Welp, with ao3 down, I have no choice but to think about my writing projects. I think I have at least enough of an idea to share a bit of one of them here. This mostly came from @wraithamongtheroses ‘s post about what if the two previous Mecha Men haunted the suit.
Bobby Robertson died in the physical Mecha Man suit saving someone, right? But he didn’t go out WANTING to die. He had a son to get back to. He had people to protect still. And Bobby made the suit to protect people.
So when Bobby dies, his spirit ties itself to the suit so that he can protect his family. Only, he’s not the most powerful ghost- he only JUST died after all- so he can’t pilot the thing or anything. He’s mostly a passenger. He can jostle a few things around, push a few buttons, maybe help the suit withstand more than it should, but he’s really just stuck in a giant tin can. He’s honestly a little lucky that Robbie took up the Mecha Man mantle, otherwise he would be a little useless.
Bobby watches as Robbie takes over as Mecha Man, as he upgrades the suit and takes the legacy to new heights. He watches his boy grow up into a hardened sort of hero. Firm, but fair. He doesn’t have much forgiveness for villains, but he still saved people, still protected innocent lives, even offers comfort to the affected where he could. Bobby couldn’t be more proud of him.
Eventually, though Bobby doesn’t see him often, he finds out that Robbie has a little boy of his own. A third Robert Robertson.
“He’s named after my dad,” Bobby overhears Robbie say to one of his superhero co-workers, “the fact that it’s also my name is kinda incidental. I just want my kid to grow up to be as good a man as Dad was.” And fuck, if that doesn’t pull at an old dead man’s heart strings.
Though for all that Robbie said he wants Robert to grow up like Bobby, it didn’t feel like he spent a lot of time with the kid. He spends a lot of time with the Mech, both in and outside of it. He doesn’t leave it alone for very long, and Robert only rarely comes with him.
He’s still a great hero, and Bobby doesn’t want to make assumptions, especially not about his own son, but from the few times he’s bared witness to Robbie being a father to Robert-
-he was starting to worry that Robbie was becoming more “firm” than “fair.”
But there’s not much he can do about that. He’s only a spirit in a metal coffin. A literal ghost in the machine. He can’t talk to Robbie, can only effect so much inside the mech, can’t even use the newfangled tech for anything useful.
The suit’s defense programming was supposed to active after Robert’s third whack against its outer shell. Bobby had held the system back for as long as he could.
So all Bobby could do was watch. Watch and hope that if he kept Robbie alive long enough, he might live to see his mistakes before it was too late.
But for all that Bobby possessed the suit to protect Robbie, there was very little he could do to protect him outside of it.
One day, Robbie didn’t show up. He didn’t the next day either. Or the day after that. For the first time in years, Bobby was completely and utterly alone. It itched at him. He could hope that maybe Robbie was spending time with Robert. He doubted it.
It was only till a week later, when 15 year old Robert crept into the mech’s hanger wearing funeral attire that hung just a little too big on his frame, tears streaking down his face, that Bobby knew for sure that his little boy was dead.
Bobby didn’t technically know how it happened, but-
Watching your own son nearly beat a man to death isn’t a pleasant experience. It wasn’t the first time he wished he hadn’t tied his soul to the mech and it wouldn’t be the last.
-he could take a pretty good guess.
And so, little Robert took up the suit. And Bobby, having failed his one task of protecting his son, makes a promise to himself that he will not let Robert meet the same fate. He simply cannot allow it.
So he continues to make the mech function just a little better than it should. Faster movements, faster attacks, stronger shields that last a bit longer, a stronger cooling system-
If Bobby was still the mech’s pilot, he might take a minute question why an arsonist would burn down an empty mall with himself inside, but his grandson was going to get heat stroke if this fight went on for any longer and he can’t lose him too-
-just small things that kept his last descendant alive.
15 years are spent doing what he could make the mech better at its purpose. Even when repairs got fewer and farther between, even when parts were kept together with duct tape and hope, Bobby saw to it that Robert was kept safe.
Physically, at least. There’s not much he could do about the dark circles under his grandson’s eyes. Or the fact he spent more time in the suit than Robbie did. At least Robbie wasn’t doing this hero thing alone, my God, did Robert have anyone he talks to that wasn’t through the mech’s speakers?
But even that can’t go on forever. Eventually, Shroud breaks out of prison- there’s a sick feeling of “I told you so” that Bobby gets at being right about who killed his son -and Robert goes after him.
When the mech explodes, it’s like Bobby’s own self is fractured, broken into several far away pieces. It’s all he can do to stay connected to the main body of the Mech as it plummets. And when it finally hits solid earth, there’s nothing to cushion the fall.
In those moments after the mech cratered into LA, Bobby can feel Robert clinging to life. He can feel the moment his grip on it starts to slip.
And he simply cannot allow that to happen.
And whatever the parameters of Bobby’s unfinished business are, they bend enough for him to tear his soul away from the suit and tie it to Robert instead.
Bobby possesses Robert, taking the pain in his stead and keeping shock from killing him before paramedics can arrive.
When Robert is wheeled away by emergency responders, Bobby goes with him, leaving the suit for the first time since he died.
It takes some long months in the hospital for Robert to wake up. And when he does, Bobby is there to greet him. And maybe it’s because Robert is still recovering from nearly dying, but he can see Bobby. Can hear him. He’s not awake for long, but it’s just enough for Bobby to tell him that he’s still alive. That he loves Robert. And that he’ll keep watching him from beyond.
Eventually, Robert wakes up again, this time more conscious. He looks around the hospital room, searching for anyone that might have answers for any number of questions he had-
And there’s Grandpa Bobby sitting on one of the visitors chairs, watching him.
The two make eye contact.
“Is there something behind me that he’s looking at or…?”
“What kind of pain killer makes me see dead people?”
“OH GREAT HEAVENS YOU CAN SEE ME?!”
Anyway I think Bobby and Robert should get to have some fun ghostly grandfather-grandson bonding :) I think it would make things complicated in such a fun way :))
I think Bobby should get to flip people off and make funny faces while they’re talking and Robert should struggle not to laugh :))))
I think in his quest to get to know Robert, Bobby should realize that Robert doesn’t really know who he is when he’s not Mecha Man, and Bobby should try to help Robert fix that :)))))))))
