Ch. 4 Inadequacies

It was now 10:30 p.m. and the medical team was still cleaning up the bodies and so far they hadn't found any survivors.

The NYPD had come as well, they asked a few questions and when they got a description of the 'murderer', they told everyone not to leave but to stay and wait for a 'specialist'.

Duo was busy comforting Hilde, "He ruined my wedding day," she said, wiping tears from her eyes.

"I know, I know," he said, wrapping his arms around, letting her cry on his shoulder.

Relena was trying to get the blood off of both her skin and dress, with a wet washcloth. She couldn't get that image out of her head, Heero standing there, looking upon everyone with anger and was right behind her, being at the ready in case she needed him.

Quatre was a little more than repulsed by Heero's actions. Dorothy, however, just seemed to be brush it off but Quatre could tell on the inside, she was just as horrified as everyone else was. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her. As soon as he touched her, he could feel her relax into his embrace and she laid her head on his shoulder.

Sally was helping the paramedics with the bodies while Wufei stood in a corner with his arms folded across his chest, trying to figure out why Heero had done this.

Just then, Zechs and Noin arrived, Zechs immediately going to Relena and began checking her for injuries.

"I'm fine," she told him.

"As soon as we heard, we came right over," Noin said.

"We heard that Heero's the murderer," Zechs stated.

Before Relena had a chance to reply, a voice from behind them said, "He's not just a murderer," they all turned to see a man who appeared to be in his mid to late forties. He was wearing a gray raincoat and underneath that was a blue suit. His voice was laced with a slight but noticeable Irish accent. "He's also a vigilante." he continued.

"Who are you?" Duo asked.

The man reached into his back pocket, pulled out a wallet, and flipped it open, revealing a badge. "I'm Detective Eric Finch. I'm with the NYPD's Punisher Task Force," when he finished, he put the wallet back in his pocket.

"The what?" Hilde asked.

"Punisher Task Force," he repeated. He looked around at the carnage before him, and then he walked over to a paramedic and asked, "How many?"

"So far, we count forty-three." Finch pulled out a small notepad and began flipping through the pages. "Not his highest count but its up there."

While he was still going over his notes, Quatre came forward and asked, "Excuse me, Detective but why exactly are you here?"

Finch didn't even look up from his notepad as he spoke, "I'm here to investigate this crime scene and see if I can find anything that might lead to the Punisher's whereabouts. In fact, I'd like to talk to you and everyone else here."

Relena walked over to Finch and asked, "You said he's not murder, right?" Finch nodded his head. "THEN WHAT THE HELL WOULD YOU CALL THIS!?" She shouted, tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes.

Finch didn't even flinch at this outburst of anger. "In his mind," Finch said. "Justice."

"Whose mind?" Sally asked as she came over. "Heero's?" Finch turned towards her and said,

"If that's how you want to refer to him, then yes, in Heero's mind, this is justice."

"How can this be justice?" Relena asked through clenched teeth. "He murdered some of the best and most kindest people I know."

Finch began flipping through his notepad again, then stopped. "If you're talking about the VIPs that were here," he said. "Well then you're wrong about them being kind." "What are you talking about?" Relena asked.

"Well," Finch said. "None of them were in the least bit kind or least they weren't kind to the people they were suppose to be kind to."

"I don't understand," she said.

"Doesn't surprise me." Finch replied. "You see, the Punisher kills the corrupt and your friends were just about as corrupt as it comes."

"Th-that can't be," Relena stuttered.

"Well it is," said Finch, as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and started smoking one. "You see," he continued. "Your 'friends' here were accepting bribes from the mob and also giving bribes. They also had their bodyguards take out a few of their competitors, as well a few cops that were investigating them,"

Finch looked around at the remaining bodies. "That's probably why he didn't leave any survivors."

"How is it that they were never prosecuted?" Dorothy asked, coming up from behind Quatre.

Finch turned to her and said, "Like I said: corrupt. Little bribes here and there, a couple of threats every now and again."

Relena couldn't speak, some of the best people she had ever known, had been just been killed right in front of her eyes and now she's finding out that they did horrible things to people.

"Well," Finch spoke, looking at his watch. "I suppose I should be going."

He began to walk towards the exit when Duo called to him. "Wait." Finch stopped and turned around. "Don't you need to talk to us?"

Finch sighed, "Come down to 12th Precinct tomorrow," he said. "We'll talk then." and with that he turned and left the building.

'Where have I seen him before?' thought Duo.

The next day…

Relena's limo pulled to the parking lot of the 12th Precinct, it stopped in front of the entrance and everybody stepped out of the car except for Pagan, who went to go park the car. They all went through the entrance, down a corridor, which led to a large room full of desks and people going about their duties.

An elderly looking men with a receding hairline, and a thick gray mustache, looked up from the file he was currently looking at, closed it, put it on a nearby desk, and walked over to the group. He was wearing a tan colored suit with a black tie and had kind look in his eyes.

"Hello, I'm Captain John McCluskey," he said, introducing himself.

Everyone else, in turned, introduced themselves as well. McCluskey was mildly surprised to find the Vice Foreign Minister and handful of Preventers in his precinct.

"Well I'm in charge here, so, if you have any questions, just ask me, okay."

"We're looking for Detective Finch. We're here to talk to him about someone called the uhm…" Duo thought for a moment. "The Punisher."

Every cop in the room stopped whatever they doing and the entire building seem to fall silent. "Since when did the Preventers give a rat's ass about a vigilante?" asked Captain McCluskey, with a detectable hint of spite in his voice.

"He was a friend of ours." Sally stated, with a bit of anger in her own voice. Wufei put his hand on her shoulder in an effort to calm her down.

"Huh, didn't know the Punisher had friends," said McCluskey. "Room 12, the basement."

They all headed in the direction the Captain indicated to.

Before they went through the door the Captain spoke again, "Oh and one other thing Agent Maxwell, no matter what happens, no matter what you do or how hard you try, you will never catch the Punisher."

"Why do you say that?" Duo asked. "If you meet him again, you'll find out."

They made their way down to the basement, which had countless shelves full of boxes, almost making it impossible to move anywhere but in single file.

Eventually they came to Detective Finch, sitting in a desk amongst all the shelves. He seemed to be writing in a file and he didn't even look up when they approached him.

"Excuse me, Detective Finch" Relena started but was interrupted by Finch raising his free hand, with his index finger extended, silently asking for a moment. Soon after, he finished and closed the file.

He looked up and said, "Well it's good to see you're all here. I suppose we should get started." He motioned for them to sit down; conveniently there were enough chairs for everyone.

When everyone was seated, Duo spoke first, "Detective, before you start asking questions, I'd like to know why Heero's doing this."

"And for how long," added Quatre. Finch turned in their general direction and said, "To answer both of your questions," he opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a file. "Let's go back three months."

He opened the file and showed them three pictures; the first one had man lying on his back, his eyes were open, and he had gunshot wound to the forehead. Finch showed them the other two pictures; they both showed men lying face down on the ground with bullet wounds in their backs.

"Two witnesses who saw these three men being murdered said that the shooter was a young man, with a medium build and unruly brown hair. They also said that he was 'protecting' a young couple from being mugged and after the couple left, he went into a nearby motel room and apparently left a little after that. And when we investigated this crime scene, as well as the motel room, we found this," he held up a folded piece of paper.

"And this," he produced another picture. This was obviously taken inside because it showed a large skull carved into a wall.

"And what's the piece of paper?" asked Relena.

"It's a little note your friend left us." Finch said, as he began to unfold it. "Here I'll read it to you. It says:

I leave this as a declaration of intent, so no one will be confused.

One: "Si vis pacem, para bellum." Latin. Its been passed down through generation to generation of men in this line of work. "Si vis pacem, para bellum- If you want peace, prepare for war."

Two: Heero Yuy is dead. In fact, he may not have ever existed, but if he did, he is now dead. He died the moment Relena chose to marry Trowa.

Three: The law is inadequate. To shame its inadequacy, one most act outside the law, to pursue what is known as natural justice. It has been given many names, such as payback, vendetta, even karma; but most notably, especially those in this profession, it has been called vengeance. But for me this is not vengeance. It's Punishment.

Four: To all those who prey on the innocents- the murders, the rapists, pedophiles, and sadists- you will come to know me well. Heero Yuy is no more. From this moment on call me the Punisher.

"And that's the end," Finch said as he concluded the 'declaration'.

"What did he mean by 'men in this line of work?' Catherine asked.

"He means the Punishers before him." Finch replied.

"You mean there was more of them?" asked Duo.

"Of course there was," Finch replied.

"How many were there?" Relena asked.

"Including this one," Finch said. "Seven." He pulled out another file and opened it. "The Punishers are as followed:

Number One: Frank David Castle, Sr., 1966 A.D.-2056 A.D., years active: 2002 A.D.-2056 A.D.; Special Forces Instructor, became the first Punisher when his family was gunned down by members of the Costa Crime family in Central Park after witnessing a mob execution; Known Relatives: Sister living in Colorado, Name: Anne Possible (married), unwilling to disclose any information; Death: Natural Causes.

Number Two: Jake Gallows, 2074 A.D.-2149 A.D., years active: 2099 A.D.-2149 A.D.; Homeland Security, became the Punisher after the murders of his mother, sister, and brother-in-law by Kron Stone; Known Relatives: None; Death: Natural Causes.

Number Three: Dolph Lundgren, 2170 A.D.-2255 A.D., years active: 2200 A.D.-2255 A.D.; NYPD Detective, became the Punisher after the murder of his family in a car bomb by an unknown perpetrator; Known Relatives: None; Death: Natural Causes.

Number Four: Thomas Jane, A.C. 001-A.C. 087, years active: A.C. 035-A.C. 087; FBI agent/United States Delta Force, became the Punisher after the murder of his entire family in a mob hit that was issued by Howard Saint; Known Relatives: None; Death: Natural Causes.

Number Five: Paul Kersey, A.C. 062-A.C. 142, years active: A.C. 112-A.C. 142; Architect/United States Army Combat Medic, became the Punisher after his wife and daughter were beaten and raped in their own apartment by unknown assailants, wife dies in hospital due to injuries, daughter later commits suicide; Known Relatives: None; Death: Natural Causes.

Number Six: Odin Lowe, A.C. 142-A.C. 188, years active: A.C. 172-A.C. 188; Assassin/Mercenary, became the Punisher for unknown reasons; Known Relatives: None; Death: Gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Number Seven: Heero Yuy, A.C. 180-Present; years active: A.C. 206-Present; Gundam Pilot/Preventer, became the Punisher for unknown reasons; Known Relatives: None.

"And that concludes our brief history lesson on the Punishers." Finch said as he closed the file.

"Hey," Duo spoke up. "It said you didn't know why Heero became the Punisher but its obvious its because Relena's going to marry Trowa."

Relena cast her eyes down, she felt partly responsible. If she had just listened to her heart and waited for Heero, this probably wouldn't have happen. But, instead, she had listened to her reasoning and instead chose Trowa. But it wasn't that she didn't love Trowa, she truly did, its just that Heero had always held her heart… perhaps he still did.

Finch looked over at Duo and said, "I don't think a broken heart would look good in a police file about a group of mass-murders that have been wreaking havoc for over four-hundred years."

Duo sighed, "So what do we do?"

"We?" Finch said. "Since when did the Preventers give a rat's ass about a vigilante?"

"Does every cop ask that?" Duo retorted.

"Probably." Finch countered. "Well, if do want to help I suggest that you look through some of the case files and get to know exactly what you're about to face but before you leave I'd like to get all your names."

Everyone agreed and they introduced themselves. Everything went fine until Duo introduced himself.

"Duo Maxwell," Finch said. "Do you have any relationship with a man known as Father Maxwell?"

"I was raised by him," answered Duo.

"I thought you looked familiar," Finch said. "I'm the one who brought you to Maxwell Church."

Duo's mouth dropped, then turned into a large grin. "Hey, yeah, that's right. I can't believe I didn't recognize you before."

"Well, it was almost twenty years ago," said Finch.

"Yeah, I guess it was," replied Duo.

They all began to move when Duo stopped and said, "Wait, uh which one is it?"

"What?" Finch asked.

"The Punisher killings," he said. "The ones Heero's done."

"Pick one." Finch said.

Duo looked around at the other shelves and then it dawned on him. "Whoa." He let out a long sigh.

Two weeks later…

It was close to midnight, when the old men came stumbling out of the bar. He had shaggy, gray hair, and matching, but trimmed, beard. He was dressed in a collared shirt, a loosened black tie, black slacks, and a tan trench coat. He stumbled into a nearby alleyway, tripped over his own two feet and fell to the ground, nearly taking two trash cans with him.

He laid on his back, just starring up at the night sky, until a shadow passed over him, all he could see was the silhouette of someone with messy brown hair and a white skull on his body armor.

The old man smiled. "Oh no," he said, chuckling. "It's the big, bad vigilante."

"Get up," said the younger man.

When the old man failed to stand, the younger man grabbed him by his collar, hoisted him up, and pushed him against the wall.

The man was still laughing, he held up his hands in mock surrender and said, "Okay, okay, I give up."

"Shank, I need some information, now," he growled.

"All right, Heero," he said, straitening himself against the wall and pulling out a flask. "What do what to know?"

"Someone's bringing women in from Russia and its not the Russians," Heero said.

" 'Course its not the Russians," Shank replied, taking a sip.

"You know?" Heero asked.

"Well," Shank said. "From what I heard, it's the Yakuzas who's movin' in and takin' over most of the vice around here."

"You know who's in charge?" Heero asked.

"I think it's a woman named Tanaka but you might want to 'ask around'," Shank said.

"Hn," was Heero's only reply as he turned and started to leave. Before he was out of his sight, Shank called to Heero, "Oh, uh, Mr. P.," Heero turned around and saw Shank raising his flask, as if to a toast. "Happy hunting."

AN: Has anyone notice the Easter Eggs I leave? For example, there is a clue to a future fic that I will be writing. Please some one read and review this story. Also this does take place in the same universe as the movie Punisher: War Zone, but the shirt is like the one from the 2004 movie.