Slowly, his senses began to return, and along with them came memories. Thankfully, they weren't overwhelming, instead surfacing naturally like fragments of a forgotten dream. Most memories mirrored scenes from the movie: growing up on the farm, having loving parents, being praised for his good grades. Everything seemed the same until he noticed his age.
Brandon Breyer was turning 17. This seemed wrong. Shouldn't he be around 12 at this time? He sifted through the memories, surprised to find that he had shown no signs of awakening his powers throughout those years. Something had changed. It didn't take long to realize what had caused this shift. The answer was pretty obvious: the blue screen.
He didn't mind the change since he preferred being 17 over being a child, but he couldn't help but wonder why. Was it because mentally he was older, or was it because of the main character of this world? Both explanations seemed plausible, so he left it at that.
Once he finished absorbing the memories, Brandon opened his eyes and saw the familiar ceiling he had seen countless times before, except this time it was through his own eyes.
"I'm really here," he whispered. Despite gaining those memories, part of him still didn't believe what was happening. But as the saying goes, seeing is believing. Placing his hands on the side of the bed, he was about to push himself up when he felt something crumble in his hands. Looking down, he saw the wood broken, pieces of it in his hands.
Super strength! This was amazing. Clenching his fists, he tried to feel the power coursing through him like an anime character, but he didn't notice anything. All he felt was normal, like he always had. Finding that strange, he was about to start testing his strength on items in his room when he heard someone call him.
"Brandon, breakfast is ready!" Hearing the voice, he instantly recognized it as his new mother, Tori.
"I'm coming!" he shouted back before switching to more presentable clothing. He was about to leave the room when he saw his appearance in the mirror. Puberty had definitely hit him, and it had done a good job, unlike the last time.
In front of him stood a tall teenager, roughly 6'1" in height, with a decently shaped body and muscles spread throughout. Clearly, working the farm had done some good for Brandon, unfortunately the same couldn't be said for his new dad Kyle and his beer belly.
Done admiring his new physique, Brandon rushed downstairs and saw his new family. Dad was already seated while Mom finished setting the last dish on the table.
"Wow, Mom, that looks and smells amazing!" he exclaimed. And it really did. Across the table were eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes, and hashbrowns, making it a true all-American breakfast.
"Well, I'd very much hope it was. I even made sure to make you your favorites. Look, even the eggs are sunny side up just the way you like them," Tori pointed out as he sat down.
A full on breakfast... He hadn't had something like this in a long time, and it wasn't because of some sob story like everyone he knew dying. It was simply because he never had the time. Working long hours and commuting didn't leave much time for himself, so he usually had hot pockets.
Taking a fork, he quickly began eating everything up, much to his mother's approval as she made a happy expression. His dad looked proud as well, seeing that his son was finally starting to eat like a man.
"What's up, Brandon? You seem different today," Tori asked, noticing that her son seemed a bit more expressive. Usually, he was pretty quiet and didn't share his thoughts too often, but today was different, leading her to wonder what could have caused the change.
"Nothing, Mom. Just woke up feeling really good for some reason," Brandon replied. He had a feeling that she would notice something considering how good mother intuition usually was, so he didn't bother pretending to act like the original Brandon. Doing so wouldn't help him or them and would just be tiring. It was better if he was himself and let them get used to it because, in the coming future, there would be a lot of changes.
"Well, since you're feeling so good, how about helping on the farm later? The chicken pen has some holes that need patching up, and I could use the hand" Kyle asked, hoping to spend some father-son time.
"Yeah, I'm up for it, but it'll have to be a while later because I have some plans today," Brandon said, his mind on his powers. He wanted to go out in the woods and practice.
As someone new to having super strength Brandon suffered from lack of control. Something he noticed when he broke the side of his bed. At the time he didn't think that he put much force onto his hold yet his light touch was enough to make a crumble. Should he touch a person with too much force he could end up hurting them… or worse.
Superman had mentioned this problem multiple times. Explaining how he felt like he lived in a world made of glass, constantly scared of breaking something, and that also worried Brandon. So before he did anything, he needed to get his strength under control.
"Well, don't let me stop you, but just be careful, okay?" Tori advised in a motherly tone before they all went back to enjoying their meal. While they ate, something was happening on the TV.
"It's already been eight months since Fight Force was defeated by the Lizard League, but we thought the viewers might be interested in more clips of their battle. Hit it, Tim." After that, the screen switched to footage taken during the fight, showing Fight Force having a pitiful battle against the Lizard League. The footage was edited with gags and laughs to entertain the viewers.
"Haha, I remember seeing that on the news back then. The Guardians had to get involved in that one," Kyle explained before laughing some more.
Fight Force losing to the Lizard League... Wasn't this mentioned at the beginning of the show? Something about it happening a year prior. If that was true, this should place Brandon close to Invincible's canon. With the timeline so close, he became more eager to test his abilities and went full Saiyan on his food.
"Goodness, Brandon, did you even chew?" Tori said, astonished.
"Uh, sort of, haha. Anyways, I've got to go. Thanks for the food, Mom. It was great." With that, Brandon didn't wait for a reply before running out the door, leaving his parents looking at each other awkwardly.
…
After leaving, Brandon decided to head to the forest near his home. It was far from most people but close enough to their house that most hunters stayed clear, meaning he'd have some privacy. With a location in mind, he headed there and noticed he was moving pretty fast, faster than he should and without even trying.
"Oh yeah, let's take this up a notch," he said, grinning. He placed more strength in his legs, instantly causing the ground beneath his feet to break as he zoomed past the fields at a rapid pace.
"Haha, yes!" he exclaimed. This was what he wanted when he came to this world: the power to become the impossible. At that moment, he felt a sort of high as he continued running faster and faster. But he soon regretted it when he realized slowing down was much harder than speeding up.
"Wait, slow down, legs! No, nooo!" Seeing the forest approaching, he knew he wouldn't stop in time, so he used his arms to block as he ran straight into a tree. Thankfully, it seemed some of his durability had kicked in because he was unharmed, but the tree wasn't so lucky.
Looking to the left, he saw its collapsed figure and hoped it was far enough to avoid alerting his parents. 'Actually, I should probably get this out of here too' His dad liked going back here and would definitely notice the tree, so Brandon had to move it. Plus, on the bright side, he could count this as training since he didn't know his strengths upper limit yet.
Which was important for him to find out because if one wanted to gain control of their strength they needed to know their limits as well. Moving to the tree, he checked it out and gave a rough estimate. It looked to be around 20 feet tall, so it should weigh around 3 tons.
"Well, I can knock it down, so let's see if I can move it." Placing his hands on its side, he gripped tightly, causing cracks to spread where his hands were before he slowly started walking backward with little to no strain. Clearly, this tree was not his limit.
Dropping the tree, Brandon moved to the center and slowly lifted it above his head. This was where he actually felt some strain as his arms tensed. "Pretty good, now let's get this out of here." With that, he moved deeper into the forest before leaving the tree behind to resume practice.
Brandon had already confirmed three abilities: super strength, super speed, and durability. But that still left a couple of others, such as heat vision, flight, and the electromagnetic field Brightburn had that affected the technology around him. Testing out that field was out of the question with him being in a forest, leaving the other two.
So, that's what he did for the next hour. However, neither heat vision nor flight kicked in, no matter what he tried. Thinking back to the movie, he recalled that the original Brandon also experienced this delay as each of his abilities appeared one at a time. He needed to be patient and let the rest come in when they were ready.
But just because he wasn't going to get the rest of his powers all at once didn't mean he could waste time. From the looks of it, there were plenty of trees to practice on. "Sorry, forest, but there's going to be some remodeling."