Chapter 6: Mysterious Gift

The memories Kevin had absorbed instilled in him some of The Deep's fears—particularly of people and especially Homelander. However, these fears did not merge with his own personality; instead, they awakened a simmering anger that slowly began to transform into hatred. Kevin had not yet realized it, but with each new fragment of memory that surfaced, his desire to return these feelings to the head of The Seven grew stronger.

After finishing his soda and calming down a bit, Kevin returned to his laptop, curious to explore some of the more eccentric heroes and teams from the comics. Although this world was friendlier and more positive than the comics, some characters were mentioned by the show's heroes in the first season. One in particular, Tek Knight, caught Kevin's interest. He had been mentioned during a meeting of the club for people affected by superpowers.

Tek Knight was one of those characters that had made the former Kevin choke on his beer while rewatching the series in his previous world. The character's presence altered the perception of heroes in the first season. Tek Knight was a fusion of two iconic heroes from different universes. He was wealthy, lived in a mansion with a butler, and had a cave filled with advanced technological gadgets—a clear homage to Batman.

He also wore a high-tech super-suit that made him equal to other supes, adding a touch of Iron Man to his image. In the comics, Tek Knight's story arc involved an all-consuming desire to have sex with anything that vaguely resembled an object of his attraction, from cyborgs and the exhaust pipe of his Batmobile to his butler's ear and even a giant meteorite. In one instance, his actions saved the world. The idea of a latex-clad boy living in his estate and partaking in nightly "games" also brought him uncomfortably close to the dark knight archetype, but Kevin decided to set those thoughts aside for now.

Kevin was more concerned with confirming the real existence of such a "supe" and the many questions this raised. Entering Tek Knight's name into the search bar, he was immediately directed to a personal website filled with videos of Tek Knight's heroics. This discovery made Kevin ponder the logic of the plot depicted in the series. How could such technology exist in this world, making an ordinary person the equal of an average supe, and not be in the army's hands? Or why hadn't Butcher and the Boys found out about such a suit yet?

In the comics, they at least injected themselves with Compound V to level the playing field, but here they were just regular people, constantly at risk of fatal outcomes when dealing with even the weakest supes.

This realization led Kevin to conclude that he was missing some crucial information, either about the future role of these armored suits or about the broader context of this world. Deciding to shelve the issue of Tek Knight for now, he turned his attention to another peculiar group of supes.

"Oh, fuck!" Kevin exclaimed, once again confirming the existence of comic book characters beyond the events of the series.

The search bar had just one word and one letter: "G-Men." Kevin could accept the existence of a character like Tek Knight, given his wealth and connections, which allowed him to fit into the world's logic. But he hadn't expected the existence of a team blatantly copied from the X-Men. In the modern world, such a trope should be outdated.

Cross-referencing information online with his memories, Kevin confirmed with horror that the "benevolent" billionaire in this world also assembled a team of kidnapped children and likely orchestrated night-time "adventures" in their bedrooms, just as in the comics.

Stepping away from his laptop, Kevin, now pale, couldn't fathom why the Boys were so fixated on The Seven that they overlooked such suspicious places like this school for "special" kids.

He wondered if this oversight was a plot hole in both the series and the comics. But now, living in this world where everything he had read and watched had become real, he questioned whether the Boys would ignore these places as they did in the comics and series.

"No, I definitely need a drink!" Kevin declared, determined, and started searching for 24-hour stores in the area.

After going out and spending a thousand bucks on a few bottles of expensive alcohol, he returned and poured himself a few glasses before settling back at his laptop.

"Okay, the world is full of shit, and maybe later... no, I'll definitely have to deal with this," The Deep said with conviction, draining another glass. In his entire life, he had never personally encountered pedophiles, but that didn't stop him from feeling a visceral hatred for them and wishing them a swift demise.

As these thoughts swirled in his mind, Kevin's memory obligingly recalled a few joint missions with Homelander, where the so-called hero explained how they dealt with criminals and even forced the previous Kevin to end a few lives himself.

'For now, I need to figure out what's happening right now,' Kevin thought. He decided to pinpoint the current timeline of his existence in this body. Searching for information about Madelyne Stillwell, he found no mention of her death, immediately giving him a sense of the timeline. It was the latter part of the first season, where Homelander began investigating the case of the missing Rebecca Butcher.

Pondering the potential benefits of his involvement in these events, Kevin realized that, aside from his knowledge of the main characters' personalities, his understanding was largely useless. If he were fully aligned with The Seven and wished the Boys harm, he might have been able to kill a significant portion of their team, given that the current Boys posed little serious threat to even the weakest supe.

Shutting down the laptop, Kevin collapsed onto the bed in his bedroom, reflecting on the past hours and the new sensations from his abrupt change in body. The combination of two worldviews made Kevin simultaneously accustomed to the strength and abilities of his physical form while also experiencing a subtle euphoria from the power coursing through his perfectly healthy body. He hadn't noticed it before, but compared to his new body, his old one seemed like a wreck.

"They say it's true that a person can get used to anything," The Deep mused, staring at the ceiling and for the first time noticing the complete absence of pain or discomfort—except, of course, for the still unfamiliar gills, which the previous body owner had spent his life adapting to.

Relishing the moment, Kevin thought about The Seven and the possibility of rejoining them. Despite the questionable personal qualities of most of the "heroes" there, the advantages of membership outweighed the downsides of dealing with psychos like Homelander or the even more insane Noir. Kevin considered Black Noir more deranged than Homelander, recalling a particularly disturbing memory from the comics where Noir ate a baby.

The thought of confronting a Homelander clone made Kevin shudder, acknowledging his complete inability to survive such an encounter. From what Kevin remembered, Noir in this world was also a master of cold weapons and martial arts. Thinking about the previous owner of the body, Kevin noted a complete lack of any real training, a common trait among many supes he knew.

Most people injected with Compound V ceased to lose physical shape, leading them to abandon training and indulge in hedonism. As far as Kevin recalled, only Noir, Maeve, and A-Train continued any sort of training; even Maeve had slacked off in recent years.

Noir spent six hours a day training, and Maeve, when she still cared, took lessons from several masters to hone her sword skills and striking techniques. A-Train, driven by fear of losing his place, had exhausted himself in an abandoned depot and in training sessions with his brother during his first three years.

Surprisingly, these efforts paid off. The previous Kevin might not have noticed, but during their first months together, when they had drinking parties, he clearly outmatched A-Train in physical strength. A year later, during another arm-wrestling competition, Kevin barely managed a draw—a sign that A-Train's focused training had paid off, even though he primarily trained his legs and back.

Lost in thought, Kevin wondered where he could find dumbbells suited to his capabilities and whether there was a limit to the strength of someone enhanced by Compound V. Given that supes stop regressing physically, they could potentially continue to improve well past the age when normal people would decline. Kevin also checked up on Soldier Boy, discovering his "death" and noting that his entire team was still alive. The most successful of them, Crimson Countess, was pushing ninety but looked no older than forty.

Suddenly jumping up from his bed, Kevin remembered the mysterious gift promised by the entity.

"I wonder what I got?" Kevin asked aloud, bewildered, before closing his eyes as a bright light emanated from the strange fruit forming in his hand.