New York City is never quiet. We can plug our ears, turn up the volume, sing a happy tune, or even curl up in someone's arms; waiting for the cries of help to fall silent. Though many of the souls living in this place choose to ignore these distant pleads, someone's gotta hear them out. Someone like a man dressed in an owl suit, along with his snazzy-hatted friend. Someone like the Watchmen.
"Well Rorschach, that's one less guy out there selling crack. It's a good thing we got that anonymous tip earlier." Nite Owl clapped his hands together as a grin spread over his face. It wasn't anything serious, knocking out an already 'out' crack dealer, but the satisfaction of punching a few teeth never ceases to amuse.
"Night's barely started, the scum have yet to emerge. Nothing interesting. Giving it more time." Hands in his pocket, Rorschach looked almost letdown by the nights activities so far.
"Interesting?" Nite owl chuckled. "I don't know what you'd find 'interesting'... can't say I really wanna find out, either. As for knocking out drug dealers, well... that's fine enough for me."
"Heh, Daniel, you're getting soft."
They walked in silence now. A warm breeze lifting the garbage along the sidewalk, carrying the stench of who-knows-what in the air. Stale water, rotting newspapers, perhaps even a dead cat. Or not. You never know exactly what you're smelling when out on this side of the city. The owl ship Archie awaited them on the building around the corner, ready to take them to their next patrol point. The crime-fighting duo nearly turned the corner when a scream ripped though the night.
"Did you hear that?" Daniel asked pointlessly. Well, of course he heard it. Who couldn't?
Without responding, Rorschach dodged behind Daniel and ran towards the ally. Daniel followed as Rorschach stopped in the middle of the street to listen for where the noise came from. He looked side to side while Nite Owl adjusted the setting on his goggles.
"Damn, can't see a thing. The sensors-" Cut of from another scream.
"This way," Rorschach mumbled, already running towards the ally.
A woman was being tossed around by four ugly thugs. They snickered as they hit her around, watching her crash into a dumpster. One of them, who had a nasty hole through his ear, took the opportunity to get his nights pleasure. "C'mon bitch, let's have some fun! Ha ha!" He jumped at her, groping what he could reach as his three other friends joined in on all the fun. They were so distracted by their game, that they didn't hear the rapidly approaching vigilantes.
Being smaller and not held down by heavy armor, Rorschach reached the end of the ally ahead of his partner. Normally, he wouldn't hesitate to beat off the offenders and save the victim, but something held him back. This woman's very short skirt was being tugged at. Her face was prematurely lined as well as covered in thick layers of make-up. She was thin, not carrying a bag, not decently dressed at all... this woman was a whore. A filthy prostitute being over come by more filthy men. Rorschach stopped in his tracks and shied back.
Daniel reached Rorschach, panting a bit, but confused at his friend's stillness.
"Ru-Rorshach... what are you waiting for?" He stared at the masked man who's face seemed expressionless. He stood there, breathing hard with his head hung, fist clenched.
Daniel looked from the distressing scene just around the dumpster, and back at his partner.
"Why aren't you helping her?" His voice was becoming frantic.
"She's a whore, Daniel." Rorschach's voice was deep, the words seemed pushed.
The Nite Owl was shocked. Staring down at the shorter man, he mumbled, "Whu-what?? Rorschach, that woman's being raped!"
"She's a... whore... not worth it." Not once did the ink blot mask look up at Nite Owl. If it did, it'd see the terrified look on his face.
"She's still a human being! Men are trying to rape her, we gotta help! Now's not the time to pull your city-scum crap." Another shrill scream reminded Nite Owl that he should probably hurry. He took one last glance at his friend, and turned to run down the ally.
"I'm coming, don't worry! C'mon Rorschach, I can't save the world by myself!"
He turned the corner, out of the vigilante's sight. He did not move. He couldn't. He refused to help the filth from more filth. Daniel was wrong in saying she deserved help. In barely a whisper, Rorschach breathed, "N-no..."
Daniel's receding foot falls began to disappear completely, bouncing off the walls and into the night. Still frozen in place, Rorschach only stood as the sounds of fist-hitting-flesh filled his ears. He wanted to rush to the fight, hit a few thugs, save an innocent, and help Daniel. But his legs wouldn't budge. They didn't need to, he thought. Daniel could handle the four thugs on his own, he'd seen it happen before.
A shout. A crash. A woman's scream. Someone yelled 'shit', but it wasn't Daniel. Rorschach felt his feet turning to leave, maybe to run out to the ship. The thought of saving a whore, saving my mother. Dismissing the idea immediately, he turned to leave. He nearly did, when he heard a heavy body fall and Nite Owl scream. No hesitation. Rorschach turned on his heel and sprinted down the ally, the whore all but forgotten.
As he slid into view, he immediately made eye-contact with the whore. Her mascara was running as the fake face she painted on was coming apart. A low rumble of disgust parted his lips before going into action. Hafta look for Daniel. It wasn't hard to find a man wearing an owl suit amongst four raggedy criminals. They had him on the ground, one grabbing at his ankle, another trying to get a good punch. And there was also one who didn't know what the hell he was doing. And the fourth? Well, the lady still needed some attention. The whore could wait.
Rorschach grabbed the man at Daniel's ankle by the collar. Pulling him back, the unsuspecting man's face made quick friends with Rorschach's fist. His head flew back as blood burst from a cut lip and loose teeth. Dan regained his footing and swiftly kicked the feet from beneath the man trying to punch him. A sickening crack as his head hit the asphalt. Abandoning the whore, the man with the holey-ear charged at Nite Owl, who's attention was on that of the first man. Holey-ear grabbed his cape, yanking Daniel back. Rorschach intervened by hurdling a lost boot at him before charging. He tackled the man to the ground, throwing punch after punch. The man was becoming sluggish but still tried to hit back. Rorschach grabbed his wrist mid-throw, ramming it to the ground in an awkward position; the man's fist was all but shattered. Daniel backhanded one man, then swiveled to catch the other before he could do harm. Nite Owl picked him up and launched him in to the wall behind them. It was safe to say 'One down, three to go.'
Both Rorschach and Nite Owl had their backs facing away from each other, each handling one thug while simultaneously dealing with the third. They had to admit, these guys were durable. Daniel had once again thrown a man, only this one went head first into the garbage. He didn't get up. Now it was two versus two. Rorschach had one on the ground, pinning him so his legs were useless. Nite Owl was busy deflecting surprisingly strong hits from his. But what neither of them noticed, was the first man out. The one thrown into the wall. He lay in a puddle of blood, his coordination off, but he struggled. Reaching into his vest pocket, the man pulled out a gun. "Buh...bastards..." His arms were weak, his vision blurred, but using the strength he could summon, he pulled the trigger. The shot rang out in the seemingly silent night, shattering all the control and stillness. Daniel distracted himself from his meat-bag. The woman was still cramming herself into the corner, Rorschach was already heading to the man who fired the shot, and Nite Owl didn't feel shot, so he was probably okay. Must have missed, he thought to himself.
But it didn't miss. Someone got hit, but they weren't about to show that weakness. Rorschach felt the slug the moment the shot rang out. He could feel the twisting of lead in his side, the blood oozing out in a deep red. He spat blood and saliva but turned quickly on the man with the gun. No hesitation, no holding back. Lifting his foot, Rorschach kicked the man straight in the jaw, sending his head nearly parallel with his spine. Another stomp to the face, a crack of the already weakened skull. The force which he used to smash the man's skull caused a wave of burning hot pain to explode from his side. His vision became dark and fuzzy as he struggled to regain his posture. Weakly, he stepped towards the Nite Owl.
Daniel had finished off the last man moments ago and was now tending to the lady. He sounded a bit exhausted, but had enough breath to make sure she was fine.
"You okay, ma'am?" He reached out a hand to help her up.
"Yeah, I'm okay. D'os guys jump me when I wasn't lookin'." She accepted Nite Owl's hand and stood.
"D-daniel..." Rorschach whispered.
Dammit, not now! He thought. Daniel waved Rorschach away. "Quiet, Rorschach. I need to make sure everything is okay."
Rorschach stood there holding his side as he watched Daniel help the lady. The sticky blood caked his skin and oozed down his pant legs. Every step he took caused spasms of pain.
"Did they hurt you? Your clothes look ripped..."
"Nah, nottin' too bad. Woulda been better if ya guys got here faster, though."
"Heh, well we had a small... delay," he shot a glance back at Rorschach who continued to just stand there. Probably to sour to accept that he'd helped a whore. Daniel focused his gaze back at the woman once again. "Do you want me to-"
"Daniel," His voice was louder and more desperate now. "I'm lo-"
"Goddammit would you just wait? And please stop calling me that when we're on patrol, will you?" He held his gaze on Rorschach, noticing how his mask hasn't changed much since he last looked over. Guessing it was probably just a similar ink blot, he again turned to the whore to see if she needed help.
The blood was draining fast. Rorschach lifted back his head and looked at the starry sky; it looked like Daniel. It looked like the Whore. It looked like the thug's bodies. Rorschach shakily lifted his hand in front of his face. It looked like the sky. Darkness was consuming him, he'd already lost his vision. Slowly, he turned away from Daniel and the Whore. He felt betrayed.
A few moments later, Daniel was laughing with the unfortunate woman. He'd offered to walk her to her home, but she declined. She stated that after that fight, the thugs would be too afraid to touch her. Her glittering heels clip-cloped out of the ally, and around the corner. Within a minute, she was completely gone. Nite Owl's smile faded away now, as he took a deep breath. He stared at the whore's path, then pulled his focus away. His vision trailed down to his feet, then at Rorschach.
"Ya know, saving the city includes saving the prostitutes too." He stared at Rorschach, who's back was still turned. He sighed again. "Look, I know you don't like them, but they are human beings. It's none of your business to deem her life useless because she sells her body for sex. No woman should be defiled like she almost was." No response. "Not even a 'hurm'? Jeez, man... okay, let's just get back to Archie. Tonight's not a good night for this."
He gave Rorschach only a moments-longer gaze, then turned to walk out of the forsaken ally. Brushing past Rorschach without another word, not even bothering to make eye contact. Daniel had walked in silence only half of the way when he noticed only his footfalls were making noise. He's being stubborn, and for what? "Nothing, that's what." Daniel thought to himself. Rorschach acted so childish when things weren't done his way. Ah hell, he was still his partner. Daniel didn't particularly sympathies with prostitutes, but his and Rorschach's ways of dealing with things were just different. "C'mon man, tonight wasn't great, but it could have been worse. Let's just-"
Thud.
Nite Owl turned around to face the empty ally. "Rorschach?" He was gone. Looking back, only the dim light from the locked doorway showed. The four lumps that were thug corpses were strewn across the area. Only dust created any kind of movement. "Rorschach?" He called again. "Where'd you get off to...." He said aloud to himself. Scanning the darkness, there was no second masked vigilante. "Aw c'mon, I didn't want you to leave! I just... I dunno," No use, Daniel felt he was alone. A defeated frown, he scanned the ally once more for any sign of Rorschach taking off. He finally decided to go back and look.
Nite Owl took barely two steps, when his spine froze and his feet stopped. "Oh my God..." Those weren't the four thugs he saw. There was a fifth body, one who's purple pinstriped pants were illuminated by the poor lighting. "Rorschach!" He now leaped the last remaining yards between him and his fallen comrade. He could feel the panic rising as sweat began to collect on his forehead. Daniel paused over the body, completely shocked. He kneeled down and rolled Rorschach onto his back. Rorschach gasped as more blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. This wasn't right... this isn't possible! People get hurt fighting crime; they bleed, they get shot, they d- no. Not Rorschach, this kind of thing just doesn't happen to him.
Daniel instantly reached for the wrist. Sliding the coat sleeves down and nudging the glove's cuff out of the way, Daniel felt for a pulse. It was there, but it was weak. He lifted the injured man's head and cradled it in his lap. "Rorschach, what... what happened?" He looked down at the moving mask. Blood soaked the entire chin, that's why it seemed to stop moving. He kept a concerned focus on the stained face, until suddenly he could feel slight pushing against his stomach and wet grunts from the injured Rorschach. Daniel looked down to see him struggling to push away. Daniel just grabbed his shoulders to steady him. "G-go away," he wheezed, trying still to remove himself from Daniel's grasp. He weakly grabbed Daniel's wrist and tried to thrown it off. It didn't work.
The small effort caused him to cough up even more blood to add to his reddened mask. Daniel ignored all his efforts. Examining his body, Daniel found a lot of the blood accumulated around Rorschach's middle. He pressed a finger along the waist of the coat, until he hit the wound. Rorschach bit back a yelp. "Were you shot?" Again, Daniel was swatted at. "No, leave-" "I'm not going to leave, I need to find out what happened so I can treat you." Rorschach's breathing was becoming more haggard as he continued to try get away. Daniel assumed the injury was to his side, so he wretched open the trench coat despite protest. In order to do so, he had to loosen his grip on the injured man. Rorschach took this, and as much power he could muster, and launched himself a foot away from Daniel. Daniel reached for him again, but he was able to twist out of reach. Crawling only a few inches, he turned to Daniel. Hatred and disgust laced his voice. "Wha-why care so much n-now?"
Daniel paused. "What are you talking about?"
"You'd rather talk to the huh-whore than helppp-me," That took a lot from him. He lay there staring up at Daniel, who was utterly dumbfounded.
"Rorschach... she-"
"More imp-portant?"
"No! I didn't know you got shot... hell, I didn't know you were injured!"
"Yeah, to busy helping the whore,"
Daniel shook his head and reached out again. Rorschach bumped his hand away, glaring beneath his mask. He was hurt, they both were. Daniel stared back at him, not knowing what to say.
"Thought better of you... thought you'd care to nn-know,"
Daniel furrowed his brows and shook his head. "You know I'm just doing what I have to. I thought that gun fire missed, when I looked back at you, you were fine! Rorschach, let me help you."
"No! You favor the scum more. I was blind and stupid to trust you... just l-leave me."
"You're being overly dramatic,"
Again, Rorschach tried to push himself away as Daniel only watched. His blood was running low, and he was only able to drag himself a few more inches before blacking out again.