Disclaimer: I don't own the Discworld and Watchmen, they belongs to Terry Pratchett and Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and Zack Snyder and I'm not paid for writing this stuff.
After a rather long chapter, a rather short one.
Chapter 10: The Masks of Ankh-Morpork
"Hello Rincewind."
"Oh, hi kids."
He was still not used to see the kids elsewhere than in the streets of the city at night, since their leader was here they were allowed to come in the Unseen University for visit, as long as they didn't bother anyone.
"You know where the infirmary is ?" asked Fredson
"You don't remember ? You already come here though."
"Yes but we don't remember the way."
"Follow me."
"Good thing we found you by the way. The only one we found at this hour was a strange old wizard. When we asked him our way he just said Why is a swamp dragon like a sofa ?" said the Phantasm
"You just met the Bursar, he's always like that."
"How is Rorschach by the way ?" asked Fredson
"Awoken and fine. More grumpy than usual because he's stuck in here."
"Great," muttered the Phantasm, not sounding happy at all
·][·
Rorschach tried to put on his mask again, which was quite difficult with just one hand, and gave up. He had managed to put his pants and boots and they had fortunately left him his undershirt, so he could go out anyway.
He opened the door and saw Mrs Sharp.
"You're on your feet ? Bloody idiot, I told you to keep bed ! How many time should I repeat this, you..."
He slammed the door before she could finish her sentence and put a chair against the door to block it.
"Let me in, I must change your bandages, you'll get infected you imbecile !"
He would prefer any infection rather than being touched by a woman, especially a woman looking liker his former landlady.
·][·
"Fine, be that way !" screamed a woman as she stopped knocking at the infirmary's door to leave and curse under her breath.
"Hello Mrs Sharp," said Rincewind as he arrived near the infirmary with the young ones. "She's the nurse taking care of Rorschach", he precised to the teens
"Poor woman," commented the Phantasm to the Dragon
"Who are those ?" she asked
"They are, er... friends of your patient," answered the wizard, deciding "friends" could be used to describe the relationship between Rorschach and the teenagers since he tolerated their presence.
"He has friends ?" repeated in astonishment the nurse. "Amazing."
"We came to visit him, can we see him ?" asked Fredson
"If you can convince him to open the damn door."
·][·
Rincewind knocked at the door for some minutes before he gets an answer from Rorschach.
"Go away."
"Rorschach, it's me, the nurse has gone. You can open, please," asked Rincewind
After hesitating a little, Rorschach finally opened the door.
"Hi Rorschach, feeling better ?" asked Grey Wolf
He suddenly tried to close close the door but Fredson blocked it quickly with his foot.
"Ow ! Why do you slam the door at our face ?"
"Just take your foot off there."
"It's because of your face, is it ?" asked Fredson
"We've all seen it you know," said the Phantasm
"Get. Out," repeated the mask
"And we've come precisely for this reason," added Grey Wolf as he opened the door Rorschach tried vainly to block. "Er, Rorschach ?"
"I think he's behind the door, Grey," said Fredson as he closed the door, revealing the vigilante pinned against the wall by the shock with a bleeding nose.
"Sorry, are you okay ?" asked the young werewolf
"Still in the plaster but bearable," answered the vigilante as he cleaned the blood away
"So, as I said, we've seen your true face by accident and that's the purpose of our visit."
"The only one ?" asked an unknown voice which belonged to a young man whose costume reminded a lot of the first Comedian's costume for Rorschach, probably the Discworld's counterpart of the deceased mask.
"Oh, and we also came to introduce a new member: Dragon," said Grey Wolf pointing the young man in the yellow costume.
"Glad to meet you, sir," said Dragon who was about to extend his hand until Fredson muttered to him that it was useless.
"We just wanted to know if you accepted him in the group," said the werewolf
"I've seen it at work after your accident, he's good," added Fredson
"He can join. What it has to do with my face ?"
"We know your secret identity, we talked about it and we decided it would be fair to reveal you our faces and real identity," answered Grey Wolf
"You don't have to do that."
"Because Rincewind he's there and would therefore know about our identities too ?" asked the Phantasm
"No, Rincewind is everything but a threat for anyone."
"And glad about it because thus I interest no one, but please keep not paying attention to me. Really," said the wizard
"You don't have to and you shouldn't do that, that's all," continued the unmasked vigilante
"But we insist," said Fredson as he unmasked like the others, except the Phantasm who had no mask of course
The three boys looked all familiar to him.
"Related to captain Ironfoundersson and commissioner Vimes I guess ?"
"It's my father," they both answered almost at the same time.
"My name is Gavin Ironfoundersson and he's named just like his father, Samuel" precised Grey Wolf without the mask pointing at the now unmasked too Dragon
Then he turned towards Fredson who, without the top-hat and mask, had a face covered with freckles surrounded by red hair.
"We've already met..."
"Yeah, I know."
"... at Mrs Palm's..."
The other boys looked at him, eyes wide-opened.
"Hey ! That's not what you think ! I was here for a delivery, she's just a client."
"And... what was Rorschach doing there ?" asked Grey Wolf also known as Gavin
"He believed they were real seamstresses."
"Oliver ? I can't believe it's you," exclaimed Phantasm who had looked open-mouthed at the teen since he had taken off his mask
"You know me ? How ?"
"Can you imagine me with glasses and plaitss ? No ? I'll help you then," she added as she quickly made two plaits with her hair and put on her nose a pair of glasses that were on the bedside table. "Whose glasses are those ?"
"The nurse forgot them last time," answered Rorschach
"No... you can't be Corpsy !" exclaimed Oliver
"When I told you you wouldn't recognize me. And never call me that Oliver, I have a name, you know ?"
"Your name... Oh, yes, I remember it now ! It was..." said the boy smiling widely
"Don't dare say it..."
"I wouldn't dare Miss... Chastity Brandon !"
"You fucking little..."
Chastity. Her mother must really hate her to give her such a name, thought the vigilante even his whore of a mother didn't hate him so much that she gave him an awful name.
Oliver bowed just in time to avoid the punch of the furious girl Sam was trying to stop, he was laughing.
"What is your last name, Fr... Oliver ?"
"I don't have a last name, you need folks for that. But I do have a nickname."
"Say it."
"Twisted."
"It suits you perfectly," said Chastity
"Hey, that's not bursar twisted !"
"Bursar twisted ?" repeated Rorschach
"It means "crazy". We also have an expression "crazy like a bursar".
Oh, this Bursar, it made sense.
"So, why twisted ?"
"An old story that doesn't interest you."
Rorschach noticed the kid had quickly glanced at him and looked embarrassed saying that, had he done something wrong in his past he was hiding from him ? A criminal past ?
"How are you doing on patrol ?" asked the vigilante, deciding he would investigate on Fredson's past later
"Fine, we've spited in two teams: me and Fredson and Phantasm and Dragon."
"We've even brought you something to read from yesterday's patrol," said Sam as he handed the red-head a little book.
"In five days only I'll make a masked hero out of you," by Rorschach," read the vigilante on the cover. "Where did you find that ?"
"The Throat was about to sell it."
"The one with the sausages ?"
"If we can call it so."
"Wasn't so bad, there's much worse where I come from."
The teens remained silent for a minute: they had never heard someone using "not so bad" to describe Digger's food.
"Never written that, defamation. He'll pay for that when I'm out."
"No need, we took care of it."
"How ?"
"I've asked him to bring us all his stock and I burned it. Ad since it was a new product no one has heard about it," said Dragon
"He even burnt the copies he had hidden when I precised him you would take care of him personally when you learn about it," added the Phantasm
"Good. What about you two ?" he asked turning towards Fredson and Grey Wolf
"Well we've met a strange man with a mask, a masked villain we could say," said the werewolf, sounding like if he was talking about some painful experience he would have rather forgotten
"Masked villain is a very big word for him, Grey."
"Masked villain is a big word, you mean he's harmless ?" asked Rorschach
"Yes, he's never attacked us but he was rather creepy."
"Creepy ? He asked us to beat him !"
"Was his name Captain Carnage ?"
"Almost, Captain Ravage. How do you know that ?"
"Met a similar guy on Roundworld years ago. How did you react ?"
"I kicked him in the face when he grabbed my coat, bad idea: he asked for more."
"And we ran away," added Grey Wolf
"You what ?"
"What did you want us to do ? Hit him ? He would loved it and it would have been worse ! Damn, how can someone enjoy being hit ?"
"One of Mrs Palm's girls told me that some clients asked to get beaten..."
Rorschach winced at the mention of the head of the Seamstresses' Guild, which looked way stranger than shifting inkblots for the teenagers who weren't used yet to see him with a face like everyone.
"You'll never go there again !"
"Difficult, that's where I make most of the deliveries. In addition, the girls are pretty generous with me," he added smiling
"WHAT ?" boomed Rorschach as he was dangerously getting closer to the little red-head
"Hey, calm down ! I meant they gave me extra money ! You really have a dirty mind, do you ? Said nothing !"
"Oh, and I have something important to tell you," said quickly Grey Wolf to distract the older mask's attention from what his partner had just said, which apparently worked since the vigilante turned towards him.
"We've decided to regularize our situation, so I submitted the request to the City Watch and my fath... the captain Carrot..."
"Grey, he knows who your father is, you just told him, remember ?" pointed the Phantasm
"My mistake... Anyway, he found an old paper about a group of masked vigilantes who had been created in the Time of Kings. They were all members of the City Watch, well except the two women of course, that decided to defend the justice some mad king tyrannizing the City more than usual didn't respect, so they formed in secret in secret a group called the Masks of Ankh-Morpork that operated at night. My father found the document founding the group and since it's never been repealed masked justice is still legal. And we're considered as the successors of the Masks. Look, we've even inherited of the old coat of arms."
He showed to Rorschach an old piece of paper with a reproduction of the coat of arms on. The coat of arms' field was
Rorschach looked at the reproduction Grey Wolf showed him: the field of the coat of arms was made of three colors: Gules, Or, Sable and , there were also two domino-masks, one white, one black, a bat and a butterfly. On the top was the owl with the Ankh, symbol of the city and the hippopotamuses, the owl was holding the motto, a very simple one: Pro Justitia, For Justice.
"Do you know something more about these masks ?"
"Well, the men were the Funny Man, the Hooded Guy, Captain Morpork, Creosote, the Butterfly and the Bat; and the women were Nightshade and Morporkia."
"What happened to them ?"
"Well, from what I understood, very little is know about them. The only trace they left was this founding act and the reproduction of their coat of arms. That's all."
Once the kids and Rincewind were gone, Rorschach thought about looking for informations concerning their predecessors.