~ Zzzzzzztt—!!!!!
As Dean pushed the blue serum from the syringe, the effects of V1 started ripping through his body.
His charming eyes and every inch of his skin lit up with blinding purple lightning.
Seconds later the power across the entire Osborn Manor went haywire.
Every light in the place started flickering like crazy.
Norman felt his stomach twist with nerves.
He was not worried about himself.
He was terrified for Dean.
The claim that a supe who had already taken V5 would have a one-hundred-percent success rate with V1 was just something Dean had said out loud.
Nobody had ever tested it in a lab.
Watching Dean inject V1 this recklessly would have made any father panic.
Dean was the only heir Norman actually trusted to keep Oscorp alive.
Harry was his blood son, but he had also inherited the same cursed genetic disease that ran in the Osborn line.
And that disease hit harder and earlier with every generation.
Norman’s own father had gone vegetative around sixty.
Norman himself was already feeling it before fifty.
He figured he had a few years left at most before he followed the same path.
Harry, if he got lucky, might make it to forty.
If he got unlucky it could kick in at thirty or even sooner.
As for whatever kids Harry might have someday, Norman honestly doubted the bloodline would last another generation after that.
If he left Oscorp to Harry, the Osborn name would probably die out within two more generations.
That was the one outcome Norman refused to accept.
So even though Dean was not his biological son, Norman had long since started treating him like one.
Dean was the only person who could keep the Osborn name going.
Even if the bloodline ended, the name would not.
And over the years Dean had proven again and again that he deserved the name and the top seat at Oscorp.
Under Norman’s tense stare the purple lightning around Dean burned brighter and brighter until…
Boom—!
Dean exploded.
What burst out was not flesh and bone.
It was pure plasma.
The entire room filled with swirling purple plasma.
“No, no, no… Dean!” Norman’s eyes went wide.
He collapsed into his chair, hands shaking so hard he almost blacked out on the spot.
“Oh~ my old man, are you crying?” Right when Norman could not accept that his heir had just blown himself to pieces, a familiar voice floated through the air.
“Dean?!” “Dean, where the hell are you?!” Norman jerked upright and spun around, searching every corner.
He could not see a body anywhere.
“Where am I?
I’m everywhere now~” Dean’s voice kept coming from every direction at once, rich and three-dimensional.
Norman was no idiot.
He stared at the floating purple plasma and said in pure shock, “Dean… did your body just turn into the current itself?” “Hey, you guessed it that fast?
That’s no fun…” The purple plasma floating around the study started pulling together in one spot until it reformed Dean’s body.
Even his clothes came back completely, like physics had taken the day off.
Norman jumped out of his chair and circled Dean, looking him over from every angle.
“Incredible.
V1 actually let you turn your entire body into pure electrical form and then put it back together as a normal human.
Completely unscientific!” “In a world where people with superpowers fly around every day, you’re lecturing me about science?” Dean raised an eyebrow.
“Old man, did you lose it or did I?” “Fair point…” Norman shrugged, accepting it, and switched topics.
“How does it feel after the V1?” Dean checked himself for a second.
“Can’t feel any eternal youth yet.
I’m still young, after all…” “Physical boost is basically zero.
My control over electricity got better, but not in raw power.
It’s exactly what you just saw.
I picked up a full elemental form.
I went from someone who controls electricity to being the current itself.” Norman rubbed his chin, thinking it over, “That tracks.
V1 came before V5, but outside of the eternal youth part the effects aren’t that different.
Both just randomly kick open whatever latent powers a person already has.” “Your abilities were already pretty maxed out after eighteen years, so no real jump in strength makes sense.
Getting this elemental form is already a nice surprise.” “Yeah, pretty much.” Dean nodded, agreeing with the guess.
After all, in the original show V1 never really juiced Homelander up much either.
In the end that bastard got stalled out in the White House by the cuckold Butcher and that little shit Ryan, long enough for Kimiko to blast him with a chest cannon and strip his powers clean.
Then the powerless Homelander had his skull cracked open by Butcher like a dog while the guy cosplayed as President of the United States for a bit.
During that whole stretch Homelander barely even put up a real fight.
Total bullshit.
From that alone it was clear V1 mainly handed out eternal youth and did not actually power up existing abilities all that much.
Of course it was also possible the vials had sat around for decades and lost some potency.
Or maybe, just like Homelander, the power Dean awakened was already at the absolute ceiling of what Vought compounds could give, so there was nothing left to boost.
Either way, V1 had given him a different kind of upgrade, just not the god-tier jump people might expect.
“Alright, old man.
That’s what I came to tell you today.
You handle the V1 and V5 stuff yourself.
As the first immortal of the new era, I’m off to find the immortal from the previous generation and pick up some experience.” With that Dean turned back into pure electricity, dove into the power outlet in the study, and vanished.
Norman was left alone tidying the vials on the table, muttering under his breath.
“This kid.
‘Seeking experience’ my ass.
He’s clearly going to teach her some ‘essence.’ I specifically hired all those young beautiful maids for the manor and he doesn’t even look at them.
Why the hell is he so obsessed with that old woman who’s almost a hundred…” While Norman grumbled to himself, the elemental Dean had already slipped into another room in the manor.
This was the room of Elizabeth, the private doctor Osborn Manor paid a fortune to keep on staff.
The name might not ring a bell for most people, but she had another one: Private Angel.
That’s right.
She was the Private Angel from the original V1 five-person team.
Elizabeth was touching up her makeup when the lights on the mirror in front of her started flickering.
Before she could even react, a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind.
A second later a handsome face appeared in the mirror, pressed right up against her charming, alluring one.
A low magnetic voice spoke right next to her ear.
“Miss Private Angel, I need treatment~”