Watchmen, jump #63. Contagion undetected: 16%

[Watchmen, jump #63ish, right after Kingdom Come]

Drawback: I Am Disappointed, Thirty-Five Minutes Ago (1500)

1938

Fearful Symmetry (Free)
Post-Human (1100)
Unquantifiable Abstract (Free)
Basic Telekinesis (Free)
Watchmater (800)
I Am Become Death (400)
Comics (Free)
Photo (Free)
ImportX4: Elodie, Fair Eyes, Valeria, Oracle, Gar, Blaize, Grail, Phyre (0)
-Post-Human, Basic Telekinesis (Free), Unquantifiable Abstract (Free), Watchmaker (300), Certified Bad Ass (100), Retirement (0)

The offices of the Soviet Union were drafty. Chernenko was coffing out his lungs against while Gromyko poured over the paperwork and Ustinov muttered about food allocation. There was flash of Wyld-light as the Oracle of Saigoth, Deva-Tiger, squinted at the very precise instructions she'd written down. The men stared at this blue woman muttering about mortal concepts, shrugging, and then threw them into a psychosexual nightmare giving them a phobia of economics compelling them to end the Cold War.

The offices of White House were clean and airy, where Ronald Reagan was brooding over trickle-down economics. A boom tube rent his office apart as Grail walked up to the president of the united states, punched him in the face, grumbled about not being able to claim the presidency through trial by combat and then muttered the Anti-Life phrase that would make him and every politician in the White House end the Cold War.

As for me? I was in Edward Blake's bedroom. The Still Force had just stopped a few bullets a foot he'd tried to nail me with.

"You're not him" He stared me down. "Fucking christ, where were you...before?"
"I'm new to this world. I'm trying to end the Cold War"
He laughed. "Well, we're fucked aren't we? You're goddamn...unreal, like a saint or a fucked up fairy tail prince. Which in my experience, means we truly are fucked this time. You here to kill me?"
I stared at him. I stared through his soul. I made him feel it. "Is that what you think you deserve?"

Adrian Veidt kicked down the door and stared at us awkwardly.

(Cont'd)

He didn't say anything, but it was obvious he was pissed his entrance was less impressive than he'd thought it would be. "Hey, none of that flashy garbage. Go wait in the corner will ya?" asked Edward. "There's no rush" I said, leaning against a wall. "Fuck you there isn't" he snarled, and went for a knife. He was faster and stronger than any old burnout should be, but he was up against a guy who was peak human.

"Give?" I asked when Adrian ducked his fists and he punched concrete. "Fuck off!" he said.
"Give?" I asked when Adrian cut him. "Stop distracting me!" he shouted.
"Give?" I asked when Adrian was about to throw him out the window. "Give" he gasped. I walked over and Adrian backed away with the prudence of a man who knew his place.

Blake yelled about big squid new york kamikazes while rolling on the ground. Adrian licked his lips, dodged my look and said "It's true. All of it. I regret nothing". "Okay then. Let's sit down and watch some TV". I said, sitting down and pouring some champagne. "Are you fucking serious?" asked Edward. "Yes" I said.

We waited, Edward stiff and swearing, Adrian at peace, until breaking news emerged. The Cold War was declared over. Adrian's eyes widened then shut, and Edward just laughed and laughed and laughed blood.

"All of that. All of that work, for nothing" said Adrian faintly. He looked at me, lost. "What do I do now?". "You should disarm that squid" I suggested. "Yes, that sounds like a good idea" he said faintly.

More news came in. Dr. Manhattan was disassembling the US military. All of it, the bases. The bombs. The people. Adrian sprang to his feet and left the room. With a clap on the shoulder I healed Edward's wounds-all of them, from a lifetime-and with a sizzle of Speed Force we were at an apartment where Laurie and Dan were making out.

They looked up, and Laurie threw a shoe at Edward.

(Cont'd)

"Hi, sweetie" he said faintly as it bounced off his forehead.

"You know, Valeria said it was tachyon wave disturbances. Bryce came up with a dozen conspiracies" I said, shaking my head. "Qlithu even told me she sensed a bleak hand tilting destiny towards a singular conclusion, but you know-I knew it was always going to be love that set off a man like that"

"We've done nothing wrong. Having a life apart from-THAT, isn't wrong" said Laurie defensively. The funny thing was, I wasn't annoyed with her until that last part. "I've dallied with Deathlords, and one of my friends is Anti-Life incarnate. Stop justifying yourselves to me, start running. Also fish Walter out of the kitchen while you're at it, won't you?" I said instead.

"Walter's in my kitchen?" exclaimed Dan as he tripped over his pants.

"He's eating all your beans. Rorschach's farting hard tonight" I said, shaking my head. Another boom tube. Jon was less than a mile away from the apartment. The Euminides were whacking him with those high tech clubs New Gods use in battle for some reason while Sulumor kept him dispersed with a small, soul-shredding blizzard.

I gestured. They parted. Battered and angry, he lashed out-the air around me became a nuclear explosion. Channeling the dimensional superstructure through a flexed bicep kept me safe as, still grabbing Edward by the scruff of the neck, I retaliated with a white lantern slap. He reached for my molecules next, and when he burst into flame simply crushed the world around me with the force of a neutron star. My own psionics parried the force as I cut him with the blade of want. He looked shocked, then reassembling quickly tried to physically cram antimatter on my bare skin. For a moment I was a bright silhouette window into thunder and molten adamantine, and he was falling out of the sky while trying to escape by quantum superposition.

(Cont'd)

He learned quickly. Not knowing how to use his powers to their full scope, he simply went to Mars and took Edward with him. Edward swallowed, no gun in his hand and knowing it wouldn't have helped.

"Jon" croaked Edward. "Jon, I've got a daughter'

"I know. She cucked me, Eddy" he said coldly, his body wavering as it tried to heal miraculous damage. "She cucked me for a fat man in a rubber owl suit. You won, you got what you wanted didn't you? All those years ago you tried to show me what it's like out there Eddy and now look at you-I can tell you've never left your apartment since you learned about Adrian's plan. Cry me a river. Do men like you ever think what it's like to be someone like me, a clockmaker's son? To be somebody but themselves? They don't. They think we'll all just sit there, and stay put, like good little superweapons"

"That's not-jesus, self pity? From YOU of all people? Jon, I'm trying to tell you, I've don't want this anymore! I don't want my little girl to grow up awful!"

"YOU'RE awful, Edward"

"You think I don't know that?!"

"You killed a woman you raped in front of me to make a joke, and complained when I couldn't get it. You complain about a society you defend at every turn. Well, I have a joke for you Edward. What do you get-"

"I know? Fucking hell Jon I know I'm a goddamn monster, for fuck's sake let me fix this before we all-"

"-WHAT DO YOU GET, when you cross a lonely god, with an AMERICAN SOCIETY, that MANIPULATES HIM, and TREATS HIM LIKE A BOMB READY TO GO OFF!" shouted Jon, shedding tears of neutronium as he pointed at the Earth. "I'LL TELL YOU WHAT YOU GET! YOU GET WHAT YOU ALWAYS DESERVED!"

And then Dr. Manhattan blew up the planet.
...
...but the planet refused to blow up.

"Hey. Hey, I get it" I said quietly, appearing from nowhere and giving him a hug. At which point Edward collapsed from seeing a naked dude's dick touched a clothed one's crotch.

(Cont'd)

"I get it" I said again. Everyone who was anyone was on Mars. Laurie, Dan, Walter, Adrian. "The world's too small. People won't listen to what's OBVIOUS, what's right. Tell you the truth, I don't get it either. First I thought God had it all planned out, then I left home and found there was no God there but what I carried with me. So I tried to be like God, and-I nearly lost it all. And throughout it all, let me tell you about my friends, my family-half of them are more fucked up than a lot of people on America's streets. But the other half? They give me hope"

"Then why? What's the point of it?" asked Jon, bitterly gesturing at the blue planet. "What does stopping the Cold War even prove?"

"That people who don't have power don't actually want a Cold War, mostly. Jon, I'm not going to tell you how everyone should live their life because I have an equation for it and I still don't really get it. But you know, there's a world beyond this one. So many, actually. I think a guy like you, a guy who can see as I see, deserves the chance to make up his own mind And" I said, grinning "The world out there's amazingly resilient, I gotta tell you. And stupid sometimes yeah. It has to be experienced. It's like you're living in the boonies and I'm trying to tell you what the fjords in Norway at sprintime are like and-oh wait! I CAN share that experience with you!"

And I did.
For I was a Creature of Light. Jon basked in the sight of a man of steel, a caped crusader, a warrior princess and so many other leotard wearing idiots flying around, playing at cops and robbers-
-and winning.
Winning in a way no amount of realpolitik I'd ever seen win conclusively.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I said finally.
"It's...absurd" said Jon.
"It's crazy. It doesn't make any sense" I agreed.
"It's inane! Just because they have powers they, they still wear the silly costumes?" asked Jon, laughing. Laughing! And I laughed with him. Presently a boom tube opened, and a New God in a chair came through.

"Hmm. He's the one, I take it?" asked Metron.

"That's him. What do you think?"

"I think it's always humbling to see one way you may end up dying by" said Metron "in it's infancy". An amused smile crept over him. "But then, what is death to a god?"

"Jon Osterman, this is Metron of the New Gods, an old friend of mine. He's a seeker of knowledge across time and space, and he can show you even more of what I just did. He's also...down one pupil, at the moment. Would you like to be his new pupil?"

"What will you teach me?" asked Jon.

"Everything. Every last scrap of knowledge that I, who ride through time and space, can reach. From here til the boundary of the Source Wall that girds every universe, the last barrier to ultimate knowledge. I feel you should know, I once had a pupil named Esak. While travelling together, he was injured and took to darker studies. I am called cold, and certainly a detached mentor" For a moment, Metron looked genuinely disturbed. "Perhaps, in the end we're all of us the architects of our regrets"

"But you can take me away from here?"

"The Mobius Chair can go anywhere in time and space bar past the Wall. I can take you to anywhere between one, fifty-two and infinite worlds. Most of them are, to be frank, not as dismal as yours. Well, the positive matter ones anyway"

Jon looked at the others bearing witness in the bubble of environmental sanctity I was generating. Adrian looked utterly crestfallen, and covered in squid guts. Walter was furiously scribbling in a notebook. Dan and Laurie couldn't meet his eyes. And Edward was giving Laurie his coat. And as Laurie tried to throw it off, Edward pulled out the gun he never had a chance to use and fired it at Jon's feet.

"Touch my daughter and I'm adding a new hole between your eyes" he said evenly. Jon considered. He stared at the Earth again. He said "I should hope not", maybe to Edward and maybe to Metron. Then we shook hands. Hugged one more time because it was nice for there to be someone else who got it, for a little while, and also to freak out Edward with the dicks thing. And then tired of this earth, Dr. Manhattan left to explore the DC multiverse.

After I took everyone home, and the world refused to change, but people did talk about space goddesses and a man on fire battling a cold blue god and put it down into funny pictures until Reagan's serious successors were all running on the platform of manifest destiny while itinerant Sidereals made the collapse of the Soviet Union happen faster and safer for everyone concerned, Edward met me at the park one day. I was pretty easy to find, but it still surprised me.

"You're not scared of me anymore?" I asked.

"I'm scared of a lot of things, mister" he said evenly. "I'm scared one of these days you'll snap and put the world under. I'm scared one of your lady friends wants to do it even faster. I'm scared of how society treats you and yours like new gods without even knowing you. But I've had a lot of time to think, and you know. I think I'm scared of letting Laurie and Sally down even more than I already have"

I showed him the news. Ever since Dan had proposed to Laurie publically someone had generously donated a massive supply of firearms to his new crimefighting initiative. Walter was the best man. He looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"Most of all, I'm scared I don't deserve this" he finally said.

"You don't" I agreed. "You're going to live with your daughter and ex knowing what you are, and it's not nearly what you deserve because they aren't out for your blood, and too many people almost died for them to carry on the fight you would have. And they really need a win in their lives right now"

Gingerly, he sat down next to me. When I didn't move, he threw up his hands. "Is this the part where you tell me it's not about what I deserve, but what you believe or some shit?"

"Edward for the last time, I don't care what people believe" I lied, groaning. "I really don't, it was foolish enough when they had actual gods to believe in. Petty little usurper custodians. The point I'm trying to make, is that when there ISN'T a point, when six or maybe seven energies of pure undiluted Justice or titan-fashioned Virtues don't raise up society, that in the end the only ideals that survive are the ones we live through. So we can either make the best of what's left, or throw a fit because history doesn't work like a philosophy book"

"Alright, alright" he said ruefully, trying to hide a smile. "That was, uh. That was actually pretty funny. You want to come over to Dan's place? Don't want to show my face around their Sunday barbeque, but the beer's good and I can stay away if there's a big shiny plus one"

"Not really, no"

"It's really good beer. And your freaky...friend with the sidecut and burning eyes is drinking all of it" he pleaded.

"Oh shit we need to go there right now Grail might start the Cold War after too many drinks. Again" I said, flying up up and away with Edward in one hand again.

>FIN