The Human, The Killer, and the Hero [Hero Killer x The Boys]

A Human, A Villain, A Monster

A/N: Yay, Boys Season 4 is out! Sorry again for the long wait x_x

...

Hughie was having a bad day, which was saying a lot, since currently most of his days were pretty shit.

First things first, his friend (and maybe girlfriend) who happened to be one of The Seven - was fighting with his other friend, the weirdest yet most terrifying girl he'd ever met.

This really wasn't what he wanted. He'd been hoping to keep Annie out of this, away from Ihwa from especially. Though, being one of the country's most popular heroes, he should've guessed it was inevitable.

And now, his worst wish had come true - the two of them were fighting to the death.

What could he do? He wasn't a superhero. He didn't have anything except a bit of technical know-how, and that wasn't a big help right now.

But he couldn't let them kill each other. Sure, he'd only met Annie a few days ago by pure chance. And sure, he barely knew a thing about Ihwa, other than the fact that she scared the shit out of him. He didn't want either of them to die, though. He couldn't help but feel responsible.

"Bloody hell."

Hughie nearly jumped out of his skin. Butcher was standing right behind him, gazing down at the fighting women. The flashing lights and screams didn't seem to faze him one bit, let alone the fucking fire. Of course, if anyone was gonna stand there like nobody's business...

"Butcher!" Hughie jumped up. "We have to stop them!!"

"Who do you think is gonna win, son?" Butcher asked.

"W-what?!" Hughie stammered.

"Well?" Butcher raised his brows.

"You just wanna sit here and watch this?!" Hughie demanded.

"Not much us normies can do," Butcher chuckled, darkly.

Hughie felt something he hadn't felt for a while - irritation, no, rage. It was like he was talking to his father, who would tell him to stay home and hide under his bed. He wasn't that kid anymore.

"No way," Hughie declared. "I'm stopping them."

And Butcher just smiled.

...

Getting down off a burning building was the easy part. Which was ironic, because it certainly didn't feel like it.

Hughie was puffing and his lungs were full of smoke and cuts and bruises lined his arms and legs and he was exhausted and-

He had to stop Ihwa and Annie. He had to focus.

He tried to breathe, he remembered Robin telling him about meditation or something and he wished he'd taken it a bit more seriously because he needed to calm down-

Wait, he wasn't alone.

Standing not too far from where Hughie was falling to pieces was another guy. He didn't look all that intimidating from a glance, until the guy actually directly turned and faced Hughie, where he saw the nasty smile-like scar stretched across his face. The both of them were standing a good few feet apart, the buildings burning behind them, the two women fighting in front of them, the road cracked up like dried earth.

Hughie did not like the way the creepy guy was looking at him... or the other two, with those nasty purple eyes. It was like he was a predator watching his prey, or some kind of voyeurist. He actually reminded Hughie of Butcher, but worse, somehow. Butcher wasn't the best guy around, but he still had morals. Hopefully.