Царь-молния

The crusade of the damned had begun.

Those with power rose up against their lesser as they hungered for blood and strength amidst the chaotic landscape. Their true nature as fiends, as animals brought to light as their tyrannical, inhuman lust for the vile nature of the darkest pits of humanity manifested. No longer did they hide themselves from their shame. No longer did they pretend to be nothing but savages underneath their colorful, hopeful robes.

They sacked and moved forth to take what they deemed as theirs. An uprising of the millennia, of the age when man looked up to the sky, hoping that one of these beings was to be their savior. Their messiah.

Only for them to be openly mocked, cajoled, and violated to the highest degree as they swept forth mostly unopposed while the innocent ran. Rivers of blood would manifest that day, cries of anguish, loss, and pain would run rampant and hope began to fade away into cinders even as those with the strength to fight back rushed themselves to reorganize. To try and push back the rapid sway of fate from a doomed world into something that can yet be salvaged.

Many of those who stand in opposition congregated into one last hope.

One hope that in hindsight, felt stupendously out of place and impossible prior to the day when the 'Supes' made landfall upon most of the Western World. One hope that relied on the sheer fear and desperation of a dying country that had lost faith in the ability to win.

A hope that mirrored that of the great Goddess Sekhmet's retribution against man. Those who had wit that survived gathered against the Scourge to ask for guidance from their great God Ra whilst their brethren held back the menace. Their final hope shone at their lowest moments even in their shame as they renounced their hubris. They returned to the one they feared, the one they loathed, to hopefully light their darkest hour.

A contradiction of the antithetical nature that they once possessed against that they disdained.

"They've arrived. Like foul Angels in desperation to blow the horns of Judgement Day." A voice said, its tone soft, yet the baritone behind it immense that the mere sounds of it escaping the mouth created a bellow that not even the largest crocodilian could give out.

Those close to the voice took their eyes off the burning, orange-filled skies as they grasped their weapons, their vehicles, and wills close by. They made a respectable front fighting back against the tide, but the more powerful ones always forced them to retreat, until now.

Gathered in what remained as the heart and mind of their nation, those who fought back for the dignity of mankind persisted. Their capital was now mostly rubble and ash, yet the pillar of strength still stood. The obelisk that stood proud against many decades still held and the building to which their constitution valued had yet to fall.

They gathered there, even if many were not American themselves. Even if many were just there to hopefully end the threat that are these barbarians with their blasphemous, 'God-given gifts'.

At the same time, their ultimate gamble was also a risk. For its consequences, would possibly put them into the same position yet again, only with one ruler on the throne.

Some of the more aware people present understood this. Especially to a specific few who did not feel as elated nor hopeful as the rest of their resistance.

"Whatever happens at the end of this day, Mallory, you know what's to come." A voice with an accented tone said to the older woman right beside him.

"And what would you have me do, William? Wait and see as our own demons sweep away everything we love? I thought you wanted him dead."

He looked at her with a steely-eyed expression as they heard the sonic booms of the incoming capes that were about to arrive in their airspace. The instant clicking of guns, machinery, and other weapons from the soldiers involved came into place as William Butcher, widower and defiant aggressor against anything with powers clicked his tongue as Grace Mallory closed her eyes with a sigh.

"You know damn well that I didn't want this… none of it makes sense. Absolutely nothing that's about to happen amounts to anything that you, me, and everyone else in this fucking hole wants." He said with a tone that rose amidst the loud sounds of preparation behind them.

"Then do tell me what exactly amounts to a choice then, William? Tell me exactly what the alternative was, the better path that your twisted mind can come up with?" Mallory challenged before Butcher found himself silent after realizing that she was right.

They were all trapped in the hands of fate by two opposing sides.

It was just a shame that this other side even allowed them the dignity of an 'alliance', perhaps vassalage was much more… appropriate.

A rumble of thunder approaches. The skies were now darker. The orange now muted as a mass of many that could fly was able to obscure and help the darkened clouds to make the environment feel hopeless. Their positions in the air, parting slightly, elegantly down the middle as a single being slowly levitated down to the ground. He was followed by six others, the colors of their once grand costumes now littered with blood and darkened messes, as they looked at the humans raising their guns at them with smirks.

The one who glistened forth, once mighty, once proud, now only existed as a Tyrannical ruler gleamed forward. His eyes were wrought with crimson as they glowed in a hellish hue, ready to open, to eviscerate and eradicate any opposition before him with just a gaze.

Yet… he smiled, laughed even. For it was courtesy between the strong that gathered them here. Courtesy and respect that one leader had over the other before they would all eventually clamor into a bloody finish. Everybody could feel his confidence, his indignance as the cape that once symbolized freedom was now in a blackened tar color that reflected his soul.

The Homelander, tyrant of a new age landed with his hands outstretched, a smile on his face. Behind him stood the Stormfront with a proud visage, and his bloodied son wearing nothing but his pants and a necklace of fingers that used to belong to the one who birthed him.

A depraved sight unlike any as each soldier took a step back.

"Ah… this is the human spirit. The hope that burns bright even against adversity…" the Homelander started before laughing after that serious tone of words. "…how laughable. Like bugs to a boot. Easy to kill and snuff out even in numbers that seem overwhelming."

Nobody spoke during that as they watched the man laugh maniacally.

"Seriously though, I'm here to speak with equals. I can no longer laugh at the pathetic attempt at partnership that you idiots conjured when decades, even specifically five years ago, you all hated that mere mention or idea of being helped by the one true ideological nemesis that this… country used to hold."

He then took a step forward sighing in contentment at the irony of it all.

"And now… you're all here, practically begging for their help. Is that right?"

Nobody spoke. Not even the bravest soul could as the Homelander bared his teeth in glee at their expense. "… you're not even worth laughing at. It's just pitiful."

He continued to giggle childishly until,

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMM…

A cold shiver ran across every living soul present. Even those with power who swarmed the capitol felt it as a sensation, an emotion that they had not felt against anything but Homelander manifested deep within them. They started to perspire against the cold. The mountainous pressure that now bloomed within their hearts caused them to stagger as they felt the ground unnaturally shake. The sky, ironically parting somewhat as if an insult to the barbarian's entrance…

Yet this…

This was more grand.

Grand in scale. Grand in feeling. Grand in the utter spread of fear and subjugation that it seemingly spewed from the aura it manifested alone.

A sensation that not even the greatest of the barbarians could ward off as everybody's eyes went skyward, where the world cracked in lightning and frost. Where the clouds opened up as powerful gusts of wind accompanied by roaring thunder and bright, destructive lightning drew carnage to anyone nearby.

KRAKA-THOOOOOOUUUMMM!

Lightning that was once called to be the epitome of power, closer to that even of Great Zeus rendered the skies clean of the foul barbarians. There was no corpse after as soon as each surge of light and energy hit them, only a smothered pinch of ash as they were laid low like Angels cast down onto the Earth.

The horror of the deluge brought even the mightiest of the oppressors to heel as the final, most powerful lightning finally surged into the ground just mere meters from the Homelander.

Accompanying it was a voice, loud, boisterous, and arrogant than anything that had ever walked the Earth since the time when Gods once roamed.

"Нет." It boomed as the grand lightning vanished. Yet the storm around them, enveloping almost the entire state and beyond continued to rumble with thunder and slight hale. The once orange sky is now being replaced by the feverish, fearful, and resonant blue of the tempest tundra that the Grand Tsar possessed.

His form was unmatched. Towering nearly somewhat more than five and a half meters as the feeble barbarians and even the humans quaked in his presence. It was overwhelming. It was a feeling that would break even the staunch, hardy hearts into submission.

Truly, a being of Terrible Power.

A being that only the Great Tsar of Russia could hold over the doomed landscape he once ruled over… and now, this world. This fruitful world where it was still bright with hope was once again being threatened by those who would wish to usurp him, even if indirectly.

A deal was struck, one that in the Great Tsar's wisdom would accommodate. Not only for the betterment of his Motherland but for his subjugation of the World, under his command. No longer would prattle with such pathetic circumstances as this would occur again, under his rule…

"Tis once said, by the Grace of God that one such cleansing against Humanity shalt come again. Not with water and storms, but of fire and judgment…" the Tsar bellowed as the Homelander stepped back.

"… but you, hopeless savage, heretic of the highest kind, yet think that you are that Storm. That cleansing. The bearer of judgment in these final days? Pathetic."

THROUM!

The Great Tsar slammed his mighty staff into the ground as the loudest thunderstrike, that would temporarily deafen the ears of everyone present manifested in his rage. He then bellowed with fervor as he stepped forward, the storm around him becoming stronger while Butcher and Mallory watched in horror at the proclamation that would send waves into the World entire…

"Now the earth is in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So, God said to Noah, 'I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. And He, highest above gave it to Noah in blessing to create an Ark…" The Great Tsar then focused on Homelander, raising his fists into the air as the thunder boomed.

"…it is I great Men of the Earth! It is I that shalt be the Great Cleansing of Sin, God's Wrath that will end the corrupt in this world while also being its Ark… its savior."

A great thunder and lightning then struck the ground where Stormfront and the spawn of Homelander were, their screams never being heard as naught but ash remained.

Despair came into the feeling of everyone present. Even the resistance, to which they watched as the Ruler of Russia finished his tirade.

"…you need only to follow my command, for a better world under I, Ivan the Greatest… Ivan, the Terrible…"

The world watched as only one Tyrant remained on the surface of Earth.

One Tyrant who would make himself Ruler, nay, Champion, Oppressor, and Protector of Earth from both anything beyond and itself.

The End?

AN: Think of this What If, as a mix of the Show with the depravity of the Comic more emphasized, and Ivan somehow manifested in Russia and consolidated most of Asia as his fief, but due to Homelander's uprising, was mostly ignored due to what the Supes had done to most of the US and Europe. Making Ivan's stand unopposed.

Also, this was fun to make, alongside the OST I imagined as its background, Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame OST.