The living room of the underground apartment now had a huge whiteboard taking up half a wall.
Leon held a black marker and was drawing a crude map of the world on it.
Little John sat cross-legged on the carpet, chin propped in both hands, like a model student giving his full attention.
“Since your curriculum’s been upgraded, we can’t keep our focus stuck on street thugs who do nothing but smash and grab.”
Leon drew a big “V” over the position of North America, then tapped the board with his pen.
“This is Vought, where we are now.
Our power comes from Compound V, which gives a person superpowers instantly.
But the downside is that it’s like buying a lottery ticket.
You never know what ability you’ll get, and the vast majority of people never reach the highest level in their entire lives.”
Next, Leon’s pen tip moved toward Europe and drew a little stick.
“Here, hidden away, are wizards who’ve passed down their craft for a thousand years.
They don’t use injections.
They rely on spells, bloodlines, and mountains of ancient books.
Their bodies might be just as fragile as an ordinary person’s, but if you give them time to finish reciting a string of incantations, they can make an entire castle vanish into thin air, or leave you lost forever in a rift in space.”
Finally, Leon’s pen moved over to Japan and drew a heavy mark there.
“And over here in Japan are the onmyoji.
That’s a tradition even Vought doesn’t dare provoke lightly right now.
They don’t rely on serums either.
With their talismans and the spirits they bind, the old masters out there can summon monsters and call down disasters, and they’ve handed it all down for centuries.”
Leon capped the marker and turned to look at John.
“So, do you get it?
You have the most perfect body and potential in the world, but before you’ve fully grown up, there are still powers in this world that can threaten you.
Blind arrogance is a hero’s worst mistake.”
John stared at the whiteboard for a long time.
His extraordinary brain was rapidly absorbing and processing this information that overturned everything he’d understood.
He used to think that as long as his fists were hard enough, he could break the legs of anyone who didn’t follow the rules.
Now it seemed some bad guys might not give him the chance to get close enough to break their legs.
But just as Leon was about to go on explaining the balance of power between the major factions, John suddenly raised a little hand.
“What is it?
Something you didn’t follow?” Leon walked to the bar counter and took a sip of his goji-berry tea.
“I followed it.”
John’s clear blue eyes traveled along the whiteboard and shifted onto Leon, his gaze finally settling on the red mark on Leon’s neck.
It was the scar left by the acid mist last time.
“Leon, you know so much.”
There was a note of confusion in John’s voice, and a worry buried very deep.
The mouthful of tea Leon had just swallowed nearly went down the wrong way.
He coughed twice, set down his thermos, and gave a slightly helpless smile.
“Me?
I’m a wage worker.
Where would a wage worker get superpowers?”
“But that doesn’t make sense.”
John stood up and walked over to Leon, his little face drawn tight.
“That monster leaking acid last time, he was weak, he didn’t even have a brain, and I could tear him apart in one move.
But you’re even weaker than he was.”
John’s way of putting things was blunt and crude, even a little cutting, but Leon knew the kid meant no harm.
He was only stating an objective fact.
“You’re right.
My body really is fragile.”
Leon spread his hands frankly.
“A single stray bullet, or one car crash, could end my life.”
“Then let’s find a way to make you stronger.”
John’s tone turned urgent, and he pointed at the “V” on the whiteboard.
“You go ask the big boss for that Compound V.
If he won’t give it to you, I’ll go break his legs and grab the serum for you to drink.”
Leon got a fright and quickly clamped his hands down on the little tyrant’s shoulders.
If Edgar in the surveillance room heard this, Leon would be at the bottom of the Atlantic tomorrow for “inciting the company’s strongest asset to revolt.”
“Stop, stop, stop!
That won’t work!”
Leon hurried to explain.
“John, Compound V isn’t fruit juice.
It’s meant for someone like you, in the embryo, or a newborn baby just out of the womb.
The death rate for an adult injected with Compound V is sky-high.
And even if it doesn’t kill you, the most likely outcome is becoming the kind of monster from last time, the one spraying acid with its brain rotted out.
I’d like to live a few more years.”
John froze.
He thought back to Subject No.
73, the one with no facial features and pus oozing from its whole body, and a flicker of disgust crossed his eyes.
He would absolutely never allow Leon to turn into that kind of revolting monster.
“Then…
what about magic?”
John pressed on, unwilling to let it go.
“Learning magic takes wizard blood, and my ancestors were Muggles eight generations back.”
Leon sighed and rubbed the spot between his brows.
“And any other power out there depends on a talent you’re either born with or you aren’t.
Even if I had the gift, it’s too late for me to start now.
Besides, the company would never let me leave this basement to go find a teacher and study under one.”
John fell silent.
He lowered his head, looking at his own small hands, soft and white yet holding a destructive power, then looked at Leon’s mortal palms, which couldn’t even hold a slightly heavy frying pan steady.
In his logical world, a knot had appeared that couldn’t be untied.
Leon was his family, the only person he cared about in this world.
But Leon happened to be the most fragile being in this world.
The moment he stepped even half a pace away from Leon, any rule-breaking bad guy could snatch Leon away from him.
It was a powerful sense of losing control.
And the future Homelander hated nothing more than losing control.
“Since you can’t get stronger…” John lifted his head again, and something terrifying churned in those deep blue eyes.
“Then all I can do is wipe out every single person in the world who might hurt you.”
Leon sucked in a cold breath.
This was bad.
He’d guarded against the kid turning antisocial, but he hadn’t guarded against him sprinting full-tilt down the extreme yandere path.
If he let the kid keep developing along this logic, wouldn’t the boy eventually treat all of humanity as an imaginary enemy and slaughter them just to protect Leon?
“John!
Look at me!”
Leon cupped John’s cheeks in both hands and forced the boy to meet his eyes.
“Listen carefully.
This world is huge, and the danger can never be cleaned out completely.
You can’t treat the whole world as an enemy just because you’re afraid I’ll get hurt.
If one day, to protect me, you hurt innocent people who haven’t done anything wrong, then I’d rather not have your protection.”
John bit his lip, his eyes full of struggle.
“But I can’t lose you.”
His voice was very soft, carrying a fragility that belonged to a six-year-old.
“You won’t lose me.”
Leon softened his voice, pulled the boy into his arms, and gently patted his back.
“I’m an adult, I know how to seek out the good and avoid the bad.
And besides, don’t I have you?
As long as you follow the rules and grow stronger and stronger, until every bad guy trembles just hearing your name, that’s the best protection for me there is.”