This blog is used only for posting fanfics of any kind. Multi fandom as well as ships. Many different kinds of fanfic types (like sick fic, hurt/comfort, ect) can be seen here.
༺༻
(Fics that had been posted can be found on this intro post)
༺༻
This blog will not repost anything but the stories itself. (And maybe anything related to writing)
AO3 account: Drifting_Mannequin
༺༻
Rules of the blog:
Story requests: Yes
Asks about myself or the stories: Yes/depends
Story prompts submission: Yes
Suggestive submission: Maybe/depends
If you're a minor and you come in here to read suggestive stories: Your choice, I can't stop you
You're an incest shipper or anything of the sort: I suggest you to NOT INTERACT with this blog
༺༻
Tags for different types:
One chapter fic: #singular fic
Two to three chapters fic: #multi fic
A full fic with plot: whatever the fic's name is will be turned into a tag
A series: the series' name
༺༻
Short, 1-3 chapters fics:
Shots fired: an engiespy fic, kind of suggestive. I don't know what else to add (TF2)
Too far away: A demon/human Heavymedic fic (TF2)
~ Part 1
~ Part 2 : Hiatus
Cowboy on the field! : Engie decided to use his western charm (TF2)
Letter opening: RED Demoman is forgetful sometimes (TF2)
Magic out of hand: Gricko put a bit too much nature magic into his bananyas (LOA, OUAW):
~ Part 1
~ Part 2
Discoveries: A series of stories of Gricko discovering things about Frost and how those said things affect him! (LOA, OUAW)
Deviation: The badniks expose their daddy's love for Stone (Sonic; MOVIE)
Incoming: A crazed Doctor saving his lovesick agent (Sonic; MOVIE)
Daring mistake: Twirl your tongue seven times before talking (Sonic; MOVIE)
I care: After saving Dr. Stone from rubble and debris, Agent Robotnik had to settle back into a calmer life for both of them (hugsarethugs's AU; Sonic; MOVIE) ~Discontinued~
Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3
Crashing tides: A full story about my Stobotnik Mermaid AU (Waves is the prolonge)
Edit: All the other chapters will be posted on AO3
So I'm making this post to say that I'm getting back into writing again soon! I've just been incredibly busy with school and an event I'm in (also burnout)
Just for everyone to know, all my ideas for Stobotnik has completely drained out
So I'm moving to some different fandoms. I'll still be here when SM4 come though :D
How does one make an AU without art? Like, I sure can write it real well, get details in and stuff, but I feel like it wouldn't be really resonate with people without art in it
I feel like I need to start learning how to draw for this
If anyone's wondering, it's a BillFord circus AU inspired purely off Maebi
The first few days of this whole ordeal was fucking torture. Chad couldn't handle a single second around this wet freak without being subjected to some stupid anxiety stuttering and such. Chad couldn't believe that he had to bring Wetfartboy here back to his place, and yet, he couldn't even sleep comfortably. Waterboy had heavily insisted on not drenching his bed, floor or couch in water, so Chad had the lanky man sleep in the bathtub and himself on the cold, hard floor tiles.
Missions become harder, team conferences became unbearable. He couldn't stay in one place without burning up now since his hand is always near Wetboy's own, making every interaction he had ten times more annoying. Robert tried to resolve their situation by sending them on team missions best fit for the pair, but that meant not being able to send them anywhere else. The whole Z-Team got easily fed up with this, having to work most of the missions while Chad and Waterboy just waited around until there was one suitable for them.
"Can't we just cut the damn thing?" Invisigal argued back during a briefing, both hands slamming down on the table like a child having a tantrum. Sonar was shocked out of his half asleep phase, forced to lift his head up to look at what was going on. Malevola rubbed his head once.
Coupe nodded along in agreement, hand reaching behind her and pulling out a blade. Even an assassin like her couldn’t handle being worked overtime. "Here. But if you break it, I won't hesitate to break your fingers." Punch Up, who had changed from sitting across and diagonally from her to sitting right beside her, placed a hand over her own.
Invisigal gladly took the blade from her and stood up, walking over towards the attached duo with a menacing aura. Waterboy immediately gathered up the string and held it close to him while Chad did his best to also keep the string away from her, placing a hand over the moist skin of Waterboy’s hands. Robert didn't do anything, he just stood there and sighed. Maybe he was trying to teach her a lesson? Either way, dick move.
"If you lay a hand on that string, I won't hesitate to take up Coop's threat myself." Chad stood up, his whole body being used as a shield for Waterboy as he stared Invisigal down. She didn't seem fazed.
"Look, if it could be done in the first place, then you should've taken the chance." And with one swift move, she managed to slide past Chad and grab ahold of the string, effectively dragging it over towards her and both the duo's left hands.
The whole room held its breath in anticipation, with Chad in a defensive stance while Waterboy practically begged her to not do it. Sonar and Malevola watched with strong interest, sleep entirely forgotten Golem didn't look like he could care less, but there was something in his eyes that screams ‘We fucked up this time’. Punch Up and Coupe was ready to stop her when needed and Prism stared on. Chad suppressed a shiver that ran up his spin when he saw the blade inch ever so closer to the string.
The blade barely touched it before Waterboy started squealing like a frightened female protagonist in a horror movie, tears lightly streaming down from his eyes, luckily being trapped inside his goggles. Chad took the opportunity when Visi got caught off guard and pulled the string back, bundling it up and handing over to Waterboy to keep safe.
"Huh." Was all that came out of her mouth before she threw the blade back to Coupe, who caught it with an expertise that one could only hope to learn.
The duo and Visi sat back down, with Waterboy looking at her fearfully, still clutching the string protectively.
"Alright, since Visi didn't get a chance to do if, I'll just explain what will happen if she did." Oh good, he finally not being an idiot or an ignorant dick for once. "The string connecting the two is like a soulmate thing - if you want more info, I suggest asking Coop. They've already tested several ways to get it to break, but nothing worked. Not fire, not scissors and especially not blades. The moment the string is in the presence of a blade trying to cut it, Flambae and Waterboy will both experience an unbearable amount of pain, presumably from their chest area."
Flambae could only turn away with a tisk on his tongue. He didn't want to be viewed as weak when both his fingers got cut off and he was completely fine about that. Prism stared at him like she just discovered him doing something that had completely crossed the line of their friendship, but she didn't say anything that meant it that way. Sonar patted Waterboy's shoulder with what felt like pity, to which he gladly accepted with an awkward smile.
"So do excuse them for now, alright? No more bickering about it." Robert sighed stood up straight, a hand raking through his hair and then smoothing it out. Visi watched with morbid interest.
The briefing was finally over at the least. Grunting and pulling himself up, Chad tugged on the string, getting the wet weakling's attention before dragging him out of the room with him. But, before they could even make it out, Robert cleared his throat and pulled out his wallet. Chad turned back around with confusion, head cocked to one side as he watched. Waterboy also watched, but a finger was hovering near his lips.
"Here, I'll pay all of you – except Flambae and Waterboy – 20$ out of pocket so you can forgive this inconvenience." And, true his word, he pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and passed it over to Invisigal first.
"I di-didn't kn-oow he would do that." Waterboy whispered into his ear. Chad instinctively gripped his bicep at that, feeling his oddly cool breath against the shell of his ear. He recalled laying with a twink that looked like Waterboy once.
After everyone had got their share of the twenty, the Z-Team pooled out of the room happily talking to each other. Chad saw that Prism stalled behind by a few paces, as if waiting for him and Waterboy to emerge. When he finally made it out, she picked up his hand, patted it twice and then gave him a kiss on the check. A good luck to whatever that might come next.
"You’ve been looking hella stressed when this happened, bae." She said, using a mock tone of pity for him. Chad only chuckled and hooked an arm around her, following the rest of the team out of the building.
For a while he wanted to forget he was ever stuck with Wetbitch in the first place, pretend that he could go out clubbing with Prism tonight and that there was a possibility of him getting a good hookup. But he couldn't, because as soon as he was out the door with his best friend, she just had to notice that Waterboy was following them and turn around to talk to him.
He hopes this ends soon.
-----------------------
The day was finally over. His shift had officially ended and now he finally got to go home and rest. If only the world was good like that.
Chad exited the elevator with a mildly injured Waterboy by his side who was literally licking his wounds like a dog. Chad had a few gauze here and there, but he wasn't that desperate for healing unlike a certain someone. Just because he had healing spit didn’t mean he needed to do all of that.
Both walked back to his car silently, not exchanging even the slightest of eye contact. The day had been stressful, with the two most memorable mission of the day being stopping a gang trying to transport drug overseas and assisting in a fucking stage show. The crime stopping thing was the most difficult out of the two and, no less, their last mission for the day which left both quite bruised and hurt. Though, before that, both had enjoyed the stage show greatly. Waterboy refused to elaborate on how he knew the metal artist that was performing so well, and Chad wasn't the one to pry into such a dorky life.
When both had settled in the car, Waterboy nervously reached towards the dash, trying to signal to Chad that he wanted to do something without saying it. Luckily, he wasn't an idiot and grabbed his wet hand, pulling it away gently but insistently.
"What is it?" He made sure his tone remained neutral. The last thing he wanted hear or see right now was a quietly sobbing Wetboy. He had seen the guy cry enough for a whole month.
"C-could I, I m-mean if you w-w-would allow me to." He tugged on the string, on his swimsuit collar, pulled his glasses off his head and then decisively put it back on. "I just… I want to go home."
Chad knew, and always had, that Waterboy was the most cowardly and sensitive on the team, with the highest nervous level out of all the other members. But, right at that moment, he looked and sounded absolutely miserable. Not just sad, but absolutely agonized and burdened. Chad wasn't sure if it was because of the days he spent around him or it was pity, but the fire hero sighed and looked off to one side before facing him again.
"Why are you making it sound like I kidnapped you?" He playfully punched Waterboy's arm to get the mood to lift which worked better than he had thought. The sad, kicked puppy look on his face was replaced by a quick look of surprise before he smiled, leaning towards the dash again to enter in his house address.
Chad felt like a genius for guessing the fact that Waterboy would like to go back to his house today, which just made him feel even more glad about packing clothes to sleep over at his place for the night.
With the windows rolled down all the way as the wet bitch kept complaining about being cold with the car AC on, both had their stuck their head out the window, hair flying behind them at a reasonable speed down the road. Waterboy looked like he enjoyed it, and Chad even got to see his hair dried up a little. Small curls popped up from his wet skin, waving back and forth harshly against the wind hitting it. Chad forced himself to keep his left hand in his lap lest he tried to reach out and dry the rest of his hair.
Waterboy's house quickly came into view, making said guy happy again. At the front of the door, a lady walked out and smiled back inside the house, waving gently to whoever was inside before stepping out. Chad didn’t even have time to park when Waterboy just threw himself out of the car’s window – somehow, running up to the lady and thanking her as if she had saved his family. The string automatically made itself longer.
Chad didn’t exactly know what was going on, but he parked, took his overnight bag out and made sure that all of his necessities were locked away and secured safely. After all, this was his new car, he did not want it to turn out like the previous one. Chad mentally noted down a reminder to beat Phenomaman in a fair fight one day to avenge his gorgeous car.
“Thank you s-s-so much a-again!” Waterboy shouted out towards the woman as she walked past Chad, smiling and waving goodbye to him.
“Who was that, your girlfriend?” Chad chuckled and went ahead, leaving a flustered Waterboy following behind him.
The water-based hero was too defensive of his close relationship with anyone existing around him, and it didn’t even have to be romantic for him to fuss over. Chad had seen the way he stared at Robert when he thought the dispatcher wasn’t looking, his posture and expression always looked more confident during those moments. Chad couldn’t blame him; Robert always give people the wrong idea about his attraction towards them. Slowly but surely, though, the longer they spend around each other because of this string, the less he stared at Robert. It was like the attraction was slowly fading away.
Waterboy fumbled with the keys he fished out from a compartment in the side wall for a while, his wet fingers not allowing him to hold it properly. Chad tapped his foot against the floor, impatience rising in his chest like how the flames were starting to rise on his shoulders. Groaning out exaggeratingly, Chad snatched the keys out from Waterboy’s hands and opened the door for him.
“Can’t even get into your own house.” He grumbled and pushed past him thinking he would come to face a regular looking house but he was so severely wrong.
The place was covered head to toe in towels that looked like it had sucked up more than an entire river in its life. Furniture, picture frames, anything that could possibly be ruined by water over time was covered in plastic wrap. The kitchen was left relatively untouched besides the wooden cupboards that was also covered in a layer of wrap. Chad felt incredibly oppressed in the house, like everything was so close yet so out of reach for him. There were also a bunch of cats everywhere.
Waterboy, however, entered the house with no problem, taking off his goggles and tossing them onto the table without care. Chad wondered how someone could live like this for so long, and then he remembered what Waterboy’s power was and what he was cursed with by having it.
Well, damn, maybe he felt bad for the guy now.
“Hello, grandma.” Chad pulled himself out of his thought when he saw an old lady sitting off into an armchair was wasn’t covered in plastic wrap. Small, round glasses, head of gray hair, small posture and everything that just screamed old.
Chad just stood there like an idiot, bag slung over his shoulder and a confused expression on his face all the while Waterboy apologized for being away for so long to his grandma. He also noticed that Wetboy barely stuttered around her, maybe a few here and there but it just wasn’t noticeable enough. Several cats trampled over Chad’s feet and rubbed their small heads against his leg, some even attempting to climb him. He just shook them off.
“And this is a-my colleague, Fla- I mean, Chad.” He didn’t know they were on first name basis now.
Nonetheless, Chad decided to do the polite thing and greet his grandma accordingly, being extra careful and listening to every word she spoke. She spoke really fondly of him but still pointing out his mistakes in a joking way, making Waterboy – could he call him Herm? – laugh in a nervous but happy way.
Waterboy’s grandma looked at him with her obnoxiously large and round glasses, seemingly giving him a look over. He couldn’t see her eyes, but he knew damn well that old ladies have really high standards correlating with their own times. Surely she might find his outfit a tad too revealing.
But, apparently, that wasn’t the case. She simply smiled at him and beckoned him closer which he did.
“I’m glad that my little Hermy has such a nice co-worker.” Her voice was lightly raspy but in a comforting way. The way she smiled at him reminded Chad of how a mother would smile at her child. He wasn’t sure if his mother would ever smile at him like that, but he had seen his dad does it.
“Thank you, ma’am.” He returned her smile with ease in his chest. “I’m glad you got a nice grandson.” She giggled at that, placing her hand over her mouth. Maybe she thought he was joking? Or was she happy that someone else appreciated her wet cat of a grandson?
After the short chat with his grandma, Waterboy led him upstairs and to his room where he just stopped at his door, looking down at his foot with what looked like embarrassment. Pasted all over the door were waterproof vinyl stickers of different bands, music albums and a few falling police tape as decoration. He wondered what kind of teenage life that Waterboy had to go through to possibly let his door look like this. Even if Chad did go through a phase, he never stuck anything on his door.
“Come on, nothing to be more embarrassed about than this whole setup already.” He jokingly said which only made Waterboy more flustered than he already was. What the fuck was his deal?
Eventually, after stumbling around his words for a while, Waterboy finally summed up all the bravery in his body and turned the knob on his door which was one of the first thing Chad had seen in this house without a wrap around it. the room inside had faded blue walls that would remind one of an old country house or vacation home. His bed was pushed to the right side of the room, opposite to it to the left was a plastic wrapped desk with a glass pane on top. It looked like a broke college student’s desk which Chad found weirdly charming.
When he turned his attention back to his bed, he found it to be slightly dripping with water. Upon closer inspection, the bedsheets were luckily waterproof but he didn’t want to find out if the blanket was. A foot away from the foot of the bed was a whole drawer with plants sticking out of it. Chad didn’t bother identifying the different types, but the sight was nice to see for some reason.
There was a closet, that was for sure, but storing a bunch of clothes that will eventually get wet later on felt like a useless chore to do. But, Chad had dignity, he would never rummage through someone else’s wardrobe without their permission. Though, he had to admit, he really wanted to see what kind of sense of fashion that Wetboy possessed considering his ugly wetsuit.
The wall that his bed was pushed up against had a few posters that were surprisingly dry stuck up by tape instead of what he thought was glue. A single relatively new-looking Weezer poster was taped up among several metal bands that Chad recognized, one being the exact band they had helped host a show today. Right beside those, however, were two Phenomaman posters and a Mecha Man poster, all of them with encouragements printed in bold letters.
‘He listens to metal, huh?’ Chad approached the wall, trying to get a better look at the posters until the string on his ring finger tightened.
Turning back around, he noticed that the bathroom door was slightly ajar, just opened enough so the string didn’t get trapped. Chad didn’t even realize that Waterboy had went off to the bathroom while he was inspecting his room. That was a level of trust that he only experienced with Prism.
Sighing and begrudgingly leaning against the wall outside the bathroom, Chad waited semi-patiently for the man on the other end of the string to come out. He could hear some shuffling inside and muttered swear words that didn’t even sounded like either fuck, shit, damn or anything in that category.
After a few more second, Waterboy opened the door and stepped out. A plain white T-shirt was stuck to his wet body and black sweatpants on his thin frame, his hair was still wet as ever but somehow it looked like it gained a bit more volume when he’s at home. His silly swimming goggles were gone, which Chad felt glad about, but that meant his whole damn face was on display with no distracting accessories. If he ever had the chance to see this guy dry, he might’ve fumbled hard.
“I was starting to think that ugly costume was all you owned.” Chad chuckled and approached the man, two finger slipping under the hem of his shirt and raising it, exposing that slim stomach of his.
Waterboy only blushed and stared back, a slight offended expression on his face. “I’m-I’m not going to-to sleep with, in my hero suit.” He knew it was a statement, but it was oddly said like a question.
Dropping the hem that was already starting to get wet, Chad hauled himself and his bag into the bathroom, changing into a black tank top and black slacks with flames at the bottom. Waterboy only stared at him as if this was the first time seeing him somewhat covered up without his chest proudly displayed to the world. Chad saw how his eyes lingered the longest on his arms and down his torso, but his expression remained neutral, almost like he was studying him. He also seemed really interested in how he looked with his hair down.
“Come on, are we just gonna stand here eye-fucking each other or are we going to actually do something?” Chad teased lightly, pushing past the water-based hero to sit on his bed.
“O-oh, I-I’m so sorry.” How does this guy get so worked up over light teasing? “We could j-just do w-whatever, anything you want.”
“Sure.” It was clear this guy never had guests in his house before which wasn’t really a surprise. Who would want to be in this house? Apparently himself, Chad guessed.
For the next few minutes, he allowed Waterboy – who asked him to just call him ‘Herm’ off the clock – to rant about his favorite bands and why he liked Phenomaman and Mecha Man so much, how he looked up to them and how Robert was the one to push him towards becoming a hero. Chad decided to playfully jab at the fact that a nerd and weak guy like Herm would never be pegged as a metal head. The water-based hero did get a tad embarrassed by the statement, but quickly tried explaining himself while tripping over his words, saying that their lyrics weren’t as sinister as everyone thought.
After that was the plants, his closet and what he did in his free time. Chad learned that Herm used to hate watercolor as everyone used that to somehow ridicule him and it worked. For a while. He quickly came to love watercolors just because they’re supposed to be ruined when they come in contact with color, so it became his pastime for whenever he needed something to do.
Chad was shown a few of his art pieces – that were safely placed away in order to not get wetter than they already were – that consisted a lot about plant life ad such. There was exactly one self portrait of Herm himself, and it seemed to be made during a time when he was sad. He assumed that Herm had one or two easels somewhere. No way these papers could be this dry if he were making them on the desk.
“You sure got an artistic eye, Herm.” Chad tested the name via a compliment, letting it roll off his tongue in a way that felt natural, although it just felt clunky.
“Yeah, I really tr-try my, my best.” Herm chuckled with a smile – a genuine one – and shoved all the other paintings away. “You-you can keep t-t-th-this one though!” Herm said as he raised a different paper in a Ziploc bag up. This one wasn’t made out of water color, but out of pencil. It was an extremely messy sketch of a candle melting in its hand held holder, the flames the only thing of color on the paper.
Most of the plants he had in his room were all rescues from his neighbor’s yard. Thrown out, nearly dying because they couldn’t care enough to keep the plants hydrated and change their soil once in a while. Herm also grew to love taking care of them, seeing them become more lively because of him. Chad never thought of plants that way, but hearing this nerd rant on about made him change his mind about having a single plant in his apartment. The drawer that he kept them in was also, apparently, a rescue.
When the topic of the closet was brought up, Herm got all fidgety and nervous again. Although it was his idea to talk about it, Chad still felt bad about letting their conversation steer that way. With pity written all over his face, Chad brushed off the topic and excused Herm another moment of shame to which said guy gratefully accepted.
The sky outside had darkened completely, leaving faint gray clouds to drift by lazily and an ink black sky to hang over them. The sound of cars and vehicles driving by could still be heard, but muffled as if Herm’s room provided a little safe world for both of them. And, in a sense, it was. Chad didn’t even realize how much time had passed until he looked out the open window, seeing the light sparkling of stars in the sky.
“Oh man, I for-forgot to make dinner.” Herm said to himself getting up from his bed and rushing to open the door. Chad quickly followed him as to not let this weak-looking but incredibly strong nerd drags him across the floor.
Downstairs, his grandma had fallen asleep on the couch with the TV still on, a random gameshow playing at low volume. A few cats surrounded her, laying by her side, on her lap, on the back of the couch and elsewhere. Chad wondered how a household like this could have so many damn cats everywhere.
Since he was already here, and feeling incredible pity for Herm, Chad pushed the water hero aside and told him to just stand at the dining table. Herm stuttered out a few excuses but Chad shut him up with a finger to his wet – and what the fuck, they’re soft too – lips. the cats from the living room got up and walked leisurely to the kitchen, stopping just right outside of it and watched the pair prepared dinner for the elderly woman.
“How and when do you feed those cats?” Chad asked as he fired up the stove after preparing all necessary ingredients, letting the pan heat up a little before adding in anything else.
“Just pour out their-their food in their bowl a-and they eat.” Herm pointed towards the several bowls lining the wall that was far enough away from the kitchen counters that Chad somehow didn’t notice. “About n-now, I mean their feeding time.”
Chad only hummed in response, eyes focused on the stove in front of him. If he was at Prism’s place, no doubt she would try to show him something on her phone and then get exaggeratedly dramatic when he doesn’t look. Luckily, Wetboy over there wasn’t that type of person and just went about feeding the cats instead of disturbing him.
Dinner was over with surprisingly quick. Herm accepted the dish Chad made and brought it out towards his grandma, not even bothering to come and eat his share first. Chad had to wait for a while at the dining table alone, running his fingers through the cat’s fur and having several of them hop on and off his lap.
When Herm did come back to eat with Chad, not one of them said a word during t, just quietly eating away at their meal. But, underneath all of that awkwardness, Chad swore he heard Herm compliment his food in that high-pitched voice he usually uses whenever he sees Phenomaman.
The rest of the night passed with both having a good time together, or in Chad’s opinion, the best he had with Herm thus far. The guy had always been a mess at work, so seeing him like this was a surprising but refreshing change. He stuttered less, he made more direct eye contact and even produced less water. He was just a different person from the nervous, fidgety and stuttering mess at work. Chad didn’t know how to feel about it.
“I, it’s late.” Herm said and looked out the window, watching the dim moon being covered slowly by drifting clouds that blended in with the sky. Chad hummed in acknowledgement and stood up, stretching his arms over his head with a groan.
Both of them had expected this way before they prepared to go to bed which was where to sleep and how to. Sure, they could share Herm’s bed, but Chad felt like it was invading the dude’s privacy and he was not ready to take that step just because he was tied to him. Herm swallowed hard and looked around his room for a moment, hands held in front of his slouching form like those nerds in stereotype high school movies. Chad knew the guy was too nice to let him sleep on the floor, but then again, he could offer him his bed out of hospitality.
The quiet air that hung between them was starting to annoy Chad, so without another word from either parties, Chad flung himself onto Herm’s bed, summing up enough heat to dry off the sheets.
“O-oh Chad, you don’t-don’t have to.” Herm noticed the action as soon as he heard water sizzling away. His face was in an expression of half shock, half amazed, but he still insisted that he could find a different, more comfortable and preferably less moist sleeping area for the fire hero.
“Shut it, Waterbitch, just get in the bed.” Chad tisked and rolled over, facing himself towards the wall and placing an arm under his head.
He waited for a while, listening to the quiet and steady breath from Herm and anticipating the shift of the bed. And it did come, but with a lot of hesitance, like Herm nearly sat down then stood back up, and then placed his hand over the sheets, before switching off the lights and settling to just lay down to get it over with.
Both had their backs towards each other, awkwardness feeling the empty space between them. Chad only sighed and closed his eyes, willing sleep to come though his eyes didn’t feel tired at all. He didn’t know what the water-based hero was up to, but he tried to not think about that too much when he felt the string around his finger being tugged.
-----------------------
It was midnight, Chad guessed, when he woke up from an uncomfortable dream of having to admit failure in front of the entire Z-Team, seeing the disappointment on not only Robert’s face but also Blonde Blazer and Prism. He wasn’t sure why Waterboy didn’t look mad at him in the dream.
He made some sort of sleepy sound in the back of his throat, turning his head over and blinking rapidly at a random point. One of his arms felt numb from him lying on it for a bit too long, the tingly feeling bringing his consciousness back to him.
His chest felt like it was being pressed down by a wet board, rising and pushing down in a steady, calming rhythm. The weight wasn’t exactly unpleasant only for the fact that he had a high body temperature, but Chad was starting to wonder just what was on top of him. Attempting to push himself into a sitting position proved to be a bit more difficult than he had thought, his legs were pinned down by whatever was on top of him also.
“Fucking- Ugh…” After a while, he finally shimmied his way out from under – he looked down with a flush on his face – Herm who was soundly asleep on his chest, face relaxed and calm like he had no more care for the world.
His hair was still stuck to his forehead, but loose strands fell down the side of his face and lightly littered his nape. Chad never noticed how long his hair was getting. His arms were wrapped tight around Chad’s own form, one hand managed to make its way up towards his hair, just letting the locks curl around his finger naturally.
How the fuck did he get into this position in the first place? No way sleep was the reason for this, he barely moves while he’s unconscious. And how did he manage to maneuver both of them into this position in the first place?
Chad desperately tried to push Herm off of him, twisting here and there, gently slapping him awake as to not make a ruckus, but it seemed like this guy was a really heavy sleeper if none of those tactics woke him up. Chad sighed and laid back down in defeat, just allowing this to continue to play out till morning came.
The string connecting their fingers together glowed faintly, pulsing red as if it had a heart of its own, but it was gentle and calm. He looked down at Herm again, marveling in the calmness and the complete lack of anxiety or nervousness on his face. It was…nice to look at.
Hesitantly, Chad reached up and combed his fingers through the water-based hero’s hair, summoning flames to quickly dry his perpetually wet hair, watching the curls flare and pop up like a magic trick. Chad just stared on with slight amusement on his face, allowing his hand to keep small flames going to light up the sight of it. Soft ginger curls framed his face, falling naturally here and there like clouds drifting during a windy sunset. And they might as well be. It was almost enchanting to look at.
Chad wondered how he had gotten so close to Herm already, as he thought nothing of the constantly wet hero until several weeks ago, when they were stuck with each other in the infirmary while waiting for him to heal up enough. Maybe they had learned and gotten to know each other so much during those past days that, just maybe, Chad had developed feelings.
Sighing once more and letting his head lolled off to one side, Chad took once last look at Herm who wasn’t constantly drenched, watching the rise and fall of his back and that expression. He looked over to the string on his hand – automatically figuring out that the light pulsing red glow from it was Herm’s slow heartbeat – and kissed it.
“’Night, Herm.” He whispered softly and closed his eyes, letting sleep come to him naturally, enjoying and basking in the low heat of his own body and the cool skin of Herm’s face on his chest.
Chapter 3
Warnings: Mild cussing, mentions of sharp objects (scalpel, paper cutter)
This chapter is to mostly get the general idea of the string out there so it wouldn't be confusing later on why stuff happens. Although there's not a lot of plot, I still think you should read this, even if it's just skimming through it
Herm stayed by Flambae side, on and off the clock, constantly trying to see if there was anything he could do to get the string off. He tried looking for a knot, tried pulling it off his finger, but nothing worked. Flambae tried burning it off, but that didn’t work either. When Herm found a scalpel in the medical closet, he gave it to Flambae to cut it.
“Why don’t do it yourself?” Flambae had taken from the scalpel from him when he was trying to explain why he didn’t want to be around too many sharp objects at a time. The fire hero raised a brow at that but didn't question further.
Herm didn’t have time to finish the rest of his explanation, however, as when Flambae dragged the blade over the string decisively, both were shocked to their core with a pain that was unreal, so unlike being stabbed or shot or punched or anything at all. Herm was sure he screamed at that while Flambae just grunted.
“W-w-w-whaaat did you d-doo?” Herm complained loudly, body returning to his usual hunched over posture with both hands clutching at his chest and whining. Flambae let out a hiss of pain and shook his head. None of them knew what that was.
Luckily, beside that, one of his better findings was knowing that the string was able to stretch further for personal needs and such which made them both more relief than before. Herm was glad he could go deal with business and janitorial duties without dragging an injured Flambae around with him.
Unfortunately, it would only stretch as far as that. If Herm were to go any further without that purpose, then the string will instinctively tighten and pull at Flambae’s finger. They’ve both tested how far the string was willing to stretch in order to find at least some kind of estimate. It kept changing every time they did it.
Herm had given up on getting back to hero work until Flambae was properly healed up. Chase even jokingly said he could be the fire hero’s caretaker for the time being when he was visiting which Flambae loudly protested against. Invisigal thought it would be funny for Herm to take care of him but didn’t completely turn down the idea either.
“Are we go-going to be tog-stuck together f-forever...?” Herm asked Flambae during a particularly late night, his free hand still tugging insistently at the string. He didn’t want to be stuck forever with him, he wanted to be free to walk around and do whatever he wanted as well. This was like torture. It certainly felt like torture.
“Stop crying, you big baby. We won’t be.” Flambae scoffed and combed his long hair with his fingers. Herm didn’t even realize he was crying until Flambae mentioned it. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, but of course, it didn’t help as much.
Royd came by weekly during the weekends, checking on both of them and monitoring Flambae’s condition. Herm never talked to anyone in the SDN a lot, especially someone from the science and tech department, but he was glad the person that he got to talk to from that department was Royd. His presence was extremely comforting and warm in a way. Well, not as warm as Flambae, but he liked him.
“Ah, would you look at dat, you healed up well, bruddah.” Royd said happily, making sure to double check all the machinery hooked up to Flambae to make sure he was seeing it right. “You don’t havta be in bed anymore. Up you go!” He threw a thumbs up and a big smile their way which prompted Herm to do the same.
Flambae only sighed loudly at the news, throwing the blankets off of himself, hopping out of bed and marching straight off towards the elevator. Unfortunately, he seemed to have forgotten that he was still very much attached physically to Herm. So, while the water-based hero was having a short chat with Royd about any information gathered on the red string they had, he was pulled away too quickly and harshly.
“Ah, Flambae!” Herm shouted out towards the fire hero marching towards the elevator while he was being dragged along.
Flambae groaned and turned around, realizing the reality of the situation. Flames appeared on his shoulders, slowly rising higher and higher the longer he stared at Herm. Royd poked his head out of the infirmary to watch what was happening, but he didn’t bother interfering. Maybe he knew he shouldn't. Herm stared back at Flambae with a nervous expression on his face, hand raising up and yanking on the string, making Flambae’s own hand to raise towards him.
“For fucking- Fine, get moving then.” And then he turned around, waiting for Herm to catch up to him which he gladly did.
The elevator ride up was awkward, with both contemplating what they could’ve done to end up in such a situation. They have to stay over at each other’s place now as they couldn’t move that far away from each other, which meant both will be seeing the full of one another with everything that made them what they were. Herm’s face burnt with embarrassment realizing that Flambae might – no, will – see his collection of figurines and posters.
Herm almost forgot about the earpiece in his ear until it buzzed to life, automatically giving him access to the Z-Team’s main channel. The sound of his teammates chattering among themselves rose envy in his chest, knowing that they had the ability to move wherever they liked while he was stuck with the person who was a constant jerk to him.
“Hello you two, glad to see that Waterboy had been taking good care of you.” Robert said, the smile evident in his voice. Malevola giggled at the sarcasm. “But I need Flambae to go with Prism right this instant.”
“No can fucking do, Bob-bob.” Flambae fired back, a hand covering the ear with his ear piece inside. “I’m only allowed to follow Wetboy now.” Herm could only watch and listen to their dispatcher arguing with Flambae right beside him. The fire hero’s voice was booming in the small elevator space.
Their main floor eventually came into view, showing a busy office with heroes and dispatchers walking back and forth. Herm spotted his janitorial equipment out in the open, the mop, rag and spray bottle missing from the bunch. The shot of worry that went through his body instinctively made him rush towards it, effectively pulling Flambae with him. He wasn’t the only one that forgot that he had superhuman strength sometimes.
“I don’t know how to fucking explain to you that we’re stuuc- what the fuck, bitch?” Flambae’s argument with Robert was cut short, leaving the dispatcher on the other line confused.
Herm started to fuss over his equipment, wondering where they had gone. Did someone else take it? Was there a new janitor in replacement of him or was this a communal use thing now? Did Miss Blazer noticed that some of his equipment was out here, being used by someone else and possibly inappropriately?
Turning back around to see where Flambae was, he suddenly felt his bicep getting warmer and warmer by the second. He also heard sizzling. Looking down just slightly, he met Flambae’s eyes and the frown he wore. Herm could only smile back awkwardly as he raised his hands in a defense pose but also apologizing without having to say a word. Flambae reached over and grabbed the string, tugging his hand closer to his own side and Herm just allowed it to happen. He was clearly mad with him if the flames were anything to go off on.
“Alright, can you guys just…head back? We’ll figure out what the deal is here, got it?” Robert’s exhausted request filtered through, leaving Herm to feel like he had disappointed him. Not only was Robert his dispatcher, but also fricking Mecha Man. He covered his eyes with one hand in shame, internally sobbing about the fact that he had disappointed Mecha Man.
“We’re already inside the building if you would just turn around, dipshit.” The string around his finger started tugging again, so Herm placed all of his self-gloating aside to follow Flambae over to Robert’s desk.
The intercoms continued to buzz, with Invisigal making idle talk with Prism about hosting some kind of birthday party for Golem, Sonar talking about seeing boobs in his dreams again and Malevola objecting saying it was because he got high. Herm could luckily hear Punch Up and Coupe talking quietly together about the incident that had happened. None of them seemed too disturbed by it, but he was sure it definitely left some kind of impression on everyone.
Robert spun his chair around, crossed both his legs and arms and looked up at Flambae and Herm, an eyebrow raised in question. Flambae only jabbed his ring finger into his face, showing him the clear red string connecting him and the water-based hero together.
“When did that happened?” Robert took both of their hands into his own, bringing the red string close to his face and examining it like it was jewelry. Herm turned away in embarrassment, hiding his blushing face behind his free hand.
“Ask that stringy bitch then, I know for a damn fact that she was the cause of this.” Flambae pulled his hand away, but didn’t instruct Herm to do the same, so he just left him blushing like a high school girl in front of Robert.
Without any warnings, the dispatcher picked up a paper cutter from his desk and attempted to slice through the string to get them free. But the moment he started sliding the blade back and forth on it, Herm pulled back out of pain, so quickly to the point that he might’ve accidentally slapped Robert in the face. Flambae also had the same reaction, recoiling and groaning out as he clutched at his hand. Some heads in the office turned, but the busy office noise quickly resumed without more than a few huh's.
“I-I’m so, so sorry. I di-didn’t mean, I never- “Herm reached out and swiped a bit of water onto where he had lightly injured Robert, watching the forming red blotch fade away quickly.
“No, don’t apologize for that, bitch.” Flambae placed arm in front of Herm, restricting him from reaching Robert any further. “He hurt us so we both had the rights to slap him in the face.” Herm disagreed with that statement strongly, but nervousness was taking over his mind, so all he could do was whimper out a few noises of apology.
Robert leaned away, face blank and the hand that wasn’t holding the paper cutter hovering over the area where he had been hit. Flambae only scoffed and threw a middle finger at him, looking too agitated to even argue or angrily explain to him what had happened. Herm was sure if he had fired off into an angry rant, the building’s sprinkler would activate.
‘Yoo, did I hear that right? Was that a wet slap from Waterboy?’ Sonar’s voice filtered through, sounding thoroughly impressed with Herm’s accidental action.
‘Pretty sure you did, lad. That’s crazy.’ Punch Up joined in, a light-hearted laugh escaping his throat.
‘Yo, Rob, you okay?’ Visi was the first to ask, but not the first to scold Herm. He could practically feel Robert wanting to do the same to him back.
Flambae and Herm waited, one filled with impatience and the other with anxious anticipation for the dispatcher’s response to the situation. His eyes slowly came back to reality, his thoughts starting back up as he thought of what to do with this newfound problem. Herm sighed at the thought of not getting slapped back, he already earned enough of that from the fiery hot hero beside him.
“We might need to talk to Blazer about this.” Robert concluded.
“No shit, dummy.” Flambae argued.
----------------
“I don’t think I’ve even noticed this.” Blazer commented as she ran her fingers over the string, having it wrapped around her fingers and sliding it between the pads of her fingers. Herm watched with some twisted interest, but he wasn’t really sure what it was.
“My thoughts exactly. They didn’t have this a few days ago. Heck, they didn’t even have it when we were transferring Flambae to the infirmary.” Robert stood off to one side, a fresh cup of coffee in his hand and a clipboard with papers from the lower labs. The handwriting on the paper looked super neat when Herm got a peek.
Blazer nodded in understanding, leaning back into her big office chair with a hand under her chin. Flambae just raised a brow at her, waiting for an answer or a solution to this problem. Herm glanced back at Robert, wondering what was taking him so long to read through the documents.
While everyone waited for each other to say something, Herm spiraled into himself, trying to remember what happened that day and what had caused this. He remembered arriving at the time when Coupe was having a mental breakdown, kneeling on the floor with no intentions of getting up. After distracting that floating lady for a while, Herm was able to escape from her oddly terrifying stare to help Punch Up pull Coupe over to somewhere safer. He remembered trying to ask the shorter man about what had happened, but he kept stuttering. Luckily, he understood what he wanted to say and explained the whole situation.
He had never stressed out more in his life than that moment, having to assist so many people at once, letting himself be tossed, tied and thrown, all because he wanted to heal someone. He wanted to help Flambae too, despite how he felt about him, but he never had a chance as the man was moving too fast for him.
When that big moment of Flambae crashing down happened, Herm vaguely remembered some kind of chant leaving that lady’s mouth when she noticed Flambae’s attack. He couldn’t hear it, which was obvious, but he felt like it was also partly his fault that they were in this situation. Because he didn’t tell anyone what he had seen her do.
All of these lines of thoughts were cut rather abruptly when Robert snapped his fingers multiple time in front of his face.
“You alright?” He asked, looking rather concerned at Herm’s state.
“No, yeah, I’m fine.” He raised his hands in front of his chest again, an apologetic smile on his face as he brushed off the concern. He should really be focusing on what other people were saying.
“Alright then. Look, I just talked to Royd and some of his associates over the phone and we might’ve found out something.” Robert said, motioning for both Flambae and Herm to approach Blazer’s desk. The former did it first while the latter stalled behind by a little.
Blazer took out her own notes on the problem, presenting it to Robert with a stern expression. It was about Coupe and what had happened to her during battle. Herm swallowed at the feeling of anxiety growing in his chest.
“It seemed like this ‘Mother of Fate’ had puppeteer-like powers, her minions were regular people or some of Shroud’s old people, all being controlled just to fight us.” Robert started to explain, pulling out some pictures of those who had gotten injured in the crossfire. “Her strings were able to do certain things on the specific person she wants to affect, like Coop.”
“Alright, get to the point.” Flambae slammed his hand down on the table, the other propped on his hips. Herm forced himself to look away lest he also gets scolded by the fire hero for no absolute reason.
Robert only stared back at Flambae with an unimpressed look. All these months dealing with him really placed a protective shield over Robert to be able to handle Flambae’s bullshit. Blazer only furrowed her brows and moved to swat his hand off the table in a gentle motion.
“The string that she casted onto Coupe was yellow, lining up and matching with her hairline which was why we couldn’t see it.” Robert pulled out another photograph, handing to Flambae to look it.
The picture was clearly taken after the battle, but he could see sparks of gold on Coupe’s hairline. Herm thought it looked a lot like glitter but the breaks in between the sparks were consistent. Did that mean the string was worn down over the course of the battle?
Flambae hummed at the picture, raising it towards Herm for him to see. Although he had already taken a look at it, he did it again regardless. It was a curious thing after all, he had never seen something like this before. He never knew that someone could have a power associated with something so frail.
“And for Visi, it was blue and visibly wrapped around her head.” Blazer commented, taking over Robert’s job of speaking about the situation. Flambae seemed more attentive if it was her speaking, Herm noticed. “Action manipulation, similar to Shroud sending her undercover and then telling her what to do but it’s more direct.” Why did Herm had a feeling that she was dumbing it down for him and no one else?
The conversation went on, talking about how the string were able to do that and if it were a part of her power or obtained. It was obtained through some mysterious source that they have yet to found, but they were doing their best. How the string could do that was all from her own powers, carefully trained and cultivated after years of training. Robert tried his best to keep Flambae from saying too many things out of his ass while all Herm did was stand there and nod. He didn’t know what to do or what to say, he felt like all his words would be irrelevant to the topic at hand either way, so he kept quiet.
When the conversation was finally steered towards the string connecting him and Flambae together, Blonde Blazer seemed to show massive concern for it. Robert couldn’t say much on it, other than the fact that the duration for it was unknown unlike Coupe’s two minutes with an extra three to recover and Visi’s five minutes with no recover time. He also quickly added into his notes that, anyone that attempts to sever the string, it would cause pain to both parties currently in possession of it.
Just as Blazer started to explain the concept of a soulmate string to Robert, Flambae nudged his side a little. Herm quickly turned over to reply to him, only to be cut off again.
“Why aren’t you saying anything, string bean?” He asked with a genuine curious look on his face. Looked like Flambae already caught on the fact that he liked to be included in conversations.
“I don’t, I s-shouldn’t say anything.” Herm muttered, hands starting to fiddle with each other again.
Flambae started at him for a while and then slapped his hand gently. Herm pulled away with a small, fake noise of pain, rubbing the back of his hand just for the effect of it. Flambae didn’t even look guilty that he did that but definitely not pleased either.
“Why did yo-you do that?”
“Why shouldn’t I?” Was this guy for real right now?
Herm wasn’t sure if it was because of stress knowing he was stuck with Flambae or the pitiful looks that Blonde Blazer had been passing his way for the while they were here, but he bravely looped the string into his hand and tugged. Hard.
“So, in conclusion, you two are stuck with each other based on the emotion that you feel the strongest for each other.” Robert concluded and showed them the notes, only to face a heated little fight between the two.
Herm had his hand on Flambae’s cheek, pushing him away from getting any closer. Flambae had somehow made the string longer, letting it be looped around Herm’s wrist so that he could pull him in for a punch he was wounding up. Herm’s other hand was on Flambae’s chest, effectively doing the same thing as the rest of his limps. He wanted to get away from Flambae while the other wanted to get closer so he could punch him. Blonde Blazer sighed, smiling disappointingly at them and shaking her head.
“See, this is my point.” Robert snapped his fingers at them, seemingly unbothered by the sight. “You guys have to develop a different feeling for each other that isn’t hatred, rivalry, jealousy or whatever it is so the string could disappear.” Again, he showed them the notes, holding it in front of their face as if he was handing out termination papers.
Both heroes slowly lowered their limps away from each other and squinted at the words on the paper. Herm only did so because there was a bit of water in his eyes, but he wasn’t sure why Flambae did it. when Blazer saw so, she bent over and rummaged through her drawer and pulled out a pair of reading glasses, handing it to Flambae while muttering ‘here’. The fire hero accepted the glasses without glancing her way and then leaned away from the paper to see the words. Herm giggled internally, thinking of how much Flambae resembled his grandma at that point.
The conversation quickly came to an end, with Blazer bidding them fare well and hoping both of them the best while Robert nodded her way. Herm decided to do the polite thing and waved goodbye to her which Flambae didn’t do.
Chapter 2
Warnings: Not beta read properly, cussing, psychological trauma
Apologies for the choppy fight scene if it does come out that way
ALSO
I’ll be adding some of my own headcanons to the characters, such as Coupe’s hate for the ocean. The villain in this story is not real, purely made by yours truly to express some action packed scenes and so I actually get some story building in instead of time-skipping the whole fight
“Oh hell, we’re done for.” Robert said out loud in the main channel, sounding panicked and frantic.
Chad lifted his head up from where he was staring at, talking down at a petty, amateur villain. It wasn’t common to hear him kick up such a fuss, no less going as far as saying that the Z-Team was done for. Or whoever he was referring to.
Tapping into his earpiece, he asked – albeit rudely – for the situation at hand in the base. Robert’s voice could be heard trying desperately to reply to his question, but it kept buzzing in and out, frizzing out of connection and then coming back with half sentences that had no contexts to them. He could hear the others chattering away in the channel as well, worry spiking their tone.
“Sorry Robert, we know we have a job to do but we’re coming back.” Invisigal declared loudly in the channel before a ‘blip’ signaled her leave.
Chad tisked and looked off to one side, seeing the police cars rolling up to arrest the petty criminal. They recognized him first, anger and a little fear flashing before their eyes before reality set in. They couldn’t do anything, couldn’t put him in handcuffs or use force against him. He wasn’t a villain anymore. The fire hero smirked their way and walked off, giving them just enough to go off on what the criminal had done.
He could run back to the base right now, but knowing how far he was from there, Chad decided to just fly back there instead. Summing up enough energy and feeling his skin heat up to a concerning temperature to anyone else, he took off to the skies, reaching back to the base within minutes.
The sight that greeted him first was terrible, bringing back memories that he’d sometimes rather forget.
Their past situation with Shroud had left most of the building in repair for a long while, leaving Robert to work from his shitty apartment and for them to have team conference meetings in the lobby of his apartment building which was as risky as it was embarrassing. Equipment were damaged, facilities were destroyed and the building looked close to crumbling. It took them more than just a few months to recover just enough of everything to get back in business again with the help of the other branches.
Now, he was seeing that exact scene again but in broad daylight. Freshly grown trees and grass burned and cut, flowers withering at the sight of battle and being kicked up and stomped on. The door to the building was shattered, leaving dangerous bits of glass on the floor, ready to puncture anyone walking barefoot or falling on them.
Malevola was already there swinging her sword about with vigor, a portal open wide behind her for Sonar and Golem to go through. Invisigal and Punch up took cover of the lower grounds, throwing fists and legs as quickly and efficiently as they could manage with such a large crowd.
Prism had been on break in the building so it wasn’t surprising to see her here before him, but she looked more roughed up than the battle with Shroud. A shallow cut was made right under her eye, her hero suit looking ready to be torn into pieces. Coupe was there with her, taking out any spider web-like strings coming towards them at high speed. Discs of holographic light appeared and faded out into thin air followed by knives slicing the air and returning to its owner continuously being thrown at their target.
A tall, lean woman, her hair silky black and fanned out behind her levitated in place. She wore a black cloak with a white, ruffled dress underneath flowing about with the tide of the battle. Her arms were spread wide beside her, fingerless fishnet gloves around her forearms and golden rings glimmering in the light covered pale skin. Her fingers moved lightly, pulling strings through the rings to make hoops and nooses. Chad wondered how she could see when her eyes were covered in a cloth. Overshadowing the back of her head, a glowing white bird nest-like halo hovered, spinning slowly in a leisurely pace similar to a toy ballerina on her music box.
Chase was out flying about like a little bee among the chaos, gathering up people and heroes to help out with the battle. Even with the amulet’s power, the old guy looked minutes away from passing out. Chad swooped down and assisted him a bit, paying more attention to who they were attacking rather than the ground they were clearing.
Who the fuck is she? And what was she after here? Information. Technology, fucking small dicked Robert? He wasn’t sure, but seeing his team being hurt by anyone but him made his blood boiled more than it already was.
Then his earpiece screeched loudly in his ear, making him stop and place a hand over his ear, eyes screwing shut out of pain. It looked like it didn’t just happen to him, however, as everyone stopped for a brief moment to either wince or yank their earpiece out.
“This is Robert calling, can anyone here me?” the slightly crackling voice of their dispatcher came in, making everyone called out simultaneously in agreement.
“Look, no one knows what the fuck is going on right now, but this lady declared herself as the ‘Mother of Fate.” Robert quickly informed everyone, the sound of machinery being moved and activated could be heard loud and clear over the speaker. “Blazer assumed she’s one of the descendent from Shroud’s group, so like before, be unpredictable.” Was all he could get out before the signal was cut again, this time completely.
Chad grumbled to himself and swooped down from above next to Prism, just in time to pick her up and move her somewhere else from those strings. The popstar girl let out a little yelp, but immediately started to focus on getting her light blasts out there. He finally got a closer look at her when they both had to go in for a close quarter attack.
“Thanks for the ride, handsome.” Prism yelled through her attacks. Chad felt his heartstrings being tugged for this bitch he calls a friend.
Chad later noticed that, through the thin cloth covering her eyes, he could see icy blue, a distant stare and a lack of empathy, almost like she was being controlled to do this against her own will.
Setting Prism back down on the ground, Chad dashed off to assist the others. Malevola and Sonar were doing fine, but the bat hybrid already looked terribly exhausted from being forced into his monster bat form in the morning. Invisigal and Punch up received the help of Golem to take out their own side, wiping away their attackers in swift movements.
“Yo, anyone get any info on these strings she keeps shooting at us?” Chad asked as he burnt a bundle to ash in front of him, watching small glimmering particles float into the air before dissipating.
“They’re similar to something I’ve seen before.” Coupe informed everyone through the intercom, voice becoming raspy from excessing herself. “Manipulation by one’s power. Whether these strings were obtained or is part of her power, I wouldn’t be sure.” A grunt, a battle cry and the sound of someone dropping to the ground rather violently. “Be wary of it, I think it could manipulate you the same way my blades would.” End of information exchange. Great.
Chad sighed and continued, making sure the strings never get close enough to him to be able to wrap themselves around them. All the while they were restlessly fighting, Mother of Fate up there just floated like those powered crystals in movies when you placed them onto a certain pedestal. The sight of her doing nothing but spreading her arms and strings at them pissed him off terribly.
The ground rumbled as Robert landed down in his Mecha Man suit, all powered by the whatever pulse it was and the metal shiny and new. Invisigal immediately darted towards him, jumping onto his mech’s back and yelling as loud as she could over the destruction. The head of the mech turned towards her, letting Chad know from the distance that he could hear her despite no one else being able to.
“Bruddah, let’s not get distracted, yeah?” The rough but oddly calm voice of Royd finally filtered through his chaos filled ears. Chad nearly turned to him and burnt him to crisp if he had a slow recognition time. “Miss Blazer already havin’ a rough time calling backup.”
“What the fuck, man? Don’t sneak up on other heroes like that while we’re battling.” He swore under his breath as his arms got caught in a tightly tied noose before he heated it up just enough for it to snap off.
“Sorry, didn’t mean it like dat.” Royd quickly apologized before covering his back for him, somehow expertly dodging his fire attacks and taking out any of the goons that got too close to them.
No one stayed paired up with a certain person during the fight, always shuffling each other around to get different attack patterns and dynamics. Be unpredictable like how Robert advised. It was like dancing in a ball full of people, passing your plus one to another person and receiving someone else’s to dance arm in arm with. Repeating the cycle till your plus one comes back to you.
Coupe and Robert tried to clear their surrounding vicinity for as long as possible, clearing every single one of her minions ruthlessly but not dangerously. Chad could see the itching bloodlust in Coupe’s eyes, but refused to comment on it from this distance. Although he could just access the main channel again and teased her about it, no doubt a blade will be ‘accidently’ thrown his way. Invisigal did her best while being perched on top of Robert, cutting strings after strings that even grazed Robert’s suit.
Chase, mere moments of passing out from exhaustion, was quickly saved by Phenomaman entering the battle fashionably late. Robert shouted out towards him in gratefulness and relief, but Chad only glared. For a superhero and an alien with inhuman strength, speed and whatever else, this guy sure didn’t know when to save someone half the time and when to pop a villain’s head like a cherry.
“You buff motherfucker, where in the fucking heaven and hell were you?” Chase swore over the sound of explosions and battle cries, clearly already impatient with Phenomaman’s tardiness.
“Greatest apologies to everyone. I had been preoccupied with finding an impartial ear to speak to, or a therapist as you call them.” Ah, so this man finally got off his ass and decided to find professional help. Chad rolled his eye and threw a fireball at a random direction, expertly hitting a goon right on their head.
Looking around the field, though, Chad felt like something was…off. Something, or someone was missing.
Sonar was done for, now just fist fighting anyone who came close to him until he had built up enough energy again to transform. Malevola handed him the best of her assistance, pulling him here and there like a ragdoll whenever danger came too close for comfort, tossing him through small but big enough portals for sneak attacks.
Prism had taken up walking towards the woman multiple times for close quarter attacks, throwing blades of light at the floating woman only for her to be knocked down several times. But she never backed down, taking little time to regain her footing before going back in. Chase had reluctantly – Chad assumed – provided her with some help, making sure her blades of light actually reach somewhat further than on average.
Coupe was pairing up with Punch up now, giving him handcrafts brass knuckles from her blades for more efficient fighting. Golem faired well with Royd, the two big hunk of junks catching and watching each other’s back like they’ve known one another for years. Invisigal assisted Robert in his mech suit, defending his blind spots and the more important areas of his suit, careful to not overdo it in case of friendly fire.
Phenomaman was out there being, well, ‘phenomenal’. He threw her minions away from him like they were sacks of flour, threw punches that tripled the strength Punch Up had, running here and there with remarkable speed similar to Chase. But he still couldn’t get to her at all, even with assistance. Her strings, now that he noticed, was being produced from her halo, falling out of it like water before stiffening and darting straight towards any of the Z-Team members.
But he ignored that for now, in favor of searching for that one detail that he felt off about this whole battle. Until the realization hit him.
Placing his finger harshly and quickly over his ear piece, Chad practically yelled into the main channel about their shortage of a Z-Team member. Waterboy.
“Where the fuck is WetWipeBoy!?” Fire crackled beneath his skin, rising far up from his suit and burning the strings coming towards him without his awareness. “We’re out here getting our asses beaten and what is he doing? Taking a leak!?”
“Calm down, Flambae, he’s with Blazer getting backup.” Robert yelled back in a calmer manner. “He’ll be back soon. I can assure you that.”
No wonder why the battlefield looked weird. There wasn’t a single puddle to be spotted, no stuttering pleas requesting for assistance, no awkward compliments being tossed just for the sake of it. Chad didn’t fucking care if Robert stated that the wet little bitch was helping Blazer, he should’ve informed everyone about his absence firsthand.
Just before he could fly off into another internal angry rant about how Waterboy was nearly useless for the team, an agonized scream ripped right through their tension filled fighting. All heads turned to the direction of the scream to see Coupe on the ground kneeling, her hands clutching her head and eyes darting wildly.
“Coop!” Punch Up yelled and ran his short way towards her, kneeling down despite already being at her head level. “What’s wrong? What happened to ya, lass?” He assessed her up and down, looking this way and that way but couldn’t find any severe injuries that could’ve caused her to become like this.
Just then, Chad looked up and saw Mother of Fate floating down closer to the ground, her hands clasped in front of her like she’s Mother fucking Mary and a gentle but deceiving smile on her face. Robert gripped his handles and fired off two small missiles towards her, but the strings caught them first, tightening and slicing through them with nearly no struggle.
“Poor child, such a poor dear.” She whispered, but her voice boomed across the field. Her goons had stopped moving, but they were all in defensive stances, ready to charge again when the command was given.
“What the fuck have you done to her?” Invisigal yelled, hands gripping Robert’s mech’s shoulders.
She glanced towards her, eyes slowly blinking under that cloth. Apathetic, emotionless, amused. Chad could see it all. Then, she smiled, slow and deliberate, showing off her straight white teeth. Sonar scrunched his face and held onto Malevola’s elbow. Royd raised his fists and so does Punch Up, ready to go for the kill.
“Nearly drowned as a child, took up assassination thinking it could help her.” A light giggle. “I am very astonished that she ever had a love life and some precious relationship in this life.” Tears started to spill from Coupe’s eyes, but they didn’t look like tears of fear and sadness. They were tears of suffering and pain.
A scream, a choked cry, Coupe looked as if she was going to lose her mind. Punch Up immediately held her, large hands rubbing circles into her back, attempting to calm her down or remove any kinds of spell that might’ve been casted onto her. Despite being in a romantic relationship with the assassin, Punch Up had never seen her cry before, let alone anything like this.
And then, before any one of them could charge at her first, a large spray of water came out of nowhere from behind, knocking Mother of Fate off balance in the air and making her grunt in effort to keep herself floating.
“Waterboy!” Sonar and Punch Up shouted out in unison, the strong tone of relief evident in their voice.
All heads once again turned, finding the source of the water to be the lanky, skinny, fragile-looking hero, absolutely drenched head to toe but somehow looking way too confident for his own good. Mother of Fate stared at him for a long time, assessing him up and down, trying to find a weakness, but Chad and Robert were faster. Both, at the same time, shot a mini rocket and a fire blast at the lady and hit her square in wherever. When the smoke cleared, strings upon bright glowing white strings surrounded her, shielding her from the collision of the attacks. Despite this, her cloak was ripped just slightly, revealing a weakness point that they could take advantage off.
“I think I know what her weakness is.” Chad whispered into the intercoms, making sure Robert could hear him as well. “It’s her bird nest of a halo. It’s what producing the strings.”
“Got it.” Malevola responded, quick and short. No one had time to waste anymore.
“That doesn’t mean we can get any closer than you already did.” Punch Up reasoned, worry filled his voice mixed with something akin to hatred. “But do whatever you can, lads.” Chad responded with a hum.
“You...” Mother of Fate rose to her feet, slowly levitating off the grounds with a menacing look on her face. Whatever fight that was left in Waterboy disappeared almost immediately. “I know you. I’ve seen you.”
“Shut the fuck up and fight us, bitch!” Prism yelled, interrupting her dramatic speech. Unfortunately for them, her attention was too focused on the fragile water hero to even hear the insult thrown her way.
She continued, smile wiped off her face and hair becoming dryer by the second.
“A water-based hero that doesn’t even know how to use his power.” Her gaze had hardened completely. Waterboy stood there frozen, staring up at Mother of Fate, lowering his trembling fists with fear.
Chad looked around the field, trying to see if there was anyone closest to her so that they could take her down. Coupe and Punch Up was clearly not it; Prism was tending to her own wounds with one very noticeable scar on her shoulder. Malevola was helping Sonar nurse back his energy while trying to defend herself as well. Royd and Golem could only get so far before either of them get sliced, and he didn’t want to see that happening.
Flaming yellow eyes darted back and forth widely, trying to find someone who could get to her without being noticed so easily. Then, his eyes landed on Invisigal, still perched on Robert and the one most in range with her. Of course, why didn’t he think of her? The bitch could go invisible for God’s sake.
Getting her attention wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be. When she turned his way, he signaled for her to attack after a few more seconds, specifically telling her to aim for the halo above her head. Invisigal nodded and banged on Robert’s suit once, passing on the plan through intercoms. The mech didn’t move, but Chad was sure as hell their dispatcher got that.
“Now!”
The Mecha Man suit rose, just slightly, but high enough for Visi to go invisible. There were no indications that she made it up towards Mother of Fate, but by the look on her face, something must’ve happened. The battle continued without a warning, her minions charging towards them with the fury of a Roman army and without the fear of death and failure hanging over their heads. Everyone was caught of guard, but quickly regained their ground and fought. With Waterboy, the Z-Team was complete, and their dance continued. Shuffling persons round and round, finding different ways to combat their newfound situation.
Invisigal appeared seconds later after the tide continued, seemingly holding Mother of Fate in a headlock, arm tight around her neck and a knife in her free hand, trying to get to the halo. Chad thought that would be the end, if it wasn’t for the fact that the fucking stringy bitch also had some strength in herself. Elbowing Visi’s side and quickly tossing her off her back, Mother of Fate casted her to the ground and held her forehead close to her own. Whatever the fuck she was doing, Chad did not want to be in that position.
“Augh, what the fuck?” Invisigal got up and threw a punch to her face, but she was quick to levitate away before another could be thrown.
“Are you okay, bruddah?” Royd came running towards her, helping her off the ground and inspecting her head.
“Yeah, I’m fine I guess. But, fuck, my head hurts.” Both hers and Royd’s hand came up to her forehead, one rubbing the side, the other one gently rubbing the middle.
A string of blue was wrapped around her head, faintly glowing and faintly translucent. Royd noticed it first before Visi did, attempting to somehow loosen it away from her. Chase approached the pair and tried to get it off as well, but it only resulted in pulling Visi head this and that way. Sonar watched from afar, panting and bracing himself on his knees, curious as to what was happening, but couldn’t muster up enough energy to scream.
“What the fuck is this motherfucking string tied to your head?” Chase made another attempt to tug it off, but it didn’t work.
Chad flew towards them from a distance, fending for them while they try to figure something else. Before both knew it, Invisigal threw a punch in Chase’s direction, effectively hitting him square in the jaw. Luckily for the old speedster, the amulet healed up the damage rather quickly.
Both recoiled from shock. Chase stared at her wide eyed, she stared back with shock and fear. Visi looked at her hand, looked at back Chase and then turned to Royd, her eyes desperately asking if he had seen that, that the punch wasn’t her doing.
The battle tides had shifted. Their defense was becoming scrambled and uncoordinated. Two team members had already got taken down by whatever, both suffering from something that she had caused. Chad was getting quickly worked up with how much he had to move around, he could never stay in one place now that no one is in a good condition to fight anymore.
Coupe had been moved somewhere else safe, with Punch up and Waterboy not far away to protect her. Golem had moved from working with Royd to work with Robert, doing their best in holding a defense line but also offense. Phenomaman worked with Prism to eliminate her strings, which seemed to be working up till now. Chase avoided Visi’s attacks as much as possible, leading her around to punch Mother of Fate’s minions instead of him. Invisigal looked scared of what was happening. Sonar was finally able to morph back into his bat form with Malevola aiding him in keeping himself from passing out due to pure exhaustion.
‘Fuck it.’ Chad thought to himself, flying as high up into the air as possible. Robert’s voice buzzed into the intercoms but couldn’t get a word out before the signal was cut once again. They really need to upgrade or fix their tech after this.
He was high up enough to be able to view everything from above. How everyone was faring against the sudden tide shift. Against this lady, his team looked weak like before. Like a bunch of villains playing pretend, fooling themselves into playing hero instead of doing what usually get the job done.
His blood boiled at that. He hated, despised being weak, being unable to do fucking nothing and being fucking beaten into the ground by a villain who didn’t even look like she was trying.
His skin started to smoke, his fingers was quickly engulfed in flame crackling from beneath. His hair was, in fact, flammable, but in this form, a quick and unnoticeable layer of protection shield his gorgeous hair from being burnt off completely. He liked himself in this form, all powerful and gorgeous, but he didn’t get to look at himself in the mirror like this.
After the transformation had completed, Chad dived straight towards the villain head first, desperate to get this over with so that all of them could have a long needed break. He inched ever so closer to her, keeping his mouth shut from spilling his usual insults so that she didn’t see him coming.
And it worked. For a while.
He did hit her. He did damage her to a degree. But he was off by a little which meant he only eliminated half of her power source before plummeting into the ground by a powerful pull force. No, it wasn’t the Earth’s natural magnetic pull, it was something else completely.
He was sure he blacked out after hitting the ground that hard as all he heard was the battle cries of his teammates and an insistent ringing in his ear.
----------------
Everything was…fuuuuckingg bright as fuck. Too fucking bright. Brighter than his own flames.
Chad grunted and rolled over with effort, tugging the blanket on him higher up his face, eyes screwing further shut more than they already were. He could feel a weight landing on him right after.
“Bitch- Nuh uh, put that blanket down.”
“Nooo, everything is too fucking bright.”
“Put that shit down.” Then the blanket was tugged off of him by whoever. His ears didn’t really process their voice well, but he’d assumed it was Prism.
He finally mustered up enough energy to sit up in this half uncomfortable bed, rubbing his eyes and feeling a sharp pain throughout his body. When he opened his eyes, he was met with a blank, light turquoise and dark teal wall. This looked like the infirmary.
Chad’s eyes finally started to adjust to the bright light overhead of his bed, looking around and finding most of the Z-Team to be there, some in rougher shape than others. Robert looked complete unharmed except for the small bruising his arms had retained. Prism was holding the blanket off of him, putting it down on his stomach and leading back into her visit chair. The scar under her eye had been patched up, bandages covered some expanse of her arm with light red bleeding through. Her visor was gone, leaving pleasing brown eyes to stare down at him.
Across from his bed sat Golem, Invisigal, Sonar and Malevola, all four leaning against each other and snoring away. Sonar was particularly close to Malevola, an arm holding her limply while she had one arm around his shoulder. His suit jacket was gone and so was his tie. Visi had her head tipped back, mouth hanging open but she was breathing through her nose still. He wasn’t sure if Golem was even asleep, but the guy looked peaceful enough.
Outside stood Phenomaman, Chase and Blonde Blazer – or Brunette Blazer, he thought – silently discussing the repairs they would need to do with Royd who looked as equally injured as him. he couldn’t find Coupe and Punch Up anywhere, but he’d assume that they had gone back to their own place for the day.
“How long was I out?” Chad turned to Prism with a pained look on his face.
“About a whole day.” She turned towards her lap where her phone was, screen lit up showing her lock screen. It seemed like the whole team just slept down here after that battle.
Had they failed? Was that why everyone looked so down and solemn? It had been a long time since he had seen their dispatcher this close to giving up on life. “Did we even win? Why did everyone look so miserable?” Chad turned towards his best friend for answers.
“Nah, bae, you defeated that floating bitch for us.” She said, sighing as she crossed her arms over her chest. “But you’re also the most injured out of all of us.” He didn’t have to look down to realize she was right.
But he did nonetheless. Plain white T, black shorts and no socks. His arms were covered in bandages and an IV was stuck into his right. He didn’t have any oxygen hooked up to him, but he did have a heart monitor. He reached up and touched his head, flinching away when his finger pushed down on a deep cut wrapped in dressing.
Chad sighed and laid back down on his infirmary bed, ready to doze off again in order to heal faster. Sure, being a natural born guy with superpowers and a faster than average healing factor is cool and all, but it didn’t come in handy half of the time. Wounds like these always take longer to heal, and some – like Prism and Invisigal – weren’t born with fast healing factors.
The one he envied the most right at that moment was Waterboy. That wet fucking freak with the ability that he called ‘Holy Water Spit’, basically giving up his own strong healing factor for others. A truly selfless act, considering he had caught sight of the wet bitch dodging attacks while trying to heal Royd.
Speaking of the devil…
He turned his head over to the right, realizing a bit too late that the edge of his bed was slightly wet. Sat there was Waterboy, goggles perched high on his head and both hands gripping onto the sheets of the bed to stay partially upright without falling onto Chad.
How the fuck did he not notice him before while he was assessing everyone else in the room?
Squinting his eyes at the lanky wannabe hero and jostling him a little, Waterboy woke up with a start, a little bit of water being shook of him and landing onto Chad’s face. He looked around with a rather disoriented expression, hands quickly removing themselves from the sheets and holding them in front of himself. The wet little bitch recovered quickly, however, face immediately brightening up at the sight of Chad awake.
“F-F-Flambae! You’re o-oka, awake, yo-you’re awake!” He sounded too excited for someone who looked like he was a wrung dry towel.
Chad scoffed and crossed his arms, fingers digging into the meat of his arm. But then he felt something tug, and when he looked over, Waterbitch was leaning towards him with one of his arms slightly forward.
“Wha- “Chad started, clearly confused with what just happened before Chase and Blonde Blazer entered the room, startling some of the resting members awake.
Chase was dressed like his own man self again, with a thick blue cardigan over his shoulders. The amulet glowed faintly around his neck, an attracting red that only well aged rubies had. Blonde Blazer had her hair pulled up in an office bun, a single strand of hair framing her face and relieved expression. Robert got up from his seat and approached Chase, a hand landing reassuringly on the old guy’s shoulder. Beef was in his arms.
“Good news, everyone.” Blazer started, clapping her hands in front of each other. “The other branches had agreed to lend us some more help, but we will have to lend ours in return.” Everything came with a price, Chad bitterly thought.
“So what exactly are they asking for?” Robert asked, taking Beef from Chase and kissing the small dog on his forehead. Beef barked once, happy to be in the arms of his owner again, or should Chad say, his dad.
Golem, Visi, Malevola and Sonar waited with anticipation, the two pairs clearly not wanting to split from each other. Prism just stared back at Blonde Blazer, a blank neutral expression on her face. Waterboy looked eager to help, but deep in those eyes were anxiety.
“They just want some heroes to be transferred to their branch for backup.” The request was simple enough, but the expression on Robert’s face screamed it all. He didn’t want the Z-Team to be split up. He had put in too much effort into keeping this team together.
“But we’ve already sent a group of heroes who were eager to go there while you all were resting.” The announcement pulled a sigh of relief out of everyone. Robert visibly slumped from the sheer mention of having another team instead of theirs.
And with that, everyone left the infirmary, bidding Chad farewell and promising to visit him daily. Because, Visi said, none of their jobs would be fun without his quips. He was pleased to hear that, almost warmed by the knowledge that his team cared for him besides Prism. But Waterboy didn’t leave, he stayed sitting by his side, face pointed to the floor, hands fidgeting with each other on his lap.
“And why the fuck haven’t you gone yet?” Chad asked with annoyance clear in his tone. He did not want a sad, sopping wet lanky twink to be by his bed while he was trying to get some rest in order to be back and ready again.
Waterboy, whether or not he didn’t really know, pointedly ignored Chad’s question, looking away from his direction and scrunching his face up in an unreadable expression. They sat silently together, with only Chad looking at him with a stare that could burn any weaker man. Waterboy is a weaker man, but he wasn’t crumbling somehow.
Soon, Waterboy seemed to sum up enough courage to look at Chad in the eyes, although he just looked like a wet dog asking for praises and a treat. Chad waited as patiently as he could, focusing on willing the pain in his body away.
“She-she, I think, well- “Oh just fucking great, the stuttering wet freak is back.
“Shut the fuck up.” Chad sat back up, placing one hand in front of him and using his free one to hold a finger up towards Waterboy’s lips. “Just show me what’s wrong so you can go do whatever it is that you do.” He was done dealing with Waterbitch for the day.
The wet ginger looked, finally looked at him without looking like someone kicked him and raised his left hand, showing Chad a thin red string around his ring finger. It looked like it was tied rather tightly, as it didn’t budge a lot when he moved his finger, but it didn’t seem to be cutting any blood circulation from there either. Trailing the end of the string, Chad slowly traced it back to…his own left ring finger.
“The fuck.”
“I-it’s like, Ja-Coupe said t-that’s a, a s-oulmate string?” Water managed to get out, looking at his own pinky curiously and tugging on the end with his free hand. “It doesn’t get-come off easy.”
Oh for God’s sake.
He knew those kinds of strings, the one that are mentioned so many times in romance books. The authors always use those as plot devices to match up the love interests together.
“We’re stuck, then.”
“Yup.”
They both sounded disappointed, angry, maybe pissed even.
