Change

Elsewhere, Ryan followed the starlight back to his house.

Another night passed.

The next day, he showed up at Seven Tower as usual.

It was time for the weekly meeting. When he entered the conference room, several superheroes were already seated around the table.

A-Train, Maeve, The Deep, Homelander...

Translucent's seat was empty. Ryan knew he wasn't coming.

But no one cared. The members of The Seven had no real affection for one another. Ryan found a seat and sat down.

Homelander began the usual meeting. As for Translucent's absence, he only grumbled about it for a moment.

Then he moved on.

There was something else Homelander wanted to hear.

"Let's hear my favorite kind of superhero story."

With that, he looked toward the far end of the conference table.

The team's newest superhero, Starlight, sat there.

Her costume had been altered. It no longer showed as much skin as before.

Dressed like this, she actually looked something like a superhero.

She hadn't prepared a speech, either. She simply began talking.

"After work yesterday, I ran into some scumbags harassing a girl and beat the hell out of them."

Homelander nodded at her account. He seemed to know about it already.

"Those scumbags posted a video of you beating them online. Everyone's calling you a villain who uses her powers however she likes. All right, next."

"..."

Apparently only just learning how people saw her, Starlight's expression darkened. She took out her phone and opened it, ignoring meeting etiquette.

Her finger swept across the screen. Before long, her face looked worse and worse.

She was about to type a reply in her own defense when the conference room door opened.

Ashley came in. She apologized nervously, then asked Starlight to come with her.

Homelander gave his permission, and Starlight was led away. Before she left, she grabbed Ryan's hand.

"Come with me. Ashley's definitely going to yell at me again."

"You think she doesn't know enough insults on her own, so you want me to help?"

"No."

Starlight looked at Ryan. He always talked like that. It was infuriating.

But irritation aside, she somehow found him more and more dependable. Having him nearby put her at ease.

Like with her costume. No amount of arguing had helped, but Ryan had said a few words and gotten her normal clothes back.

She could rely on him this time, too.

Except Ryan's face plainly said, Stop bothering me. Go away.

Starlight had nothing better to bargain with. She gritted her teeth.

"If you come with me, I'll stay and keep you company during your meeting here tonight."

"?"

"That's not enough?"

"Don't use yourself as a bargaining chip."

"I don't get it."

"It lowers your worth as a woman."

In truth, Ryan found sitting in the conference room listening to the superheroes talk boring anyway. Since Starlight had asked,

he could go with her.

Ryan let himself be persuaded and left the conference room. He followed Ashley and Starlight down the hall.

The three of them walked along the corridor and entered a meeting room.

Someone had poured water and left it on the table. There was no steam rising from it; it seemed to be cold.

Ashley had no interest in drinking. She opened her phone and found the video at the top of the trending list.

"You've really done it this time, Starlight."

Sarcasm dripped from her voice. Ryan glanced at the screen.

It showed Starlight beating people up.

Someone had clearly edited the footage. In the video, Starlight looked entirely like the aggressor, pummeling several people black and blue in an alley.

Ryan read the comments beneath it.

"So Starlight's a violent psycho. I'm not a fan anymore."

"That hurt just to watch. Starlight doesn't deserve to be a superhero."

"I want her to hit me too. How much per punch?"

Such warmhearted comments from the internet. Ryan muttered,

"Looks like it's getting a great response."

Ashley nearly jumped out of her chair.

"You call this great? Starlight's become a stain on the team."

"What stain?"

"She's part of The Seven. When she does something people condemn, the other superheroes get blamed too."

Ryan understood why. Most people believed that when one member of a team did something wrong, the others shared the blame.

But Ryan was more interested in how Ashley would handle it.

He watched Starlight throw punches and kicks on the screen.

"Are you going to cut ties with a hero who beats people this fast?"

Ashley shook her head, looking deeply aggrieved.

"We can't cut ties. We've spent a fortune promoting her, and we haven't earned a cent of it back."

Only then did Ashley notice that the person at the center of the mess hadn't said a word.

She looked around the room for Starlight.

It didn't take long to find her.

Starlight sat on the guest sofa, holding a glass of water. She blew gently across it before taking a drink.

Sensing Ashley's gaze, Starlight raised her head, though she wasn't looking at Ashley.

She looked at Ryan.

"Want some? I cooled it down for you."

"You blew on cold water to cool it down?"

"Mm-hmm. I got some of my saliva in it while I was blowing."

Seeing that Ryan didn't want any, she obediently held the glass and drank it all down.

Ryan could tell something was wrong now, too.

"Wait. Can you fucking pay attention to your own problem?"

The video of Starlight beating people up kept climbing in popularity, and the comments grew more hurtful.

Some had nothing to do with what had happened. The commenters were just venting the frustrations of their own lives.

Starlight closed her eyes. She seemed determined not to read them.

"I can't. Those comments would make me so angry I'd want to hit someone."

Seeing her give up like that left Ryan speechless.

"Don't run away from reality."

"Running away may be shameful, but it works."

"Like hell it does."

Ryan noticed Ashley beside him. She was barely holding back her anger. If Starlight hadn't been stronger than her,

Ashley probably would have torn her apart already.

Still, Ashley was a competent professional. She set aside her surging emotions and kept her tone as gentle as she could.

"This assault has had a huge impact. Starlight, you need to explain what led up to it, or seek forgiveness from the victims in the video."

Starlight understood perfectly well. She was honest as ever.

"The only thing I can't forgive is that I didn't beat them to death on the spot."

"..."

Ashley had nothing to say. Ryan sat down on the sofa, too.

"Starlight, aren't you worried? Are you okay with leaving The Seven because of that video?"

"But I have you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. How about I wear this superhero costume to keep you company at your meeting tonight?"

"Have you lost your mind?"

Despite what he said, Ryan had Ashley sit down, and the two of them talked it through.

They decided to follow Starlight's version of events: find the girl she had saved and have her come forward to clear things up.

In truth, whether it was true hardly mattered. If they couldn't find the truth, they could make one up and get the people involved to keep quiet.

With a workable solution in place, Ashley left with a headache.

She still had plenty to do because of Starlight. Talking through a plan was easy; the real workload fell to Vought International employees like her.

Starlight showed no sign of understanding that. She stayed on the sofa and opened the video.

Then,

she proudly held the screen up for Ryan.

"Look at that girl in the video. Every punch she threw was a punch for justice."

Ryan didn't care what kind of punches they were. He left the room and stepped outside.

He had spent a while with Starlight, so the meeting was probably over. Thinking about Compound V,

he decided to check with Hughie first and see whether they had managed to get hold of any ahead of schedule.

He walked down the corridor and stepped into an elevator. Madelyn was inside, about to press a button.

Ryan greeted the Vought International vice president and pressed a button as well.

When the doors closed, he and Madelyn were alone in the cramped space.

Something seemed to occur to Madelyn, and she spoke to him.

"You're not a child anymore, are you?"

"No, but you're certainly all grown up."

"Didn't Becca teach you to show your elders some respect?"

"She taught me not to talk to Madelyn."

"She can barely hold a conversation with anyone."

Madelyn thought of the woman hiding behind the walls she had built around herself. Becca had originally been meant to keep Homelander in check.

But now she was no use at all.

Ryan, on the other hand, was useful.

"Ryan, I want to find you a woman."

"Feel free to think about it."

"Don't be so resistant, Ryan. You're a natural-born superhuman. You've proved that superhuman abilities can be inherited."

"Meaning there are man-made superhumans, too."

Madelyn apparently had no intention of hiding it.

"Yes. Everyone else was made. Their powers were cultivated through science and technology. They aren't the chosen ones Vought International claims they are."

"Everyone in The Seven knows?"

"Except Starlight."

"Why not tell her?"

"She's too young and too full of dreams. She couldn't keep it to herself."

The elevator doors opened on Madelyn's office floor. She held out a hand, inviting Ryan to follow her.

Wanting to learn more, Ryan followed. As they walked down the corridor, Madelyn remained calm.

"Take Starlight. A wish that's hard to achieve is called a dream. But once you act and work toward it, it becomes ambition."

Ryan looked around Madelyn's office floor. The corridor walls were transparent glass, and sunlight streamed through them.

It fell beneath his feet. He watched the patches of light and shadow shift across the floor.

"Madelyn, what's your ambition?"

"For now, to get superhumans into the military."

"Is that so?"

Ryan had little interest in what Madelyn wanted to do. She felt differently; her eyes gleamed.

"Ryan, do you know how rare it is for someone to inherit superpowers like you did?"

"No matter how rare I am, I'm still just someone with superpowers."

"You still don't understand. If Homelander's powers can be inherited, all you have to do is keep having children. The world will be beneath our feet."

"?"

Madelyn stopped and moved to the glass wall, gazing into the distance.

"Look at all these skyscrapers. Manhattan is home to the extravagant world of Wall Street. The whole world watches its market values rise and fall. Don't you want to own it all?"

"That's what you want."

"Yes. So I'll find you any woman who catches your eye, Ryan. If you're willing, keep having children for the world Vought International will lead."

Her ambition rode the sunlight through the window and pierced Ryan's heart like a needle.