1 Scars

"I want to do good mom....I really do." Brandon began to say, his voice trembling and face unmasked from his makeshift cowl. His mother, Tori, cautiously stepped forward. She had a hand behind her back as she gave Brandon a comforting smile.

"Oh my boy, my precious baby boy." She called and embraced Brandon in a tight hug.

Her arms were laced around him, holding him into her chest. Before Brandon knew it, a sharp pain pierced his back, followed by words laced with malice from Tori.

"Who would want someone like you?", Tori questioned in a cold tone, causing Brandon to slowly look up at her to find her face bloodied and bruised, "YOU'RE NOTHING MORE THAN A MONSTER!"

Brandon stirred awake upon having those words echo through his head. He sat up quickly, covered in a cold sweat as he heard the whimpers of a dog beside him. It was a black furred German Sherpard who raised its head, giving Brandon a concerned look. The child now, a young adult, let out a deep breath, ran a hand through his hair, then massaged his dog's head.

"It's alright Cade, just a bad nightmare.." He reassured and watched the dog lay its head onto Brandon's lap. He found that he couldn't associate himself with humans. So animals were the next best thing, dogs being man's best friend and all that. Brandon continued to massage his hand through Cade's fur, his eyes turning to the window looking out to a forest outside. Brandon was living in the middle of nowhere, right outside of Brightburn, Kansas.

It has been roughly twelve years since The Bloodpath of Brightburn, something the international news channels came up with. Oh he's most definitely been interviewed but he's mostly treated the incident as an episode. One that he had little to no control over, considering that he was sent for the purpose of conquering. Brandon didn't truly wish to conquer, actually he didn't know what he wanted anymore. Outside of wanting to be left alone with no one to bother him. For most of his life, he's lived in absolute solitude inside his cabin with his dog Cade. Even then, he's been haunted by nightmares...

Nightmares that become more vivid each time he falls asleep. Though the most recent one was more troubling to him. Tori Breyer, his adopted mother who had never turned her back on him until the last moment. He loved her, more than he loved his father or anyone else. Tori was a good mother to Brandon, the best that she could have been to an alien child. Yet, during his Hypnotic Phase, as Brandon would refer to it as, he killed her and everyone in Brightburn. He had no idea on how long he was under the hypnotic effect, only that he was covered in blood not his own and the town having been destroyed by him alone. There was nothing he could do besides bury his parents, and simply wait for something to happen. A week later was when he was found by the authorities, people who took pity on him. Pity that he didn't want, pity for a child whom they truly didn't know..

The ship that once carried Brandon to Earth had been buried, placed underground so that no one could find it. Whomever had sent him to Earth wanted him to kill, they wanted him to destroy, they wanted him to do what they said.

As far as Brandon knew, his own people may very well be the reason he was the way he is now. He hated how helpless he was, having little to no control over himself. No control over his own life, over his own thoughts.

While pondering these thoughts, Brandon noticed that Cade was fast asleep once more. The dog having become Brandon's only friend for the past five years. After a few moments, he let out a deep breath. Then he gentle and slowly moved himself out of bed. Cade had been left to sleep in while Brandon went to cook himself something. As he stood up, coming to his full height now. Brandon now stood a good 6"6 in height, he had broad shoulders, a peak conditioned body, and quite the abs.

He was shirtless with only his pajama pants being the only thing he wore. With a quiet stretch, he walked his way out of his bedroom and into the kitchen. His cabin wasn't that big, it had all that he needed and wanted. A TV that he borrowed from one of his deceased neighbors, furniture that he legally bought, and a small kitchen area. As he reached the kitchen, the first rays of sunlight illuminated the room. His eyes remained at the cooking at hand, his hands moving at normal speed. Brandon was making a large breakfast of cheesy grits, smoked bacon, eggs, and toast.

The jiggling sound of Cade's collar could be heard as he came out of the bedroom. He looked up at Brandon with beady black pupils. The german sherpard sat near Brandon and watched him cook, tilting its head to the side. Brandon could feel the dog's gaze, he shook his head, knowing full well what Cade wanted. "No, you need to stay fit", Brandon denied and got a bark as a response from Cade, "Talk smack all you want, you've already got something to eat in your bowel."

Cade had a bowel with dog food in it, it was meant to be tasty for dogs and healthy as well. Though, Cade was one of those dogs who liked eating human food as well. Brandon had to be careful at what he fed Cade, since some human meals could be harmful to animals. He glanced over to find Cade's ears peeled back, giving the man a saddened look. Brandon frowned, not enjoying his dog looking like that as if he were the bad guy. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then sighed in defeat. "Fine, but you're only getting bacon." Brandon relented, causing Cade to perk up and wag his tail happily.

Moments later, the two were seated in the living room watching TV. Brandon was eating from his plate of food while Cade ate from his bowel of bacon. On the television screen, it showed what looked to be a small battlefield in some small town. There were marks in the ground, similar to how his heat vision worked. though these were far larger. That caught Brandon's interest, he wasn't aware that things like what happened in Brightburn was a common occurrence. His eyes narrowed at the TV, listening very carefully as he pondered on the implications of this. He hadn't proactively used his powers in twelve years. Twelve years of mostly isolation, of reflection.

If there other people like him out there, were they as lethal as he was? Did they come from the some place that he came from?

Before he could ponder more about this, he heard something heading his way. It was a vehicle of some kind, driving down the makeshift road that he made for his truck. To make ends meet, he became a trucker, one who travels with dogs and hardly spoke to anyone. At the moment, Brandon was still wearing his pajama pants but wore one of his adopted father's shirts. It was a black T-shirt, one that had its sleeves removed. Brandon set his plate down then rose to his feet. As he did, Cade perked up and gave Brandon a confused look.

The man's super-hearing was picking up the vehicle steadily approaching until eventually it came to a halt a good ten feet from the cabin. "Cade, stay." Brandon ordered, causing the german shepard to whine after him. Brandon walked towards the front door and peeked through the window. It was a black SUV with tinted windows and roughly four occupants inside. With the use of his x-ray vision, Brandon saw that there were three men and one woman inside. It was a scarlet haired woman who was possibly several years older than him. Two of the men were white skinned, though the last one was dark skinned and had an eye patch.

The first to exit the vehicle was the dark skinned man. He wore an all black trenchcoat. The next was the woman, who wore a uniform of sorts where the zipper for her chest was brought down a bit. Before they could reach the front door, Brandon unlocked it and opened it himself. Both man and woman stopped their approach and looked over Brandon closely. For a moment, the three of them just stared at each other. The silence became eerie until Brandon spoke up with a stern tone. "Can I help you?" He questioned, causing the man to answer with a more professional response.

"We're looking for Brandon Breyer, asked around and were pointed here", he stated plainly, "Are you Brandon Breyer?" Brandon narrowed his eyes on the man, then slowly folded his arms over his chest.

"Who's asking?" Brandon questioned with hostility now. The woman was the next to respond, using a more cordial tone.

"We just want to ask a few questions, is that alright?", She asked before stepping forward and holding her hand out for him to shake, "Natasha Romanoff, a pleasure to meet you Mr. Breyer." Brandon stared at her hand then back at her expectantly. Natasha slowly took her hand back, not unperturbed by his stance towards them.

"I'm Director Nicholas Fury, we're with Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Divison", Fury announced, "Shield for short, we were hoping to learn a little more about what happened in Brightburn."

Brandon raised a brow at them, unmoving from where he stood before he leaned against the doorframe. "Well go ahead and ask your questions." Brandon demanded, already not liking this conversation.

"You were said to be the only person to live after what happened in Brightburn, can you tell us anything that you saw happened?" Fury questioned, though this sounded more like an interrogation.

"I've already been asked that question before, haven't you watched the interviews?" Brandon retorted, then was met with a cold look from Fury's eye.

"Yes, but we'd like to hear a bit more...vivid details." Fury responded, causing Brandon to sigh as he thought of a good lie.

"You really want to know what happened?What happened was that freak went and killed everyone. What happened was a fucking nightmare. What happened was that someone decided that they didn't like us anymore....I don't know who he is, but I can tell you that he looks like us." Brandon's words seemed to get both Fury's and Natasha's interest. Though Natasha seemed to be looking past Brandon's quickly made up lie.

"Would you be willing to come with us, to get a good description of what he looked like?" She asked, getting a shake of the head from Brandon.

"Not when I have work to do, I'm a trucker and we truckers got alot to do." Brandon answered, causing a slight smile to appear on Natasha's lips.

"You sure? Because from what we know, you're suppose to be off of work for another week."

Brandon narrowed his eyes on her now and moved off of the doorframe.

"How the hell do you know about my vacation days?" He questioned with both curiosity and venom now.

"It's in our job description to know Mr. Breyer, we don't want to hurt you, we just want you to come with us." She said in a soft tone, trying to come off as non-threatening as possibly. Brandon could see it in his eyes, she didn't believe his lie for a moment. He turned his eyes towards Fury and saw him keeping up a stone faced expression. A growl was heard behind him, Brandon looked back to find Cade growling at the strangers. He stared at his friend for a few moments before slowly turning and kneeling down in front of Cade.

"It's alright buddy, they aren't gonna be any trouble." Brandon reassured, knowing full well that these people can't hurt him. It wouldn't be long before Cade walked up to Brandon and whined at him.

"Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it." Brandon comforted, scratching behind his dog's ears for a moment. With a slow rise, he looked to Fury and Natasha now. His expression unreadable now as he stepped forward. "So, where are we going?" He questioned, getting a gesture from Natasha to the SUV.

"To Brightburn." She answered as if it were obvious.

{Two Hours Later}

Seated in the backseat between Fury and Natasha, Brandon had his arms folded over his chest once more. It wasn't a tight fit for him, though it was mildly uncomfortable for him. After a few more minutes of driving, they came to a stop to a military like camp inside of Brightburn. Outside of it were people who were going about searching for anything and everything. Brandon, exited the car right behind Natasha once she stepped out. He was still wearing the clothes that he had on when he left, though he had on a pair of slippers now.

"Why are we here?" Brandon asked, glancing over at Natasha now.

"To see if you've got any more memories of what happened here", She replied before walking forward towards a large tent, "And to have a talk about a new job."

Brandon's brows furrowed at this, before slowly walking after her. Fury was already ahead of them, talking on the phone with someone.

The three of them entered the tent, finding a metallic table with three seats. Brandon walked over to one side and sat in the seat, Fury and Natasha sat on the other side, side by side to each other. It wouldn't be long before Fury was handed some form of folder that read "Avengers Initiative". "Have a read, you might find it interesting." Fury instructed, before handing the folder to Brandon.

Brandon looked skeptical at first, before beginning to read through what was in the folder. He saw quite the bits of information for what and who these Avengers were. For a few minutes he was interested, up until he read the bit about Brightburn. That was the alias that they gave him, named after the very town that he massacred. Though that was all they had on him which was amusing to Brandon. "Sounds like some kind of band", Brandon remarked while placing the folder down on the table, "That said, I'm not interested."

Fury placed both of his hands on the table, before giving Brandon a grim look. "We could use someone like you, Brandon", He offered, "Whatever happened here can be looked past, any charges-" Before Fury finished, Brandon scoffed at him with a raised brow.

"Charges?", Brandon questioned mockingly, "You've got nothing if what that folder is anything to go by."

Fury gave Brandon a glare, having hoped that the young man wasn't smart. Natasha spoke up next, her hand remaining under the table. Though with a quick look with his x-ray vision, he could see that she had her hand on a holstered gun at her hip. "Brandon, i understand that you don't trust us", she said as delicately as she could, "But the world is getting bigger with people just as dangerous as you are. You've lived for twelve years doing nothing but living a peaceful life. That tells us you aren't some kind of monster, and we're willing to ask you for help knowing what you may be capable of. Call it brave or stupid, but we need you."

Brandon stared at Natasha for a moment, considering her words. Then with an slow inhale and exhale, he rose from the chair that he was sitting in. "I'll think about it." Brandon relented, then turned and began to walk out.

"Be careful out there, you may attract the wrong attention with that chip on your shoulder." Fury taunted, causing Brandon to stop then slowly looked back at him.

As Brandon's eyes locked onto he and Natasha, their eyes widen with surprise and fear. Brandon's eyes were glowing crimson red, showing that he indeed had powers. He hadn't had to flex his heat vision abilities in years. It actually stung to use them now, though it wouldn't for long.

"I pity the fool who wants to walk up to my home looking for trouble... just t remember to call first Director." Brandon warned, then walked out of the tent with little to no one stopping him. Natasha felt her heart beating rapidly out of fear. She had never seen anything like that before. She was a spy, an assassin, an agent of Shield. She was not prepared for anything like that, anything like Brandon. Fury on the other hand had a fear that lead to him wanting even more countermeasures for something like Brandon. He had no idea what Brandon was, what he could do, or if he was even human. All he knew was that Brandon was solely responsible for what happened in Brightburn and had no real way to prove it.

A middle aged man walked in wearing a suit, he had a pressed look about him. "I hope that meeting went well because he gave all of us death glares, sir." The man quipped nervously.

Fury rose from his seat and looked at the man with a glare of his own. "Coulson, I want surveillance on him at all times", Fury ordered, "If he leaves from his home, I wanna know. If he leaves the state, I wanna know where he goes, I don't care even if he's taking a shit. Keep surveillance on him, and make sure not to get caught. We don't want another Banner situation on our hands. With Banner it's more manageable, but with Breyer...he's a cold blooded killer who knows what he's doing. Unlike Banner, Breyer isn't a mindless animal... he's possibly worse."