- Doomsday - Volume One: Gods and Monsters

Chapter 41: Bizarre

[14/02/2056]

Night had overcome the surprisingly quiet city of San Francisco, an overcast shower blocking out the black sky above and large barrages of rain fell, an intense fear had infected its inhabitants. While the city had had its fair share of tragedies over its lifetime nothing much came close to the horrific murder scenes that began appearing all across the sprawling urban centre. The first case was over half-a-year earlier and it was immediately brought to public attention due to the sheer brutality and wickedness of the crime, two young men, both aspiring intellectuals and boasting impressive educational records. It was a similar night to the one present in which the two men were found in pieces across a back-alley in the Tenderloin, one of the more dangerous regions of the city, some parts of the bodies not being found for weeks later, a literal bloodbath spread across the area. This was believed to have been one of the most gruesome and horrific murders that had occurred in the city for decades and evoked a sense of looming dread over those who had made the city their home.

Yet, most people decided that the best thing to do would be to have a positive attitude, San Francisco Police Department claimed that the crime had been a one-off event and that they were diverting all their resources towards the case, and everyone attempted to get the grisly deaths off of their minds. It would be less than a week before the next murder occurred. As the year went so did the number of these gruesome murders increase, consistently brutal, and it evolved from young adults to more sporadic killings. Some seemed to be completely random acts of violence yet other murders seemed to match the criteria of the original killings, varying ages however many seemed to have some scientific background. This crisis was further escalated when it was believed that the perpetrator wasn't just killing people but began kidnapping, tens of people had gone missing over the period with no idea of where they had disappeared off too.

It wasn't as if the law enforcement or the government did nothing to uncover what was happening, actually it was the opposite and they attempted a large scale investigation into San Francisco's latest serial killer. The main issue arose when the head of the SFPD, who was enthusiastically persistent in his devotion to completing the case, was found in his office dead, blood draining out of his body and a large hole straight through the centre of his torso was identified, similar in size to a girder. After the murder of the head law official many officers refused to act, the fear that they too, or worse yet their families, could end up with a similar fate to that of the chief essentially put the whole department into a rigid paralysis. Soon after an Overwatch taskforce was ordered to look into the situation, murders were still occurring and the brutality of the crimes seemed to need a firmer hand to deal with the issue. Yet, to great embarrassment for the organisation the small task force they had sent was killed in a similar fashion to the many horrific murders and Overwatch had been sent running away in shame.

However Overwatch wasn't done with San Francisco, passing the mission to their covert branch Blackwatch, attempting to save their iconic team from any further shame Petras and other executives believed that it would be best to finish this case in the dark, away from prying eyes. Furthermore, during the brutal killing of the taskforce small amounts of footage from a shoulder-mounted camera had been collected from the crime scene depicting a inhumanely pale and large man, incredibly well built with the ability to tear through a human body with a single punch, an action that was depicted within the footage. Unknown to many individuals within Overwatch, with his influence within the conglomerate Lex Luthor, through his puppet Petras, after illicit means viewing the footage deemed that the mission was too important to end, giving little-to-no further information on the issue. With the mission now in Reyes' hands and with a suggestion from Luthor himself, it was deemed necessary to send in Blackwatch's most significant asset to deal with the situation, the 'Doomsday'.