Chapter Text
“Alright people.” Blazer addressed everyone in the ruined opening lot “Anyone up for doing Hero work please step forward!”
About half the Z-Team step up, willing to go make runs to help the rest of the city while the other half stays back, thinking their skills are more helpful with the clean of Torrence’s SND branch.
“Heard anything?” Golem rumbles out
“No.”
“What about Sonar?”
“Haven’t heard from him either.”
“Okay.”
“W-what… uh, d-did some-something happen?”
“Oh yeah.” Malevola says, focusing on her partner, “You weren’t with us last night, how’s your Grandma?”
“G-good… and-and safe.” Waterboy stutters out, “What… What hap-happened last night?”
“Robert’s in the hospital.” Invisagal bluntly tells him, “Sonar knows something but went running and we are seeing if anyone else has heard anything about either of them.”
“O-oh…” Waterboy looks dejected and concerned, “H-how bad w- H-how h-hurt was… uh… Why?”
“Don’t know, seems to have been injured during the fighting.” Malevola tells him, “But it was bad, he should have gone to the hospital right away.”
“Blazer knows.” Golem states, “Seems she understood what Sonar was saying last night.”
“Let’s try and pry some information from her then.”
“Looks like we won’t have too.” Malevola tells Visi, noticing Blazer calling them over to where the rest of the Z-team was, “Let’s go see what she wants.”
“Alright Team.” The not blond Blazer addresses them, “I know we are all worried about Robert but we need to focus on our tasks today.”
“So no updates?”
“No, Chase hasn’t sent anything.” Their boss answers, looking just as disappointed as them, “And I’m not about to go sneak in and check for myself either.”
There was a pointed look to Invisagal who looked offended.
“Please, even I have more respect than that.” The woman defends, crossing her arms as everyone turns to stare at her even longer, “… Alright fine, I did, but that place is locked down tight, what hospital has more security than Vanderstink?”
“One were Superheroes are taken out of suits and need their Identities protected.” Mandy tells her, no surprise on her face. “Do me a favor and don’t try it again, that’s not a phone call I want to deal with today.”
“No promises.”
“Any word on Sonar?” Their boss turned to the demon of the group, “I would like to discuss what happened with him, see what he know but unfortunately he didn’t get his hero tracker back up so…”
“Nope, nothing.” The Demon casually tells her when the not-blond turned to her, “I have no idea where he’s at but you’ll be the first to know Miss Blazer.”
“We’ll deal with that later then. Anyways, I’ll keep you guys updated if I hear anything. Hero work group, I let Downtown know you’re on their rosters today, please behave.” Mandy dismissed them, “Clean up group, our goal today is to get the offices up and running so we can start dispatching from our own branch again. Let’s go.”
And to work they went, mostly in silence. When the hero work came back they offered to help around with small things like sweeping, or taking trash to the bins, nothing that would impede their rest before being sent out again.
When Phenomaman got too depressed they would make him feel useful by doing food or coffee runs, lighting rubble and cars, small things until he was ready to go out again.
Occasionally Waterboy got sent out for fires or other task that needed his… special talent.
They were behaving, if just barely. Every once in a while they would spot Blazer on the phone, they would drop what they were doing, quite literally even, and wait only to get pissed at the lack of answers and destroy something… usually something already broken…
“Great job guys.” Blaze announces at the end of the day, “We got a lot more than planned finished today and we can now start dispatching from our branch again. Go home and get some rest for tomorrow! We still have a lot more work to do!”
“Hey, Miss Blazer!” Prism calls out, “Any work on Roberto?”
“Not really.” The brunette sighs out, like she was waiting for them to finally ask, “He’s still alive, last Chase updated me on him, but that’s all he's told me.”
“So order him to tell you more.” Flambae huff out, “We want to know if the bitch is okay.”
“I won’t, because I’m not Robert’s emergency contact, Chase is.” Blazer mildly glares at the flame hero, “I can only share what Chase chooses to tell me.”
“I’m sure the Lad will be just fine.” Punch Up states optimistically, “Bob’s no push over and he’s sturdier than he looks.”
“That is true.” Coop agrees solemnly, “We must trust in his resilience and be patient.”
“Bitch, have you met this team?”
“I stand by what I said.”
“Agreed, Bob Bob isn’t that much of a bitch.”
“I don’t mind waiting.”
“May-Maybe we- can… sho-should do some-something as a get well gift? For-for him?”
“Ohh, not a bad idea, Waterboy.”
“But what do we get him?”
“Booze.”
“Drugs?”
“Laid.”
“Not punching him in the face next month?”
“Guys!” Blazer scolds them all, “Remember you’re Hero’s now, nothing illegal! Go home, rest, I’ll message you if there are any updates because I know how worried you all are about him, okay?”
Blazer leaves them, ignoring the bouts of protest from most of them about caring about their dispatcher.
“Man, if only we knew where Sonar fucked off to.” Punch Up pounds his own hand, “I wouldn’t mind getting some answers from him.”
“Yes, he seems to be our best bet for any answer at this point.” Coop acknowledges, twirling a knife in her hand, “Unfortunately we need to know where he is.”
“Anyone up for some tacos?” Visi suggests, “We can make a plan to hunt down the Batman there.”
“Ooh yes!”
“I-I’ll have to pass.” Waterboy stutter out, “Go- Got to go home.”
“Sure, but I’ll have to take it to go.” Malevola stretched a bit, “I have some personal business with my bed tonight.”
“Great, let's go!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile in an apartment somewhere in So-Cal~~~~~~~~~
Sonar blinks awake tied to a chair, not in the sexy way, staring at a brick corner with a note taped to one the nearby wall. After a few moments of shaking off the dizziness and blink at the starch white again the worn reds and browns… blinking some more as he reads the note… and letting his ears droop.
“Aw man…” The man bat groans pitifully, not even bothering to test the ropes, “But I need to pee… and I’m hungry.”
~~~~~~~~
‘Sonar,
We’ll talk when I get back, but clearly you know something about Robert’s condition. Don’t worry I won’t tell the others that you’re at my place so you can relax.
But for now, just sit tight, think about what you wanna say to me, and how many times I’m gonna end up slapping you from what I hear…
DON’T YOU DARE MOVE!
Love, Mal’