On the street.
The crowd had gathered at a distance. Many were filming with their phones, others frantically dialing 911.
But no one dared to step forward against the terrifyingly burly man. The gym trainer he had thrown earlier served as a grim reminder.
"My God!"
Farther away.
The influencer was frozen in shock, yet she still kept her phone pointed toward the horrific scene. The burly man looked as if he were waiting for his victims to slowly die.
Like a hunter toying with prey, his cruelty made the live chat explode with screams.
"Someone save them!"
"Where are the cops? Has anyone called?"
"What the hell is happening? How can that guy be so strong? Is that on his face a tattoo, or something else?"
"Oh my god! That's Starlight! I knew it the second her mask fell off. Why isn't she fighting back?"
"You idiot! She's just an actress! Damn bastard! How dare you touch our goddess! Useless streamer, go save her!"
...
The influencer's live feed was flooded with anxious comments. Some recognized Skye as an actress from The Boys.
By now, most people weren't confusing reality with fiction. Only a handful of clueless viewers still wondered why Skye wasn't retaliating, convinced this was just a movie shoot.
Some even thought the stream wasn't live at all but a promotional stunt for The Boys Season 2.
But the truth was simple.
Most people had no idea how dangerous their world really was, unaware of the countless extraordinary powers hidden within it.
Of course.
Those "level-headed" viewers were quickly drowned out by others mocking them. With chaos erupting, nothing about this looked like a staged scene.
"Where's Spider-Man?! Someone call Spider-Man!"
"New York cops are always this slow!"
"Oh god, I can't watch! That girl's face is turning blue!" The crowd worried desperately for Skye and the small supermarket owner.
On the chaotic street.
No one dared intervene.
And as for the NYPD... when had they ever shown up on time?
Skye's struggles were growing weaker.
Just as everyone thought a rising Hollywood star was about to die at the hands of a monstrous madman...
"I don't want to die!"
Skye's mind blurred. Through the haze, she seemed to glimpse a faint light. Her will to live pushed her to grasp that last spark of hope.
Then…It happened.
A strange energy gathered in her hands. With one desperate push, the crushing grip around her neck was broken.
Skye collapsed to the floor, air rushing back into her lungs. She coughed and gasped, her oxygen-starved brain slowly clearing.
"What... happened?"
Her vision sharpened. She looked ahead and saw shelves collapsing in front of her.
The once-dominant burly man was now pinned flat against the wall, as if embedded into it.
Skye didn't have time to wonder what had happened. She turned and saw the Chinese auntie lying unconscious. Unlike Skye, this ordinary woman had no resilience.
Though her throat was no longer constricted, she remained unconscious, hanging on to life by a thread.
"Somebody help! Please!" Skye crawled over, cradled the woman in her arms, and shouted toward the people outside the store.
But, no one dared to come in. Skye felt helpless, not knowing how to save someone already on the brink of death.
"Damn woman! You were part of that experiment too? How are you still unharmed!" The burly man roared.
Magma-like fluid coursed over his body, sealing his wounds. Even so, his rage was uncontrollable.
Skye's strike only made him angrier. Misunderstanding what had happened, his face twisted with jealousy and malice.
As his emotions surged, his entire body seemed to ignite. Scalding lava surfaced across his skin.
The concrete wall couldn't withstand the heat, melting instantly as the burly man crashed back to the ground.
"Why am I the only one who has to suffer this torment!" The burly man snapped completely, charging at Skye with even greater speed.
His fury made him look monstrous. Lava-like cracks ran across his body, burning his clothes to ash.
He had become a man engulfed in flames. Outside the supermarket, horrified screams erupted, mixed with shouts of "Mutant!"
Because of Magneto's legacy, many already knew mutants existed. So when they saw something extraordinary, they instinctively assumed it was a mutant.
"Die!!"
The burly man closed the distance in an instant, raising his fist to crush Skye. Faced with this terrifying figure bearing down on her, Skye—still collapsed on the ground—was overwhelmed with fear. Instinctively, she raised her arms to shield herself.
In that life-or-death moment.
Another shockwave burst from her, an unconscious reflex. The invisible force struck the man point-blank once again.
This time it was far stronger. From her seated position, the shockwave blasted upward through his abdomen, propelling him straight into the ceiling.
"BOOM!"
The supermarket roof exploded with a massive hole. The burly man screamed in agony as the shockwave hurled him skyward, unleashed in Skye's blind panic.
And it didn't stop there.
Within moments, he pierced through the clouds, shattered the ozone layer, and was launched all the way into the vacuum of space.
Crack—
The molten fire covering his body extinguished instantly, and he froze solid like an icicle, reduced to nothing more than floating space debris.
...
On the ground.
Skye had no idea what she had just done. She had shut her eyes, bracing for his fist—but it never came.
Outside the supermarket.
The voices of the crowd that had retreated earlier were now growing louder, closer. Skye heard someone shouting her name.
Starlight!
Of course... they weren't calling her name. They were calling the name of her character in The Boys. The realization sparked a surge of irritation.
Seriously? At a time like this... instead of helping, they were treating this like a show? Was this really an age of entertainment above all else?
"Oh my god! She beat that monster!"
"I saw it! He was blasted straight into the sky!"
A storm of amazed voices filled her ears. Skye slowly opened her eyes and realized that at some point, a huge crowd had gathered around her.
"What... happened?"
The burly man was gone. The unconscious Chinese auntie was being tended to by someone who claimed to be a doctor. Dozens of eyes were fixed on Skye, filled with disbelief—and something harder to place.
Of course.
Among them were a few with awe in their eyes, chanting "Starlight," the name from the TV show.
"Big Sister! You defeated the bad guy!"
A little girl stepped forward, her voice brimming with admiration.
Before Skye could respond, the girl was scooped up by a young woman. As she carried the child away, she shot Skye a wary glance.
Skye didn't like that look. But the girl's words made her gradually realize what had happened.
"Did I... do that?"
She looked up at the ceiling where the little girl had pointed earlier. A massive, human-shaped hole was there, as if someone had been blasted straight through it. No doubt about it.
It had to be that burly man.
She could hardly believe it. She didn't want to believe it. But the evidence was right there.
"This is..."
Skye raised her hands toward the shelves. With a single thought, a violent shockwave erupted from her palms.
"BOOM!"
The shelves collapsed instantly, shattering into pieces. Skye recalled all the times she had accidentally broken things before—this felt exactly the same.
"What the hell!"
"What are you doing!"
Skye had only been testing her ability.
Her intention was simply to confirm it. But the blast startled the people nearby, sending them scrambling back in terror.
Everyone dreamed of superpowers, but everyone feared them too. And after witnessing Skye's destructive force, many now worried she could kill them in an instant.
Their eyes on her were filled with fear, treating her like something alien.
Only a handful, confusing her with the role she played on screen, were shouting, "She's a true superhero of justice!"
But those were the rare few.
Most, having seen Skye unleash her power up close, felt nothing but raw, gut-deep terror.
"God! Are you trying to kill us?!"
A bearded man's face twisted in fear. The way he looked at Skye now was exactly how everyone had stared at the burly man earlier.
"I..."
Skye glanced around. Countless terrified eyes were fixed on her, leaving her at a complete loss.
Surrounded by the crowd, panic surged again. She shoved her way through and bolted onto the street.
With her powers awakened, her physical abilities had skyrocketed. Her speed was so fast that no one could possibly catch up, even if they tried.
In truth, her body had already been changing for some time. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to stand after being thrown out of the supermarket earlier...
"Damn it! I can't keep up!"
The influencer, who had been secretly recording from a corner, had followed the crowd inside after seeing Skye unleash her terrifying power to end the threat.
Her live stream was exploding—viewership soaring, gifts flooding in nonstop. She desperately wanted to film more of Skye, maybe even ask her a few questions.
But her weak stamina couldn't keep up. She had no choice but to stop, watching in frustration as Skye's figure vanished into the distance.
Left with no alternative, she turned her attention back to her own live stream, now at peak popularity. She had no idea how long the hype would last.
"Come on, family! I risked everything to stream a superhero punishing evil live for you! Don't you think your host deserves a little tip?" she said. But by then, her chat had already exploded.
Of course, it wasn't because she asked for donations—nobody was paying attention to her. All the discussion was about what had just happened.
"You saw that, right? You all saw it! Holy crap! She really has powers! She blasted that guy straight into the sky!"
"My worldview is shattered... Superheroes are real? Well, I guess it makes sense—New York already has Spider-Man!"
"It's her powers! I always knew something was off about The Boys! Now I finally get what it was!"
"Documentary! That show has to be a documentary! She didn't absorb light energy just now, but I'd never mistake that ability!"
...
Comment after comment streaked across the screen.
The influencer's once-mediocre live stream now had tens of millions of real-time viewers.
After witnessing the event, the audience was in a frenzy.
They'd all seen Skye use her powers with their own eyes. The high-definition footage made it impossible to dismiss as a pre-recorded promo. Besides, the influencer had been actively interacting with the chat the entire time.
"A superpowered human! She must be one!"
"Or maybe a mutant!"
"Why not a Compound V superhero?"
The footage was definitive proof Skye had powers. Countless people began spreading the video across every major platform.
On top of that, bystanders outside uploaded their own clips to YouTube and other sites.
Within minutes, the supermarket incident had exploded across the internet. Even those who hadn't watched the live stream were rushing to watch the replays.
"Is this Starlight for real? Or just the show?"
"It's real! She didn't fight back at first because she didn't want to expose herself. Only when she had no choice did she reveal her powers!"
"Exactly! I noticed details in the Vought files! The first superhero they created was Steve Rogers back in WWII—Captain America!"
"Right! And the files mentioned Soldier Boy too! I'm telling you, Soldier Boy is Cap!"
Guided by die-hard fans of The Boys, people began connecting everything back to the show's storyline.
Even Captain America was now being speculated as a manufactured hero.
No one doubted the authenticity of the videos.
With so many angles captured, if it were CGI, it would've cost a fortune—and who would burn money like that? Impossible.
More and more people felt they'd uncovered some earth-shattering truth.
As the debate spread, one bold comment suddenly grabbed attention and ignited fierce discussion.
"What if... Homelander is real too? There were posts on forums accusing him of murder before!"
If someone had suggested this earlier, they would've been mocked and torn apart online. But after what happened with Skye, people couldn't ignore the possibility.
If the female lead had been proven real... what about the actor playing the absolute male lead? Could he be superpowered too?
The topic exploded.
Some argued that having an invincible superhero would reassure the world, keeping another world war at bay. Others voiced deep concerns, fearing the rise of a dictator.
When the law can't restrain someone, everyone else is left to live in fear. Many agreed with that sentiment.
"Do you really want Homelander to exist?"
"Based on Starlight's heroics, let's analyze how much of The Boys is real!"
Among all the discussions, one particular response shot to the top with overwhelming likes.
"Don't worry! He's scared of online hate! If he becomes a dictator, we'll just cancel him online!"
Attached beneath was a meme of Herman in Homelander's costume.