Manhattan, Silk Spectre, Comedian, Nite Owl, Rorschach
Jon hadn't let Laurie intervene when the bank alarm had gone off. It was the first time she had ever seen him look, well, befuddled.
"What?" she asked, eyebrows sinking in unconscious imitation of his expression.
"Anomaly," he said. "The bank is always robbed, but that has never happened before."
"What hasn't?"
"It is happening," he said, looking back over the city as if he could feel other anomalies popping up like daisies. "But… it hasn't happened before."
"Is," Laurie started. "That bad?" He didn't have to answer because her attention was snared by the sound of gunshots. He answered anyway as she sprinted towards where the police were returning fire.
"It could be for the best."
*
Across town, the Comedian found the enforcer in a broken heap. It looked like David "the Dog" Gilles had been hit by a truck except for the burns on his arms. The Dog was bigger than Comedian, wider anyway. Something had bounced him off the side of a wall hard enough to make him splatter and the whole thing felt weird and sinister.
He felt it in the air. It would pass for humidity, but there was a seething something under it, barely restrained. That in itself wouldn't raise the hair on his neck. It was the eerie way it felt familiar, as if it had threatened him before.
He saw flashing lights a street over and went to check it out. It was nothing. A woman had been mugged. The creep had beaten the shit out of her too. She was a redhead, he noticed, and got out of there before she could remind him of Sally. Some ice and stitches and she'd be fine. He felt a throb in his own nose. Sympathy pain, he decided and hurried away.
*
Nite Owl had been patrolling in Archie when he saw all the lights at the overpass exit. He listened in on the radio to see if they needed him to make an appearance. From the sound of it, there had been a fight, maybe gang related. Two kids were definitely dead. One wasn't long for the world, and one might make it if the stars were aligned. The good news was that they had the kid who had done it.
He was the son of a prominent lawyer, lucky for him. Dan winced at the sound of the kid screaming that it hadn't been just him. They had all done it. At least the police had caught him before Rorschach had. He swung low over the scene and saw a badly damaged car. From the top, he could see the words Divide and Conquer scratched into what was left of the paint job.
It made him think of Captain Metropolis. He had been full of strategies. Too bad he had taken them to the grave with him, even if he hadn't taken his head. Such grim thoughts reminded him of his partner again and he set off to see if Rorschach was tired of patrolling alone.
*
There wasn't anything for Rorschach to do when he got to the scene. Some idiot had taken a fall breaking into an apartment and killed himself. The girls who lived there were in bathrobes, clutching each others arms. They seemed genuinely frightened, especially when one of them recognized the body. It was someone who had propositioned her earlier that night.
He had followed her. Just as well that he had died then, Rorschach mused. Before someone got hurt. That made both of the girls flinch and one of them cry and he had told them curtly how to fix their window so it couldn't be forced again. Making the cryer write it down helped her to get hold of herself and she promised she would do it.
Once that was done, there was no reason to stay. He started off again, ill at ease at the way the shadows flickered around him. His own shadow didn't look quite right against the wall either. He saw Archie pass by overhead and hurried to get to where he could be seen from above.