[Caterpillar] Chapter 22 - Massacre (Patreon)

It was an enormous hall. He could barely make out its outer walls but he could not see the ceiling. There were no windows and there were no lights either. Though he could not see his hand in front of his face, he could hear the collective breathing of a large group of living beings. Through his Sage senses, he could feel there were thousands of them gathered in the hall.

An orange-red flame bloomed in the palm of his hand. When his surroundings were revealed, he paled.

Thousands of yellow-skinned humanoid beings were hanging from the ceiling in translucent fleshy cocoons. Tentacle-like plants, just like the one that had got the drop on him a few hours before, were wrapped around each of those Debstam inhabitants' neck, torso or face. It was a giant hive.

'It's just like back then.'

He was reminded of how the God Tree had captured the entirety of the Elemental Nations, every living being, and encased them in cocoons, putting them into an eternal slumber. Just like the tentacle plants were doing to their victims. Each one of them was experiencing something no different than the Infinite Tsukuyomi that Madara had cast back in his homeworld.

Sounds of teeth-gnashing came from him and his face became livid. A rage that his hands started shaking came over him. Veins were pulsating on his temples and his breathing came out in gasps. He was hyperventilating.

It was at that time that the sound of people talking reached his ears. His wildly beating heart slowed down and he got a hold of his violent emotions. But his red, slit eyes shone with ferocity.

'Whoever did this. I'll rip them to shreds. I'll-, I'll-"

He could not continue that thought. Just thinking about it made him see red in front of his eyes.

⁂

"How are the tests going?" A massive humanoid being asked. He was bald, his skin was a dirty yellow colour and his eyes were completely red. His skin-tight purple costume showed off his incredibly muscular physique.

"We have successfully modified the genetic data of the Black Mercy," a man similar in stature and appearance to him answered. They looked like they were related. The difference came mostly in the outfit he was wearing: a blue and dark pink costume with a bright yellow symbol on his chest. It was none other than the Yellow Lantern Corps' symbol.

"Previously, Black Mercy would have offered its victims a painless death, giving them the perfect life they've always dreamed of. However, I changed it. My yellow power ring gave me new insights that I had never thought about before. I made it so that after tasting the sweetness of their version of Paradise, their greatest fears would come to life. The emotional trauma would increase the speed at which the Black Mercy feeds on their psychic energy, eventually draining all the vitality from their body. The victims would die an agonizing death, worse than any physical torture could ever bring them."

The two muscular yellow-skinned humanoids were none other than Mongul and his son who carried the same name as him, Mongul the Younger.

A cruel smile appeared on Mongul's face.

"Good. Good," he said, repeating himself. "They took Warworld from me. That lowly slave, Draga, that Kryptonian and the Justice League, I will pay them back for that humiliation tenfold. How sweet it will be to see them all bent on their knees in front of me, begging me to kill them."

He broke into laughter. Similarly, Mongul the Younger laughed along with him.

"What about our other project?" Mongul asked.

"My sister is dealing with it. Our fleet is almost ready. We are missing some personnel though. We have killed too many in the last pandemic. But they're just rubble. We could always get more slaves from another planet. Fear will keep them in line," his son replied and raised his fist to look at the Yellow Power Ring on his middle finger.

A human-looking man appeared on the illuminated platform that the son and father tyrants had been conversing on before. A fur-collared black cloak, crimson red hair, slit red eyes and dark, thick whisker-like marks on his face. It was none other than Naruto.

"Who are you?" Mongul asked, alerted by his unexpected arrival.

Instinctively, Mongul Jr instantly conjured a sphere of yellow light around himself and his father. It was just in time to meet the newcomer's punch.

*bang*

The sound of glass shattering was heard and the yellow construct of light was smashed into shards of light, with Mongul and Mongul Jr being violently thrown off the platform.

"It was you!" Naruto screamed.

The father and son duo quickly rose to their feet but two hands suddenly smashed into their faces and grabbed them both by the head in a vice-like grip. Holding them by their face, he ran with them and smashed their heads into the thick outer walls of the hall, creating a large hole in it and then jumped with them outside.

A bolt of yellow light shot from Mongul Jr's power ring and exploded right into Naruto's chest, blasting him away from them and making him lose his grip on their faces.

"Who the hell are you?" Mongul Jr screamed. Five bloodied marks were left on his face from how hard Naruto's fingers had dug into his skin.

Naruto looked at the bleeding bruise left by the blast of yellow light on his chest. It had destroyed his cloak and combat suit and scrapped his skin, almost revealing the ribs below.

A deranged grin appeared on his face.

He launched himself at them again and his fist smashed against the new sphere of yellow light that Mongul Jr had conjured with his power ring. The construct of light once more could not resist even one of his punches and shattered in a spectacle of lights. But Mongul the older threw an explosive punch at Naruto, striking him in the face. The blow threw him back almost like a cannonball, destroying dozens of tree trunks and creating a line of broken trees in the dense jungle around the hall hosting the Hive.

"Guards! What the hell are you doing!?" Mongul screamed and, at his call, dozens upon dozens of tall and thin yellow-skinned humanoids came from the large hall carrying blasters and plasma swords with them.

Naruto sat up from the crater he had been smashed into like a zombie. He laughed. It was a screamed, insane laughter. He sprang from his place, making a beeline towards Mongul and his son once more.

Mongul the Younger conjured a construct of yellow light in the form of a cannon barrel and an enormous blast of light impacted Naruto and exploded in a shower of light along with his blood. But Naruto only laughed, a mad look in his eyes. Laser beams were shot by the henchmen of Mongul and a part of them also closed in, slashing at him with their plasma swords.

He ignored them all and launched himself at Mongul and his son again. Bloodlust was rolling off of him in waves.

"What the hell is your problem? What do you want?!" Mongul screamed, inwardly starting to feel afraid. Despite having a Yellow Lantern in his son and an army at his side, an impending feeling of death seemed to loom over him. It filled him with trepidation.

Naruto suddenly disappeared, greatly alarming the two Mongul and the army of henchmen around them. Mongul suddenly felt his breath leaving his lungs and his feet leaving the ground. Mongul Jr could only watch as their enemy's lariat almost beheaded his father and hurled him into the distance spinning like a top. A huge hatchet of yellow light came from his power ring and slashed at Naruto's back opening up a wound gushing with blood.

"Fucking animal!" Mongul Jr screamed and raised his hatchet of yellow light to hack down once more. Naruto teleported right in front of his face, grabbed him in a painful chokehold with a hand and slammed him into the ground. The ground shattered and an immense crater was formed.

He raised his other arm and a long dagger appeared in it before he stabbed into Mongul Jr's hand, the hand holding the Yellow Power ring. A howl of pain came from Mongul Jr. But only moments later, Naruto also screamed...with laughter. The plasma sword of one of the henchmen had impaled him through the chest, from the back. Blood spurted from his mouth as one of his lungs was perforated and burnt off by the heat sword. It was as if he did not even register the pain. Or more, like he took pleasure in it.

A backhanded slap at his back made the henchman that had stabbed him through with his plasma sword burst into a shower of gore and blood. The rest of the henchmen holding swords immediately drew away in terror but death reaped their lives before they knew it as a forest of stone spikes abruptly burst from the ground below their feet. Dozens of henchmen were slaughtered in the blink of an eye, their death throes cries a macabre symphony of death.

The grievous wounds that he had received began to heal like a miracle, even the burnt and cauterized hole in his chest closed up. If it were not for his ruined combat suit, one would not believe he had been mortally wounded just a few moments before.

The deranged smile slowly receded from his face. The glimmer of insanity in his red eyes subsided. His rage was nowhere near abated though. His hand wrapped in a transparent blade of wind, he slashed at Mongul Jr's arm, severing it from the elbow along with his Yellow Power ring.

A scream of despair and pain came from the Yellow Lantern. His massive body convulsed violently and he punched and kicked with his remaining limbs in desperation but the previously seemingly vulnerable body of Naruto was now like steel, Mongul Jr's powerful hits not even causing a bruise. Naruto's vice-like grip on his neck was unshakeable. He started to drag the massive body of Mongul Jr after him, towards the place where Mongul the father lay after the lariat to the neck had almost taken his life.

Mongul the father tried to stand to his feet but he could not muster any strength. To his horror, he realized that he could not feel his body from the neck below. Naruto's lariat had paralyzed him.

A sound of slow footsteps reached his ears, every stomp on the ground sounding like the limbs of a watch measuring the remaining time from his life.

"Why are you doing this?! How have I wronged you? I've never even seen you in my life!" Mongul screamed when Naruto came into his sight, dragging his son by the neck.

Naruto threw Mongul Jr to the ground roughly. The yellow lantern scrambled to get up as quickly as he could but a blade of lightning pierced through his thigh, pinning him to the ground.

"Tell me why are you doing this! Why are you killing us?!" Mongul Jr also screamed in desperation.

Normally, it was he who brought despair to others. He was chosen as a Yellow Lantern for a reason. Mongul Jr had obtained his Yellow Power ring by killing its previous owner. But now, he was the one tasting what fear and despair felt like.

Naruto spoke to Mongul the father who was paralyzed on the ground.

"You gave me everything. And then you took it away. My parents, my mentor, my wife, my daughter, my family. I watched them all die in front of my eyes. I'm going to do the same for you."

Two shadow clones appeared next to him and they went to the paralyzed Mongul. They grabbed him roughly by the head and their fingers pried his eyes wide open, making it impossible for him to close his eyes or look away.

"It's insurance. To make sure you'll watch every single moment of how I'm going to torture your son to death."

⁂

It was carnage. Dozens of yellow-skinned soldiers were impaled on gigantic spikes of stone, their blood making a river below. Mongul and Mongul Jr were unrecognizable. Dismembered, their eyes gouged out and chunks of flesh ripped out of their bodies or incinerated.

Even then, the massacre was not over. Hours later, several hundred corpses littered Mongul's military base. Every single one of his henchmen was killed. The only people left alive were the ones being held by the Hive of Black Mercy organisms.

Naruto lay on a boulder with his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his palms.

Until the illusion of Black Mercy, he had never seen his loved ones actually die. He had not seen his mother and father die, he had not witnessed Sandaime Hokage's assassination and he had not seen his mentor's death at the hands of Pain either.

The first time that he saw someone apparently die was when he thought that Hinata was killed and he went berserk to the point that Kyuubi took over him and broke the seal. The second time was when Neji sacrificed himself to protect Hinata during the war. But Naruto had not been particularly close to either Neji or Hinata. They had been just friends, just two of the large group of people that he viewed as friends.

"Ero-sennin. Baa-chan. Jiji."

Only now, when it was all over and his rage had died down, grief surfaced. Heavy and bitter tears started rolling down his scarred cheeks as he said their names.

"Kaa-chan. Tou-san. Thea. Diana."

He knew it had been only an illusion. However, while only a few hours passed in reality, he had lived for more than 10 years inside the dream given to him by the Black Mercy. His feelings for everyone there had been real.

Surrounded by piles of corpses from all sides and a thick scent of blood staining the air, he cried alone for a long time.

⁂

"Great Athena! You are okay!" was the first thing Diana exclaimed when her lightwave device rang and she answered the incoming call.

On the other side of the video call was Naruto.

"When that thing grabbed you, I-, I thought the worst! I-,"

She stopped to recollect herself and get a hold of her growing anxiety. But she realized that Naruto was eerily silent. Furthermore, he was wearing his white fox mask as well - something that he never did while talking to her.

"It's good to see you, Diana," Naruto said eventually, his voice choked with untold emotions.

He could feel that Wonder Woman wanted to ask what was wrong with him but he did not trust himself to not break if he talked about it with her then. So he said to quickly change the subject:

"Where are you? Can you reach out to Green Lantern?"

Wonder Woman naturally noticed his actions. Though she was dying to make sure that he was alright, she stopped her urges to press him for more information.

"Green Lantern is with me. Flash, Starfire and Supergirl are with me too. We are in the middle of a space-warp. We should arrive in the Cygnus constellation in a matter of minutes."

Anticipating his question, she explained:

"When you were attacked and fell unconscious I feared the worst. I-"

Flash all of a sudden butted in the frame, and said:

"She was so worried that she ran straight to J'onn and asked him how to get to the Cygnus System. We didn't even know where that was at first."

Flash was pushed out of the frame and 2 girls, a blonde and a redhead, popped in instead.

"We had to ask Batman to hack this thing and then Doctor Fate to trace your location. You caused us so much trouble, honestly!" Supergirl said as if she was aggrieved but she was smiling.

"That tentacle thing didn't do any weird things to you, right?" Starfire asked too.

"Starfire!" Diana yelled from the background and the camera shook as they fought for who to hold it. Eventually, Diana won the small scuffle and handed the lightwave device to Green Lantern.

Seeing the dark-skinned man appear in the frame, Naruto said:

"Tell the Guardians that the mission is complete. However, there were some complications. They should send a few dozen Green Lanterns at least and someone well-versed in medicine, magic or mind arts. There are several thousand people parasitised by Black Mercy plants. A huge hive."

"Black Mercy you say?!" Green Lantern could not help crying out.

"Yes. Black Mercy that were genetically engineered to give nightmares to the host instead of a beautiful dream. I did not want to risk taking the plants off of the people myself. I'm not a medic and I'm not experienced in matters like these. I don't know what would happen if I were to suddenly take them off."

In order to prove his words, Naruto turned the camera towards his surroundings. Thanks to a shadow clone illuminating the darkness-filled hall with a fire technique, Green Lantern was able to see what was there.

"My god...!" he said in shock.

He was not the only one with that reaction. The other 4 peeking over his shoulders at the screen were similarly appalled at the sight of thousands of people hanging from the ceiling in fleshy cocoons and with a mass of tentacles wrapped around their necks, torso and face.

"The ones orchestrating this are dead. We'll talk more about it once you arrive here. Now let me speak with Diana."

Green Lantern gave Wonder Woman the lightwave device and, judging by the lack of noise in the background, she went to a different room of the spaceship.

"I've made you worry. I'm sorry," he said softly.

The princess shook her head.

"No, more importantly, I'm relieved to see you are all right."

Taking a look at his still covered by mask face, she asked:

"Are you okay?"

Luckily, the mask covered the haunted expression he had on his face then. After a long pause, he said:

"I'm better now. I can see you."

The 'You are alive' part was left unsaid.