The Great Escape

"What the hell is going on?"

On the back of a woman she had never met, Becca finally asked the question that had been on her mind since she woke up.

"There's no time to explain! Do you want Ryan stuck in a place like this until he turns eighteen, only for Vought to parade him around and make money off him?"

Rorschach carried Ryan in his arms as he shouted from up ahead.

Butcher and Marvin kept their guns raised, watching their surroundings.

Thanks to Rorschach's precise control over every part of his body, Ryan felt no jostling at all, no matter how fast Rorschach ran.

Ryan's only complaint, perhaps, was that this bed was not very soft and there was no pillow to hug.

But Rorschach could not worry about how well he slept right now.

When they reached the pavilion, Rorschach handed Ryan to Marvin and took Frenchie's place.

"You go on ahead. We'll hold them off a little longer."

The other person he meant by "we" was, of course, Mouse.

Mouse had only just arrived and had no official identity. Even a camera pointed straight at his face would probably turn up nothing.

As Rorschach spoke, Kimiko turned her head while running ahead.

"I promise you, even if I die, I'll get him safely back to you."

Only after Rorschach gave her that promise did she turn and keep running.

At this point, Kimiko would not normally have taught Frenchie sign language yet, nor would she have found her brother again so soon.

But with Rorschach's help, she had been taken to see Mouse almost as soon as he arrived.

That had forced Kimiko to open her heart, and she had come to trust Rorschach early on.

Frenchie hurried to Kimiko's side, taking over Marvin's position on guard.

None of them bothered to muffle their footsteps on the way back. Being discovered was only a matter of time.

As the sky neared dawn, in the darkest hour before sunrise, Rorschach snapped the neck of the man in his hands without hesitation.

Rorschach did not enjoy killing, but he could not take that risk.

Homelander, Black Noir, and Storm together would probably be enough to kill Rorschach and The Boys team.

Rorschach was still saving up points. He had no intention of spending them all at once just to stay alive.

Sure enough, an alarm blared. Rorschach quickly grabbed the computer and sprinted out after Mouse.

Before leaving, he made sure to toss a timed bomb into the pavilion.

Rorschach would leave Vought no evidence. He had also planted several bombs inside Becca's Cabin.

Leaving the explosions behind, Rorschach and Mouse spotted a motorcycle with its key still in the ignition.

Rorschach started it without hesitation and twisted the throttle all the way. He and Mouse vanished into the vast plains.

"You're saying I have a son?"

Homelander stared at Madelyne in disbelief. She looked entirely sincere.

He had been annoyed when his show was canceled at the last minute, but now his jaw nearly dropped.

"Yes. Do you remember Becca, the woman who used to work here?"

Madelyne had no choice. Telling Homelander now was her only option.

If Vought's own forces had been capable of finding them, the place would never have been breached.

And if she called in Supes, who knew which heroes might be loyal to Homelander?

If he found out from one of them, he might tear the entire Vought building apart.

So Madelyne chose to be honest with him.

"Yes. After what happened eight years ago, she became pregnant."

As Madelyne went on, Homelander felt as though his entire world had been turned upside down.

"I have a child... I have a family! I have a family now!"

He shouted with excitement. Madelyne counted as family too, in a way, something like a stepmother.

But that child was his own flesh and blood!

"At Becca's request, we kept her and the child isolated from the world for eight years. But we never expected this to happen now..."

Madelyne did not need to finish. Homelander understood what had happened.

Vought had been protecting its property. Even when he was a child, each of his nannies had carried a massive insurance policy.

That concern was probably why they had kept the secret from him.

But none of that mattered now!

Just as he had unleashed Supervillains, Vought was trying to divert his attention!

So what if we didn't tell you about your son? That doesn't matter right now!

What matters is that your son is missing.

Finding him comes first. We're on the same side.

So even though Homelander seethed with hatred, he could only put off taking revenge on them.

"Give me a picture of my son. And I want the surveillance footage from that day."

Homelander's gaze turned dark in an instant, making even Madelyne tremble.

She knew how to play on his emotions, but deep down, she was still afraid of him.

"I'll check the area first."

With his superhuman vision, Homelander could see every filthy corner of New York City when he truly put his mind to it.

Normally, though, he had to follow the company's script and stick to heroic deeds that would win him fans.

"It happened around 5:40 a.m. there."

"Then I'll search everything within a few hundred kilometers." Homelander did not hesitate to take the hardest job himself.

By the time Rorschach reached the prepared basement, Mallory was already waiting.

"Well, that's quite a surprise. No wonder you can make Butcher behave like an obedient dog."

"Watch your language. There's a kid here."

Rorschach shot back without restraint. Ryan and Becca were in the room on the other side of the wall.

Becca was still trying to come up with a way to explain everything to Ryan.

The others had already begun talking.

"The boy is Homelander's son. To Vought, he's worth billions at the very least."

Rorschach lowered his voice and shot Butcher a glare.

"You follow orders. Understood?"

Butcher glanced toward Becca, then nodded slowly and firmly.

It was true that he hated Supes. He had looked down on them even before what happened to Becca.

But after everything he had been through to get Becca back, he was willing to make sacrifices for her.

"Are we agreed? Then, sorry for the trouble, Colonel Mallory, but we're going back to New York."

The others stared at him, their eyes nearly popping out of their heads.

"We just stole what could be Vought International's most valuable asset for the next ten to a hundred years, and you want to go back to New York?"

As Butcher saw it, their best option was to spend every last cent on a private plane and fly everyone to any country on the other side of the Atlantic.

"Of course. How are we supposed to bring Vought down if we don't go back to New York?"

Rorschach smiled. The most dangerous place was the safest.

Whatever Vought expected, they probably would not imagine that Rorschach planned to strike at its heart on its home turf—New York City.

"You really are a madman. No wonder Butcher's willing to work for you."

A faint smile touched Colonel Mallory's lips. After decades in intelligence, her instincts told her one thing:

A storm that would sweep up every Supe in the world might already have begun with a flap of the butterfly's wings before her.