Chapter 220: Cornering the Tiger

As a result, no matter how much stock they held, all the investment banks started dumping Vought's shares.

Within a day, the stock price plummeted by 44%!

At this point, if no further explosive news emerges, Vought Group’s stock might have a chance to recover.

Stan Edgar of Vought Group was almost losing his mind: “Those two bastards still won’t pick up the phone?”

His secretary replied in despair, “They’re refusing to take calls. Moreover, Atreus Wayne has moved into Stark Tower. Tony Stark has publicly declared that if anyone from Vought, including the ‘Seven,’ tries to enter Stark Tower, Iron Man will be deployed to eliminate the intruders under the ‘Castle Doctrine.’”

Simply put, the "Castle Doctrine" means that if you’re not allowed in my home, I can legally kill you if you break in.

If those two had only shown hostility that day...

Then, the next day, when a decisive piece of dirt was thrown out, all Vought Group shareholders wanted to kill Tony and Atreus on the spot!

Four months ago, a civilian airplane was hijacked. Homelander and Queen Maeve were sent to rescue it, but they failed; the hijackers killed the pilot.

The public was told that Homelander and Maeve tried their best but couldn’t save the plane.

However, newly released recordings from the plane’s black box (flight recorder) and cockpit surveillance footage revealed that Homelander chose to abandon the rescue, taking Queen Maeve and flying away, watching the plane crash with everyone on board.

Keep in mind that Vought Group’s spokesperson had previously told the media, “If the government allowed superheroes into the military defense system, these people wouldn’t have died!”

This news instantly ignited the fury of the American public!

Countless calls flooded into the “Seven” production team, demanding an explanation from Vought Group.

More people took to the streets in protests and demonstrations, condemning Homelander’s disregard for human life.

The most terrifying aspect was that this revelation enraged every bigwig in the White House and Congress—Vought, you’re running things like this? And you still want to let these scumbags into the military defense system?

Isn’t this like asking the top brass to shove a venomous snake down their pants?

The collective outrage from the top echelons was what spelled doom for Vought Group!

Whether or not Homelander will face retribution, just the lawsuits from the victims' families will be enough to ruin them.

Not to mention, their stock price immediately tanked, dropping by 97% by the end of trading.

Three days later, the tide had turned.

The “Seven,” once idolized by countless Americans, had suddenly become the rats that everyone in the country wanted to kill.

Stan Edgar was losing his mind. He found the guy responsible for handling the aftermath: “You idiot! Didn’t you say the black box was dealt with?”

The guy looked miserable: “I did deal with it! I crushed the black box in a shredder and soaked it in a sulfuric acid pool. Normally, the data shouldn’t be recoverable!”

Actually, Tony was also curious about this: “Why wouldn’t the other side clean up the black box properly? If it’s not the original, it can't be used as evidence in court.”

Atreus smiled mysteriously: “I have a friend…”

“Wait!” Tony suddenly felt a headache coming on. “That friend wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?”

Atreus replied with a peculiar expression: “It’s not. His name is Stephen Strange, a powerful sorcerer.”

Mentioning the sorcerer, Tony became serious: “Did it cost a lot to pull this off?”

“Not much, just $100,000.”

“That little?” Tony was stunned.

“His mentor was critically ill and in the emergency room. The guy was broke, so he owed me a small favor.”

“Hahaha!” Tony laughed.

Meanwhile, a few streets away in the New York Sanctum, a certain Sorcerer Supreme sneezed: “Achoo! That bastard Kratos must be thinking about my stuff again.”

Exposing the true nature of a hypocritical hero, this kind of thing, given Doctor Strange's sense of justice, was too embarrassing to admit that he used the Eye of Agamotto to restore the black box as a favor to Kratos.

Thus, this means that in the future, that certain God of War could at least make him work for free once more.

Back to Tony, in a very good mood: “Knowing how despicable they are, I have no mental burden. I can totally treat them as enemies. If I could, I’d hang that invisible guy on their company’s flagpole.”

“No need for that. The Seven are just powerful pawns. Getting rid of them is like ordering a ‘new batch’ at a nightclub. What’s truly disgusting is the Vought Group behind them. As long as Vought doesn’t fall, the idiotic superhumans they push to the front line are like the heads of Hydra; chopping them off one by one won’t eliminate them.”

Tony nodded in agreement: “So, we still need a catalyst!”

“Exactly!”

By this point, it was essentially cornering the tiger.

Atreus was indeed playing with fire, forcing those morons from the Seven to make a move against him or Tony.

However, he hadn’t anticipated that Homelander and Stan Edgar were more cowardly than he imagined.

Within Vought Group, Stan sternly warned Homelander: “I tell you, I want Tony Stark and Atreus Wayne dead more than anyone. But these two bastards can’t die right now, or the blame will fall on us. Say goodbye to your bonuses forever.”

“Then what can we—do—about—it?” Homelander roared, his emotions about to explode.

At this moment, the crisis PR manager said, “I heard Congress is about to hold a hearing on the airplane incident. Our only chance now is to do something big to divert the public's attention.”

“Like what?” Stan turned his head, his eyes like a hawk, staring intently at the manager.

“Take down a supervillain on the wanted list to prove our value. As long as we show our worth to the congressional representatives, they’ll naturally use state machinery to help clear our name and attribute this matter to a ‘mistake.’”

“Who?”

The manager, wiping cold sweat, nervously opened his laptop, revealing a wanted poster:

*S-Class Wanted Criminal ‘Black Adam’*—charged with killing the government-dispatched superhumans Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Cyclone, and Atom Smasher.

Indeed, in this world, Black Adam had done such things.

After some discussion, Vought publicly announced that there were inaccuracies regarding the airplane incident. To prove that the Seven were truly committed to protecting America, they decided to take on the nation's highest bounty and set out to hunt down Black Adam.

This plot twist nearly twisted Atreus’s back in surprise.

Tony then received a call from Nick: “Tony, I know you’re angry. Calm down for now. At least give them a chance to prove themselves. That’s an order from the top.”

Tony: “...”

Atreus received a heads-up from his higher-ups; he couldn’t refuse the congressmen’s request to calm down.

What else could Atreus say? Anyway, the short selling was already largely successful, with more than a dozen small objectives achieved.

But Atreus didn’t expect that an unexpected turn of events would break his plans.

(End of Chapter)