[center][sup][h1][b][color=black] A C E  O F  B L A D E S[/color]
[color=cadetblue]A C E  O F  B L A D E S[/color][/b][/h1][/sup][/center]
[hr][center][sup][color=cadetblue][b]SCOTT'S APARTMENT.
NOW.[/b][/color][/sup][/center]I open the blinds of my window, letting what little light remains of the day bounce from the adjacent building into my apartment. I turn back to my desk and take a seat, staring at my laptop’s screen left open on an unfinished beat. I don’t know if I even have the energy to try to hunt for samples or what synth preset I want to use, but this is the first time I’ve been able to actually sit down and work on something in weeks at this point.

I click through the dozens of sample packs trying to find a decent sound selection for the drums, but every poorly chopped snare and way too bass boosted kick makes my head pound when I hear it. My ears start to ring the longer I cycle through sounds, my mind wandering. The Gray I couldn’t save at the warehouse, the girl that went missing at The Haunt. I can’t do anything to help anyone. Can’t even find a good hi hat.

I hear a knock and wonder for a moment if I was looking through the percussion folder instead of the hi hats folder. Then it sounds off again, louder, and I realize it’s coming from the window. Panic surges through me and I jump out of the chair, summoning my sword. The tension releases when I see Rock perched on the fire escape outside, only to quickly be replaced by confusion. After a moment, I dispel the sword and step over to the window, lifting it open.

[color=cadetblue]“Rock? What are you doing here?”[/color] I ask.

[color=green]“Just checking in. I realized I left you in a pretty bad way,”[/color] Rock says.

[color=cadetblue]“You couldn’t have called?”[/color]

[color=green]“International sim card. Didn’t want to pay the fees.”[/color]

I blink in astonishment before shrugging. [i]So he’d rather climb up my fire escape?[/i] [color=cadetblue]“... Fair.”[/color] I look behind me, then back to Rock. [color=cadetblue]“You coming in?”[/color]

He nods and ducks inside. I see he has something tucked under his arm. He grabs it and holds it up, a nice bottle of a vintage wine. [color=green]“Saw and your mom used to drink this after the hard nights. He’d have a glass every year on the anniversary.”[/color] He puts it on my creaky ass desk and looks around. [color=green]“Figured we could crack into it and talk shop,”[/color] he says, [color=green]“you got a corkscrew?”[/color]

[color=cadetblue]“Uh, no. Don’t exactly drink much wine,”[/color] I say, picking up the bottle and looking it over. [color=cadetblue]“... I got an idea.”[/color] I move over to the coffee table, clearing off some clutter, and set the bottle down. I step back, summon my sword and mentally hone its edge, then swing at the top of the bottle. The neck is sliced through cleanly, and the top drops. I realize it will shatter against the hardwood, but Rock snatches it out of the air.

[color=green]“Clean cut. You’re getting better with that thing already.”[/color] He runs his thumb over the smooth glass.

I stiffen at the words and for a moment I’m standing over the two dead men behind the warehouse, soaked in blood. I clench my eyes shut but the image remains. [color=cadetblue]“Yeah... I guess.”[/color] I dispel the sword and take a seat on the couch, sinking into the worn out leather.

Rock’s brow furrows at me, but he doesn’t say anything about it. [color=green]“Glasses?”[/color] he asks. I point him to the right cabinet and he selects a pair of coffee mugs, one reading [i]‘Sandra’s: Calder’s Gourmet Coffee’[/i] and the other depicting the logo of UMBC’s music program. He pours and sits next to me, wine between our mugs.

[color=green]“Scott.”[/color] He takes a sip and his face scrunches up. He pushes past the taste and swallows. [color=green]“You look like shit.”[/color]

I take a sip from my wine as well. It's awful but I swallow as well out of respect for Saw… Even if he had bad taste in wine. [color=cadetblue]“... Yeah. I uh, had another run in the other day.”[/color]

[color=green]“You don’t look any more banged up than when I left you. Did you win?”[/color]

[i]The blade slid right between his ribs and punctured his lung. The other guy’s head rolled right off of his shoulders. They were dead before they hit the floor.[/i]

I take in a shuddering breath. [color=cadetblue]“... I had to. It was them or it was me.”[/color]

[color=green]“Like that, huh?”[/color] Rock struggles through another gulp of wine. [color=green]“First time?”[/color]

I close my eyes and nod. [color=cadetblue]“Yeah. There were five of them trying to kidnap this guy. I knocked two of them out before they got the upper hand, had me on the ground beating me half to death. I was only able to get back up because the guy they were after was a Gray. Then another guy showed up, knocked out the Gray, and got away with him. I managed to knock out a third guy before the last one told the other two to kill me.”[/color]

I pinch the bridge of my nose as I clench my eyes tighter. I open my eyes and take in a breath, looking at Rock. [color=cadetblue]“Like I said. It was them or me.”[/color]

Rock reaches out like he’s going to pat me on the back, but he changes his mind and puts the hand over the top of his mug. [color=green]“Been like that for me before. But I can’t say it ever bothered me. I’ve killed on accident before. Someone’s not as tough as I think, something hits too hard. It’s usually easier when it’s on purpose.”[/color] I see him turning over old memories.

I wonder for a moment if any of those times were when he was working with Saw. Everything I know about the man tells me he wouldn’t have allowed that. I consider asking before deciding it’s not my place. [color=cadetblue]“... It didn’t [i]feel[/i] easy,”[/color] I say. [color=cadetblue]“I keep turning it over in my mind wondering if I could have gotten away without having to kill them. But at the time it just felt like that was the only way I’d survive.”[/color]

Rock nods and sips again. He grimaces, but looks like he’s getting better at handling it. He sits the mug down and meets my eyes. [color=green]“When I fight someone, or someone fights me, I go all out. It’s how I respect them. That they’re worth it, worth the effort. To me, nothing hurts worse than when I can tell someone isn’t giving their all.”[/color] He squeezes his fist. [color=green]“Especially if I lose. Saw hated it.”[/color]

[color=cadetblue]“... Is that supposed to make me feel better?”[/color] I ask.

[color=green]“I’m trying to say that he taught me that restraint is the better path. Tried to teach me, anyway. He had Eagle Eye talk to me about it. You remember him?”[/color]

[color=cadetblue]“A little bit,”[/color] I say. Eagle Eye floated around my Mom’s ‘clique’, if you could call it that, but according to her stories he was a lot closer to Shield than her. Like, a [i]lot[/i]. Mom thought the two of them would have tied the knot eventually if she hadn’t lost Shield. After that he’d come by occasionally, talk to her in hushed tones about what happened and cry about it when they thought I had gone to sleep.

[color=green]“You know he’s the first to become a Crow War Chief since World War II? Bunch of requirements for it, ones that don’t usually come up. Lead a war party, steal an enemy’s horse, take a bad guy’s weapon. But the one he was most proud of, the one he was trying to impress on me, was to touch a living enemy without killing them. Fight, preserve your own life, not take your opponent’s, and [i]still[/i] win.”[/color]

I nod. [color=cadetblue]“That seems like something that a lot of heroes value. Your dad, my mom, Eagle Eye, Shield, Anvil… Even if your powers are something where it’s easier to kill with, you’re supposed to find another way.”[/color] I look down at my hands. [color=cadetblue]“Mom never killed anyone.”[/color]

[color=green]“Knowing [i]how[/i] to kill someone is the first step to [i]not[/i] killing someone,”[/color] Rock says. [color=green]”When we fought, you barely knew how to swing your sword. Now you know how to use it properly, how to cut. Most of Queen’s escapades were before my time, but I know she wasn’t just swinging her swords around like bats. She’d cut precisely, decisively. You just need to learn how to cut [i]better[/i]. You’ve already proved you’re learning fast.”[/color]

I mull over what he says for a moment before sighing. [color=cadetblue]“I don’t even know how she could do it, how she [i]learned[/i] to do it. I don’t have anyone to show me how to be better. She could have, but…”[/color] I trail off, raising the mug of wine to my lips and taking a sip. Still really bad.

[color=green]“They’re always gone too soon.”[/color] Rock slams the rest of his mug and shudders as he chokes down the last of it. [color=green]“I thought I learned everything worth knowing from Saw. By the time I find out there’s more, he’s already gone. For instance, how he stomached this fucking wine.”[/color]

I snort, almost choking on my laughter. [color=cadetblue]“... Yeah, this is fucking terrible.”[/color] I stand, walk over to the kitchenette, and dump the mug into the sink. [color=cadetblue]“Y’know what’s funny?”[/color] I say, watching the last of my cup circle the drain. [color=cadetblue]“I don’t think my mom even liked wine. She was a liquor girl.”[/color]

[color=green]“No kidding? It was Saw’s favorite. He swore she loved it. That old dog.”[/color]

[color=cadetblue]“My mom was the most stubborn woman I’ve ever known but she always had a soft spot for him. I know she hated every time she had to drink it, but I guess his company made it bearable.”[/color] I look back to Rock. [color=cadetblue]“We’re never drinking that again, by the way.”[/color]

[color=green]“Not like we can recork it,”[/color] he says. He holds up the sliced top of the bottle and tosses it in the trash before pouring the rest of the bottle down the drain. We watch it swirl in the sink. [color=green]“Apparently my old man was a hell of a drinking buddy, if you could get over his taste. He couldn’t get drunk either, so he was always good to drive.”[/color]

[color=cadetblue]“Yeah, apparently back in the day when they had to get somewhere as a group, mom would fly, Anvil would use her jetpack, Eagle Eye had his helicopter… And Saw and Shield would drive in Saw’s car.”[/color]

[color=green]“He loved that thing. Wouldn’t put a cent into it, said the money went better to charity or to the soup kitchens, but he cared for it like it was one of us kids. Every time Techtronic or Anvil offered to upgrade it, it was like Christmas.”[/color]

[color=cadetblue]“Mom was the same way with her PDA. It was a gift to Shield from Techtronic so he could keep in touch with both of them during missions. After Shield died, she redesigned her outfit to mount it on her wrist. It was like having a piece of him, I guess.”[/color]

[color=green]“I remember that old thing. Saw told me Techtronic made it back in ‘99. Queen, Shield, Eagle Eye, and Saw were looking into a string of kidnappings and needed to stay in touch with home base. There were a bunch of missing Grays, they thought it was all connected. They made some arrests and it all quieted down, but they could never find a ringleader.”[/color]

That makes me pause. [color=cadetblue]“... Missing Grays?”[/color]

[color=green]“Yeah, tough times back then.”[/color] He looks over to the fridge and gestures to it. [color=green]“You got any Calder Cola here? Need to get the taste of this wine out of my mouth.”[/color]

[color=cadetblue]“Rock, that guy at the warehouse. He was a Gray too, the guys were dressed in all black with batons and tranq guns and then hauled him off in a van. And there’s been other cases all over the city of Grays going missing.”[/color]

[color=green]“Shit. Maybe I need something harder than Calder Cola.”[/color] He opens the fridge to find my half carton of eggs and rotten pint of milk. He reaches for the only other thing inside, the twelve pack of Calder Cola, and realizes the whole sleeve of cans are empty. He slams the fridge door.

[color=green]“I’m trying to get out of this superhero stuff but it's like quicksand. I put one toe in wondering about Saw and now I’m waist deep. Truth is, I came over here to…”[/color] He chokes on his next word, [color=green]“[i]apologize[/i] for hurting you, and it seems like my shitty wine isn’t cutting it. I’ll help you out with this Gray stuff, but then we’re square.”[/color]

For a moment I wonder if this whole conversation was purely transactional for Rock, but I hope that it isn’t. [color=cadetblue]“... Deal. I’ve got a guy we can call, he said to contact him if I found out anything about this case.”[/color] I pull out my phone and the business card I was offered at Sandra’s earlier this week.

[color=cadetblue][b]“You ever heard of Dominic Dusk?”[/b][/color]

[hider=Author’s Notes]
Uni: Scott uses a cracked copy of FL Studio. I, personally, use a paid copy of Ableton. Because I’m stupid.

Doc: We realized that Eagle Eye and Shield almost getting married implies that in the Vanguard Universe, gay marriage was legal in the 90s. Happy (Belated) Pride!

Doc: Shout outs to my pals on Discord for letting me sound out the stuff about Eagle Eye. I was worried it would maybe be culturally insensitive but I thought I might as well swing for it. He has pretty limited screentime here but I tried to give him at least the outline of a broader character, and take the opportunity to mention how cool Joseph Medicine Crow was, if only indirectly.
[/hider]