A/N: Okay, I was originally going to make this into two different chapters, the first being the setup of collecting all the evidence, and the next just being one huge battle like in all my other fanfics, but then, if I made it one huge Avengers like battle, it would kind of take away from the whole point of the show (and this story). The Boys are the definition of underdogs. They have no powers, and they're not backed by anyone. They're the only ones with the balls to take on the supes. Sure, they might get help from someone every once in a while, but not for long.
Also, I forgot to mention in the last chapter, the reason Homelander's lasers didn't kill Dredd was because he wasn't in his right mind, and he wasn't concentrating. Because of that, the energy output he used was more or less similar to when he heated up Stillwell's breast milk in the first episode.
Anyway, here's the penultimate chapter that borrows heavily from the comic. You'll find out why soon enough.
Homelander stood on the roof of Vought tower, the pants of his uniform pulled all the way down. It was still night out, with only the moon providing light. Good, then no one will see what the leader of the Seven was doing.
"I can do whatever I want." Homelander murmured, as he gripped his cock and began to masturbate in the open. "I can do whatever I want."
Everytime Homelander said that phrase, he jacked off faster and faster, until his eyes glowed red, and he fired a laser blast up into the sky.
"I CAN DO WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT!"
Music: "The Woods" by the White Buffalo
Frank Castle walked through the cemetery, his jacket zipped up to hide the skull vest, as he came to stop at three gravestones. He didn't have to read them. He knew who was buried under them.
"I'm sorry." Frank whispered, resting his hand on the gravestone in the middle. It was more for Maria, but also for his children. "If anybody asked me once, I'd have told them I was just like everybody else. All I'd really care about is if you and the kids were happy, healthy. Then when I lost you, everything had changed for me, like I became something different. But you knew, didn't you? This is always who I was."
Frank paused for a moment, closing his eyes to stop the tears from flowing.
"You knew what I was, and you loved me anyway. Don't know what you saw in me, for all the good it did for you and the kids."
Frank stopped again, if only to clear his throat.
"I wanted to visit you when all this was over. When the wolves were gone. But I don't know if I'll make it to the end. There's no warm, cozy ending for me. No light at the end of the tunnel, not for me. I just… wanted to see you, one more time."
Frank allowed a few tears to fall on the headstone, before standing up. He looked down at his family one last time, before beginning his long walk back to the Boys' hideout in New York.
Becca opened her eyes, finding she was still in the hospital bed, with Dredd and Ryan watching her.
"How long am I going to be here?" Rebecca asked, anxious to leave the hospital.
"Until you're better." Dredd told her. "I don't want to lose you again."
Becca smiled weakly at her husband, before looking towards Ryan.
"Mom, I'm sorry." the boy repeated. "I didn't mean to do that-"
"Ryan, it's okay." Rebecca insisted, as she placed her hand on her son's cheek. "You were only trying to protect me."
That didn't seem to calm Ryan down, and his frown deepened.
"Why did you lie?"
Becca slowly retracted her hand, a look of worry returning in her eyes.
"What?"
"Why did you lie to me, all my life?" Ryan asked her. "I know Dad and his girlfriend were bad, but they showed me that the neighbors were fake. Why didn't you tell me?"
Becca sighed sadly. She knew she'd have to tell Ryan this. She had hoped she could wait until he was older, but Homelander and Stormfront forced it too early.
"Ryan, before you were born, your father, he… he did something bad." Becca revealed. "He hurt me, and when I found out I was going to have you, I went to Vought, the place he works at."
"Why didn't you go to your husband?" Ryan asked, eyeing Dredd.
"I didn't go to him because I was scared for him." Becca looked solemnly at Joe. "I knew he'd go after your father, and it wouldn't be good for anyone. I didn't want him to go on down a warpath, because he abandoned his old life for me."
At the last sentence, Becca stared at Dredd, through his visor and into his eyes.
"I'm sorry I made you go back to the man you were."
Joseph stared at his wife in a mixture of sadness and pity, before kneeling to be closer to her.
"You have nothing to be sorry for." Dredd whispered. "This is who I always was."
Becca's eyes trailed over to Ryan, who still looked sad.
"I'm sorry I lied to you about who you were." Becca said sadly. "Vought and I thought it was best I raised you as normal as possible, and wanted to hide you away from your father."
Ryan stared at his mother with a blank expression, constantly blinking, before wordlessly walking out.
"Ryan, wait!" Becca pleaded, attempting to get up and follow her son, but Dredd gently pushed her back down.
"I'll talk with him." Joseph told her.
"What can you possibly say to him?" Becca asked. "Ryan still doesn't know you."
Dredd didn't answer, and simply walked out of the hospital room. She was right, of course. Ryan didn't know him. But they had something in common.
Neither of them grew up with fathers.
Diggle walked up to his small, suburban home in Queens, knocking on the door three times. A second later, his wife Lyla opened the door, wearing a glowing smile.
"Johnny." Lyla wrapped her arms around her husband in a bear hug. "What are you doing here?"
"All the charges against us were dropped." Dig explained. "Dredd, Frank, and the rest of the Boys are all free."
"But what about the bounty Vought placed on you all?" Lyla asked, as they began moving into the living room.
"There was no real evidence they put up a bounty." Diggle grimaced.
"Johnny, you came back here, when someone could still be hunting you?" Lyla's eyes widened.
At that moment, the front door was kicked down, and several Vought guards marched in. Diggle and Lyla quickly sprung into action, pulling out pistols and shooting most of the agents. John rolled forward, punching a final guard in the knee and throwing him over his shoulder.
"Why the Hell are you coming after us?" Diggle snarled, as the guard stared lazily up at him. "The charges were dropped!"
The guard looked up at him, with a smirk on his face.
"Did you really think Vought cared that the charges were dropped? They still want you and your friends' heads."
Diggle narrowed his eyes, and shot a final bullet into the guard's head, before pulling out his cellphone.
"Who are you calling?" Lyla asked.
"The rest of the Boys." Dig explained, as he dialed a number. "They need to be warned."
Allyson and Michael sat in one of Dax's safehouses, as Dax walked in with a boombox.
"What's that for?" Allyson asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You asked if I danced yesterday." Dax smirked. "Do you want to…"
"No." Allyson said bluntly, but quickly softened her expression. "Sorry, I just… don't really dance anymore."
"Because of prom?"
Allyson looked up at Dax, realization dawning on her face.
"How do you know that?"
"Cameron told me, the day he died." Dax revealed. "I didn't mean to pry, but he told me what he did to you."
"He wasn't a bad guy." Allyson sighed. "But I did break up with him after that night."
"And that was the night you met Michael." Dax murmured, staring at Myers. The Boogeyman turned his head towards the mercenary, before looking back at Allyson.
"Yes." Nelson whispered. "I was scared of him at first. But after Doctor Sartain stuck me in the back of a car with him, I realized he'd never hurt me."
"Why though?" Dax wondered. Allyson smiled wryly him him, before looking at Michael
"Everyone thought Michael's only goal is to kill." Allyson explained. "But when he saved me from bleeding out, and took me to my grandmother's… it took me awhile, but what he really wants is to have a family."
"Because of his sister." Dax realized. Michael slowly tilted his head in acknowledgement, which Dax assumed was supposed to mean yes.
Michael suddenly jerked his head to the right, staring out the safehouse's window.
"What is it?" Dax asked, looking out as well to see a black armored truck pull up, with four Vought guards walking towards the door.
"Shit!"
Michael slightly drooped his head. He knew how Vought found them. He knew, because he turned the information over to Stan Edgar, when he was still Black Noir.
Music: "The Shape Hunts Allyson" from Halloween 2018 OST
Dax jumped over the couch, pulling out his gun, while Allyson crouched low, preparing for a fight. The door was suddenly smashed open with a Vought issued battering ram, and Dax began shooting. Most of his shots penetrated the guard in the doorway, while Allyson pounced on the agent directly behind, plunging her fingers into his eyes and twisting his head into a sickening snap. The third and fourth guards tried shooting her, but Michael grabbed them and smashed their heads together so hard, their skulls cracked, killing them instantly.
Dax breathed out a sigh of relief, when his phone started ringing. Michael and Allyson gave him a curious look, as he answered his phone.
"Who is this?"
Dax's eyes widened slightly, and continued speaking.
"Yeah, just now. What! Then we need to warn them!"
Dax shut his phone, and looked towards Nelson and Myers.
"Vought's coming after all of us."
"But the charges were dropped-" Allyson was about to say, but Dax interrupted her.
"Vought doesn't give a shit. We need to let Frank and Dredd know, now."
Judge Dredd walked through the halls of Metro General Hospital searching for Ryan. The kid was only eight years old, how did he lose him that quick? Then again, he was an eight year old supe, with the powers of Homelander. Maybe he developed his super speed a little as well.
Joseph eventually found Ryan at the front desk, sitting in a chair. The moment he saw him, Ryan looked in his direction, but slowly turned away. He looked like he had been crying. Dredd felt a stab of pity enter his heart, as he walked over to the chair next to the boy and sat down, ignoring the stairs of other patients and doctors.
"Ryan." Joseph said softly. "I'm sorry you had to hear that."
"My entire life was a lie." Ryan sobbed. "I'm only here because Dad did something bad to Mom, and then they forced her to keep me."
Joe slowly nodded, understanding why Ryan was hurting.
"Your mother does love you." Dredd mumbled. "It wasn't your fault what happened to her."
"But she still lied to me." Ryan cried. "I know she had a good reason, to keep me from my dad, but everything was fake. The house was faked, our neighbors were faked. I had no friends."
Ryan looked over to the Judge, as tears began to pour out again.
"Do you know what that's like?" Ryan whimpered. "To grow up with no friends, and to be hidden from everyone?"
Dredd looked at Ryan, breaking his stony expression, and took off his helmet, revealing jet black hair and dark brown eyes. He took a deep breath, as he prepared to tell Ryan his biggest secret. Ever since he arrived in New York, back in 2011, he hadn't told anyone this. Not even Becca.
"I do." Joseph revealed. "I never grew up without a father either. Or a mother, for that matter. I'm not even a real person."
"What?" Ryan exclaimed in shock. Dredd exhaled a sigh, and looked at his helmet.
"I was cloned from a man named Eastuce Fargo. Where I'm from, he was called the Father of Justice." Dredd explained. "Many of us are cloned."
"Us?" Ryan asked in confusion.
"Judges." Dredd explained. "Our law enforcement. Able to judge, sentence, and if need be, execute perps on the spot."
"And you're a clone? Like from Star Wars?"
"Not exactly." Joe shook his head. "I was raised in a tube for a few months, before the process accelerated my growth to the age of five. Then I was placed directly into training."
"Training to be a… Judge?" Ryan asked, staring at his gold badge.
"Yes. For fifteen years, we train to protect our Mega Cities. Cities that span the entire coasts of the country." Dredd continued. "We have no parents. We have few friends. All we have is the law."
"And, all that time, you were alone." Ryan concluded, looking down at the ground.
"No." Dredd sadly shook his head. "I had a brother. Rico. Older twin of mine, cloned from Fargo's DNA."
"What happened to him?" Ryan asked.
"He… betrayed the law." Joe spoke softly. "I sent him away to be imprisoned, and when he was released, he tried to kill me. I had to kill him in self defense."
Dredd shut his eyes, still remembering when he tried carrying Rico's lifeless body to a medical facility. Sometimes, the words he uttered to a paramedic offering help still kept him up at night.
He ain't heavy- he's my brother!
"And the worst part… is that he left behind a daughter; Vienna." Dredd told Ryan. "I tried, so hard, to keep her father's fate a secret from her, because I thought she'd hate me for the rest of her life. But do you know what she said when she found out?"
Joseph looked towards his wife's son, with remorse in his eyes.
"She told me that I must have had a good reason to kill him." Dredd shuddered in grief.
"So yes, I understand that you grew up believing a lie. And I understand why you're upset with your mother. But you're not alone."
Just as Dredd finished speaking, the lights went out in the entire hospital, causing Joe to place his helmet back over his head.
Music: "Mini Guns" from Dredd 2012 OST
"What the drokk?"
"What's going on?" Ryan asked, frightened.
Dredd frowned, as his helmet activated infrared vision. Something wasn't right.
"We need to get back to Becca. Now!"
Meanwhile, in her hospital room, Becca looked up as the lights went out. She sighed, having an idea what was going on, and quickly got out of bed to put her clothes back on.
Dredd began running down the halls, with Ryan following shortly behind. Thank Grudd the doctors didn't even try to take his Lawgiver. Unfortunately, since it was a hospital, full of innocent civilians, he had to resort to standard FMJ ammunition.
As the Judge and Ryan turned a corner, they saw several Vought guards walking towards them.
"Get behind me." Dredd ordered. He didn't care if Ryan had superpowers, he was still a kid.
"Mister Butcher." the lead guard sneered. Joseph narrowed his eyes.
"My name is Dredd, creep."
"Whatever. You cost us the asset." the guard glared, staring at Ryan.
"And I told your boss I'm taking my wife and the kid, since you failed to hide him from Homelander."
"Well, he wants him back." the guard retorted, as they aimed their guns at the lawman.
Dredd responded by raising his Lawgiver, and uttering two words.
"Rapid Fire."
Both Dredd and Vought's guards squeezed the triggers, causing Ryan to cover his ears. Two bullets slammed into Joe's chest, but his advanced kevlar armor was able to stop them from doing real damage. Meanwhile, the guards in the hallway all fell to the ground, riddled with bullet holes.
Ryan uncovered his ears, seeing all of Vought's men were dead, when he and Joseph heard two gunshots, as well as the spray of assault rifles. The boy looked up at his mother's husband, seeing his eyes widen behind his helmet's visor.
"Becca."
Dredd and Ryan rushed back over to Becca's hospital room, kicking the door open to find two Vought guards, dead with their blood pooling on the floor. Joseph looked down at the bodies, confusion beginning to rise up, when he felt a gun get cocked against the side of his head.
"Didn't they teach you to check corners in Mega City One?"
Dredd turned his head to see Becca, pointing a gun in his face and wearing a half smirk.
"Getting old." Joseph replied, then frowned, seeing Becca's phone next to the hospital bed.
"What is it?" Becca asked, looking behind her to see her phone, which now began ringing. Cautiously, and slowly, Becca inched towards bed, picked up her phone, and pressed the call.
"Becca, is that you?"
Rebecca frowned, hearing Diggle's voice.
"Yes, it's me."
"Are Dredd and Ryan with you?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, good. Vought attacked me and Lyla in our home, and they just tried the same with Dax, Allyson, and Myers-"
"They tried to kill us too." Becca interrupted. "And they wanted to take Ryan back."
"Dammit." Diggle growled on the other line. "Sounds like Vought's trying to take us all out quietly. Have you seen Castle?"
"No." Becca muttered. "We've been at the hospital overnight. That woman from the CIA, Mallory, showed up, and Dredd gave her Queen Maeve's evidence against Homelander."
"Okay. I'll try to reach him." Diggle told her, before ending the call. Becca looked back to Dredd, seeing his scowl deepen.
"What?" she asked.
"The phones." Joseph scowled. "That's how they're tracking us to send their men after us."
Frank Castle walked back into the hideout, seeing that nobody was there, and checked the monitors. Across the city's cameras, Castle watched Vought agents confront the other members of the Boys. Some in their own homes. Others entered the hospital, where Dredd and Becca were.
"What the fuck?"
The lights, as well as the monitors, all shut off, shrouding the hideout in darkness. Frank looked around for a moment, as the backup generator kicked in, bathing everything in a pale green light.
"Ah, shit."
Castle took his duster off and placed it on the chair in front of the computers, before taking out his phone and setting it in the middle of the table. The phone. That must've been how Vought found him.
Frank didn't have time to ponder this revelation, as he made his way to the gun rack on the other side of the room and picked out a FAMAS assault rifle. He turned around, climbing the catwalk's stairs, and waited for Vought's guards to walk in.
Two guards walked along the catwalk, while the rest of the small squad entered the main ground area. The ones up top slowly walked back to back, but that didn't save them. Frank dangled a cord tied into a noose down, having it wrap around one of the guard's necks. Castle proceeded to jump down, landing on the second guard, as the cord attached to the railing above pulled the first one up, effectively hanging him and efficiently breaking his neck. The second guard attempted to move, but Frank pulled out a ka-bar and stabbed it into the man's neck, before dragging it across and slashing his throat.
The rest of Vought's guards covered the hideout, only to find no one was there. The squad's leader activated the radio, and began to speak to Stan Edgar.
"Yeah, no one's here."
"That's impossible. You tracked him here, didn't you?"
"Sure, we tracked him here, but he's not here now."
"Then how did you find him in the first place?"
"We tracked his phone to this location, just as you suggested." the lead guard replied, walking over to the monitors and picking the cellphone up. "It was just sitting here in front of the computers."
"Dammit. It's a trap, he knows you're here."
Music: "Heads Will Roll" from Punisher season 1 OST
The guards suddenly turned around, hearing a thumping noise, and saw a bearded man's head roll towards them, with a grenade strapped to the side. The leader's eyes widened, realizing it was the head of one of the guards that was on the catwalk.
The grenade exploded, instantly killing two guards, and Frank decided to make his presence known. He rushed out of the darkness, firing the three round burst on his rifle and peppering three more guards with bullets. One of the men tried to blindside him, but Castle clubbed him with the rear of the FAMAS, then finished with a triple bullet stream to the face.
The lead guard turned a corner, spraying Frank in the back and making him drop his rifle, and scramble towards one of the wooden boxes in the hideout and swiping the pump action shotgun Allyson took from her grandmother's home. He hoped she didn't mind him borrowing it for a bit. Castle quickly turned around, just in time to shoot another guard in the chest with the shotgun. He cranked the pump and fired again, this time blowing the head up with the powerful slug.
"EDGAR!"
On the 82nd floor of Vought Tower, Stan Edgar watched body cam feed of his men being gunned down by Frank Castle. The moment he heard the Punisher call his name, his blood ran cold in nervousness.
"YOU HEAR ME? I'M GONNA WATCH YOU DIE!"
Frank turned a corner, blowing another guard's face open with the shotgun, before tossing the empty gun away and pulling out his pistol. Two more guards appeared in his view, and he quickly delivered headshots to each of them. All that remained was the squad leader, who blindsided him and forced him up against a wall. The Punisher growled in defiance, headbutting the guard and slapping his gun to the side, making him fire at nothing. Castle backhanded the rifle away and brought his pistol up to bear, but the lead agent slapped his weapon away as well, before pulling out a knife of his own. Frank grit his teeth, sidestepping easily from the guard's wild slashes, until he grabbed the arm. Castle twisted the limb, smashing his fist into the elbow and breaking the arm, before ripping the knife away from him and stabbing his opponent in the chest, followed with jamming the blade into his eye.
"EDGAR!" Frank roared, picking up the guard's corpse and looking into the body camera positioned right next to the Vought logo.
"I'm coming for you."
Frank ripped the body cam off the guard's uniform and dropped the body, before looking over to the monitors. Or more specifically, the cellphone. Fuck. So that's how Vought tracked them all down. Castle groaned, as he walked over to the computers, smashing his fist into the cellphone and cracking the screen.
Homelander walked through the halls of Vought, pushing open the glass doors of Edgar's office and strolling in.
"Hello, Stan." Homelander grinned, standing over Edgar's desk. "I have an… issue that I'd like to resolve."
"If you are referring to your son being kidnapped, you need not worry Homelander." Stan wore a businessman's smile. "Rest assured, we are looking for him right now."
"No, that's not what I'm here to talk about." Homelander glared at the president of Vought. "I'm talking about the fact you conspired with Billy Butcher to take him away from me."
"I'm not sure I know what you mean-"
"Oh really?" Homelander seethed, stepping closer to Edgar's desk. "So that wasn't you who sent Vought agents to my cabin up in Rochester? Or who supplied Butcher with those speakers?"
"Homelander, you took Ryan away from his mother." Stan calmly explained. "The whole point was to raise him to have a better childhood than you."
"He would have had a mother." Homelander gnashed his teeth together.
"I assume you are referring to Stormfront." Edgar stared at the supe blankly. "Were you really prepared to let her beliefs warp your son's mind?"
"He would have been raised properly!" Homelander shouted, as his eyes began to glow red. "Not as some pussy by that whore Becca!"
Stan still stared at the supe with an expressionless face, as his heartbeat read normal. Homelander allowed his eyes to fade back to their normal blue color, realizing Edgar wasn't afraid of him.
"Now, we are searching for Ryan as hard as we can." Stan told him. "As is our manhunt for Mister Butcher and his cronies."
"You pulled the bounty?" Homelander asked.
"Yes. I came to realize we cannot rely on common street gangs." Stan leaned back in his chair, his eyebrows raised. "If something needs to be done, we have to do it ourselves."
Homelander exhaled in frustration, before calming down.
"Where are Maeve and Starlight?"
"We don't know." Stan admitted. "Starlight must have taken out her chip, as did Maeve."
"Noir?"
"Still missing."
"You fucking find them." Homelander snarled, before walking out of Stan's office. Edgar sighed, placing a hand over his head. Sometime soon, real soon, Homelander was going to fly off the rails, and Vought would have to neutralize the leader of the Seven. Unfortunately, their trump card, the ace up their sleeve against a rogue Homelander was missing, most likely taken hostage by Butcher and his friends.
Stan Edgar scoffed at the ridiculous notion. Black Noir, kidnapped? He had the power to take on Homelander, there's no way he would've been kidnapped! Especially not by Billy Butcher and his companions, no less! Unless…
"He went with them voluntarily."
Annie sat on the park bench in front of the carousel, patiently waiting for Frank to appear. Right next to her, Queen Maeve had her arms crossed, and was pacing back and forth. They had been waiting on that bench for nearly half an hour, and Maeve was growing impatient for the Punisher's arrival.
"Let's go. He's not coming." Maeve grumbled. Annie hung her head, realizing she was right, and began to stand up.
"You ladies waiting for someone?"
Starlight and Maeve turned their heads, seeing Frank walking towards him, his black duster barely covering up the white skull vest, and his face sporting new bruises and droplets of blood.
"Waiting for you." Annie told him. "What happened?"
"Vought." Castle muttered. "Edgar sent some fucks after me. The warehouse is compromised."
"How?" Maeve asked, curious. "I thought you made that place off the grid."
"Our phones." Frank revealed. "They tracked us all through our phones."
Annie's eyes widened, and she audibly gulped.
"Homelander's gone mad. It's not safe at the tower." Maeve told Castle.
"Yeah. Didn't think it would be." Frank nodded. "Have you spoken to Dredd or anyone else?"
"No." Annie shook her head. "You're the only one we've tried to reach."
"Then we're on our own."
"You're wrong."
Castle frowned and looked over his shoulder, seeing Dredd standing a short distance off.
"Vought tried to get you too?" Frank asked.
"Yeah." Joseph murmured. "They wanted to take Ryan as well."
"Where is he now?" Annie asked.
"With his mother, in the Flatiron building." Dredd replied. "I've spoken to Dax, Diggle, and Allyson. They're waiting for us there too."
"How'd you manage that?" Castle asked.
"Mallory still had some contacts in the CIA." Dredd responded. "She was able to work out that deal I made with Rawlins last week."
Frank, Annie, and Maeve began walking towards Dredd, who suddenly pointed to Maggie.
"Is she still chipped?"
"No." Maeve quickly replied. "I made sure to take it out after yesterday."
"Good." Dredd's face showed a ghost of a smile. "Let's go."
Homelander touched down in some village in the Middle East, seeing one of the villagers terrorizing everyone else by lifting rock formations out of the ground. The supe rolled his eyes, before blasting his laser vision in a wide arc, cutting in half not only the super terrorist, but also several of the villagers. In the back of his mind, Homelander recounted a similar incident that happened a few days ago. That dumb bitch, Victoria Neumann, had protested outside of Vought Tower, accusing him of committing a war crime. Didn't these assholes see he was protecting them?
As Homelander took to the skies, he had a moment of clarity. He didn't need the people's love anymore. He just needed them to be distracted from his, and Vought's, real agenda.
Frank, Dredd, Annie, and Maeve entered the Boys' office in the Flatiron building, seeing that Diggle, Dax, Allyson, Michael, Becca, and Ryan were already waiting for them.
"We were wondering when you'd show up." Dax drawled. "We were thinking about making a call."
"Bad idea, that's how Vought tracked us." Annie shook her head.
"How? We've been using burners." Diggle knit his brows in confusion.
"The crime analytics lab has the technology to track any cell phone signal." Maeve revealed. "Once they found out you were all using burners, they knew what to look for."
"So, what, we just hide out here now?" Allyson asked, as she sat cross legged on a couch.
"No. It's time to show the world the truth." Dredd announced, nodding to Becca. His wife wore a hardened look, as she walked over to one of the office's desks and pulled out a video camera.
"What's that for?" Frank asked, seeing Becca grin.
"We're going to show everyone the monster Homelander really is."
Homelander touched down in front of a small townhouse in McDowell, Illinois. He considered breaking the door off with his superhuman strength, but in the end, decided to simply knock on the door. Well, more like pound on the door as hard as he could, without smashing it. The door quickly opened, revealing a man with a long, white beard, wearing a faded green military jacket and glasses.
"Homelander?" the man asked, surprised.
"Ismael Cruz. Lowly janitor of Smith's Grove."
Homelander wore a shark's smile, as he walked into the house, and closed the door behind him.
"You know, before Stormfront died, she told me that you and Michael Myers were close."
"I don't know what you're talking about-" Ismael stammered, but was cut off.
"I think you do." Homelander snapped. "And I think you also know why Michael Myers attacked me yesterday."
"Whatever you're getting at, I don't know-"
"Enough of the fucking lies!" Homelander roared, his eyes glowing red from his laser vision. "You tell me everything you know about Myers. Why he's showing up now. Why he's helping Billy Butcher, of all people, or so help me-"
"You'll what, kill me?" Ismael scoffed. "I wasn't scared of Mikey, when he could've easily killed me so many times. What the Hell makes you think I'll be scared of you?"
Homelander's anger flared, and without thinking, lasers shot out of his eyes, shooting right into Cruz's heart and creating a fist sized hole in his chest. The old man's body fell to the ground, and Homelander glowered at the corpse. Damn. Now he'd never know why Michael Myers was helping the Boys.
Homelander sighed in frustration, and quietly walked outside, before flying away. Slowly but surely, his world was beginning to crumble around him. He lost his son. He lost his lover. He still had no idea where Black Noir, the closest person he could call a friend was. Something had to change. He needed a win.
Back in the Flatiron building, the Boys had just finished compiling all their evidence against Homelander, and Becca walked up to Dredd.
"Hey, Joe."
Joseph turned his head to look at his wife.
"What did you say to Ryan?"
Dredd looked over to Ryan, who was sitting on the sofa, talking with Queen Maeve and Annie. Allyson and Michael, who still wore his Black Noir uniform, stood off to the side with Dax, while Diggle was uploading their confession video to the internet.
"The truth."
Before either of them spoke again, Dredd noticed Frank load up an assault rifle and headed for the door.
"Where are you going, Castle?"
The Punisher stared back at Dredd, with a vengeful look in his eyes.
"I made a promise to Edgar I'd be coming for him." Frank said bluntly. "I intend to keep it."
"You're going to need backup." Becca told him. "The tower will be crawling with security."
"I made it out fine last time when I rescued Annie." Frank shrugged.
"That's because you weren't alone." Maeve spoke up, walking over to the trio. "You'll need someone to access the elevators for you."
Frank glared at the three of them, before nodding.
"Fine. Dredd, Maeve, come along if you're up for it."
"I'm coming too." Becca piped up.
"No you're not." Dredd said sternly. "I don't want to lose you. Not after what happened yesterday."
"You won't." Becca insisted, as she pulled her pistol out of her jacket. "I promise."
"What about Ryan?" Frank asked, nodding in the direction of the kid. Becca frowned for a moment, before walking over to Ryan and knelt down to his level.
"Ryan, I'm going to go with my husband for a while." Rebecca said softly. "I will be back."
"Promise?" Ryan asked, looking her in the eyes.
"I promise." Becca smiled, stopping to grab several earpieces and standing up to turn back to Dredd, Maeve, and Castle. Only the Punisher said what they were thinking.
"Okay. Let's go."
Thirty minutes later, Dredd, Frank, Maeve, and Becca stood outside of Vought Tower, with their guns locked and loaded. In order to avoid the press, as Victoria Neumann had set up a protest outside the tower, the four of them had taken the back entrance Frank and Maeve used to rescue Annie.
"This is it." Joseph announced, and looked at his wife. "You ready?"
"Yeah." Becca wore a determined look on her face.
"You look ready." Dredd noted, and the four of them went inside. They walked down a short hallway, coming to a stop in front of an elevator with a handprint scanner. Maeve quickly placed her palm to it, but the scanner went red, and alarms began blaring.
Music: "Escape the Base" and "Street Shootout" from Punisher season 2, and "Lockdown" from Dredd 2012
"What?" Maeve asked, confused.
"Looks like someone had your prints removed." Frank grimaced, as they all heard footsteps.
"Get back." Dredd ordered, as he pointed his Lawgiver at the elevator's doors.
"Hi-Ex."
He squeezed the trigger, and the elevator doors suddenly exploded. Joseph, Frank, Becca looked over to Maeve, who just stood there.
"Go." Maeve told them. "I'll hold most of them off."
Castle nodded, tapping the button for the 82nd floor, and the doors closed, lifting them up. As the elevator rose up for the three to see the ground floor of Vought Tower below them, Becca looked around, noticing a security camera.
"Shit." Becca muttered, lifting her pistol and shooting the camera. A second later, more alarms went off, and Dredd looked out the elevator's glass windows, seeing guards working for Vought running towards them.
"Drokk."
The guards got into firing positions, and squeezed their triggers, peppering the glass with bullets. The sides of the elevator shattered, with bullets already entering through the damaged front, and Dredd covered Becca with his body, while Frank crouched low and shot back.
"You okay?" Dredd asked in a low whisper.
"I'm fine." Becca insisted, wriggling out of her husband's grip and firing off a couple shots at the guards. Dredd's upper lip twitched upward in a smirk, and he turned around, looking at the guards.
"Incendiary."
His Lawgiver made that electronic hum, and Joseph pulled the trigger. A white hot ball shot out, smoke trailing behind it, and exploded into smaller flares. The moment they touched the guards, the men from Vought were set alight. Instantly, they stopped firing, and began flailing around in vain attempts to put the fires out. Some of them, in their carelessness, fell off the balconies, crashing to the floors below. Through it all, Dredd stood there, impassive, as the flames reflected from his helmet's visor.
The elevator suddenly stopped in the middle of a floor, causing the trio to look around.
"Damn." Frank muttered, exchanging the magazines in his assault rifle. "He must've stopped the elevator."
Dredd looked out of the elevator, seeing a staircase going upward.
"Call it." the Judge told Becca.
"What?" her eyes widened in surprise.
"Elevator's out. Call it." Dredd repeated. Becca swallowed a lump in her throat, and looked towards the staircase.
"We're going to jump?"
"Do you see another option?" Joseph asked.
"Or we could climb to the level above us." Becca suggested.
"But do we know if there are any hostels up there?" Punisher pointed out.
"Exactly." Dredd nodded, as he pulled out a pair of binoculars. He held them up to his visor, panning his head from left to right.
"No one's waiting at the doors, but they're coming up the stairs." Dredd stated, and he started to pull at one of the doors. "We'll need to hurry."
"You saw that?" Castle asked, as he went to pry open the other door.
"Thermal sighted binoculars, courtesy of Tek Div." Dredd explained, as they climbed up to the new floor. Surprisingly, it was Becca who climbed out first, holding up her gun and carefully checking the area, before turning a corner. Dredd and Frank followed soon after, finding guards several feet away.
"Open fire!" one of the guards yelled, and they all started spraying bullets. Castle rested his rifle at his hip and began firing, letting the bullets crash into his skull vest, as Becca took cover behind the corner and fired off several shots, each one finding their way into a guard's head. Meanwhile, Dredd crouched low, and hid behind one of the leather chairs in the hallway.
"Rapid fire."
The gun made that same electronic hum, and Dredd stepped hold, holding down the trigger. The Lawgiver's standard ammo peppered into the guards, and they all slumped to the floor, their bodies looking like swiss cheese.
Frank walked over to the guards, seeing that some of them had headshots. Not from him, or from Joseph.
"She's a good shot." Castle complimented, nodding in Becca's direction.
"Who do you think taught me?" Becca smiled in Dredd's direction.
Frank suddenly heard someone scream, and turned around to see a woman with vibrant red hair and wearing an orange pantsuit.
"Ashley?"
"You know her?" Dredd asked, as he strode over to the woman.
"She was with Annie at A-Train's race last week." Castle explained, keeping his gun trained on her. "Heard she got Stillwell's job."
"Please, don't kill me!" Ashley cried out. "I was just following Homelander's orders-"
"How close are we?" Dredd asked, trying to stay on topic.
"Wha… what?" Ashley asked in confusion.
"How close are we to Edgar?" Dredd elaborated.
"If he's still on the 82nd floor, you're three floors below him. There's a maintenance stairwell at the end of the hall." Ashley told them. "Please, please, don't hurt me."
Joseph still kept his Lawgiver pointed in her direction, but he hesitated, seeing the fear in her eyes. She was afraid, but not of him, or the Punisher. Afraid of Homelander, and what he could do to her.
The lawman sighed, lowered his gun arm, and looked at Ashley.
"Go. Get out of here." Dredd told her, nudging his head towards the exit. Ashley quickly nodded, and ran as fast as she could, away from the carnage. Away from Vought. Away from everything.
"You let her go?" Frank asked, confused. "She was working for Vought."
"She's a victim, Castle." Dredd told him. "I could see it in her eyes. I didn't have to be a psychic like Anderson to see it."
Dredd, Becca, and Frank entered the maintenance stairwell, and looked up, just in time to see more guards begin to run down.
"Multiple armed targets descending…" Dredd muttered, thinking back to when he and Anderson were trapped in Peach Trees.
"Coming up as well." Punisher noted, looking down to see guards also running up the stairs. "I can't get a clear shot off."
Dredd made a rumbling noise in his throat, and took out a small black device. He handed one to Becca, before pulling out another.
"Respirators." Dredd explained, turning to Castle. "Frank, I'd advise you to hold your breath."
Frank wordlessly nodded, as Joseph grabbed a capsule of Stumm gas from his belt, pulled off the cap, and threw it above him. Green vapor hissed out, making the guards cough and choke. Dredd pulled out another capsule, and threw it down, effectively incapacitating the guards coming from a floor down as well.
Dredd walked up the stairs first, shooting any of the guards dead with a headshot, while Frank and Becca took care of Vought's men one floor down. When they were all down, the three of them reconvenied outside the door labelled 82.
"No hostels." Dredd noted, slowly opening the door. He, Becca, and Frank slowly walked down the hall, coming to Stan Edgar's office. The only thing standing between them was a glass door, and glass walls.
"Hi-Ex."
Dredd fired a single round, and the walls completely shattered, forcing Edgar to take cover behind his desk. The Judge marched over to the now destroyed office, as Edgar stood up.
"Mister Butcher, or do you prefer Dredd?" Stan asked. "Do you have any idea how this looks for us? You and the Punisher break into Vought Tower, kill my security, and threaten me?"
"I told you I'd be coming for you." Frank sneered, while Dredd stepped closer.
"President Stan Edgar, your crimes are of fraud, assault, the distribution of steroids, child endangerment, terrorism, and multiple homicides in the third degree." Dredd snarled. "How do you plead?"
"Innocent, of course." Stan grinned. "As of now, you have no tangible evidence that Vought is guilty of any of those charges."
"That's the thing; we do." Becca grinned. "Any minute now the whole world is going to see it."
Outside Vought Tower, Victoria Neumann was holding a protest rally with hundreds of people, speaking from a microphone.
"No longer can we sit by as Homelander and Vought do whatever they want!" Neumann declared. "They attacked the congressional hearing, and my own daughter was among the dead! The Seven are dangerous! Our census has shown that Homelander has killed more people than saved due to negligence! He represents the reason the Sokovia Accords were created in first place, to keep superpowered beings such as him in check!"
Homelander suddenly landed right in front of the congresswoman, to the shock of her supporters.
"May I?" Homelander grinned, holding out his hand. Victoria gingerly handed him the mic, realizing he wasn't asking.
"Congresswoman Neumann, everyone! Ain't she great, especially her 'Walk Like An Egyptian' music video? So fun, right?"
Homelander continued speaking to the masses, when every screen on the buildings surrounding him and the crowd flickered on, as well as every cell phone started ringing, revealing a man wearing a black helmet with red accents on it.
"Citizens of New York, this is Judge Dredd." The man introduced himself, and stepped back to reveal a man wearing a bulletproof vest with a skull painted on it, another person with a baby face and dirty blonde hair, an African American man wearing a black helmet over his face, and a woman in a black jacket and light brown hair.
"We're the Boys, come to tell you the truth about the Seven."
"Where is this coming from?" Homelander wondered, staring at one of the screens.
Queen Maeve suddenly entered into frame, with her hands on her hips.
"Three years ago, Homelander had told everyone that the Avengers failed in stopping Thanos." Maeve announced. "I witnessed it myself, when Homelander murdered Thanos, and then slaughtered the Avengers."
As she spoke, a video began to play, showing footage of Homelander mercilessly killing Thanos by lasering him, as well as killing a blond haired woman in a red and blue suit. He had proceeded to laser the rest of the Avengers, and whoever shot the footage had fallen to the ground, but the citizens could hear Captain America speaking.
"You wear the American flag as a cape, but you're no hero. You're just a psychopathic killer who will kill anyone in your way. Just like Thanos."
"And that isn't all." Maeve reappeared on the screens. "He is the one who destroyed Flight 37. He didn't even try to save them, and instead destroyed the entire plane."
"He's also been sending Compound V to terrorists in the Middle East." the man with the skull vest, Frank Castle, added. "He's the reason terrorists like Naqib were created."
"Vought as a whole has been forcing civilians to be injected with Compound V against their will." the man with the black helmet continued. "Each and every member of the Seven was made like this, and one of them was kidnapped and tortured."
At this point, Black Noir suddenly stepped into view, right next to Maeve. He turned his head, staring at the girl with the light brown hair and black jacket. She nodded slightly to him, and he looked back at the camera, taking off his mask to reveal a grizzled face, with a bald head and white haired beard.
Homelander's eyes widened in shock, and a flicker of fear formed. He recognized this man. He was the one who had attacked him just the day before, but wearing that blank, pale mask. Michael Myers. The leader of the Seven had no idea the Shape was also Black Noir.
"The person you're looking at is Michael Myers. The famed Boogeyman of Haddonfield." the man with the boyish looks revealed, while the crowd gasped loudly. "Smith's Grove, a psychiatric hospital that was paid by Vought, tortured him and continuously injected him with Compound V for years until he escaped. When they finally got ahold of him again last year, they injected him with more Compound V, and brainwashed him into Black Noir."
The man calling himself Judge Dredd stepped back into frame, looking directly at the camera.
"In case you've all forgotten, supes operate under the same law as everyone else." Dredd announced. "Vought is not the law. The Seven are not the law. Homelander is not the law. I am the law. Homelander is just another perp and terrorist, guilty of murder, genocide, the distribution of the steroid known as Compound V, and rape, including that of Rebecca Butcher."
Judge Dredd held up a small black oval device, and pressed a button.
"But hey, I'll give you this one for free. Yeah. I raped your wife Becca. You know why? Because I'm the world's greatest superhero. I can do whatever the fuck I want. And no one would believe little Becca Butcher. Just like no one would believe Starlight."
Homelander's eye began to twitch, and he looked towards the crowd, as they began to look at him in disgust and anger.
"As of now, he is under sentence of death." Dredd continued. "Any who obstructs me in carrying his sentence out will be seen as an accessory to his crimes. You have been warned. And as for you, Homelander… Judgement Time."
The screens flickered off, and the crowd began booing Homelander, and shouting at him. His eyes widened from anxiety. It wasn't supposed to happen this soon. It wasn't time yet.
"Now, listen, listen, those were all doctored!" Homelander spoke through the microphone. "That voice recording? Edited! The supposed footage of me killing the Avengers? They photoshopped my body over Thanos! I was lucky to survive!"
People kept shouting and yelling, and Homelander began to get angrier. At one point, he heard someone mention Michael Myers, and he whipped his head in the voice's direction, his eyes beginning to glow red.
"Black Noir is not Michael Myers!" Homelander yelled, his anger rising. "Michael Myers is fucking dead! Do I have to spell it out? D-E-A-D, dead!"
Homelander's head turned his head back to the front, just in time to see an Army officer, holding the rank of Sergeant First Class, shoving a middle finger in his face. In that moment, he snapped, and his laser eyes shot straight through the man's hand, his neck, and several of the civilians behind him.
"ENOUGH!" Homelander yelled, jerking his head from left to right, cutting down all the civilians present. People were screaming, trying to run away, but they were all eventually cut down by his laser vision.
Once the last person was dead, Homelander looked back at the stage, seeing Neumann gulp in fear. With a single laser blast, she fell to the ground, her neck smoking, with her head rolling away.
Homelander closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm himself, and grabbed a camera that had fallen next to one of Neumann's crew members. This was too early to enact his plan, but fuck it. The cat was out of the bag now. There was no turning back.
"To all you supes who have had to take orders from lesser beings, from these mud people, now is our time!" Homelander shouted. "Join me, as we take this great nation for ourselves, and are given what we are owed!"
Homelander crushed the camera with his bare hand, and dropped the mic. He was about to fly off, when he noticed Queen Maeve out of the corner of his eye.
"You." Homelander growled, rushing over to Maeve and grabbing her by the throat. "You're with them."
"Fuck you!" Maeve wheezed out. "You're insane!"
"I told you I would destroy everything and everyone if you sent that." Homelander tightened his hand into a fist. Maeve gasped, before Homelander snapped her neck, and tossed her body among the sea of corpses. He flew back towards Neumann's body, picked up the head, and flew off, away from Vought Tower.
Music: "Nice Heels" from Punisher season OST
Dredd, Frank, Becca, and Edgar watched Homelander leave, with varying expressions lining their faces. Joseph and Castle wore grim faces, Becca had a look of mild surprise, while Stan pursed his lips in annoyance.
"What's he planning?" Dredd asked, as Frank picked up Edgar and threw him against a nearby glass window. The force of the hit shattered the man's nose and covered the glass in blood, but it didn't break.
"I don't know-" Edgar spat out blood, but Frank grabbed him by the shoulders again.
"Ah, that's bullshit!" Castle yelled, throwing him against the glass again. Just like last time, the window didn't break. "You're telling me you knew nothing about Smith's Grove, or Homelander giving Compound V to terrorists on the other side of the world? Or how about using the Church of the Collective to kill Vogelbaum and Wilson? What's he planning?"
"Alright, alright." Edgar stammered out, as his teeth became coated in blood. "We, Vought, are trying to get into the government, and eventually the white house."
"And you don't care who you'll kill in order to get it." Becca muttered. "Was this part of your plan?"
"Of course not." Stan glared at the trio. "Homelander is clearly deranged, and is carrying out the coup himself."
"Then we add sedition to your charges." Dredd told him, and lifted him up by the shoulders.
"You can not hold me responsible for this!" Edgar shouted. "This is all the work of Homelander, not Vought-"
"Wrong." Dredd interrupted. "Homelander isn't a civilian, he is a brand. Your brand, your product. You are responsible for your product. All of this is on you."
Dredd turned Edgar around to face the glass, already seeing the blood drying.
"You can't break the glass. You said yourself, it's bulletproof and shatterproof." Dredd told the president of Vought. "But if you hit it enough times, it'll eventually bend."
Joseph turned Edgar around to face him, glaring at him with his stony expression.
"In light of a new charge being added, how do you plead?"
Edgar's eyes hardened, staring the Judge down. There was no way out of this.
"Guilty."
"Your defense is noted." Dredd sneered, before shoving Edgar through the window. This time, the glass completely broke at the frame, and Stan plummeted to the ground with the window, screaming out of fear. He looked down, seeing the ground get closer, and the last thing that he saw was the pavement, before his vision was taken over by red, and then black.
Back in the tower, Dredd watched Edgar's body become a red paste on the sidewalk.
"Dig, you read me?" Castle asked, activating the earpiece.
"Loud and clear."
"Meet us in Washington. Homelander's going to the white house."
"Yeah, we saw his monologue on tv. What should we do with the kid?"
"Have Mallory look after him until we get back." Dredd ordered through his own earpiece.
"Copy."
The connection went dead, and Castle grabbed a pen and paper from Edgar's desk.
"What are you doing?" Becca asked, seeing Frank writing something down.
"Declaration of intent. So no one is confused." Frank replied. A few minutes later, he finished, and the three of them walked out of the office and into another elevator. Dredd pressed the button for the first floor, and they slowly descended back to the ground.
Once the elevator doors opened, the three of them walked out of the tower, only to find Ashley there, looking horrified at the ocean of bodies outside.
"Ashley." Frank spoke up, trying to say her name as soft as possible. When she didn't respond, he changed his tone to sound slightly harsher.
"Ashley!"
Ashley flinched, as if she was hit, and she turned around, seeing Dredd, Becca, and Frank.
"Oh my God…" Ashley's voice trailed off, terrified. "I knew he was evil, but I didn't think he'd do anything like this…"
"Ma'am, we're going to stop him, but we might need your help." Dredd told her. "Is there a vehicle we can borrow from Vought?"
Ashley slowly nodded, and reached into her pantsuit, pulling out a set of keys with the Vought logo on it.
"Take it." Ashley said feebly, placing the keys in Joseph's hand. "Please… kill that monster."
"Thank you." Dredd nodded, and he, Frank, and Becca walked outside Vought Tower. The moment the doors shut on them, Ashley collapsed to the floor, overwhelmed by the stress.
The trio walked past the sea of dead protestors and came to a crimson red Vought issued car. Dredd unlocked the vehicle, and the three of them climbed in.
"Washington's at least a four hour long drive." Becca realized. "We won't make it."
"No." Dredd agreed, as he started the engine. The car roared to life, and they took off. "But we can stop him from doing any more damage."
Four hours later, Dredd, Frank, and Becca arrived in Washington DC, just outside the white house. Castle was the first to get out, seeing that Dax, Diggle, Allyson, Michael, still in his Black Noir uniform, and Starlight, in her original costume, were already there. Next to them were military tanks that were rolled up to the gates, which were shooting down supes that were flying through the air, with the National Guard and the Marines stationed outside. Castle squinted at the man in charge, seeing a man with white hair, and a silver eagle pin on his uniform.
"Colonel Schoonover?" Frank asked, as the man turned to look at him.
"Hello Frank." Ray Schoonover smirked, striding over to Castle. "Heard about your work as the Punisher. Can't say I'm crying over those bastards."
"What's going on here?" Dredd asked, looking at the tanks.
"You can trust him Sir, he's a friend." Frank added.
"Homelander flew into the oval office a few hours ago." Schoonover announced, taking out a pair of binoculars and looking through the white house's windows. "He's just been sitting there for hours."
"Sir, you gotta let us in there." Becca asked. "We have to stop Homelander from causing any more destruction."
"Sorry, I can't let civilians in." the colonel shrugged.
"Schoonover, we're the only ones who can end him." Frank insisted. "My friend here, Dredd, he has a weapon that can kill Homelander."
"And if it doesn't work, Black Noir was designed to be a contingency in case Homelander went rogue." Dredd added, pointing to the black clad supe.
"Colonel, if you don't let us go in there, more people are going to die." Frank told him. "If he's not stopped here, then what's going to be in his way from killing everyone on Earth?"
Schoonover looked towards each member of the Boys, and sighed.
"Fine." Ray nodded his head. "Have at it. I'll have my men cover for you."
Dredd nodded in appreciation, and turned towards Black Noir.
"Myers, let's go."
"Wait a minute, we're all going!" Allyson shouted, stepping towards the Judge.
"Like drokk you are."
"If you go in alone, Homelander will kill you both." Diggle pointed out. "Oliver knew the value of having a partner, and a team."
"We're more than just a team." Dax added, indicating the Boys. "We all found each other at our toughest of times, and we've always had each other's back. That's a family."
Dredd scowled at the rest of the Boys, but nevertheless nodded.
"Together then."
Black Noir stepped to the gate's bars, using his superhuman strength to grab onto them and rip them apart, creating a sizable hole to walk through. The Boys, including Becca, Starlight, and Michael all raced across the white house lawn, as the sounds of the tanks shooting supes up above could be heard. Dredd kicked down the front door, and the team slowly filed in, checking the halls to make sure that Homelander didn't have any supes guarding the place.
The Boys eventually made it to the oval office, finding Homelander sitting at the president's desk, with his feet propped up. In his hands was Victoria Neumann's disembodied head, her mouth hanging open in a jarring way. Laying on the floor beside the desk was the body of the President of the United States, Robert 'Dakota Bob' Shaeffer, with his gray silver hair messy with blood, his brown eyes opened in a permanent state of fright, and a gaping, scorching hole in the middle of his sternum.
"Well, look at that. The cunt really did have brains after all." Homelander grinned, as he tossed the severed head to the Boys. "Here, take a look."
Dredd caught the head, and looked at it curiously, seeing a white stain next to the mouth.
"Did you give yourself oral with this?" Dredd asked, dropping the head in disgust.
"Well, you know what I say…" Homelander smirked. "I'm the Homelander. I can do whatever the fuck I want."
Homelander took his feet off the desk, and stood up, walking towards the Boys.
"You know, maybe I should thank you for leaking what I did. There's no going back now." Homelander smirked. "After all, the world is mine. People are just toys. They're just fucking paste for me to mold. You, Vought, and all the other mud people can go fuck yourselves. I'm not doing this for Edgar, that entitled piece of shit who wipes his ass with banknotes. I'm doing this for myself, because I can take what's owed me, and there's not a fucking thing you can do about it!"
"So you're no better than pricks like Hitler, Pol Pot, or Bin Laden." Dax rolled his eyes. "You couldn't think of anything better to do with your time."
"People aren't toys." Becca narrowed her eyes in anger. "They're not your playthings to cast aside when you're bored. I should know."
Homelander began laughing, and the sound was like a dying animal mixed with a cheese grater.
"All you were was a whore and a tease." Homelander chortled. "Just like Starlight."
At the mention of her name, Starlight's eyes began to glow a bright golden.
"I'm going to kill you, you motherfucker-"
Starlight began to step forward, but she felt a hand touch her shoulder. She looked to her left, seeing Frank shaking his head at her.
"Wait." Castle told her. "He's trying to rile you up."
"Is it working?" Homelander grinned. "But what do I have to fear from any of you anyway? I can simply kill you all with just a look. What do I have to be afraid of?"
"If you had the balls, you wouldn't hide behind your laser eyes." Frank spat. "You want to take this world, but you're a coward to do it without a fair fight."
"You're not going to bait me, Frankie." Homelander said mockingly, as his eyes began to glow red. Before he could fire his lasers, Annie brought her hands up, shooting beams of light in Homelander's direction and temporarily blinding him. Allyson and Black Noir sprang forward, pummeling Homelander with punches and kicks, as the supe tried to recover. Black Noir wrapped his hands around Homelander's throat, while Allyson kept stomping and kicking on him.
"I can't get a clear shot." Dredd grimaced, aiming his Lawgiver at the three bodies fighting each other.
"None of us can." Diggle agreed, as Starlight cautiously walked forward, her hands raised, while the four humans kept their weapons trained. Just as she got close enough, a laser blast went through Black Noir's chest, and he was thrown to the other side of the room.
"Michael!" Allyson screamed, and Homelander threw her off of him as well. Starlight was about to blast him again, but Homelander grabbed her leg and threw her out one of the windows, where she landed in the fields. The leader of the Seven began to get up, and Frank, Diggle, Dax, and Becca started shooting at him. Dredd pointed his Lawgiver at Homelander, and squeezed the trigger. A bullet rocketed out for sure, but when it exploded, it barely even fazed the supe.
Drokk, Dredd thought to himself. He forgot to set the ammunition to armor piercing rounds.
"Armor Piercer."
As the gun hummed electronically, Homelander's eyes glowed scarlet again, and he fired a blast right at the Boys. Everyone dived to the ground, where Homelander began laughing.
"It's so cute that you think you can kill me with these… tiny toys." Homelander grinned, picking up Frank's assault rifle and effortlessly ripping it in half. Castle looked up, and Homelander kicked him in the chest. To the supe, it was a soft kick, like one dribbling a soccer ball, but the blow still sent the Punisher skidding out of the oval office and into the hallway.
"Frank!"
Homelander turned around, just in time to see Starlight climbing back through the shattered window and punch him in the face. He began to fire his laser eyes, but Annie ducked and punched him in the stomach. The hit didn't hurt him as much as it should, and Starlight felt like her hand just broke, but it still disoriented him enough.
Meanwhile, Allyson crawled over to Black Noir, tearing off the cloth mask to see Michael Myers underneath.
"Michael, wake up." Allyson pleaded, looking down to see the massive hole in Michael's chest. Just as she began to lose hope, Michael's eyes fluttered open and he looked towards Nelson.
"Allyson…" Michael murmured, as he pointed towards Homelander, who had grabbed Starlight by the throat. Allyson knew what he was indicating. He was telling her not to worry. She looked back down at Michael's chest, seeing it was already healing, and slowly stood back up.
Homelander continued to choke Annie, squeezing her neck tighter and tighter.
"You may be bulletproof, but you can still break." Homelander grinned, as Annie let out a strangled gasp.
Allyson suddenly jumped on top of Homelander and smashed her elbow in his face, momentarily surprising him and causing him to drop Starlight. Dredd rushed forward with his daystick, not wanting to shoot the female, and continuously hit Homelander in the chest and back while he flailed around.
"Get-the fuck-off-me!" Homelander shouted, as he punched up. The blow sent Allyson flying upward, and he slammed his palm into Dredd's chest, making him fly back and hit the wall next to the doorway. Allyson fell to the ground, and Homelander nudged her with the toe of his boot, turning her over to look up at him. The supe's eyes glowed red, ready to fire his laser beams. Just as the optic blast came forth, Dax suddenly jumped between the two, causing the lasers to sear off one of his arms, as well as partially cutting his side. Before the blast could go through Dax completely, Allyson scrambled back up and uppercutted Homelander, making him jerk his head up and fire the lasers up at the ceiling. While he was distracted, Castle walked back into the office, where he, Becca, and Diggle kept firing on Homelander to keep him busy.
"Dax, why?" Allyson whispered, cradling Dax's body and attempting to apply pressure to the arm stump.
"I've lived my life as a mercenary for too long." Dax gasped, coughing up blood. "Ryekker, Butcher… I've seen many people die. I've killed many people."
Dax looked up at Allyson, and his eyes became glossed over.
"I know you can take care of yourself, but… maybe this is my penance, to atone for all I've done."
Dax closed his eyes, and drew his final breath, leaving Allyson to cry over his body. If anything, this was like two years ago, when Calvin Sartain shot Michael over a dozen times. She thought he was going to die then, and she stayed with Myers until his supposed death. Only, this wasn't two years ago. Dax wasn't like Michael. He was mortally wounded, and he wasn't coming back.
Allyson looked up at Homelander, beginning to feel her rage flare up like it did two years ago, and her vision cleared. She charged at Homelander, just as he backhanded Diggle so hard, a couple teeth were knocked, and pounced on his back, using her weight to pull him backwards. At that moment, Dredd came to, and he began crawling towards his Lawgiver on the floor.
"You little bitch!" Homelander roared, trying to throw her off, but Allyson held on, wrapping her hands around his throat in a stranglehold. The leader of the Seven gagged, before lurching forward, throwing Allyson in front of him. Nelson quickly turned around, jamming her finger and thumb into Homelander's left eye. The supe screamed in pain, firing lasers from his other eye and cutting through part of the female's face, but Allyson didn't let up until his eye was completely ripped out of its socket.
"Damn you!" Homelander yelled, punching his fist through Allyson's stomach and throwing her across the room, where she crashed through another window and landed outside. Starlight ran over, giving Homelander a one-two punch, before he caught her wrists and squeezed, effortlessly shattering the bones to prevent her from firing. Annie screamed in agony, falling to her knees, while Becca and Frank slowly inched forward, still firing their guns and aiming for Homelander's eye socket. The bullets actually did hurt, but not enough to kill him, and the supe growled, kicking Castle away and grabbing Becca by the throat.
"I'm going to enjoy killing you, Rebecca." Homelander snarled, tightening his grip on her throat. "My only regret is your little shit Ryan won't be around to see it-"
"Let her go, creep."
Homelander slowly turned his head to the doorway, seeing Judge Dredd standing up, and aiming his gun at him with one hand.
"That gun won't kill me." Homelander sneered. "Becca already tried, and it only scratched me. Nothing more."
"You wanna bet?" Joseph asked, steadying the Lawgiver by placing his other hand under the grip. "Let. Her. Go."
"Hmm, no." Homelander smirked, moving his arm so Becca was directly in front of him. "You're one tough piece of work, Butcher. Oh sorry, Dredd, seeing as how that's what your badge says. You think I didn't know someone would try to kill me? It comes with the territory of being the world's greatest superhero."
Dredd said nothing, and his scowl deepened.
"Remember when you had Stillwell rigged with all that C4? Thinking you had a hostage that I cared about? Well, now I have someone you care about." Homelander continued, his smile widening. "You got no way out of this one. Your whore wife threatened to kill herself in front of my son if I hurt you. But I don't see Ryan here. Put your gun down, or I will kill her, and all your friends, while you watch."
"Don't do it Joe!" Becca cried out through her wheezing, but Homelander pressed his hand against her throat even further.
"What's it going to be, 'Dredd'?" Homelander asked cruelly.
Frank slowly regained consciousness, and he stared up at Dredd and Homelander's showdown. As he noticed Joseph's facial features harden, something in his mind clicked.
There's an old saying about how the most dangerous man is the one that has nothing left to lose. However, as Frank stared at Dredd's cold scowl at the Homelander, he realized that wasn't entirely true. An man could be equally dangerous, if not more so, if he had everything to lose. He needn't look any further than Judge Joseph Dredd, knowing that he would do anything to keep what belongs to him safe, no matter the cost.
Judge Dredd's face darkened, and his frown lengthened. It was already demonstrated that Homelander wasn't faster than a bullet, but could he fire before the supe killed his wife?
In the end, Dredd kept the Lawgiver trained on Homelander's head, as he opened his mouth to speak.
"This isn't a negotiation. The sentence is death."
Homelander's grin quickly turned into a sneer, as his good eye began to glow crimson. He didn't notice Dredd quickly realigning his gun to aim at his eye and no longer his face.
"Have it your way then-"
Dredd pulled the trigger, and the vibranium tipped, Judas Bullet armor piercing round slammed into Homelander's other eye. A drilling sound could be faintly heard, and Homelander screamed, letting go of Becca. A second later, the entire right side of his head exploded from the combined force of the modified round meeting the compressed optic blast.
Becca gasped, gulping down air, as Dredd calmly walked towards her, helping her up.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Becca panted out, hugging her husband. Dredd turned his head towards Homelander, who sunk down to his knees.
"I'm… I'm…" the leader of the Seven stammered, stunned from the shock of having a portion of his face missing, as well as the fact he was blind. "The… world's greatest… superhero…"
"Yeah…" Dredd muttered, reaching down and picking up his daystick. Homelander turned his head upward at the sound of the Judge's voice, as Joe jammed his daystick through the supe's eyehole and pushed upward with all his might. The top part of Homelander's head eventually ripped off, breaking part of his skull and exposing his brain for everyone to see.
"I'm not one to drag someone's sentence out longer than needed. Creeps like you don't deserve glory or fanfare. You're all the same to me; just another dead perp." Dredd sneered. "Yet here we are after all these drokking years."
Homelander blindly and wildly swiped his arms in the direction he thought Joseph was, causing the lawman to slightly back away.
"The way I see it now, some of your brain is still holding onto one or two memories of what you've done." Dredd continued, reaching out and grabbing a fistful of Homelander's brains. "And if I'm lucky, this bit here, right drokking here…"
Dredd ripped out a chunk of Homelander's brain, and stared down at it.
"This is the night you raped my wife Becca."
Dredd squeezed his hand, crushing the brain into mushy pulp, as Homelander's body fell to the ground at the same time. The Judge let the pieces of brain fall to the floor, and looked over to Becca, a pained expression visible on his face, despite his helmet. Frank Castle had slowly gotten up, beginning to walk towards them, but Dredd saw him out of the corner of his eye.
"Not now, Castle." Dredd all but begged, slightly holding up his hand. "Give us a minute."
Frank stared at Joseph and his wife, before nodding. If he needed a moment alone with his wife, he'd respect that.
"I'm sorry, Becca. I know that's not what you wanted." Dredd told her, as he pulled her into a hug. "That was all me. You most likely hate me for doing this-"
"Joseph, no." Becca whispered. "You saved me. You saved your family."
Dredd broke off the hug and pushed Becca in front of him to see her sad smile.
"Not everyone…"
Joe and Rebecca looked over at Dax's body, seeing Allyson and Michael crouched on the ground next to it.
"I'm sorry." Dredd said softly. "I shouldn't have let you all come in after me."
"It wasn't your fault." Allyson murmured, grasping Dax's hand and squeezing it tightly, while Michael placed his hand on her shoulder. Diggle and Frank stood off to the side, with Castle holding Starlight up due to her shattered wrists.
Minutes later, when Colonel Schoonover and the Marines stormed the white house, they came upon a shocking sight: The Boys, bloodied and beaten, but alive, with Homelander's brains painting the floor of the oval office. Judge Dredd was still hugging his wife tightly, not wanting to let her go. Frank and Annie held onto each other, to support each other from falling down from the beatings they took. Diggle leaning against the wall, taking off his helmet and clutching his jaw. And Allyson and Michael huddled over the body of Dax, the only casualty in the room. Despite all this, one thing was clear to everyone:
The war was over.
A/N: I went into this knowing that I was planning on killing off a member of the Boys. I mean, there's no way they could've walked away from that fight with Homelander unscathed, even when I had everyone gang up on him to keep him disoriented.
I also kept Ryan out of the fight because one, he would've given them a massive edge, and two, Becca wouldn't let him go with under any circumstances. No matter how powerful he is, he's still her son.
I hope that scene where the Boys' video exposes Homelander was too out of place. If it was, oh well.
There's just one more chapter left, and that's the epilogue. It's going to be significantly shorter, and it'll have little to no action in it, just a heads up.
Stay tuned, and see you then.