A/N: So I totally fell in adoration with Mel-The-Shadow-Lover's anthro version of Archie. I mean, who wouldn't love an owlship-turned-into-a-human-child character? It's not really an OC, just another version of a familiar character, so I'm not breaking any "bad fanfic" rules, LOL.
Just so you know, I DID ask permission to use anthro!Archie, and am going to dedicate this fanfic to Mel-sama. Happy reading, girl~! :D
Go see what inspired this! NOW~
mel-the-shadow-lover(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/WM-Anthro-Archie-124947879
Extra note: this is semi-AU, meaning previous events are the same, only ones nearing the end are different. In this case, pretend that the movie-verse and comic-verse endings never happened; no end-of-the-world, no Rorschach-bloodblot-in-the-snow… none of that. Essentially, Watchmen in this fanfic is AU after the Comedian's death, because I'm keeping Laurie with Jon and whatnot. X3
The Introductory Class
It is difficult to say what to do with something when you know that it is obsolete. Do you sell it? Dismember it? Put it away in storage? Throw it away?
To someone as sentimental as Daniel Dreiburg, none of these things are acceptable. And in some situations, impossible; he can't sell this! No one in their right mind would buy it, not to mention the implications of a certain secret identity being blown if he sold it.
No, he can't rid himself of Archimedes. The owlship has been through nearly his entire hero career, which totals up to about half of his middle-aged life. Archie is strong and reliable and… and he made it with his own two hands, so how can he dispose of it? He needs the room in his basement, and Archie is in such bad repair from years of non-use that he needs to make a new ship if he's ever going to go into the hero-ing business again (which he is; after Rorschach's visit last week about the Comedian's death, Dan has been thinking that maybe what he's been missing all this time has been cloaked over a mannequin for the past several years).
So the question is, what to do? He wants to keep Archie, but it takes up far too much room, and can't even start. He doesn't have the heart to hide it in the depths of the New York bay, but he can't very well build and hold an entire new ship in the confines of this blasted Nest! So what should he do, shake Moloch from retirement and make him use is magic to poof Archie somewhere else, or into something else?
Then, an idea strikes: no, Moloch's an ex-villain and not a real magician, but there is someone who Dan is acquainted with whom is capable of transforming one thing into another.
xXx
"Jon, it's been a while," Daniel smiles as he steps foot into the military base and finds himself in a laboratory with a glowing blue man lingering above him.
"Hello, Dan," the invincible man says with a tone devoid of emotion.
The brunet nervously adjusts his glasses. "I'm sure you already know why I'm here."
"I do," Jon states calmly, and there is a hint of a smile in the flickering light of his ringed eyes. He casts an arm off to the side of his nude body to produce Archie. It teleports into the room and fills a space that might have been cleared of projects especially for it. "You wish for me to change Archie's molecular structure to that of something smaller and less complicated, in hopes of keeping it around for sentimentality's sake."
"Yeah," Dan replies lamely. He swallows tensely. "So… can you?"
"With a few added materials, I can do what it is you ask," Jon nods curtly.
"Thanks," the second Nite Owl grins gratefully. His chocolate eyes turn towards the owlship.
A few bursts of light – more teleportation – appear beside Archie, although Dan can't see from this distance what those things are. And then, suddenly, Dan glances to his right as he hears another teleportation in the process, and finds a bewildered Rorschach standing next to him.
The masked vigilante whirls on Jon. "Manhattan. What is meaning of this?" he growls, getting into the blue man's face and raising a fist. Even with the mask, Dan can tell that Rorschach is scowling, and perhaps frowning in confusion; it's written across the scrolling inkblots shifting on his 'face.'
"You need to be here for this," Job states simply. As he says this, the room is filled with an intense light as white-hot as a star exploding, driving Rorschach and Daniel into startled silence. They watch in awe as the smoke clears, and all of the 'needed material' is missing, Archie included.
In place of the owlship and extra chemical components, there is a lump on the floor, it's appearance balled-up and milky.
"Give him your coat, Rorschach," Jon requests at length, his tone of voice belying nothing. But there's a twitch on his face that Dan's catches and can only interpret as amusement.
"Him?" Rorschach clarifies, and as he looks in the direction of the milky lump, something clicks and he's rushing over to it.
Daniel can't believe his eyes as he follows quickly behind Rorschach and approaches what lays where Archie had once been resting. There, in front of his gaping mouth and frozen feet is a young boy of ten years of age at the least, and twelve at the most. The boy has wavy, light brown hair with an orange shimmer in the highlights given off by the laboratory lighting, and a small dusting of freckles across his cheeks, shoulders, and knees.
"Your coat, Rorschach," Jon reminds them as he appears behind the two.
Rorschach timidly bends down and awkwardly shrugs off his trench coat to reveal the pinstripe vest which matches his pants and the white shirt underneath. He drapes it around the strange boy.
Slowly, Jon waves his hand over the boy's head and murmurs, "I knew I could create life if I tried."
The boy's eyes flutter open in sync with the waving hand, and he blinks in confusion. "Huh?" he mumbles in a sleepy tone. He sits up, hugs the coat around himself, and yawns. "Daniel? Rorschach?" He stares up at them with caramel eyes as rich and sweet as a kitten's. "When did you both get so tall?"
"Tall?" Rorschach grunts. His shoulders twitch in a half-shrug of offense, since he's never been deemed tall in his entire life.
But Dan takes the remark much differently. He turns to Jon. "He… This is Archimedes? You… you turned him human?!" The shock is hardly left out of his voice.
Jon nearly smiles. "Yes. I thought you would do best with something that required more hands-on care, but could also assist you in crime-fighting from a distance and handle itself while you're away. I also wanted to test my abilities, to see if converting elements and mixed DNA into a living thing was possible. It is. I lifted a few skin cells from yourself and Rorschach to give your ship a base for it's own DNA."
Well, that certainly explained why Archie's new, human eyes are brown like his own. His hair, too. Although the freckles and orange lowlights are a mystery to him. And then he remembers that Jon mentioned he used Rorschach's DNA as well. "Why did you –"
"Stole my DNA, Manhattan? Humph. If weren't immortal, would break your neck. Better not have saved a piece for government use."
"Nothing to worry about, Rorschach," Jon reassures. He glances down at Archie, whom has been listening for the past few minutes in interested silence. "What do you remember?"
"Everything!" Archie pipes up gleefully. He scrambles to his feet and slips on Rorschach's grungy coat, tying it around his slim waist. "I remember flying over New York and hearing talking inside me about criminals and justice, and all kinds of stuff like that." He turns towards Daniel and frowns, a small finger poking out of a too-long sleeve hanging off his shoulder to scorn the older brunet. "You left poor Rory to do all the hard work by himself for a bunch of years! That wasn't very nice. I know there was some kind of law passed, but that's no excuse! I got so bored, sitting there and getting dusty. And I bet Rory was as hurt and lonely as I was for all those years."
Daniel blinks rapidly, still trying to adjust to the change, but also trying to absorb what this kid – his kid, in a strange way – is trying to tell him.
Rorschach cuts into the conversation. "Don't. Call. Me. Rory," he corrects sternly. "Men shouldn't have pet-names like dogs."
"But Dr. Manhattan used some of your DNA on me, you heard him! That means that you're like my dad, so I have to call you something. And I figured that you probably wouldn't want me calling you 'daddy,' would you? That's like me calling him –" he points to Daniel, whom is still staring "– my mommy! …Although," Archie adds with a cute giggle, "He kinda is my mommy, isn't he? He made me when I was still metal pieces and wires. And I heard Rorschach calling him an, 'over-bearing mother hen.'" As a joke, the post-ship reaches out and hugs Dan, exclaiming, "Mom~!"
Daniel finally snaps out of his stupor. "Mom?" he questions. He shoots a glare at Rorschach as Archie releases him and he's able to fold his arms over his chest. "I'm no mother hen, Rorschach."
"Could have fooled me," the other grunts listlessly.
Between the three, Jon gestures to the door. "You're going to leave in exactly two minutes, hollering something about not being a dysfunctional, makeshift family as soon as Laurie steps in to call you such."
"What?" Daniel puzzles as he turns his attention on the superhuman man.
As if on cue, however, Laurie bursts into the room behind her lover. "What's going on in here? I keep hearing a bunch of – Oh, hello, Dan. It's nice to see you again! What brings you here?" She smiles.
"Um, uh, y-yeah. Hi, Laurie." He offers a gentle smile in return. "I'm here because I wanted to do something with my owlship, and I suppose Jon has a twisted sense of humor, because he turned Archie into a human boy."
Her eyes grow wide, the mole beneath them shrinking in size. "Whoa. I didn't know he could do that." She sends her lover a brilliant smile. "That's impressive."
Jon brushes the compliment off. "My reasoning was because it seemed appropriate. Dan needed the distraction."
"Children can be very distracting," Laurie giggles. "But what does that make you, Dan? Part of some makeshift family? – Or part of a dysfunctional one, since I suppose Rorschach is going to have to help you with this since you two were partners." Her face clears for all of two milliseconds before she bursts into wild laughter, the image of Dan in a pink apron cooking dinner with Rorschach coming in through the front door and removing his hat like a businessman home for the day, all the while with Archie bouncing up and down at the table, demanding food.
A slight flush colors Daniel's face. "Partners in crime fighting!" he insists, and can almost hear Rorschach jerk into attention off to the side of him, where the vigilante is attempting to escort the child out of the laboratory.
"Am not going to be some domesticated piece of society," Rorschach grumbles in the direction of the other adults. "Child is not my problem."
"Aw, but Rorschach…" Archie whines as he stops in front of him, ceasing Rorschach's attempt to shoo him out, "Jon said that I have some of your DNA inside of me! Don't you want to be with your own flesh and blood?" he pouts.
Rorschach stiffens. He leans down (slightly prided by the fact that he's taller than someone for once) and mutters, "Own flesh and blood is like Mother. I hate my mother."
"But I'm not your mother, I'm like your son!" Archie corrects. He clings to Rorschach's arm with both hands. "Remember all those times I carried you and Daniel around the city and came rushing to your sides when you were in trouble? I'm good at following orders! I won't be a disobedient child, I swear. So please, pretty please, Rory? Will you be my daddy?" Archie proceeds to whisper, "Besides, I know what you look like under your mask, and I like you just the way you are. And don't worry, I won't tell Mom who you are. I don't even know your name, so how can I?"
Rorschach tenses, the words processing in his mind at a languid rate. But as they come to the part about his other face having been seen, he softens a little; no one has ever liked him the way he is, and the innocence and truth coming from this young boy reminds him that not everything in the world is evil and cruel and in dire need of justification. So he sighs roughly, yanks his arm from Archie's grip, and states flatly, "Hurm. Fine. Will agree to stop by now and again to help raise you to be decent detective like self. Can't leave you in Daniel's hands; will make you too soft on criminals."
"Yay!" Archie cheers. He doesn't care about Rorschach's excuses for reasoning; he only cares that the vigilante is agreeing to stick around for his sake. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" He grips Rorschach in a hug. The other stiffens at the contact, not used to it, but Archie releases him soon enough so not to make the rugged hero too uncomfortable. "Can we go home, now?"
Daniel is stalking towards them, headed for the door. "We're going home right now," he mumbles. His face reveals that he's clearly embarrassed by something. He throws over his shoulder, "It's not funny, Laurie, so stop laughing! We are not some dysfunctional, makeshift family! So whatever you're picturing is absolutely impossible."
"Not the way I see it," the brunette throws back with a giggly smile on her face. She threads her arm around one of Jon's. To him, she asks as she watches the three men leave, "What have you done, Jon?"
The blue man offers the smallest of smiles. "I have given Dan and Rorschach a lesson in home economics."
She drops her grip and begins walking back to her bedroom. "Heaven help them," Laurie says with a shake of her head.
Next chapter:
Class One: How To Cook