Sorry Stan, I Misunderstood You

"Oh my, not for children!"

The moment Ryan burst through the door, he let out a short, sharp exclamation.

He then engaged his flight speed to the maximum. While Cate was still reeling from the shock of having used her superpowers on her boyfriend only to be caught in the act by Jordan, he scooped up Golden Boy and bolted.

Even while making his escape, he didn't forget to maintain his persona, shouting back at the stunned Jordan, "Save him..."

"Ugh..."

Well, no need to save him anymore.

Once Golden Boy was out of reach of Cate's hands—which were capable of deleting and altering memories—he regained consciousness in an instant.

Having flown outside the door, Ryan silently set him down.

Golden Boy stood up, swaying unsteadily on his feet.

"Cate..."

He clutched his head, calling his girlfriend's name with a dazed look, but the next second, he remembered everything.

With a whoosh, Golden Boy didn't say another word before activating his superpowers. Fierce flames began to spread across his skin, enveloping his entire body in the blink of an eye.

The fire roared, and the heat was stifling.

"Cate!!!"

Golden Boy bellowed in fury, "Cate, why, why would you do this to me!"

"I..."

"Golden Boy, calm down!"

The advice backfired; the moment she spoke, Golden Boy's attention shifted to Jordan.

He glared at Jordan, "And you, Jordan! Why did you help him drug me at the professor's office today? Aren't we... friends?"

Jordan's face went deathly pale, leaving her completely speechless.

"You're all in league with the academy!"

BOOM—

An even more violent wave of heat erupted, and the fire suppression system on the ceiling immediately blared with a piercing alarm.

The students who had originally wanted to come over to watch the commotion turned around and sprinted toward the emergency exits.

Not every superhuman possessed super-durability.

Besides, one had to consider who was currently tearing into each other: Golden Boy and Jordan, the second and third-ranked students in the academy.

If you didn't run fast, were you just waiting to die?

This super-powered battle had broken out suddenly, but it fit Ryan's script perfectly.

No, it was even better than that.

While keeping a close eye on Cate—the key figure—to ensure she didn't run off, he watched the spectacle with great interest.

When Ryan first overheard Jordan's whispered inner thoughts, he had instinctively assumed that dragging her into this would be advantageous for his interrogation of Cate.

He hadn't expected that after the two of them finished their "game" in the room, there would be even more juicy gossip for him to feast on.

This made things much easier for him.

That was exactly why, the moment his Super Hearing caught the conversation inside the room, he had urged Jordan to pick up the pace.

As for what came next—whether it was extracting Mitchell's whereabouts or confirming if the suspected super-virus capable of killing all superhumans was truly produced at this university—he had Golden Boy, the aggrieved party, to act as the spearhead and the pawn.

Just like right now.

A super-powered battle with immense destructive potential had broken out, and the dormitory was already suffering the consequences.

But in the midst of the fighting, through their fragmented dialogue, Ryan gradually pieced together what had happened between Golden Boy, Cate, and Jordan.

In short, Golden Boy had a younger brother named Sam. He thought his brother was dead, but in reality, his girlfriend Cate had cooperated with the school to use her own powers to tamper with his memories.

However, human memory is complex, so Cate's erasures and alterations couldn't last forever.

Today, Golden Boy's memories had awakened once again, and he had angrily confronted Professor Brink.

During the confrontation, Jordan had accidentally stumbled in. Professor Brink immediately ordered her to suppress the spiraling Golden Boy, and she had succeeded, earning herself a teaching assistant position in the process.

That was the full picture Ryan had gathered.

He glanced at Jordan, who was switching between male and female forms mid-fight, and nodded thoughtfully. Then, just as they were about to collide again, he fired a blast of Heat Vision between them.

Zzz—

The moment that signature beam appeared, the Fire Man—no, Golden Boy—whose brain had been flooded with rage and the heat of battle, immediately snapped back to his senses.

Jordan, who hadn't wanted to fight from the start, also stopped immediately. Both of them looked over.

Ryan cleared his throat, raised a hand, and brought Golden Boy back to reality with a single sentence: "Who is Sam? If he's being locked up by the school, shouldn't your priority be to save him?"

"Right! Sam... wait, you, you're Ryan!!!"

Fully awake now, Golden Boy realized that the one who had rescued him from Cate was none other than Homelander's son.

"Is Homelander coming? No, no, I—I mean, it's an honor to meet you, Ryan."

"But I have important information to report to Homelander. There is an evil laboratory hidden beneath this school!"

"They took my brother... so, is Homelander coming?"

Azu was certainly not coming, as Ryan had not yet notified him.

The reason he had kept this a secret and snuck over to investigate alone was entirely due to the strong illusion created by that old fox, Stan Edgar.

After the man took Mitchell and warned him, "I have my eyes on you," Ryan had assumed this was a shadow war belonging solely to the two of them.

He could choose not to play along, but the price would be Mitchell disappearing forever, with no one knowing whether he was dead or alive.

Thus, Ryan had no choice but to carry the weight of this situation on his own young shoulders.

After all, there were some things that he and Stan had tacitly agreed not to tell Azu.

Yet now, as Golden Boy felt disappointed that Homelander hadn't arrived, but still rallied his spirits to break into the underground laboratory, "The Woods," to rescue his brother, Ryan realized clearly.

He had definitely overthought Stan's act of taking Mitchell.

The man had simply been venting his anger and issuing a warning; otherwise, how could the security of such an important laboratory—a place truly researching a virus to kill supes—be so lax?

Dr. Cardosa, who managed the lab, huddled in a corner, shivering.

Cate, wearing only a thin layer of clothing and looking dazed, full of guilt and pain, crouched nearby.

In the breached laboratory, there were other supes who had been used for virus testing but were now freed; they surrounded the doctor, looking restless and ready to strike.

Ryan held a tightly sealed vial of the virus in his hand.

He looked at the canister with a grave expression, then asked in a heavy, precocious tone, "Dr. Cardosa, you say this virus you developed can kill all supes?"

"Y-yes! But I didn't want to research it..."

"Save your excuses for later! Now I ask you, you say this was a direct order given to you by Vought International?"

"Yes!"

"Who can testify to that?"

"The Dean!"

Dr. Cardosa, as if grabbing a lifeline, shouted desperately, "It was Dean Indira Shetty! She told me this was a company order!"

"I couldn't defy the company!"

"Impossible, Dean Shetty would never do that!"

At this moment, Cate, who had been very quiet since the incident began, suddenly stood up as if triggered.

She vehemently refuted the doctor's slander: "How could Dean Shetty want to kill everyone? She was clearly helping Golden Boy; only Sam's blood could keep Golden Boy's Super Strength growing."

Cardosa said dejectedly, "Sam's blood does indeed enhance Golden Boy's powers, but that was only part of the reason."

"Sam is a powerful supe. His body possesses super durability, Super Strength, and most importantly, he has super regenerative abilities."

"That is why his body was the perfect subject for the virus experiments."

Dr. Cardosa looked at Cate with a strange expression: "Shetty was lying to you, just as she lied to me."

After revealing the full truth, Dr. Cardosa immediately turned to Ryan: "Please believe me, I was truly deceived by Dean Shetty. I always thought this was a company order."

Ryan nodded and took his phone out of his pocket.

Jordan, standing behind him, was surprised to find that his phone had been on a call the entire time.

"Ashley, did you hear all of that?"

"Yes, Ryan. This is a terrifying matter, but I can guarantee that this is absolutely not a company directive. I have never heard of such a thing!"

"Then the situation is clear, Ashley..."

Ryan thought for a moment and said decisively, "Please contact Queen Maeve, who is near the school, immediately. Sync the location of Dean Indira Shetty and have her bring this Dean, whose intentions are unclear, here."

"Understood, Ryan."

After Ashley agreed on the phone, she paused and added with concern, "Ryan, why don't you leave that place first? I will handle the rest."

"Thank you, Ashley, but don't worry..."

As he spoke, he looked at the button he had just pressed on his watch, his tone becoming light: "I have already notified Dad. He will protect me."