Chapter Text
Wilbur had been working as a dispatcher for SDN for three weeks by now, and all things considered, things were going well. Not necessarily "smoothly," because Prime knows nothing with the Z-Team could ever go smoothly, but it was still going well. The team was improving, bit by bit, and they were all making great progress, despite the rough beginning.
Sure, there was still less-than-professional banter and hopefully-empty threats over comms, but as long as the team did their jobs, Wilbur really couldn't care less. Besides, some jokes and lighthearted teasing prevented the work day from being too much of a slog.
And, somehow, as Wilbur spent more time working with the team, he actually began to sort of enjoy work, as strange of a notion as that was.
It was a bit like a game version of his hero work with the easy-enough hacking, taking calls, and strategizing what skills would work best with each mission and what the best course of action was. It was all a lot less stressful than being Guardian and thankfully included much less blood and broken bones.
Plus, as the team began to slowly warm up to Wilbur after they realized he was genuinely putting in the work to help them succeed, Wilbur, in turn, began warming up to the team as well.
The sharp vitriol and blatant lack of respect from the team dulled into teasing jabs and some begrudging respect that made Wilbur's job a bit easier. Really, the only one still giving him some trouble was Hermes because of his prickly attitude and habit to go against orders by acting on impulse, but Wilbur will admit, he liked the kid.
Their banter was entertaining, and Wilbur can tell that Hermes means well—even if it wasn't always the most apparent—so he'll continue to help the kid get on the right path for proper redemption. There's hope; he's getting better with each passing day right alongside with the rest of the team, and he now works well with more members than just Hotwire. It's progress.
All in all, it was all going really well.
But, of course, Wilbur's instincts and paranoia wouldn't allow him the chance to feel at peace for once in his life. Every day, there was a lingering sort of tension and anxiety buzzing in his mind as he waited for the other shoe to drop. It was like he was bracing for yet another bomb to blow him up or something.
However, with each passing day, nothing substantial would happen. At worst, one of the team members would fuck up a mission and be a pain for the rest of the day as they sulked about their failure, but that was pretty much it.
Nothing.
That is, until Wilbur received an email from Captain Puffy asking him to meet in her office before the shift began Monday morning.
And here comes the bomb.
He sighed and pushed out from his desk to stand up, deciding to not delay any further and just get it over with. As he headed towards Puffy's office, Wilbur couldn't help but feel a bit nervous.
Now, he would say that he was usually great at keeping his emotions in check under stressful situations, but with no immediate life-threatening danger that forced him to be calm and rational to quickly think of a way to survive, Wilbur was having a harder time reigning in the dread pooling in his gut.
If he really was getting fired or something, he'd be back to square one. He would lose this small bit of normalcy and stability that had pulled him out of rock bottom after the Guardian suit was blown up, and losing his deal with SDN to work as their dispatcher in exchange for them helping him fix his suit would mean his chances to return to hero work would also be destroyed.
Or- maybe he was jumping the gun a bit. His brain always did immediately jump straight to the worst case scenario. He has to think rationally here, like he always does. Think! Is there any reason SDN might have to fire him? He's been doing good, right? Puffy even told him so after his first shift three weeks ago even after the whole Manifold bakery incident with Hermes, and there hasn't been an incident that bad since then. It's only been getting better from there, more or less. Right?
Sure, Wilbur and the team still had some rough days here and there with more failed missions than usual, but nothing that would warrant him being fired. Those bad days have been happening less and less as Wilbur settled into working with the team and the others began improving. He's had to report less damages caused by the team over the past few weeks, and everyone is being more cooperative, so they should have no reason to fire him.
Yeah, he'll be fine. The Captain might just want an in-person report on how the team is doing and how he's settling into his new job. Really, all this worrying was just illogical because, like he just established, SDN should have no reason to fire him. He and the team have been doing a good job, and Captain Puffy knows that.
Wilbur took a deep breath in and out to dispel his anxiety as he approached Puffy's office, regaining his usual collected composure. With his nerves properly resettled, he grabbed the door handle to her office and turned it.
When Wilbur opened the door to the Captain's office, he was greeted to the sight of her pacing the length in front of her desk, clearly stressed about something judging from the tense line of her shoulders, the furrow of her brows, and the way she was biting the nail of her thumb.
Shit, that's not a good sign. All the reassurances and rationalization that he was using a moment ago to keep himself calm were failing as he felt the anxiety bubble up once again. Still though, he tried to keep his nerves from showing as he stepped through the threshold.
As soon as Wilbur entered the office, the Captain perked up at the sight of him, distress still evident in her posture and expression. "Ah! Wilbur, there you are. Take a seat," she said, failing to completely disguise the note of urgency in her voice, the pacing of her words just a bit too quick. Puffy moved behind her desk to sit down as casually as she could manage, as if she were trying to hide how anxiously she was pacing just a moment ago.
"Did I... Do something wrong?" Wilbur tentatively asked as he pulled back one of the chairs in front Puffy's desk and took a seat. He might as well get straight to the point of what might spell his doom.
Though, Puffy was quick to assure him, "Oh! You did nothing wrong. In fact, all your dispatching has been amazing, despite the whole Manifold situation with Hermes on the first day, but we already talked about all that a while ago." Wilbur allowed himself to let out a small sigh of relief at that, his shoulders untensing a bit before Puffy continued.
"No, this is about... Something else." That crease between her eyebrows was back as she flicked her eyes to the side and chewed on her lip as if she were debating how to say whatever was the cause of her anxiety. "It's about the Z-Team... Upper management notified me that we have to cut someone from the team by the end of today, and you're the one who has to make the decision on who's getting cut."
"What?!" Wilbur exclaimed, immediately straightening in indignation, shoulders tensing up once again.
The hero in front of him looked apologetic, understanding why the news upset him. "I know, it's unfair to the team to cut someone, but the reality is that with all the incidents that have happened with the Phoenix Program before your arrival, people have begun to question SDN's logic, and the Manifold incident was the last straw. The heads of SDN think that cutting someone near the bottom of the leaderboards will show we're serious," she explained with a grim tone, hands folded on her desk in front of her as she stared straight ahead at Wilbur, being the perfect picture of the commanding and assertive boss she was known to be.
However, that wouldn't stop Wilbur from voicing his objections, which he thought were rather reasonable, all things considered.
"That's not showing we're serious, it's showing we're giving up on people! This is the Z-Team's chance at redemption; if we take that away from them, from any of them, it defeats the whole purpose of this program! Captain, the team is trying their best, I know they are, and I know that there have been some issues, but please, they're getting better, we just need to give them a chance," Wilbur pleaded, hoping it will get the Captain to convince management to reconsider.
The hero let out a deep sigh that spoke of a bone-deep exhaustion as she put her head in her hands with her elbows propped up on her desk. "I know, Wilbur, please trust me when I say I understand. I tried convincing them why it's a bad idea, spent hours last night trying to get them to listen to how the Z-Team is making improvement, but they wouldn't budge. Nothing I said would sway them, and we have no choice. We either cut someone or the whole program gets shut down; that's what they said... I'm sorry, Wilbur, I really am, I know this is a big decision to just dump on you, but we really can't do anything about it."
If SDN refused to listen to the insistence of Captain Puffy, their golden hero and one of the most influential figures of the company, then there really must be no convincing upper management otherwise. Shit.
Wilbur dragged his hands down his face and let out a groan. There was no way this was going to end well. "Fuck, fine. I'll tell the team about it, but they're not going to be happy," he relented, resignation heavy in his voice. It was either one person or the entire team, like one of those fucked up trolley moral dilemmas.
"Oh, they are," Puffy said with a deep sigh, "I already told them about it as soon as everyone in the team clocked in. They were... furious, to say the least. Firestorm almost triggered the fire alarm and a few chairs were nearly broken."
Wilbur let out another sigh as he slumped in his seat. "Yeah, I can imagine. Well, this is already a wonderful start to the shift," he groaned, sarcasm and dread dripping from his words.
Captain Puffy stood up from her desk and walked over to where Wilbur was seated, still leaning back in his chair with his hands over his eyes as he tried to mentally prepare himself for the undoubtedly chaotic shift that would start in a few minutes.
She offered him a hand, her eyes softened with remorse. "I'm sorry, again. And I'm sorry to the team as well," Puffy said once he took her hand and stood up. She walked with him to the door of her office and right as he was leaving, she imparted the final words of, "If it means anything, you and the team have been doing great, I know you have. I just wish everyone else could see the same. Have a good shift, Wilbur."
And with that, he walked out and heard the soft click of the Captain's office door closing behind him.
Fuck.