Escape

When superhumans fought, ordinary people caught in the crossfire suffered.

Inside the Seven Tower, A-Train and Maeve watched the distant sky. A bitter taste filled Maeve's mouth.

"They look like they're fighting each other, but they're destroying the city around them. Can they still be called superheroes?"

A-Train cut in.

"Then go stop them."

"I can't even fly. How am I supposed to stop them? Even if I shouted from here, they wouldn't hear me up there. You want me to call them?"

That was an option, but A-Train doubted either Ryan or Homelander would answer, knowing what they were like.

At this point, Homelander let out a sigh.

"We can only wait for them to stop on their own."

Madelyn, also in the Seven Tower, knew no one could stop the battle in the sky.

She returned to her desk and received a call.

It had been transferred from the military. They demanded that Vought International stop the two superhumans immediately.

Otherwise, they would use their latest fighter jets and missiles to clean up Vought International's mess for them.

Madelyn pressed a hand to her head. She had a headache. Of course she wanted to stop them, but those two happened to be the least obedient superhumans of all.

Her frustration, however, never reached the two fighting overhead.

High in the blue sky, red beams shot from Ryan's and Homelander's eyes.

The beams met in midair, neither side giving way.

Ryan tried to keep the fight high above the ground, away from bystanders.

Homelander was different. He deliberately flew low, with towering office buildings beside him and panicked people below.

Ryan could see why. Homelander was smiling. He was enjoying it.

Enjoying the fleeing crowds, and the moments when people fought down their fear long enough to point their phone cameras at him and post the footage to Twitter.

The wind had not gone still beneath that sky. It roared past, whipping the Stars and Stripes draped behind Homelander.

Then Homelander stopped firing his eye beams and looked at Ryan, who had stopped too.

"I've always wanted to do this. Do you hear it? Their fear is boiling over."

"If you survive today, people will question your claim to the title of superhero."

Ryan shook his head. Homelander kept flying low as they fought.

They had smashed into office buildings along the way. Upper floors collapsed, sending concrete and steel crashing to the ground.

Ryan had no idea whether anyone had been hurt.

But now that they had paused, he looked back. Everywhere they had passed was in ruins.

Calling it an apocalypse would hardly have been an exaggeration.

If they kept fighting like this, the thriving city would be left desolate.

So he tried to reason with Homelander, hoping the man would recognize his mistake and put an end to himself.

Unfortunately, Homelander was too caught up in destroying things to listen.

"No, you've got it wrong. Passing the blame is human nature. Once I beat you, I'll tell everyone you were a monster of a supervillain, and I was the hero who defeated you and saved the world."

"If someone like you is a hero, your world is a sham."

"A shining public figure is only a hypocrite if people learn what he's really thinking. And you, the one person who knows, are going to die."

True to his belief that it hadn't happened if no one knew about it, Homelander raised an arm and flew at Ryan again.

Ryan refused to back down. Both were used to fighting in flight, and they clashed once more.

They fought as they flew, carrying the battle out of the busy city.

The scenery changed. They flew from a pale gray highway cutting through wasteland to a sprawling farm in the countryside.

Then they left the cattle farm behind and reached another city.

Clouds filled the sky above the new city.

Rain fell there.

It poured over the earth, drop after drop.

Ryan let the cold rain run down his face as he watched Homelander smash into another building marked "Wayne Tower."

"You're as hard to kill as a cockroach. How many times have I hit you with my eye beams now?"

The rain had soaked Homelander's suit too. He rubbed his cheek, letting the water wash away the lime dust from all the buildings he had crashed into.

"Same goes for you."

Thinking back over how long they had fought, Homelander had to admit he had never met a superhuman this strong. Ryan's powers were much like his own.

Ryan had held his ground all this time. Killing him would be difficult.

As Homelander considered how to do it, he spotted a fighter jet approaching in the distance. It fired two missiles at him.

The missiles struck him at high speed, but when the flames cleared, only the Stars and Stripes on his back had burned away.

Homelander smiled at the pilot. Red beams swept from his eyes, and the jet became a firebird with broken wings.

It plummeted to the ground.

Amid the screams below, it crashed into an office building and exploded.

"Now there's nothing left to interrupt our fight."

With that, he turned back toward Ryan.

But Ryan was nowhere in the sky. Puzzled, Homelander looked down and scanned from side to side.

The fleeing crowds did not catch his attention. Neither did the burning wreckage of the jet.

A moment later,

movement nearby drew his gaze.

Ryan had somehow found a road roller.

He held it aloft as he flew, then hurled it at Homelander.

Homelander scoffed.

"A little toy like that?"

He caught the road roller easily. Without a force field holding it together, the machine began to break apart in his hands.

But Ryan had not been idle. He had used the road roller to block Homelander's view.

He slammed his whole body into it, driving the heavy machine and Homelander beneath it into the ground.

Cracks spread through the pale gray asphalt. Empty cars lined the street, their horns shrieking.

Ryan did not stop. He kept pounding the road roller, driving Homelander deeper into the earth beneath it.

It looked as though he meant to bury him alive.

After a while,

half the road roller had sunk into the ground. Ryan let out a breath, then saw the whole machine shake.

He flew back into the sky and looked down.

Red light burned through the road roller, carving a hole in its center. Homelander crawled out, covered in dust.

"Put some effort into it."

"What, you think I'm giving you a massage?"

Ryan was speechless. He had inherited this man's powers, leaving their abilities almost identical. His durability alone was astonishing.

Now Ryan knew exactly what that meant.

Anything that could kill him could kill Homelander.

And Ryan had yet to find anything that could kill him.