Chapter Text
Z-Team spread around the conference room. It was a grey rainy day and most of them were still damp from the weather as they arrived into work that day. The clock showed it was just past 9am but none of them were in any particular rush for the meeting to start. The meeting ending meant heading out on shift into the miserable downpour outside, so heavy it could be heard bouncing off the roof and windows of the building.
Visi sat at the end of the table towards the back, catching up with Golem. Sonar stood near the AC control unit, prodding it, desperately trying to get it to turn on and heat the room up. Waterboy sat between Prism and Malevola, holding his own in a conversation about reality TV shows, much to the surprise and feigned disgust of Flambae who sat opposite, cleaning his nails with his feet on the table. Punch-up and Coupe were sat next to each other a little closer to the door, in a world of their own, as they often were these days.
“This fucking control unit sucks ass. Can’t get the heating on.”
“It’s not that cold,” Golem rumbles
“Hate to break it to you big guy, it is, especially when you’re in wet clothes.” Visi replies, shaking her sleeve for effect and sending water spraying across the room.
“Wonder when Bobert and Blazer are gonna get here, I wanna get this over with, these meetings are always so boooooooring,” Sonar says as he gives up fiddling with the unit.
“What’s the rush? Sooner bitch boy is done, sooner we have to get back out in the rain,” adds Flambae. His contribution brings Prism and by extension Waterboy and Malevola in.
“I w-wonder what this meeting is about,” Waterboy says, the near complete lack of stuttering getting a supportive smile out of Mal and Prism, even if the more positive nature of his contribution gets a sneer out of Flambae.
“I don’t fucking care I just hope the break room coffee is ready by the time it’s done.” Flambae snaps,
“Jeez bae, who got you all wound up today?”
“I don’t like the rain Alice or have you forgotten my whole thing is fire?”
“Okay, yeah, that’s fair” Prism replies, her acknowledgement being echoed by most of the team.
“That begs the question, how’s Waterboy in the rain?” Mal says, smirk on her face.
“Oh.. uh.. I just get m-more… damp? I guess.. Doesn’t really h-help.”
“Well that was a much more depressing answer than I was hoping for,” Mal replies, sounding quite disappointed, sad even.
The door opened, startling the team from their conversation, though Coupe and Punch-up remained huddled close talking without noticing the change in the room as everyone else hushed briefly.
“Okay. Good morning Z-Team, I know it’s a shitty day with even shittier weather so I have brought you all a little treat.” Robert said before nodding towards the door.
Visi just smiled as Chase whooshed into the room, carrying in his arms a rather large and unsteady stack of boxes and cups. Robert helped place them on the table and then walked round passing drinks to the team, the arrival of drinks being the only thing that actually disturbs Punch-up and Coupe from their quiet conversation.
“Oh.. Ah! Robert! Haha, didn’t uh.. See you come in.. These for us?” Punch-up splutters out as Rob puts his drink down in a slightly more aggressive way to break up his conversation.
“Still can’t believe you got me doing a coffee run for these fuckers,” Chase grumbled.
“Hey, I asked, you didn’t have to say yes,” Rob replies with a smirk
“Ahhh whatever, you paid, I got a coffee out of it, I’m out,” Chase replied, a smile breaking through the attitude before he left the room. It was quite endearing to watch, for Rob at least. The way that Chase had actually developed a fondness for Z-Team over the weeks and months since defeating Shroud. Maybe it was the fact they proved him wrong, maybe it was the trust Robert put in them, maybe he was just happy to be a hero again himself, but the end result was a happier and more peaceful workplace for him. He still kept up the gruff act though, despite the fact it’d taken Robert all of thirty seconds to convince him to help with the coffee run today and he hadn’t even needed to pull any kind of guilt tripping or bargaining. What a result.
“Bob Bob. How the fuck do you know my coffee order?” Flambae barks out, prompting the rest of the team to immediately start reading the labels on their cups and taking tentative sips, all realising one by one that they had their usual or favourite despite never telling Rob what they liked, except for Visi of course.
“Bitch, ditto. This freaky, you've been spying on me?” Prism adds, frowning between taking sips of her drink, as if she expects it to change to something different any moment now.
The rest of the team began to pipe up. A cacophony of noise as they all added their thoughts on the fact Robert had got their preferred order for each and every one of them. They were too busy talking amongst themselves and talking to Robert about it that they missed the very small, very subtle look between him and Visi. A knowing look that if caught would betray the secret of just how Rob had been able to pull this little breakfast surprise off.
Perhaps it hadn’t been the most ethical plan when all was said and done but Robert knew that Z-Team could be… rambunctious… when it came to meetings in the early morning. The idea had been formed weeks before when he was conducting an early morning performance review with Coupe. It was dry and boring but it had been a condition from head office as part of her re-admittance into Z-Team and the Phoenix Program that she have weekly performance reviews. Robert didn’t mind the extra paperwork, especially given she’d committed to her work in the field with a precision and efficiency that put most of the team to shame. And Punch-up was certainly more chipper these days with Coupe back around.
It had still been an early morning meeting though and Coupe had been very standoffish. Polite and reasonable so as not to rock the boat with the meeting but clearly on edge giving short answers and curt responses, so he’d suggested a break. While he made his coffee, he saw a box in the kitchenette with a note from Royd, which turned out to be some Hawaiian sweet treats. He loaded a plate with a couple of the doughnut like food and grabbed a second mug of coffee alongside his own and brought it back into the conference room, placing the plate between them and the mug in front of her. There’d been an awkward moment where Coupe had looked at him with a blank expression, as if to say ‘and what is this then?’ but then he’d said it was for her and Coupe’s mood had switched up immediately. The rest of the meeting had been an absolute breeze.
So he’d talked about it with Visi that night, he’d had a conversation with Mandy about some upcoming development with Z-Team that would be announced in a few weeks and knew some form of distraction or morale booster was needed. They’d talked about different options but kept coming back to Coupe being placated with Hawaiian doughnuts and coffee. So they’d decided that he should use some upcoming team meetings to experiment further, so that’s just what he did.
A meeting with Punch-up and Coupe that was called because they’d been caught on-shift getting quite handsy in Royd’s lab and Royd had filed a complaint with HR, had led to possibly one of the most awkward meetings he’d ever chaired. Mostly because it was an open secret that he and Visi had definitely violated the same rules at work, they’d just not been caught, at least not yet. There was quite a lot of passive-aggressive answers and tension so he tried the same trick again, called a little break and returned to the room with a plate full of sandwiches and some sodas. It wasn’t as effective as the coffee and sweet treats but it definitely made it easier.
So the experiment continued. The next opportunity he had was convincing Mal to sign up for SDN’s ‘Trainees Today, Leaders Tomorrow’ program, that one was brownies which did wonders for breaking down her stubborn reluctance. For Sonar he’d grabbed some insects from the pet store when buying Beefs food, placing them on the table in a bowl alongside some chips. It took around two weeks of various meetings and conversations to reach his conclusions. The best way to deal with Z-Team when they got moody or had to have long meetings or training was to feed them. Like they all had some collective low-blood sugar episode. It made sense in a way. Super metabolism, immature tastes, abrasive social skills in work environments. They were effectively teenagers on their first ever weekend job.
One weekend when out and about Robert discussed his thoughts with Visi from his experiments, telling her his idea. She’d been on board near enough instantly. On one hand Robert really hoped it was her way of helping the team, supporting him in his initiatives, but on the other he was sure a large part of her enthusiasm was the fact she would potentially get more food and snacks at work while getting to snoop on the team. If you asked her it was a pretty even 50/50 split.
It was a coordinated effort between the two of them to try and find out everyone's preferences, what foods and drinks everyone liked. Visi ran through at least one inhaler of the course of the snooping and sleuthing, hiding in cafe corners while Prism ordered a drink. Nearly getting caught in the store watching Waterboy shop for his grandma. The worse one was Flambae when she nearly faceplanted his bare chest while shadowing him in a juice bar.
Rob for his part ran through a considerable amount of cash buying things to leave in the break room and see who took them. Sweet and savoury snacks from all around. Different cuisines and spice levels. He did a little snooping, tried to pose questions on comms that wouldn’t arouse suspicions while fishing for information. Eventually though they had all they needed to know. He knew their hot and cold drink preferences, as well as the two or three foods that they would all enjoy. Annoyingly for him and Visi, after all the time, effort, and money, the conclusion was for food that the best bet was Granny’s doughnuts and pastries.
They tried to look at the silver lining though, they’d still got drinks preferences, and if they ever held a dinner party they did at least know everyone's allergies and dietary requirements.
The funniest thing was that as far as Robert was aware, it wasn’t even like this morning's meeting was going to be especially heavy unless Mandy and Chase had cooked up something to bring to the table. However, he was aware of something that the team wasn't. Multiple things in fact and he just wanted to make sure the meeting had the best chance of going smoothly. None of it was bad news but Z-Team were bad enough at taking any kind of change. Plus it’d been quite fun for him and Visi. Sue him.
“Let’s just say Prism, I’m very good at guessing.” He finally replies, smug and grinning.
The team all reply at once, joking and bantering and calling him a perv for spying on them over coffees.
“Guessing my ass Bobert”
“Don’t give me that bullshit Bob Bob”
“T-t-thanks Rob, h-how’d you know?”
He lets them have a moment to say their piece and then takes back control of the room.
“Right. Come on everyone, quiet down.” He finally passed round the stack of boxes that he was still holding. “Everyone take some of Granny’s finest and listen. We’ve got a few things to go over this morning and I’m sure you’re all keen to find out why we dragged you in here today.”
There’s a general murmuring of approval as the team digs into the sweet treats.
“Alright, first things first. I’m sure you’ve all noticed the absence of Phenomaman from Z-Team these last months.”
“Yeah, it’s been nice not talking about Magic: The Gathering for an entire call out” quips Sonar.
“I swear the lad only worked with us for a month before just disappearing? Never even told us where he was going,” Punch-up adds,
“Yeah, well. We have some good news. Phenomaman will be returning to active duty with Z-Team as of today.”
As if on cue, the doors swing open and Phenomaman walks through, taking a seat on one of the chairs. He spins it to face the team and waves awkwardly.
“Hello Z-Team. I have returned from my corporate mandated paid time off to once again help you all in the field. I’m sure you’ve been wondering where I've been?”
“Uh…”
“Kinda..Maybe?”
“No.. not.. No.?”
“I h-h-have Phenomaman!”
Thank god for Waterboy is the first thought in Robert’s head. He knows that the majority of the team don’t exactly gel with Phenomaman, they hadn’t had time to, but the last thing they need right now is for Phenomaman to sink back into depression because they’ve all forgotten how to be around him.
If he’s being honest he is actually wondering where Phenomaman has been. He’d returned from his medical leave to find Phenomaman signed off on the system. There’d been some weird corporate memo in his inbox which said to refer to branch management for updates. So he had but Mandy had been too busy to look into it at the time. They’d sorta just.. Carried on since? Which admittedly he felt a little bad about but the general assumption was he’d returned to the Downtown branch. It was maybe two weeks ago he found out from Mandy that he would be returning.
“Well Waterboy. I was informed by SDN management that I had accrued too much paid vacation time. I’ve worked for Superhero Dispatch Network for 6 years and have never taken a single day of leave.”
“Damn.”
“Oof. Rough baby.”
“How’d you never take leave?”
“So I was informed I had to take a significant amount to ‘balance the books’, so I did. Now it’s over I have returned to work with you all.”
Robert really hoped that perhaps the slightly stunted talking he did would wear off and change with further exposure to Z-Teams more colourful styles of communication. He needs to step back in now though otherwise it’ll become a weird Q&A about how Phenomaman never took leave and what he got up to in the nearly 6 months he’s been gone.
“So what this means for Z-Team is that from today we’re dispatching at full capacity, 10 heroes. That’s gonna give us some real good flexibility out in the field, so there’s no excuse for us not to be sailing up that leaderboard. Both you all as individuals and as a team.”
As if by magic, Mandy picks that moment to come in and wait by the corner of the room, tablet in hand. Robert glances over and nods at her, signalling he’ll wrap up and hand over the floor.
“Obviously I want you all to make sure we work together with Phenomaman to get him back into the swing of things, that’s it on that though. I’m gonna hand it over to Mandy now for the next item.”
He gestures over at Mandy who steps forward, standing beside him. It’s a moment he’s been waiting for for weeks now, months even. He’s nervous. Everyone in the room knows that this day has been coming but now the time has come he’s a little worried how the team is going to take the news. Aside from Mandy only one other person in the room knows what’s coming and they’re doing a very good job schooling their features and not giving the game away. Time to see how the team reacts.
“Morning Z-Team, sorry we’ve had to drag you in for a meeting on this fine day but we shouldn’t take too much more of your time up,” Mandy says in her pitch perfect corporate voice.
“Babes you can talk slower if you want, none of us want to go back out in that downpour right now, we’re all pretty happy to be in here.” Mal chimes up, earning a very disapproving look from Mandy. Unfortunately for Mandy though she’s set the room off.
“Yeah! Speech!” Visi can’t help herself but chip in, even if it gets her a slightly disapproving look from Rob which Sonar notices,
“Uh oh Visi, Bobert looks a lil mad with you.”
“Shut it bat boner” She punctuates her reply with a shove to his arm.
“The kids are fighting!” laughs Prism, causing the rest of the team to start laughing.
“Right. Enough, please.” Mandy cuts through, using a little bit of the authoritative ‘Blazer’ voice, “I’m sure you’re all aware of the ongoing discussions around the future of Mecha Man at SDN,” She braces herself for the inevitable from the team, for some outcry or angry outburst.
“Yeah we know some fucker in Head Office is dragging it out,” Punch-up offers, stern and matter of frank.
“That they wanted to take our dispatcher away.” Coupe adds, in her calm and frankly terrifying way.
“Please, as if anyone wants Mecha Bitch about?” snips Flambae before being hit by a piece of doughnut thrown by Visi. Upon touching his hair and seeing the icing in his fingers, his eyes spark with anger and flames start to trickle from his fingers as he begins to yell at Visi for ruining his hair, flames flashing bigger when she just sticks her tongue out and flips him off.
Around the rest of the room, the team are all talking about the complaints that have gone round in circles throughout the office since the news broke that Robert turned down the suit to stay in Torrance. It’s old ground they’ve all tread before in work, in bars, and if he’s anything to go by also at home so Robert steps in to shut it down before it becomes another hour long discussion or complaint session.
“Enough.” Firm, authoritative. The Dispatcher voice they all know, respect, and occasionally fear.
They all turn and look at him in various states, some with mouths open, Flambae’s flames flickering before cutting out. As it did, Golem settled back into the corner, his move forward to step in to protect Visi if Flambae had flamed out went unnoticed in the chatter of the room. At one point Sonar opened his mouth to say something but Robert had just stared him down and he’d closed it again.
“You all know the story so far. Why don’t you all keep quiet and Mandy can tell you how it ends.” Firm. End of Story.
At that they all settle back down in their seats, quiet, like chastened school children. There’s some quiet murmuring but nothing loud enough to be heard or disrupt so Mandy takes the opportunity to step back forward and continue.
“Thank you, Robert. As I mentioned, there’s been a lot of discussions around the future of Mecha Man. As Rob so eloquently put it, you all know the story so far so I’ll skip to the important bit.” She types on the tablet for a moment and then looks back at the heroes before her, “The board took the matter to a final vote yesterday.”
The team leans in in anticipation with the exception of Visi who remains sat with her arms crossed leaning back. No one notices apart from Golem but before he can say anything Mandy drops the reveal,
“The decision has been made that Mecha Man will be authorised to dispatch alongside Z-Team when appropriate, operating exclusively out of SDN Torrance.”
The room erupts into cheers and whoops as the team celebrates the news. Even Flambae is smiling as Prism yells next to him. It warms Roberts heart that this band of misfits, his family that he found at rock bottom and the ones who helped drag him up, are this happy for him.
The cheering has changed into jokes and banter. At one point he catches Prism saying to Visi,
“You better not be sneaking off into that suit with him, I know what you two are like, you nasty!”
“It will be a pleasure to work with you in the field,” Coupe adds,
“Wonder what it’s like to ride on the suit,” adds Mal, which actually does get everyone's attention.
“Now that is a good idea,” confirms Sonar
“Why would you care? You can already fly, fucking idiot,” replies Flambae.
“Might be fun though. Hate to fall off mid-flight though! Ha!” adds Punch-up.
“For the record, no one is riding on that suit. It’d just be a one way ticket to the hospital or even the morgue.” Robert says with an authority they haven’t heard for a while, more intense than his usual dispatching voice, “I’m very excited to be out in the field with you guys when the going gets tough but I’d just like to reiterate that I am still going to be your dispatcher. That’s my main priority and will remain the focus of my work.”
“So when will you be out with us lad?” Punch-up asks the obvious question,
“The plan is during large scale emergencies, city wide issues, anything that requires a larger and heavier response from this team where we might all be called to deal with a problem.
“Makes sense I suppose.”
“To be realistic, I’ll probably also be dispatched out if too many of you have PTO booked so the team isn’t too thin. Make sure you think of me when you’re living it up on a beach knowing i’ll be out there covering for you.” That gets a couple of chuckles,
“Robert. I am very glad you will be joining us. Might I ask, if you are in the field, who will dispatch us? As far as I’m aware you do not have any powers that might otherwise allow such a feat.” Phenomaman adds, in his rigid and awkward manner.
Mandy steps forward and clears her throat, “Depending on who is available we have a pool of three people who we have cleared to dispatch Z-Team should Mecha Man be deployed. Myself, Chase, and Galen. It will be entirely dependent on the situation on the day. Depending on resources we may look into training substitute dispatchers as and when needed.” She looks at Visi as she says the last part but it’s not noticed, Visi is too busy talking with Golem.
Robert notices the mischievous grins on the faces of most of the team and can take a pretty good guess at what they’re thinking. New dispatcher, new person to mess with. He knows they’ll all be thinking back to when Mandy stepped in after he’d gone bang in the Proto-Pulse test and she’d made some pretty stupid calls. Understandable of course, given she isn’t a dispatcher, but still a slight worry that she’ll get herself swamped. Chase he has no worries about, he dispatched them for a month during his recovery. Galen can handle pretty much anything and the team seem to regard him with respect, probably because he handled a lot of their hero onboarding.
It makes him realise he’s definitely going to have to have a sit down with Mandy and give her some pointers. He also needs to nip any thoughts the team are having in the bud before they get any wild ideas.
“Don’t forget that I will be in the field with you. More importantly, I will still be on the comms.I might be handing over the dispatch side but I won’t tolerate any bullshit towards any temporary dispatcher. Got it?”
Flambae remains grinning, defiant and smug as always. Punch-up, Coupe, and Golem have the decency to look a little apologetic, like children caught in the act of doing something naughty. Sonar is unreadable, Malevola looking apathetic merely acknowledges him with a shrug. Prism just mutters ‘aight, we get it’. Poor Waterboy doesn’t seem to realise that the message wasn’t really for him, even if recently he’d stepped out of his shell more, he still wasn’t making the kind of quips that worried him. Regardless, Waterboy was stuttering out apologies until Mal put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
“Phenomenal. This could be quite an exciting development, given how admirably you performed dealing with Shroud.” Phenomaman chips in, ever helpful.
Robert goes to reply but he catches Visi looking at him directly across the room. Raising her eyebrows in a way that says ‘get a load of these chumps’, as if she wasn’t there alongside them raising hell most of the time. She’s wearing a real mischievous smirk. It never fails to bring him some degree of amusement, the battle he can see within her in moments like this. The part of her that's a supportive girlfriend who wants to see him succeed fighting a battle with the part of her that is mouthy and inappropriate in all the fun and exciting ways. The fact she has a stubborn competitive pride in her work as a hero is now bleeding in as well.
It’s always a toss up which facet wins on a given day but the signs are showing that the mouthy and inappropriate part is very much about to make a dramatic entrance. Like the last team meeting when Robert was getting frustrated and she’d said ‘I know you shouldn’t be this pent up given what we got up to in bed this morning’, or something along those lines. It’s hard to keep up with what she says most days, at least with the talk that can only be described as HR bait. Thankfully that one hadn’t made its way into one of their meetings with Mandy.
“Well Robert, for this next part you might as well take a seat with the team as it relates to you too.” He didn’t actually expect that but he raises his hands up and takes a seat.
He takes a seat next to Mal who gives him a light affectionate punch on the shoulder while Sonar calls from the other side of the room,
“Yeah Robbie! Really part of Z-Team now!”
Mandy coughs to get everyone's attention back and carries on, “So. Following on from the additions to Z-Team and in recognition of your increased public image, not to mention the fact you are all now averaging much higher in the rankings, SDN has decided that Z-Team is in need of a bit of a rebrand.”
“What?”
“Sorry what?”
“My brand is pretty strong as it is, just look at my portfolio..”
“Not sure I like where this is going lass,”
“R-r-r-re-b-b-brand?”
It takes Robert aback a little as well. He’d been aware that there were some head office changes coming in, hence why he’d brought the coffees and pastries, but he didn’t realise it was being spun as a rebrand. He was about to open his mouth and ask but Mandy made rather stern eye contact and he shut his mouth so she could continue.
“Yes. A rebrand. The Phoenix Program has been an incredible success thanks to all your hard work over the recent months. There’s talk of expanding it throughout other branches as well. That’s all down to you guys. You should all be proud of that. However, because of that success, there’s many more eyes on you than ever before and the concern from head office is perhaps that Z-Teams image isn’t as… consistent as other SDN teams.”
“Hey! What’s wrong with our image!” says Mal, voice only a few decibels below yelling.
Mandy grimaces slightly, she’d known there’d be pushback but you really can’t prepare for how Z-Team might handle something, she knows she definitely could’ve worded this better too, “Let’s just say the variety in dress and equipment is considered… Inconsistent? From a PR standpoint.”
“Our image is that we’re inconsistent. We’re consistently inconsistent. You know, eclectic. What’s wrong with that? We all need to be wearing matching Spandex or something? Do all the guys need the weird outside boxers?” Visi pipes up, letting Rob know that today is indeed going to be a mouthy Visi day.
“Look, I understand this might not be what you want to hear but unfortunately this is a decision from higher up.”
The grumbling and complaints from around the room only get louder and more boisterous with the mention of Head Office. Mandy realises the usual management tactic of blame levels of management higher than you doesn’t work as well with Z-Team as it does the average employee but she’s here now so,
“We’ve cleared your afternoon shift off the schedule today, after lunch you all need to report to the lab downstairs where Royd and myself will run you through the new equipment and outfits.”
“Seriously? It’s happening today?” someone yells, unrecognizable through the din of complaining.
“Yep. Today. Unfortunately that’s it for now. Please try and keep an open mind about these changes because unfortunately they’re not a choice.” Mandy checked her tablet, “You all have 15 minutes until your morning shift starts, so get yourselves ready and try and have a good day!” With that final note, she left the conference room.
The team started to file out, grumbling as they went, leaving Robert sitting in his chair lost in thought.
As much as Robert understood the corporate nature of SDN it felt a little wrong to him how this was playing out. He knew from talks with Mandy that Royd had been working on some new pieces of equipment for the team, things he’d designed or conceptualized while working on the Mecha Man suit, which now that the suit was fully repaired and had been for weeks he’d had plenty of time to work on. It was pretty exciting if he was honest. A combination of Royds own designs and Red Ring tech combining to hopefully give Z-Team even more of an edge in the field.
What he hadn’t been aware of was the complaints about ‘outfits’. It felt so forced, so corporate. Like the boardroom had put them through focus group testing. He wasn’t blind or an idiot, he knew there was an element of PR that was required by the nature of this job but it really did feel a little targeted.
Part of him worried that this might be down to that board member who’d kicked up a stink about his refusal to transfer downtown as Mecha Man. The one who’d called him an ungrateful child of an undeserved legacy, if the meeting minutes Mandy had given him as an update were anything to go by. It wouldn’t surprise him if he’d decided to make his life hell for staying, it’s the kind of bullshit he’s used to by now.
He could tell in Mandy’s language, both body and voice, that she was acting as a mouthpiece for head office. Her responses to the team felt out of character even for her more managerial moments. Especially given the team do kind of have a point, they’re hardly the only supers to have odd or particularly out there outfits. Looking up he can see Mr Whiskey wandering around the bullpen. How is that better than a body suit, daisy dukes, and heels?
He’s pulled out of his thoughts by a gentle hand on his check. Or at least, the feeling of one. It’s followed by a weight settled in his lap with an accompanying creak as the chair takes the weight. The familiar whooshing sound he’s come to associate with some of his favourite surprises fills his ears and then she’s there on his lap, looking into his eyes with softness and concern.
“What’s eating at you?” She asks, kind and patient.
“Ah. It’s nothing, just.. Head Office bullshit that I wasn’t expecting or prepared for.”
“Thought you knew about this all?” Genuine curiosity laced her voice.
“I knew about the new equipment from Royd. Didn’t realise we were getting a rebrand, that one’s a shock for all of us.”
“What’s the worry Mecha Man, afraid you’re gonna be overshadowed by Z-Team?” She jokes but his reaction tells her that might’ve been a bit of a miscalculation, he doesn’t seem upset per se but more just bothered or unsettled. The joke doesn’t bring a smile like it normally would.
“Nah.. no.. Just a bit concerned I guess? Fuck I don’t know. Getting all worried about nothing.” He rambles off, leaning back in the chair and letting out a sigh.
“Hey. Rob. It’s not nothing if it gets you worried? It’ll be fine though right?”
“Yeah. Yeah it’ll be fine.”
“Anyway, don’t bring this moment down for me. I’ve been looking forward to seeing you in the Mecha Man jumpsuit ever since you told me you were getting back into it,” She says, practically purring on the last part. Rob glances at her face and her eyes are dangerous. Flirty and fiery like she’s imagining something very inappropriate for the workplace.
There’s a moment. Less than 15 seconds where they stare at each other in a way usually only seen in a bedroom before clothes are ripped off and limbs and lips collide. It feels like a century or more to the both of them before Rob seems to catch himself,
“Nope! No. We’re not even considering doing that! Not here, not today, not when all the team are probably listening in!” He spews out fast and panicked, like the quicker he says it the less likely he is to fall into temptation. Visi just laughs and leans in,
“Doing what Robert? This is just us having a little workplace catch up. No need to worry.” She whispers, voice filled with mirth and mischief, “Anyway, I need to get to work.” Then she disappears and Rob feels the weight lift from his lap as the door opens and closes with a thud. He rubbed his face, letting out a real deep sigh before standing up and heading to the door himself. He got in front of the head of the table before Visi reappeared before him as she slammed her lips into his, grasping her hands in his hair and pushing her tongue into his mouth. After a very intense few moments she broke the kiss and grinned at him before disappearing again, leaving Rob standing slightly dazed. It was only the ticking of the clock on the wall that broke him from his stupor and he realised he was definitely going to be late if he didn’t get to his desk.
Sitting down he sees Beef in Chase’s cubicle looking up at the older man as he idly drops treats down while working. It makes Rob laugh at how much the office and team have adopted his dog practically since day one, even if it’s undoing the work of the diet he and Courtney have Beef on.
“Office day?” he asks.
“Office day. Pain in my ass. Don’t know how I have more paperwork now I'm out in the field. Thought spending less time dispatching chucklefucks in spandex would leave me less paperwork but no.”
“Can you really complain about chucklefucks in spandex now you are one?” Rob replies dryly
“Watch it kid! Not afraid to whoop your ass hard enough to need your girl to come and take your desk again.”
Rob just laughs as he leans back in his chair, slipping his headset on and waiting for his time to start signing in. He takes a moment to savour the conference room kiss. To most people it would look like classic impulsive Invisigal being inappropriate in the workplace. It went a little further for him though, she knew he was worried in that way he did, when he went all tactician and overthought every possibility. So she’d done the thing she knew broke him out of his thoughts. Taken his breath away. The fact she had done it in an inappropriate workplace context just felt like a very on brand cherry on top.
“Lieutenant Dan, this is Private Invisigal reporting for duty!” Her voice echoes through his ear as she signs on.
Speak of the devil, he thinks, as the rest of the team start to check in and the inevitable jibes about what they must’ve gotten up to in the conference room filter in.
Yeah, it’ll be alright