Even in a world of Supes, the American Midwest isn't the most exciting place to be in the good old US of A. Sure it was good for popping out a good old, down-to-earth Amercian sack of shit sweetheart like Starlight, oh sorry, "Annie January," but almost nothing of note happens. That's why the big boys are in the cities; the people, the paparazzi, and the news are damn near infectious.
The small town of Brightburn was about to get all that and more as multiple sound barriers started to part the clouds and shake the sky like a thunder boom. No human on earth could track the target's blistering speeds. But from on top of Vought International's vast, state-of-the-art array of satellites that are "totally" not watching your search history as we speak, we could see who it was.
To seventy-five percent of conservative families across the Midwest and South, he is the World's Greatest Superhero. Powered terrorists fear him as the most powerful man on Earth. And his enemies view him as a bit of a cunt. Regardless, the forty-year-old manchild was trying to hold onto the first definition as long as humanly possible, rocketing towards the town to investigate a strange disturbance from Ashely.
The Deep finally stuck his head out some octopus's mouth long enough to do his job in Crime Analytics to see a Supe wreaking havoc. He's been so busy with Ryan, though, that he'd generally tell both of them to fuck off and let them handle it. But given the sorry state of the Seven (or more the Three) plus his rather polarizing reception for blatant murder, he felt he needed an easy win even to know if he should be happy.
Either way, it doesn't matter, all he has to do is swoop in with a smile, and the sheep will come crawling back like they always do. This wasn't like any other time, though. Once he touched entered Brightburn's airspace, his nigh-godly senses got thrown through a complete loop. A distortion that only got stronger once he touched down on the town square.
Homelander seen had seen his fair share of mass destruction before. Hell, he's even caused a few disasters himself, but this was beyond anything he's anything before. The entire square looked like the aftermath of Chornobyl, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki combined. Every surrounding building was pulverized as if they were made of talc instead of stone.
The surrounding streets were choked with blackened ash and glowing cracks as if Homelander somehow was in the middle of a volcano. Most concerning of all thorough was the bodies, though. The entire area had quite literally been "bleached of all life. Every corpse there had either been scorched to hell, ripped in half through shrapnel, or beaten to hell so bad that even he couldn't recognize if they were human.
However, the most unnerving of all these developments was the images he saw when he blurred in. Homelander was no stranger to logos, but to see dozens of strange burning symbols as far as he could see was concerning. Still, the sociopath could rarely feel sympathy or dread for the victims, only his precious image.
"Oof, the PR team is going to be working overtime for this."
He then heard a steady heartbeat amongst the wreckage, turning around to see who had caused this horror. To the kids at his school, he was the quiet kid, too smart for his good. His mother thought he was a miracle before it was too late. However, to his unknown species, he was nothing more than a living weapon made to be possessed by his creators when he was ready.
Once he moves from his old town, no one will ever call him Brandon Breyer again, only Brightburn. His presence seemed to deaden the blaring sirens, crackling fire, and nearby lights, making even the confident Homeladner quiver slightly. Still, he stuck to his self-made script, contorting his face to what was at least somewhat heroic.
"Oh, hey, kid, that's a rather strange costume you got here. But, um, can you tell me what happened here, or are you just going to stay there quiet and foreboding? If you can point me to who caused this, I can stop them," the Supe said calmly.
As soon as he said it, though, Homelander detected a small buzz in his ears, a sound he's never encountered before. However, to Brightburn, the mysterious echo was something he was well acquainted with because it hadn't stopped ringing in his ears for days, a persistent call that told him to.
"Take the world."
The boy then flexed his fist, immediately rushing Homelander with a fist to his face. Impenetrable skin met alien might in a clash that sent the "hero" reeling to the pavement.
Like a child, he held his face in pain.
"FUCK! That hurt-"
He then caught himself, realizing how powerful you would have to be for such a feat. Adding to his shock, Homelander saw the menacing alien levitate off the ground, his eyes glowing red with bloodlust. Brightburn then fired off a hellish blast of heat vision straight at Vought's poster boy once again.
More so out of instinct than any real sense of fear Homelander promptly fired back. The two beams then met in a massive struggle. The ground itself started to glow red and harsh from the sheer heat as the temperature climbed exponentially. So much so that even the two razor-sharp killers started to sweat, pouring on the fire till a big ball of joint energy ballooned between them.
And like any other balloon, it eventually popped into a white-hot explosion. The Kansas night sky grew as bright as a summer afternoon for a brief fraction of a second. Homelander grided his foot into the pavement while also using his flight to keep himself steady, braving through the blast to see his mysterious enemy had vanished. Taking in the brief reprieve his then supersonic brain started whirring.
"Who the fuck is that? Is he another one of my kids? If he is, he definitely can't be Ryan this kid blows him out of the water? Does Vought know about this? I thought I checked their records ready and picked them clean. They should know something about this. WHY IS THERE ALWAYS SOME SECRET I DON'T KNOW ABOUT?!" he thought as he got angry.
Once again, a weird buzzing sound invaded his mind, aggravating his fragile mental state as his opponent zoomed in for a subsonic strike. Unfortunately for Brightburn, he's about to discover how it's impossible to backstab the only man in the sky. Without even looking Homelander caught the strike, sending a bone-rattling shockwave so loud you think it's thunder. He then started to grip the boy's arm tighter, his eyes flaring up in a crimson hue along with his anger.
"Can you just be still for one goddamn second!"
The Supe's inner child then poured out in full force, repeatedly slamming the boy into the payment like a jackhammer. He grew in strength, speed, and ferocity each time before Brightburn grew limp like a ragdoll. Adding up the ante further, though, Homelander grabbed the boy by his collar before zooming off in a hypersonic joyride. In seconds the small boy went from eating concrete to mounds of dirt as he got dragged through a nearby cornfield.
"I thought I could keep this civil, but if you're going to be a brat, I'm putting you on timeout until further notice!" Homelander aggressively gloated.
Unfortunately, despite the ludicrous onslaught, the child's durability and small size proved invaluable. Immediately he countered back like a wild animal, jumping off the ground while spinning in mid-air to break out of the hold. Remembering where they were, Brightburn used their shared momentum to dropkick Homelander straight into a slio.
At their pace, the flagrant flag-bearer obliterated the grand structure more effectively than any missile. The crash barely phased him, nonetheless, as he instead touched his now aching chest. Looking to keep back the pace Homelander immediately rose again, aiming for a flying right hook that would knock his cheap copy's head off. All he did meet, though, was a 30-year rusting jeep and shit brown pickup truck which smooshed him like a sandwich.
The Seven's leader then rolled around his metal coffin several feet, trampling over every corn patch. Before he could burst out of his metal coffin, Brightburn decided to marry his telekinesis, flight, speed, and heat vision together in unholy matrimony. Leaving behind a series of dark red afterimages, the earth below soon got greeted with a scorching bombardment of rapid-fire heat vision streams.
Like a hammer striking a molten rod, the vehicles started to grow heated before eventually being consumed in a massive explosion, creating a wildfire. Even then though Brightburn didn't stop, adamant about not stopping til his opponent lay dead. This could be a slight possibility as small burns started to sear themselves through Homelander's costume.
He was unwilling to go down easy, though, counting on the only saving grace he could find within his grasp. Brightburn's intelligence may've been great, but I doubt even he would've ever predicted getting a half-melted tire thrown straight toward his face. As he tried to pry the liquid rubber from his face, Homelander immediately returned fire.
Like a cocked gun, he let out a sloppy jab that sent the boy rolling back in the air. This was the first of many strikes as Homelander hammered the boy in. They were the strongest hits he ever dished out, and inch by inch, Brightburn slowly adapted. After a minute of solid strikes, the one-handed beating morphed into an even superhuman slugfest between two angry children.
"Nothing I'm doing is working," Homelander thought, panicked. "How the fuck do I take him down."
He immediately flashed towards the sounds he's been hearing all fight, giving him a devilish idea of what little fight experience the living test tube had immediately got put to use. The demented Supe promptly used his better reach to grab his opponent's cape. Faster, the extraterrestrial could follow the "hero" and kneed him in the back till it arched.
Following that, he flipped back to Brigthburn's front, still covering his vision to knee him in the face. Invulnerability may have saved him from the pain. However, the attack still rattled him enough for Homelander to take him on a primordial merry-go-round ending with Brightburn getting flung toward a new location. The quick ascent deadened as fast as it started, and he found crashing into a nearby barn.
The demonic entity tried pushing himself up amidst his trembling senses, only to realize two crucial factors. One was the large bloody gash that ran up his right arm and that his mask had somehow blown off him, revealing the humanity which still lay beneath him: Brandon.
"So that's your weakness," Homelander said as he descended.
Breyer turned around only to find a hagged metal lodged within his stomach. The utter disbelief was the only thing keeping the boy from instantaneously going into shock. Instead, his mind deployed a million questions, trying to understand what was going on, till he saw his old spaceship within view. Sociopath that he is, Homelander enjoyed Brandon's attempts to quiet his shouts, lamenting his victory while ripping off shards of the ship.
"Been hearing the voices all across our little tussle. Don't worry, though. Something tells me you'll not hear them for much longer."
Losing strength, Brandon crumpled to the floor, choking on his blood. Salivating his victory even further, Homelander watched over his spasming body. Then, mockingly he added to his short monologue.
"Any last words?"
Genuinely, Brandon wondered, realizing that through his "directive," he was now an orphan once again. Stripped away from whatever love he could ever have. A rabid dog that'll live for only bloodshed and conquest until he dies. Knowing this, Breyer clawed up whatever embers of his humanity remained and softly answered.
"Thank … you,"
For a brief moment, even Homelander hesitated, his fractured narcissistic personality seeing a reflection of himself. Then, finally, a weapon seemingly forced into actions beyond his control, robbed of any free will. Still, that didn't stop him from using his newfound weapon to slash Brandon's jaw. The child's life ceased instantly, but that didn't stop Homelander from ripping his body piece by piece and eviscerating the whole barn, so only cinders remained.
Surprisingly though, he found the entire ordeal disgusting by even his standards, deciding to leave the burnt sight so Vought could pick up the pieces. A wistful grimace grew in him while he gently floated above the clouds. Over time though, his flight started to speed up steadily, turning this horrid experience into a resolution.
Because unknown forces once chained him out of his control despite his strength, he knows now he would rather die than ever let Ryan experience this fate. Thus John Gillman sailed into the night from a hard day's work, hoping to tell his son he loves him before a new dawn rises above America.