It was an unremarkable motel with surprisingly thick walls.
Someone was already waiting for him inside the room.
The man himself looked completely ordinary.
He had a slight beer belly, an unkempt beard, and was dressed in nothing more than a simple shirt and a pair of jeans.
There was absolutely nothing about him that suggested he was the obscure superhero he actually was.
“Hello! It’s a great honor to meet you!” The man immediately jumped to his feet the moment the famous hero entered the room.
“Let’s get straight to business, Multiplier.” Homelander sighed, making it obvious that he wasn’t particularly thrilled about being there.
If anyone knew exactly what kind of services Multiplier offered, they might lose their appetite just thinking about it.
Knowing what the man was capable of, John was actually surprised by how many clients he had.
Apparently, there were plenty of rich people who were completely out of their minds if they were willing to spend that kind of money on Multiplier’s services.
“Nobody’s called me that in a long time. You can just call me Sam.” The man awkwardly corrected him, his eyes wandering over the fake muscles of Homelander’s superhero costume with open admiration.
“Fine, Sam.” Homelander sighed, agreeing to use his name.
“Let’s get to the point.”
“Right. Ahem… Supes don’t usually come to me.” Sam sat down on the edge of the bed, bouncing slightly on the mattress.
He seemed genuinely delighted that his idol had bothered to call him by his first name.
“First, we need to establish how identical you want the clone to be to the original. I need to know what you intend to use it for.”
“I want a complete clone, with all the implications that come with that.”
“That’ll take more than an hour, and…” Sam hesitated, clearly uncomfortable bringing up the price.
“It’ll be expensive.”
“Do I look like someone who’s going to haggle over a few dollars, Sam? How much?”
“Three million.” Sam pressed his lips together.
“That price usually scares most people away. And the clone won’t have a mind of its own. It’ll only possess basic instincts.”
“That’s fine. The clone’s body needs to be completely identical to the original. That’s all I want. Nothing more.”
“All right. Then we can begin.” Sam nervously licked his lips before reaching into his bag and pulling out a plastic container filled with pills.
“I need ten minutes alone.”
“Go ahead.”
John watched as the man locked himself inside the bathroom.
There was no way John was going to let Multiplier perform his tricks without keeping an eye on him.
He wanted to make absolutely certain there wasn’t some kind of catch.
The man immediately swallowed two pills and grimaced, clutching his stomach for a while.
Then things got interesting.
He leaned over the toilet, and a foamy substance suddenly poured out of his mouth.
It was the partially digested food that had been sitting in his stomach.
Apparently, the pills helped him purge any excess organic matter from his stomach.
The whole process took less than five minutes, after which he managed to clean himself up.
“We can start now.” Sam let out a heavy breath as he stepped out of the bathroom.
“Did you bring blood, hair, or anything else?”
“Yes.”
John pulled out a small resealable plastic bag containing the samples.
Getting them hadn’t been difficult.
They had been given to him willingly, after all.
“Excellent.” Sam took the blood in his hands.
After a moment’s hesitation, he drank it.
Then he swallowed the hair.
His face twisted in disgust.
Clearly, he wasn’t enjoying the experience either.
And this was only the beginning.
The next few hours were going to be considerably worse, and he would probably spend most of them cursing the decision he’d made.
John had to wait for about forty minutes.
During that time, Sam simply sat on the bed.
His face looked as though he had simultaneously bitten into a lemon, was desperately trying to hold back a sudden bout of diarrhea, and was experiencing the worst stomachache of his life.
It was quite the sight.
At least, John thought so.
But with his abilities, he could see far more than anyone else.
He watched as something slowly took shape inside Multiplier’s body.
Somehow, a clone was forming from the blood and hair he had consumed.
It was a bizarre sight.
Fascinating, too.
Eventually, the man suddenly sprang to his feet and turned toward the bed.
He pulled off his shirt.
Then the flesh around his stomach began to separate, revealing a complete copy of Becca.
The sight of a man groaning in agony as a woman slowly emerged from his body was hardly pleasant, at least from an aesthetic standpoint.
Fortunately, the unpleasant process eventually came to an end.
The promised clone was lying on the bed.
There was no intelligence in her eyes.
Just an empty shell.
Perfect.
“You can leave.” John dismissed the exhausted man.
Sam nodded weakly before stumbling out through the door.
John locked it behind him and finally got to the most important part.
He took out the syringe he’d brought along with the doses of Compound V and filled it with the liquid.
Then, following the instructions he’d been given, he carefully inserted the needle into one of the clone’s kidneys.
He waited.
The reaction was immediate.
“Mmmmmmmgh!”
The clone struggled violently as John held her body in place.
Her entire body began changing.
John calmly exhaled and waited for the transformation to finish.
After all, he couldn’t risk putting the mother of his child in danger without knowing whether the process would work.
That was exactly what the clone was for.
The next day, John placed a large dumbbell in front of Ryan.
The number ten was painted across its side.
John lifted it with one finger and smiled at the boy, while Becca watched with slight concern.
She didn’t interfere, though.
She trusted that John knew what he was doing.
“It’s hollow inside,” John explained, placing the weight on the ground.
“Try lifting it.”
“Okay.”
Ryan answered uncertainly, noticing his mother’s strange expression.
He grabbed the thick handle with both hands and slowly pulled upward.
His face tightened with effort as he gradually lifted the weight to his chest before dropping it back onto the ground.
“Hah… That’s heavy. Why did you make me lift it?”
“Now go home. You can play with something.”
Ryan smiled innocently and ran back toward the house.
For just a moment, though, he looked thoughtful.
Becca, meanwhile, walked over to the weight.
She grabbed the handle and pulled.
Nothing happened.
She couldn’t even lift it a centimeter off the ground.
She stared at John in shock.
“That’s seventy kilograms, or one hundred and fifty-four feet.” John immediately explained when she gave him a questioning look.
“Twice his weight…” Becca muttered in disbelief, finally realizing just how strong her son was.
“Eventually, he’ll be able to lift much more. It’s only a matter of time.” John was basing that conclusion on his own development, or rather, Homelander’s.
“But don’t forget that he’s still a child. He isn’t capable of defending himself yet.”
“And that’s why you’re suggesting that I inject myself with Compound V?” Becca asked cautiously.
She knew from everything John had told her that the drug was absolutely not recommended for adults.
“I won’t always be around, and you need to understand that, Becca.”
“What about side effects? Are there any?”
That was the question that would ultimately determine whether she agreed.
“I’ve checked everything. There won’t be any side effects, at least nothing involving an obvious physical mutation.”
“If you say so…” Becca sighed.
She understood that refusing would be foolish.
Not when her son’s peaceful life depended on it.
“Does it hurt?”
“Excruciatingly.”
John didn’t bother lying to her.
“You probably should’ve lied about that.” Becca rolled her eyes.
“I don’t want to lose your trust.”
“As if that matters so much.” The woman smirked.
Despite the grim subject, John’s words had clearly pleased her.
“It matters to me…” John replied with a smile.
Becca didn’t answer.
She didn’t have to.
The sound of her heartbeat told him everything he needed to know.
He had definitely earned her trust.
“When can we start?” she asked, taking a deep breath before practically jumping in place as if she were about to throw herself off a cliff.
“Right now, if you want.”
“Then what are we waiting for? If it’s going to hurt anyway, why put it off?”
Becca tried lifting the weight again, but once more, she couldn’t move it.
“If that’s what you want.”
John nodded and went inside to retrieve a syringe containing a dose of Compound V, along with some cotton and alcohol.
“We should move somewhere farther away so no one can hear the screaming.”
“You do realize how incredibly suggestive that sounded, right?” Becca laughed as she headed toward a more secluded part of the forest.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
John smiled and followed her.
If he were in her position, he’d probably be much more nervous.
The forest wasn’t particularly dense, but it was more than enough to conceal two people doing something that would look rather suspicious from a distance.
They quickly found a secluded spot.
Becca then had to lie stomach-down across a fallen tree.
“Is this hygienic?” she asked belatedly, as if she’d only just realized where John intended to inject her.
“We’re in a forest. There’s dirt, bacteria, and animal droppings everywhere. Of course it’s hygienic.” John snorted.
He wiped the area around her kidneys with alcohol-soaked cotton.
Then he handed her a wooden spatula from the kitchen.
“Bite down on this.”
“Ha… ha… ha… Very funny, John. I’m dying of laughter.”
Becca flinched as the needle slowly pierced her skin.
Then John injected the Compound V.
The spatula immediately found its way between her teeth.
“Done.”
John pulled the needle out and immediately noticed the changes taking place inside her body.
Becca let out a savage growl and clenched down on the spatula with all her strength.
A sharp crack echoed through the forest.
John immediately climbed on top of her to keep her from moving.
The pain she experienced was hellish.
It felt as though lava were flowing through her veins instead of blood.
Her body temperature shot upward, and she began thrashing violently, growling as she tried to escape his grip.
Her fingers clawed into the bark of the fallen tree.
The scratches grew deeper and deeper until they looked like the marks left behind by some kind of predator.
And there was a very good reason for that.
Black claws were rapidly growing from beneath her fingernails.
Each one was at least eight centimeters long.
The tree wasn’t the only thing that suffered from her newfound ferocity.
John did too.
More specifically, his clothes.
Within a couple of minutes, she’d shredded his shirt into ribbons with her claws.
Her eyes filled with red fury, and she remained unconscious to everything around her for another ten minutes before finally passing out.
“Looks like… everything went well.”
John spoke uncertainly as he watched the claws retract back into her fingers.
Without wasting any time, he picked her up and carried her toward the house.
She needed a good night’s sleep, especially after such an unpleasant experience.
Becca slept for nearly thirty minutes.
John didn’t leave her bedside for even a moment.
He examined her body with his X-ray vision, looking for any differences between her transformation and the clone’s.
But since the mutation was identical, there were barely any differences at all.
“Don’t tell me you spent the entire day sitting here waiting for me to wake up.”
Becca grimaced and turned her head toward him.
The pain was gone, although the memory of it remained painfully vivid.
“It was only thirty minutes, and everything went fine. I just wanted to make sure…” John waved his hand dismissively.
“Actually, never mind.”
“Now you have to finish that sentence. I’ll die of curiosity otherwise!” Becca complained, although she was clearly joking.
“Fine. I was worried you’d lose control again.”
“Yeah. The growling, the red eyes, trying to kill everything around you.” He glanced at his ruined shirt.
“You shredded my entire shirt. And it was my favorite.”
He decided to be honest with her, adding a faint note of accusation to his voice.
“Okaaay…”
Becca drew out the word as she extended one hand in front of herself and stared at it curiously.
“I think I remember doing that.”
John watched with interest as she took a deep breath and slowly extended the long claws from her fingertips.
Becca stared at them in shock.
The black claws looked intimidating enough simply sitting there.
And judging by what they could do…
“Holy shit. I thought it was going to hurt.”
Becca stared at them in disbelief.
“You really are shocked.” John snorted.
It was the first time he’d ever heard her swear.
“How do I retract them?”
She looked at John questioningly.
He simply shrugged.
“Fine. I’ll figure it out myself.”
“You’re quick.”
John smirked as the claws smoothly retracted back into her fingers after she concentrated on them.
Apparently, it worked on instinct.
Much like his heat vision, which could never activate without him consciously willing it to happen.
“You know, it’s like riding a bicycle. Except it’s even easier.”
Becca smiled as she extended and retracted the claws again without the slightest discomfort.
That confirmed John’s theory.
Suddenly, she jumped out of bed and ran downstairs.
John followed her, eventually finding himself in the yard.
She was already much faster and more flexible than before, easily clearing the stairs in a single leap.
He had no choice but to follow.
Becca picked up the weight with a grin and even began playing with it, tossing it into the air and catching it again.
“This is so cool!” Becca exclaimed excitedly.
By then, two spectators were watching her.
“What’s happening to Mom?” Ryan asked, having come outside to see where she’d run off to.
“The first forty years of childhood are the hardest part of a girl’s life. Though I suppose that applies to boys too.”
John smiled while the so-called “girl” glared at him indignantly.
Suddenly, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
He checked the message and then turned toward Becca.
“I have to go. Work.”
“Okay.”
The woman nodded, completely out of breath.
John nodded back and headed inside to change clothes.
“A simple country girl wanted to change the world…”
A narrator’s voice played over a montage of footage.
“Since when did ‘full of hope’ and ‘naive’ become synonyms?”
Starlight’s voice followed.
“Despite every obstacle, she made herself heard. Loudly. Sincerely. Her voice broke through with an unstoppable roar! Hear her story! Before your very eyes, she’ll rise up and fight back, for all of us! Citizen Starlight! A Vought production.”
The monologue ended over a catchy Katy Perry song, revealing the title of the new show.
“Why do I feel…” Annie pressed her lips together.
“Disgusted?”
She looked at me after the commercial ended.
“Even absolute truth becomes sickeningly sweet once it’s packaged for television.” I snorted.
“And somehow, it becomes even less truthful.”
I was reminded of all those scandalous reality shows that exploited ordinary people’s suffering for ratings, turning their difficult, sometimes downright disgusting family relationships into entertainment.
I sighed and sprawled out across the couch.
I could afford to relax like this.
These were my private apartments, after all.
Annie smiled at my behavior before lying down beside me.
She stared into my eyes.
For far too long.
“Is it always going to be like this?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not exactly an optimist.”
The blonde girl snorted and fell silent for several seconds, simply staring at me.
“What?”
“You have such deep blue eyes…” Annie murmured.
“It’s like they’re physically pulling me in. They give me goosebumps.”
She gently kissed me on the lips.
“Interesting observation.”
I smirked after we pulled apart.
“You know, there’s a beach in the Bahamas where the sand is literally pink.”
Annie spoke thoughtfully.
“What’s it called?”
“Pink Sand Beach.”
She smiled shyly and snuggled closer to me.
“What if we flew there?”
“Why not? Although if we fly there like this, you’re going to freeze everything off.”
I snorted, remembering her previous experience flying with me.
Her expression immediately turned indignant.
“I meant on a plane!”
“I know.”
I smiled and pulled the blonde back toward me when she tried to move away.
“Sure. I’m in.”
“Really?” Annie asked hopefully.
“Absolutely.”
I answered confidently, already expecting another kiss as thanks.
“Then why are we still lying here? The sooner we get to the airport, the sooner we’ll be on the beach!”
She jumped to her feet and looked at me expectantly, completely oblivious to the disappointment on my face.
“Fine, you win.”
I rolled my eyes.
Then I remembered that I apparently had my own private plane, courtesy of the company.
For once, I might as well use it for its intended purpose.