Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Robert has more money in this AU.

He become a foster parent when retiring.

• Wasn't offered dispatch job.
• Mandy & Chase are case workers here.
• Wanted to make a difference for kids going through the foster system.

The kids all come in as 'emergency fosters cases' & Robert is only option other than temporarily staying at an orphanage.

• Not likely to apply to Chad (Flambae).
• Robert obviously agreed to help.

Kids ages in order from youngest to oldest:

1. Bruno (Golem), age 5-6,
2. Courtney (Invisigal), a year older than Bruno,
3. Chad (Flambae), age 10,
4. Alice (Prism), age 10 (slightly older than Chad),
5. Victor (Sonar), age 12,
6. Colm (Punch Up), age 13,
7. Janelle (Coupé), age 14 (almost 15),
8. Malevola (Mal), age 15.

Chapter Text

Victor was hybrid batman boy who was born into a fairly wealthy family. They weren't millionaires or anything, but rich enough to live comfortably without any real worry.

Victor was the second born to four kids, he had an older brother & two younger siblings. His father had shape shifting powers & his mother was also a bat hybrid, though she does look a bit different than Victor. As parents they are extremely neglectful - only paying attention to whichever children show fairly high intelligence.

As a result, Victor forced himself to be the smartest of his siblings in order to gain the most praise & attention, but it wasn't enough. Even receiving multiple rewards for a year of complete academic excellence & no missed days, this was only met with slight interest, a higher allowance & more expectations for the future.

Eventually, Victor began using his intelligence to scam people, commit 'frauds', & even turn himself into quite the cyberbully. He scammed elderly folks with things such as different types of insurances, on a few occasions he would 'help' with school fundraisers by being in reach of the cash & slipping a few bucks from each purchase to himself (it was all overpriced anyway), & there were many times he'd make near impossible to track accounts to harass & bait several of his classmates. If he could commit these & consistently get away with it, then surely that's proof of his intellect, right?

During one of his scams against a classmate, another classmate found out & attempted to blackmail him to do work for their group. Victor gets out by realizing they have no actual proof of his deeds.

In an attempt to still get the bat boy on their side they offered him 'some good stuff' in exchange for his help pulling off scams - curious about this 'stuff' Victor agreed. That was how got his start in doing drugs. It was just weed at first, but as time went on it stopped having the same feel so he asked around about different drugs he could try. He didn't like the sounds of most of them, especially meth & the whole 'tying your arm' thing - & he tried taking adult medicine he didn't need but it didn't hit right and tasted awful 99% of the time. He did try coke however & got hooked.

Once hooked Victor started getting more wrapped in his schemes in order to get more drugs without touching his allowance (not that his parents would have noticed), his mood also changed - much like when he was a toddler, he began struggling to control his emotions & consequently his mega-bat form, he'd get angry or worked up easier & shift without even really thinking about it.

He also began spending a lot of time away from home in order to do his drugs in peace & not risk changing & wrecking his room or any room in a drug rage. His appetite left him too, along with a decent sleep schedule (but let's be real, he never had that anyway. Still no notice from anyone.

One night he was at a party that no 11 year old should be at, so completely out of it that when the cops & a hero subsequently raid the party Victor was barely able to form a coherent thought, let alone properly fight the cops arresting him in his mega form.

He's jailed, his crimes come to light -snitches-, & his parents pull some strings to he isn't sent to juvenile detention to save face from having to say one of their sons was ever legal trouble. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you care about the well-being of kids) they weren't able to make the mandatory counseling & consistent check-ins that would be required disappear as easily. So viewing him as a lost cause & disgrace, his parents decided to file for disowning Victor.

While that process takes place, he was temporarily placed in the foster system. He bounced between many homes, none really ready to deal with an 11 turning 12 year old coke addict who looks down of everyone else for 'not being as intellectually superior as him', runs away to go get drugs, steals their cash and cards (since he no longer as any access to allowance or scam money), and even breaks into the medicine cabinets just to get some kind of buzz.

Chase was his main case worker since he dealt with older foster kids, & clearly didn't think very highly about 'troubled' kids like Victor. Not like Victor thought much about some dumb old man's opinion anyway.

Apparently though, no one else was able to foster him after all the houses he's bounced around the past few months. There's one named Robert, & Victor is going to have to live with 7 other kids.. otherwise he's going to an orphanage...

Yelp.. let's just hope this works out long enough for his family to change their minds & realize how smart & important he is.

Chapter Text

Starting off we have

Robert:

Robert's mother took off shortly after he was born, done with Robbie's crazy, legacy obsessed ass. And Robert was 'raised' by his dad (with extreme help from the young Chase), his old man trying to teach him to be a self sacrificing, overly tough hero - the few times he was actually home anyway. Robert definitely got the self sacrificing part.

When he was about 14, his dad finally died from Elliot, now Shroud, gunning him down. Robert was then sent to an orphanage for Superhero children (which is to keep the kids from accidentally revealing their parents hero's civilian identities and putting themselves and anyone still alive safe from villains looking for revenge or greedy pricks looking to cash in on adopting the child of a deceased hero), his mother had also died in-between his birth to teen years. And since you can only be adopted by kin or someone from a parent's will - neither of which Robert had - he was stuck there.

He waited a few months to grieve his dad before he'd sneak out, stealing the Mecha Man suit to do vigilante work. As soon as he turned 18 he left and became a full time hero. He had to retire after about 12 years due to an explosion destroying his suit and putting him in a month long coma and might have left some actual damage to him for once.

Bruno:

Was created by someone trying to make a minion to do their bidding but they messed up, accidently creating a sentient infant clay person instead. Bruno ages and grows fairly similar to a normal child, maybe slightly bigger than average. He was decently taken care of because surprisingly his creator wasn't heartless. He just wasn't really taught manners or given a good and healthy routine (staying up whenever, sleeping in often, just eating whenever and really just whatever, not caring about space or if things break).

But eventually the government some how found out what had happened and proceeded to remove the 4 year old due to 'concerns about ethics and the morality of using science/magic to create a child and if the child can be properly cared for'. So Bruno is stuck bouncing around (because most don't know how to even try caring for him, or can't handle his constant breaking of things) foster homes while his creator tries to prove they didn't do anything wrong legally or morally.

Courtney:

3rd child. Her dad was very neglectful and kind of a bum, her older siblings were hardly around and allowed to do whatever they wanted 90% of the time (which left her feeling lonely and jealous, not that she realized or would admit it - she is still really young), and her mother was present and seemingly cared but had a temper and could be kind of abusive when mad (not like, full on beating her kids but grabbing too roughly, smacking hard enough to leave a handprint or two, sending her kids to bed without dinner sometimes if they do something 'wrong').

One night her mom got pissed off and forced her into her room with no food twice, so no lunch or dinner. Courtney left the house unnoticed and wandered around until she found a trash can with an unopened box of snacks sitting on top, so she knocked it over to eat. Two patrolling officers happened to notice the little girl eating by a knocked over trash can, and investigated. Courtney wasn't fast enough to run or hide and so was checked over and taken to a station when they saw bruises on her arms.

Her and her siblings were put in foster care while her parents are investigated (and later sent to jail for a little, for neglect and abuse of minors). She keeps trying to run, stole, and was just a generally rude child so Courtney bounces around a lot.

Chad:

He was born in Afghanistan, so was his sister, and they moved to LA while the two were still extremely young. His dad lost his job when Chad was 9 and neither parent was able to find a job for a while, eventually a locally loved heroine convinced them to put the kids up temporarily until they're back on their feet. They reluctantly agreed under some conditions - mainly that Chad and his sister stay together and the family get visitations.

Unfortunately Chad was a bit of a pyromaniac and a cocky little kid (his parents had been helping him manage it but he can't help himself sometimes), so he was shipped off to a different home, where he lasted even less time since he didn't even have his sister anymore. So that began his constant bouncing around.

Alice:

She was an average girl at first, just a constantly fighting family. Her dad left when she was too you to really remember. Shortly after her mother put her into TV, trying to make her daughter a star.

And it worked, because she starred in a decent little commercial that made Alice a local toddler celerity, which then led to her mom putting her in more projects, each making her more popular. By 7 she was in over a handful of works and making a lot of savings for when she grew up. She got the stage name of Prism.

Eventually her mom started worrying about Alice's weight and got her on diet pills. And when Alice started getting put in too many things for her sleep schedule to work out, and already being drained from dieting, her mom got her hooked on stimulates.

Word got out, authorities investigated, and Alice was removed for abuse and unethical child labor. She bounced around because she had become a little diva who snapped at people, refused to use her real name anymore (only really an issue for some), stole in an attempt to buy more pills, and she was a black girl (yeah, in 2035 racism wasn't as common, especially since powers started getting more attention, but there were still obviously going to be the occasional douche bag).

Victor:

2nd child of 4. His parents only cared about smarts - the only way to gain even a fraction of their attention and potential praise was to be intelligent and do something great. Victor did everything to be the smartest and it wasn't enough, so he turned to scams and being an anonymous troll to give him the feeling of being superior since he was too smart to get caught.

He ended up getting hooked on drugs and fell into a spiral.

There was a bust on a party he went to and he got arrested, and his parents almost immediately disowned him, and he was put into foster care until they officiated the disownment legally. And since he liked to act like an asshole, run off to get drugs, stole to get drugs, and wasted medicine to try getting buzzed, he gets bounced around a lot.

Colm:

His parents worked for a circus, and as soon as he could walk and hold a broom without accidently smacking someone Colm was put to work helping with clean up. Growing up though, he wanted to be just like the strong men, he thought they were the coolest with their strength and unabashed masculinity.

One day they passed through a town and the 12 year old ran into a sorcerous during his off-time and he begged to gain strength like the men he admired. He was granted his wish, better even, he got the strength of 10 men along with pyknokinesis. The only downside was that this costed him his height, and he was shrunk down to 3'3".

Once his folks found out they immediately capitalized off it and he was suddenly a main performer in the show. Until 2 years later when the government got involved for 'free child labor' or whatever.

Colm bounced around because no one really wanted to risk fostering a teen who could accidently snap and either break several of your bones easy, or ruin all you things, and the ones that tried to house him just actually pissed him off by trying to act like he was still some little kid due to his height, so he would get a bit frustrated and threaten those people.

Janelle:

Supposedly an only child. Her mom was never in the picture and her dad was training her to be an assassin from a young age. When she was a bit older than 14 her father had her try her first hit while he tagged along. She messed up badly however and her father immediately bailed on her.

So Janelle was arrested but deemed safe enough to be fostered with someone while her aunt tries to fight for custody. Unfortunately, no one wanted to risk having a training assassin in their homes, no matter how safe she's deemed so, she's still waiting.

Mal:

She's from Hell Australia (which is like regular Australia, but in Hell!). Her parents separated while she was young, and her mom remarried a good man - he was sweet and a great stepfather, Mal loved him greatly.

His passing was heartbreaking, and her mom couldn't handle it - not that Mal really could either. But her mom sent her to live with her bio dad for a bit while everything was going on.

Her bio dad had gotten heavily abusive since he left and he would constantly beat on Mal. One day she feared her safety and opened a portal, but was smacked right out of it onto the sidewalk. Luckily that meant her sperm donor was apprehended by a hero who had showed up.

With her mother still unable to take her and having no where else to go, the demon girl was placed in foster care for the time being. She did however get her bio dad's hellian temper and that worries most adults who don't want a teen to kill or curse them (most don't know a thing about real demons), so she bounces around a lot.