The Boys - Let Me Show You A True Hero!

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Chapter 24

He needed to kill one more time.

One more body for the mountain of corpses he had built.

One more drop of blood in the ocean of red he had spilled.

Then she would be safe. Then he could return to her.

Only one more death stood between him and the life he started to long for.

A life of peace he could barely imagine as his own.

A life he was beginning to desperately want.

…Even if a monster like him would never deserve it.

His bloody face turned to the direction of his enemy whose rapidly approaching monstrous form cut a terrifying visage against the backdrop of the moonlit forest, destroying every tree in his way.

The distant thundering footsteps of the mutated Metal Hand grew louder, reverberating ominously against the desolate mountainside.

The moon hung high above, casting long shadows across Noir's slowly healing mangled form.

He heaved an uneven breath as agony filled his lungs, memories of her stoking the fire that burned within him.

Images of her flashed through his eyes of the time her spent with her.

Her brown eyes that spoke more than words ever could.

Her lips, soft and soothing as she smiled at him .

Her silent laughter, an unheard melodious symphony that drowned out the endless screams echoing in his head.

Her touch, healing and searing all at once.

His life may have depended on this fight, but so did hers.

Crack!

The broken bones in his arms set themselves back in place painfully as he got himself ready.

With his every muscle screaming in protest, Noir rose, each faltering step bringing him nearer to the metallic beast who had since grown overconfident in his victory.

Noir's heartbeat pounded in his ears like a percussive symphony of war awakening, spurring him into action despite the pain ravaging his frame.

The Superhuman known as Metal Hand was no longer recognizable. His veins throbbed with an otherworldly glow, the mutated serum twisting him into a grotesque caricature of the man he had once been.

Noir steeled himself for the fight.

Roaring incoherently, saliva and blood spewing from his deformed maw, Metal Hand leaped clear into the sky and landed across from Noir a good distance away.

The grotesque man then charged at him like an enraged bull.

Despite the intense agony pulsing through his body, Noir pushed himself forward with everything he had left. His broken muscles strained and screamed in protest, but he willed himself to keep moving.

One way or another, someone was going to die.

And Noir will make sure to take care of the corpses when he was done.

"RAAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

Metal Hand was a force of nature, like an unstoppable avalanche of muscle and steel.

His monstrous form tore through the air with terrifying speed despite his size, closing the distance between them in a blink.

Noir barely had time to brace himself before the impact.

A thunderous boom echoed through the mountains as Metal Hand's fist collided with Noir's midsection.

The sheer force sent him hurtling backward, crashing through trees like a ragdoll. Each impact shattered bone and ruptured muscle, but Noir refused to back down

The moment he hit the ground, he rolled to his feet, barely dodging the next earth-shaking strike that cratered the dirt where he had landed just a second prior.

Noir gasped as agony wracked his body.

His ribs were shattered.

His vision blurred.

But there was no time to dwell on the pain, Metal Hand was already upon him again.

A massive steel-coated fist swung at his head.

Noir duc—too slow.

The fist grazed his temple, and the sheer force sent him spinning in the air, blood spraying from the wound. Before he could recover, another strike came—a brutal kick to his ribs that sent him flying once more. Noir's back smashed against a boulder, splitting the rock in half from the force.

He coughed up blood, struggling to pull himself up.

Metal Hand stalked toward him, the grotesque mutations spreading further across his body as he growled like an animal.

His voice was gone, replaced by deep, animalistic snarls. His humanity had long been erased by the serum coursing through his veins.

Metal Hand lunged again, his movements becoming even more erratic, more feral. He swung wildly, aiming to pulverize Noir into the earth.

Noir dodged, barely avoiding another blow that cracked the ground beneath him and shook the entire area like a miniature earthquake.

But he wasn't fast enough to evade the second strike.

A massive uppercut landed clean, lifting Noir into the air before a devastating backhand sent him hurtling downward.

He slammed into the ground, carving a trench into the dirt.

Everything hurts.

Every breath was agony.

Metal Hand loomed over him, raising both of his colossal fists.

…He was going to die.

Noir had been beaten before. He had felt pain and suffered injuries that should have killed him long ago. But this—this was different, something he thought he would never experience ever again.

Helpless and weak.

Metal Hand's fists came down like meteors.

The first blow crushed his ribs with a sickening crunch, driving him deeper into the earth. The second shattered his left arm, rendering it limp and useless. The third cracked against his skull, filling his vision with blinding white light before everything blurred into darkness.

Boom

Boom

Boom

The world trembled with each impact, the force of Metal Hand's strikes carving a massive crater into the mountain.

Dust and debris shot into the air, surrounding them in a suffocating cloud of destruction.

Noir was little more than a broken doll beneath the relentless onslaught.

There was no fighting back.

There was no standing up.

His body refused to move. His limbs felt like dead weight. His mind was slipping, drowning in a sea of pain and exhaustion. Every nerve in his body screamed for relief, begged for the torment to stop.

He was dying.

And in his agony ridden mind, Noir for the first time in a long time… he wondered if maybe he should.

Maybe this was where his story ended.

Maybe this was what he deserved.

For all the blood he had spilled, for all the corpses he had left in his wake.

BOOM

Another brutal punch slammed into his gut, the impact sending a fresh wave of agony through his ruined body. Something ruptured inside him. He coughed violently, thick, dark blood spilling from his lips.

Metal Hand still didn't stop.

He couldn't even hear the monster's roars anymore. Couldn't see past the haze of pain. Everything was fading.

His thoughts grew sluggish, his body cold. His heartbeat, once pounding in his ears like a war drum, now barely made a sound.

Was this it?

Was this where he would fall?

Alone, buried beneath the fists of another monster?

No…

…

…

No…

…

…

NO.

Through the darkness, through the agony, something fierce stirred within him. A fire, weak and flickering, but still alive!

And in that fire, he saw her.

Her warmth. Her smile. The way she looked at him—not with fear, not with disgust, but with something he still couldn't fully understand or deserve.

She was waiting for him!

He couldn't die here.

He refused to die here.

With a final, brutal strike, Metal Hand raised both fists high above his head, ready to finish it.

The fists came down.

Something inside of him shifted .

Something ignited deep within Noir's chest. A fire that refused to die. A raw, overwhelming force that clawed its way to the surface.

His blood burned.

His shattered bones hummed with power.

His pain melted into something else, something greater.

Stronger.

And blue eyes turned red.

Metal Hand's fists came down.

Noir moved.

Faster than before, faster than he should have been able to. He twisted out of the way just in time, the force of the impact sending shockwaves through the earth.

Before Metal Hand could react, Noir surged forward, slamming a fist into the monster's gut.

The air exploded around them.

Metal Hand staggered, barely able to gasp out in pain as blood exploded from his mouth.

But the bastard almost instantly healed from the deadly blow.

Black Noir exhaled. The pain was still there, but it no longer held him back. His muscles felt like they were tearing apart only to be stitched back together and made stronger.

Metal Hand roared in frustration and lunged again.

This time, Noir met him head-on.

Their fists clashed in a deafening impact, Noir somehow overpowering the giant's blows as he broke the villain's metal hands.

And once again healed nearly instantly.

Metal Hand snarled and swung again, but Noir slipped past the strike with newfound speed.

He countered with a brutal elbow to the jaw, sending blood and teeth flying.

The momentum shifted.

Noir pressed forward, landing a devastating barrage of punches. Each strike sent shockwaves through Metal Hand's mutated frame.

But still, the monster still did not fall.

Noir grabbed his opponent by the throat and drove him into the ground. The earth shattered beneath the impact. Metal Hand thrashed wildly, but Noir didn't let up. He rained down blows, each one more devastating than the last.

One hundred quickly turned into five hundred until it suddenly became a thousand.

The monster's once-impenetrable body now buckled under Noir's relentless assault.

Metal Hand's roars became choked gasps. His monstrous body spasmed, the serum failing to support him as it tried to desperately heal his injuries.

Noir stood over him, chest heaving, blood dripping from his knuckles. His own body was broken, and battered, but he remained standing.

Metal Hand weakly reached up, but Noir caught his wrist.

Power welled within Noir. He didn't understand it; he didn't question it. He only embraced it as his skin prickled with static electricity.

Metal Hand froze, his fear filled eyes locked onto Noir's burning gaze.

Noir pulled back his other hand as if he was about to deliver another devastating punch.

Then, in a move that even Noir didn't expect, his red eyes began to glow an infernal crimson, so fierce that the surrounding darkness seemed to recoil before it.

A brilliant ray of death lit up the night.

The beam sliced through the air and into Metal Hand's chest like a hot knife through butter. The world around them trembled under its immense power. 

"RAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Metal Hand's frenzied roar tore through the forest and reached the city, accompanied by the sickening smell of burning flesh and molten steel.

The ground beneath Metal Hand liquefied from the heat, creating a crater that swallowed up his enormous body.

Noir held on until he was sure it was over, until the last whimper turned into silence and Metal Hand's violent thrashing stilled forever longer than eternity itself.

When he finally stopped, he staggered backward drained. Every fiber of his being cried out in excruciating pain, but he remained upright.

The half-destroyed mountain was silent once more. Noir stood amidst the carnage, staring down at the lifeless husk of the man he had just slain.

He exhaled, blood dripping down his face.

One more body.

One more death.

Now, he could return to her.

Noir turned to go back to the hotel where he left Kimiko, but as he did so, his vision faltered. His knees buckled beneath the weight of the fatigue that washed over him like a crushing wave. He was inches away from collapsing onto the scorched earth, his strength all but exhausted.

Yet he clung to consciousness with every strained fiber of his being, each breath more laborious than the last.

His battle-weary body showed signs of rebellion, but Noir refused to surrender to the encroaching darkness at the edges of his vision.

Not now. Not when he was so close.

With each step, elusive tendrils of endurance waned further within him. Every new breath felt like a fruitless endeavor, drawing nothing but ash and smoke.

The ground undulated under his feet as he trudged through the burnt remains scattered by his deadly bout with Metal Hand. The landscape was disorienting, wreckage mingling with nature in a terrifying display of power's aftermath.

Suddenly, everything tipped sideways.

Before he could plummet face-first into the rubble-strewn ground, strong hands grasped him around the waist.

Noir barely had any energy left to keep his eyes open, yet he still managed to look up into the compassionate gaze of the man who was his superior in every way.

John, with his ever-warm smile, gazed down at Noir's naked face.

Staring into each other's faces, they saw a stark contrast between apathetic blue eyes and vibrant blue ones. It was as if they were looking into a strange mirror that reflected the opposite of themselves.

Noir knew he was never allowed to show his face to anyone, especially to the man who he shared faces with.

But right now, he couldn't care less.

"K-K…Ki-Kimiko."

Then there was nothing but darkness.

___________

"K-K…Ki-Kimiko."

Was the word Noir said before he fainted and was now leaning on him.

Staring down at the nocked-out Noir's maskless face, John had two very smart words to say in this situation.

"…well crapbaskets."

Staring at the face that he saw every time he looked in the mirror was quite jarring. Especially when it belonged to Noir, who he was still fifty/fifty on between the show and comic before he finally saw what was behind the mask.

Looking away from the powerful assassin who just said his very first words, which he was quite proud of by the way, he turned his gaze on the now dead and melted body.

He shook his head away at the image of Noir melting the man alive. He would deal with this earth-shattering revelation later, thank you very much.

He raised a brow as he used his supervision to gasp any clues as to what the fuck happened.

What he saw happening inside the man's body made him furrow his eyes as he saw something completely ridiculous. He turned to stare at the city to see if there was anything else and what he saw made his furrowed eyes turn into a glare.

"You got to be kidding me," John muttered to himself as he pinched the bridges of his nose. "More ways to create Superhumans?!"

And just when he thought he couldn't have more of a headache.

As he continued to look around, he finally saw what he was looking for. A black-haired Asian woman peacefully sleeping in a rundown hotel, with blood that matched what he saw inside the other corpses but was far less potent.

"So that's how they did it…" He sighed to himself as he carefully put Noir on his shoulders before flying to the building she was in.

Welp, there goes fucking canon!

Not like he was following it or anything but still…

HE DID NOT NEED MORE PROBLEMS ADDED TO THE EVER-GROWING PILE!!!