Chapter 330: An Explosive End II
Alexander could admit that he really was reaching here... but hey...
He had the opportunity to try it out, so why not?
His thoughtful ruminations during the tornado stuff, Art Scholl's altered Top Gun death, the Challenger mishap, and whatnot really got him thinking.
He knows some major or publicized incidents, so why not tinker around with most of them for a bit?
Besides, it's not like he was going to lose anything if he were to fail.
If he were to succeed, however, he'd probably be the one of most callous bastards to ever exist.
Then again, when was he not? He was somewhat insensitive. He also did have a tame disregard.
No denial there.
Anyways, it's not like he was the one proactively doing stuff to make the accident happen.
He was just publishing something that had the most predictive content at the most coincidental of times.
On that note, he didn't just release the last issue of Watchmen #12 during the "week", he also released the full Volume Book or Watchmen Omnibus or whatever it be called on the April of 25th.
Alexander's excuse was the 400,000 issue limit being sold out on the first day and also accommodating the more than 400,000 comic customers that had long-trafficked comic book stores all across the nation.
Without a doubt, he was actually hoping that Watchmen sales will blow through many records... in light of the incident that was coming the next day.
Lives would be lost but who would blame him? Well, someone speculatively crazy probably will but none of them would be the wiser.
After all, Alexander was sort of expecting a [Futility: The Wreck of the Titan] and Titanic sinking scenario.
Instead of a 14-year gap between the short novel's publication and the iceberg-induced sinking, this was a days-day-hour-gap scenario involving a comic book story and one of the worst disasters in the history of nuclear power generation.
Of course, if things were still unclear to many... a Soviet Nuclear reactor at Chernobyl is set to explode on April 26th... causing the release of radioactive material across much of Europe.
Instead of Futility and Titanic, this was going to be connecting the nuclear-laced Watchmen and the tragic Chernobyl nuclear disaster!
Even Morgan Robertson would most probably be shocked at how absurd this Alexander Creed fellow was!
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In any case, Chaos theory and the Butterfly effect weren't really enough to undo or stop what was to come.
The 26th of April 1986 did come.
Lo and behold, a nuclear power station in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Soviet Union exploded causing a huge nuclear disaster.
Due to the explosion, large amounts of radiation and radioactive material were released into the local environment, affecting the health and safety of thousands of people including plant workers, clean-up workers, and the local population.
The explosion and resulting fire were caused by an experiment gone wrong, the presence of design flaws in the reactor, and a lack of safety oversight.
Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced by the disaster as the Soviet Union evacuated and closed off the surrounding area within 18 miles of the nuclear plant.
The explosion at Chernobyl not only damaged the surrounding environment with radiation but parts of Europe, notably Sweden and Finland, were also hit with contaminated dust and air from Chernobyl as it traveled through the atmosphere.
It would take a while for efforts to clean up this nuclear disaster to work and whatever efforts they may be... the damaged reactor and the surrounding area would remain unstable for a very, very long time.
This would come to be known as the Chernobyl disaster.
The Chernobyl disaster was a unique event and the only accident in the history of commercial nuclear power where radiation-related fatalities occurred.
Serving as a wake-up call for similar facilities, nuclear-armed nations, and non-nuclear-armed nations across the world.
It led to major changes in safety culture, and in-industry cooperation, and is said to be an important factor in the upcoming fall of the Soviet Union.
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It took some while for news of the explosive incident to reach the world... but it arrived nonetheless.
People were shocked, to say the least. The Challenger disaster just happened and now this.
Clearly, this was not the year for rockets, nuclear plants, and perhaps anything that had the propensity to explode!
Then again, a comic book story did not fit any of this category but a comic book story did explode... in its own way.
After all, for some of those that heard of the Chernobyl news, they actually reached out to a recent comic book issue or a Volume Book they just bought.
To no surprise, it was Watchmen!
As they read, re-read, and read it again and again... they can't help but suck in a cold breath...
They also can't help but find it more shocking than news of the Chernobyl incident itself!
Watchmen suddenly got even crazier and Alexander Creed seemed even scarier!
Is Alexander Creed some kind of prophet or what?
Watchmen's nuclear finale hitting so close to nuclear Chernobyl was very uncanny.
To say that the comic book community or the wider Creed fanbase didn't go nuts... was very much a lie.
Crazy speculations appeared in some of these nerdy minds and a collective of those nerdy instances made it into some full-blown conspiracy!
Stuff like Creed Entertainment masterminding the Chernobyl disaster to drive Watchmen sales really got out there. Joke or not, it really spread.
Even Creed's usual comic book publishing rivals were somewhat believing of it.
Geesh! Wasn't Watchmen amazing enough as it is? Why did something have to pop up to make it even more impressive?
Shooter knew that Alexander Creed had something up his sleeve. Was this it?
In any case, the crazy rumors didn't stop there... as connections were made out of nowhere.
If people think that Adrian Veidt was crazy with what he's done, then they should afraid of Alexander Creed.
He might as well be the real-life Ozymandias.
Adrian has crazy radical ideas. Creed Entertainment as a whole, with Alexander Creed as the leader, sure did have a lot of those.
Adrian selling action figures to make billions. It was hard to say that they made billions due to their mostly private sales figures but making millions via toys should be close enough.
Adrian is a fan of Alexander the Great. Isn't Alexander Creed also an Alexander? Does he want to be a modern-day conqueror? He's already forming a business empire, so maybe?
Adrian did not like the conflicts of the world and wanted to unify it. He did not like the Cold War hence the creation of a nuclear conspiracy that in-comic-ly scared the US and the Soviet Union to unity.
Adrian being a real-world reflection of Alexander Creed meant that Adrian's in-comic plan would probably be enacted in the real world.
Didn't something in Chernobyl just blow up? That must mean that it was only a matter of time before other cities and landmarks all over the world will blow up to scare the world into submission!
Besides, wasn't New York one of the named city that Adrian blew up?
This was important because this might be next.
It had to be noted that the NES was the dominant game console in New York. Alexander Creed must be planning to wipe it off the mark so that his Creed Chaos System would have a clean slate.
Gosh! These were crazy but also made some bit of sense.
The coinciding of New York's in-comic implosion along with Chernobyl might just send people into paranoia. What about the other in-comic places that Adrian Veidt blew up? Were they next?
It had to be said that these crazy plots got a segment in the national news. With Chernobyl being the hip thing, any Chernobyl-related content was needed as a news filler.
The Watchmen craziness just fit the bill.
In any case, as absurd as they may be, Creed Comics and Creed Entertainment as a whole, had to issue statements of apology and clarification to quell any hysteria and misunderstanding that may arise.
Of course, the majority of people and comic readers were of sound mind, so the conspiracy theories never really took off.
However, something did take off. Sales of the Watchmen Volume Books and toys alike. Even the Creed brand got more recognition with this whole coincidental stint.
Was this really just a coincidence though?
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Even Old Sullivan wasn't buying that as he looked at his grandson with scrutiny. "Alex..."
"What?" Alexander asked but he knew where this was going. "Don't tell me you're believing the hokum from outside as well?
Wasn't the old man always this way? Finding parallels in every work he put out.
If anything, Old Sullivan was the original Alexander conspiracy theorist before the others could be catalyzed by the Watchmen.
"How could I even do something like that?" Alexander grimaced. "The two of you already knew that this was my draft for Watchmen. Need I remind you that you asked for spoilers."
Old Sullivan scoffed. "That just means you're so impressive that you predicted it more than a year ago."
"On that logic, people should blame the film called the Day After from a few years ago." Alexander had this excuse ready, just in case. "It was my inspiration for the nuclear part. That piece showed the dangers of nuclear arms before I did."
"Hmm..." Old Sullivan wasn't buying it though. He had an old gut feeling that his grandson was more than he seems. "I'm watching you, Alex. Always watching."
Was this old man, Roz or something?
Anyways, Alexander's upfront answer to these kinds of conspiracy questions would be to deny it.
Only he would know the truth and that was more than enough.
After all, this was playing with both Watchmen and the Chernobyl disaster.
It was not the most morally ethical of experiments but it was an interesting one nonetheless.
Alexander was surprised that it even worked.
He was already satisfied with that.
After all, it will probably go down as the most nuclear send-off that he could give to a plundered work.
He gave a challenge to himself and Watchmen was given an explosive end, indeed.
It would probably be hard to top that.