Chapter Text
The Z-Team all gathered into their usual conference room, Blonde Blazer and Chase standing at the front. They were all mostly bored out of their minds, Invisigal propping her feet up on the table as she listened to music through her headphones. Prism was scrolling through her social media feeds with Falmbae looking over her shoulder. Sonar was eating a few twinks with Malevola leaning on him as she painted her nails. Coupe and Punch Up were talking in low voices, the conversation only being shared between them. Chase just sighed at the sight of all of them, the only ones paying attention being Waterboy and Phenomaman .
“Why are we here Dispatcher Chase?” Phenomaman asked, the man looking towards Blazer.
“You are gathered here because we’re being asked to take in another villain and allow him to join the Z-Team… Effective immediately,” Blazer explained, all of the villains suddenly sitting up at attention. All of them gave her varying levels of worry and even some frustration was thrown her way. They gave the woman a weird look, looking around the table at the dozen villain turned heroes gathered in the room. If anything, there was barely enough room for what they already had. Golem was already pushed towards the back corner of the room, the creature having to make himself as small as possible just to fit with everyone sitting around him.
He was a boulder trying to be a pebble.
“Wait- You wanna bring in another bitch?” Prism asked, Blazer sighing a bit.
“We don’t have a choice-”
“Yes you do! To fight and tell them we can’t fit anyone else here!”
“Yeah! We were fine when you brought in Wetboy and the depressed alien over there. I’ll be the first to admit! They were useful… Maybe one more than the other for a little while-” Punch Up tagged on, giving Waterboy a small look. Still, the boy didn’t seem too offended by the man’s words. He actually found himself nodding in agreement with Punch Up.
“You wanna bring in someone else now? We just got near the top of the leader board! Now we might get dragged back to the bottom of the list and one of us might get fired! Coupe and Sonar were almost kicked out and, I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want to go through with that again. That was absolute bullshit,” Malevola pressed, glaring a bit as Sonar nodded next to her and grabbed her hand before squeezing it. A few mumbles echoed through the room, Chase pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Listen here you ungrateful fucks-”
“N-No! I-... I think- I think we deserve some- Questions- An answ- An explanation!” Waterboy cut through before immediately shutting his mouth and looking intently at the table. Chase stared at the boy for a moment before letting out a sharp huff. On the other hand, Prism had already taken out her phone and began to film noticeably over the edge of the table. Blazer gave her a small glare, but Prism just flicked her off and kept filming.
“Damn- Wetboy grew a pair,” Sonar mumbled.
“G-Grew a p-pair of w- What did- I grow?”
“You have confidence now. That’s what Sonar is saying,” Invisigal tried to explain.
“O-Oh… I wou- Wouldn’t say I have- Really? You think so? Confidence?”
“Uh… Maybe not anymore? Kinda? You threw me off now.”
“Aw…”
Blazer was already so done with this meeting…
“Guys- I know there is a cause for alarm and- A lot of opinions. However, this time around we don’t have a choice. I can’t just turn them away. He… He doesn’t have anywhere to go,” Blazer said, Invisigal raising a brow as she sat up in her chair. She pulled out a single earbud, her music still blasting in her left ear as she spoke.
“And what will they do if we don’t? Can’t we just send him to another team?” She asked.
“You all are the Z-Team… You were the last team they asked to take this person in. They also thought that, since you all are rehabilitated villains, you could help him with his rehabilitation. Give him some pointers on how to be good. Plus, if we refuse to put him on the team? I was told they were going to- They were going to get rid of him. Permanently,” Blazer tried to explain, finding words in an attempt to dance around the subject. They all stared at her for another moment before Invisigal took out her earbuds completely. Even Chase seemed a bit surprised, the older man looking up at Blazer with wide eyes.
“You mean they wanted to-” The man seethed, Blazer nodding.
“Yes. If we didn’t take him in… They were going to exterminate him,” Blazer explained.
He was on death row.
Shit.
All of the heroes shared looks around the table. Yes, they had their fair share of crimes and even a few scars from being in jail. They’ve been locked away and tied down. They’ve been shot at and punched everywhere the eye could see. Some of them have even been experimented on, poked at by needles and looked at under microscopes. Still, none of them had been threatened with extermination. They were all just brought in and put into a cell, only to break out and go right back to committing crime. Their faces weren’t attached to their real names anymore. They were attached to the villain names they had chosen for themselves.
And now they were attached to hero names.
…
Weird how the world works.
“What the hell did this guy do? Destroy a fucking country?” She asked, Blazer glancing at Chase before grabbing the remote that had been set on the podium at the front of the room.
“Let me just show you.”
She clicked one of the buttons on the remote and the lights seemed to dim. The blinds in the room came down and covered the windows, blocking out the real world. On the screen was a recording from a security camera, Invisigal spotting the video time stamp and date in the top corner. It was dated a couple of years before the Z-Team was brought together, a few years before the Phoenix program was even considered, the girl unintentionally trying to think where she was when this video was taken. If anything, she was probably too drunk to think or possibly stealing something important.
She couldn’t remember if she tried.
When the video started to play, it showed a rundown warehouse. It was silent for a moment, before a huge banging sound was heard. They all flinched at the sheer volume that came from the room’s speakers, Invisigal going in and out of existence for a few seconds before she got control of her breathing. Blazer apologized quickly and turned the volume down before allowing the video to continue playing. Suddenly the warehouse was lit in stuttering amber, sparks raining from the collapsed rafters before bouncing down towards the ground. Somewhere above the smoke, the whine of servo-motors echoed like a scream.
A hero staggered through the haze, armor cracked, one lens of their visor shattered. Invisigal had never seen this hero before, having no name in her memory. Beneath the torn suit, their skin was streaked with soot and blood. Their emblem, once bright across their chest, was nearly burned away. One glove flickered with dying circuitry, the light inside it pulsing weakly like a heartbeat refusing to quit. Every step left a smear of crimson on the concrete, but still, they kept moving. They were defiant, upright, refusing to fall as they looked around with slight panic.
“Mecha!” The hero shouted. Their voice cracking through the haze.
“You don’t have to do this!”
The reply came distorted through a speaker, metallic and cold.
“You always say that. You heroes- Always talking. Never listening.”
Then the floor shuddered, the camera’s view shaking a bit before settling. A huge robotic mecha dropped from the ceiling, a hulking exosuit bristling with glowing hydraulics and jagged steel plating. The metal was painted red and black, the sharp edges shining in the dim light. Unlike the hero, this villain looked completely fine. There wasn’t a single scratch on the mech. The impact of the robot’s landing threw the hero back against a concrete pillar, Invisigal cringing a bit when she heard the hero’s body crunch. Still, the hero pushed themselves up to a barely standing position, coughing, eyes flashing with energy. Blue light ran through the veins of their arms, their superpowers sparking alive.
“I’m ending this,” The hero said shakily.
“No,” The villain’s voice growled through the modulator.
“I’m not done fixing this world… I have to get rid of you first.”
“Good- Good luck getting rid of me-”
“I got rid of your wife within seconds. You shouldn’t be that hard.”
The mecha’s shoulder cannon unfolded with a small click. It was a soft sound. A sound, that compared to everything else, was barely audible. It was silent for a moment, everyone’s breaths caught in their throat as they were at a stand still. Then after staring each other down the villain opened fire. The first blast punched a crater in the ground where the hero had stood a heartbeat ago. It took a moment for Invisigal to spot the hero, the figure leaping into the air, energy flaring, hurling themselves into the air and slamming a powered strike into the mech’s chestplate.
Metal screamed.
Sparks flew.
For a second.
Just a second.
It looked like they might turn the tide.
Then the mech caught them.
A massive claw snapped shut around their torso, crushing with mechanical precision. The hero’s breath left their lungs in a broken gasp. They charged another energy burst, palms glowing, and fired point-blank into the cockpit. The blast staggered the suit, but it still held strong. Invisigal could hear the villain within the huge machine laugh like a crazed maniac. He just laughed through the distortion, the sound half-human, half-machine. He drove the mech’s knee up, slamming the hero into the nearest wall.
The concrete spiderwebbed with cracks.
Blood smeared across their mask.
Bones were visible and revealed to the stale air.
“That all you’ve got, celebrity? Ha! You actually think you’re a savior? You think you matter? But I helped Shroud build this city’s bleak future while you were posing for cameras. We are going to rule this city… And then the entire world. While you’re six feet under, I’ll be right at Shroud’s side,” He said, the name getting the Z-Team’s attention easily. They all knew who Shroud was, the man sparking fear in every hero and villain alike.
“You’re building a tomb… One that Shroud will bury you in along with everyone else. He- Shroud doesn’t love you, kid. I doubt he even likes you. You’re just good with robots. That’s the only reason he’s keeping you around,” The hero spat, the mech’s hand squeezing into a fist as the Mech seemed to lower into an action position.
That hit a nerve.
That was when Mecha decided to end it. The mech’s right arm spun up, the whir of gears screaming over the hum of the reactor. The hero’s eyes widened, trying to back out of the way. Sadly, their body was too broken to move. All they could do was lay there, waiting for the villain to finally decide their fate. Suddenly, a rotating blade snapped into place. It was industrial, heavy-duty, meant for cutting through steel. The mech raised the blade over its head, the pilot looking through the visor and locking eyes with the superpowered human.
He looked so normal up close.
“You’re a sorry excuse for a hero.”
The blade struck.
Once.
Twice.
The sound was wet and metallic, echoing in the chamber. Invisigal was quick to look away from the sight, instead looking towards her other teammates in the room. They were just as shocked as she was, the girl flinching when the hero on the screen started screaming. When it was over, the mech stood motionless for a moment, hydraulics hissing in the aftermath. Smoke curled through the ruin. The hero lay crumpled, light fading from their eyes, the glow under their skin flickering out like a dying filament.
Then, with a hiss of releasing pressure, the cockpit split open.
And the villain Mecha stepped out.
And by pure coincidence.
Invisigal found herself recognizing him.
“Holy shit- I know that guy! Fuck!” She pressed, Chase giving her an odd look.
“You know him?”
“Yea! He used to be a well known mechanic and engineer- He would work on hero’s suits and their mechanical junk. He even created a few hero aids. When I was doing villain work, the gang I was working with wanted to kidnap him and I got a good look at his file. Dude is apparently a legend,” She pointed out, speaking loud enough so that the whole room could hear.
He looked much like he did in the days when he’d been a respected engineer, the sharp jaw, the slicked-back hair now streaked with grime and sweat. However, his eyes were colder now, almost luminous under the flicker of failing lights. His new pilot suit, black lined with crimson circuitry, clung to him like a second skin, reinforced at the shoulders and chest with carbon plating streaked by heat and ash. A huge tube was connected to his back, wires making it look like he was the heart of the whole machine. Without a mask, every expression showed. The satisfaction curling in his grin, the dark circles under his eyes, the faint scars tracing his cheek from earlier battles.
He looked like a man who had burned away the last of his humanity…
And liked the result.
His face was spattered with oil and blood, some of it his, most of it not. He stared down at what was left of the hero’s body, at the silence he’d made. However, instead of simply staring at the hero and leaving it at that, he looked right at the security camera. He stared at it for a moment, tilting his head to the side creepily, before redirecting his attention to a small keyboard he had on his forearm. He typed away for a few seconds before the camera started to move on its own. It zoomed in on the hero’s broken body, showing off the massacre before the camera panned back to the villain’s face.
“Dispatch that mother fuckers.”
And then the video ended.
Then Blazer turned off the projector, the blinds in the room slowly rising as the lights flickered back to life. They all stared at where the video had seemingly burned a hole in the wall, none of them speaking for a moment. Invisigal looked down at the table, seemingly finding interest in the wood that made it. Her hands were shoved into her pockets, her right hand gripping her inhaler tightly as she tried to get the vision of a human’s broken body sprayed across the floor. Finally, Chase cleared his throat and stepped to the head of the table.
“His villain name is Mecha. Invisigal was right. He used to be an engineer and a glorified mechanic before he was dragged into the life of villainy. He used to be a young prodigy… His dad was Mechaman once upon a time. But then that bitch Shroud got to him. Poisoned his mind. He helped Shroud kill Mechaman and joined his cause,” He explained, all of them staring at the man as Blazer came up and rested a hand on his shoulder.
“I knew him as a kid. And I think there’s still hope in helping him get back on the right track.”
“But- He- He killed- He killed a hero- A good and- And heavy- Strong- He killed a hero! He ki- Oh god- I thi- I might pu- Throw up,” Waterboy mumbled out, Invisigal finding herself putting a hand on the boy's back as he seemed to dry heave. She grimaced a bit as she felt her hand getting wetter and wetter by the second, but she still just rubbed his back to make sure he really didn’t puke all over the table.
“We believe that Mecha had no clue what he was doing. At least- That’s what we want to believe. Mecha has recently been captured and was brought to a facility where they tested out his mental state. They found that he wasn’t truly coherent without his machine, and after they took him out of the machine completely? They found that he was actually thinking for himself. He could hold proper conversations and he even admitted to missing time. We believe he was under some kind of mind control during all of his crimes. But without proper evidence, they had to sentence him anyways and possibly put him on death row,” Blazer explained, Malevola leaning forward on the table.
“So if he does join the team- Will he be getting his machines back?” She asked, Blazer nodding.
“Eventually. But for right now we’re probably going to have him just watching you guys and joining you in meetings. We’ve been talking about maybe getting him his own lab so he could maybe make some things to help you all on missions,” Blazer offered, the team looking around at one another with a bit of hesitation.
“Don’t worry. Someone will be supervising him the whole time. We want to make sure he is certainly good before we get him into a suit… One thing’s for certain though. We’re never putting him or anyone else in the suit he was arrested in,” She tagged on.
“So when he is allowed to get back into the field- What suit will he be wearing?” Invisigal asked.
“His fathers.”
“Wait- You want to give a man’s murderer his suit?” Prism asked, leaning back in her chair.
“It’s his right. Technically Mecha was supposed to become the next Mechaman. We want to give him that chance to be a good and true hero,” Blazer argued, Prism rolling her eyes as Flambae gave the woman a look. Still, neither of them spoke, choosing to keep their words to themselves. They sat in silence for a bit longer, some of the villains having to gather their scattered thoughts and feelings.
“Look… I know that you all are shaky on this. But- Fuck. Listen. I never believed in you before- And I know that makes me an asshole. But I believe in you now. This is the Z-Team, created from the villains of the Phoenix Program. If anyone can show someone how to be a true and level hero…?” Chase hesitated for a moment, taking in a deep breath before seemingly forcing out his words.
“It’s you guys.”