In a small two-room apartment in Sandusky, Ohio, USA, a man sat at a table, staring blankly at the screen of the latest Vought laptop. An empty Word document glowed on the screen, mocking him. He had been sitting there for several dozen minutes, trying to figure out where his life had taken a wrong turn.
He was tormented by the bitter truth that a superhero no one needed had ended up in a town no one cared about, a town with fewer than thirty thousand residents and a police force that received maybe two or three calls a week at most.
The King of the Seven Seas, a former member of The Seven, found himself in a situation he couldn't comprehend. According to his contract, he had to live in a city where superheroes were irrelevant, a place where oblivion awaited him.
As Kevin indulged in these joyless thoughts, he had no idea that his fate was changing at that very moment. Clutching his head in severe pain, The Deep lost consciousness, slumping forward onto the keyboard of his laptop.
A few hours later, as the sunlight faded from the apartment, leaving the room in semi-darkness, The Deep's body stirred. Something—or rather, someone new—opened his eyes.
"THAT FUCKING OLD MAN! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS LIGHT?!" the man yelled, squinting as the laptop screen's bright light assaulted his eyes.
Blinking and pushing the laptop aside, the man stood up from his chair. To his surprise, he realized that he could see perfectly in the dark. He walked to the light switch, flicked it on, and looked at himself. He was wearing an odd rubber suit resembling fish scales, complete with gloves in the same style. Recognition flickered in his mind, but it was too fleeting to grasp. Instead, he noticed a strange sensation in his stomach.
Finding the suit's clasp, he pulled it down and froze in shock, staring at the bizarre, disgusting gills running along his torso.
"What the fuck?! What is this? Better yet, who is this? And where am I?" he exclaimed, touching the gills and trying to make sense of his situation. He remembered the old man saying he would live again but hadn't specified where or in whose body. He figured he should at least see his current appearance, hoping it might provide some answers.
'I need a mirror,' he thought. Realizing this would help him assess the situation, he went in search of one. After ten steps, he found a full-length mirror in the bedroom.
Approaching the mirror, the man saw his current form, and a flood of memories surged into his mind, leaving him dizzy. To avoid injuring himself, he immediately lay down on the bed.
With his head resting on a pillow, he began to organize the memories. They were confusing and blurry, making it difficult to access them clearly. But when he tried to remember the name of this new body—or rather, his body—he immediately got an answer. His name was Kevin Moskowitz, but another name also came to mind: The Deep.
As if a curtain had been lifted, he recognized the suit and the unsettling gills. He was now The Deep, the joke superhero from the famous show "The Boys." Despite being known as a joke, he was still a superhero.
Adrian—no, Kevin—had suffered greatly in his previous life: poverty, betrayal, and finally, death. Getting a second chance at life was nothing short of a miracle. And not just any life, but one as a superhero with powers. Kevin started to realize the incredible opportunity he had been given. Feeling excited, he decided to release his pent-up energy by jumping. Standing up, he bent his knees and leaped into the air.
As he jumped, Kevin was shocked by the strength of his push. A second later, his head left a dent in the ceiling and a network of cracks on the bedroom floor where he had landed.
"Yeah, I need to get some fresh air," he said, landing on the floor and noticing the traces of his happiness.
Finding the keys and stepping outside, Kevin continued to smile. The cold night wind felt refreshing on his skin. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled and abruptly sprinted forward. With each step, his speed increased until he was racing at nearly a hundred miles per hour.
After running for a few miles without feeling tired, Kevin pushed off the ground with all his might. Accompanied by a triumphant "FUCK YEAHHHHHH!!!!" he soared twenty-nine feet into the air. As he ascended, he realized he hadn't thought about how he would land. Remembering everything he knew about falling, he tried to prepare himself but still sank into the ground up to his knees.
"Wow! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Kevin couldn't stop laughing. It felt like he was truly alive for the first time. He reveled in the thought of possessing such amazing abilities. He pulled himself out of the ground, still smiling, which only faded slightly when he saw his boots covered in black soil.
"Well, at least they're easy to clean," Kevin noted, noticing the advantage of the suit's strange texture.
Moving away from the holes he'd made in the ground, Kevin approached a tree and tested his strength. First, he snapped off a branch with ease. Then, squeezing it in his hand, he crushed it effortlessly, as if it were hollow and filled with dust.
Another surge of joy came over him at this display of strength. Kevin stood before the tree trunk, punched it through, and watched as the not-too-wide tree cracked and leaned toward him. Though he expected this outcome, he was still amazed. The sound of cracking wood made him instinctively grab the tree and hold it above his head with ease. Once he regained his senses from the adrenaline rush, he tossed the tree aside and let out a joyful shout, startling the few people in the park at that late hour.
Still in disbelief over what had happened, Kevin decided to return to the apartment. However, as he looked around, he realized he didn't remember how he'd arrived at the park.
"As the king of the seven seas, It's no surprise I'd be lost on land, but this is embarrassing," Kevin muttered, looking around. He thought to himself, 'I should find a way to fix this. It will be really annoying to have a terrible sense of direction.'