It actually happened. Doom Slayer had sent Killer Croc away... in the literal way.
Many thought he was simply using an euphemism for killing the brute, right until the other members of the League confirmed that Killer Croc had been sent away through a portal to another part of the galaxy, far from Earth, so that he wouldn't menace Gotham... and the city haunt him no more. Naturally, this angered lots of people, including relatives or friends of people killed by the manbeast, the many detractors of Doom Slayer, and more, their opinions ranging from irrational hatred to annoyance at the seemingly hypocritical attitude of Doom Slayer towards someone that, as far as they cared, should had been put down like the animal he was, and like many more before him.
Others, however, weren't so critical. After all, Slayer had spared the life of someone who had been significantly more dangerous that Croc was, even turned her into a (anti)hero. Foster, in a surprising turn of events, was not all fully happy about the situation, knowing the kind of creature Croc had been, but in the end he simply shrugged.
"As long as he doesn't come back, or does come back but changed for the better, it won't be that much of a problem, no? And even if he goes back to man-eating, he wouldn't be doing it here."
As part of the pseudo-reversal, Wolper was the most positive about the situation.
"He did what practically no one could, nor wanted: give Waylon Jones a new life."
This, naturally, repeated itself across the world.
Amanda was not amused, having lost a potential and capable recruit for the task force, leaving her with little metahuman felons strong enough to fill the muscle, but she had learnt a long time ago that when Doom Slayer got involved, losing would-be expendable crew was the best she could get.
Plus, King Shark was still available, wasn't he? And others, too? Many of the creatures that could take on the Man of Steel one on one could be convinced to protect the public with the proper conviction... or enough firepower, whichever was needed.
Bruce was still conflicted about the whole ordeal. On the one hand, and despite knowing Slayer had stopped the mutation, he still felt uneasy of the fact Waylon was out of reach of him, and the possibility of him lashing out against whatever world he was, and not being there. On the other, Slayer had done what he had tried and failed to accomplish. Despite himself, despite being grateful, Bruce couldn't help but feel... apprehensive, to put it mildly.
Clark was in a similar pickle, so to speak, but on a lesser scale. After all, something similar happened with Volcana, and she had yet to return to burning anyone and anything he hated.
Wally still couldn't wrap his head around the fact the Speed Force could be used to power magic.
Many were simply relieved that Gotham, and the world at large, would never be menaced by the ten-foot flesheating misanthrope again.
Few actually wondered what would he do next.
With Victor redeemed, Harvey free from Two-Face, Ivy punished and her clone atoning for her, and Waylon in another plane of existence to live his life in peace, there was little to be done at the Fortress. I did not know how to feel. I had other plans, of course, but I didn't want to, not yet, withou preparation. As much as I wanted to raid the place, Hell, and by extension, Trigon, could wait.
Trigon, just Trigon. Despite him not abandoning his obsession for Raven's power, and the threat he posed, in practice he could do little to us: his armies couldn't come to the Fortress, they sure as hell knew what would happen to them if they dared to peek their disgusting heads on Earth, and he could not leave his dominion to search for her himself without prompting his enemies in the circles to attack in his absence, and even if he came, I was confident I would put him down like all the other demons the Doom Slayer had killed.
Again, this meant there was little to do in the system, stopping petty crimes nonwithstanding.
The first thing, and probably contradicting the above, was that the 'purple-haired bitch' was still at large, and for some reason neither VEGA nor the magic users could find her. We still didn't know what she wanted, and despite the evidence we had yet to find out who she actually worked for. Trigon was at the head of that list of course, but this being DC, anyone else could.
Second was Rachel. Not for fear of her father, but fear of losing everything she had gained, despite knowing (and technically firsthand) what I had done and could do. She found a place to stay, people to trust and be trusted by...
The third and last was Grundy. Even though he tried to hide it, and it not coming out to the light until after a good while, I noted he began to be more... uneasy methinks, after killing Ra's. He would have fooled other people, maybe even Bruce, but not me: the subtle way he moved, the way he spoke, the tired gaze, avoiding me the best he could.... And unfortunately, I knew why was he acting like that, given I was the problem.
I had robbed Grundy of his chance at payback, and he wasn't happy, to say the least. I wasn't going to let it fester in him until he couldn't hold it any longer and do something I couldn't predict, no much he seemed to be okay with it and how unlikely it could be.
I found him near the Brazil's portion of the Amazon, doing nothing in particular at the moment. He didn't react when he heard the sound of a portal opening and my feet hitting the ground, but he heard me alright.
"Slayer."
"Grundy."
"Okay, why the sudden silent treatment? Why have you come? And don't tell me it's about her, because right now she's in Australia."
"You're angry at me for stealing your rightful kill, aren't you?"
Grundy turned to look at me. "So, you've noticed. Well, kinda. I did get angry when you told me you killed him without telling me, but after realizing going berserk or something stupid liked that for something that simply can't be undone, I, well, shrugged and decided to do nothing."
"So?"
"I'm not mad, just annoyed you forgot your promise. I thought of, do to him what he did to me, but then I remembered you dismember your prey, and Rachel told me that even if his body returned to life, it'd be a soulless husk. 'sides, thinking about it, I'm not the only one that templar ninja or whatever he was supposed to be."
We stood there for a couple minutes, looking at the jungle, until I broke the silence. "How do I make up for it? Because you know how I am."
Grundy scratched his chin before shrugging. "I can't really think of anything, not yet. Besides, I told you already, I'm simply not happy. Eh, something might come up eventually... or might not, but I'm not going to throw a tantrum over it. Just be like for a couple weeks more, maybe."
Seeing that I couldn't really do anything to change his mind, I decided to leave him to his devices. "If that's how it is." I made to leave, but then Grundy stopped me. "What is it?"
"Haven't you noted that Rachel is a bit... morose? Whenever I look at her, she looks away. She tries to hide it, but she can't fool me."
"Trigon. He's still at large."
Grundy... grunted, at the mention of the demon. "She doesn't have to act tough around us. Anyone can have their moment of fear if their daddy was Satan's cousin."
"She fears him, but it's not what you think."
"Little Garfield?"
"And all of us." Remember, at this point of my life, only John and Raven knew of my/Doom Slayer's background. "She likes this, and doesn't want to lose it."
"You know, I feel a bit wrong talking about Rachel's life without her."
"As powerful as she is, there's little she can do against her father. You and me, though? He'd get something more than a simple nosebleed if he fought us."
"More than a nosebleed, uh? You think we could, well, go Divine Comedy on him, only as crusaders instead of writers? I promised I would protect her, and I'm not afraid of Satan or Hell to keep her safe." At that he slammed one fist into his open palm, to drive the point home further. "The world too, of course, but you know what I mean."
"No, at least not yet. We might have to do something about him in the long run, but I want us, and Rachel, to be prepared for it."
Again, Grunty grunted, but didn't say anything... for ten seconds. "What's that up there?"
I looked up to where he was pointing. At first I saw nothing, but then I located what he saw, what seemed to be a falling star, a blue trail right behind it as it entered our sky and dropped to the ground at hypersonic speeds.
Thing was, it was two o'clock in the afternoon, not night.
"Hey, doesn't that star move too fast to...? Wait, a minute, it's noon!"
"VEGA..."
Instantly a portal to the Moon appeared in front of the meteor. It added a rather large crater to the surface, but better than letting it crash on Earth.
"Hope it's not aliens invading... again." Grundy muttered (I could hear what he said thanks to VEGA) as we made our way across the center.
As we suspected, it wasn't a meteor, but a starship. However, it clearly wasn't a warship, missile or even a probe: by the looks of it, and the fact it had windows on its sides, it had to be some kind of lifepod or small shuttle.
And then a door on its front opened, and my eyes widened when I saw something come out, something, or rather, someone, that despite everything that had happened, I really did not expect to come here.
An orange-skinned, black-haired girl.
So, this has been one helluva hiatus, eh? Sorry for the delay, I got a bad case of tonsils and then got caught up playing Siege of Dragonspear and, well, it's basically Throne of Bhaal for Baldur's Gate I.