“Mentor.”
Los looked at Iron Man and gave a genuine nod.
He had already felt something off about his ability before now.
Given enough time, he probably would have figured out the true nature of it himself.
But Stark’s analysis had cut that process short by a significant margin and spared him a lot of wasted effort.
None of that had been part of the deal they’d negotiated.
Stark had given it freely.
“Relax, I was half-joking.
You don’t have to take it that seriously.”
Stark laughed, a little thrown by Los’s sincerity.
He knew from experience that teaching someone young wasn’t just about pouring knowledge into them.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he never goes hungry.
That was a lesson he’d only really understood after working with Peter Parker.
Los and Stark were still talking when Injustice Superman, who had been watching from his corner without a word, broke his silence.
“Tedious.”
The voice was low and solid, reverberating through the deep space around them.
In Injustice Superman’s view, everything Stark called knowledge, everything Los was doing to develop his ability, was small-scale tinkering.
The kind of thing children did.
“Krypton had the finest science and technology in the known universe.
Do you know why I never relied on it?”
Injustice Superman’s weathered face held no expression, as if he were stating something as fundamental as gravity.
“Because in the presence of absolute power, everything else becomes irrelevant.”
Los looked at the dead man across from him, still radiating a dominance that death hadn’t touched, and a line came to mind.
My super-intelligence is telling me I should just use my super-strength.
Only Superman could say something like that and mean it.
Los smiled.
“Since you’re bored, how about joining the deal?”
He had said it half on impulse.
He hadn’t expected Injustice Superman to answer immediately.
“Why not.”
Los paused.
“You want to go back to your home universe too?”
“I have no interest in something that pointless.” Injustice Superman tilted his hard, sharp face upward, unhurried and entirely sure of himself.
“You take control of that school out there, and I’ll give you the complete physiology of an engineering-type Kryptonian.
You take control of the entire world out there, and I’ll give you the physiology of a combat-type Kryptonian.”
Los felt something move through him.
Unlike Stark’s condition of returning to the Marvel universe, Injustice Superman’s condition was for him to dominate The Boys universe entirely.
Was there an ulterior motive behind the offer?
Whatever the answer, it was hard not to want what was on the table.
Complete Kryptonian physiology. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Superman’s full physical capabilities.
Stark’s Mark armor was incredible, no question.
But who wouldn’t want both fists hitting hard, hit harder, moving through the world with Superman’s strength behind every step?
Los pressed down the excitement building in his chest and said quickly: “Before I agree to anything, I’m going to need something up front.”
The dead Injustice Superman didn’t move.
A pair of eyes looked out through the loose strands of hair falling across his face, watching Los with absolute calm.
The next instant.
A new ability settled into Los’s mind, distinct from the Bio-Force Field.
…
Back in the dorm room, the quiet sound of Jordan breathing from the other bed.
Los opened his eyes.
He sat up in the total darkness, the rush of everything that had just happened still running through him too hard for sleep.
The conversation with Stark and Injustice Superman had been enormously productive.
He now understood the true nature of his ability: matter conversion at the atomic level.
He had received foundational knowledge about material structure, along with access to the Stark Industries knowledge base.
And he had a brand new Kryptonian ability.
Los rubbed his eyes.
His vision in the next moment ignored the darkness entirely, cutting through it like it wasn’t there, pulling every detail of the shared room into perfect clarity.
The other bed.
Jordan asleep under her covers.
The pajamas she was wearing underneath.
The compact, slight figure the fabric covered.
The muscle and blood vessels beneath the skin.
The steady, quiet pulse of her heartbeat.
It was like a window had opened.
The world in Los’s eyes was clearer and sharper and more complete than it had ever been.
This was [X-ray Vision].
Everywhere his gaze moved, it scanned like an X-ray.
Los shifted his line of sight and it passed straight through the reinforced concrete of the dorm wall without effort, into the room next door, into the hallway outside the building.
The entire residential block resolved like a three-dimensional cross-section.
Completely transparent.
He could see hundreds of students asleep in their rooms throughout the building.
He could see the armed guards making their quiet rounds in the hallways.
He could see water moving through the pipes running inside the walls.
Without telescopic vision, distant objects remained out of reach.
But everything within a hundred meters, inside and out, was completely visible.
One moment of X-ray vision: excellent.
X-ray vision left running permanently: even better.
Los kept testing the ability, sweeping his gaze through the building.
In his current state, this was more immediately useful than the Bio-Force Field by a wide margin.
Then something caught his attention.
Something below them.
Los looked down.
Twenty to thirty meters beneath the school’s foundations, a series of specially constructed laboratories were embedded in the earth.
Each one held a student.
Some of them were unclothed.
Others wore plain white.
All of them were strapped to surgical tables, staring at painted murals of dark forests on the laboratory walls with empty eyes.
Even at this hour, deep in the night, the hidden laboratories under the school blazed with light.
Researchers in protective suits and respirators moved between the rooms, performing procedures on the students using equipment that had no place in medicine.
Electric saws.
Hammers.
What appeared to be infectious agents.
Through the X-ray vision, Los’s pupils contracted sharply.
This was Godolkin’s secret.
Its actual core.
Every year, a small number of supe students got their government contracts and their hero branding.
A larger number became props in Vought’s promotional videos and hero films.
And some students never left Godolkin at all.
They stayed in the laboratories under the building.
Permanently.
All of it was visible now, laid bare under Los’s X-ray vision.
“Without this ability, I might have ended up down there one day without even seeing it coming.”
Los closed his fist quietly.
Injustice Superman’s offer from earlier came back to him: take control of Godolkin.
His mind was made up.
The first step toward establishing himself in this world was taking over this school.
The next morning.
Dawn.
Early light spread across the Godolkin campus.
“First official day of classes today.
There’s a performing arts course this morning, don’t forget.”
Jordan came out of the bathroom, hair combed, face washed, and reminded Los, who was just pulling himself out of bed with a long stretch.
“I know.”
Los yawned and answered without much thought.
“Los.” Jordan paused and gave him a second, more careful look.
“What?” Los glanced over.
“Nothing.
Probably just me.” Jordan shook her head.
She just had the feeling that something about her roommate was different from the night before.
Something had shifted.
Especially those brown eyes of his.
Still hazy with sleep, but noticeably sharper and brighter than they had been yesterday.