange light shot from the front of the flashlight onto Homelander's head.
Under Hope's incredulous gaze.
The man, standing over 1.85 meters tall, rapidly shrank.
One meter.
Fifty centimeters.
Ten centimeters.
In just one second.
Homelander shrank directly to the size of a chess piece and landed steadily on the carpet.
His posture was exactly the same as before he shrank. The mini-version of Homelander looked up at Hope, who loomed like a massive mountain of flesh, and waved his hand.
Hope was stunned.
She stood up abruptly, her movement so sudden that she even knocked over the water glass on the coffee table in front of her.
Coffee spilled everywhere, but she couldn't care less about that.
Hope stared fixedly at the man on the carpet, only a few centimeters tall. Her mouth moved a few times, but no sound came out, as if she had lost the ability to speak.
How is this possible?!
Without the life support system of the Ant-Man Suit, without any protection, not even a helmet!
She knew that while Pym Particles changed the atomic spacing of the body, they also severely affected the brain's chemicals.
Without a specially made helmet, it would lead to irreversible mental damage. The user would become extremely paranoid, lose their sense of morality, develop violent tendencies, or even become a madman.
Furthermore, when a person shrinks to the size of an ant, the oxygen molecules in the outside air are far too large for their miniaturized alveoli.
Without a suit with its own circulation system, one couldn't even inhale or exchange oxygen; they would suffocate instantly upon shrinking.
"This... what technology is this?"
"No suit... no oxygen tubes... this isn't scientific..."
Hope crouched down, looking down at the tiny Homelander, trying to calm her shocked emotions.
But from Homelander's perspective at that moment, the view wrapped in her professional pencil skirt was presented before his eyes without any obstruction.
Highly seductive black hollow lace.
"Tsk, the underwear taste of an Iceberg CEO really is this kind of wild style full of contrast."
He stood there admiring it for a few seconds, then cleared his throat and shouted loudly.
"How about it, Hope? Now that you've seen it, are you willing to believe me?"
At this moment, Hope's previous defensiveness and coldness were completely gone.
All that remained was the fanatical curiosity of a scientist facing unknown technology.
"How was this done? That device in your hand—what is the principle behind it?"
Homelander didn't answer her question directly; instead, he gave a wicked smile.
"We'll discuss the principles later. But before that, I have to give a compliment."
"Black lace—an excellent choice, Hope. It suits your 'cold on the outside, hot on the inside' temperament perfectly."
Hope didn't react at first. She was stunned for three seconds before realizing what Homelander was talking about.
She looked down at where she was crouching, then at the angle where Homelander was currently standing.
Boom!
Hope stood up abruptly, pressing her hands against the hem of her skirt and squeezing her legs tightly together, glaring at the little man on the carpet with some shame and indignation.
Logically, she should have been furious, cursed him out, or even crushed this frivolous bastard with one foot.
But for some reason, she couldn't feel even a hint of anger.
Instead, she felt a sense of excitement, like being teased by a lover.