Watchmen: Chimera
Chapter One: Provenance
New York City was dirty, dusty. Not just on the inside, but the outside as well. This city was filthy with murder, rape, sex, and prostitution. Still, people thought that somehow, it could be saved. Rorschach knew this city was doomed. He knew there was no saving it. The only other person that had thought the same way was The Comedian. The Comedian and Rorschach never saw eye to eye, nor have they ever communicated this topic with each other, but this could surely be agreed upon them. The rest of The Watchmen have retired their hero work, while Rorschach continued with his 'masked vigilante' persona, and Dr. Manhattan was kept on retainer by the government. There was one person, though amidst all of this crime and evil saw the best in things, as if she were blind to the world. Ellasophia Mercer, 25, pre-school teacher.
Elle, as her family members referred to her, walked into her classroom and tied her blonde, curly locks into a messy pony tail and set her glasses down on her desk. She slipped off her flats, as working in a preschool gave her the luxury of not having to wear shoes, and went to the door to greet her students as they came in. One by one, she greeted every 6 or 7 year old that walked in. The last to arrive, was Trevor. Elle takes his hand, and guides him to a table. She sits the young boy in a chair and kneeled down next to the dark, longer haired boy, and says, "How are you doing, Trevor?" still hand in hand with him.
"I am good, Ms. Mercer. How are you?" He responded.
"I'm holding up, Trevor, thank you." Trevor was blind, and not that she would admit it, he was her favorite student. Elle was always so fascinated by him; he was so much more 'down to earth' than the other kids.
Elle hands Trevor some Play-Doh, and places his hands on the table. While Trevor was feeling and squishing the 'Doh with his small hands, Elle handed out coloring books, and her class of 14 rowdy children rushed to the crayon bin in the front of the room. The students start coloring, some of them very focused on their masterpieces, while others laughing and coloring their shirts and tables.
Meanwhile, Dr. Manhattan was putting together some sort of elaborate machine. The pieces were small, but they each had some sort of complex shape that made them look all uniform to each other. The glowing blue light radiating from Manhattans skin glistened off of the metal of his machine. Laurie walked in wearing some sort of enticing lingerie. She lets out a purposeful cough, in intent to gain her lovers attention. The blue colored man doesn't draw his attention from his work, still completely focused on using his telekinetic energy to move the pieces about. Laurie's chocolate colored eyes gaze over his project. As she walks behind Manhattan, she says, "Jon, can we get to bed?"
"I must finish this project. I don't need to sleep." He responds, moving the pieces of machinery about.
"I didn't mean to sleep. It seems like you love this hunk of metal more than me."
"Rorschach brought this to me to figure out, and if that man needs help from us, it must be important; especially since he had to break in here to get to me. It has nothing to do with love." He stated, coldly.
"It has everything to do with love." Laurie said as she turned on her heel, and walked out.
Laurie did love Jon, but there were plenty more things she hated about him. Laurie always had a certain, longing, for Daniel, the Night Owl. She is very careful not to let anyone, not even Daniel know about her feelings. Although Daniel was retired, he kept most of the equipment that The Watchmen used. Rorschach, his partner before Daniel retired, had only his grapple gun, and his constantly morphing 'Rorschach' ink blot mask. When all of the other Watchmen quit, Rorschach continued to fight crime and use his extraordinary detective skills in vigilante work. Most people nowadays, view him as a villain. Rorschach never really viewed himself as anything, not a hero, nor villain. Rorschach thinks of what he does more of his job, and he has grown tough from this duty. He no longer had fear in killing a man.
The first time Rorschach killed a man, he was aghast. The fear, at first, had just consumed him. Like a gust of wind going through him, the fear faded quickly and his mind went black. Hacking the pedophiles that killed that little girl's skull. For some reason, he could only focus on the blood splattering on his mask, adding color to the black and white inkblots that covered his mysterious face. Rorschach knew he was insane, but he also knew he wasn't evil. He had secrets, as many as any being (maybe even more); and as many wouldn't expect, he also had feelings, strong ones at that. Rorschach used to view Night Owl as a brother, and loved him like one too. He would never tell Daniel that. No, that would cause him to let his guard down. Most would think Rorschach was incapable of feelings, even Daniel.
One Friday night, Rorschach was walking the streets. Like usual, thugs tried picking fights with him, prostitutes and bums booed at him and called him names.
"Go back to hell where you came from!" a man on the street shouted at him.
Rorschach, learned to not be phased by the comments. The masked man came to the end of 4th Street, and just before he turned the corner, he heard an ear piercing scream. Rorschach turned and walked down the alley where he heard the scream. He saw a rather large man, surrounded by a bunch of other large men. They all looked fairly dirty, and almost all of them had rugged beards. There seemed to be about 6 of them. Rorschach stealthily walked to the opposite side of the alley where he noticed a leather clad man pinning a younger, small blonde woman to the brick wall of the building. For some reason, he could not tell if the large, leather clad man was making the woman appear so small, or if she really did have that 'innocent' look about her. The large man began to run his hand up her sage green dress.
"P-please stop, just l-let me go!" the blonde girl said, sobbing.
The big man grabs tightly onto her thigh, and begins to unbutton the top of her dress. After he top undergarments are revealed to the group, Rorschach drops down on him. The rest of the gang members close in on him, but Rorschach reacts quickly, punching a man in the face, and then elbowing his stomach. Rorschach grabs the man whom he punched by the hair, and knocks him into the other gang members. He is still able to grab one more man, which he does, and runs his face into the brick wall. The man's face blood stains the wall, and drops to the ground.
The blonde girl has her eyes squeezed shut, and is hugging the wall. Rorschach glances at her, and turns to walk away. The girl peeks with one eye, and let's go of the wall. Rorschach is halfway down the alley when he hears a call, "Wait!"
Rorschach stops for a second, but then continues to walk. The blonde girl comes running up and grabs his trench coat sleeve. He stops, and looks over his shoulders at the bright eyed woman.
"T-thank you… you saved me." The girl said nervously, and softly.
"You don't need to thank me." Rorschach said in a gruff voice.
"Who are you?" She asked, still gripping onto his sleeve.
"Doesn't matter. Surprised you don't know."
"How can I thank you properly? You saved my life, that's kind of a big deal."
"I said don't. You talk a lot."
"Will I ever see you again?"
"Let's hope not" And with that, Rorschach was leaving.
"My name is Elle, by the way!" She shouts after him.
Rorschach continued to walk, not looking back.