Chương 14: chapter 14: The Aftermath
Massacre. Slaughter. Carnage.
Those three words could be used as words to define one single thing: the killing of large swathes of people.
Later they found out that, out of a total of the four thousand people aboard the ship when she sailed from a port in Australia, four hundred passengers of all nationalities and crewmembers alike had been ruthlessly murdered as it approached Seattle.
Just because they had 'supposedly' defiled the ocean.
Unlike most, however the perpetrators of the massacre did not come out of the ordeal unscathed. As a matter of fact, most of them didn't get out alive.
Because it turned out that the atlantean attackers, in an ironic turn of events, had been butchered like sheep, just like they had done to the people onboard the Voyager.
Only, their deaths had been much more... graphic, to say the least.
The Voyager of the Seas was once again teleported, this time to a harbor in San Francisco, one of the many where an assorted force of several branches (in this case two destroyers, four cutters, a gunship squadron and an entire division of the National Guard) was waiting to take down the terrorists, in the very, very slim chance Doom Slayer hadn't taken them out.
The assembled sailors and guardsmen waited in trepidation as their superiors called the invaders. Their warnings and threats quietened when they hear the stomps of something making its way to the upper deck of the liner. Their apprehension and fear faded when they saw what was making that sound.
It was Doom Slayer, who carried something on his arms, something that none of them had ever wanted to see in their lives.
The bodies of two dead children. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that someone had strangled them, then snapped their necks with inhuman strength.
The giant of a man carried the little bodies like they were the most fragile thing in the world, and then laying them in front of the horrified, disheartened soldiers with the upmost care. He kept doing this for half an hour, and with the aid of both National Guard, Coast Guard, and Navy personnel, they managed to bring out all the dead on the ship, so that they could be inspected, and then sent back to their homes to receive their funerary rites by Doom Slayer himself.
Those who received him and the remains of their loved ones couldn't help but not how silent he was. Many of them already knew that the soldier was a man of few words, but they expected him to say something, anything as a condolence. But he never said anything, not a word, only a glance that could only be described as sorrow, shame even, before entering the portal and leaving as fast to continue his disheartening work.
But that show of respect towards the deceased, of kindness, was... juxtaposed, for lack of a more fitting word, with how he brutally killed thirty eight nearly human beings with extreme prejudice, with both weapons he had not been seen using before (including firearms and, by the state of several corpses, a chainsaw of all things) and his bare hands, and mutilated the remaining thirteen. Several guardsmen threw up when they saw his handiwork before they began cleaning it up, some grabbing limbs and pieces with their hands, others moping the blood. The Voyager of the Seas would be refurbished and turned into a memorial for the fallen.
A few, however, wished they could just burn down the ship and let it sink to the depths of the Pacific, not because of the horrors they had found, but out of spite to the terrorists and their precious ocean.
Some of those wanted THAT and to put depth charges, just to spite them more.
Predictably, when the news of Doom Slayer's actions came out, some called him a monster, a villain who had been waiting to finally kill people at his leisure, some doubting his claims of coming from another Earth, and some even claiming he was preparing to invade Earth, just like it happened two years prior.
Had they seen the slaughter itself with their own eyes, rather than just the aftermath their cries would have been harder, but they hadn't, and so they kept crying their outrage, their fears of Doom Slayer turning his rage towards them.
Others, however, still saw in Doom Slayer a hero, despite his brutality; 'remember', they said, 'that he has only done so because the hijackers killed people. Not all heroes have the patience of Superman'. All that said, they still were unnerved by the sheer brutality of his kills, believing that Doom Slayer should have dispatched them more humanely, instead of using weapons that literally blasted them apart and reminding them that the strength to support a building could be used to rend a man limb from limb like a child pulling a fly's wings.
A few of them yet saw in him a true hero, one willing to tackle the root of a problem, to cut its knot, without caring about the public outrage: kill the villains dead before they killed more innocents. Others, while not happy with his actions, defended him nonetheless, pointing out that had he done nothing not only would have more people been killed, the terrorists would have also gotten away with it.
Like doctor James Foster, a famous psychologist and supporter of the death penalty when it came to certain elements that went too far with their actions, to the point many people called him (first to mock him, then to respect him) Cato the Newer for a phrase he was fond to shouting when discussing a certain asylum from a certain city: Arkham Must Be Destroyed! He always insited that the building and the institution, not the people inside, were the ones that should be destroyed, but given the backstories of its most famous patients, many thought otherwise.
Didn't change the fact he was always collected and composed when voicing his opinion, just like he was doing when he was invited to Metropolis' premier talk show, unlike his current rival, psychiatrist Bartholomew Wolper.
And it didn't help that James himself wore an inmaculate corduroy jacket, whereas Wolper wore a Superman T-shirt of all things.
"That madman's a killer!" Wolper exclaimed once more, after discussing Doom Slayer's actions for fifteen minutes with Foster.
"You said it yourself, Wolper: he's a killer, not a murderer." James shot back as he leaned on his chair.
"Is there a difference?! Both involve the deliberate extinguishing of lives!"
"Of course there's a difference you stupid lout!" Foster yelled back, slamming his armrest as he did so. "One's deliberate, unlawful killing, the other is the act of killing, and sometimes is lawful!" Foster then chuckled. "Hell, not only did he say he's a soldier, it's right there in his name, Doom Slayer! And all he did was slaying a group of criminals that have caused the deadliest mass killing ever since Superman spearheaded that invasion! And THAT was an actual war done by an invading force, not an act of terrorism done by forty, maybe fifty water-breathing gunmen from R'lyeh!"
"Superman was not himself then when he led those monster here!" Wolper countered. "Doom Slayer most definitely was when he butchered those people without pity or remorse! And they were not from some city made up by a bigotec lunatic, they were atlanteans!"
"And? I'm fairly certain that the military would have shot them too had they been able to do so."
"This does not change the fact a supposed hero who until know had deceived us, killed fifty people instead of just taking them in!"
James, however, refused to let him have the last word. "Those murderes acted with murder, Doom Slayer reacted with slaying. Exactly as the most ancient law of all dictates, the one even animals follow: you hurt me, I hurt you. As simple as that." He said with a finishing tone that left no room for comebacks as everyone around the room discussed and Wolper screamed about the stupidity Foster spouted.
When it came to other heroes, their opinion about Doom Slayer was too polarized.
Clark Kent, of course, was horrified by the butchery he commited to the atlanteans... but as much as he wanted to, he could not be angry at Doom Slayer. He remembered what VEGA had told them, that Doom Slayer was a soldier: his utmost duty was to kill the enemy if it meant saving innocents and keeping the peace. Besides, Doom Slayer had done a lot of good before, and in practice, this too was an act of good when it came down to it... just a very extreme one. Plus, he did show mercy to those that surrendered, although at the cost of marking them.
And killing armed criminals was still nowhere as bad as spearheading an alien invasion to ravage Earth, hypnosis or not.
Still, understanding his reasoning didn't mean he was happy with Doom Slayer's actions. He only hoped, prayed that this would be the last time the soldier from another dimension decided to cut loose.
Central City's local hero, the Flash, was too understanding. After all, even though in his 'civilian' identity he was a forensic scientist, he was still part of the police: sometimes they had to use lethal force to save lives, although fortunately this was a rare occurrence thanks to him being, well, the Flash.
And just like Clark, he still didn't like the killing, mostly because he had been told that what the cleaners found inside the ship was essentially the most gruesome snuff film made real.
"I mean, can't say what he did was exactly wrong, he didn't kill all of them. But..." The scarlet hero said as they asked about his opinion in the matter of Doom Slayer, trailing off before shuddering. "Haven't seen the pictures, and to be honest I don't plan to, but I've heard they needed mops to clean the mess up. Mops. And that he apparently used a chainsaw. Jeez." His sentiments were shared by many others, who believed that, at the very least, Doom Slayer could had been a bit more... clean, and painless, when it came to killing.
Bruce Wayne publicly decried Doom Slayer's brutality and the fact he had killed people when there was the option of dispatching them without lethal force, while making a plan under as Batman for when the soldier decided to turn his wrath towards those he deemed worthy of death, not caring if he actually ended up doing so.
Many others, however, decided to forget about Doom Slayer altogether, since him killing the Red Trident only proved he was an ally as far as they cared, and focused on the terrorists, the so-named 'Red Trident', and the fact they came from below the waves. What else did hide below? Would there be more attacks? Was this in fact a well-disguised probing operation? Sea monsters from ancient times and who fed on human flesh?
They did not know, and as the saying goes, people feared what they didn't know.
"We don't know how many of those bastards live down there! There could be thousands, maybe even millions of them waiting for us to make a mistake!"
"We must invade them before they do it first!" The bloodthirsty screamed
"Even if they don't want to fight us, we need to know what the hell do the atlanteans have down there! Their technology level is higher than hours, but the Red Trident's actions have proved they're not any better! And their king has done nothing yet to prove that he has nothing to do with this despite his past actions!" The cool-minded pointed out.
The only reason even the more level-headed authority figures didn't consider a military intervention? The King of the Seven Seas himself, called both Orin and Arthur Curry, going to the United Nations building alongside Doom Slayer and , wanting to open relations between his kingdom and the rest of the planet to repair the rift the Red Trident had made before things could become worse.
That, and a recording of the monarch punishing the Red Trident's leader by shooting him with Doom Slayer's own weapon, with clear anger in his eyes. Even the hardliners had to admit he could not have a hand in the terrorists' actions if he could do that to their leader and care not about their deaths.
Many people accepted this mere act of diplomacy as a sign that Doom Slayer was, indeed, a good man at heart, but even this action didn't change the fact he had killed in a world where the mighty didn't use their gifts to slay the weak, even those with black hearts.
There was fear in the criminal underworld, fear that they might draw the rage of Doom Slayer and end up just like the Red Trident. Thieves, muggers and white-collar criminals were confident they were safe, since they thought the soldier wouldnt come after simple lawbreakers like them; most assassins and other 'businessmen' whose 'jobs' involved killing, however, began fearing for their lives, aside from one or two who wanted to test themselves against him
Except, surprisingly enough, the famous Deathstroke the Terminator.
"No way I'm going against that." Slade Wilson said outloud when he was approached for a job, not bothering to look at the contractors while lifting weights. "I'm not going to risk it against someone with that much strength and armor. Not even for every damned ingot in Fort Knox. I know when to fold it. Ask a dumber, suicidal man."
Organizations centered around heroes, villains and metahumans in general began gathering everything they knew of him and making plans, some to bring them to their side, others to destroy him before he destroyed them, and one to merely understand his mentality and why he acted like that.
Those who cleaned up and investigated the ship found stuff that revealed more about what happened there, specifically how Doom Slayer killed the Trident, and with what: spent cases and shells, both of incredible size, alongside large-caliber rounds and flechettes found around the ship, all of them covered in blood. It seemed that Doom Slayer was also a user of more conventional weaponry despite initial thoughts.
Incidentally, several pieces of evidence were taken in by a mysterious source.
And that was just what Doom Slayer left: the Red Trident's defeat had left dozens of energy weapons around, water-plasma plasma rifles, that could be reverse-engineered and modified, and suits that would allow them a greater insight into Atlantis' metallurgy, especially since king Arthur told them they could do as they pleased with it, one of the many reparations he offered for the tragedy.
Except for one: an afro-american scuba diver and part-time engineer from Baltimore by the name of David Hyde, whose family had been on the Voyager when it returned from Australia. All he saw were the weapons that had been used to cave his wife's head in, and carbonize his son. All because someone couldn't bother to throw their glass on the proper bin, or pissed on the water.
As he tinkered with the rifle a friend of his had snatched from the ship, all he could think of was the pain he felt when Doom Slayer returned him his family's bodies, the man himself giving him one last glance before leaving as he came, the cries of his relatives during the burial, him contemplating suicide because his family had been his life...
Three days after the funerals, after crying and blaming himself for agreeing to let them go on a tour around the world, David recovered from self-pity... but only because it was turned to rage.
"Those monsters... those freaks..." He muttered with seething hatred as he began his work, remembering the smashed bodies of his wife and son, and the fact that there could be more of those Red Trident bastards down there. But how many were down there? Dozens, hundreds, thousands? Did Doom Slayer get them all? Were all atlanteans as hateful for humanity as the Red Trident had been?
Because if they were, David had the solution for that: he'll go to wherever Atlantis was, kill as many atlanteans as he could, and let whatever sea deity they worshipped sort them out. He would kill every last fishy bastard he could get his hands on for their sins, even if that meant drawing the wrath of Doom Slayer upon himself. Avenging his family was worth angering a god in human skin.
'They will pay... They will ALL pay!' David screamed in his mind as he continued forging.
He wasn't the only one.
..........
Batman's reaction was obvious, but did I write the rest right? I mean, they know DS is a soldier who carries lethal weapons and who's willing to use said lethal weapons. Was making them understanding of the slaughter but unnerved nonetheless the right call? I mean, the Red Trident beated people to death, and they enjoyed it, and they don't have the excuse of being literal space demons and evil gods like the apokoliptians do, and their real excuse still doesn't... excuse their actions. Also, sorry if the chapter is too narrative heavy for you guys. As for the full consequences of the Red Trident attack and Atlantis, those will be explored in next chapter.
As for why did I write the SI going back to the Voyager even though in the last chapter he went back to the Fortress of Doom to prepare for the shitstorm that was coming, it was mainly to clean himself up of blood: didn't want to make the wrong impressions when returning the dead
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