With Great Power....Comes Me

Darkness. Silence. Then, suddenly—pain.

Sebastian Reese's eyes snapped open as he gasped for air, his heart pounding against his ribs like a war drum. A dull ache settled in his skull, his senses reeling as though he had been thrown into an entirely new reality.

The ceiling above him was unfamiliar—cracked, water-stained, and lined with spiderwebbed fractures. A rusted ceiling fan creaked with each slow, pitiful turn, its rhythm steady yet grating. The room around him smelled of cheap liquor, stale cigarettes, and something musty, like wet carpet left to rot.

Panic surged through him. This wasn't his room. Hell, this wasn't even his life.

He sat up too fast, a wave of dizziness nearly sending him back down. His body felt off—not wrong, just... different. Lighter, stronger, like he had suddenly been wrapped in a body too perfect for human limitations.

He stumbled out of bed, his feet hitting cold, uneven wood. As he moved, the dim morning light filtering through the blinds caught a cracked mirror hanging near the door.

The moment he saw his reflection, he froze.

The face staring back at him was his—but not.

The same sharp jawline, Long messy black middle part hair, and vivid blue eyes—except now, his irises held an unnatural, almost predatory red hue, flickering faintly like embers beneath the surface, giving his eyes an almost purplish look.

He stepped closer, lifting a hand to his face, pressing his fingertips against his cheek, as if confirming he was real. Younger. Healthier. His body was lean but sculpted, his muscles dense despite feeling deceptively effortless to move.

Then, like a dam breaking, the memories came flooding in.

Two lifetimes. Two sets of experiences.

One belonged to this body—the original Sebastian Reese, a loser by all accounts. A boy born into wealth and status, only to lose everything in a single tragic night. His parents—once powerful superheroes—were murdered by a villain, their riches seized by corporate vultures and corrupt officials. He had nothing left. No family. No powers. No future.

By the time he was eighteen, he had become just another nobody, scraping by in a forgotten apartment, drinking his problems away, waiting for a life that would never get better.

Then came the other set of memories—his real memories.

The ones from his past life.

Sebastian sucked in a sharp breath as recollections of his old world came rushing back. A world where superheroes, villains, and superpowers were nothing but fiction. A world where he had spent years fantasizing about being more than just human.

Then came the accident. He remembered dying—the slow fade to black, the brief moment of awareness before the end. He remembered wishing—wishing for power, wishing to be something greater.

"If I had another chance... I'd want Superman's powers."

But fate had a twisted sense of humor.

His karma hadn't been high enough for Superman. Instead, he had been given the next best thing—or, depending on how he looked at it, something far more terrifying.

Homelander.

Sebastian shuddered, gripping the edge of a nearby table to steady himself. His hands clenched into the wood too easily—his fingers sank into it as if the material was nothing more than damp clay.

A surge of raw power thrummed through him.

His hearing spiked, catching the distant sound of a TV playing two rooms away, the faint heartbeat of a rat scurrying in the vents. His vision sharpened to absurd levels—he could see the individual grains of dust in the air, the tiny cracks in the walls, the fibers of his own clothing.

Then—

CRACK!

A glass sitting on the table shattered, shards flying as a beam of red-hot energy flickered from his eyes, leaving blackened scorch marks along the surface.

Sebastian stumbled back, breathing hard, hands on his knees.

"Holy shit..." he muttered, his voice unsteady but filled with something that had been missing his entire previous life—exhilaration.

For the next hour, he experimented, carefully testing the extent of his newfound abilities.

Superhuman Strength – He wrapped his fingers around an old wooden chair leg and gave it a light squeeze. With almost no effort, the wood splintered like dry paper, crumbling to dust in his palm. He needed to be careful—one wrong move, and he could crush a person just as easily.

Superhuman Durability – He grabbed a rusted knife from the kitchen drawer and pressed it against his palm. Nothing. No pain, no puncture, not even a scratch. Just to be sure, he pressed harder, twisting the blade's edge against his skin. The knife bent before it could break through. "Damn, I'm bulletproof."

Superhuman Speed – He took a step forward—and nearly face-planted into the wall. His body blurred, covering the length of the apartment in a split second. Too fast. Slowing down would take practice, or he'd be smashing into everything.

Superhuman Stamina – Even after all this testing, he felt no exhaustion. His breathing remained steady, his body unfazed. He wasn't just strong—he could keep fighting for hours without slowing down.

Superhuman Senses – When he closed his eyes and focused, the world exploded with sound. Heartbeats from neighbors, distant sirens, footsteps several floors below. His nose picked up every scent in the apartment—the dust, the mildew, even the stale cigarette smoke from the previous tenant. And his eyes? They adjusted to the dim light so well, it was like night vision was built-in.

Subsonic Flight – This one took the most effort. At first, all he did was jump too high and land too hard, cracking the floor. But after focusing, willing himself to defy gravity, his feet finally lifted off the ground. He hovered, just a few inches at first, before pushing higher. Flying felt… right. Like walking, but in the air.

Regenerative Healing Factor – Taking a deep breath, he focused on his palm and let his heat vision flare. A thin, controlled beam of red-hot energy sliced across his hand. For a split second, pain flashed through him, the burn deep and searing—but just as quickly, the wound closed itself. The scorched skin peeled away, revealing fresh, undamaged flesh underneath.

He exhaled, flexing his fingers. He wasn't invulnerable—his durability had limits—but even if something did hurt him, he'd heal almost instantly.

X-Ray Vision – He blinked, shifting his focus. The walls of the apartment peeled away layer by layer until he could see into the next room. A man sitting on a couch. Another blink, and he saw through another wall—the streets below, people walking. With effort, he dialed it back, not wanting to get stuck seeing through everything.

Heat Vision – This was the most dangerous of all. He focused on the bathroom mirror, channeling something deep behind his eyes. A red glow built up in his vision before—ZAP! A brief blast of heat seared the air, scorching the ceiling. He flinched, heart pounding. That could kill someone instantly. "Okay… gonna need serious control on that one."

His body was perfectly efficient, a biological machine far beyond human limitations. If this was what Homelander's power felt like, it was no wonder the man had been a monster in his world.

Just as he was getting comfortable with his abilities, his enhanced hearing picked up something outside—commotion, distant screams, metal twisting, explosions.

Sebastian stiffened.

Instinct took over.

Before he could second-guess himself, he was already moving—flying out of the window, soaring toward the chaos below.

The streets below were in chaos.

A villain, a man clad in gleaming metal armor, was battling two female superheroes.

Sebastian recognized them instantly—memories of the game Superheroes Suck flashing in his mind. Realizing that this was the fight at the beginning of the game.

But he was quickly ticking out of his thoughts when, Metal Mage raised a hand, and with a flick of his fingers, jagged spikes of metal launched towards Harper at blistering speeds.

Sebastian moved before he thought.

One second, he was hovering in the air. The next, he was a blur, positioning himself between Harper and the attack.

The metal struck his chest—and shattered instantly.

Silence.

Everyone—Metal Mage, Harper, and Miss Powell—froze, their eyes wide with shock.

Sebastian slowly straightened, a grin forming as he cracked his neck. He barely even felt that.

"Mind if I join the party?" he said, his voice brimming with confidence.

The battle had just begun.