Chapter Text
Shedletsky had awoken to an empty bed. At first, he felt panic when he noticed his wife wasn't there, but upon remembering the calendar, he sighed. She had gone on a work trip towards the far ends of Robloxia to pursue some poachers and wouldn't be back till winter. It was a trip that Shedletsky had wanted to go on too, but Roblox HQ beckoned and left him on his lonesome.
Speaking of HQ, he unfortunately should've been ready for work. An hour ago. Maybe two. Perhaps five. He was sure Builderman would catch him some slack though, considering his seniority and all. They were good friends, much older friends than one of them knew.
Shedletsky dragged himself through his morning routine, starting by showering and preening, to eating a wonderful breakfast of chicken before finally getting dressed and heading out to work via an admin teleport.
He knew it was never a calm day at HQ, with the ever rising amount of hackers, scams and new threats, but the tizzy the office was in, this early in the morning had Shedletsky internally cringing. Workers, moderators to admins all scrambled around from station to station, passing along information, paperwork and stress so quickly it was hard to keep up. Shed struggled to navigate the current of employees, bumping into one too many, before he finally reached his private office. He had been hoping to get a breather from the tense air, but he quickly realized he wouldn't be getting that as he saw the short, well-built gray robloxian sitting on his desk. Builderman.
“Heeeeeyyy Buildsy~ giving me an office surprise this early? Wife just left and you're already treating me!” Shedletsky spun, pretending to be dizzy as he swooned over the desk, knocking multiple things over without care. He'd be the one cleaning it up anyway.
“John.” Builderman's voice was filled with exhaustion. “Not now. Where the hell were you?”
“Woooah, Chillax! I slept in a little bit cuz I missed my alarm. Y'know how Brighty keeps me on track!” Shedletsky put his hands up as the much shorter man stood, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“God dammit, Shedletsky, I need you here on time! Just because you got personally recommended by Telamon doesn't mean you can shrug this job off! Do you even know what's going on or did it slip your mind to check our morning reports?” Builderman reddened as he jabbed a finger into Shedletsky's fat, the mention of Telamon causing his feathers to fluff.
“I just got here.. kinda couldn't check my computer with you.. y'know. Blocking it?” Shed scratched the back of his neck a little harder than he should.
“There's been another attack, John. Dusekkar and a few of the other admins are already on scene trying to find out where Doombringer could be heading next but the clean-up has been a mess. Come on, Follow me, keep pace.” Builderman pushed out of the office, not bothering to hold the door open for the avian as he led them towards the elevator.
“Woah, woah! DoomBringer? This early, this soon??” Shed stumbled after, narrowly dodging workers who only moved out of the way for their boss, not Shed.
“I know. It's far too soon after the last murder and we're still trying to figure out that one's identity! Now this?! If he's going to become more active, more aggressive then we need to be on top of our game.” Builderman heaved, breath not seeming to stay with him as he tried to keep calm. He ushered the large avian into an elevator, quickly closing the doors and pressing a button that read B3. A cell floor.
“B3..? Hold on, did we catch someone?!” Shed couldn't think of who they'd be holding, especially since, as far as they knew, DoomBringer worked alone. The elevator began descending.
“Yes, and he's your new assignment.” The elevator doors opened to a long, industrial white hallway with multiple holding rooms on each side, one-way glass windows made to look at the person captive and computers on the outside for recording data.
“He?” Shed questioned, to little response from the latter as they kept walking. Builderman stopped in front of a cell on the far end, waiting for Shed to catch up. Inside the cell was someone curled up in a ball on the cot they provided, draped in a shark-printed blanket and clearly shivering. Shed glanced at Builderman a moment, but the other ushered him to look closer, so he did. Peaking out from the front of the blanket was bright red fur, burgundy stripes patterning it. From another angle, he could see brown hair, dyed from what it seemed as blonde roots poured out from under a….
Burger hat?
“Holy ####, is that C00lK1dd??” Shedletsky's eyes widened in astonishment, as he recalled many late nights spent chasing after the fire-loving hacker, and that burger, a well-known signature.
“Yup.” Builderman popped the P as he pulled up a file on the computer nearby. “He's our first survivor. Police were called to his residence due to a noise complaint but when they arrived on scene, they found the kid limping and covered in his own blood. He just got out of a healing station but.. eugh. The damages are bad, Shed.”
“Do.. we know what Doombringer did..?” Shed looked hesitant to ask, as he saw his coworkers face scrunch as if he were in pain himself.
“According to the kid and his cousin, 007e7, the one with the duck, were walking home from the store that night when Doombringer caught em on a side street. His cousin was teleported out by the C00lGUI but left the thing on a cooldown long enough for Doom to get the jump on him..” Builderman inhaled, tapping a folder with a few photos. X-rays. “...Got the kid in the spine. A really lucky hit, as it didn't kill him but doesn't change the fact it was a ban hammer. It was enough that he can't move waist down.”
“Are you serious? He's paralyzed?! Why the hell would Doombringer do that?!!” Shedletsky nervously plucked at feathers, a usually cheery demeanor breaking at the news. The avian watched as the shivering form curled up further into the corner of the cot.
“I don’t know, it's what we have Dusekkar on scene for. We have no idea why him… honestly, I didn't think Doombringer would go after a kid of all things… look, there's more.” The clicking of the mouse caught the avians attention, as he looked down at the computer again. “The lucky hit was a result of a well-timed teleport. He escaped and decided to perform a surgery on himself using scripts. It uh.. worked, to put it lightly, he can walk, potentially run but it means the kid is completely wired, head to toe, just to make it work.”
Shedletsky stiffened at the information, the cases of wiring he had experienced in this life and the previous one, never pretty. Having scripts run through your nerves, practically turning yourself into a biological robot was a difficult feat but considering circumstance.. he understood its necessity.
“Is the CoolGui gonna hold? It's pretty rudimentary as far as I remember and.. I don't mean to dig up more hatchets but he won't do the.. y'know. 666 incident stuff?” Shed subconsciously raised a hand to one of the many scars on his arm.
“It's good enough for now, but we're looking into hooking him up with a highly child-proofed admin panel just to make sure what he did sticks… and 666 used malicious scripts, ones laced with DNA that doesn't belong in any robloxian. As far as our coders have analyzed, everything on him is homemade.” Builderman looked through his inventory, pulling up a file and passing it over to Shedletsky to look at. The avian looked over its contents, a lot of it having heavier details on what they've already gone over but the last sheet made him pause. A care sheet, one listed with medication and dietary needs.
“Whaaaaat's this for?” Shedletsky had an inkling of what it meant and he felt himself start to sweat.
“You. He's your next assignment.”
“You.. you're giving me a kid?! A full on feral teenager who's just been traumatized by who knows what and you're giving him to me?? WITHOUT BRIGHTEYES?? Buildsy, its August, way too late for some April fools, y'know!” Before Shedletsky could continue to ramble, Builderman reached his hands to Shed's shoulders and forced the admin to look at him.
“Shedletsky, I'm serious. We have no idea if Doombringer will come back to finish the job and he ain't safe at home. Everybody's booked to the brim with these murders, not to mention our normal chaos of hackers, and we have no one else for this. You weren't my first choice, John, but you were the only one left that I knew could stand toe to toe with anything if it did come up.” Builderman looked Shedletsky in the eyes without saying a word for a few moments, making sure his words settled before he backed away, typing a few more things into the computer. “He ain't gonna be too much trouble anyway. He can't run most of his hacks without risking his wiring turning off and you've dealt with him before, you can counter it all.”
“I think we're missing the part where he's gonna need a whole helluva lot more than just a bit of food and meds! This kids going to need comfort and.. and other stuff! You know I'm not good with kids!”
Builderman looked over at his coworker, sighing. “Then it's a good thing he's a teenager. He's going to be assigned a therapist anyway, I just need you to make sure he stays safe and stays healthy, okay?” He pressed, needing Shed to agree to this.
Shedletsky's thoughts were racing as he tried to think of ways to get out of this. He knew it was morally wrong to turn down something as important as this, a whole person like this, but he also knew HE shouldn't be the one to do this. Thoughts of a small baby in his arms, flourishing into a young child with a wooden sword before falling into a blackened hatred that's not their own, flooded his mind; guilt reminded him what his own hands had done. Telamon's hands.
His last ditch effort, he needed to get out of this, for his and this kid's sake. “...You think Brighteye's would be okay with this?!”
“Wasn't she asking about a baby? This is a good experience for the future.”
With that, Shedletsky's fate was sealed. Next thing he knew, Builderman was ushering him out of HQ, mentioning the kid needing a few more check-ups and paperwork to be finalized before being released into Shedletsky's care. The leader had passed Shed a box of things, 007n7's things, C00LKIDD'S THINGS, and told him to go prepare his guest room.
So here he was. Plucking out various items such as electronics and shark memorabilia to prepare for the full human being that was going to be living in his house for, Tela-.. God knows how long.
He was so ####ed.