#wrote stuff

Frank falls into the DC universe. He needs to be the one who falls into DC rather than Slade falling into Marvel for this to work. At first, Frank doesn't realize that anything's changed. He gets into a fight with some heroes he doesn't recognize (the Titans), but that's not that unusual--there's always some new idiot in spandex popping up. By the end of the day, Frank has picked up the trail of what he thinks are his targets (a gang, traffickers, drug dealers, whatever) and goes to crash their party. He runs into Deathstroke, who's there to fulfill a contract, and they save each other's lives just like they did back in Vietnam.

Frank doesn't know who Deathstroke is, of course. He thinks Deathstroke is there for the same reason that he is, sharing his war and his moral crusade to fight crime in a lethal fashion. After the fight, when Deathstroke takes his mask off and reveals that he's Slade, Frank's old friend, this only solidifies Frank's assumption about Slade's motives and what he does.

They share a meal on a rooftop somewhere and talk about what they've been doing since the war. I think it would pack the biggest punch to set this in the preboot era where Slade had watched Grant, Joey, and Adeline die in front of him and hadn't discovered Rose yet. They could bond over watching their wives and kids die and being powerless to stop it. I'd incorporate the NMCU version of Frank where his wife and kids died because of him and not just due to a random mob hit happening in the park that day. Slade's honest about Adeline shooting his eye out and his role in Grant and Joey's deaths, if vague. He doesn't want to explain the exact nature of what he does yet. I think there could've been a time where Frank fucked up as a parent and almost got Lisa or Frank Jr. hurt and he knows in his bones Maria would've left him if it'd been worse, so Frank is uneasy with the way Slade lost his family, but feels he can't judge him.

Because Frank's phone isn't working and Slade's still is, it's pretty easy to determine which world they're in. Or, if you want to go the retro, pre-cellphones route with this, they could just turn on the news and see stuff about Superman and Metropolis and Frank just goes, "shit. It is real." This is another reason why it's better for Frank to go to DC rather than Slade going to Marvel--Marvel does have made up cities and countries, but they don't feature as heavily as DC's.

Of course, Slade lets Frank crash at his place (a very nice safehouse) and promises to help him get back to his world. Due to their earlier conversation, in which Frank waxed romantic about his war, Slade knows that Frank would kill him if he knew who Deathstroke the Terminator really was. Still, he feels a connection with and an obligation to him due to their time in Vietnam, so he will help him regardless. The plan is to do that before Frank knows too much.

Meanwhile, Frank is suspicious of how nice Slade's place is because the Punisher is a nasty stinky grungecore man who lives in his battle van or dirty warehouses and canonically bathes once a fucking week. So he's wondering where Slade got the money for both a swanky apartment and the state-of-the-art weapons stash that Slade couldn't resist showing off. (Phallic objects, homoeroticism, etc.)

So, while Slade's sleeping that night, Frank does a little research. He finds out who Deathstroke the Terminator is. All the people he's killed. Some of it Frank doesn't object to--most of them are bad, and he's worked with Elektra, after all--but Slade's also killed some people he can't excuse. And if Frank finds out about Tara and/or that Slade killed a teenage girl's dog, listen... In terms of overall morality, Frank is better than Slade. He might be a mass murderer, but he'd never hurt a child or animal (we're ignoring the MAX comics where he killed dogs, that's not canon to me). It's a low bar, but Slade congas right under it.

(Yes, Slade killing the dog happened in the reboot, not the preboot. I mix and match canons, it's what I do.)

If you want to extend this a little, Frank doesn't have to find all of this out by himself with Google or whatever. Say he finds out just enough to make him leave, and Slade wakes up to find him gone. Frank seeks out the Titans because he fought with them earlier and Slade mentioned having a "long history" with that group, and they tell him about the HIVE contract, about Tara, about Tanya's poor dog. Once he's gotten what he needs, Frank sneaks away from them, and one of them--I'm thinking Dick--realizes that Frank is going to try and kill Slade. Now, none of the Titans know who The Punisher is, and all Frank told them was that Slade's an old war buddy he came to town to catch up with. They leave to track him down and stop from getting himself killed.

Frank is definitely on his way to kill Slade. He's angry, he's betrayed, and he's hurt. He's not in touch with his emotions enough to like, know that, but it's true. Slade has become the next target in his war. Frank walks right back into Slade's safehouse, where Slade's just chilling in the kitchen and making himself something to eat. In the middle of Slade asking him where he's been, Frank takes out his gun and shoots him.

BUT. Frank doesn't know about Slade's healing factor, or he just doesn't realize the extent of Slade's healing factor. So Slade's fine. While Frank is helping himself to Slade's impressive armory, Slade gets up again, and they start fighting. The Titans show up. Because I'm entirely self-indulgent, Frank looks at Nightwing's escrima sticks and says yeah, I know a sanctimonious idiot with sticks like yours. And when they crackle with electricity, Frank goes, huh. Well, not exactly like yours.

(Frank's never going to mention that to Daredevil. Doesn't want to give him ideas.)

Because the Titans are attacking both of them, Slade and Frank have to fight together. Frank notices that Slade isn't shooting to kill. They manage to escape, and Frank asks him about it. Slade says that he doesn't kill anyone unless he'd paid to. When Frank pushes, Slade talks about how he doesn't agree with the Titans, but they have earned his respect, and he appreciates what they did for Joey. It changes Frank's perception of him a little. Slade doesn't share Frank's morals, but that's not to say he doesn't have any.

Once they've calmed down--maybe Frank gets injured and Slade has to patch him up in a callback to their war days--Slade talks to him. Tells Frank that this isn't his world and isn't his war, and that he needs to get home before spending too much time in the wrong place starts to fuck with things. They both remember what happened last time. Frank grudgingly agrees, and they go back to find the Titans.

Slade calls a truce, and he and Frank explain that Frank isn't from here and needs to get home. Fortunately, Raven is uniquely suited to help with that. She does some magic stuff and opens a portal. Before Frank leaves, he and Slade clasp arms (homerotically) and look each other in the eye. Frank says, "If I ever find you on my side..." and Slade says, "I know" and lets him go. Frank goes home, and the last scene would be them standing in the same place in different versions of New York, mirroring each other.

---