Chapter Text
Starting at the end of dreaded firing shift.
Malevola and Sonar both get a ping on their phone as the shift is about to end:
Meet me in conference room 6 in five minutes. Sharp.
Robert
They look at each other, slightly confused and perturbed by the synchronicity of the message, meeting each others gazes across the breakroom table. Sonar´s expression and ears betrayed his nervousness, Mal´s shoulders tense as well. Sensing this to be important, they are both a minute early, sitting in the smaller conference room as they waited for Robert. Or more precisely Sonar was sitting, Mal was leaning against the wall behind him, arms crossed, tail swishing from side to side.
At the designated time, Robert enters with a stack of papers, his gaze quickly glancing at the pair before turning around to close the door behind him and drawing the curtains on the one window facing the hallway. Turning to face the pair, an even deeper exhaustion than they have come to know from their dispatcher is visible on Robert´s face, as he takes a seat next to Sonar, having him and Mal to his left, and exhales a deep breath. Sonar and Mal watch him with a mixture of apprehension and anxiety, though for Sonar its more of the latter.
“Before we get started, I would like to enact the confidentiality clause in the agreement you both signed when accepting position on the Z-team.”
Both of the team members frown and exchange looks before turning back to Robert.
R: “With that out of the way, I have news. Bad and mixed with a possible silver lining. Just going to come out and say it, Sonar, you are getting cut from the Z-team.”
M: “What the fuck ?”
S: “What ?”
Raising a hand, Robert looks at them with pleading in his eyes to let him talk. They reluctantly quiet down, both of them in turmoil of emotions. Robert then continues after another deep breath.
R: “Blazer is being pressured by the upper management to go through with the cut, regardless of me convincing her it is not a good idea. After today´s shift, you Sonar and Coupe were tied at the bottom and I was forced to make a choice between you two.”
Sonar and Mal both exclaim at that.
“Why are you keeping her over me/him ?!”
Sighing, Robert pinches the bridge of his nose, answering before the pair throws more profanities, and in Mal´s case, she reaches for her sword.
R: “Because for her, getting cut is a death sentence, close to being literal. You Sonar did a white collar crime with no fatalities, have an excellent education and you have Mal as your support system. Your addiction is your only issue and there are options for that.”
Sonar looked like he wanted to argue about the addiction, but Robert´s look gave him pause.
R: “You are not being forced into prison Sonar. Want to make that clear. Regardless of the outcome of this meeting. With your white collar crimes and decent performance on the Z-team you can be put on house arrest and under supervision of a guardian, in this case, Malevola, if she is up for it. This is the paperwork drafted for that.”
Robert then slides off a section of the papers to the middle of the desk, continuing.
R:”You will be legally required to do some community work, most likely of legal nature given your education, mostly remotely, and receive a performance based stipend and insurance.”
Both Sonar and Mal were now looking wide eyed at Robert and the papers, both wanting to say something but he dragged forth two short stacks of papers, each with a picture clipped to it and he continues.
R: “These are two of the best centers for battling addiction when you have superpowers. I personally know many of the staff in each and can vouch for their professionalism and non-discrimination towards hybrids. I also know a number of people that have gone through treatments there and are doing much better. I also ran a deep check on their activities and profiles, as they are within our network, and they are clean. Visitations are easily scheduled, multiple times a day if wanted, between therapies.”
Sonar is midway flipping through the first stack of papers before he freezes when addiction centers are brought up, frowning when he hears Robert did something potentially illegal to check they would take him and help him. His ears slowly opening unflattening from his skull, Mal looking genuinely shocked and gazing at Sonar with an almost hopeful expression. With a tired smile, Robert leans against the back of the office chair, running his hands over his eyes. The exhaustion and favours putting this together were going to be worth it. Refocusing on the pair, he sees Sonar starting to eye the remaining stack of papers, easily the combined height of the shown documents. Robert smiles at that.
R:”The rest of these papers are a combination of legal fuckery and semantics. Buried deep in the SDN rules, there is a program for up and coming superheroes who are either too young, inexperienced or troubled to be put on the roster and require training and oversight from an experienced hero. The SDN Sidekick Initiative. Through a small loop, you technically fulfil the parameters for it, with Mal being your SDN hero mentor, if she is up for that.”
At that Mal´s tentatively hopeful expression gives way for an enthusiastic yes. Robert moves the papers between him and Sonar and starts to flip through them as he continues speaking.
R:”The catch is that it requires a hero benefactor or sponsor, someone besides the mentor who will be taking responsibility for your actions while in the program. And this hero needs to not one affiliated with the SDN. Lucky for you, Blazer really lucked out in knowing one.”
With that the papers settle on the page with the benefactor name and in block letters the name Mecha Man is in the blank space. Both Mal´s and Sonar´s jaws drop at the sight of that, giving Robert a small satisfied smile. Sonar breaks out of the daze first, shaking his head before looking incredulously at Robert.
S:”There is no way, no fucking way The Mecha Man is willing to go out on such a leg for me. Is this a prank ? This sounds too good to be true, there has gotta be some hidden bullshit attached, like I will be his personal furry or some shit.”
With that Sonar starts to flip through the opening pages, not paying attention to the way Robert started to choke on his own spit at his words. Malevola looked at him inquisitively, trying to figure out if he is messing with them.
R: “There are strings attached to it, yes.”
Sonar turns to look at him, squinting suspiciously.
R: “The major ones being you would be required to turn in all your powder reserves and undergo a three week stay at one of the centers of your choosing, before being allowed back into the field. As a sidekick, you would also be working directly under Mal, and be only indirectly part of the z-team after getting clean.”
Pointing at the two centers as he mentioned them, he can see the cogs turning in Sonar´s head.
S: “But why would he vouch for me ?”
R: “Because after the short time I have known you, I have come to believe you genuinely want to do good, to protect and save people, but are being held back by your addiction and discriminatory notions around you.”
For a second, neither Mal or Sonar said a word, staring at Robert trying to figure out if he actually just said he was Mecha Man. Then they mentally tried comparing him with the pictures, Sonar running the timeline in his head and both came to the same conclusion as their jaws dropped.
Robert was wishing he had a camera, the amount of times they both went slackjawed in this meeting must have been some record.