Like Hawks {SK, but open}

In all honesty, Merlot was getting quite tired of all the assignments that were coming up recently. It was like he had no time to rest and relax at all. It was rather annoying. Some days he had been so busy that he had not even been able to get a drink, it was beyond frustrating. To counteract this lack of time for drinking, Merlot had filled his reusable water bottle with wine. It was not professional, but Merlot was rarely ever professional, except when it came to not abusing his power.

Even though it was a sad thing to admit, Merlot did know many of his colleague abused their power as Peacekeepers. Whether it was using poor young girls for prostitution, or if it was arresting people for minuscule things, some were just power hungry. He understood why this was though, he had once heard the saying: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even though Peacekeepers answered to someone, they basically could do whatever the wanted, and that was not good in many cases.

Bringing a lot of prisoners to the detention center was not something that Merlot Pinot Noir wanted to do. The first time he had been at the place he was embarrassed interrogating a prisoner. It was full of bad memories for him, but at least this time he had automatic weapons, not to mention weapons such as swords and other things that were more common in the games than in combat. On the trucks tow-hook there was a trailer, one that had cells in it, cells with prisoners. None of them had committed things such as killings, but they were all headed to the detention center.

The ride had been extremely long, but at least he and Peacekeeper Falcon were able to switch off driving. Even though he was not supposed to, Merlot had taken a few cat naps while he could (which he did not regret doing at all). He knew that most of the cells were not occupied, and the cells that had prisoners in them were mostly full of teenagers who ran away to avoid the reaping. Merlot doubted that there was really any danger with this kids, he just wondered why they were not being transported to the detention center by hovercraft. After all, that was a much quicker option and left the chance of escape at zero to none.

Having spent a good amount of time with his fellow Peacekeeper, and —even if he did not want to say it— partner for this mission, he could not help but find him rather weird. Most Peacekeepers had reputations throughout the ranks, but Merlot had not heard anything about this Falcon character. He guessed that all Peacekeepers were odd in some way. He had his obsession with wine, but that was the thing that had caused him to become a Peacekeeper. Either way, eh could not help but be creeped out by his fellow keeper of the peace.

"That's quite an interesting... beard sir"."

What in the world was this guy getting at. If he was going to comment about Merlot's beard than he should have done it earlier, not in an odd way while they were driving. Merlot took his eyes off of the road and looked skeptically at his exceptionally creepy friend.

"What the hell is wro-"

Merlot was cut off by an airbag hitting him right in the side of the face. It hurt, but it was not something that he could not stand. While he was looking at the idiot in the seat next to him there was a bend in the road, one that Merlot had failed to see because he was distracted by the genius Peacekeeper Falcon. Due to this, the front of their pickup had run into the bottom of a rather thick tree, and the tree had won.

"You're a fucking idiot, you know that?

As he finished off his rhetorical question, Merlot reached over to the door with his hand opening it. He bet there was a farther large red mark on his face where the airbag had made contact, but he was never exactly a looker. He took the keys out of the ignition and put them in his pants pocket where he knew they would not fall out. Eventually, Merlot was able to wiggle his way out of the car; his fat frame had caused him quite a few problems in working past the air bag. Taking his scoped piston out of the holster he attached a silencer to it, wouldn't want to make too much noise if he had to take a prisoner down.

"We should probably go check on the prisoners, maker sure that none are hurt more than before. And hopefully that none escaped due to your idiocy."

He spoke in a nonchalant tone. Merlot really thought —even though it was he driving— that it was Peacekeeper Falcon's fault they had crashed. He was not going to take the fall if something went wrong. Even if Merlot had a bad reputation there was no way this new guy's was better. Not checking to see if his partner had moved out of the car, Merlot spoke again, somewhat impartial in his tone.

"That means get out of the car and cover me." He neglected to add on idiot this time, Merlot was not interested in getting shot accidentally.

The fact that Peacekeeper Falcon could just not shut up was really rather annoying to Merlot. He had no choice in who he got to work with, but it could not be so difficult for his superiors to put him with someone who was not extremely annoying. There were others who were much calmer than Merlot, people who could handle someone annoying and comical as the Peacekeeper who Merlot was working with, but he could not. Merlot would not bother sending in a complaint, as it was not worth it. Chances are if he did that Merlot would end up being labeled as a complainer, not something that was wanted.

The biggest concern for Merlot at that moment was getting shot. He was sure that Falcon did not have the best shot. Merlot was maybe wondering if he should offer switching weapons, but if he did that then his partner might get even more trigger happy. Merlot was still rather wary about having this idiot guarding him. He was not even sure that he would be able to hit a running prisoner with the machine gun, so he doubted that a pistol would do Falcon even better. Chances are Merlot would have nothing better than himself if this came to shooting, and he was not exactly the greatest shot around.

"Seriously though, do not get trigger happy. They don't have weapons, so give them the chance to give up if they try to run away."

Now that Merlot was at the entrance to the trailer, he was hoping that he would just be going through a simple prisoner check before having to call his superiors about where he was (even though he did not know his exact location). They would be able to track them and he would end up being scolded for sure, but it would be better than being stuck out there with just his fellow Peacekeeper. He would probably be demoted back to just street patrols in District Twelve, but that was something he would be able to live with. Maybe he would even get to meet one of their recent victors, though that was unlikely to happen.

"Just be careful." Merlot did not add that it was for his safety, but he hoped that Falcon would make sure to not shoot at Merlot. That would not only compromise their mission, but it would also mean that he would have quite a bit of explaining to do.

Merlot never had been the best Peacekeeper at bringing people places, he had always been better at patrolling the streets of a district. Patrolling was easier anyways, he did not have to worry about everyone being a criminal or being under the eye of his superiors constantly. He was like a king when he kept an eye over a district, but here in the wild that was not the case. If the criminals were smart enough they could have found a way to get weapons into their cells; things did just not sound like they were enjoyable to Merlot. He felt like something more was going to go wrong, more than just their car running into a tree and getting totaled.

He punched in his side of the combination, making sure to do it slowly to not mess up. Once he did that he stepped back from the door, not wanting to be the first one to step inside. It would be better for Falcon to go in first, he had the machine gun. Merlot on the other hand was still only carrying a pistol, which may have been better for inclosed spaces, but Merlot never had been the best shot. The door did not automatically open, for the sake of the Peacekeepers out side of it, one would not want to be attacked without surprise.

"You first. Your weapon is better so if anything goes wrong, you, uh, would be safest..." Of course he was only saying this because he had no intentions of being the first one to go in. Though the prisoners stood as no threat against the two men, he felt safer outside the trailer. Prison cells never were what Merlot liked about the job, he really only liked the money and ability to buy wine.

Merlot was pretty sure that he had made a mistake in not going in the the trailer to check on the prisoners, Peacekeeper Falcon would definitely end up taking all the credit for saving them because of it. All Merlot wanted was for the one better equipped to go into the trailer, but that would probably end up backfiring on him just like everything else he did. It was rather unfortunate that he had to work with someone so caught up in their own world, though Merlot was hardly one to talk about things like that. He would make sure to ask for patrolling duty, it was much easier for his mind to handle.

"Is anyone hurt?" Obviously they were, Merlot thought. They could not have expected to hit anything, and he assumed that at least a few of them were standing and went flying into a wall or a bar. He rather expected that he would have to go in their and perform some first aid, but he thought the prisoners might turn on them if he did. It was a difficult decision that he was sure he was going to have to make, yes it was something that he did not want to do in the least.

"Of course..." they're hurt he spoke in an inaudible tone, just mouthing the final two words. Merlot was upset with the fact that Falcon had to ask obvious questions, if Merlot had taken the lead then he would not have had to ask that question. Instead of having to just getting down to business he would have to wait for Peacekeeper Falcon to get over himself, if just annoyed Merlot. He never thought that he would say it, but with all his heart Merlot Pinot Noir wanted to be back in District Twelve. He was so used to that place that he actually found it more comforting than anywhere else, besides the Capitol of course.

How Merlot got so attached to District Twelve he really had no idea, the place had just grown on him without Merlot noticing. When he had first got into the job he had thought that District Twelve was full of barbarians, but in reality they were just starving children and people without hope. They had nothing to live for but each other and they were barely able to subsist yet the Capitol made everyone think they were a bunch of idiots, but in reality they were not. Merlot did not want to think that he was actually becoming affectionate to the people of District Twelve as a whole, but unfortunately for him, he was.

"Well, that was simple enough," Merlot was brought back to the situation at hand; he hoped that Falcon had not noticed his spacing out, because that would end up in unwelcome situation for Merlot. He was still taken aback quite a bit by Falcon's statement though, would he find a bunch of injured prisoners a good thing? One thing Merlot knew was that prisoners were not supposed to get injured by accidents, all harms done to the sinners were meant to be done by the hand of a Peacekeeper. He felt like everything just kept going wrong for him, how he could remain a Peacekeeper after all of this, he was not sure.

"Umm... uh... What? Aren't they injured or something?" It was not that he actually cared for the prisoner's safety, it was just that he cared for his own. All Merlot wanted was to get back to his new home, maybe they would allow him to take a few days off. After this experience he was sure that he would need those days off.

Surprisingly, Merlot found that Peacekeeper Falcon actually had the situation under control. Why he doubted the idiot was not going to be able to control the situation; well, he knew why, the guy was an idiot. It made sense that Merlot was not going to trust him if he did not trust Falcon's abilities. He was really just surprised that apparently nobody was that seriously injured. He felt relieved about the fact that he did not have to deal with any serious injuries, though he was sure that Falcon was hiding something from him. After all, Merlot was known to not be good about blood, not so much his own, but other people's blood. It disgusted him, why would he have to deal with it; dealing with blood was never stated to him when he first signed up to become a Peacekeeper (or he was just too drunk to notice them saying anything).

"Please, don't do anything to get yourself in any more trouble. Curiosity can get a cat killed, and it's more than capable of getting a hothead Avoxed. Now, don't mock me as I turn to leave, because I promise you my imitation of your voice is better than your imitation of mine." He wondered why Falcon was using these threats at the people, did one of them speak up against him or try to attack him. Merlot was sure that he had not heard any voices other than his partners, it made not sense that he would have to threaten like this for no reason. Merlot knew many Peacekeepers like to abuse their power, but one good thing he thought he could tell about Peacekeeper Falcon was that he did not like to do this. It seemed as if Falcon was a rather decent person, no matter how mentally insane he was.

"A bruise here and there, but no, not badly." Merlot was sure that Falcon was talking to him now, if he was not then he just sounded like a total idiot. Otherwise, why would he have bothered with saying that. He was trying to tell Merlot what was going on, yet Merlot really did not seem to care. It was better that way, not associating with your prisoners. Merlot had already experienced failure with that as a Peacekeeper, he did not want to again.

"Anything else before I shut the gate Pea- ...sorry, did you say you preferred to go by Merlot or Peacekeeper Noir?" Merlot was taken aback by this question. Why did it even matter what he liked to go by. In this situation he was sure it would be better to be called Peacekeeper Noir, but frankly, the lot of people were probably all getting turned into avox's, so it did not really matter.

"Peacekeeper Falcon, I do not think that it really matters. But based off of etiquette, I would think you should call me Peacekeeper Noir. Does that sound okay Peacekeeper Falcon." In fairness, Merlot was trying to be a prick in this situation. He was trying to throw off his partner, make it seem like he did not know what to do. Even though these people were prisoners, it would be great if they could end up finding Merlot's fellow Peacekeeper to be an idiot. He was sure Falcon would never forget a showing like that.