Just Ask Heemeyer...
..."Marvin Heemeyer... was right... Sometimes Reasonable Men... Must Do Unreasonable Things."
Inside the hero's mind, the many vestiges became forcefully controlled by the rage flowing through the hero. Outside his mind, the hero muttered. "Oppenheimer... Tibbets... 332nd... Tyson... Tecumseh-Sherman... Capone... Ali... Heemeyer...," The hero's eyes met that of the unnamed being and Perseverance shouted out something the being couldn't forget. "KILDOZER'S M. A. D."
[POV: The Ghost's Mind: Resolve & Constitution Change]
The Ghost's past wasn't one of lighthearted laughter and love... not after becoming eleven years old that is. " These are my memories... memories of..." His voice cutout as he collapsed to a knee as the trauma, the past, the damage done, all of it flooded his mind. The palms of his hands hid self harm scars from knives, his left arm wore the scars of self harm all thanks to his mind overthinking things at a rate unsustainable to his body. The many vestiges watched and even tried to help save him. However, there was something there with them preventing them from helping.
"John, can't you swing that hammer?" Asked Stagolee, getting up from his attempt.
"It's like those swirls of darkness are..." John stopped as the swirling darkness manifested as people. The first was his father, who's hand was wrapped around his neck. Then came his sister, who's wagging tongue betrayed him, and finally came two vestiges. Being adopted meant he had two sets of parents, however with him not knowing his father, something else entirely happened. His birth mother's abandonment and adopted mother's betrayal and twelve years of damage brought him fully down. This time, there was no Grandma to save him. The vestiges watched helplessly until two men made their way through the sea of vestiges. They passed through the swirling darkness and spoke to the Ghost.
"Seems you could use a hand, friend." The Ghost looked up to see the vestiges of Marvin Heemeyer and Nikola Tesla standing above him. Marvin knelt down to him.
"I was betrayed too. Laughed at, and was shown just how little I mattered to them. I had friends there in Granby, friends all over the place, but after the government did what they did, after all the laughs, denial, and more... I had enough and took control of my situation. I fixed their smiles and devious laughter with the steel treads of my Komatsu Dozer."
Nikola knelt down too, and nodded. "Edison stole from me the idea of A/C Power. I rotted away my body with booze and solitude. However, it was then that I created my Death Ray, forced myself to work to show them just how foolish they were for believing that moron Edison. You have two choices that are in your full control. Option one, you can lay there rotting away in your misery..."
"Or," Started Heemeyer, laying a blade forged from one of the steel treads of the Killdozer. "Option two, You can get up and make them pay for every goddamn tread of sanity they stole from you. The choice is yours, but I know you have a value on yourself. The question is, is it higher or lower than what they assigned to you?"
As Heemeyer and Tesla rejoined the other vestiges, Heemeyer looked at John Henry. "I'd get everyone back if I were you."
"How do you know he'll pick option two?"
Heemeyer chuckled and stepped back. "Because he's not a quitter."
The Ghost gripped the blade and forced himself upwards. He broke free of his father's grip, removed his sister from the circle, then channeled all that rage into his hands and marched toward his mothers.
"You took my sanity... my love... my goddamn strength... but you will never overcome my rage nor will you take my heart. GO TO FUCKING HELL... THE BOTH OF YOU!" As he yelled, the rage exploded the barrier trapping him within his own mind, eviscerating the dark memory-vestiges of his mothers. As he regained control of his mind, he snapped back to reality.
[End of POV]
Sundeep looked at the hero and froze. "Did he just say M.A.D.... As in... Mutually Assured Destruction?!?!" However, the hero's former friend turned enemy was interrupted by the howling sound of something explosive. Sundeep looked over to see his new partner turned into atomic ash. Delzigade's Aerial Armada made the mistake of firing at him and within the wave of his hand, the armored zeppelins erupted into volatile balls of fire. Sundeep's second robot went to swat at the hero, but found him hovering behind Sundeep. In words twisted like those of a demonic fairytale, the hero spoke.
"Pray that Ottawa survived whatever foolish attempt you decided to cast upon it. For if it hasn't, I will claim this world as recompense for those stolen from me."
In an explosion that dwarfed the Russian Tsar-Bomb, the former hero reverted to his former self, the Ghost of Ottawa blasted away from his former friend breaking the sound barrier several times before arriving in Greater Ottawa. Mike Brisson looked up to see the former hero, gone into full psychosis, floating above the city. Much of the infrastructure was damaged and while the loss of life was minimal, it was still enough. The Ghost of Ottawa seemingly vanished and then reappeared before Sundeep.
"I FUCKING WARNED YOU."
Sundeep was frozen in fear, awaiting his death but... nothing happened. Cessair of Delzigade was hovering nearby with his second in command, Titus. "My pocket dimension ability should keep him..."
The area where the Ghost once hovered began to fold and tear as reality and the laws of nature were broken with the Ghost clawing his way out of the dimension. Before anyone could react, the Ghost grabbed onto Titus's head and crushed it.
"Well, well, look who decided to join the fray. Mr. Fascist himself."
The Fascist looked at the Ghost and found nothing but unfathomable rage staring back. However, before the fascist leader could speak, the Ghost muttered the names of his powers followed by three things.
"American Heritage & Folklore: Heemeyer's Rampage + Oppenheimer's Atom Bomb + Farnsworth's Television +...," The hero paused for a moment then grinned something demonic as he began laughing psychotically. "+ NIKOLA TESLA'S DEATH RAY! NOW FOR A PSYCHOSIS MOVE... KILDOZER'S ATOMIC DEATH STATIC!"
As the Ghost pointed his newly formed vestige arm cannon at the Cessair of Delzigade, a bullet grazed him, and he now focused the firepower of this cannon at the legion of traitors, fascists and leftover one-percenters below him. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he opened fire at them. That psychotic laughter was all too real and the last thing they'd ever hear. As the beam impacted the water, the resulting explosion shook the planet like nothing before and the shockwave scattered everyone across the globe, unaware of what became of the others.