Chapter Text
Quick Timeline Recap:
Villain ending / No romance
No Movie date, or Mandy dinner
Court and Robert danced at the party
No locker room kiss
Flirting options throughout the game: up for speculation
“Where is he?” Courtney sat overlooking Torrance’s entertainment district. It was very lively, with people lining up for various stalls. Some stalls were selling food, hosting carnival games, and others were selling…merchandise like that.
She breathed in deeply, and exhaled with a big sigh. So this is it, huh? The Mecha Man Celebration, in all its glory. It was roughly 6:30 pm when she last checked the time. There were dark grey storm clouds in the sky, hiding most of the sun’s light from bleeding through into the evening, although just enough that it didn’t look overly gloomy.
Despite the weather, it was nice. Seeing firsthand the appreciation Torrance had for its hardest working hero felt nice. She didn’t have a specific reason for going out tonight to see the festival, it was just something to do. Not wanting to be seen, she was perched atop the same Taco Bell where the Z-Team reconciled with Robert after his revealing of identity.
The memories were still clear in her head. What it felt like, the wave of relief and hope that she felt after the team defended him against Flambae’s flames. That fucker.
She wanted to repay Golem for that still, but in the back of her mind she knew that it was impossible. Because I killed Shroud, she thought. That one decision she made had ruined everything she had going on in her life.
It all happened 8 months ago. She was still on the run. Having ditched her previous phone number, Courtney’s social life was nonexistent. She hadn’t spoken to Golem, or any of the Z-Team since the incident, and she didn’t want to. Not now. She grimaced at the thought of it all, pinching her forehead in shame. There had to have been another way, right? Seeing Robert's face of shock, looking back at her, along with the Z-Team, in disbelief seeing her stab him in the throat was a nightmare. Many nightmares, actually.
Sighing again, she shook her head trying to clear the dark thoughts, as if she could just shake the memory away. Nope. It was 8 months ago when she ran away from SDN, trying to start something new. She hadn’t been found yet, and she wondered if anybody still cared about what she did. That night, she ditched her old apartment. She ran all the way back home after the scene. She took what she needed and was out the door, not looking back. Not wanting to leave Torrance, she had to adopt a different lifestyle, the one of a night owl.
––3 Days After Shroud’s Death—-
After spending a few days in a hotel, she found another apartment to live in, reaching out to the landlord on an old email account, she met up and he agreed to be paid in cash. Knowing she couldn’t live on savings forever, she found a job working overnight in a shipping warehouse, one where she wouldn’t have to be seen during the day, and paid in cash.
––One Month After Shroud’s Death—-
In one month after running away from the hero's life, her life consisted of working, running quick errands, staying inside, and more working. She didn’t want things to remain stagnant. Despite finding new stability in her apartment and job, something was missing. Over time that something faded away, slowly but surely. Then she saw the news, and saw him. Then saw him a couple more times, and had to block the channel.
Another month had gone by, and her routine had been cemented. After work, she would spend her time gaming, in between watching TV shows and making food. On a different account of course. She had the gall to ditch her old account as well, hiding from Golem. It hurt, but it had to be done. It started off with single player games like Cyberpunk and Elden Ring, but later evolved into playing multiplayer games, longing for some kind of recreational social activity, even games like…Valorant. What a shit game.
—-5 Months After Shroud’s Death—-
It all changed again.
She was on Twitch watching various streamers play the games she liked, while eating some food after a long shift. The current stream she was watching froze. Thunder boomed from outside, startling Courtney. She flinched, cursed and opened twitch to reload the stream and– she saw it, right on the recommended page.
Holy shit. What the fuck. She nearly choked on her rice. After staring for a good ten seconds, a trembling thumb reached to the phone screen and pressed on the stream, she had to check it out. To her bewilderment, there he was. MechaManTV. On the stream, Mecha Man was right there, flying through the sky.
She was ogling. It looked badass. The stream was a drone following the Mecha Man suit, flying through the night sky, up in the clouds. seemingly on the way to respond to a call. Thunder boomed outside again, and she heard the rain pounding on the window– her heart rate picked up. Sure enough, after waiting a bit she heard the same thunder on the stream.
Suddenly it all became very real.
Her breath hitched–heart pounding at the same time, as she thought about the whole situation. He was out there right now, doing his thing, still. Needing to immediately find a distraction, her eyes scanned the rest of the page. He had over ten thousand viewers, and the chat was moving fast, damn, Robert. She cringed at the thought, thinking of the one person that it hurt the most to distance herself from.
Under the stream title on the bottom right, she saw the uptime: 10:41:32. Her jaw dropped. This dude was really live for over ten hours, streaming crime fighting, being active nonstop. She took another bite of her food, and swallowed. Of course, she thought. Just as she was beginning to really move on from the whole SDN thing, and Robert, she just HAD to stumble upon this fucking stream– the first one actually. This channel was new. After looking through the profile she saw that there were no prior VODs.
Too late to stop watching now. Mecha Man approached a 7-Eleven store, between two police cars parked with their lights flashing wildly, red and blue in the camera lens. Landing on one knee of the mech, the suit dramatically got up and assessed the situation.
“OUT NOW. SHOW'S OVER,” Mecha Man boomed.
Well not yet, dude. I’m still watching you right now. This specific call was more tame, the criminals holding up the clerk saw the giant mech suit outside, and promptly gave up whatever they were trying to do. Robert guided them out, and the police were quick to grab and detain them after weapons were placed on the ground. It only occurred now to Courtney that Robert sounded so…bored. He must be tired, she thought. After the police cars drove away, Mecha Man took off into the night storm, yet again. It was only now that he looked directly into the camera, giving a salute.
The stream promptly shut off, and Courtney was yet again left alone with her thoughts. But not for long, as she felt the need to do something so she did. She finished her food, cleaned the kitchen, showered, and went to bed.
In bed, she took out her phone. Out of curiosity, she Googled SDN Torrance, to see how things were. Z-Team were on the rise, being praised in various headlines for upholding peace in LA, and fighting crime with high success rates. Wait, where is Robert? Surely Mecha Man would be in the recent SDN headlines with the Z-Team right? At least he’s still their dispatcher, she thought. After looking at the surface info, she had an idea.
She pulled up an old gmail account that was an old temp from SDN, when she first joined the phoenix program–her old one was deleted after the incident. She instantly connected the dots. A recent email detailed that Robert had left. The email noted thanks for bringing glory to the Z-Team, and wished him success on future endeavours. How professional, Blazer, as always. Before she shut her phone off and went to bed, she remembered blocking out news channels to avoid seeing Robert in the news, and she didn’t want to make a habit of watching the stream. I really shouldn’t watch more.
A week later, she was hooked, her schedule changed, with the new addition of watching MechaManTV whenever she could, in between gaming and work. After watching for just a week she decided that she wanted to take action and make some changes in her life. So she did. Going to the gym became a regular thing. After seeing Robert work so hard in the time she was a hero, she had to give it a try.
Things were getting better, or at least it sure felt like it. Going to the gym and seeing progress, getting stronger gave her a more positive outlook on the whole situation. In the streams, Robert didn’t talk much–she assumed he wasn’t mic’ed up to the stream, and probably had a lot going on dialogue-wise, but the stream wasn’t about that. Mecha Man was never one to interact with the public often, she knew that much.
––Present Time—-
Yep, that’s Prism. Laughing quietly to herself, Courtney heard blaring music off in the distance, somewhere amidst the festival there was a concert thing going on. A group of kids nearby cheered as they won a Mecha Man plushie from winning at a game stall. She felt happy at that moment, smiling softly.
The people of Torrance decided to group together and hold a Mecha Man appreciation type thing as a sort of thanks, or whatever. The stream actually had a huge impact on the festival’s existence, along with the realization of taking Mecha Man for granted after the explosion…Dammit. She still couldn’t believe that Robert said he forgave her for that, it just seemed impossible for her to fathom.
Despite the dark clouds, there was still some light left, and the sky turned pink as the sun started to set off in the distance. There wasn’t any rain, or wind either. It felt calm. The kind of night where nothing can go wrong. Happy choruses echoed throughout the festival, and the soft light from the street lights shined nearby, decorated with banners–Mecha Man themed.
Courtney pulled out her phone, and before she could look at the screen she heard a particularly loud laugh, and she knew it just had to be Punch Up.
He's here? Smiling, she shook her head slowly in disbelief. How many of the Z-Team are actually here as well? A very loud thought suddenly appeared in her head.
Where was Mecha Man?
Robert, at his own festival, was nowhere to be seen. Still not looking at her phone, Courtney put it back in her pocket, stood up and scanned the area. No sign of a giant blue mech suit. Being lazy, she sat back down and looked up at the sky. The sunset was gone, and the sky was now dark.
Then it caught her eye. She saw the suit–and almost missed it. Sat atop a very tall office tower, there it was. The mech suit was hunched over, legs hanging down from the top of the office building. She knew the suit was massive, but it looked so small from this distance. It was powered down, sitting still, without the signature teal glow she was used to on the streams.
She wondered if Robert could see her from there. Part of her wondered what he would do if he did see her, but she didn’t want that to happen. She was quite worried about that, unsure of what would happen. There was also the shame and guilt she carried, of course.
In the centre of the festival, the plaza had a large clearing that housed the newly unveiled Mecha Man statue. It reflected the bright floodlights, and had a bright silver sheen that looked pretty incredible. The suit was posed doing the signature salute that Mecha Man would give sometimes before his stream would end, and it seemed fitting. It was also interesting to note that the clearing was fenced off, probably out of respect.
A part of Courtney believed that the salute was because of her doing, thinking back to the brief stint at Granny’s. That couldn’t be true though, stop thinking about that. She hoped he didn’t remember that.
Courtney was snapped back to reality as the suit then powered up. She noticed instantly, as in the corner of her eye she saw the suit’s visor and M logo come to life, along with the rest of the suit starting to move. The suit pushed itself off the ledge, beginning a free fall, but not for long. The jets roared to life. Massive orange flames spewed out of the jets as the suit accelerated and shot up into the sky.
She was completely awestruck, and it was hard not to be. The sound was spectacular. She had witnessed the suit in action only twice, and both of those times she was also focused on…other things. Being able to focus her attention on the suit flying was something else entirely.
The sound of the suit’s rockets alone was giving her goosebumps. As it got closer, the sound alone grew powerful, and it felt like her chest was shaking.
She couldn’t look away.
Anything else going on was tuned out, and she could only focus on Mecha Man.
It felt so much more important right now. Knowing that Robert had really been out here risking his life as Mecha Man, for over 15 years. Risking his life time after time, as a normie.
The suit slowed down as it started to hover above the clearing with the statue. Ooh, is he gonna land there? That’s what it’s for I guess. The suit was tuning around slowly, as if it was scanning the area. It passed over Courtney’s location. She was wearing a black hoodie, and her hair was longer.
What kinda cool landing is he gonna do?
She was used to seeing him make dramatic entrances on the stream, it was always fun seeing the reactions to it all. It truly was something special.
Then he made his move.
Her eyes lit up at the sight of it all. The suit started to do a half flip, with the jets shutting off. She had seen this one before. Robert would make the suit fall slowly through the air completing a back flip, and then turning on the jets at the last second. The suit was now head first, falling through the sky.
Only this time, the jets turned on early. Courtney held her breath, and froze in place. She didn’t know what the fuck to do. The suit was now moving fast. Too fast. She could almost hear a guttural scream from the suit's speakers over the jets.
Mecha Man crashed down straight into the empty plaza, next to the statue. There was a second where it felt like time stopped when the suit hit the ground. But then with a deafening bang, it exploded into massive blue flames.