Chapter Text
Flashing lights and smoke was the sole thing his eyes could see, he found himself trapped in the one thing, the only thing he considered safe, one of his hands worked enough to try and pry open the harness aroud his torso. the alarms were blasting through the metal cage that was meant to be his suit. not only him was trying to break free, but someone or several someones were trying to rip the metal apart to get to him, or something like that seemed to be happening from the little vision he had on the cameras.
he couldn't exactly reach the controls or do something more than just trying to break free. One of his arms was useless, completely flaccid, and part of the control panel crushed his legs. He was fucked.
Robert knew he went to an ambush, Shroud would not just make his location known without reason, he just didn't expect top heroes there, Mechaman could deal with one or two of those but hell this was a whole fucking team, trying to talk him down, hack his suit, fight him, it was a lot to keep up. And they played dirty, team up with shroud for this? Are these the ones they call honorable heroes?
They managed to lock him in the wherehouse, the shields giving up, runing out of options. The fight took a while, and when he just got out of there, the victory bittersweet in his mouth lasted just a few seconds, then the mecha exploted. A bomb in his suit. He wasn't out of fight just yet, the fall was rough but he could get out of this, yes, he could, just get up, get up. he just needed to get out of the suit first.
Between the fog of his mind and the screaming of his thoughts demanding to get out he tried to turn on the defense of the mecha. With a few failed atemps and insults thrown around in the end the defenses were up. Mechaman let out a sigh of relief when a shield formed around the suit, not as strong as in the werehouse but that should do for now. This had only bought time. time that he didn't know how to use.
Breathing hurt, that part was normal at least, with only one funcional hand it was going to be almost impossible to control the suit, but that wasn't necessary... he just needed to put the autopilot. Even if the power was not enough to keep the mecha up, it was enough to get away, or he hoped that. That thinking took a while, the shields were almost completly destroyed, but he had to make this work.
The first attempt made his whole body complain at the same time that the suit tried to get up, metal breaking skin, the control panel crushing his legs put even more pressure, drawing blood, making him scream. His hand made a fist and hit the keyboard. He had to stop the mecha from getting up. The control panel crushing his legs was just going to cut them off if the mecha moved. Agitated, with no way out, the alarms ringing in his ears, the rest didn't matter anymore. And for a moment everything stopped.
There was blood everywhere.
And then the shields fell, the heroes forced open the suit, Brickhouse doing most of the work, shredding the metal, there was cheering among them and then nothing. It was not the awesome arrest that everyone was expecting. Mechaman was down but almost dead. Not a great view on top superheroes such as the A team of SDN. The medic team was called, Mechaman already passed out, bleeding out.
Time stopped for Robert. There were dreams sometimes, sometimes nothing at all. Sometimes his father being disappointed talking about the ruined legacy, and then his corpse saying nothing at all. It was torture.
Waking up was worst, he would have prefered to die in the fight like he intended in the first place. His whole body ached, the cold lights making his eyes and head hurt. A groan escaped from his mouth. He was handcuffed to the bed, letting out a huff, he tried to sit down at least. And there is when he first noticed.
One of his legs was gone.
The room started to spin, And just like that, he vomited as a couple of nurses entered the room. Great timing Robert.
Nurses were talking, Robert could hear them but the words just didn't stuck around. They were calling him lucky for being alive and that people wanted to talk to him but he could not bring himself to care enough to respond something. It was a lot to take in. The pit in his stomach didn't help at all.
"...Never thought it would end like this." He murmured to himself as he brought his unharmed hand to his face, the handcuffs clinking, hiding from the light.
"That usually happends when you fight for the wrong side." A wide eyed, startled man received her. Robert didn't even hear her footsteps, or the door.
The room seemed to shine around her, warm. A strike difference with her cold words. "I'm Blonde Blazer, I work over at Superhero Dispatch Network."
"...Yeah, i know who you are, you're, like, famous." Voice rough, there was no surprise in him, his whole attention was on his missing leg, looking for a way out and not whatever hero came to drag his ass to a cell.
The tense silence in the room was broken once again. "Look, Robert, SDN did not act... appropriately, and they regret how the situation was handled." She seemed to be having trouble finding the right words, but she didn't seem sorry, at all. But he waited, looking at her, trying to focus, pushing through the fog in his mind.
"SDN wants to reach an agreement with you." Oh? That was the last thing he was expecting. "They want to offer an apology, giving you a chance to stay off prison if you join the Phoenix program."
"The Phoenix program will give you everything that you need for... These situation" Her gaze fell on his injuries. "including fixing your father's suit." That had his full attention.
"What's the catch?" There was no way this was all coming from the heart of a company. "Fixing the suit is going to cost a considerable amount." Millions of dollars.
"SDN is aware. If you agree to join the Phoenix program, I can tell you more when you leave the hospital... otherwise, I'll have to take you to a prison infirmary."
"Wow Those are incredible options. It's almost like... having no choice." Sarcasm flowed naturally to him. Clearly, there was no other option, and they expected him to accept it without question.
"You always have a choice. Make the right one this time."
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. It seemed like the right way out, but it was going to cost him dearly.
The silence lasted for several long minutes.
"I'm joining the program." He felt as if he had just signed a sentence worse than spending his entire life in prison. He traded a metal cage for a golden one.