A/N: Not much to really say here, aside from the Female replacement I'm using in this fic is someone who appeared in some past stories I've written recently. And one character might be a little OOC.

Butcher looked up at his wife, admiring the beauty of seeing her naked. They were both in bed, and we're already getting busy, even though it was the middle of the day.

"God, you're beautiful."

"That's why you married me, right?" Becca grinned, as they continued fucking. "I mean, aside from finding me in that alley, being harassed-"

"You found me love." Butcher told her. "You found me."

Butcher suddenly woke up, finding himself naked and in bed, but without Becca by his side. He looked around at the empty room, seeing a dog cage with no dog, and a television set in the opposite corner. Butcher sighed, got up, and went over to his wardrobe. As he parted the clothes, he stared at a keypad at the back wall, its numbers lit up.

Butcher was tempted to press the numbers, but then shook his head. No. He worked so hard to leave it all behind when he married Becca. He couldn't just do it again.

Billy proceeded to get dressed, eat a hot pocket, and walk out of his house, going into his car. The rest of the Boys should be woken up by now, but he needed somewhere to go. Luckily, Frank was outside waiting for him.

"You ready?" Frank asked.

"And you're sure this guy can help out with our little problem?" Butcher asked.

"As long as he doesn't hold a grudge." Frank shrugged, and the two drove off.

Music: "The Punisher Main Titles"

William Rawlins walked through the bullpen of the CIA and entered his office, to find two man dressed in black waiting for him. One of them was in a hoodie, with a buzzcut, and the other had a beard and trenchcoat on. Unfortunately, he knew the man in the hoodie quite well.

"Dammit Castle, I thought we were done." Rawlins snarled, pointing to his face to show his clouded eye. "After Kandahar and that souvenir you gave me, I should've had you dishonorably discharged."

"Good seeing you too, Rawlins." Frank grunted. "But we need your help."

"Who's your friend?" Rawlins asked.

"Billy Butcher." Butcher smiled, taking a mock bow.

"Heard of you." Rawlins muttered. "You're the reason Mallory retired."

"Let's not play the blame game, mate." Butcher shrugged. "We finally have something that will keep supes out of the military."

"And why would we do that?" Rawlins asked. "Personally, I can't wait until they go to Syria."

"You say that now, but what happens when they actually wear the camo?" Butcher asked. "We all saw what happened when mutants were used in Vietnam. It was a shitshow that gave Transigen the green light to modify the food we eat. As a result, no mutant has been born in over forty years."

"What's your point, Mister Butcher?" Rawlins asked impatiently.

"My point is we'll have another shitshow on our hands." Butcher told him. "What's stopping Sergeant Homelander from massacring a million chinese? He'd wipe out the entire planet before he steps foot in the Hague!"

"So what's your solution?"

"Compound V." Frank told him, handing photos of A-Train and Popclaw shooting up with the drug. "It's a super steroid that A-Train used to win the race against the Flash. His girlfriend also uses it."

"We think all supes are using it."

"I'm not here to banter about someone cheating in a race." Rawlins scoffed. "Do you have this Compound V?"

"Not yet." Butcher admitted. "They dried it all up."

"Then get us a sample of it, then we might follow up on what you said."

"Sure." Frank nodded, and he and Butcher left.

Once the two were outside, Butcher called Popclaw.

"Where does A-Train get the V?"

"At a restaurant in Chinatown called Noodle Palace. He always comes back with noodles from there when he brings the V home. That's all I know."

"You better be right." Butcher threatened. "Or else you and your landlord will find yourselves on Pornhub with the fatal cunnilinus."

"You son of a-"

Butcher hung up the phone, and he and Frank drove towards Chinatown. Along the way, Frank activated his earpiece again.

"Dax, Dig, meet us at Noodle Palace. That's where the Compound V is being stashed."

Ten minutes later, the Boys waited in the black van, trying to find anything out of the ordinary, but nothing was happening. They waited for what felt like hours, until Dax finally noticed an Asian man walking with two brown paper bags get bumped while walking. He dropped the bag, and after looking around for a moment, picked it back up, and walked past the restaurant.

"That guy with the bags was packing." Dax pointed out, and everyone got out of the van, doing their best to follow him. The man ducked behind the restaurant, entering through the back, and the Boys followed, seeing him go through the back door behind the counter. Dax looked around, making sure no one was looking, and he picked the lock, allowing everyone inside.

The Boys walked through underground tunnels, even though they were a part of the building, and snuck past three of the guards, coming to a room filled with wooden boxes.

"Right. Start looking, mates." Butcher announced, beginning to pry the lids off the boxes and search for the Compound V. Diggle did as well, but Frank and Dax suddenly saw a metal cell in the corner, with a tv playing a cheesy commercial.

"Eight more days till Halloween. Halloween. Halloween! Eight more days till Halloween! Silver Shamrock!"

Dax looked down at the ground, seeing a young woman with light brown hair, a white shirt, and black suspenders sitting on the floor, with her arms wrapped around her legs.

"Dax, Castle, what are you doing?" Diggle asked, walking over to them. Upon seeing the young woman with her back turned towards them, he muttered. "Oh Jesus."

"We should let her out." Dax decided.

"I agree." Frank added.

"No. We're here for the V, not a rescue mission." Butcher told them.

"Don't care." Frank scoffed, and unlocked the cage. The door creaked open, and they heard the guards running towards them, shouting in Chinese. The female turned her head at the sound, and instantly leapt up, shoving Castle and Dax to the side. She jumped on top of one of the guards, slashing his stomach with her bare hands, before plunging her fingers into his eyes and snapping his neck. The second guard stood in shock, as the woman rushed him, rapidly knocking him down and punching him in the chest so hard, his stomach burst.

"Jesus." Diggle's eyes widened. "She's a supe."

"Well done, Dax. Frank." Butcher muttered. The third guard, not wanting to die horribly, turned his gun on himself, pulling the trigger in his mouth, splattering his blood and brains across the wall. The female looked back towards the Boys, and what Frank saw made him step back in surprise. He had seen brutality, and even feral, back in the Corps. But this… this was on a whole other level. This woman's face, it was like a pale, expressionless mask. And her eyes… they were black eyes in the light. Eyes that made Frank feel like he was staring at the Devil.

The female was about to advance, when Dax put his hands up, and stepped back.

"Don't worry, we're not here to hurt you." Dax promised. The female looked from Butcher, to Frank, to Dax, and Diggle, still with that blank expression.

"Do you… want a drink?" Dax asked, gingerly pulling out a flask. The woman stared down at it for a moment, before looking back to him.

"I'm sorry you were put in that cage." Dax told her. "I know what it feels like. My father... he would sometimes lock me in the basement, and only let me out to beat me."

To prove his point, he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, showing scars and faded bruises. If the female was touched by what he said, she didn't show it. Instead, she slowly grabbed a chair that was overturned, and placed it back upright, before sitting down. Despite being kept in a cage for God knows how long, something in the back of her mind was telling her that these people were telling the truth in that they won't hurt her.

"Right, while you babysit the female, we're going to look for that V." Butcher announced.

"Already found it." Diggle declared, holding up a vial of blue liquid. "Got the serial number on the boxes too."

Just then, Frank's cell phone rang off.

"That your phone?" Butcher asked. Frank nodded.

"Starlight?"

"Yeah." Frank confirmed, answering the call. "Hey. Yeah, sure. Where do you want to meet? Okay."

Frank shut his phone off, gaining a look from Diggle, Butcher, and Dax. Even the female on the chair was staring at him.

"What?"

"You're still in contact with her?" Butcher asked.

"What of it?" Frank scoffed.

"Nothing, just… that's good." Butcher grinned. "Whatever she says, I want to hear it."

"You want me to spy on Annie?" Frank asked.

"There a problem with that?" Butcher shot back.

"Yeah, the problem is that she's not a bad person." Frank told him.

"She's a fucking supe." Butcher spat out. "She's just like the rest."

Frank groaned, and began walking away, leaving the rest of the Boys to sort out what to do with the woman.

"What are we going to do?" Diggle asked, pointing to the female.

"Well, we can't just leave her here!" Dax exclaimed.

"She's a supe, Dax." Butcher pointed out.

"But maybe she was forced to take the Compound V!" Dax suggested. They looked back at the female, who slowly nodded.

"Can you speak?" Dax asked. The woman tilted her head to the side. In truth, she could speak. She just chose not to.

"Great. So we have a mute supe on our hands." Butcher threw his hands up in the air. "And no way to find out what happened to her. Well done, Dax."

"Not necessarily." Diggle held up his finger, slowly smiling. "I know a guy who could help."

Butcher narrowed his eyes, sneering at John.

"No. No." Butcher snarled. "He's a supe as well. We can't trust him."

"Do you know anyone else who could get in her head?" Diggle asked. Butcher sighed, looking at the female. He actually did know someone who get in her head. Someone who was even better than Diggle's idea. Unfortunately, he had no way of contacting her, and they were running out of time. The Compound V alone wouldn't be enough to stop supes from getting into the military. They'd need a witness to describe what happened to them, and how they were forced to take the drug. And it seemed this woman was the perfect one.

Homelander and Queen Maeve followed Stillwell to the crime analyst's room, seeing a map of the world with a red dot in the middle of the ocean. Next to the dot were the words "US Flight 37".

"So what's this about?" Maeve asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"A call came in that Flight 37 was hijacked." Stillwell told them.

"And you're telling us this, why?" Homelander asked, sounding bored.

"Because if you stop the plane, we can use that to push for superheroes in the military." Madelyn told them. "And our marketing will skyrocket."

Homelander shrugged, wearing a smirk, and he and Maeve walked out of the building, taking to the skies. It took at least an hour, but they eventually found the plane, heading in the wrong location.

"Okay, I'm going to go in first, just to check how many there are-"

Maeve stopped, looking over at Homelander to see his eyes glowing red.

"What are you doing-"

Two laser beams shot out of Homelander's eyes, cutting through the plane like it was made of butter. The entire flight was cut in half, and the engines exploded, where they began plummeting down below.

"What did you do?!" Maeve shrieked, glaring at Homelander. "You killed all those people!"

"Yeah, and now we can spin this even better than if we saved them." Homelander smirked. "Put a little bit of fear mongering in it, and they'll have to let us into the military now."

Maeve shuddered, as she and Homelander flew away from the falling plane. It wasn't until three years ago that Maeve started to see the Homelander's darker side. The shitshow all started when he killed the Avengers, then blamed Thanos. Then, just recently, he forced Starlight into that blowjob, and now, he murdered an entire plane full of people. One thing was for sure, Maeve got sicker every week, and just wished she could simply quit the Seven, if not for her fear of Homelander.

A-Train zoomed into Popclaw's apartment, momentarily startling her.

"Who did you tell?" the speedster asked.

"What do you mean?" Popclaw asked innocently.

"The Compound V. You're the only other person who knew I had it." A-Train explained. "Who did you tell?!"

"No one, I swear!" Popclaw said defensively. "What happened?"

"I was running past Noodle Palace. There were three bodies." A-Train revealed. "I think you know what happened."

"But I don't! I'm telling the truth." Popclaw lied again. A-Train groaned, taking off his sunglasses and rubbing his eyes.

"Well regardless, pack your bags."

"Why?" Popclaw asked.

"I need to get you somewhere safe before this is all over… and before Homelander finds out." A-Train told her. Reluctantly, Popclaw went to her room, and filled a red duffle bag full of essentials. Once she was done, A-Train picked her up, and zoomed out of the apartment, as fast as lightning.

Frank found Annie in her civilian clothes, sitting on the park bench in front of the carousel, just like the first time they met.

"What'd you want to talk about?" Frank asked.

"I just… I need to know that if I'm doing the right thing." Starlight confessed. "After joining the Seven, and being forced to wear that costume at the race…"

"Annie, you're a good person." Frank said softly. "You're getting knocked down, but you're pulling yourself back up."

"I… I don't know about that anymore." Annie said sadly. Frank looked at the carousel for a moment, watching the kids play on the horses, when one thought crossed his mind.

"What's Translucent like?" Castle blurted out.

"Huh?" Annie jolted, like she got punched.

"Sorry. Thought just came to mind." Frank apologized.

"No, it's fine." Annie reassured him. "He's… you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me." Frank smiled slightly. Annie smiled as well, and looked at the ground.

"He… do you remember when I told you I had to deal with some assholes at work?"

"Translucent was one of them?" Frank guessed. Starlight nodded.

"Yes. He, Homelander, and the Deep…" Annie paused, taking time to wipe tears that were forming in her eyes. "They forced me to blow them."

Even though he already knew what had happened, it didn't stop Frank's eyes from squinting into narrow slits. He felt his rage pool into his stomach, and his finger began itching again.

"What?"

"I said you wouldn't believe me." Annie said sadly.

"No, I do believe you." Frank told her, slowly calming down. "Trust me, I do."

"Thank you." Annie sniffed, wrapping Frank in a hug, but was careful not to crush him with her super strength.

"But…" Frank told her, still in the hug. "Why do you put up with their bullshit? Why not quit?"

"Because being in the Seven is what I wanted to do." Annie whispered. "And… I want to make my mom proud of me."

"I think she'll be proud of you no matter what." Frank told her. "But if you really want to continue being in their little club, report them."

"I already tried." Starlight said glumly. "But Stillwell… she said no one would believe me, and I'd get kicked out."

"Fuck them." Frank told her. "Do it anyway."

Annie smiled at Castle's advice, as she stared at a banner hanging from one of the park's lamps. On the banner was a picture of herself in her original costume, advertising her to be at a Christian Convention for Christ the next day.

"You're going to be there?" Frank asked, seeing the banner as well.

"Yeah." Starlight sighed. "Homelander and Ezekiel are going to be there too. They're probably going to force me to say some crap I don't really believe. I don't want to convert the masses."

"Then don't." Frank told her. "Don't do what they're forcing you to do. You're a fighter."

Annie stared at Castle, and a smile formed on her face again.

"Thanks Frank." Starlight leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "I think I know what I'll do now."

Frank grinned and nodded, as Annie got up to leave the bench. He stood up as well, and checked his phone, seeing he had a text from Butcher.

9988 Osment Street. Get there ASAP.

"As of now, pieces of the Trans-Oceanic Flight 37 wreckage are just now coming ashore, with presumably everyone on board being killed."

Homelander stood on the shoreline, Maeve by his side, as a news crew reported on the wreckage. Maeve had her arms folded over her chest, looking down, while Homelander shook his head, pretending to be sorry about the destruction he himself caused.

"They didn't have to die." Homelander spoke softly, but loud enough to be heard.

"We have Homelander and Queen Maeve on the scene. What are your thoughts?" the news reporter asked.

"I said they didn't have to die." Homelander repeated, with crocodile tears in his eyes. "We arrived three minutes late, after the plane went down. Why? Because we're not in the chain of command. Despite the Sokovia Accords being abolished three years ago, we don't have the authority to save people. If they had just called us, instead of scrambling jets, one hundred and twenty three people could have been saved. But… if they let us into the military, this won't happen again. This is our promise. Right Maeve?"

Maeve stared at Homelander for a second, her eyes flickering between fear and hatred, before turning away.

"Talk to your congressman, so we can make sure this never happens again!" Homelander shouted. "God bless you all, and God bless America! And I promise you this: whoever did this, are going to hear from ALL OF US!"

Homelander smiled and turned away, as the news crews, paramedics, and everyone on the shore began chanting his name. Unbeknownst to him, Maeve kept staring at him, with nothing but hate in her eyes.

Frank arrived at the address, complete with a black van parked right outside, and tapped the side of the vehicle. Butcher, Dax, and Diggle climbed out of the van, with Dax helping the female out.

"How chivalrous of you." Frank scoffed. "Where are we?"

"This is the home of washed up supe Mesmer." Diggle explained. "If anyone can tell us about this mystery woman, it's him."

The Boys walked up to the address and knocked on the door, where a small man with a brown beard walked out.

"Who the fuck are you guys?" the man asked.

"How about you take a look, Mesmer?" Diggle asked nonchalantly, holding out his hand. Mesmer cautiously took it, seeing into the man's life.

John Diggle, married to Lyla Michaels and father of John Diggle Junior, used to run around with Oliver Queen, AKA the Green Arrow. He was the head of ARGUS, and saved the world multiple times, but one piece of information stuck out to him.

"How do you know about Cleo?" Mesmer asked. Diggle smirked.

"There are no secrets from me. Isn't that right?" John said, echoing Mesmer's favorite catchphrase.

"What do you want?"

"We just need you to look into her mind for a bit, yeah?" Butcher asked, pointing to the woman.

"In return, I'll help you get your daughter back." Diggle offered. Mesmer sighed, before opening the door.

"Come in."

The Boys entered the small home, littered with posters of the Mesmerizer tv show, where Mesmer and the woman sat in opposite chairs. Mesmer held out his hand, and the female grasped it after some coaxing from Dax.

"Be gentle." Dax suggested. Mesmer closed his eyes, and began to read her mind. All of a sudden, the woman began hyperventilating from anxiety, and she broke his wrist.

"AH! JESUS, FUCK!" Mesmer screamed, getting up. The female suddenly backed up, but Dax put a hand on her shoulder to relax her.

"Wait, she didn't mean it!"

"Didn't mean it? She broke my fucking arm!" Mesmer yelled. "Fuck you guys, I'm going to a hospital, get out!"

"Everybody, calm down!" Frank ordered, pointing to Mesmer. "Sit the fuck down! I had to patch up many wounds in the field, and had to pull bullets out with my teeth. Now, I can fix your arm, or break the other one. Your choice."

"But remember, you walk out now, we can't help you get your daughter back." Diggle added. Mesmer breathed heavily, looking between the five of them, before reluctantly nodding. Diggle and Frank went to the bathroom in the house, grabbing supplies, and returning to the living room. While Dax calmed the woman down, Frank patched Mesmer's arm up as best he could, until it was completely wrapped in gauze.

"Okay, she promised she won't do it again." Dax smiled. Mesmer looked at the female, who slowly nodded. He groaned in pain, before holding out his other hand. The female stared down at it, before grabbing it again.

Music: "The Shape Hunts Allyson", from Halloween 2018

"I'm seeing her in the back of a police vehicle…" Mesmer announced, closing his eyes. "...she's with an older man… they break out, and she kills this guy in a doctor's uniform… his arm is in a sling, with his coat saying 'Smith's Grove'..."

"Smith's Grove?" Frank frowned.

"You know the place?" Butcher asked.

"Yeah, it's a sanitarium in Haddonfield, down in Illinois." Frank told everyone, as he had a sinking feeling. "What does the man look like?"

"He's bald, with traces of a white beard." Mesmer revealed. "Before she killed the doctor by strangling him, he had this blank white mask on…"

"Did the mask have black hair?" Frank asked. "And did the mask look like a bleached William Shatner?"

"Uh… yeah?" Mesmer confirmed.

"Wait, what's that mean?" Butcher asked. Frank stared at him, wondering how he couldn't have known about this.

"It means that Dax here rescued a psycho who's been running around with Michael Myers." Diggle answered for him. The woman looked up at Dax, who stared at her in shock. They all heard about Michael Myers. The Boogeyman of Haddonfield.

"Is this true?" Dax asked. The woman began hyperventilating, but quickly calmed herself, and wrapped both hands around Mesmer's uninjured arm this time.

"After she killed the doctor, Michael Myers carried her home to her grandmother's." Mesmer revealed. "Laurie Strode. She suffered a stab wound from the doctor, and he helped patch her up. He saved her."

"Do you have her name?" Butcher asked. Mesmer opened his eyes, and looked up at him.

"Her name is Allyson Nelson."

Frank sharply exhaled. He heard about a massacre that took place on Halloween night back in 2018. But after the body of a doctor, presumably the one this Allyson girl killed, was found on the road to Laurie's home, Michael seemingly vanished.

"What happened to her?" Dax asked. Mesmer closed his eyes, concentrating on reading Allyson's mind again.

"She was kidnapped… by people working for Vought last year." Mesmer told them. "She was tortured on what she knew about Michael, until some doctor forced her to be injected with a large dose of this blue liquid."

"Compound V." Butcher realized.

"What was the doctor's name?" Dax asked. "The one who injected her?"

"All that I can see is the tag on his jacket: Wynn." Mesmer told the Boys. "That's it. That's all I know."

"What about if she can speak?"

"She can… she just doesn't want to."

After that, Allyson let go of Mesmer's hand, and stood up.

"Well, this was peachy." Butcher said sarcastically. "Thank you, Mesmer. We can see ourselves out. Oh, you tell anyone about this, I'll cut your fucking hands off, and you'll have no business reading people ever again."

"Wait, what about my daughter?" Mesmer cried out, as the Boys began to leave.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you'll see her again." Diggle promised, right as they all left. The minute they left Mesmer's home, Diggle checked his phone, seeing someone was calling him.

"Hello. Yeah. Uh-huh. Thanks man. I owe you one."

"Who the fuck was that?" Butcher asked, as Diggle ended the call.

"One of my old contacts from ARGUS. The guy helped me track down an informant for the terrorist organization HIVE." John told everyone. "He tracked the serial number, and the Compound V was shipped out from Ezekiel's soup kitchen."

"Ezekiel?" Frank asked, remembering something Starlight told him. "He's going to be at that Christian Convention tomorrow."

"Then that's where we're heading." Butcher smirked, as they all piled into the van, and drove off.

A/N: If anyone's wondering, I combined scenes of episodes four and six for the Female, who I replaced Kimiko with Allyson. I always wanted to write a fanfiction set after the last two Halloween fics, but with a bit more action. I was thinking something similar to the Punisher's shootout in Micro's basement, or the Warehouse Fight in Batman V Superman, but I thought it would've been too cheesy to set it in the grounded Halloween universe, like with Busta Rhymes. So, I decided to put it in the context of a world that would make sense, with the Boys.

Speaking of, my two Halloween fics, Those Who Wear Masks and The Knight With the Blackest Eyes, are canon to this fic. However, Vengeance and Punishment as a whole is an AU of those stories, because I already mentioned Allyson loved reading comics of the Punisher. Think of it like this: because of Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Snap in Infinity War, the MCU, Arrowverse, the world of the Boys, and miscellaneous worlds like Halloween and the Boys were all combined. And like in the tv show, everyone's memories have been rewritten. So in this new timeline, let's just say Allyson grew up reading Vought comics.

Oh, I almost forgot, the reason I had Homelander laser the plane in half was for a few reasons. First, it was supposed to reference the plane he did blow up in the very first episode. Second, the entire scene would have played out the same way it did in the show, and I didn't want to rewrite the entire thing beat for beat if I wasn't going to change something. That's why I'm not focusing on the Deep at all in this story.

Anyway, next chapter will have the Boys going to the Believe Expo. Stay tuned.