Chapter Text
August 10th, 2027
22 years ago
"He's beautiful, Mandy…" 37 year old Robert Robertson - the Mechaman - smiled softly as he held his newborn son, who squirmed in the hospital blanket he was swaddled in. "Ten fingers and toes- look at you." He chuckled, as the infant looked over at his father with a gurgle. 33-year-old Mandy Robertson - Blonde Blazer - watched him greet his son with a weary smile. "You're gonna be wiggly, aren't you? Gonna be my pain in the butt?" Robert teased the newborn, who kicked a little. "I don't mind."
"Robert put him down, he's probably tired." Mandy chuckled, Robert transitioning the baby into a cradle position in his arms. "We both are." Robert smiled at her, kissing the top of her head.
"He's pretty active, actually." He admitted. "You go ahead and sleep. I have… hm." He looked at his wiggling son, who let out a big yawn. "We didn't really decide between the two, did we-?" Mandy shook her head, laying down.
"I'm good with either Chase or Maxwell." She admitted, yawning herself. Robert thought for a minute, then smiled.
"Why not both then… Chase-Maxwell." He decided, bouncing the infant. "I have Chase. Get some sleep Mandy." Mandy yawned again, laying down a bit more as Robert used a spare hand to tuck her in. "Just me and you, little man." He returned to Chase-Maxwell, who stared up at him. Robert smiled softly, holding up Chase's head of dark brown hair up a bit. "You're going to do great things, Chase-Maxwell."
"I know it."
— Episode One: Legacy —
Present Day
Los Angeles, California
BEEP BEEP BEE-
"Sh, sh, sh- SHUT UP!!" 22-year-old Chase-Maxwell Robertson smacked his alarm clock, trying desperately to turn it off. "For fuck's sake-" He gave up, grabbing the device and throwing it at the wall. He let out a soft groan, as he slowly got out of bed and stretched. "Who's idea was it to invent these." Chase grumbled, slowly getting out of bed and rubbing his eyes. "So annoying." He blinked a bit, heading to the discarded device and picking it up to look at the time.
7:15AM. He needed to get moving if he wanted a ride to work.
Chase took a quick shower, washing out his dark brown hair and cleaning up around the scars on his torso and arms. He then got in his uniform, brushed his teeth, and shaved before heading to the dining room for breakfast. His 16 year old twin sisters, Riley and Roberta, were already munching on eggs and toast, most likely made by his mother - which was a better alternative than his father cooking. The same man thought dry cereal counted as a full meal. That wasn't to say that Chase-Maxwell didn't love his father - in fact, he was closer to him than he was his mother. Chase and Mandy often butt heads, especially when Mandy found injuries on his body that he hid. Which Chase only hid because she would make a whole thing out of it! He appreciated the sentiment, but it wasn't something he needed. The twins needed it more than anything.
Chase knew that Riley and Roberta - once upon a time Robert and Riley - needed more attention the moment he turned 9. His parents had to take more shifts and were barely able to be home because they were only expecting 2 kids to have to be responsible for and got 3 instead. Not that they hated Chase or his sisters - it was just a lot at the time. So Chase did what he needed to do to step up - he learned to cook, how to do a bedtime routine - he became a built in babysitter with the understanding that the girls were expensive and that he had to. And he thought he was doing a good job.
When he was 13, he started high school, which meant the girls had to take the bus to and from school. They were seven, and promised Chase they'd only go to school and back. Chase had warned them how they were the children of heroes and had to be much more careful. Kids like them were targets for villains, especially the twins with Robert Jr's name. The twins kept their promise, only violating it when Chase allowed them to go to another's house for a party. It was at their Uncle Chad and Uncle Herman's house, so Chase thought them safe.
Chase then happened to be watching the news after school, when he discovered something horrendous - multiple superhero children had gone missing, kidnapped by the Red Ring… including the twins and other Z-Team kids. Chase was horrified, and immediately ran to notify his parents. When the dispatched heroes had gotten there, they had been too late. Riley, now Roberta, lost her arms and legs to Shroud and his augments - targetted as such because of her relation to their father. Thankfully, Robert, now Riley, was unharmed. Chase never forgave himself, falling into a pit of depression. He tried desperately to divert his parents' attention to the twins, inadvertently making himself independent. He didn't feel he deserved such help. Of course, his parents felt different, but in different ways.
Mandy began to be overprotective, worried over every sign of his depression and over the fact that he hid injuries. Chase constantly felt smothered, and it was only after he was officially diagnosed with his father's autism and depression that she backed off a little bit. Chase understood she cared, he just needed to breathe too. Robert took a different approach. He let Chase do his normal coping strategies and even offered some of his own to help. Chase was able to go to him if he needed help or support, Robert doing his best to be open. Chase didn't want to ever admit it to his mother, but he preffered his father to her. He wasn't the overly cuddly type.
"Chase." Chase looked up at the sound of his name. His father, 59-year-old Robert Robertson, blinked softly, already showing his age. His hair was still a light brown, but now the grays showed. The brown eyes the two shared were weary and aged like whiskey, the wrinkles on his face messing up his freckles - but he still offered a smile. "How do you want your eggs?" Chase smiled a little, leaning on the table a bit. It always made him happy to see how old his father got. Every story his father told him about the Mechaman suit had the user dying early, and he seemed to break that curse. Seeing grays in his father's beard and hair gave him hope that his sisters would be just fine taking up that side of the family mantle. Chase was content with not taking it. He wanted to be a social worker - it was what he was in college for. The Blonde Blazer amulet was being used currently by his namesake, his father's uncle figure Chase. Of course, Uncle Chase kept going on about how Chase-Maxwell would take it up one day, but until they found a way to help his uncle live without it, he was happy doing college. To pay for the school, Chase worked as a dispatcher, over at the SDN with his mother.
"Over easy please. Not hard today." Chase requested, Robert nodding and getting to it. Chase loved his job. He believed himself very good at it. He had good synergy with the team he had, made up of the children of Z-Team. It was his suggestion, actually - after what happened with the kidnappings the kids had gotten more violent and angry, rightfully so. Their innocence and wonder had been taken from them by force - in some ways horrifically like Roberta. Aydan, Uncle Chad's son, was kept in a meat freezer which caused his powers to be affected, and now he had a habit of vomiting magma on top of his anger issues. River, his sibling and Uncle Herman's child, was kept in the opposite - a boiler room that dried her out to extreme levels - and now they couldn't produce enough water sometimes, especially during summer. Melody, his Uncle Victor and Auntie Malevola's daughter, can't fly in her monster form because her wings were torn through to her wing bones. Logan, Courtney's son and Melody's adopted brother, can't hold his breath because his jaw was augmented and he tore the pieces out of his cheeks and teeth. Uncle Bruno's kid, Jessie, was affected mentally - they couldn't hold a conversation for five seconds without throwing up because they tore a social kid to her basic fight or flight skills, a majority flight. And then his sister Roberta was a prosthesis user, of course, Riley traumatized to where she overthought everything and blamed herself for Roberta's disability. The only two on the team who hadn't been affected by the Red Ring was the daughter of Uncle Colm and Aunt Janelle Vanessa and the daughter of his Auntie Alice and Tia Camelia Callie.
And even they had their fair share of issues.
On top of the Red Ring kidnappings, the Z-Team kids (the reformed villain ones) were bullied for having villain parents - past or present. It was quickly growing to the kids being put in juvenile detention or jail depending on their age.
Chase had to save them.
The project was called the Chiron Initiative - named for the centaur trainer of many Greek heroes and a figure seen as a "wounded healer" due to a poisoned arrow in his knee, one he could not die from due to his immortality. Chase was inspired by the name of the reforming program. He trained them with their new disabilites best he could, and the rest were all them. It was slow progress but it was going to be that either way. Chase knew what he was getting into.
Of course, this team wasn't the best, but they were working on it.
"Okay, which of you am I working with today?" Chase questioned, getting himself some coffee. Riley and Roberta traded off who was Mechagirl each day - part of the perk of being twins. Apparently, so was trading names - when Riley first came out Roberta jumped for the chance to have her name. It helped in the long run - no new names to really learn, just new people to pin them to. It helped that Roberta and Riley were completely different people in a sense. Riley was the girliest girl to ever girl, Roberta more tomboy. Both of them loved robotics but Riley did the math and calculations while Roberta did the maintenance and dirty work. Both of them loved being the Mechagirls, however. Whoever wasn't working the suit was the one handling the cameras and information coming to the mech, able to see what the other saw. Of course, Chase made sure they were doing school too - it was equally if not more important. "Roberta, if it's you, I need you to eat more than a damn twinkie." Roberta groaned in annoyance, giving Chase a look that matched. There was his answer right there. "Eat your eggs, cmon."
"It's not like I'm going to be actually in the fucker!" Roberta argued. "I'm testing the mental link." Not this shit again. Chase pinched the bridge of his nose, shutting his eyes. Roberta had this thought that she could maybe be the Mech and the Girl as one being - link with the mech and control it using her own movements. Chase thought it was too dangerous.
The twins thought differently.
"Cmon, don't give us that." Riley protested. "It's safe - it works, even!! We're still working on the connection strength but we have the time to actually test it should nothing majorly wrong should happen today." Chase gave her a deadpan look. "Besides, you're not our Dad, Max."
"No, I'm not, I'm just your overworked older brother who cares about you staying alive, but I'm the bad guy I guess." Chase blinked with a sigh, as Robert handed him his eggs. He smiled wearily, Chase giving him one back as his father tussled his hair up.
"Listen to your own directive and eat, Chase." Robert ordered more gently, turning to the girls as they looked away a bit from the bite in response to their bared teeth. "The girls are going to learn their own way. You have to let them fall on their own eventually." Chase took a breath, taking a sip of coffee as Mandy got to work telling the girls to be grateful. "You have to remember the amount of times you fell over and learned."
"Dad, that's different." Chase softly argued, averting his brown eyes. His freckled face got sad, as his grip on the cup tightened. "I kept falling because I was on my own for pretty much my whole childhood. The girls have support and they're just-" He took another shuddering breath. "They're just-"
"I know. We'll talk more later." Robert promised, letting go for a second to get Chase's and his anti-depressants. He popped his, putting Chase's on his plate. "Eat, okay? We can talk in the suit." Chase looked at his father, then away at the medicine.
He sighed, and did as his father told him to do.