Homelander touched down at the patio Vogelbaum's mansion as lightly as a dragonfly. Vogelbaum himself was outside with a pair of large dogs in cages.
The man himself tracked Homelander's descent with his eyes, and put on a look of obviously feigned congeniality.
"John," he said, shading his eyes from the sun. "How long has it been?"
Homelander grimaced at the mention of his given name, but turned the grimace into a clenched grin.
"Oh, long enough I'd thought everyone would know not to call me that!" John replied through his teeth.
Vogelbaum shrugged. "It's your name. Didn't think you'd have a problem with it."
"Well, I wouldn't if people didn't use it to try and make me feel small." Homelander said, glancing around for a way to change the subject, and settled on the dogs. "So what are these, your pets?"
"No, just breeding them." Vogelbaum said, drifting over to ruffle the ears on one of the dogs. "They're German Retrievers."
"Did you give them any stupid names like the one you gave me?" Homelander asked, with a wry, vaguely threatening grin.
"They don't have names." Vogelbaum said, disengaging from the dog. "I try not to get too attached to my subjects."
Homelander's features hardened in response to Vogelbaum's statement.
"Isn't that that the stone-cold fucking truth." He said venomously. "Guess retirement must suit you. Doesn't seem to be much change in your routine."
"Between this and eighty-hour weeks at the lab... I'll take the lab any day." Vogelbaum said with a sigh. "At least that was challenging... Interesting, even."
"So, have you kept up with any of the old crew from Vought?" Homelander asked, softening his features again as he threw his hands behind his back. "Someone decided to test experimental tech in one of the labs... With interesting results, if you didn't know."
Vogelbaum raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't." He replied, honestly. "Doesn't have anything to do with that monster we keep seeing around New York, does it?"
"Oh, quite a lot to do with it." Homelander replied with a grin. "Seems like Stillwell found a sample of the thing at the first venue, and tried to get it working."
"Did she." Vogelbaum replied, flatly.
"Yeaaaah." Homelander replied, drawing out his words. "Then someone tried to nuke the place to cover it up when the thing tried to get that sample back."
"So, what's the deal with it?" Vogelbaum asked, shaking his head.
"Well... It's definitely from... Somewhere else. It and... A new friend."
"Superman."
Homelander grinned, and turned his hands palm-up in front of him in a shrug. "Still the sharpest tack around, doc!" He clapped Vogelbaum on the shoulder, and pointed one gloved finger in his face. "Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise."
"Why are you here, John?" Vogelbaum asked, gently removing Homelander's hand from his shoulder.
"He's a real piece of work, isn't he?" Homelander asked as he grabbed a remote-control off the patio table and turned on the TV under the edge of the veranda, immediately flipping to VNN. "Got his picture on every screen, without even fucking trying." Homelander looked back over his shoulder at Vogelbaum. "Even the ones we own. What a son of a bitch, huh?"
"He's something, I'll give him that." Vogelbaum said with a shrug.
"Did you know Edgar actually threatened to give my position to him?" Homelander asked, turning back to face Vogelbaum as he tossed the remote over his shoulder.
"No, but I'm not shocked. He's not the guy we asked for... He's a maverick, uncontrollable... But he's everything we ever wanted from you, and more."
Homelander grinned, and threw his hands and arms up in a shrug.
"I know, right?!" Homelander asked, suppressing a chuckle. "He's... He's stronger, he's faster, he wears a skintight rubber outfit that leaves nothing to the imagination because he doesn't need a padded suit to look good on camera!" Homelander snapped out as he dropped his hands to his side.. "Just being around him... I'm jealous."
The uncomfortable silence that followed seemed to last an eternity, until Homelander spoke again.
"He- he's got everything I ever wanted." Homelander said, shaking his head. "He even has a - a family."
Vogelbaum's eyebrows shot up, and he looked at Homelander with guilt and suspicion.
"F-family?" He asked, shakily.
John pushed his eyebrows up and nodded.
"Yeah. A wife, two kids... Probably even parents who loved him. I don't know for sure, but... Well, everything I ever wanted or worked for is something he seems to have. I haven't really had what I'd call 'regrets' in my life... Not until I met him. Now, every time I see him, every time I think of him... I have more than I can fathom. Hell, I wouldn't have even thought someone like him could have kids. I mean... I can't."
Vogelbaum's mouth went dry.
"We can't... Can we?" Homelander asked, with a fake smile. "If- if someone like me were to... Try... Even with someone like Maeve... It wouldn't work. We're too powerful. Right? The egg would just..." Homelander mimed an explosion with his hands, and mimicked the sound with his mouth.
Vogelbaum drew a ragged breath.
"That's wrong, isn't it?" Homelander asked. "We can, can't we?"
Vogelbaum took another, deeper breath, before speaking.
"A pregnant woman came to Vought a while ago. Her baby's eyes were glowing through her abdomen a couple months after you and her..." An involuntary shudder of disgust washed over Vogelbaum before he continued. "Did whatever you did. What does that tell you?"
Homelander strolled casually around Vogelbaum.
"Nothing, without knowing what happened to them." He said.
"The baby clawed through her stomach on the delivery table. Rebecca Butcher lost more blood than any normal human could survive losing. What do you think happened?"
Homelander snorted.
"I think you're not telling me something." He replied. "If you weren't being so evasive, I might have bought your story. Or... I might have bought that you didn't know anything. I know I've lost some of my mystique... But you know what I can do as well as anyone, Jonah. Tell me everything about them. I want details! I want a location. I'll find out even if you don't tell me, and what would that benefit you? You'd be dead... And your canine pals would starve... Until they got out and ate your charred corpse."
"So, Monsieur Kent, when does your friend want us to start working with his... Power source?" Frenchie asked. "The sooner I can begin, the higher the chance of success."
"Within the week, depending on when Vought wants to give us the item." Kent replied. "We'll need to help him scout out a good location. Somewhere isolated, ideally abandoned."
"What, big blue skyman can't find a place himself?" Butcher asked with a barking laugh. "What's he good for, then?"
"He's just one man." Kent said. "He's got other things to attend to... Sometimes." Kent's gaze drifted around as they drove through the city streets.
"Don't you go gettin' carsick on us again, glasses." MM said. "We're out of ginger ale."
"No, that's not..." Kent's eyebrows shot up as a fireball exploded across the street about a block ahead of them. "TURN AROUND!" He shouted as Butcher stepped on the gas, and made a sharp turn down a side-street.
"Don't gotta tell me twice!" Butcher replied as another explosion rang out in the streets.
Kent pushed his hat further down on his head as the van careened down and around the buildings, then turned quickly to stare at what seemed to be an empty wall.
"STOP-" He began to command, but the van shot out from the side-street onto the main road as a glowing man sent an explosive-powered fist rocketing into the side of the van, sending it tumbling across the street, where it landed upside-down, with its passengers tumbled about inside like dice in a cup.
"'Ryan Butcher?'" Homelander read from the file incredulously. "Really, Jonah? You let her give him the human's name?"
"It's the one she wanted to give him." Vogelbaum replied.
Homelander scoffed. "I wanted to not be a labrat and plaything. I wanted not to wear depleted uranium shackles until I was five. I wanted a lot of things I never got, and you give her everything she wants, everything she needs, just so she can raise my kid how she wants?" Homelander scoffed again. "Jonah, if you keep giving puny people what they want, there won't be anything left for people like us! What the hell was wrong will calling him 'Ryan Gillman, anyway?"
"I thought you didn't like the name we gave you." Vogelbaum replied.
"Eh. You gotta call him something." Homelander said, snapping the manilla file folder shut. "Can't call him 'Ryan Homelander.' Defeats the purpose of the mononym. Sounds like something the Tumblr people would come up with."
Vogelbaum's cellphone rang, and he answered it.
"Now's not the time, Stan." He muttered.
"Turn on the news." Stan Edgar's voice commanded.
Vogelbaum turned toward the TV to see plumes of smoke and flame covering New York City. He dove to where Homelander had tossed the remote and unmuted the TV.
"-calling this the worst attack since September Eleventh, and the terrorists are still at large-" Vogelbaum muted the TV again.
"Woooow." Homelander said as he pushed the folder into the front fold of his suit, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "A gang of super-powered international terrorists attacking a major American city... Kinda like a..." John blew a lazy raspberry with his lips. "Legion of super-villains or something. Last time we saw something like that would've been... Ohhh... Back in Soldier Boy's time, wouldn't it?"
Vogelbaum hung up his phone and turned to face John, who had a smug grin on his face.
"What the hell did you do?" The scientist demanded.
"I just secured my position once we've gotten rid of Superman and his aquatic friend." Homelander said. "Say hello to the ISIS splinter group known as The Sword of Truth. Custom made by me, with... Most of their powers administered by our favorite blue speedster! I thought about letting them run wild in their neck of the woods at first, but people always feel more motivated when you make them feel like something is their problem, you know? Wasn't hard to convince them to come here, and they think they're invincible, to boot. Best part is, after I figured out what to put in the V to make these guys reusable explosives, I can keep doing it. It's not like there's any end of Islamic sand-rats who want to blow America to bits. And with my speed, and A-Train's... They feel like it's a gift from Allah, not controlled opposition."
Vogelbaum balked at the revelation.
"How did they- How did you get them here?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." John said, leveling his expression. "They snuck into the country on a military cargo jet that landed near Syria when a couple of soldiers decided they'd rather light up joints than stand guard on the plane. Just another reason we need Superheroes in the military. If Black Noir was training those security details, they never would've had that problem."
Homelander clapped Vogelbaum on the shoulder again.
"What's the matter, Jonah? I thought you wanted life to be interesting?" He asked before soaring off into the sky.
Vogelbaum followed Homelander's flight path with his eyes until the superhuman was no longer visible.
"I'm so sorry John..." Vogelbaum said, shaking his head. He aimed the remote at the TV and turned it off. "I'm sorry to you, and to everyone you have... And will hurt."
The van's inhabitants were stunned by the rotation of the vehicle. The first one to come to full coherency was Clark Kent, and the second was Kimiko. The tumbling had sent Kent's hat flying somewhere in the van, skewed his glasses, and knocked a single lock of hair down onto his forehead. He unlatched his seatbelt and fell from the floor to the ceiling with a heavy thud. Kimiko tore herself from the seat, and landed like a cat.
"Sound off!" Kent said in a stern voice as he made his way to the back door of the van. He didn't bother with the handle, he just kicked the metal doors open, breaking the lock and slamming them wide, not that anyone in the van was coherent enough to notice anything out of the ordinary. "Is everyone alive?"
Mother's Milk grunted, and unlatched himself from his seat, lowering himself to the floor as safely as he could. "I'm good... I think."
"Hughie, Annie?" Kent asked as he scanned the area.
"I'm alive." Annie replied groggily.
"I wish I wasn't." Hughie said, wiping blood from his forehead where he'd collided with a wall of the van. He shook his head, and unhooked Annie from her seat, taking her into his arms and lowering her to the roof of the van.
"Frenchie, Butcher?" Kent asked, as he escorted the others out of the damaged vehicle.
"Oui." Frenchie groaned. "Broken ribs... Minor concussion maybe."
"Butcher?" Kent asked again, more insistently. No response. Billy Butcher was unconscious in the driver's seat.
Kent turned back to the others. "You guys get somewhere safe, I'll get Butcher."
"The hell we are." MM said. "I'll help."
Kent straightened his horn-rimmed glasses and pushed them up on his nose as he straightened up to his full height of six-feet and four inches, towering over Marvin. The lenses reflected orange rectangles in the light of the burning fires and burning men.
"No, you won't." He said sternly as he turned away. "Get out of here. Fight like hell if you have to, but don't stand around waiting for these guys to burn you alive, whatever you do."
Kent's change in demeanor left the others shocked, but they complied with his orders and ran from the crashed van as one of the burning men stalked toward it.
Clark yanked open the door as Butcher came to, albeit groggily.
"Come on." He said as he unlatched the seatbelt. "We've got to go." Kent made to load Butcher on his shoulders, but Billy grunted, and worked himself to his feet.
"What the fuck hit us?" Butcher demanded, rubbing his head. He took a step and stumble, but Clark caught him, and threw Butcher's arm across his shoulder.
"Burning man." Kent said, walking as fast as Butcher could follow. "Has some kind of explosive power, tattoos in Arabic. I think there have to be at least five... Maybe six."
The burning man who'd punched the van grabbed it by the bumper and slung the van out of his way.
"Look at the puny little people..." He said with a cackle that sounded like a burning tree. "Try as you might, Americans... You can't run from the truth."
Kent and Butcher were a ways away from the burning man, but not far enough to make an escape.
"Fuck off, matchstick man." Butcher spat over his shoulder. "I'm from East London."
The burning man lit up brighter as Kent grimaced, and tried to make Butcher walk faster.
"Wherever you come from, it doesn't matter!" The man declared as he broke into a run towards them. "All will burn in Naqib's truth!"
Kent stopped, and tucked Butcher around the corner of a large concrete building. "Stay here." He commanded.
"What the-" Butcher began, but Kent walked away before he could finish. Butcher peered around the corner after Kent in disbelief.
Clark Kent walked to the center of the street as the man's body grew white-hot.
"Stand down." He said in a deep, commanding voice as he pulled his glasses off his face, revealing shocking, brilliant blue eyes behind the thick lenses. "Final warning."
"As if you could stop us!" The man screamed as his skin glowed too bright to directly look at. "Through our truth we will find justice!"
Clark tossed his glasses over his shoulder, and didn't so much seem to jump as practically soar into the burning man as he projected an explosion forward into him. Butcher winced away from the explosion as the fire burned at Clark's clothes and the shockwave rocked down the street.
The flames burned down the street as Clark's glasses landed near Butcher's hiding spot. Cars caught fire and tires exploded as the forward-aimed explosion rocketed backward and sideways, but the flames seemed to be mostly contained... Moreso than one would have thought, given the strength of the explosion.
Butcher looked up from where the glasses landed, to the explosion, as he pulled himself to his feet. Billy had seen enough charred corpses in his life to know what to expect once the glow of the burning man died out... And what he saw wasn't blackened flesh and bone...
He saw the tattered ashes of a blackened grey suit wafting away in the wind... Away from a muscular body clad in a blue skin-tight suit, with a flowing red cape with a golden shield in the center of the back, and red boots on his feet.
The burning man looked at Superman with as much disbelief as Butcher, Hughie, Annie, Marvin, Frenchie, and Kimiko did.
"You don't know anything about justice." Superman said with a disappointed frown. He opened his hand. and chopped the man hard on the side of his neck, knocking him out cold.