2 Chapter 2

I woke up the next day and Vogelbaum came into the room. He bent over and said "Hello James, did you sleep well. I know you feel lonely here, so I brought you someone to take care of you."

He then looked at the door, through which, came a woman in her 20s. He said "She is Yelena, your caretaker, who will take care of you from now. After you are finished with your daily needs, she is going to bring you to us. We are going to do many exciting things today." trying to get more friendly with me.

Since I know that every action in this world has some motive, I wouldn't believe him even if I didn't know his identity and personality.

I was fed milk with a bottle, which I would consider a wise choice, as I had no control over my strength and easily tore the front part of the bottle while drinking.

After a messy breakfast, I was taken to a room, where many scientists were gathered and there were loud drilling noises from the room. When I looked around, I saw the scientists trying to drill into a shiny sculpture in the middle.

Vogelbaum came forward and said to the scientists "Men, step back and prepared to be shocked."

He then gestured Yelena to bring me closer to the sculpture, which upon closer inspection, looked a little too much like a human and was shining like a diamond.

A scientist standing beside Vogelbaum asked "Dr. Vogelbaum, is it necessary to take such risk? He is someone we might never find again. What if he turns completely into diamond and isn't able to move like this man?"

"Science isn't about being careful. We measure odds of success and failure, and even though the odds are slim, every scientist performs the experiment to succeed. If he turns into a diamond sculpture, we just have to conclude him as a failed product, as he might have to steal powers that might be even more dangerous and risky." Vogelbaum said and I heard all that he said.

Although I wanted to laser everyone here and run away, there is a part of me that is also curious as to what will happen. I wasn't always like this, risking my life for thrill, but after I found out that I died before, I somehow wasn't scared of dying. Also, I didn't have anyone here or any responsibilities in this life, which completely helped me get rid of that fear.

I slowly reached out to the sculpture and placed my hand on its shoulder. I tried recreating the sensation I felt when I stole Homelander's powers, but it didn't happen.

It confirmed my theory that I had to touch the target's head for it to work, completely like All for One of My Hero Academia. I then reached out to his head with the help of my caretaker Yelena.

I then didn't have to do much. I just thought of stealing his powers and it worked. I felt the same feeling I felt when I stole Homelander's powers. This also confirmed another theory that, until I want to steal a power, no one can force me to take some power.

I waited till, the weird feeling that followed it, ended. I was happy that I immediately didn't turn into a diamond statue. I then though in my mind to activate the power in my hand and it immediately turned into a shiny hard diamond.

I used my x-ray vision and noticed that, even my muscles and bones had turned into diamond. This is a really powerful superpower if used correctly.

I could imagine Vogelbaum's reaction and his real life expression exceeded the one in my head. He was laughing hysterically as he looked at me and the diamond scripture from before, which had completely returned back to normal.

He shouted "I did it. I finally did it. I created the perfect soldier." and laughed after that while I also wanted to laugh at him. I was never going to become his soldier or the company's puppet they can control.

Vogelbaum then went on performing experiments with many failed subjects of the initial Compund V program. There were some which I felt were very good superpowers, while some were completely horrific.

One person had completely turned into electricity and couldn't stabilise his body. He was going to get discharged in the ground without Vought's help.

Another person had mutated muscle cells that produced enough heat that he could increase his body temperature way above the normal temperature. The drawback was that his other organs would burn due to the heat. He had a pretty horribly burnt skin and I don't think his internal organs were any better.

After I took his quirk, although his body temperature decreased and returned back to normal, he didn't return back to his previous state before he took compound V. Vogelbaum noted this down and continued with the experiment.

There were some that I didn't feel were useful, like the power where he could pee acid, secrete large amounts of mucous or grow long nails. These were powers I didn't need, or were completely useless.

After a whole day of testing and resting, I was taken back to my room, which was surprisingly decorated with all the baby toys and stuff. I guess the Vought is completely focused on me.

From outside, I heard one scientist ask "Dr. Vogelbaum, shall we start James' durability test from tomorrow. We got to know all about his powers."

"That's why you are still an employee here while I am the head of the research team. Since we know that he has all the powers of John, just test out his durability. We just need to focus on making James strong by providing him strong and important superpowers, and brainwash him to serve the company. We shouldn't test out stupid stuff like durability and strength." Vogelbaum said and the. turned to a female scientist.

He asked her "Did you get his dna sample? Did you find anything interesting?" and she replied with a disappointed tone "No sir, his dna is unlike anything we have ever seen. His dna is constantly changing shape and I speculate that his brain is helping his body maintain the desired dna structure.

So, if we remove any cell from James' body, it will loose its shape and become useless. Our only option is the brain, which I predict might be difficult now that he has the power to turn his body into diamond."

Vogelbaum then replied "Although this is a little disappointing, it just means that we have to take care of this James and carefully nurture him. We might have some luck with his sperms in the future."

They then talked about Homelander's reports before leaving the facility. I also went back to sleep, as my body had to go through a lot to take those powers.

The next day wasn't any different from the previous one. I collected the useful powers while avoiding the useless ones. I had to deliberately leave out some powerful ones just so that they don't realise that I can think.

It wasn't a loss though, as they would try to let me absorb it the next day and go on. I also took some useless powers to make them completely believe that I couldn't think for myself.

This made them think that my powers of stealing someone's powers, don't always work, or they it might be something I would be able to control when I grow up.

I could hear baby Homelander's cries in between the experiments, which meant that they are going harsh even on a baby.

I was in the middle of an experiment, where they were checking how long it took for me to steal a superpower, when Edgar enters the room and asks Vogelbaum "Vogelbaum, I heard that you wanted to ask me something."

"Edgar, I wanted to talk to you about this before, but you see, we are running out of superheroes we can use to power up James. Since both James and John have shown excellent results with no side effects, I think that we should start making more super-babies." Vogelbaum suggested.

"The company already has thought of this and have come up with a plan. You just gave to move a lot if you want to make use of their powers. We will put the plan into action after four years. Till then, you have to make use of the orphans and war refugees provided." Edgar said with his usual cold tone and left the room, leaving the frustrated Vogelbaum in the room.

He then turned to me and said "James, you have to grow up to become the key person in the company and makes changes in the company,. mostly on how scientists are treated."

I completely ignored him and went back to checking how long it took for me to absorb a power. Since the target was stable, it took me approximately 0.5 seconds to absorb his power and about a second to completely integrate into my body.

This went on for three years, in which I was given many superpowers. Ever since Vogelbaum got to know that he can give them superpowers even when they loose them, he didn't restrict any power. I had more than 300 superpowers by then, some of which I forgot I even had.

Just when I thought that life was going perfectly, Yelena came into my room with a smile, which was hiding the fear inside her. I felt her behaviour strange, as I didn't do anything to her.

I then smelt a familiar scent and before I could ask about it, Yelena said "James, I don't know if you remember him or not, but he was your roommate before. Say hello to John, your new roommate. He is going to stay here with you."

Homelander then entered the room and looked at me. He stared at me, with Yelena feeling uncomfortable due to the awkward silence in the room.

I felt hostility from John, which was weird, as he shouldn't remember me. Even if he did, we only met for a few minutes. The only logical explanation could be that, the tests he went through, messed up his head. I could also smell blood from him, which meant that he killed someone.

This got me thinking about how I had changed a lot after being born here. Before I would freak out if I knew that I was in front of a murderer. Now, I don't even feel anything for the dead person. Am I slowly starting to loose my humanity and become a narcissistic like Homelander?

While I was busy with my own thoughts, I think Homelander got pissed because I ignored him was thinking about something.

He got angry and his eyes started turning red. He shot his heart vision ray at me, which hardly affected me. I only felt a little pain and felt the heat.

This might be because I was fed with more compound V to make my body stronger to make it sturdy and strong enough to bear those many superpowers. They made sure to give me controlled doses, so that I don't get addicted to it.

The compound V addiction might be in adults who get high after seeing an significant increase in their strength suddenly. As for me, the power up wasn't even noticeable.

Back to Homelander, I looked at him and said "It is bad to attack people when you meet them for the first time."

I wanted to go with some badass dialogue, but it wouldn't make sense if a 3 year old kid said that, who wasn't exposed to anything else other than superhero and patriotic content.

I noticed that a lot of those patriotic videos or songs focused on how we should serve the country without any selfish desires. I think that the politicians are also interested in me. This is going to make it harder and fun for me in the future.

As for Homelander, who didn't like being lectured by me, tried to shoot another heat ray beam, but I was faster. I shot mine and it sent him crashing into the wall.

The wall was dented in his body shape and he seemed to be in a state of disbelief and shock. I guess he started thinking he is invincible after a few scientists praised him. He even started crying after a few moments.

While Yelena didn't want to approach both of us, I didn't want to hear a kid cry in front of me, as I was starting to get irritated, but he didn't know how to please a prideful kid who lost.