Superpowers

That man was someone Becca had kept hidden.

A man she refused to talk about.

In name, he was Ryan's biological father.

The people of this land called him

"Homelander."

The name meant someone who protected his homeland.

In short, he was ridiculously powerful.

Ryan recalled the memories of his previous life, memories of this world.

The story of this world unfolded through an organization called The Boys, and Homelander was their enemy.

As an enemy, his abilities were naturally so overpowered they might as well have been a bug.

His superpowers, in particular, put other supes to shame.

Put simply, Homelander's powers brought Superman to mind.

First, there were his laser eyes.

Among Homelander's many powers, one especially devastating ability let him fire rays from his eyes that burned through anything.

He could draw a red circle on the ground or turn a city into a sea of flames.

He could even bring down a plane. Literally.

Ryan desperately wanted that power. It was the first superpower he intended to develop.

To be honest, Ryan didn't really understand how focusing a laser worked.

All he could do was stare intently at one spot.

He imagined that if he did, lasers would shoot from his eyes.

They definitely would.

After all, Ryan was Homelander's son. If that man could do it, Ryan should be able to as well.

After a long while,

Ryan, brimming with confidence, noticed something.

In the grove bathed in gentle morning light, on a leaf lying on the ground,

"There's an ant."

"It's crawling so slowly."

"My eyes are tired. Better blink."

Ryan rubbed his eyes and sighed. Developing a superpower was nothing like he had imagined.

He had stared for ages.

His eyes were exhausted.

And he hadn't managed a damn thing.

Something had to be wrong. Dejected, Ryan sat down beside a tree and opened the lunch Becca had packed for him.

Inside were neatly arranged sandwiches.

Soft slices of white bread held ham and cabbage. Just looking at them made him hungry.

So Ryan picked one up and started eating.

He thought about his original plan for developing his superpower.

Plan A: focus his gaze.

But as it turned out,

focusing his gaze only made him cross-eyed.

With that experiment a failure, Ryan moved on to Plan B.

Plan B came from the show he had watched in his previous life. In the original story, Ryan used his power when he was furious.

Then, with a roar of helpless rage, lasers shot from his eyes.

They burned everything in his field of vision.

Anger.

Once he understood that, Ryan stuffed the sandwich into his mouth.

Chew, chew, chew.

As for the taste, Ryan wasn't a fan.

Because that woman Becca had slipped something extra into the sandwich again.

She had actually put mustard in it.

Who could eat a sandwich with mustard? Not him. But he couldn't stop eating, or his stomach would complain first.

Either way, the disappointing food stirred anger in Ryan's heart.

He checked how he felt.

Good. He could feel the anger building, and his fists had clenched too.

But it wasn't enough. He needed more.

Ryan searched his mind for things that made him angry.

Soon, he found a few.

Like turning on a show and finding spoilers in the comments before the first episode had even begun.

Anger surged through him, and Ryan started muttering curses to himself.

"Spoiling things might feel great for a moment..."

Then he kept digging through his memories.

A word suddenly surfaced in his mind like a lit fuse, sending him into a towering rage.

He could barely contain it.

The word was short and to the point.

"NTR."

Ryan gritted his teeth. All his anger burst out at once, and he felt something shoot from his eyes.

"True love warriors must destroy NTR!"

Ryan's roar startled the birds roosting in the grove, shattering the quiet of the morning.

A blue beam shot straight from Ryan's eyes and struck the tree trunk ahead.

It burned clean through the thick trunk, leaving a black hole.

The sight and sheer power left Ryan speechless. He hurried over to the trunk in a daze.

"Holy shit, I made this huge hole."

"Holy shit, I really did make it."

"I'm awesome."

Ryan reached out and touched the blackened wood around the hole.

The charred section crumbled at the slightest touch, as if it were snow melting away.

All that remained between his fingers was black powder.

Ryan looked up at the tree's green branches and leaves.

The lush green tree might already be dead, held upright only by the thin rim of trunk around the hollow.

A heavy rain might bring it down someday.

Even though Ryan had expected something powerful, the damage shook him.

He drew back his hand in fear. And that had only hit a tree.

What if it hit a person?

He had no right to take someone else's life.

A dangerous power like this should be sealed away.

As if he could possibly seal it away. The corners of Ryan's mouth were already twitching.

He could barely hold back his delight or stop himself from laughing aloud.

This superpower was exactly what he wanted.

Weakness bred misfortune. Only a power this strong could protect him.

It was what he would rely on to survive.

In the end, all misfortune in the world came from the people involved not being strong enough.

Ryan was beside himself with joy.

In high spirits, Ryan returned to the tree, picked up another sandwich, pulled apart the bread, and threw away the tomato.

Then he put it in his mouth.

He thought about what came next.

With this power, I'll be the one who decides the course and order of The Boys' world.

The rest of his plan was simple. Ryan knew he was still growing.

For now, he should lie low, grow stronger little by little, and wait for the right moment.

Even the birdsong in the grove, which had long since begun to annoy him, had fallen silent.

Feeling good, Ryan couldn't resist aiming at a patch of ground in the distance.

"Laser Eyes!"

He even said the move's name out loud, embarrassing as it was.

After he spoke, the air went still.

A long moment passed.

A cool breeze brushed his cheek and brought Ryan back to his senses.

He stuffed the sandwich into his mouth.

Chew, chew.

The failure of his power left him speechless.

"You've got to be kidding me. Why does this thing only work sometimes?"

It wasn't ideal, but Ryan didn't get discouraged.

Because Ryan was an optimist.

"When I run into an enemy, I'll just say, 'Hang on. Let me think of something that makes me angry.'"

Jokes aside, he knew he couldn't rush things. He had only just awakened this power. How could he master it so quickly?

With steady practice, he would gradually learn to control his power and bring out its full potential.

Eventually, using it would become a habit, as natural as breathing.

Ryan considered how he would develop his power from here.

If anger brought it out, he would first get used to how that felt. Then, little by little, over the years,

he would learn to use his power even when he was calm.

It would take sustained practice. But Ryan fixed a determined gaze on the black hole in the tree trunk beside him.

"I'll master this superpower. I know I will."