The last thing I remembered was the hospital bed. The sterile white walls, the beeping of machines, the soft hum of the air conditioning in the background. It had been a long battle. Cancer. My body had been slowly betraying me, and I had finally accepted that I wasn't going to win. There was no more fight left.
But now?
I was awake.
I blinked against the harsh sunlight, groggy and disoriented. I could feel the warmth on my skin. The cool breeze. I wasn't in a hospital. I wasn't in my room at home, either.
I was lying in the grass, surrounded by tall buildings. My hands were gripping the soft, green earth beneath me. My breathing was steady, deep. I could hear birds in the distance, the faint hum of traffic. Everything felt so *real*, too real.
I slowly pushed myself up, panic creeping into the edges of my mind. *What the hell is going on?*
I looked around, trying to make sense of it. The skyline before me—Metropolis, I realized in a sudden rush of understanding—was unlike anything I had ever seen in my old world. But it wasn't just the buildings or the way the light bounced off the glass that struck me. It was the... *energy* in the air. The pulse of the city. There was something *alive* about it. Something that hummed with power, like I was standing on the edge of a place where the impossible could happen every single day.
That's when I heard it.
A crash—a loud *boom* in the sky that nearly sent me sprawling back to the ground. My head whipped up instinctively, and my eyes followed the trail of destruction as a figure cut through the sky like a bullet. The blur was so fast, I barely registered it. But the color—red, yellow, blue—was unmistakable.
It was Superman.
Or at least, that's what I thought at first.
But there was something different. Something off about the way he flew, something *too controlled* about his movements, like a man too used to being the *only* thing in the sky. I watched in awe as he swooped down, touching the ground with a soft thud, and stood tall, a smile stretching across his face. His eyes scanned the street, acknowledging citizens, striking poses for cameras, like he had just done something... heroic.
But then I blinked, and I saw something else in the distance. It wasn't Superman. No, it was someone—or *something*—else.
A man in a suit of black and red, eyes glowing an eerie, unnatural blue. He hovered in midair, his expression smug and distant, his cape billowing behind him.
My breath hitched. This was no ordinary man. The energy surrounding him felt wrong—too much power, too much arrogance. His presence was oppressive.
And then, his eyes turned to me.
"Well, what do we have here?" The voice was cold, laced with contempt, but with a strange note of curiosity.
I froze. The moment our gazes locked, I felt it—a wave of sensation that hit me like a tidal wave. Power. Raw, untamed power coursing through my veins, building up from deep within. The air around me seemed to crackle. My pulse surged, and I realized, with a jolt of panic and excitement, *I wasn't powerless anymore.*
I wasn't sure how, or why, but in that moment, I *felt* what I had never felt before. Strength. Confidence. *Control.*
The man in front of me—*he* was powerful, I could tell. But I realized something then that sent a chill through me. I felt like I could *do* the same things he was doing. Like I could reach out with my mind, rip apart buildings, burn people to ash with a single thought.
The man raised an eyebrow, clearly amused by my reaction. "You're not from around here, are you?" he asked, voice laced with amusement, but the undertone of a predator in his gaze.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. "No… I'm not."
That's when I realized—*I didn't know how I'd gotten here*. One minute, I was lying in a hospital bed, and the next, I was standing here, in the middle of a city full of superheroes and supervillains. I should've been overwhelmed, terrified. Instead, something deeper was rising within me. A need for power. A desire to control this new world I had found myself in.
And then it hit me—harder than anything before.
I could *feel* the power surging within me. A force unlike anything I had ever imagined. I *was* like him now. I wasn't just some powerless fanboy. I wasn't just another mortal with a dream. I had become something else. Something *more*.
The man—*Homelander*, I realized with a sickening lurch—smiled, as though sensing the shift in me. "Don't worry, kid. You'll fit right in around here. You just need to understand one thing."
I stared at him, confusion mixing with the growing fire inside me.
"What's that?" I asked, my voice shaky but rising in power.
Homelander's smile widened, and he stepped closer, his eyes gleaming with the kind of dark amusement that only comes from someone who *knows* they are the top of the food chain. "This world? It's mine. And if you want to survive in it, you need to learn the rules fast. There's no room for weakness here."
My fists clenched at my sides, and without thinking, I shot a blast of heat vision into the air, just above his head. The beam sizzled with raw, fiery intensity, cutting through the sky. It wasn't perfect—there was still some fumbling, some instability in the energy—but it was *there*. I had the power.
Homelander didn't flinch. He merely watched the blast with amusement, as though I were a child playing with fireworks.
"You've got potential," he said, nodding in approval. "But this world is full of wolves. You're going to need to learn how to be one... fast."
I stood there, my heart hammering in my chest. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know how I had come to be here, or why I had *this* power. But one thing was certain: I wasn't the same person I used to be. And whatever this universe was, I was going to conquer it.
Because in the end, what was the point of being reborn if not to take what was yours?
*And this world?*
It was mine for the taking.
### **Chapter 1: The Rebirth**
The last thing I remembered was the hospital bed. The sterile white walls, the beeping of machines, the soft hum of the air conditioning in the background. It had been a long battle. Cancer. My body had been slowly betraying me, and I had finally accepted that I wasn't going to win. There was no more fight left.
But now?
I was awake.
I blinked against the harsh sunlight, groggy and disoriented. I could feel the warmth on my skin. The cool breeze. I wasn't in a hospital. I wasn't in my room at home, either.
I was lying in the grass, surrounded by tall buildings. My hands were gripping the soft, green earth beneath me. My breathing was steady, deep. I could hear birds in the distance, the faint hum of traffic. Everything felt so *real*, too real.
I slowly pushed myself up, panic creeping into the edges of my mind. *What the hell is going on?*
I looked around, trying to make sense of it. The skyline before me—Metropolis, I realized in a sudden rush of understanding—was unlike anything I had ever seen in my old world. But it wasn't just the buildings or the way the light bounced off the glass that struck me. It was the... *energy* in the air. The pulse of the city. There was something *alive* about it. Something that hummed with power, like I was standing on the edge of a place where the impossible could happen every single day.
That's when I heard it.
A crash—a loud *boom* in the sky that nearly sent me sprawling back to the ground. My head whipped up instinctively, and my eyes followed the trail of destruction as a figure cut through the sky like a bullet. The blur was so fast, I barely registered it. But the color—red, yellow, blue—was unmistakable.
It was Superman.
Or at least, that's what I thought at first.
But there was something different. Something off about the way he flew, something *too controlled* about his movements, like a man too used to being the *only* thing in the sky. I watched in awe as he swooped down, touching the ground with a soft thud, and stood tall, a smile stretching across his face. His eyes scanned the street, acknowledging citizens, striking poses for cameras, like he had just done something... heroic.
But then I blinked, and I saw something else in the distance. It wasn't Superman. No, it was someone—or *something*—else.
A man in a suit of black and red, eyes glowing an eerie, unnatural blue. He hovered in midair, his expression smug and distant, his cape billowing behind him.
My breath hitched. This was no ordinary man. The energy surrounding him felt wrong—too much power, too much arrogance. His presence was oppressive.
And then, his eyes turned to me.
"Well, what do we have here?" The voice was cold, laced with contempt, but with a strange note of curiosity.
I froze. The moment our gazes locked, I felt it—a wave of sensation that hit me like a tidal wave. Power. Raw, untamed power coursing through my veins, building up from deep within. The air around me seemed to crackle. My pulse surged, and I realized, with a jolt of panic and excitement, *I wasn't powerless anymore.*
I wasn't sure how, or why, but in that moment, I *felt* what I had never felt before. Strength. Confidence. *Control.*
The man in front of me—*he* was powerful, I could tell. But I realized something then that sent a chill through me. I felt like I could *do* the same things he was doing. Like I could reach out with my mind, rip apart buildings, burn people to ash with a single thought.
The man raised an eyebrow, clearly amused by my reaction. "You're not from around here, are you?" he asked, voice laced with amusement, but the undertone of a predator in his gaze.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. "No… I'm not."
That's when I realized—*I didn't know how I'd gotten here*. One minute, I was lying in a hospital bed, and the next, I was standing here, in the middle of a city full of superheroes and supervillains. I should've been overwhelmed, terrified. Instead, something deeper was rising within me. A need for power. A desire to control this new world I had found myself in.
And then it hit me—harder than anything before.
I could *feel* the power surging within me. A force unlike anything I had ever imagined. I *was* like him now. I wasn't just some powerless fanboy. I wasn't just another mortal with a dream. I had become something else. Something *more*.
The man—*Homelander*, I realized with a sickening lurch—smiled, as though sensing the shift in me. "Don't worry, kid. You'll fit right in around here. You just need to understand one thing."
I stared at him, confusion mixing with the growing fire inside me.
"What's that?" I asked, my voice shaky but rising in power.
Homelander's smile widened, and he stepped closer, his eyes gleaming with the kind of dark amusement that only comes from someone who *knows* they are the top of the food chain. "This world? It's mine. And if you want to survive in it, you need to learn the rules fast. There's no room for weakness here."
My fists clenched at my sides, and without thinking, I shot a blast of heat vision into the air, just above his head. The beam sizzled with raw, fiery intensity, cutting through the sky. It wasn't perfect—there was still some fumbling, some instability in the energy—but it was *there*. I had the power.
Homelander didn't flinch. He merely watched the blast with amusement, as though I were a child playing with fireworks.
"You've got potential," he said, nodding in approval. "But this world is full of wolves. You're going to need to learn how to be one... fast."
I stood there, my heart hammering in my chest. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know how I had come to be here, or why I had *this* power. But one thing was certain: I wasn't the same person I used to be. And whatever this universe was, I was going to conquer it.
Because in the end, what was the point of being reborn if not to take what was yours?
*And this world?*
It was mine for the taking.