It is I, Whirlwind, and I'm here to summarize chapter 9! What a chapter of revelations and self interrogation. Let's whoosh on over.

As far as we are concerned, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.

--C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Summary

Jon whisks Laurie off to Mars. She falls and can't breathe with the lack of atmosphere. One wave of his finger and she can breathe again. She is the second person on Mars. They enter his clockwork castle. He already knows what will happen and says all their actions are predestined.

He knows she's been sleeping with Dan Dreiberg. He asks her what her earliest memory is. As a five year old girl, she could hear her parents arguing so snuck downstairs. Her father found out her mother had cheated on him. Laurie looked into a snow globe. Her father caught her listening in and caused her to drop the snow globe. She suspected Hooded Justice was really her father and not Schexnayder.

Jon says that Laurie was the only thing holding him on Earth. Now that she's with Dan, why should he save Earth? The castle turns into a ship and takes off.

Sally held a reunion party when Laurie was 13. Hollis and Nelson (Captain Metropolis) attend. Hollis asked if Laurie read his book yet. Sally says it's too mature for her. Byron Lewis (Mothman) arrives looking worse for wear.

When Laurie was 16, her mother drove her in a limo to the Crime Busters meeting where she met Jon. She met Blake after the meeting, and he lights her cigarette. Sally took her away from him. Laurie didn't know of what he did to her mother yet. Sally told her on the way home.

Jon says he will return to Earth after and will see dead people everywhere. He blames nuclear war for the details being hazy. He will stand in snow and kill someone.

Laurie attended an event for Blake and got drunk. He tried to sweet talk her, but she confronted him about the assault of her mother. He said it was only once like that made it okay. Jon teleported her away.

Jon thinks Laurie is in denial about something. She puts all her memories together and realizes that Sally met up with Blake for a second time but voluntarily, and that he is her father. She throws the Nostalgia perfume which collapses the castle. Jon has them protected in a blue bubble. When Laurie says her life is meaningless, Jon says it isn't. She convinced him to save Earth. Her birth was so improbable like an alchemical reaction. They will go back home.

Extras

Marginalia

Jung

G. Gordon Liddy. Involved in Watergate.

Woodard and Bernstein: reporters who broke the Watergate story. (In our world, Nixon resigned 49 years ago yesterday.)

Join u/KieselguhrKid13 on August 11 for Issue 10: Two Riders Were Approaching. Questions are in the comments. Excuse my dust! 🌪