"You..." Hank Pym was choked up by these words, his face flushing red. He opened his mouth but couldn't squeeze out a single word for a long time.
Darren Cross's betrayal was the greatest shame and failure of his life, and it was also a responsibility he couldn't shirk.
Seeing the atmosphere becoming tense, Hope knew that if the argument continued, today's meeting would likely collapse.
"Enough! Stop it, both of you!" she shouted, interrupting the two.
Hope first looked tenderly at Homelander in her palm with a hint of plea in her eyes, then looked at her father with a grim expression.
"Alright, Father. We can discuss the matter of cooperation slowly later."
"But right now, we are facing an urgent crisis," she said, turning to Homelander with an urgent tone.
Then, Hope recounted everything that happened in her father's Underground Room last night, including the group of mysterious gunmen and the stolen ant-man suit.
"Darren now has the original suit sample. His mass-production plan for the Wasp Suit will definitely be significantly moved forward," Hope clenched her fists tightly.
"By then, this power will be completely out of control. No army can defend against a group of killers who are only the size of insects but possess lethal destructive power."
"Daniel, I'm asking for your help now. It's urgent." Hope's beautiful big eyes flickered with expectation and helplessness.
"I need to borrow Starr Group' laboratory and advanced materials. My father must forge a brand-new ant-man suit in the shortest possible time. Only then can I infiltrate Darren's headquarters and destroy all his research data."
Facing Hope's almost pleading gaze, Homelander's face immediately switched to an affectionate expression.
"Hope... you know."
"You don't need to use the word 'request' with me."
Although he was so small that Hope couldn't see his expression clearly, the words he spoke, combined with his tone, were enough to convey the emotions he wanted to express.
"As long as you want it, and as long as I have it."
"Even if I have to offend the entire Starr Group, I will give everything for you."
The subtext of these few sentences was already more than clear.
Hope was so moved she almost shed tears.
Since she was a child, she was used to facing all storms alone and used to disguising herself with coldness. But at this moment, this man held up an umbrella for her with the firmest posture.
Prompt! Harvested special popularity value +20,000! (From Hope van Dyne)
Please don't be obsessed with me anymore, oh, I'm just a legend... Homelander hummed a song happily in his heart.
Meanwhile, Hank Pym, sitting to the side and watching the increasingly thick romantic atmosphere, felt a surge of blood and his blood pressure soared.
The displeasure in his heart had accumulated to the extreme.
"Ahem!!"
Hank cleared his throat and was about to break this damn atmosphere and pull the topic back to the manufacturing of the suit.
"Buzz... buzz... buzz..."
Hope's phone on the table suddenly vibrated.
Hope was slightly startled and snapped out of her dazed state. She picked up her phone and glanced at the screen; it was her Private Assistant calling.
"Chairwoman! This is bad!" The assistant's anxious voice came through the receiver, sounding exceptionally clear in the quiet private room even without the speakerphone on.
"Mr. Darren Cross has just arrived downstairs at the Club! He somehow found out you were here meeting a guest and said he has urgent business to see you! He's already taking the elevator up with a few people! The security guards couldn't stop him at all!"
"What?!" Hope's face changed drastically. "Where is he?"
"The elevator he took has already gone up. He'll probably be outside your private room door soon!"
"It's Darren!" Hope hung up the phone and said with a pale face, "He's almost at the door!"
Hank Pym's expression also became extremely ugly.
"Damn it! How could he know we're here?!"
"Darren must not see the three of us together! Especially you, Father!"
Hope quickly analyzed the current situation.
"If he finds out I'm meeting you privately and even with an executive from Starr Group, he'll immediately realize we're plotting against him. He'll strip me of all my authority and lock me out of the company completely. Then, even if I become Ant-Man, it'll be hard to break into his data room!"
"More seriously, with his current irritable and murderous personality, he might even develop a murderous intent towards us! We'll all be in danger!"
Hank looked around. Although this high-end private room was luxurious, there was nowhere to hide a grown man.
No wardrobes, no screens, and outside the window was a drop of over a dozen stories.
At this moment, the sound of a conversation approaching from a distance could already be faintly heard in the hallway outside.
"It's too late!"
Hope's brain worked rapidly, and she suddenly said to Homelander, who was lying calmly in her palm.
"Daniel! Quick! Use your device to shrink my father! Hurry!" Hope urged anxiously.
"As you wish, Hope."
Homelander didn't waste words and directly raised the Enlargement-Reduction Lamp in his hand, aiming it at the astonished Hank.
"Wait! I'm not ready—" Hank instinctively wanted to reject this unknown technology.
But Homelander had already pressed the button.
"Buzz—!"
An orange beam of light flashed past.
Before Hank could finish his sentence, his entire body rapidly contracted in the light, turning into an insignificant small dot that fell into the crevice of the sofa cushion.
"Bang!"
At that moment, the heavy wooden door of the private room was suddenly slammed open from the outside.
"Hope! I heard you were meeting some mysterious investor..."
The loud noise of the door being slammed open startled the already tense Hope.
She let out a short cry of surprise, and her arms involuntarily jerked upward.
It was precisely this violent jerk.
Homelander, who was on Hope's palm, was thrown up by this thrust. In his current form, Homelander wasn't prepared to expose his superpowers.
Following the effect of inertia, he tumbled once in mid-air and then began a free fall.
Coincidentally, the shirt Hope was wearing today had a collar that was slightly open to showcase her feminine charm.
As he fell, in Homelander's microscopic vision, he only saw a snow-white canyon rushing towards him at high speed.
"Holy shit!"
Homelander only had time to let out a cry of surprise in his heart.
Then, his tiny body, only a few centimeters tall, followed the guidance of gravity.
He slid incredibly smoothly down Hope's slightly open collar and fell straight inside, and the light before his eyes instantly dimmed.