A/N: Welcome back to a new fanfic everyone!
So I ended up watching Scream Season 3 (or Scream Resurrection, as it's titled) and I ended up liking it, despite the flaws. Then that got me thinking about writing a fanfic set in my Punisher/The Boys crossover series, since one of the actresses starred in both Scream and The Punisher. Well, here we are.
Be sure to read the note at the end of this chapter for some context on a few scenes. Also, I'm putting a warning across this entire story for similar reasons to my Black Christmas crossover, but it also goes a bit darker. In later chapters, there's going to be mentions and flashbacks to child abuse, implications of pedophilia concerning at least two characters, and graphic horror violence that I've had in here ever since the first story. Oh, and a few sex scenes, and depictions of PTSD. You have been warned.
Last thing, Judge Dredd, Becca Butcher, and Ryan Butcher aren't appearing in this story. This fic is going to be mainly centered on Frank Castle and his new family that's been built up for the last three stories. I'm saving Dredd and the Butchers for their own solo fic down the line. Same with Allyson Nelson and Michael Myers, though they will cameo towards the end.
Anyway, on with the show.
September 2028
New York. The City That Never Sleeps. No matter what time of day, there was always something, someone, making noise. Perhaps it was the roaring of the subway train that would keep one up in the middle of the night. Or maybe even the honking of car horns and taxis would cause someone to stare up at their ceiling, trying desperately to get a few more precious hours of rest. Whatever it was, the people of New York wouldn't be able to go back to sleep for a long time.
It began on a cold, dark night, at one of the cemeteries overlooking New York City. A lone security guard walked along the rows of gravestones, his flashlight bathing the ground. The guard sighed, taking off his black hat and wiped his forehead, thinking about how much he hated his job. Taking the graveyard shift, pun intended, had to be the most boring job in the world. If he could just make a little more-
The guard suddenly heard the trudging of boots behind him, and he whirled around, shining a light through the darkness. Two figures appeared, who both raised their arms to shield themselves from the blinding torch.
"Who are you?" the guard demanded, squinting his eyes to gain a better look at these trespassers. One of them, the male, was wearing a dark gray suit, with a fur collar, but that wasn't what shocked the guard. Instead, his most surprising feature was the fact that his face appeared all stitched together. It was almost like a… jigsaw puzzle, if you will.
The woman standing next to him was a mystery though. She wore all black, with a hood covering her face, and in her hands was a video camera. In her other hand was a shovel, as was in the disfigured man's hands. What they were all for, the guard had no idea.
"Can I… can I help you?" the guard asked, praying that his voice hid the nervousness.
"Well, you could just drop dead." the disfigured man said, in a very thick New Yorker accent.
Before the guard could do anything, another man leapt out from behind a gravestone, pouncing onto him and sending them both to the ground. The disfigured man laughed, while the woman casually lit a cigarette, as the guard strained his eyes to see who was attacking him. He felt himself get turned around, where his attacker was revealed to be wearing a loose gray jacket, with a shaved head.
The guard's eyes widened, as the bald man lunged forward, biting into his neck and ripping a large chunk of flesh out. The disfigured man could be heard laughing, as the bald man looked to be chewing on the piece of flesh between his teeth, and the light slowly faded from the guard's eyes.
"Well, that was one Hell of a show!" the disfigured man chortled, while the bald man stood up.
"If you say so, 'Jigsaw'." the hooded woman rolled her eyes. "I could've done it myself, you know."
"Aw, but where's the fun in that, little girl?" the bald man smirked, walking up and towering over the woman. His grin widened, as he felt the cold steel of a blade pressed against his throat.
"Don't fucking test me, Loony Bin Jim." the woman sneered, even though her eyes betrayed her playfulness.
"Hey." Jigsaw barked. "His name is James-"
Loony Bin Jim glanced over to Jigsaw, and shook his head.
"Oh, don't worry about that, brother." Jim smiled, turning back to the hooded woman and winking. As he reached out and parted a strand of blonde hair, he added, "We've had a good thing going for eight years. Wouldn't you agree?"
The woman grinned mischievously, and Jim leaned down, pulling her into a kiss. The embrace felt rough, what with Jimmy feeling a small metal object pressing against the center of his lip, and the woman feeling some of the blood dribbling from Jim's mouth and into hers, but neither of them cared. He enjoyed it, and she relished in it.
"If you two are done sucking face, we got work to do, remember?"
Loony Bin Jim broke off the kiss, and looked over towards Jigsaw.
"Come on, Billy." Jim drawled out. "Gotta sneak in a little fun somewhere, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, let's just do this." Jigsaw scowled, and the three of them walked through the graveyard, coming across three gravestones.
"This is the one." the woman declared, splitting her mouth into a sinister smile. Billy and Jim glanced at each stone, reading off three names.
Maria Castle.
Lisa Castle.
Frank Castle Junior.
"Yeah, I can read." Jigsaw rolled his eyes, tossing a shovel to Jim. The three of them stabbed their tools into the dirt and began to dig, as the cold air slapped at their faces.
About an hour or two later, three rectangular holes were dug, with the tops of coffins just poking out of the disturbed earth.
"Great." the woman smiled, tossing her shovel to the side. Jigsaw and Jim grabbed their coffins, lifting them out of the holes, while the woman approached the one in front of her.
"You need a hand?" Jimmy asked, looking in her direction.
"Nah." the hooded woman shrugged, grabbing the coffin with one hand and lifting it up with relative ease. "Having Compound V sure has its perks."
"You got that right, Lizzie." Jigsaw snorted. The woman smirked, and lowered her hood.
"Beth, hon."
Billy and Jim looked over to their female companion seeing her shoulder length hair, black lipstick, and face piercings. One in the middle of her bottom lip, two nose rings, and an eyebrow piercing.
"Call me Beth."
Jimmy grinned, as Beth winked at them, before continuing to pull out the coffins.
"I finally figured it out." Beth murmured, kicking open the coffin to reveal tiny fragments of bones. The pieces of what the coroners could salvage after A-Train ran through Frank Castle's family, seven years ago.
"I know just how to get to you, you son of a bitch."
"You're sure you don't want to be the star?" Jimmy asked, as he and Jigsaw undid their pants. "Like having a quick fuck on top of their remains?"
Beth grinned in amusement, but shook her head.
"As fun as that sounds, I don't want them to know my involvement… yet." The girl chuckled, while setting up the camera.
"And your friend?" Jigsaw inquired., causing Beth to grin wider.
"Don't worry, we're at STAR Labs right now."
Central City
Cisco Ramon sat in front of the STAR Labs' computer, watching his best friend, Barry Allen, running on the treadmill in the other room. Barry was wearing his red uniform with the lightning bolt on his chest; the official uniform of the Flash, with the cowl down. As his friend sped on the mill, becoming a red blur with golden lightning, Cisco looked over to a ring with two pink discs, thinking back to the Crisis nearly ten years ago. The Crisis started by the Anti-Monitor, who wanted to wipe out the entire multiverse. Only Barry, with the help of his six other heroes known as Paragons, and a resurrected Oliver Queen that called himself the Spectre were able to restore the multiverse, but with some consequences. See, with the help of one of the Paragons, J'onn J'onzz, Cisco was able to create a device, the same one he was staring at, that could restore one's memories before Crisis, and what he discovered shocked him.
There were no Avengers in their original timeline. There wasn't a Vought International either. Hell, most of Team Arrow and Team Flash would still be alive, if the Avengers' universe didn't combine with theirs. Homelander wouldn't have existed and gone on a killing spree. Caitlin wouldn't have been killed by Ice Princess. Felicity Smoak wouldn't have gone into hiding to raise her and Oliver's daughter Mia. Only Cisco, Barry, and the late John Diggle knew where she was. But through it all, Cisco had to ask why. Why did Oliver combine all these universes together? Were there even other Earths now? Were they the only one?
As Cisco continued pondering, an alert went off on his computer, causing Barry to stop on the treadmill.
"What's happened?" Allen asked, running over to the screen to see a red flashing icon in the middle of the city.
"Robbery at Jitters." Cisco told him. Barry quickly sped out of the room, causing Ramon to blink.
"Huh. Didn't even wait for me to tell him who it was." Cisco muttered, pulling up a file onto the computer to reveal a large humanoid covered in hair, while wearing a spiked collar. If his memory was correct, the individual was named Dogknott, a former member of a disbanded Vought team called Teenage Kix. Guess he'd fallen on hard times since Homelander and Vought were brought down-
Cisco suddenly felt a hand grab his hair and pull him back, before feeling a cold blade slash across his neck. Blood splashed against the computer monitor, As Cisco was forced to lean back in his chair. He weakly tried to stay awake, his eyes drifted over to his left, seeing a black gloved hand reach out in front of him. Before the life completely left his eyes, Cisco watched, as the hand picked up the "Memory Ring", as he called it, and retreated behind him.
New York
Curtis Hoyle stood at his kitchen counter, cutting up vegetables. As he sliced a tomato in half, Curt looked down at his legs. Well, his prosthetic leg, to be exact. In a way, his friend Frank Castle was the reason he had it, since he was supposed to keep that Afghan suicide bomber away from the perimeter. If he didn't freeze up… but he didn't blame Frank. God knows, Castle already blamed himself enough.
After Frank and the Boys returned from stopping what they called Necropolis, his adopted daughter, Millie Kessler, revealed that Frank told her what happened. In response, Curt let Frank know that he didn't give a damn about the past, and that Castle didn't owe him anything.
While Curtis continued reminiscing over the past, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and after setting down the knife, checked the display screen.
No caller ID.
Curtis frowned in confusion, before hitting the talk button. Who would be calling him at this hour?
"Hello?" Curt asked, holding his phone up to his ear.
"Do you like scary movies?"
Curtis rolled his eyes, as he leaned against his counter.
"Who the Hell is this?"
"Answer the question, Curtis." The voice, sounding almost mechanical and automated, insisted. Curt recoiled, hearing the other person say his name.
"How do you know who I am?" Hoyle asked, looking around his apartment. Could the person see him? Was he just outside?
"Just answer the damn question!" The mystery caller snarled.
"No asshole, I don't." Curtis groaned. "The black guy always dies first. Besides, they all pale in comparison to what I've seen."
"Oh, that's too bad." The caller said, in fake disappointment. "You're in one right now."
Suddenly, the glass window at the back of the room shattered, and a figure climbed into the apartment. Curtis widened his eyes slightly, picking up his kitchen knife, while sizing the intruder up. The invader wore all black from head to toe, with a white mask covering the face. The mask in question had big eyes that were positioned outward, as well as a mouth that was lengthened to evoke an appearance similar to the famous Edvard Munch painting. In the invaders hands was a large hunting knife, which was pointing right at Curtis' heart.
"Oh, shit." Curt muttered, as the masked attacker lunged toward him. Hoyle just barely sidestepped out of the way, but the invader pivoted on their heel, stabbing their blade into his shoulder. Hoyle grunted, but slashed his own knife across his assailant's chest, before delivering a brutal headbutt. The attacker fell to the ground, as Curtis slowly and painfully pulled the hunting knife out of his shoulder.
"Stay… down." Curtis growled through grit teeth. His invader didn't reply, and instead lashed out, kicking his good leg out from under him and sending him to the floor as well. Hoyle fell in a heap, and the masked attacker scrambled back up, ripping his leg off with relative ease and smashing the heel into his face. Blood trickled out of Curt's mouth, as the attacker bashed the leg into him, again and again. A hit against his cheek caused bruising. A kick to his his socket swell shut. A fist to his jaw caused three teeth to fly out, followed by a sickening crack.
"Why… are you… doing this?" Curtis croaked out, spitting out blood. The masked killer tilted his head to the side, before speaking in that same voice from the phone.
"Oh, you're just part of a larger game." the attacker told him. "One that your dear friend, Frank Castle, will soon be playing."
"Frank…" Curtis' other eye widened. "What are you going to do to him?"
"I just want to see who he is… on the inside!"
The killer raised Curtis' prosthetic leg once more, and Hoyle closed his other eye. Seconds later, he began to feel agonizing pain shoot through his body, again and again, before eventually feeling his life fade away.
A/N: Like I said above, this story is going darker than anything else I've written so far. Even a bit more than Black Christmas.
Oh, just to clear things up, the characters Loony Bin Jim and Jigsaw at the very beginning are from the 2008 Punisher War Zone film. That'll make sense later in the story.
Speaking of, if anyone has already seen Scream Season 3 before reading this, don't spoil it. I'm planning on having a few twists in this story, and the ending of that season is one of them.
I'm already writing out the fourth chapter for this, as well as having a specific scene ironed out, so I should have the next couple chapters up within a day. Maybe two.
Take care everyone, and stay safe out there.