You Quit
Chapter One
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The Keene act had been passed exactly a week ago. Nite Owl flew Archie grimly back to his owl's nest. The police had permitted him to make a final statement as Nite Owl, on the condition that it was only to announce his retirement. There had been a bigger turnout than Dan had expected. Well, his expectations weren't that high, he only had Hollis and Laurie confirmed. To his surprise, many people turned out, fans of his, people whose lives he had saved, and even a small group of gentlemen dressed in their army uniforms. There were even a few parents who had brought their kids; Nite Owl had always prided himself on being a good model for the kids; he was not as violent as The Comedian or Rorschach, and not as controversial as Hooded Justice or Doctor Manhattan. The crowd had listened to Nite Owl speak about how he enjoyed protecting the people, but he was retiring because staying on duty would be going against everything he stood for. When he was done talking, there was a polite applause. After his speech, he shook hands with a few people, signed a couple of autographs for the kids, and then left in Archie. The flight back was the worst part; he was leaving his dream life behind.
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Archie descended down into the warehouse, and through the subway tunnel.
"Daniel, I'm in your basement," came a familiar voice
"Roger that," Dan slowed down
Dan's basement doors slid open, allowing the Owlship in. Carefully, Nite Owl parked the ship on a set of jacks, and got out. Rorschach stood by the stairs, eating sugar cubes.
"Hello Daniel," Rorschach commented, through the 'ronch ronch' sound he made when chewing, "Very inspirational speech you made."
"I didn't see you there," Nite Owl said
"You didn't recognize me," Rorschach continued, "Didn't have my face on."
"Ah."
Dan pulled off his cape and cowl, and placed them on a nearby chair.
"I'm going to miss this," Dan sighed
He reached to his utility belt, and took out his grappling gun.
"I guess you're not going to retire?" Dan asked
"Never surrender," Rorschach growled
"Thought so," Dan tossed the gun to his friend, "You can have that. I'm not going to need it unless I need to adjust my satellite dish."
Rorschach examined the gun.
"Thanks," he muttered
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This is where the two realities are different; in the mainstream reality, Dan Dreiberg asked Rorschach to leave when he heard his oven timer go off. However, in this reality, the circuit in the timer had shorted out, leaving Dan with no good excuse to avoid talking to Rorschach.
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"So…" Dan was sure his oven timer should have gone off by now; he had planned it so, "…any plans?"
"Toughen down on teenage drug dealers," Rorschach said, "They've had it good too long."
"Ah…going to break some fingers?"
"Of course. No other way to do it. Can't afford electro-stun-knockout laser technology you use."
An idea popped into Dan's head. Rorschach was a pretty violent guy, probably the reason why masks were outlawed. But if he could get introduce a bit of Nite Owl into Rorschach…
"Rorschach, do you ever have trouble breaking into houses?" Dan asked, "I know a lot of people are buying burglar alarms nowadays."
"Hurm…" Rorschach growled, "Woke up neighborhood last week. Four cops on same street. Not easy."
"Well," Dan picked up a set of lock picks in a leather pouch, "These have been magnetized, so they'll bypass most alarms."
"Cool…" Rorschach muttered, "Thank you Daniel."
"But uh…you might want to mark them," Nite Owl admitted, "Here's a marker; why don't you write your symbol on it?"
"You don't want to be involved with me?" Rorschach asked
"Well…" Nite Owl shrugged uneasily, "Do you want people to think Rorschach is after them or Nite Owl?"
Rorschach's mask changed shape.
"Good point," Rorschach pocketed the tools, and walked out.
/
Nite Owl walked upstairs, opened his fridge, and pulled out a beer. He popped the top open using the bottle opener on his Swiss Army Owl.
"Phase one, complete," he said, drinking triumphantly