“That’s right, you’ve got to have that air of hating evil like a sworn enemy!”
Leon was very pleased with the results of his brainwashing.
He ruffled John’s blond hair.
“Of course, you’re still little, you’ve still got to learn what’s right and what’s wrong.
As long as you hold on to that conviction, one day you’ll become the greatest hero in the world.”
John nodded hard, popped the strawberry candy into his mouth, his cheeks puffed out, but his gaze had turned strangely resolute.
John was allowed fifteen minutes to walk in the isolation corridor outside the lab.
Leon followed behind with his coffee, like a dutiful bodyguard.
At the far end of the corridor was a logistics worker on trash duty.
He was a burly fat man who, trading on his job handling supply distribution, had thrown his weight around plenty in this oppressive underground facility.
Right now that fat man was hiding in a blind spot of the cameras, sneakily lifting a deep red apple from the fruit basket meant for the senior researchers.
He wiped it on his shirt and took a big bite.
In this lab that wasn’t a big deal, really.
Everyone usually turned a blind eye.
But today was different.
John stopped.
He stared hard at the fat man stealing the apple, and in those deep blue eyes there was none of the usual childish innocence.
In its place was a coldness that made your skin crawl.
Leon followed his gaze, and something in his chest lurched.
Not good.
Before Leon could get a word out, Little John had already taken off on his short little legs and walked briskly up to the fat man.
The fat man was eating with relish when, out of nowhere, he saw the most dangerous “little terror” in the whole lab standing in front of him, and the fright nearly made him swallow the core.
“You…
what do you want, you little monster?”
The fat man stammered a little and instinctively took a step back.
John ignored the name and only said loudly, in a tone like a verdict, “You stole something that isn’t yours.
Stealing breaks the rules.
Breaking the rules is evil.”
The fat man froze for a second, then glanced around and realized only Leon, that powerless low-level researcher, was present.
His nerve came right back.
“None of your damn business, you little brat.
Get back to your sterile room, or I’ll cut off your nutrient paste today!”
The fat man waved a hand viciously, trying to shoo John away.
How does this fat guy have the guts…
Leon silently gave him a thumbs-up in his head.
John’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.
He just slowly lifted his head, that delicate little face full of solemnity.
“Evil does not need to be forgiven.
Bad people must be punished.
I am a hero.”
The words had barely left his mouth when John reached out that soft-looking little hand and grabbed the index finger the fat man was pointing at him.
Then he bent it gently backward.
A sharp crack.
The clean snap of bone rang out, especially jarring in the quiet corridor.
“Aaagh!!”
The fat man let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered, dropped to his knees with a thud, clutching the finger now bent at a grotesque angle.
Cold sweat instantly soaked through the back of his shirt.
John looked down at the fat man rolling on the floor, his eyes clear to the bottom, no anger, no cruelty, only a matter-of-fact calm.
He even turned his head toward Leon, not far off, an innocent, praise-seeking smile on his face.
“Leon, I punished evil.”
Leon’s hand froze in midair holding the coffee cup, and a few drops spilled onto his white coat.
He looked at the fat man wailing on the floor, then at John, whose face said “I am the agent of justice,” and the corner of his mouth twitched twice beyond his control.
Leon took a deep breath and silently drank a mouthful of coffee that had gone completely cold.
Forget it.
Whatever else, it beats him firing lasers all over the place later on.
At least now he has a reason when he acts.
Leon stepped forward, patted John on the shoulder, and let out a heartfelt sigh.
“Good job, John.
But next time you run into theft on this level, breaking one finger is enough.
Whatever you do, don’t use heat vision, or it’s a real pain to clean up.”
John nodded seriously, signaling he’d memorized this new “law of justice.”
Leon felt that the road of education ahead of him still had a very long way to go.
But for now, he decided to go get a fresh cup of hot coffee first.
In the medical room, the smell of disinfectant mixed with coffee was a little sharp.
Leon leaned against the doorframe, holding his third cup of instant coffee for the day, watching the chaos inside.
Bob, the fat man from logistics, sat on the hospital bed howling, drenched in sweat.
The doctor, Sarah, was a middle-aged woman with heavy dark circles under her eyes.
She expertly set and splinted Bob’s bent finger, her brows knit tight.
“How many times have I told you, don’t go provoking that test subject.”
Sarah scolded without even looking up, not easing off her movements one bit, deliberately pressing on the sore spot.
“Who do you think you are?
Even if that kid twisted your head off, Supervisor Madelyn would say you bumped it on the doorframe yourself by accident!”
Bob kept flinching with the pain, his features all scrunched together.
“I just took an apple!
How was I supposed to know the little monster would suddenly lose his mind?
He actually judged me, cold as ice, said I was stealing!”
“Damn Vought, damn Compound V.”
Bob cursed and mopped his sweat.
“If you ask me, the higher-ups have lost it, hell-bent on making some man-made god.
Go look at those wizards over in Europe waving little wooden sticks inside their castles, and those onmyoji over in Japan playing with their charms…
there are so many monsters in this world, and the brass insists on raising the least controllable one of all down in a basement!”
Leon took a sip of coffee and raised an eyebrow.
In the few months since he’d transmigrated, this was the part of this world he found the most absurd too.
At first he’d thought this was just the plain old Boys universe, with Vought standing alone on top thanks to its Supes.
Then later, while sorting through the lab’s data archives, he’d discovered the world was a lot busier than that.
The Ministry of Magic in Europe stayed hidden and didn’t much meddle in ordinary people’s affairs, but Vought’s higher-ups had always been green with envy over their spatial magic and were scheming every which way to steal the technology.
According to Vought’s top-secret assessment files, the danger level of the wizards’ highest masters was listed as incalculable.
And over in Japan, the Onmyo Bureau got into all-out brawls with Vought’s superheroes out in international waters in the Pacific over the smallest bit of friction.
And then all the various specialties of the other countries…
In the face of a world full of supernatural power, Vought’s only real backing was Compound V, and that little blond playing with building blocks in the sterile room.
The strongest human weapon of the future, Homelander, John.
That was why the company’s higher-ups put such weight on John’s upbringing, to the point you could call it a sick kind of strictness.
They didn’t need a person with feelings.
They needed a perfect weapon that could suppress every superhuman on the planet.