#mecha-man

Villain!Mecha-Man, who mostly just takes out corrupt people in power, and robs banks to keep up suit maintenance. SDN doesn't like him because he's a loose cannon and uses methods they don't consider necessarily ethical. For example, he single-handedly killed Shroud and dissolved Red Ring, and stole all of the augment tech for his own personal gain.

Henchman!Waterboy (love the name Waterboard, credit to iskander-tm) who got rejected from SDN, and took the job with Robert because he's actually not that bad of a villain and pays really well. Wears a black wetsuit and augmented face mask that amplifies his water pressure, always looks like he just drowned, and is actually kind of terrifying. But once the mask comes off, he's still the same ol awkward Herm.

Hero!Flambae, who still fought Mecha-Man when they were robbing the same bank, but Flambae got arrested and ended up in the Phoenix Program. Now he's got a weird, flirty nemesis thing going on with Mecha-Man. Everyone thinks it's both hilarious and annoying af. Especially because Flambae will just go off route whenever Mecha-Man shows up, just for some weird flirty fighting.

Flambae and Z-Team have been killing it at SDN with Invisigal dispatching due to health issues, except she's recovered now and wants back in the field, so now they have no dispatcher that can handle them.

Robert forges some documents and starts dispatching at SDN when he finds out Shroud is actually still alive, and SDN is secretly keeping tabs on his activities, so he wants the inside scoop. Also it's just funny to him that he's now in charge of these dummies, especially Flambae.

Chase is retired and kept Robert's identity on the DL because again, he's not that bad of a villain, but him being at SDN is raising all kinds of red flags. So when he confronts Robert, he's offered a job: he can keep tabs on Robert's activities, but can also run again without aging using Robert's Shroud augments. So as long as he approves of the plans, he's begrudgingly down to help Mecha-Man as the speedster henchman ("call me that again and I'll fucking kill you in your sleep") called Warp Speed (because stars, and he's fast, get it?)

Robert is surprisingly good at dispatching. The team listens to him. He quietly starts figuring out all of their strengths and weaknesses. Then he starts flirting with Flambae as Robert, but Flambae actually starts pursuing him for real, and Robert takes the opportunity to a) get some fantastic sex out of it and b) keep Flambae from figuring out who he really is.

After the bar fight, they respect him, and he starts to actually like them back, which kinda messes up his whole ulterior motives shit. To make things even more complicated, he starts really liking Flambae, which affects their whole nemesis dynamic and makes him feel like a dick.

Once took the whole team to the cinema to watch Good Boy. After the credits rolled, he had to hide in the bathroom because he was full on sobbing, and he only wanted strangers to hear him.

Iron Man au for Dispatch

Robert captured by the Red Ring after the suit explosion saves his own life and escapes by putting a miniature Astral Pulse into his own body.

Toxic: Ugh, so lame.

Mecha-Man: What?

Toxic: You're gonna try to tell me you're not referencing—Who says "claim?"

Mecha-Man: I do, motherfucker. That's a Mecha-Man original.