Arizona, Maricopa County,
October 14th, 1985
12:32 AM EST
"Land-ho!" The Owl-Ship shook violently as Dan shouted over the intercom, startling Adrian out of his sleep suddenly. The lights flickered and the various compartments and panels rattled loudly, making Steve trip over Bubastis's paw as the cat bounded about excitedly. It appeared that owls-for-brains had forgotten to prime Archie's landing gear before take off, "Errr... sorry about that..."
"Christ almighty!" Steve shouted, prompting Adrian to roll his eyes in annoyance. He checked the time, 12:32 AM EST. That put them at 11:32 AM, Central Time, they'd been traveling for a little over nine hours, "A little warning next time?" Bubastis purred and nudged the teenager's side, echoing Adrian's (albeit less fond) thoughts that he should get on his feet and walk it off.
"Dan! Is it there?" Adrian shouted as he entered the cockpit, seeing the former Nite Owl frantically adjusting the power levels.
"Sensors say there's something about a mile from here, but it could be a supermarket for all we know." Adrian groaned, still frustrated at the damage that the ship had sustained after it had sat in the arctic weather outside his fortress of Karnak for hours on end. One of the many things it had lost was its ability to determine one structure from another.
The sky was pitch dark, not even the moon illuminated the area around them enough to make out the terrain, Archie's headlights were the only source of light as far as the eye could see, "Steve," Adrian called back to the storage bay, "Fetch the flashlights from the cabinet, we're going to need them."
"For an entire mile? We can't just fly the rest of the way?" Adrian rolled his eyes for the second time in less than five minutes. Yes, let's fly the rest of the way there. It isn't like it would be strange to see a UFO with Owl-eyes flying around- and besides, they'd had the absolute most graceful landing they could've had.
"And get Bubastis's leash, I'll need you to tie him up to the ship. There's no room for a cat in a place like this."
It took another ten minutes of shouting and arguing before they finally got Adrian's giant lynx tied to the ship, and they were off to Gila Flats. The air was frisk and harsh, the moon was nowhere to be found, and nor was any comfort brought by the peaceful silence that so often filled the night air. Tonight the silence was cold. The desolation that surrounded them was not beautiful or amazing- just lonely.
"What are we doing here again?" Steve asked from the back of the line, swinging his flashlight about. Adrian had to remind himself that the boy was not a fully grown adult, and nor was he an engineer like Dan or a scientist like himself.
To be honest, Adrian wasn't too sure himself. All he knew was that the girl known to Stephen as "Eleven" had some connection to Jon Osterman. And of course, the only way to truly isolate that connection would be to track Jon's path to becoming Doctor Manhattan. He'd already checked for a childhood link, but he found nothing. It was only until he started to investigate Gila Flats, the lab in which the incident occurred, that he had found the shared quality he'd been searching for.
"Gila Flats was a science lab that Jon Osterman- Dan and I's version of your Eleven- worked at before a freak accident made him into an all-powerful god," Adrian said, listening carefully for any signs of life, "We believe that the girl's powers are somehow linked to him. And by extension, linked to Gila Flats."
"A... god?" Steve asked. That part was understandable. If someone had come and told Adrian in 1960 that someone would one day become a god, he would've told them to go fuck themselves.
"Uh-huh," Dan replied, banging his palm against the scanner, "Just not like the one in the bible." Adrian wondered what he'd find if there really was a Gila Flats on this world- it would no doubt be different than the one on there world, but how much different? "Wait... got another signature!" Dan shouted, making Adrian turn to face him, "Tachyons. It's here."
"Splendid," Adrian said, turning back to the path they were on, "We have much to do gentlemen! Much to do."
HA,
HAHA
HAHAHA
Would you like to hear another?
No.
Awww... why not?
Leave. Me. Alone.
Oh, come now... when has your Uncle J ever left you alone?
In my dreams, thanks.
HA! And when was the last time you had one of those?
Yesterday. It was nice.
Really? And you didn't tell me?!
Nope. It was about Sabine too. She found me.
Oh... er... I'd better leave you to it then! After all, we have places to go! People to slay!
The Ghost,
02:00
Rebel - Controlled Space
"Hrrn... have to sit next to him?" Rorschach grumbled, resting his cuffed hands against the metal-checkerboard table. His ears hurt. The guard standing by the door nodded, a pair of strange yellow goggles masking his expression. The vigilante grunted as the boy they called "Ezra" giggled softly to himself, but it wasn't in a happy or charming way- it was twisted and demented, the laugh of a mad man. Everywhere the boy went, people would back off in fear when he looked up at them with his yellowed eyes and crazed grin, but Rorschach, on the other hand, was just irritated beyond belief.
Unfortunately, the soldiers had cut his face off while he was unconscious, and left him feeling the artificial breeze against his bare skin. Against the face of Walter Kovacs. The white cloth, the black patterns- that was his face. Not this fabricated mess of pale flesh and red hair.
"Shut up," He growled, directing his gaze at Bridger, but the boy only laughed harder, "Or I'll throw you down elevator shaft." He froze for a moment, looking at Rorschach strangely, before returning to his hysterical laughing. This kid was probably the craziest person he'd ever met... besides maybe Veidt. Just as the vigilante was about to turn and ask again for another room, the automatic doors swished open suddenly, revealing the man dressed like a bat and a wheelchair-bound woman dressed in bright colors. Lesbian, Rorschach thought.
The guard walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him and leaving the four of them alone. Rorschach guessed he supposed to be scared, but right now the only thing he was concerned with was when he was going to get away from the cackling lunatic next to him, "The Alliance databanks currently have you labeled as a 'John Doe'," The lesbian woman said, pressing forward on the wheelchair's joystick and rolling up to the table, "Unless you want to tell me your real name, that won't change, Rorschach." She said it like it was a joke. The disgust that was welling up inside him was unbearable.
He chose not to answer, just stare blankly at the wall, "You're a conservative," The man who called himself "Bat-Man" said, looking directly at him, "Very conservative." Rorschach looked back at him, meeting his glowing white eyes. They reminded him of Manhattan's.
"What?" The lesbian girl asked, looking back at the Bat-Man.
The caped figure approached the table and took the seat next to the girl, "He thinks you're a lesbian. He hates lesbians." Rorschach didn't answer, but he was wondering how the hell this guy could know that, "Look at his face. Flinches every time you talk, refuses to make eye contact- probably a racist too."
"Not racist." Rorschach snapped, whipping his gaze back to Bat-Man, "And yes. Conservative."
The man glared at him in disgust, but he was used to that, "Regardless," He growled, "You know my name already," Rorschach scoffed at that, "But this is Sabine."
"And for the record, I'm not lesbian, sleemo." Sabine added angrily, promptly making Rorschach meet her eyes after being reassured... only she wasn't looking at him. Her eyes were fixed upon the boy, who was still giggling to himself maniacally. Perhaps not lesbian. He thought.
"Now," Bat-Man said, "What's your story?"
Rorschach looked back at the man, his expression changing to a dark focus, "Was night of October 12th. 1985," He spoke, "That night, a Comedian died in New York..."
Mars,
12:34 PM EST, Earth Time
"You're upset."
"Heh... No shit, smurfette," Hopper spoke softly. He'd been venturing through the timeline of another world for almost four hours, his stomach churned, his feet ached, and his eyes- his eyes were forever marked with death and ruin. The towering golden fortress slowly roamed over the red sands of Mars, the glass creating beams of orange light that seemed like the dead faces he'd seen staring back at him, "What the hell was that?"
"An alien squid," Jon replied nonchalantly, as if it was nothing abnormal- but relatively speaking- it probably wasn't, "Engineered for a suicide mission directly into the beating heart of America." The lunch that Hopper had been trying to keep down a few hours ago was now long gone- spilled out along the black pavement that had run red with human bean juice, "In thirty seconds you will ask me why I showed you that."
"Who made that thing?" The police chief slurred, ignoring the statement and leaning over the thin glass railings.
"I told you that already."
"Well then why did you show it to me?" He shouted, turning around to face the blue time-traveler, only to see him staring at him with what looked like mild amusement, "God dammit..." Hopper growled, realizing his own arrogance.
The slight smirk faded from Jon's face, and he returned to his usual blankness, "You asked who I was, so I showed you. I showed you all the events that led me to you and your surrogate-daughter." Hopper still couldn't quite get any of it through his head. Jon Osterman- transformed by an intrinsic field generator into an all-powerful and omnipotent god with the power to manipulate matter and time... all within a world of costumed-heroes and unpunished genocides, "I apologize if I alarmed you..."
"Alarmed me?" shouted Hopper, slamming his fist down on the glass structure, "You show me what you have the power to do... you show me who Jane shares the most in common with... and... that thing..." Jon looked at him with sad eyes- lonely ones, even- and looked off towards the sun, "You showed me the end of the world!"
The blue man's eyes kept facing the sun, before they widened and his head snapped off to a random spot on the horizon, "In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian," He slowly stepped towards the area he was staring at, walking past Hopper before he could say anything, "Nothing ever ends..." And then he was gone.
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But, uh, but you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
-Jimi Hendrix
This is going to be where the story starts to pick up, all my pieces are exactly where I want them to be. So get ready for lots of cliffhangers. Also, here's a list of all the Watchmen characters so that no one gets mixed up:
Daniel "Dan" Dreiberg/Nite Owl
Walter Kovacs/Rorschach
Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan
Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre
Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias
Edward "Eddie" Blake/The Comedian
You should recognize Dan, Adrian, Jon, and Walter- but the other two have not yet been fully introduced. A few notes are important here: Rorschach is VERY far right. He is sexist, homophobic, transphobic, superstitious, and maybe- MAYBE- a little racist. He is not a reflection on my politics or beliefs at all, and nor is anyone else in the story. I would also like to note that there is a reason that he is also a very tragic character, and I will explain why in later chapters, so don't go thinking that I'm anything like him.
Anyways, Sabine and Ezra's dynamic has not been forgotten, so don't worry about that, and I will be tackling it in the next few parts to the story. Leave a review if you enjoyed, because it really helps me get these together quicker, and hearing from you guys is always a joy. But until next time!
-MB
