Sorry, Stan. I Misunderstood You

"Whoa, this is not suitable for kids!"

The moment Ryan burst through the door, he let out a quick cry.

Then he went full speed, flying straight over and scooping up Golden Boy while Cate was still stunned that Jordan had caught her using her powers on her boyfriend.

As he made his escape, he didn't forget to keep up appearances. He shouted to Jordan, who was just as stunned, "Save him..."

"Mm..."

Never mind. There was no need to save him.

Once Golden Boy was out of Cate's hands—the ones that could erase and alter memories—he regained consciousness in an instant.

Ryan had already flown outside the room. He quietly set him down.

Golden Boy wobbled to his feet, his little bird hanging out.

"Cate..."

Clutching his head, he called out his girlfriend's name with a dazed look in his eyes. But a moment later, he remembered everything.

In a flash, Golden Boy activated his powers without a word. Fierce flames spread across his body, engulfing him from head to toe in the blink of an eye.

The flames roared, and waves of heat surged outward.

"Cate!!!"

Golden Boy roared furiously. "Cate, why—why would you do this to me?!"

"I..."

"Golden Boy, calm down!"

The attempt to calm him only drew his attention to Jordan.

He glared at her. "And you, Jordan! At Professor Brink's office today, why did you help him knock me out? Weren't we... friends?"

Jordan's face went pale. She was at a complete loss for words.

"You and the university are in this together!"

BOOM—

An even more intense wave of heat erupted, and the fire-suppression system above the room blared its piercing alarm.

The students who had heard the commotion and come over to see what was happening immediately turned and ran for the emergency exits.

Not every supe had super durability.

And just look at who was fighting. Golden Boy and Jordan were ranked second and third at the university.

Did they want to die? They'd better run.

The supe fight erupted without warning, but it played right into Ryan's plan.

No, it was even better than he'd expected.

Keeping a close eye on Cate, the key figure, to make sure she didn't get away, Ryan watched the spectacle with relish.

When Ryan had first heard Jordan's whispered confession, he'd instinctively thought that dragging her into this would make it easier to question Cate.

He hadn't expected there to be even more dirt on the two of them after they'd finished playing their little game.

That saved him a lot of trouble.

It was also why he'd urged Jordan to hurry as soon as his Super Hearing picked up their conversation inside the room.

As for what came next—whether it was finding out where Mitchell was, or determining whether the supe-killing virus really had been developed at this university—Golden Boy, the victim, could take the lead and do the dirty work.

Just like he was doing now.

A supe battle with tremendous destructive power had broken out, and the campus dormitory was caught in the crossfire.

But as the fight went on, Ryan pieced together what had happened to Golden Boy, Cate, and Jordan through their scattered conversation.

In short, Golden Boy had a younger brother named Sam. He thought his brother was dead, but in reality, his girlfriend Cate had worked with the university to alter his memories using her powers.

Human memory was complicated, though, so Cate's erasures and alterations couldn't last forever.

Today, Golden Boy had recovered his memories again and angrily confronted Professor Brink.

During the confrontation, Jordan had accidentally barged in. Professor Brink immediately ordered her to subdue Golden Boy, who was on the verge of losing control. She succeeded and was rewarded with an assistant professor position.

That was everything Ryan had managed to piece together.

He glanced at Jordan, who switched effortlessly between male and female forms as she fought, and nodded thoughtfully. Then, just as the two were about to clash again, he fired a blast of Heat Vision between them.

ZZZ—

The moment that distinctive beam appeared, the fire-wreathed man—no, Golden Boy—whose mind had been consumed by rage and battle frenzy, immediately snapped back to his senses.

Jordan, who hadn't wanted to fight in the first place, stopped at once. The two of them turned to look at Ryan.

Ryan cleared his throat, raised a hand, and asked a question that cut straight to the point. "Who's Sam? If the university has him locked up, shouldn't we be rescuing him?"

"Right! Sam... Wait, you—you're Ryan!"

Only now that he'd fully come to his senses did Golden Boy realize that the one who had saved him from Cate was Homelander's son.

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

"But I have something important to report to Homelander. There's an evil laboratory hidden beneath this university!"

"They took my brother... So, is Homelander here?"

Homelander wasn't going to show up, of course. Ryan hadn't contacted him.

The reason Ryan had kept this to himself and snuck over to investigate was that Stan Edgar's actions had given him a powerful misconception.

After Edgar took Mitchell away and warned him, "I've got my eye on you," Ryan had assumed this was a secret war between the two of them.

He could refuse to play along, but the price would be that Mitchell disappeared for good, and no one would know whether she was alive or dead.

So Ryan had to shoulder the burden of protecting his family with his own young shoulders.

After all, there were some things that he and Stan had tacitly agreed they couldn't tell Homelander.

But now, when Golden Boy was disappointed to find that Homelander hadn't come, yet still rallied and broke into the underground laboratory known as "the Woods" to rescue his brother, Ryan finally realized the truth.

He'd completely misread Stan's decision to take Mitchell.

Edgar had simply done it to vent his anger and issue a warning. Otherwise, how could the security at such an important laboratory—one that really was developing a virus capable of killing supes—be so lax?

Dr. Cardosa, the scientist in charge of the lab, crouched in a corner with his shoulders hunched, trembling in fear.

Cate, dressed in nothing but a light shirt and looking dazed, guilt-ridden, and miserable, crouched nearby.

Inside the breached laboratory, several supes who had been experimented on with the virus had been rescued. They gathered around the doctor, itching for a fight and cracking their knuckles.

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

He glanced at the container with a grave expression, then asked in a solemn, almost grown-up voice, "Dr. Cardosa, are you saying the virus you developed can kill every supe?"

"Yes, yes! But I didn't want to develop it..."

"You can make excuses later. Right now, tell me: are you saying Vought International gave you explicit orders to do this?"

"Yes!"

"Who can confirm that?"

"The dean!"

As though he'd just been thrown a lifeline, Dr. Cardosa shouted desperately, "Dean Indira Shetty! She told me it was an order from the company!"

"I couldn't disobey Vought!"

"That's impossible. Dean Shetty would never do something like that!"

Cate, who had behaved herself ever since the incident began, suddenly sprang to her feet as though she'd been deeply shaken.

She vehemently refuted the doctor's accusation. "Why would Dean Shetty want to kill everyone? She was helping Golden Boy. Only Sam's blood could make Golden Boy's powers stronger and stronger."

Dr. Cardosa hung his head. "Sam's blood can indeed strengthen Golden Boy's powers, but that was only part of the reason."

"Sam is a powerful supe. His body has Super Durability and Super Strength, and, most importantly, he also has the ability to recover supernaturally fast."

"That made his body the perfect test subject for the virus experiments."

Dr. Cardosa gave Cate a strange look. "Shetty was deceiving you. She deceived me too."

Having revealed the whole truth, Dr. Cardosa immediately turned to Ryan. "Please believe me. Dean Shetty really did trick me. I always thought these were orders from the company."

Ryan nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

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

"Ashley, did you hear all that?"

"Yes, Ryan. This is horrifying, but I can guarantee that it absolutely wasn't a company order. I've never heard of anything like it!"

"Then it's clear what we need to do, Ashley..."

Ryan considered it for a moment, then made a decisive call. "Contact Queen Maeve, who's near the university, immediately. Also, send her Dean Indira Shetty's location and have her bring in the dean, whose intentions are unclear."

"Understood, Ryan."

Ashley acknowledged him over the phone, then paused and asked worriedly, "Ryan, why don't you leave now? I'll handle the rest."

"Thanks, Ashley, but don't worry..."

As he spoke, he glanced at the button on his watch, which he'd just pressed. His tone turned light. "I've already notified Dad. He'll protect me."