Chapter Text
Robert peeked behind his cover. The two guards seemed completely unaware of the intrusion. But, even with their backs to him, he could see the long barrels of the rifles they held at the ready. Alright. They needed to be taken out fast and quietly.
He turned to Coupé and mouthed “Guns.”
The assassin gave him a flat, bored stare. She grabbed one of her knives and nodded toward the guards. Are we doing this or not? she seemed to be saying.
“No killing,” Robert said soundlessly, pointing at the knife and giving her a thumbs down.
Coupé rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she mouthed back.
Robert took another peek at the men and held up his fingers to her.
Three. Two. One. Go.
At once, they jumped over the counter, each going for one of the gunmen. Their opponents let out surprised gasps, weapons tumbling from their hands, but before they had a chance to actually scream, their mouths were covered.
Robert smacked his guard’s temple with his gloved, armored fist, immediately rendering him unconscious. Coupé got the other guy in a chokehold. The man’s face reddened as he wriggled in her grip for a while before going limp. Coupé kept squeezing his throat a good few seconds longer than necessary, then finally let him drop.
Robert looked at her meaningfully. “Dude.”
“What? I didn’t kill him.”
The door on the other side of the room suddenly burst open, revealing another guard who wasted no time raising her rifle at them. Robert threw himself to the side and back behind the counter. Instead of a gunshot, he heard a boot colliding with a face, followed by the sound of a body falling to the ground. He stood up and saw Invisigal kicking the guard’s head, knocking the woman out completely. Coupé, who hadn’t moved an inch, eyed him with disdain, her arms crossed.
“Good thing you didn’t overreact,” she murmured.
“Oh, I’m sorry I’m not so eager to get shot,” Robert bit back.
“No need to thank me,” Visi called to them, her tone indicating that thanking actually should be involved. She scanned the corridor behind the door. “Looks clear.”
“Same here,” Coupé said, glancing at the second corridor - the one they’d come from - then turned to Robert. “Do your magic, nerd.”
Robert walked over to the console. Several monitors that covered the wall above it were displaying live footage from cameras placed all over the base. Or they would be if he hadn’t already hacked the surveillance system and replaced the live feed with looped recordings from earlier. Unfortunately, the rest of the security features couldn’t be manipulated so easily without risking detection. Not remotely, at least.
He pulled out a cable hidden in his armor and linked it to the console. Two minutes later, he had full access to the system, the protection protocols circumvented. The rest was trivial. He clicked a few buttons, typed a few commands, and all the turrets, lasers, energy shields, and whatever else this fortress of a base had to offer went offline. It wouldn’t be long before the bad guys noticed that.
Robert activated his comms. “Alright, team, the door’s open,” he said with a smirk.
*****
“I’m outside an illegal weapon factory that had been hidden here, in plain sight, among dozens of ordinary port magazines. The inconspicuous warehouse turned militarized Vipers’ base was shut down earlier today by a group of superheroes known as Z-Team. Flambae, one of the team members, is here with me to shed some light on the events that occurred in this place mere hours ago. Flambae, how did SDN learn about this base?”
“I dunno. Tips from callers maybe?”
Robert moved his gaze from the TV to Flambae’s face. “Tips from callers? Really?”
“That and, oh, you know, weeks of investigation?” Malevola cut in. “We had, like, three meetings about it, man.”
Flambae shrugged. “Relax, you tight asses, nobody fucking cares. Blazer will correct it during the press conference anyway.”
“...hard was it to infiltrate the warehouse?” the interviewer was saying.
“It was super ****ing easy. Didn’t even break a sweat.”
“You’re welcome,” Coupé muttered.
“Aren’t the Vipers considered one of the most dangerous gangs since the Red Ring?”
The TV Flambae snorted. “Not anymore.”
“And how do you feel about your leader - Mecha Man?” the reporter asked. “Does your shared past affect your cooperation?”
“Oh for ****’s sake. At least three people on our team have tried to ****ing kill him at some point and yet I’m the only one who gets asked this.”
“This is a very interesting revelation. Care to elaborate?”
All the faces turned to Flambae, brows raised.
“What? I didn’t say who,” Flambae said, irritated. “Ever since these fucking vultures dug that out, they won’t stop pestering me. And I didn’t even fucking scratch him! Unlike some people.”
“He has a point,” Robert said, eyes flickering between Visi and Coupé. The first one had the decency to cringe at that. The second rolled her eyes. “I said I was sorry, didn’t I?”
“You’re still the only one who tried to kill him twice,” Golem noted. “You know. The taco place?”
“That is also a good point,” Robert agreed, turning back to Flambae.
“Cry me a river, you bitch, I didn’t scratch you that time either.”
“It really is remarkable,” Phenomaman said, “for a person of such strength to fail to deal any damage to one such as Robert.”
Flambae’s face heated up in anger, and Prism burst out laughing.
“Okay…” Robert sighed, not sure whether to feel amused or offended. “Well, great work today, guys. See you tomorrow.” He turned to leave.
“Hey, where are you going, lad?” Punch Up called after him. “What about the bar?”
Robert shook his head. “Not today.”
“Come ooon,” Prism said. “You never go out with us.”
“Yeah, get that stick out of your ass, Bobby,” Sonar added.
Phenomaman put a hand on Robert’s shoulder, stopping him. “I was told that taking a break once in a while is good for one’s well-being, Robert Robertson. Such a spectacular success as today’s requires celebration.”
“We went to Crypto literally three days ago,” Robert responded flatly. They had - to celebrate Flambae’s ban being lifted. Now three of them were banned.
“That was four days ago,” Golem huffed.
Robert rolled his eyes. “Guys, I have responsibilities. I told you, we can go out on Fridays.”
“Responsibilities,” Visi mocked him. “You’re not responsible for the whole freaking world, Robert.”
“You do know you’re not getting paid for it?” Coupé added.
“You should-shouldn’t overexert yourself, maan. Uh, mecha. Mecha Man,” Waterboy said.
Oh, for the love of… How many times were they going to go over this?
Ever since he officially joined SDN as Mecha Man, Robert was basically working two jobs.
At SDN, he was both a hero and, partially, a dispatcher. With his mech hooked up to the network, he could still manage most of the calls, hack whatever needed to be hacked, and talk the others through any challenges they felt were beyond them - which, he’d noticed, happened less and less often - while being out in the field himself. And whenever he needed backup, Chase was always there on the other side of the line.
After hours, his work went on without SDN’s help. Even though he admitted there was nothing wrong with getting a salary for being a hero - in his case it would actually become impossible to continue being one without the money - he still felt the need to do more than that. To him, that was what Mecha Man was all about. Not a privilege but a duty.
So yes, he wasn’t getting paid for his self-inflicted overtime, but that’d never stopped him from doing what he did before joining SDN. Yes, there were other heroes out there. And yes, it was definitely harder to work freelance - having to find the people to aid and the villains to stop all on his own, doing the research and investigation by himself, and… Wait, where was he going with this? Whatever. What mattered was that Robert couldn’t sit idle while knowing someone could use his help.
Besides, he didn’t do it every day, of course. He had breaks. He had a life. Sort of. Just not today.
“Fine, you don’t want to come, then don’t,” Flambae said. “But you better not call me if you need help again. I’m not doing any charity work today.” The others were quick to second that statement.
Robert smiled at the obvious lie. He’d pinged them a few times before when he found himself in trouble. They always came.
*****
The night had turned out to be less eventful than Robert expected. His intel on the meth lab he’d been trying to locate for the past few days was useless after all. And the one bomb threat he’d learned of by hacking into the police radio proved to be a false alarm.
He was kind of regretting not joining the Z-Team on their bar crawl. Taking down that Vipers’ nest was a good reason for celebration, even if it was Tuesday and they had the early shift tomorrow. Fuck. As their leader, he really should’ve gone, shouldn’t he? At least to show them he’s proud of their accomplishments or something. Eh. Now he was starting to feel bad about it.
Oh well, too late now, anyway. He needed to get back to Beef and get some sleep before work. They could still catch up on Friday, right?
He was on his way back, flying over the city, when a loud bang split the air. He immediately stopped in mid-air, scanning the landscape beneath him in search of the explosion. He soon noticed smoke coming from the middle of an industrial complex. He didn’t think. He just turned the mech around and dove for the building. The fire seemed to be contained within a relatively small area for now, but-
Shit.
As he got closer, Robert recognized the place for what it was. Atlas Labs - an experimental energy research facility. There was probably a lot of highly explosive shit in there. One blast of this magnitude could likely trigger another. He willed the suit to go faster.
Just as he landed in front of the entrance, a pair of people ran out of the building, both dressed in security uniforms. The first of them was screaming something into a shortwave radio. The second, almost stumbling, stopped short at the sight of the mech. His eyes were wide with fear, but also with hope.
“Mecha Man!” he exclaimed. “Help! There are three more people inside!”
“Mikey’s on his way out,” the other guy panted. “He found Helen. Frank isn’t responding. He-” the man gulped, turning to Robert. “I think he was in the main lab. The explosion…”
“Do you know what caused it?” Robert asked. The guards shook their heads.
Two more people burst through an emergency exit to the side and bolted towards them.
“So one person inside, correct?” Robert asked. The guards nodded. “Alright, you four get away from the building - all the way off the complex - then call the fire department and keep away. I’ll go in and look for your friend. Got it? Good. Now go!”
The group obeyed his order without objections, breaking into a run in the opposite direction to the one Robert headed in.
Inside the building, fire alarms were screaming. Robert activated the thrusters, half-running, half-flying toward the lab. After the first few turns he didn’t need to rely on the signs anymore - the smoke and the noise of breaking equipment were enough to guide him to his destination.
He crashed through the lab door and was immediately hit by a cloud of thick smoke and a flare of fire, which temporarily obscured his vision. Mindful of where he was stepping, he carefully walked further into the blaze.
“Anyone here?” he called out. “Frank?”
The worst of the fire seemed to be concentrated where he’d entered the room. Moving forward, he could see a little more clearly.
“H-Here…”
The weak voice barely cut through the rumble of fire. Robert turned to the side and saw a man - no, wait, two men - sprawled under a cracked pillar. Only one looked conscious.
The ceiling couldn’t choose a better moment to collapse.
Hearing the roar of a crumbling structure, Robert rushed toward the men and threw the mech’s arms into the air a moment before the giant slab of concrete plummeted all the way down. The massive metal arms and legs buckled under the weight but the mech held.
Robert let out a breath. He quickly ran diagnostics on the suit. The readings were stable enough, but the integrity of the collapsed structure was an entirely different matter. Robert couldn’t risk moving the mech. Not with the two completely exposed men lying before him.
He unbuckled his seatbelt and opened up the suit. A wave of heat and stinging smoke slammed into his face, making his eyes water. He carefully jumped down onto the ground and crouched in front of the conscious man, who stared at him, his mouth opening and closing silently. He was probably in shock.
“Are you Frank?” Robert said.
The man nodded slowly. He was cradling his right arm. One of his legs was clearly broken, and his head was bleeding.
“It’s gonna be okay, Frank,” Robert said calmingly, turning to check on the other man.
“He’s dead,” Frank mumbled. “He- He was trying to steal the… I shot him and he dropped… I-I didn’t think… And- And now… Oh God, oh- oh God…” He broke into a coughing fit.
A quick pulse check confirmed that the other guy was indeed dead. Trying to process what he had gotten himself into, Robert focused back on Frank. Even disregarding the man’s injuries, Robert couldn’t take him into the cockpit - there wasn’t enough space inside. If he were sure the suit wasn’t the only thing holding up half of the ceiling over their heads, then maybe he would try getting back inside himself and grabbing the man with the mech’s arms. But the risk was too great. He had to get Frank out without the mech’s help. Once they were in the clear, he could try summoning it out remotely.
The bad news was the path he came from was completely blocked by tons of unstable debris.
Okay. Okay, this is fine. Places like this had many emergency exits.
Robert looked around. To get to the other side of the lab, they would have to crouch or even crawl under the partially collapsed structure, but it at least looked passable.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you out.” Robert put a hand on Frank’s shoulder. “But I’m going to need your help. I need you to guide us to the nearest exit. Can you do that, Frank?”
Breathing heavily, the older man bobbed his head. “I can.”
Muttering some more encouraging clichés, Robert wrapped the man’s good arm around his neck and lifted him up. Frank howled in pain but managed to stay upright. Together, they made their way toward the exit.
As expected, they had to cover most of the lab’s ground in a crouching position. At one point they were forced to slither under an unstable-looking metal construction that thankfully didn’t end up falling on their heads. The overall progress was slower than Robert would’ve liked, and the choking smoke definitely wasn’t helping, but at least the worst seemed to be behind them, because he could finally see the door. Only a few more steps and they would be in the hallway. The rest of the way should be easy.
Careful not to drop Frank, Robert activated the console built into his bracer, ready to try and call his suit. How pissed off would the Z-Team be if he pinged them now? The authorities could certainly use their help dealing with the fire and-
A deafening bang rang out behind his back, and Robert found himself flying. His head collided with something, and the world turned black.