Chapter Text
Of course Mandy knows about Blueknife. He's legendary, the third generation of a heroic legacy turned villain, a living cautionary tale haunting the West Coast's underworld like a vengeful ghost. It's practically mythological: sent out as Kid Mecha Man, the kind of underage hero people have been pulling away from for some time, and within a year, something had happened.
He is almost definitely a murderer, and has a vast fanbase anyway, because he does everything he can to avoid harming civilians, and everything he can to ensure harm to human traffickers and purveyors of CSAM. Officially, Blazer has to condemn him as an SDN spokesperson, but personally she has to admire him, at least a little. For one thing, he has no powers and walked away from generational wealth and his turn in the mech to be this effective entirely on his own. He's like a ghost, from a physical and cybersecurity perspective, the stuff of nightmares and a walking locked-room mystery.
He is also Elliot's nephew, and that's why it's a call on her personal number that wakes her up at three a.m. when he turns himself in for the murder of Duskwing. "Mandy?" and dammit, why is it extra sad when old men cry? Is it because it's so hard for them? "M andy, the boy gave himself up, but it looks bad."
And of course she knows who he's talking about, because to him Blueknife isn't just Blueknife. He's still that wide-eyed kid that Elliot helped raise, and of course he's going to try and help, and Mandy has push with the Phoenix Program, but this? This is going to be hard. Also, wait. "...Holy shit, Duskwing?" Duskwing has been active for twenty years, and is one of the few people still working teen sidekicks, something Mandy has never approved of. But he's an independent, so it's not like she can do anything about him. "Was Sparrow there? Is she okay?"
"I don't even know yet, can you just get down here?"
'Here' is the Meta-Human Containment Facility even though Blueknife has no powers, and as Mandy slips through the doors incognito, as Elliot's emergency contact (she has replaced Chase over his bitter complaints) and into an entire Situation.
Apparently, Blueknife had killed Duskwing for sexually abusing Sparrow, a statement the kid corroborates, and his stated motive for turning himself in rather than vanishing as he has done time and time again is to access medical care for his dog. The dog is a chubby, personable chihuahua who is already in Elliot's custody, a happy lump, sitting in his arms with zero thoughts in that tiny, adorable head. His name is Beef, and he needs medicine for his kidneys.
"Kid always did like animals," Elliot says quietly, his voice cracking.
"That is a positive point on the psych eval," Mandy tells him, and he lets out a little wheeze of a laugh.
Mandy doesn't get to actually meet Blueknife until later. Exactly three days later, and as Blazer. It's positively Biblical. She never likes how much nicer prison staff are to Blazer than they are to anyone on the other side of the bars, but she is courteous on her way in to Visitation.
The room is barren, as usual, and Blueknife is cuffed to the long, steel table. They've let him keep his mask, as per California's extensive personal safety legislation on the subject. Even the worst of villains are entitled to certain protections under the law. He's smaller than she would have thought, fine-boned and skinny in an over-sized prison jumpsuit. He's still as death, watching the door, but there's a wariness in his big, brown eyes that makes her think of a fighting dog rescued from the ring.
"Hey," Blazer says, more softly than she meant to. "I'm Blonde Blazer, with SDN." She takes the chair opposite Blueknife, who doesn't move a muscle, eyes locked on her. "Elliot might have mentioned me."
"...might've done," Blueknife murmurs.
"Sparrow corroborates your statement," Blazer says, "which, along with Elliot's recommendation and mine, would make you eligible for the Phoenix Program."
"Elliot's recommendation I get," Blueknife says after a long silence, "but why yours?"
Blazer sighs, looking into his eyes for a long moment. "Because I look at you and I don't see evil, Blueknife. I see pain. I want you to have a chance for more than that."
"And here I thought you were just doing a favor for a friend," he says.
She gives him a sad smile. "I can't lie and say I don't personally care about Elliot, but I'd feel the same about your case, regardless." She studies him for a long moment. "There is one thing I'm curious about," she says, and somehow tension moves across the surface of his stillness like ripples on the skin of deep water. "And that's how you got Sparrow to trust you, after what she had just been through and then seen you do."
Blueknife blinks, for the first time she has actually seen. "I... I put my knives down," he says. "I hadn't actually meant to--of course it's fucking traumatic for a kid to have a guy killed right in front of them, I just saw what the bastard was doing to her and lost it. So I put my knives down and I said I was sorry." He suddenly chuckles, the sound rusty from disuse, but rare and sweet as his smile. "And she said, 'and you couldn't let me get a hit in?' and I knew we were gonna get along."