Before Dean could think too much, a crazy voice cut through his scattered thoughts.
“Hahahaha!
Norman, do you see that?
We succeeded.
The first ‘Odessa’ in the world has appeared.
Vought International is about to welcome the strongest supe in history!” Even a cold bastard like Stan Edgar could not hold back an excited laugh.
A moment later the smile faded and he looked straight at Norman.
“How about it, Mr.
Norman?
You’ve seen what Compound V can do.
Ready to form a powerful alliance with Vought International?” Norman stared at the baby still floating in the middle of the bloody lab, umbilical cord dangling, and felt the temptation hit hard.
The raw power that kid had shown the second he was born looked like it had way more potential than the Super-Spider serum and human enhancement formulas Oscorp was cooking up right now.
Even if both of Oscorp’s projects worked, all they would do was jack up a person’s physical stats.
They would never give anyone laser eyes or flight.
Emily felt her husband wavering and squeezed his hand tighter, snapping him back.
Norman was not the paranoid wreck from the original story yet.
He still had his wife.
After a quick glance toward the trash can he shook his head a little.
“Compound V can catalyze powerful supes, sure, but the success rate is nowhere near one hundred percent.
And I’ve heard it has a nasty habit of giving kids deformed powers, right?” Stan Edgar’s confident expression locked up.
The smile drained off his face.
“So Mr.
Norman is refusing the cooperation?” Norman gave a small smile.
“No.
We can cooperate.
But I need to run it by the board first.
You know Oscorp is not something I decide alone.” Emily pointed at the trash can.
“Also, you let us take this poor child away for a proper burial.
Otherwise there is no deal.” Stan Edgar frowned and looked at Norman.
Norman just kept smiling and said nothing, clearly backing his wife.
After a few seconds of thinking Stan Edgar nodded.
“The failed product can go with you.
But you guarantee that even if we never end up cooperating, the congressmen Oscorp controls will still back Vought International when it matters.” Norman weighed the cost of making his wife happy against having his people throw Vought a bone once in the future.
He picked the first option.
“Deal.” He shook Stan Edgar’s hand.
Transaction complete.
Emily hurried over to the trash can, lifted the “peaceful” Dean out, and stared down at him with pure heartache.
“Oh, my poor child.
I wish you had been born into a happy family instead of dying in this cold hell the moment you took your first breath.” Dean’s heart hammered.
He did not dare open his eyes.
He had heard every word from inside the trash can and finally pieced the whole mess together.
He had transmigrated.
Straight into a universe where Marvel and The Boys shared the same sky.
Chicken Man and the Green Goblin in the same frame was all the proof he needed.
And his new identity was the twin brother of that future perverted, brutal bastard Homelander.
This body had been dead at birth.
It only started living again after his soul somehow dropped into it.
No way in hell was he going to grow up under Vought’s twisted training and turn into another love-starved giant baby like Homelander.
He had to get the fuck out of Vought International.
And now, because of pure kindness, the Green Goblin’s wife wanted to take the “dead” kid away and bury him.
This was Dean’s chance.
A real chance to change his whole damn life.
So even though he was alive again he stayed completely still, not making a single sound, playing the perfect dead baby.
Luckily, once Stan Edgar gave the green light, nobody bothered to check him for a second heartbeat.
Dean got carried straight out of that lab by the Norman couple without a hitch.
The second they stepped outside he could not stop his curiosity.
He cracked his eyes open the tiniest bit and peeked back into the lab.
There floated his little brother, Homelander, or rather baby John, hanging in mid-air with red light pouring from his eyes.
‘Sorry, little bro.
Your big brother can barely keep his own ass alive right now.
No way I can drag you out of this devil’s den too.
You’re on your own.
Sigh…’ Dean let out a silent sigh in his head and shut his eyes again.
Homelander’s powers were basically Superman’s.
If the kid had gotten the same decent upbringing Superman did, he might have turned into the actual Superman of the Marvel universe.
But he was born at Vought International… After the Normans left, a figure in a full-body black suit stepped out of the shadows next to Stan Edgar, pointed at the door, and drew a finger across his own throat.
Stan Edgar slowly shook his head.
“No.
Norman is the military’s biotech partner.
We cannot touch him.
If the military finds out the consequences would be catastrophic and it would wreck our entire superhero creation plan.” “Black Noir, new mission.
Watch the child who carries Soldier Boy and Stormfront’s genes.
Make sure he grows up exactly the way we planned.
No mistakes.
Understand?” The name Soldier Boy made Black Noir flinch like someone had poked an old wound.
It took him a few seconds before he nodded and accepted the order.
Stan Edgar said nothing else and walked out of the lab.
Only Black Noir stayed behind.
He stepped into the blood-soaked delivery room, ripped the umbilical cord off Homelander, and carried the baby away.
On the other side, Dean kept his eyes shut until the car had been rolling for a full half hour with Norman’s butler at the wheel.
Only then did he carefully open them again.
He had no choice.
He could not be sure whether some Vought supe was still tailing Norman on the way out.
Until they put real distance between them he was not relaxing for a second.
‘Phew.
Finally out of that place.’ ‘Starting a transmigration by escaping Vought International?
What kind of bullshit newbie mission is this?
Fuck!’ Dean cursed silently, looked around the car, and finally let his eyes land on the woman holding him.
‘Alright.
Time for the second mission after transmigration: get the Osborn couple to adopt me.’ That was the plan.
Cling hard to the Green Goblin’s family.
Because if he did not, even if he slipped away for a while, without any power or connections Vought would find him sooner or later.