#fandomfixations dispatch

ROBERT ROBERTSON III/MECHA MAN

He's probably the only one who thinks its concerning there's someone so young around SDN

"Doesn't this count as illegal child labour or some shit?"

But honestly, he's got no fucks left to give

So he tries to ignore you most of the time

But he's not an ass

He'll sigh and begrudgingly hand you some change when you don't have enough for whatever you're trying to get from the vending machine

Lectures you on your eating habits (hypocrite)

Sees you drinking a coffee one day and decides that's enough

"You're too young for that shit"

He steals it and immediately starts drinking it

"Whatever, dad"

Freezes immediately

He doesn't know whether to be offended, or touched

Ultimately decides to let it go, pretending he didn't hear it

FLAMBAE/CHAD

Meets you while heading to the gym between shifts one day

"Aren't you supposed to be in school or something, dipshit?"

When you explain that you were in SDN's care for 'preventative measures' he just scoffs

"What are you even going to do? You're like - twelve,"

Your response?

Forcing his body to stop mid-squat, straining to hold himself up

"You little shit"

He doesn't let you get off easy, but he's not harsh either

Tries to get you to work out with him

"Gotta be strong if you wanna be a hero, even with your freaky shit"

He pushes you so hard

Be stronger, be faster, be better

But, he's trying to help. To support you.

One day, you decide you're done with his pushing - you want to do something big, something impressive

You put double the amount of your usual weights on the bench press

It plummets to your chest instantly (shocker) - painfully winding you

You scream for your dad. Funny, considering you hadn't seen him in years.

But Flambae is there in seconds

"What the fuck were you thinking, you stupid little shit-"

Despite his cussing, he frees you - fussing over you instantly

If you question why he responded to your yell - he'll never answer, probably telling you to stop being a nosy shit

But you both know he cares

INVISIGAL/COURTNEY

She hears about you before she meets you

Whispers around the office of some kid being brought in as a 'preventative measure'

It stirs something in her that she doesn't like to think about

About her as a kid, questioning her worth - wondering if she could ever be anything other than a villain

She hates that they put you in the same boat

And for the first time ever, she decides she needs to look out for someone alongside herself

Maybe its selfish, trying to fix her past in someone else

But the way you stick to her side makes her think that maybe it isn't

She doesn't give advice, or really look after you

It's quieter. Subtler.

Being invisible was always her specialty

So there's always your favourite snacks hidden away in the breakroom - on a shelf so low that no one else thinks to look there

Any medication you need will miraculously appear in your tiny SDN dorm

And those two things never seem to run out

Its on one of these drops she finds you crying in your cot - ashamed of how you'd manipulated someone's blood when you'd gotten into an arguement with one of the heroes earlier that day

"Shit kid, don't make me do the whole 'feelings' thing"

But she still sits on the edge of your bed

She doesn't speak. Just waits. Stays.

Like she wanted someone to stay with her

Once all your tears are dried up, and the post-cry exhaustion hits - you mumble something

"thanks... mum."

And maybe, Courtney thinks she can be good.

PUNCH UP/COLM

He's so keen to hear there's a kid wandering about SDN

He may have been a villain, but that doesn't mean he was a complete dick

Kids are cool, up to all kinds of dumb shit he can have fun with

He's probably the only one that approaches you first

"'EY KID! Been lookin' e'rywhere for ya, whatcha up to?"

Wants you to get involved in the team as soon as possible

He thinks it'd be good for you, having an outlet to work your powers - work through any problems you might be dealing with...

He spends months arguing with Blazer, vouching for you until he can secure a short, part-time trial period for you

On the condition that you never take a call on your own - no matter how small or meaningless

But he's more than happy to shadow you

He watches you work, clapping your back proudly every time you succeed - assuring you that you did your best whenever you fail

But like any teenager - you get cocky after a while

While you and Colm are resting, you sneak away to handle a call on your own

A bank robbery

It goes terribly

The perp gets away, you get injured, and Colm is PISSED

It's mid argument that you slip up

"Who do you think you are, my dad or something?"

"I fuckin' may as well be!"

His glare is hard as steel, completely unforgiving.

And you both know he means it.

You end up apologising after few more heated words

PRISM/ALICE

She meets you in the employee lounge, scrolling through your socials - not caring about how the audio of your fyp echoes through the room

"Can't you use some fuckin' airpods or some shit?"

Her annoyance fades a little when you respond with a snarky comment about SDN not caring enough to spend valuable customer income on stuff for you

But she scoffs all the same, sauntering out of the room

After some call delays, she returns to the lounge a few hours later - throwing a cheap pair of earphones your way

"Being a superhero means doing charity shit, so be greatful,"

Alice sits nearby whenever you hang out in the employee room now

She critiques your music choice, vowing to show you 'real' music at the club as soon as you're old enough

If you're femme presenting, or just enjoy makeup - she also reprimands your makeup, coming in on her day off to teach you how to properly accentuate your features

It's actually her that refers to you with any sort of familiarity first

You're sitting in the employee lounge like usual - legs over Alice's lap as she livestreams during her break

One of her comments must ask about the person just out of frame, because she speaks up not long after

"Oh them? That's just my baby, don't worry,"

Completely casual, like it was a fact of life

It's enough to make SDN feel more like home

MALEVOLA

Like Colm, Malevola's always had a soft spot for kids

They were usually less judgemental than adults - more facsinated by her demonic appearance than disgusted

And if they were, they were so much easier to scare

But it's when the team starts talking about your power that her interest really sparks

She runs into you in the break room when you first meet

"You're the kid, right? With the blood powers? So you got demonic blood or what?"

Straight to the point, you admit that you haven't got a clue

She shrugs, seemingly unbothered

But unbenownst to you, Malevola's decided to take you under her wing

She did like collecting strays (*ahem ahem SONAR ahem ahem*)

She always checks in when she sees you, asking how your day's been - if you need any help dealing with your powers

She's good at listening on the days that your powers make you feel inhumane

"Being human's fuckin' boring anyways,"

One day, when she's staying after work to use the gym - you follow her, continuing your usual chat

Eventually, it takes a turn when she asks about your family and you reveal that you've been out of contact with them since SDN got legal guardianship.

Malevola doesn't press, just letting you talk freely about your situation.

The words slip out before you can really think about it

"I wish my mum was more like you,"

The silence in the gym is deafening - leaving you to wonder just how badly you'd fucked up

But her lips quirk into a hint of a smile

Imagine Robert powering up the suit, finally fixed up after his father's death - only to find you waiting

He's surprised when your face flickers to life on one of the moniters, face scrunched in worry

"Jesus Robbie, you had me scared - how long has it been-" you start, before registering the much younger, scrapper man in front of you

When the suit is powered off, you don't stop existing. It's almost like sleeping - a quiet inbetween existence where you're not gone, but not there either

So it takes until Robert repairs the suit for you to realise that his father is gone

Robert learns that his father installed you into the suit - a quick thinking AI that not only helped keep the suit running, but had a programmed personality to ease the loneliness that came with the job

You two are similar, sometimes scarily so

Banter comes easy - sharp and witty, with few boundaries

The suit, his role as Mecca Man, is all Robert has

It means everything to him

Meaning you mean everything to him

He never had many friends, especially after seeing the betrayal his father endured

But... you were safe. Constant. Not even fully human.

It made you predicatable. Safe.

Losing the suit felt like losing a piece of himself, in more ways than one

Going from spending almost every moment with you in his ear, matching his snark - to waking up from a coma with you all but gone

He hadn't felt this lonely since the day his father died

But Royd brings him down to the lab a few fateful weeks later - explaining how he found an odd thing in the coding, a bug that kept persisting - and Robert feels something akin to hope

With shaking hands, he opens the code despite Royd's protest

And you're there

You're back

"Jesus fuck, Robert - you scared the shit outta me? What happened to us?"

All he can do is laugh

After months of work, finally, you had a body

It would be a lie to say Robert was relieved that he could transfer most of your backup files to the android body

Sure, building you a body put time and money a few months back on fixing the Mecha Man suit

But when those artificial eyes turned on with an uncanny sense of humanity

And the cold steel body pulling his into an uncomfortably tight hug

Yeah, it was worth it

Now, your conciousness only spanned across three spaces;

Your body

The suit

And, of course, the Z-team channel

Robert argued you on it for days - but now that you finally had access to everything (and no migraine from being so split), you just kept adding yourself back in

After some pleading with both Blazer and Robert, and an endorsement from Royd - you're finally registered as a hero in your own right

It was so refreshing to be apart of the action yourself

Your bond with the team only strengthened with a physical body

Joining in on meetings - going on flies with Coupe or Flambae

Aiding on missions that would break a regular body with Golem and Punch Up

Sonar begging you for advice on 'totally hypothetical situations' with crypto and online scams

You slide in like you were always meant to be there

You're the slap upside the head that Robert wants to be, but can't be (without risk of losing his job)

But once the final battle against Shroud happens at SDN headquarters - your shockingly absent

Your android body is left shut down in Royd's workshop - your entire conciousness transferred to the suit

"You really thought I'd let you make our grand return alone?"

It's a hard fight - and you have to hop on the comms breifly to reassure the team you're fine

But for once, they don't give Robert a hard time over your partnership

They see first hand how seamlessly you work together - forming one entity in Mecha Man

The minute Robert steps out of the suit to bargain with Shroud - you split back into your body

Powering up, you make it there in time to witness everything with your own artifical eyes

It's over

It's done

Finally

You and Robert instantly find each other - you're the only one that has been there for everything.

You were there before Shroud. You were there during Shroud.

And now that there was an after neither of you were certain would come-