| Canon Story | ||||||||
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| Arc XL: What's Pissing Off Dalton | ||||||||
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| Artist | Writer | |||||||
| David Hopkins | David Hopkins | |||||||
| Previous | Next | |||||||
| Arc XXXIX: The Seventh Wall | Arc XLI: Lita's Fanclub | |||||||
KPET News is covering the aftermath of an earthquake in Mongolia, Oregon, which has caused the Tarax Tower office building to collapse. Inside the rubble, several people are trapped inside a hollowed out bubble of the remains, with enough room for them to walk around inside.
They include Paul, a bigoted dog; Dalton, a pill-popping cat; Peter, an outspoken gay dog; Mary, a kangaroo office worker and Wendy, who has her infant son Ryan (conceived during the events of Arc XIX: Wednesday's Child) with her, her other child Crystal out of town with the father. The group tries to gather themselves, but Dalton, who was a visitor to the building with no connection to the others, sits by himself and rebuffs any attempts to have him join the group. Meanwhile, as the others discuss their situation Paul angrily berates Peter, the latter of which openly antagonizes Peter by flirting with him despite Paul's homophobic insults.
Dalton, who has been taking some medication during the shouting match, gets angry when he runs out of pills and Paul's constant yelling at his co-workers sets him off. Just as Paul is about to confront Peter, Dalton attacks Paul with the leg of a table and violently beating him to death, saying he hates loud mouthed bigots. The others watch in shock as Dalton goes though Paul's wallet, justifying his actions by claiming Paul wouldn't have paid off his credit card debt anyway.
The others are shocked by Dalton's actions, but Peter tries to justify the attack by saying Paul was out of control and escalating the situation, even trying to claim Dalton was a hero for protecting the rest of the group. Mary tries to stop Peter from approaching Dalton, but the latter ignores her warnings and goes up to Dalton to thank him for his help. Dalton in turn violently turns on Peter, saying he hates Peter's lisp and violently bashes Peter's head against the rubble, killing him. He turns to the other and says he hates people who can't talk right.
Mary and Wendy, thoroughly traumatized by the death of their co-workers, watch in silence, but at that moment, Wendy's son Ryan begins to cry, setting Dalton off again. He demands the baby but Wendy promises he's only crying because he's hungry and quickly silencing him by breastfeeding him. Dalton seems to appeased by this, walking away mumbling to himself about hating babies, but he works himself back into a violent frenzy by listing the things he hates, including "sluts," and turns his attention on Mary.
He drags Mary away, violating her and then violently beating her when she tries to crawl away. Wendy calls Dalton a monster, saying Mary didn't do anything to him, but that only further antagonizes him. When Ryan begins crying again, Dalton again demands the baby, and Wendy bashes his head with a rock to protect herself. Above them, the rescue workers and digging through the rubble and about to breach their hollowed out cavern, and Dalton silences Wendy to stop her from warning the others about him.
He demands he leave the ruins first, taking Ryan as a hostage to ensure Wendy's silence. Just then Mary revives, badly abused but still alive, and Dalton forces Wendy to make a choice. She reluctantly hands over Ryan and he leaves the ruins while Wendy tends to Mary. Wendy goes out next to warn the others, but Dalton has already left, leaving Ryan behind with Kevin from KPET News. Calling in medics to go retrieve Mary, one passes Dalton as he's exiting the accident scene, and he tells the man he doesn't know what happened. As he walks away, he punches his reflection in a car window, leaving his hand bloody, muttering he hates liars.
The Devil is smirking as he watches this scene play out, Jack appears and confronts him. The Devil admits he manipulated certain events to let the scene fold out, taking advantage of the earthquake and creating a small shelter for the confrontation to happen, keeping Peter and Paul alive long enough to die at Dalton's hands instead of dying beneath the rubble like they were supposed to. When Jack asks why he did all this, the Devil lets Jack know he's aware of the reaper and angels' recent actions to liberate the masses in Hell, and that he claims he's okay with it. But he warns Jack, if the rabbit reaper is successful in gaining redemption and leaves Hell, Dalton will become the next Sin of Wrath when he dies.
Characters[]
Locations[]
- Earth
- Mongolia, Oregon