Work Text:
Listen, Veronica…the Torrance branch…we’re a little different.
That’s one way to put it.
At the Downtown branch no one shits in the parking lot, or steals toilet paper, or tries to dupe their coworkers into cryptocurrency scams.
Even the West Hollywood branch and their poster boy Gold Standard, frozen in 1901 and thawed in 2014, still grappling with all these fancy new-fangled concepts like the internet and women voting, doesn’t give her this much trouble.
Luckily, Torrance being bottom of the barrel means she doesn’t have the higher-ups breathing down her neck and she can afford to use her own…discretion when handling matters.
For example, bat guano is an excellent fertilizer. Her verbenas have never looked so good.
The toilet paper theft resolved itself and Jack from accounting has yet to disappear despite his fears. The new Z-team dispatcher is working wonders.
She did have to have a small talk with Diego about the company policy concerning dress-codes for heroes, and how it is the hero who decides what is or isn’t appropriate work attire, to fit with their needs and abilities, and if Ms Gibb’s ‘gun show’ offends him he need only look away. Or, alternatively, make greater use of the gym space SDN so graciously offers its employees.
There’s whiskey in the breakroom, and enough beer to tranquilize a medium-sized kaiju in the rec room. Officially, she is unaware of the latter, and the former is the possession of Mr Whiskey, whose file indicates it as a medical necessity. Most of the workforce are resistant or immune to the effects anyway. Corporate wouldn’t like it, but corporate doesn’t need to know. Especially not now.
Veronica’s not stupid. She knows what her boss meant when he put Torrance on her rotation.
The last HR rep who had to deal with the branch – young, fresh out college and perky – had a nervous breakdown.
So, corporate decides to send Veronica instead.
Jokes on her for trying to ask about maybe slowing down. Thirty-five years working HR, ten with SDN, how’s that for loyalty?
But it’s fine.
Because, as Blonde Blazer said to her when Veronica joined the team, the Torrance branch is different.
#
Veronica looks forward to Fridays and walking into SDN Torrance.
The building’s still in the process of being repaired, but it’s mostly cosmetic at this point. Despite enduring a mech battle and a serious hero versus villain brawl the structural damage to the office was minimal – SDN heroes are trained to avoid property damage wherever possible, but still, Veronica can’t imagine one of the DTLA teams handling a battle like that without vaporizing one building at least.
Her office smells musty, like before, but with a new overtone of fresh paint.
Since she’s only in one day a week, the room doubles as storage. She squeezes through the stacks of boxes and makes it to her desk.
As usual, there’s unheard messages on her answerphone.
“Hi Veronica, it’s Blazer, or I guess just Mandy at the moment, anyway, with Waterboy’s recent…shift in role we’ll be needing to hire a new daytime janitor, can you–”
“Veronica of HR, it is I, Phenomaman. I am informed that I may be able to claim ‘expenses’ for a large quantity of food purchased at an after-work event–”
“Hello, my name’s Nancy Cheung, I’m a dispatcher, and I think I may need counselling…after the attack I’ve been having trouble sleeping and I–”
She makes notes, labelling the last one as URGENT.
While her computer loads, she calls the counselling service SDN uses and then emails Nancy all the details. She should probably send out a branch-wide email reminding employees of the health and wellbeing benefits available to them. Ex-heroes or not, being held at gunpoint by juiced-up thugs at your place of work is stressful. She needs to make sure no-one’s suffering in silence.
After that, she starts looking into advertising for a new janitor. With SDN Torrance being on the news, she’s sure there’ll be plenty of applicants. Which is going to be both a blessing, and a curse.
It’s as she’s working on the ad that she realises: There’s not a single Z-team-based complaint.
She double-checks her emails, just to make sure she hasn’t missed something, but no…there’s nothing.
Z-team complaints have been on the decline ever since Blazer hired the new dispatcher, but this is the first time there hasn’t been any. Not one.
She pinches herself.
Ouch.
Nope, not dreaming.
It’s a goddamn miracle.
#
It’s eleven o’clock when she decides to get a snack and refill on coffee. The first shift is still in full-swing and it’s a busy one judging from the amount of chatter. Veronica isn’t surprised. With all that city-wide damage, and a power vacuum to boot, it’s no wonder people have problems.
She walks through the bullpen.
“FuckyouFuckyouFUCKYOU!”
When it comes to all the…inappropriate language being used in the office, Veronica has decided it’s not a battle worth fighting. Sure, she had to give Chase a warning for swearing on live TV – to keep their corporate overlords happy – but unless one of the Torrance SDN employees complains about it she’s fine with people cussing up a storm on the clock.
What she’s not okay with, however, is aggression – especially not from a dispatcher to one of the heroes under his charge.
She’s shocked to see it’s the Z-team dispatcher.
He’s hunched up, both hands on the keyboard. The look on his face is frankly alarming – he looks like he wants to reach through the screen and kill whoever he’s talking to with his bare hands. There’s a dark box with lines of code covering up the usual dispatch display, and a window with some schematics in the corner.
He’s completely oblivious to her presence.
“Ha! Got it!”
The dark box disappears and so does the murderous expression.
“Sonar! Hey, can you hear me? I’ve disabled the alarm. Respond!”
He reaches up and touches a button on his headset.
“I need back-up for Sonar. I think he’s been incapacitated. The warehouse was secured using some kind of sonic device, I need whoever’s closest to get to Sonar’s position now.”
There’s a tense few seconds as he listens to his team.
“Malevola, don’t worry about it. Go. Let me handle the client, just get to Sonar—Yes. I’m so sorry Ma’am, but a higher priority call just came in. I’ll dispatch someone else to you as soon as they become available.Yes, I understand that. Yes, well, you go ahead and do that, Ma’am.” He rolls his eyes and rests his elbow on the desk. “Yes, I’m aware that you’re a Premium Subscriber. I can have another hero out to assist you in ten minutes. No, another subscriber is not receiving preferential treatment over you—I’m sorry, I’m getting another call. Mal? Thank fuck. Okay, portal him back. Go to the medbay and get them to check him out. Stay with him if you need to. It’s fine. Guys, just to update you Sonar should be fine but him and Malevola are going to be off the roster for the rest of the shift. Waterboy, when you’re done with that oilspill, I need you to help a woman clean her car–Oh, you heard that? Well, if the inside of the car happens to get a little water damaged, it’s all good–”
He jolts in his seat as he finally spots Veronica. His hand flies up to cover his mic.
“Shit, erm. Hi, is there something I can–?”
“It’s Robert, right? I’m Veronica, the HR rep. When you have five minutes free I just wanted to check with you about some expenses for Phenomaman. Apparently he purchased almost $200 of Mexican food while on a teambuilding exercise a few weeks ago? Anyway, we can discuss it later when things are less hectic. I hope Sonar’s okay. If he needs any help with his medical benefits, send him my way and I’ll get it sorted.”
“Oh, sure…teambuilding…right.”
“Yes. Teambuilding. At The Sardine. An unusual venue, but yours is an unusual team.”
He smiles a little at that, some of the nervous fight-or-flight energy going out of him.
“Yeah. I guess that’s one word to describe them.”
There’s a fondness in his voice, and she knows she’s not dealing with someone who’s just here for the paycheck.
The man cares.
There’s not enough of that these days.
Veronica clears her throat.
She still has a job to do, after all.
“What you were doing earlier…with disabling the alarm…are you aware that you got rather…vocal?”
Robert’s eyes go wide. He slides his headset off and puts it around his neck.
“Uh…No, I was not aware of that. Vocal, how…exactly?”
“Fuck you, seemed to be the main phrase.”
He shuts his eyes, grimacing.
“Sure. Great.”
A burst of chatter on the line, loud enough that Veronica can hear every word.
“Ooooh, Robert’s in trooouble now!”
“Did someone finally point out how you like to talk dirty when you’re jacking – sorry, 'hacking' – up a storm?”
He grabs his headset, slipping it back over his ears to muffle any further inappropriate comments.
“Visi!”
Veronica gives him a look.
“If you’d like to file a complaint I can–?”
“No, thank you, Veronica…from HR. At this point I’m pretty sure she was dropped on her head as an infant and the harassment is a completely involuntary response. Like breathing, or shitting yourself when you die.” A flicker of irritation passes across his face as he listens to something on the line. “Just proving my point further, Visi.”
He taps a button and covers the mic again.
“Sorry, Veronica, I’ll speak to you later about the expenses thing and I’ll try to be more aware of how, uh, loud I get when I’m hacking.”
“Don’t worry about it. Besides, between you and me, nothing’s going to top the botched circumcision. It was lovely talking to you, Robert.”
She turns back towards the breakroom, and as she goes she hears him sigh.
“Why did none of you tell me?”