After Ryan's final, ironclad judgment dropped, Frenchie's underground room went silent. The kind of silence that choked harder than death.
Butcher, Hughie, and Frenchie, strapped tight to the cold iron chairs, stared at the man dressed as Vought security. They stared at the syringe in his hand, glowing with that eerie blue light under the dim bulbs. Their hearts burned with wildly different but equally vicious emotions.
Ryan didn't give them time to think or hesitate.
He ignored the feral rage exploding in Butcher's eyes.
Ignored Hughie's terrified, pleading stare.
Ignored Frenchie's desperate, incoherent babbling as he tried to bargain.
In his disguise, he stepped forward slowly.
"No! You cunt! Stay the fuck away from me! I'm not going to die by your experiment before killing that Homelander!"
Butcher thrashed like a madman. The heavy iron chair scraped loudly across the floor.
It didn't matter.
Ryan casually planted one hand on Butcher's shoulder. The terrifying, unstoppable power of Homelander's son crushed every bit of resistance out of the tough guy in an instant.
Butcher felt like an entire mountain was crushing him. He couldn't move a single finger.
With his other hand, he drove the cold, gleaming needle straight into Butcher's carotid artery without hesitation.
"Ahhhhhhh—!"
The freezing blue liquid, loaded with unknown energy, slammed violently into his bloodstream.
An agonizing pain beyond anything human slammed through Butcher's entire body.
He felt every blood vessel, every nerve, every cell ripped apart and ground to dust by a savage force, then brutally forced back together.
He convulsed hard. The veins on his neck and forehead bulged like twisted worms. His mouth gaped wide open, but only a raw, inhuman, bestial shriek tore out.
Ryan pulled the syringe out with a blank face and moved to the next target.
Hughie.
"No! Please! Don't!"
Hughie was scared shitless. Tears and snot ran down his face as he shook his head like crazy, voice cracking with desperate begging.
Ryan ignored him. Same move, same cold process.
The needle stabbed into his skin and the blue shit shot straight into his veins.
Hughie's screams were even worse than Butcher's. He jerked and bounced like he was being electrocuted, foaming at the mouth, eyes rolling back in his skull until he blacked out completely.
Finally it was Frenchie's turn.
After seeing what happened to the other two, he was already too terrified to fight. He just sat there shaking like a lamb at the slaughterhouse.
Ryan didn't even glance at him. He finished the third injection with cold efficiency.
When it was done, he tossed the empty syringe onto the floor.
Then he stepped back and watched. Cold. Detached. Like a scientist studying three lab rats twisting in agony.
He stood there quietly while they thrashed, fought the ropes, and screamed in pain straight from hell.
Until one by one they passed out from the inhuman torture.
The underground room was left with nothing but heavy breathing and random unconscious twitches.
Ryan knew this dose was nowhere near enough for them to control real superpowers. It barely counted as an introduction.
It was just the key that cracked open Pandora's Box inside them.
And he was the only one holding that key.
Who knows how much time passed. Ten minutes. Maybe an hour.
The three corpse-like bodies on the chairs finally started to stir.
The first to wake up was Hughie, the weakest of the bunch.
He felt like his body had been flattened by a road roller a dozen times and then slapped back together. Every muscle and bone screamed with pain.
But even weirder was the dizzy, fucked-up feeling in his head.
He looked around and everything in front of him seemed unstable. Like the air could ripple like water any second, but he couldn't quite grab onto that strange sensation.
Right after that, Butcher's eyes snapped open.
The first thing he felt wasn't the pain that had nearly torn him apart.
It was something else. An insane, explosive power roaring through his muscles and blood like a goddamn volcano going off.
He felt like he could punch straight through a fucking wall now!
He could flip a car with his bare hands!
This rush of power felt so real, so fucking addictive.
Frenchie woke up last. He clutched his pounding head, groaning like he'd been on a three-day bender.
But soon he noticed something was seriously off.
His brain, usually foggy and sluggish from years of fucking around with chemicals and explosives, suddenly felt crystal clear. Sharper than it had ever been.
He just glanced at the pile of complex homemade bombs in the corner—the ones he used to call his masterpieces—and dozens of new ideas for better designs, formulas, and fuses flooded his mind instantly.
Every detail, every possible upgrade, sat there crystal clear like pages in a textbook.
His brain had gone from a rusty old Pentium chip to a goddamn quantum computer overnight.
While Hughie and Frenchie were still reeling from the weird changes in their bodies, a roar packed with pure rage ripped through the room.
"Ah!!!"
Butcher exploded. The fresh violent power let him snap the thick ropes like they were cheap string. Those ropes could've held an ox, but they didn't stand a chance.
His eyes burned blood-red, like a demon crawling straight out of hell, completely consumed by this new strength and years of bottled-up hate.
Without thinking, he charged straight at Ryan, who stood quietly a short distance away still dressed as Vought security.
He wanted to kill this motherfucker.
He wanted to crush the bastard's skull with these powerful hands.
Facing Butcher's full-powered, furious charge that could've sent a bull flying, Ryan didn't even flinch.
His face stayed cold and detached, like he was still watching a show.
He simply raised one hand casually and blocked Butcher's path with effortless ease.
Bang!
A heavy, dull thud echoed.
Butcher's fist—strong enough to crack concrete and loaded with every ounce of his rage and new power—slammed straight into Ryan's open palm.
But the expected shitshow of Ryan flying across the room never happened.
Butcher felt like he'd punched a solid diamond wall. All that violent force disappeared like it had never existed.
The bastard's palm didn't even twitch.
In Butcher's shocked stare, Ryan threw a counter punch.
It looked light and casual, no wind, no drama. But it carried brutal, destructive power fused from Homelander, The Deep, Starlight, and more.
The fist smashed dead center into Butcher's chest.
Boom!
In that split second, Butcher felt like a full-speed freight train had plowed into him.
An unstoppable force shredded every bit of resistance. His sternum made a sickening crack, and he shot backward like a broken kite, slamming hard into the concrete wall on the far side of the underground room.
A massive spiderweb of cracks spread across the sturdy wall as he slid down and collapsed in a heap.
"Cough! Pfft!!!"
Butcher coughed up a thick mouthful of blood mixed with chunks of his own organs.
His insides felt completely pulverized. Every inch of his body screamed in pain.
He tried to push himself up, but the explosive power he'd felt moments ago had completely vanished.
Ryan walked over slowly and looked down at him like a pathetic, overconfident bug.
His voice was ice cold.
"This is the first time. Next time, I'll snap your neck."
Butcher's face twisted with fury. He glared up at Ryan, eyes burning with rage, humiliation, and a flicker of fear he refused to admit even to himself.
He struggled to his feet and backed off to the side. His eyes stayed fierce, but he didn't dare make another move.
The absolute gap in power hit his vengeful heart with real despair for the first time.
Ryan ignored him and turned to the other two. He spoke like a scientist checking on test subjects.
"What about you two? How do you feel?"
Hughie and Frenchie had watched Butcher get wrecked. They were too scared to try anything. They trembled as they described the strange new sensations in their bodies.
After listening, Ryan got the picture.
Hughie's teleportation power was still in its raw baby stage. He could only feel space around him in a fuzzy way.
Frenchie, just as Ryan expected, had awakened a rare brain-based superpower.
"Very good. A super brain."
A flash of private satisfaction ran through Ryan's mind.
_____
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Guys, guys, guys!!!
The evil MC doing straight-up evil shit is getting me so much hate 😂 Who knew? Crazy world, bro, even after all the warnings.
I don't ever delete any cmts or reviews, but I had to delete the ones that threatened and reported me coz of the Starlight grape scene.
If you're enjoying the fic, please go review bomb the shit out of it with good reviews and drop Power Stones right now! My mood is plummeting, and I really need the support 😭