Disclaimer: I confess, I invented the Discworld and Watchmen, Terry Pratchett and Alan Moore are just pen-names.

Me: You can't believe it, right ?... Crap, Rorschach !... OK, OK, I confess, I'm none of these two authors mentioned above and I didn't invented these two worlds and er... I don't get paid, not even a pence. I swear... Can you free my fingers now ? OW ! My fingers dammit ! Why did you do that ?

Rorschach: Chapter 2.

Me: Oh, that's right... I maybe deserved it a little. Hey ! Who's handcuffed me ?

Vimes: You're under arrest for robbery attempt. All you will say can be used against you.

Me: Characters, fucking ungrateful little...

Vimes: Insult to a watchman, you're making your case worse !

Don't worry dear readers, I have been able to get out of that and I can still type with one hand.

Apparition of Grey Wolf, my second original character.

Chapter 5: All wolf are grey in the dark

Rorschach' journal, Century of the Anchovy

Have been in the Shades with Fredson for two weeks. Had something done with the Librarian so everybody think I'm in the library at night (1). Fredson: a lot of progress, more careful, but for the language: no improvement.

In the Shades, it looked like it would be a calm night, no gangs, no criminals, had showed up for three hours. Finally they heard a woman screaming, they ran towards the source: a young woman was being assaulted by four scums, one of them looked like a troll made of flesh instead of stone.

The two vigilantes were about to intervene but another one revealed himself faster than them: a grey shadow appeared suddenly form the top of a roof to land among the thugs, the two masked vigilantes came to help him. The newcomer was a good and ferocious fighter, when he was fighting he looked like a wolf jumping to his assailants' throat from everywhere.

One of the thugs, the one who looked like a troll, tried to kick him him below the belt, but he hit his foot on it and stopped fighting to moan, huddled up, whereas the new vigilante didn't seem to be suffering at all.

Once the two black and white masked vigilantes, to be more precise with a little red and blue for the younger one, arrested the two last criminals, the newcomer came next to them and introduced himself:

"Evening. Let me introduce myself, Grey Wolf."

Then he hold out his hand, Fredson took it and introduced himself, he waited a little for Rorschach to do the same but he gave up and just learned his name.

Grey Wolf was an appropriate name for the new masked hero: he was a well built young man wearing a wolf fur as a cape, the wolf head was a hood, a black domino mask hid his face so that only the lower part of it, which wore a confident smile, could be seen. The rest of his costume was dark grey, almost black. He also wore a loincloth, bracers around his forearms and boots, all made of grey fur.

He gave them a rope.

"Could you help me to tie them up ?"

They did. The young man put a card with stylized grey wolf head near the tied up thugs whereas Fredson put his own like Rorschach had seen him do when he first met him, his signature looked a lot like the symbol he used: two black rods with one black point on each side, except that on Fredson's card one of the point was blue and the other red. He left his card too.

"Done," concluded Grey Wolf, satisfied. "The Watch's task will be easier this way."

"You give them to the Watch ! That's better for these assholes for sure, would have been different if the Satan Sisters had found them instead of you."

The woman had told that. Strange, noticed Rorschach, usually they ran away while he had his way with the assailant. Ankh-Morpork was maybe different from New York on some points maybe.

"The Satan Sisters ?" asked the masked hero

"You've never heard about them ?" said a surprised Grey Wolf

"The Satan Sisters are responsible for the security and Ankh-Morpork seamstresses by the guild," precised Fredson. "I've heard they do things more horrible than the Agony Aunts to the few idiots that threatens the seamstresses ! The Agony Aunts were in the business before," he added.

A seamstress ! He should have seen it early, the young woman was wearing a little handbag, her dress was open on the sides and way too low-cut.

"By the way, why did they attacked you ? To steal ?" asked Grey Wolf

"No darling, they didn't want to pay, and no pleasure without pay, that's our motto, but for you my pretties." She put her hands on the young vigilantes' shoulders who seemed very embarrassed., Fredson, to Rorschach's great relief, had backed up quickly. "I will make an exception. You wanna have sex ?

"No!" answered firmly Fredson

"N... no, thank you," stammered Grey Wolf who was blushing.

"I see, virgins. That's all right, you'll come in time."

Then she turned towards Rorschach with a wheedling smile.

"But for a man it's different, right ?"

The whore had touched him ! How dare she...

The young woman found herself on the floor in less than one minute and shouted many sexually-connoted insults to the vigilante. She picked herself up and tried to punch Rorschach, but he stopped her attack easily grasping her fist, he strengthened his grasp, making the seamstress wincing from pain. He raised his hand, ready to hit, but a hand wrapped in grey fur grasped his arm. He tried to free himself but he couldn't, the teenager was abnormally strong for his age, and abnormally fast too: he didn't see him coming.

"Let her go !"

Rorschach didn't let go even one finger around the seamstress' fist.

"Let her go," repeated Grey Wolf who tightened his grasp on the vigilante's arm.

His voice... he was feeling the same way he was in front of this Watch captain. His will getting weaker. It won't happen again ! Grey Wolf obtained nothing.

"Let her go, please," ordered the young man with a calmer voice and a contorted smile.

The vigilante began to relax his fingers, then, when the young masked hero asked again with a less contorted smile, he let go of the woman's hand, she left quickly.

Rorschach went away, growling furiously. He still didn't believe he had been fooled twice like that !

"How did you convince him ?" asked Fredson. "He never listens to me when I think he's going too far with some thugs."

"I have some talent to convince people, even I am less gifted that my father for that."

"A friendly advise: don't use this "gift" of yours again, unless there's really nothing else we can do. Better be careful, especially if you're less gifted than your old man, could not work so well next time."

·][·

The young ones were walking some steps behind him and were chatting, they seemed to get on well, pretty much like him and Nite Owl, except he almost never talked, Nite Owl talked for two anyway.

"That's amazing, this guy kicked you in the balls and you didn't even moan, nothing..."

"Oh, there's nothing special. It's because of the protective, it was to my father and it had been very useful to him when he arrived in Ankh-Morpok."

"Clever," commented the other vigilante. "But, the wolf fur is maybe not a good idea, can get stuck anywhere, caught during a fight..."

"Nice from you to care about me but I am too fast for them. Oh, and a little precision: it is not wolf fur, I would never wear it. I bought it from Dibbler who guaranteed me it was cent per cent pure Uberwarld wolf."

"Yeah, we know what cent per cent pure Uberwald wolf means with Dibbler: cent per cent pure Anh-Morpork rat !"

Anyone but Rorschach hearing this conversation would have been worried about the sausage cent per cent pure pork that street-seller had sold him, but the man had never cared about the composition of his food as long as it was not poison or that it didn't make him sick, moreover the food he ate in New York made his stomach particularly strong.

"I would like to know something. How can the stains on Rorschach' mask and yours move ? Is it magic ?"

"For Rorschach I don't know, as for mine I think yes, since I've found the sheet I used to make it near the Unseen University. Amazing all the things they can throw away these wizards, there were many stains on, they were moving and..."

"Wait. You... you took something from the University with you ? Are you mad ?"

"I hang around on the Shades at night with a mask looking for criminals instead of running away from them and ya ask me if I'm mad ? Normally, I would have never touch something made by these nut wizards but it was stronger than me, I was like... fascinated. So, I brought it with me but I still didn't know what to do with it. I had a weird dream two days after: My skin was white with the same stains than the ones on the sheet, shortly after that, I decided to make a mask out of it. That's how I found myself fighting gangs in the Shades whereas I would have done that before only if I had no other chance. Shit, you must really think I'm crazy now..."

"Not at all, making easier the Watch's job and stopping unlicensed criminals from harming is very noble on the contrary."

"Ya know how most of the people understand "noble" ?"

"No."

"By dork or moron."

The three masked heroes were about to leave each other when Grey Wolf said suddenly:

"Oh, I almost forgot ! One week per month a big light-fur dog will come instead of me. Don't worry, for you he will be harmless. See you tomorrow night !"

·][·

At some meters from here, an emaciated figure dressed in red was hiding in an alleyway from where he watched the vigilante.

"See ? He doesn't need our help. Alright, good that you were here to swallow this guy who wanted to shot him down whit an crossbow, and yes, he didn't notice him. Now we should go, if he doesn't see me there he will suspect something."

Hundreds of little step noises followed the man when he left.

·][·

Rorschach Journal, Century of the Anchovy

A new costumed hero, Grey Wolf, reminds me a little of Nite Owl, a teen like Fredson. Both seem to get on well. Good.

Fredson told to Grey Wolf how he became a costumed hero. Found a fabric looking like the one created by Manhattan near the University. Reminds me of how I got my face.

He stopped writing. Why had the boy never told him anything about it ? Probably because you didn't ask, he answered to himself. After all, he had never asked to his former colleagues why they became masks now that he was thinking about it... As for Daniel, it was useless, too obvious: his admiration for the first Nite Owl. But the others...

Two watchmen counterparts, others to come ? Hope there will be no Manhattan or Veidt counterparts. Wait and see, all I can do for now. Fredson appeared after my arrival in this world. A link between the two events ?

And how could he be the cause of it? Fredson looked like him in a more than weird way, but the idea he could be responsible for his apparition was absurd, he didn't even know the boy ! Same thing for Grey Wolf, who by the way looked less like his watchman counterpart than Fredson. But, everything he had seen in this world by so far was absurd, so why not... and who were the specialists about the nonsense of this flat world ? He unfortunately knew the answer: the wizards. He would have to see them if he wanted any information about it.

Grey Wolf said once a month a dog would come instead of him. Some pet ?

Another thing: he used the same trick on me this Watch captain did last time. A link between these two ?

·][·

The day after, Rorschach, after he left Rincewind's room, headed towards the Great Hall, decided to expose his hypothesis to the wizards.

The first thing he heard when he went inside was the Archchancelor shouting at the Bursar:

"See Bursar ? He still has his head on. Are you relieved now ?"

Then he noticed the bewildered vigilante standing in front of him.

"Oh Rorschach, so you do leave the library sometimes ? Good ! You should go out and visit the town you know. Not hygienic staying always inside like you do."

"Why should I be headless ?"

"Oh, that's just the Bursar. At five o'clock, I was looking for him so that he swallows his first quotidian dose of dried frog pills and I found him yelling and shaking in the corridors. After I had him swallow a handful of pills I asked him what unsettled him at such a point and he told me he had been in the library, wanted to take off your hat but that he had accidentally pull your head out ! Stupid, isn't it ?"

Fortunately it was this lunatic Bursar who had found the rag doll and that he was alone, otherwise...

"Yes. Stupid. Just wanted to say that..."

But he was interrupted by the Bursar.

"A dog with his head split open !"

"This remind me of something," said the Senior Wrangler. "Since our friend arrived here, I have looked for some information about the Fredson' test." He took a book off his robes and showed the pictures that were inside to his colleagues who gathered around him. "These are the inkblots the Bursar has seen on the mask, second Fredson the interpretation he made of these inkblots show evident social troubles and an high tendency to violence."

"This only prove that this Fredson was incompetent," stated the Dean. "Violent ? Were're talking about the Bursar ! I have always thought that saying what we have in mind with stains was completely stupid, that's just inkblots, they mean nothing !"

"Yes they did, they show what you have in your head." The Senior Wrangler showed him the stains that the Bursar had seen, the stains in question had curiously just reappeared on Rorschach's face. "What do you see ?"

"Nothing."

"Excuse me..." tried Rorschach

"Come on, at least have a try Dean !"

"Fine ! I see a butterfly, what does that mean ?"

The Senior Wrangler looked in the book.

"It means you're a big idiot and that you often have dirty thoughts."

"How dare you say that ! Give me the damn book !" boomed the Dean

He took the book and read.

"See Dean ? It's written here, I'm not inventing anything."

"A kid between two bullies !" shouted the Bursar

The pattern formed by the black stains had just changed again on the mask.

Disturbing. The Bursar was interpreting the stains that were forming on his face by giving the answers he should have given to this jail's psychiatrist if he had been frank. How... No, it could only be coincidence, weird coincidences, nothing more. The Dean and the Senior Wrangler were arguing again about the interpretation of the stains by Bloody Bastard Fredson, all the others joined the argument and of course nobody paid him any attention. So he decided to go.

·][·

The Archchancelor succeeded in separating the Dean and the Senior Wrangler after fifteen minutes.

"Stop it ! The Dean is not a polymorphous pervert and the Senior Wrangler is not a psychopath ! You're just complete idiots ! An I don't want to hear about this damn Bloody Bastard Fredson's test anymore !"

"You should ask that Rorschach to take off his damn mask then, it's because of it that all this began," said the Dean

"By the way Rorschach, didn't you want to ask us someth... Where did he go ?"

"It wasn't that important if he didn't wait, Archchancelor."

"A man and a woman who are kissing each other."

"Drop this damn book, Bursar !" roared Ridcully confiscating the damn book.

(1) The Librarian' s plan was very easy: he had made a fake Rorschach, some kind of giant rag doll, sat in front of a pile of books, and he had made it clear that he mustn't be disturbed. Nobody had seen the difference between the real and the fake Rorschach, they were both monolithic.

Finished, after this last chapter I will probably not post before Christmas vacation (exams) but I've already written some chapters which just need to be corrected and completed.

I hope you liked it, see you !