Dispatch x My Hero Academia crossovers are hilarious because it immediately shuts down the whole "Can a Quirkless/Powerless person become a hero?" question with a solid "Fuck yeah."
Mecha Man going to public conventions and panels for the first time in forever, at the behest of Mandy, to drum up support for SDN in other regions.
This is where he discovers that the Powered-to-Unpowered ratio in a lot of places is more lopsided. Japan for example; has only a quarter of their population be without powers or mutation - and that's heavily leaning towards the older population.
SDN is asked to send representatives to a special Q&A panel at Musutafu Hero Con. Apparently the event planner believes that showing a more community-focused approach to superheroism will help steer people away from the oversaturated agency market.
Blazer agrees wholeheartedly - offering to send the Z-Team and other SDN employees on a fully-paid trip to Japan while the Torrance branch is being rebuilt.
The Z-Team don't even try fighting the offer - a vacation "just" to speak for a few hours at a convention? Sign them up!
(Depending on how strict air travel is in this universe - the planes are fitted with power-dampeners to prevent... incidents.)
Robert is asked to appear as Mecha Man - as non-powered supers are exceedingly rare in Japan, even in the modern day. Robert agrees, as long as he can bring the Mech Suit + doesn't have to attend the dispatcher's panel.
Robert underestimates how big a deal Mecha Man is in Japan.
When Mecha Man Blue hops on stage at a con and is introduced as THE Quirkless Super Hero!?! The crowd goes nuts. There's a massive crowd of fans wearing Mecha Man merchandise from across different eras, licensed and fan-made. There's older people waving Mecha Man Prime banners, and families dressed as different generations of Mecha Men.
Robert is honestly a little overwhelmed?
When it finally comes to the Q&A portion Mecha Man is asked;
How was he trained? - "Home school and a lot of self-teaching."
Is the Mech Suit the same one as Astral's? - "Not entirely. Since my dad's suit was damaged in an explosion almost a year ago, a fantastic technician helped to design the new suit while using materials from the older model."
Were you born Quirkless, or was your Quirk taken away? - "Still getting used to the Quirk terminology, but I was born without powers of any kind... And I'm pretty sure I never picked one up along the way."
Who is your toughest foe? - "Besides Shroud? I'd say a certain arsonist I now work with." ("You flatter me, Mecha Dick.")
It's the final question, asked by a nervous little boy wearing an All-Might hoodie, that gives the hero pause.
Izuku: "Can I still become a hero? Even if I don't have a Quirk?"
Robert looks at the question asker carefully. The kid has restrained hopeful look as if he's preparing himself for disappointment.
Robert looks over the crowd of fans once more.
Back in the States - Mecha Man was "just" a legacy hero. Grandpa Bobby was the first of his kind, and many more followed.
The people here have yet to have their own Quirkless hero rise up.
Robert: "Yes. But only if you work hard at it. Not having powers will put you a great disadvantage yes, but you're foes will never know what next trick is up your sleeve. I'm at a slightly unfair advantage as the third in the line of Mecha Men - but I know how it feels when you think you're powerless. So yes, you can become a hero without a Quirk."
(*awed silence fails over the crowd. the little boy's eyes well with happy tears.*)
Robert: "And if anyone says otherwise, I will personally kick their ass."
His closing statement makes the room erupt into laughter and cheers.
The little boy is blubbering thank yous as the mic operator has him step back into the crowd.
Robert spends the rest of the convention signing autographs and meeting people who've always admired Mecha Man - in any form.
It's the kids that really get him though.
The little boy with the All-Might hoodie will later ask Mecha Man to sign so many posters and toys (Robert didnt even know they made plushies), and introduce himself as Izuku Midoriya aka Deku.
Robert: "Deku? Oh! Like the cool shrub guys from Legend of Zelda! I'll make sure to keep an ear out if I ever hear that name on the airwaves!"
The boy faints from joy, much to Robert's surprise.
Mecha Man isn't the only hero with his own fanclub.
Sonar and Golem are nearly mobbed by people with obvious mutations and hybrid traits. A little boy with a covered face and membraned arms tells Sonar that he's his hero. Sonar is so proud that he turns Megabat.
A boy with a rocky face asks Golem in a whisper if he likes animals. Golem smiles wide and tells him of the time he babysat a tiger.
Malevola is taking a selfie with a little girl with pink skin and horns. A girl crowned with thorns asks her religious questions, and is puzzled when the demoness says she's Atheist.
Coupe is showing a pair of children (one physical, the other confined to shadows) how her wings work. A little girl with sharp teeth and a wild expression asks her if she needs blood to fuel her power - Coupe answers calmly "Infrequently. Mostly I enjoy the taste."
Punch Up is showing off his strength to a number of people born with height deformities.
Flambae nearly gets in trouble for telling an explosive child to "Don't talk about people like that, you little shit!" - after the kid said a derogatory term for Quirkless people.
Waterboy meets a froggy little girl that compliments his wetsuit. And a swarm of children with life-altering Quirks say he inspired them to become a heroes. He's so flustered that he can barely speak.
Prism records a mini music video with the daughter of musicians. She tells her that they can collaborate whenever she wants. A little blonde boy shows off his Prism-inspired hero outfit, with her approval.
Invisigal nearly collides with her first super-fan - a little girl who's body turned permanently invisible when she was very young, and wishes she could control it like her. Visi wheezes with pride.
Many of Phenomaman's fans are people who feel "alien" in some way, not just physically.
Ok but can you imagine that Robert noticed burn marks on the kid who ask him if he could be a hero without a quirk? Or if him and Flambae see a kid with an explosion quirk about to hurt him for esring asking such a question?
Can you imagine Robert taking this sweet kid under his wings?
Accidental mentor team-up moment with Robert assuring lil Izuku that he could 100% become a hero.
Meanwhile Flambae is holding Katsuki by the scruff of the neck like he's a misbehaving dog - reprimanding the parents and surrounding adults for not correcting his violent behaviour. ("This the kinda shit my madar would send me to boot camp over! And he's out here attacking other kids!? You know where this shit leads to!? Solitary confinement! Can confirm!")
Flambae, holding up his mangled hand: "You see this shit?! A normie bit them off!" [lie]
Bakugou, eye wide: "No way!"
Robert: "I can confirm. Clean off."
And maybe somehow Beef gets sent with Robert because he has been registered as an emotional support animal and Robert somehow met Eri and he immediately goes after Overhaul.
Also piling on to Himiko meets and talking to Coupe I vote She let’s things about how her quirk and herself is treated and By the end of the vacation Coupe has a beloved vampire like girl for a daughter!
Eri would have been a nearly a baby in that case, since she's 6 at the start of MHA.
SDN is tangled up in an international case involving illegal power supressants - and it leads them to the Shie Hassaikai. It becomes a very messy fight.
Golem is invaluable against Overhaul's Quirk, as he can regenerate himself at will.
A hero is shot with Trigger during the fight - fortunately it was Mecha Man, so he didn't give a shit. His team have to yell at him to get seen by the medic team afterwards.
The source of the power-destroying drug is identified; a little girl with an immense power to "rewind" a person's body, from injuries, to age, to even their powers.
Starblazer shows not fear in holding her as he would his own kin. In his mind, he's got enough years on the old odometer that any accidental rewinding would be beneficial.
Robert welcomes Eri into their odd patchwork family with open arms.
-
As for Himiko Toga; she discovered the pretty ballerina hero Coupe from a news report. The winged dancer slicing through the air and her opponents as graceful as the wind itself. Then with bloodied lips, softly kissed her much-shorter mate with sheer adoration in both of their eyes.
It had been the first time Himiko had seen someone express love in the way that felt natural to her.
The young girl sneaks into the convention for the chance to meet the hero in-person. And she's more than she could ever ask for.
Coupe isn't disgusted or angry with Himiko's questions. The ballerina calmly explains that her shadowy powers give her vampiric urges, and she has long accepted blood to be as important to her as water.
When Himiko asks if Coupe ever drinks the blood of the people she loves, the hero blushes and admits "only with my dearest Colm".
Himiko can barely contain her glee. Someone who understands her love! Not only that, A Hero!
Coupe is clearly intrigued by Himiko's own bloodthirsty instincts, and offers to help train her in future if she ever wishes to follow her craft. Himiko accepts the unofficial apprenticeship happily.
Himiko's parents aren't nearly as understanding.
There is the only one person she can think to call for help.
Coupe arrives on swift wings, documenting the signs of abuse and filing a report with the police. Normally the ballerina would do much worse to people like the Toga parents, but Robert convinced her otherwise. The Toga children find themselves in SDN custody for the time being.
Janelle and Colm vow to make sure Himiko never feels "rotten" for her instincts ever again. They introduce her to other supers with similar powers, explaining her thirst to be as important as nectar to a hummimgbird.
Janelle also teaches her adoptive daughter how to dance. A cygnet to her mother's swan.
Himiko never becomes a villain in this timeline - as she never felt like one again.
Dispatch x My Hero Academia crossovers are hilarious because it immediately shuts down the whole "Can a Quirkless/Powerless person become a hero?" question with a solid "Fuck yeah."
Mecha Man going to public conventions and panels for the first time in forever, at the behest of Mandy, to drum up support for SDN in other regions.
This is where he discovers that the Powered-to-Unpowered ratio in a lot of places is more lopsided. Japan for example; has only a quarter of their population be without powers or mutation - and that's heavily leaning towards the older population.
SDN is asked to send representatives to a special Q&A panel at Musutafu Hero Con. Apparently the event planner believes that showing a more community-focused approach to superheroism will help steer people away from the oversaturated agency market.
Blazer agrees wholeheartedly - offering to send the Z-Team and other SDN employees on a fully-paid trip to Japan while the Torrance branch is being rebuilt.
The Z-Team don't even try fighting the offer - a vacation "just" to speak for a few hours at a convention? Sign them up!
(Depending on how strict air travel is in this universe - the planes are fitted with power-dampeners to prevent... incidents.)
Robert is asked to appear as Mecha Man - as non-powered supers are exceedingly rare in Japan, even in the modern day. Robert agrees, as long as he can bring the Mech Suit + doesn't have to attend the dispatcher's panel.
Robert underestimates how big a deal Mecha Man is in Japan.
When Mecha Man Blue hops on stage at a con and is introduced as THE Quirkless Super Hero!?! The crowd goes nuts. There's a massive crowd of fans wearing Mecha Man merchandise from across different eras, licensed and fan-made. There's older people waving Mecha Man Prime banners, and families dressed as different generations of Mecha Men.
Robert is honestly a little overwhelmed?
When it finally comes to the Q&A portion Mecha Man is asked;
How was he trained? - "Home school and a lot of self-teaching."
Is the Mech Suit the same one as Astral's? - "Not entirely. Since my dad's suit was damaged in an explosion almost a year ago, a fantastic technician helped to design the new suit while using materials from the older model."
Were you born Quirkless, or was your Quirk taken away? - "Still getting used to the Quirk terminology, but I was born without powers of any kind... And I'm pretty sure I never picked one up along the way."
Who is your toughest foe? - "Besides Shroud? I'd say a certain arsonist I now work with." ("You flatter me, Mecha Dick.")
It's the final question, asked by a nervous little boy wearing an All-Might hoodie, that gives the hero pause.
Izuku: "Can I still become a hero? Even if I don't have a Quirk?"
Robert looks at the question asker carefully. The kid has restrained hopeful look as if he's preparing himself for disappointment.
Robert looks over the crowd of fans once more.
Back in the States - Mecha Man was "just" a legacy hero. Grandpa Bobby was the first of his kind, and many more followed.
The people here have yet to have their own Quirkless hero rise up.
Robert: "Yes. But only if you work hard at it. Not having powers will put you a great disadvantage yes, but you're foes will never know what next trick is up your sleeve. I'm at a slightly unfair advantage as the third in the line of Mecha Men - but I know how it feels when you think you're powerless. So yes, you can become a hero without a Quirk."
(*awed silence fails over the crowd. the little boy's eyes well with happy tears.*)
Robert: "And if anyone says otherwise, I will personally kick their ass."
His closing statement makes the room erupt into laughter and cheers.
The little boy is blubbering thank yous as the mic operator has him step back into the crowd.
Robert spends the rest of the convention signing autographs and meeting people who've always admired Mecha Man - in any form.
It's the kids that really get him though.
The little boy with the All-Might hoodie will later ask Mecha Man to sign so many posters and toys (Robert didnt even know they made plushies), and introduce himself as Izuku Midoriya aka Deku.
Robert: "Deku? Oh! Like the cool shrub guys from Legend of Zelda! I'll make sure to keep an ear out if I ever hear that name on the airwaves!"
The boy faints from joy, much to Robert's surprise.
Mecha Man isn't the only hero with his own fanclub.
Sonar and Golem are nearly mobbed by people with obvious mutations and hybrid traits. A little boy with a covered face and membraned arms tells Sonar that he's his hero. Sonar is so proud that he turns Megabat.
A boy with a rocky face asks Golem in a whisper if he likes animals. Golem smiles wide and tells him of the time he babysat a tiger.
Malevola is taking a selfie with a little girl with pink skin and horns. A girl crowned with thorns asks her religious questions, and is puzzled when the demoness says she's Atheist.
Coupe is showing a pair of children (one physical, the other confined to shadows) how her wings work. A little girl with sharp teeth and a wild expression asks her if she needs blood to fuel her power - Coupe answers calmly "Infrequently. Mostly I enjoy the taste."
Punch Up is showing off his strength to a number of people born with height deformities.
Flambae nearly gets in trouble for telling an explosive child to "Don't talk about people like that, you little shit!" - after the kid said a derogatory term for Quirkless people.
Waterboy meets a froggy little girl that compliments his wetsuit. And a swarm of children with life-altering Quirks say he inspired them to become a heroes. He's so flustered that he can barely speak.
Prism records a mini music video with the daughter of musicians. She tells her that they can collaborate whenever she wants. A little blonde boy shows off his Prism-inspired hero outfit, with her approval.
Invisigal nearly collides with her first super-fan - a little girl who's body turned permanently invisible when she was very young, and wishes she could control it like her. Visi wheezes with pride.
Many of Phenomaman's fans are people who feel "alien" in some way, not just physically.
You have no idea how much this means to me agakfjaifahhs
This is what mean when I say I want more MHA x Dispatch crossovers.
Where Midoriya gets to heal knowing someone without a quirk actually *made it* as a hero despite the hardship and disadvantage and hearing someone say with conviction that quirkless people can become heroes if they have enough determination(and we all know Midoriya does).
Where Robert gets to see the positive influence and hope the image of Mecha Man provides here, especially for those who are quirkless and fighting against quirkless discrimination.
Where the public gets to hear about Robert's experience as a quirkless hero and how he trained for it but still had to self-teach himself a lot of the skills he has today that has allowed him to be Mecha Man
Where those with less convenient or conventional quirks can see that there are people like them that ended up becoming well-known heroes and have persevered through any discrimination.
Where the Z-Team can see just how much hope they give to others and that they have people cheering them on, people who, without a doubt, see them as heroes.
So yeah, I love this AU concept. I've only read 2 MHA x Dispatch fics so far that have properly touched on this kind of thing but even they haven't really gotten too much into it, so I'd love to see more fics address the influence heroes like Mecha Man and the Z-Team would have in the MHA universe.
Wait a second! Σ(°△° ꪱꪱꪱ) The Truth comes out??! THAT'S why Jaster could never fuckin visit the Jedi Library! Twas Lady all along!!! She saw him walking up the stairs, hopped down from her perch (taking twenty years off the general life span of several passing dignitaries out of terror and shock), primly sat her "I AM The Beast Wise Men Know To Fear" ass dead center of the open door way and just... stared him down.
Go on.
Do it, Mandalorian.
Take One(1) step inside this Temple. Learn what happens. Experience exactly what I did to the last group of crunchy boys that tried. Make my afternoon, Mando 👁👁 I will peel you like a snack and crunch your bones to powder.
And like? Jaster -> *sloooowly lifts his hand to start recording this Magnificent And Historically Significant Extremely Rare Specimen* I should leave.... but on the OTHER hand.... when am I ever gonna get this close to the legendary Temple Nexu ever again? *starts narrating to himself to preserve this for Future Generations*
Like? Sir. Sir, please. You are provoking the Giant War Beast that Hates You Specifically™. There are EXACTLY two groups they Do Not Like. And she LITERALLY just heard your man call you "Mand'alor". She'd do it. With joy in her heart and a prance in her step. PLEASE do not make us be the one's who have to try and get between the Anti-Sith/Mandalorian super predator and a SECTOR LEADER she SPECIFICALLY wants dead.
"You think if I offer her a treat, she'll show me her teeth?"
SIR, PLEASE!!!
He was very brave or very stupid. He also didn’t make it to the door. Or even touch the stairs.
If he later asked a jedi if the beast was still guarding the Archives, the Jedi would assume he ment Madam Nu, he didn’t, but the result may have been similar.
He even brought his own documents and materials to show and tell, poor guy
people got mad the last time i said this but you HAVE to stop pretending that people of the past were more intellectual and thoughtful and you need to model yourself after them because modernity pales in comparison. that's nazi shit
Not to be all "the children have forgotten the sacred texts!" but I just saw someone refer to a ship between two people who are good friends in canon as a crackship.
Hon. No. Crackship doesn't just mean "not canon". It's difficult to imagine two people who spend significant canon time together as a crackship. Crackship is when you write Galactus getting fucked by Tony the Tiger.
anyway I was having this very vivid and unaccountably funny dream about what I suppose you would call a heist crew, except their MO was less about stealing and more about breaking into rich shitheads' houses to throw absolute ragers and trash the place and then disappear into the night. it was all very sleek and admittedly even sexy but the main thing I remember about this dream is that the leader of the group, who's exactly the kind of smooth young hotshot you think he is, was always in the process of getting spectacularly dumped at these parties. always a different woman. months of planning and stress and then when he should be in his element kicking back, accepting congratulations on all sides, man of the hour, he's getting dumped. again. and his whole crew is watching with a very low amount of sympathy because they love the guy but ooooh they know better than anyone that he deserves this. what the fuck was my subconscious cooking with this.
sometimes i see an out of context discourse post and im like "hm this really sounds like op is strawmanning a reasonable argument and making up a guy to be mad at." and then i check their blog for context and realise theyve spent the past 72 hours arguing with the human embodiments of the strawman. like damn nevermind im sorry for doubting you. you are fighting battles so cartoonishly evil i cant even fathom them as real. good luck out there.
I bet most of the dogs that are seen with Red that are stray get adopted soon after. Except Beef.
Prev.
Robert deliberately leads a few of the strays to shelters and/or welcoming homes while as Red.
Often times, the wolf will even catch the attention of a passerby to a pack mate seeking a home. A 24-hour vet office has even witnessed the wild canine "drop off" sick, injured, and/or pregnant dogs at their doors.
Robert always promises them, with his limited canine speech, that they wiil be safer and happier among humans. He finds it difficult to answer why He doesn't seem to have a human pack mate. (At least until months later when he shows off his massive pack of ex-supervillains.)
Beef was a rare exception. Robert had actually been in human mode when he found the abandoned puppy trying to eat a discarded beef taco bigger than his whole body. Robert was immediately smitten, and took the pup as his own. He half-jokes that his wolf-brain sees the pup as his child.
-
Red's sudden disappearance definitely shocks Torrance for a bit. Posts and Posters requesting information on the city's fave wild canine go up within days. Many fear that the gentle creature had fallen victim to disease, injury, or the hands of man.
Then SDN gets a report about a comatose superhero at Torrance General that might be a certain animal celebrity - as upon waking, Mecha Man immediately transformed into a massive red wolf and escaped the premises.
Hundreds of posts light up online that "Red Riding Wolf" has returned! Skinny and scarred, but clearly fighting. Some trail cams catch a massive megabat trailing Red for some time, only for the wolf to clearly have the upper hand.
The new Z-Team hero Sonar identifies himself as the bat in the footage, and that Red is "safe and sound in custody since they busted a bunch of stitches".
So the general understanding is that Red got hurt and picked up by a sanctuary(?) before trying to give their saviours the slip.
The hashtag "#FreeRedTheWolf" becomes a meme shortly thereafter.
(If Robert is later seen in wolf-form with his adopted pup Alfie, many conclude that was the reason for the canine's disappearance!)
I loved the narrative of Robert from the hybrid trafficking Fighting Ring Club, but I wonder what would happen if one puts a little bit of parhelion into it?
The cashier from 9/11 that helps Arthur on the original au is not a good person on this one, and sells the pup to the traffickers for cash.
I'd like to add the idea that Shroud bought Dagon out of the ring. Not out of the goodness of his heart, obviously, but because he saw good henchmen material. Neither of them wish to have anything to do with the organization until they hear through the grapevine that there's children in the matches (some villains have some morals, after all). The fact that said child is a carbon copy of Robert, bruised and malnourished (for trying to defend Alfie), might not play on the traffickers favor. Not even ashes remain.
I'm not sure if Robert would be kidnapped as well, because on one hand I like the idea of them sitting down to compare trauma flavors of "Hide your animal traits at all times!" vs "Show off your animal traits! To kill!", but on the other hand the three wolves sharing and being able to comfort each other as they try to survive that hellhole until certain megabat saves them is interesting.
As for Shroud, his list of priorities takes a drastic change (bear in mind he does not have all the info):
1. Make the traffickers pay
2. Dote on his granchild(ren)
3.(If Robert's kidnapped) Determine if Alfie is his biological grandson too and whether his birth was consensual
3.(If Robert's not kidnapped) Figure out why the fuck his son abandoned his grandson
4. Find the pups other parent. He'd simply like to talk. In an empty warehouse. With a gun.
5. Get his son away from that bat hussy
6. Recover the Astral Pulse
Prev.
I'm wondering if the Hybrid Experimentation/Trafficking/Fight Club groups should have a proper name. Something like "The Beastarium" (a compendium of beasts) or "The Menagerie" (a collection of captive animals).
I personally like the idea Arthur being captured before Robert.
Depending on Arthur's origins; perhaps the mech explosion acted as a dimensional gateway, the cloning process finished, or the little changeling just finished being "born". Either way, a tiny lost version of Robert Robertson is taken away to somewhere cruel.
Put the rest under Read More due to length. Alternates POV a little:
It looks like a zoo or pound for people like him - people that look part animal.
A place where the "caretakers" strike if Arthur covers his ears or hides his tail.
The pup is tossed into a communal cell with other children like him until he can be assessed by the Menagerie's doctors. A form of quarantine.
Arthur is barely six years old, and he's housed with other children as old as seventeen.
The bigger kids are meaner and hungry, quick to shove little ones away to steal daily food rations. In-fighting is a daily occurance - older pups biting and hitting the younger to express frustration. Arthur quickly learns thats there's a hierarchy he's not fitting into.
Despite this aggressive atmosphere whenever one of the better-dressed men appears; every single one of the hybrid children go quiet.
A well-dressed man takes Arthur to a room resembling an operation theatre with a dentist chair.
A doctor with a face mask asks the pup basic personal questions with an artifically sweet tone. Then he puts something into the back of Arthur's head.
Arthur is dumped back with the other children without fanfare.
There are adult hybrids too. Some big, some small, some scary, some soft. Sometimes they leave at the behest of a guard and return hours later with injuries. Sometimes they don't return at all.
One day, they put a baby into the childrens' wing. The guards say its an emergency placement until they find someone to taje care of him.
The older pups are jealous. Babies get treated better than them. Babies get guaranteed food rations and a Mama to take care of them
An older boy tries hurting the baby.
Arthur sees red.
The guards only react when the sounds of violence turn to pained whimpers. They see Arthur on all-fours, hunched over the baby wolf-hybrid like a shield. And at least five larger hybrid children beaten to submission.
A well-dressed man visits him. He's impressed by how violently the pup fought. He asks who Arthur really is.
Arthur doesn't mince words, telling his captors that his father is Mecha Man, and that he's probably trying to find him as they speak.
This only makes the well-dressed man grin even wider.
He orders the guards to take Arthur and the baby away to another cell.
Arthur tries to fight against his restraints, but a guard grabs the back of his neck like he's a dog.
The new cell is barely nicer than the children's wing - it has a drain, a water trough, and an area with a crude bed.
On that very crude bed sleeps a much older wolf-hybrid. He's skinny and scarred like the other adults, but there's signs of him seeing the doctors recently.
The well-dressed man says this is Mecha Man - and he will be taking care of them from now on.
Arthur is too shocked by this knowledge to process the cell door clicking shut behind him
What world is he in?
-
When Robert comes to; he sees a pair of scared hybrid pups. The elder shielding the younger even while shaking with fear. The baby crying for a mother that has long abandoned him.
Robert's body hurts in so many ways, but his first act is to try and soothe their whimpers.
The older boy calls himself Arthur. He looks exactly as Robert did at that age.
Fuck. Either it's time travel, or his captors managed to clone him with some memoroes intact.
The baby doesn't have a name. Arthur says that he doesn't have a Mom anymore. That the other inmates tried hurting him.
Robert knows this has to be a mind game. Exploit his inate heroic instincts to protect these pups so he's more likely cooperate.
But these two need him right now. He can plan his escape around them.
He holds the baby and the mini-Robert close as a parent would. He'll find a way to get them out of here.
Or he'll die trying.
-
More ideas for Dragon Guy's (aka "Dagon" and hc birthname "Ryūnosuke") lore.
In previous AU ideas; I suggested that Dagon was an excommunicated yakuza, and that his oyabun (boss) gave him a choice: Death or Mutilation & Exile. Dagon chose the later, losing his tail and leaving for the US.
What the quiet dragon-hybrid was not warned of; was that his clan saw his survival as a liability. The second Dagon landed in the states, he was snatched up by the traffickers - told that he still needed to work off his debt to his criminal family. Dagon agrees to participate in the pit fights, although his accommodations leave much to be desired.
Due to Dagon's slightly higher status among the captives, he's granted more freedom to roam the halls. He quickly becomes aware that many of the others housed in the same complex aren't there of their own free will or moral obligation as he was.
The most obvious being the child hybrids kept under lock and key by the staff.
Dagon is unable to comfort the crying pups directly, but he strains his frayed vocal cords to sing a lullaby from his homeland through the separating wall. The younger pups soon falls asleep, and the elder one stifles their cries to try and be strong.
A small pup reaches through the bars at the large man - claiming that his name is "Arthur" ("Like the hero king"), and that he had tried asking a cashier for help finding his father - only for the vultures to snatch him up. Arthur is already thin and bruised from trying to protect younger pups from staff and crueller inmates.
Dagon feels a new pit of anger form in his gullet. If he could offer anything for the little ones' release, he would.
(The dragon hybrid may adopt his new title of "Dagon" from how the pup mispronounces "Dragon".)
Some time into Dagon's "career"; a new face appears in the adult ward. A beauty with red-brown hair and skin decorated with freckles and scars. The staff seem inordinately invested in keeping the catatonic man alive and well - keeping him on around the clock medical watch.
One day, the "Sleeping Beauty" is whisked away to part of the facility other inmates dub "The Body Shop". A place where their animalistic traits were encouraged, often with medical assistance.
The Sleeping Beauty is soon housed with Arthur and a baby wolf-hybrid for reasons soon made clear. Whatever glamour or modifications hid the man's wolf-hybrid traits falls away like shed skin.
The pups are confused and frightened, but their new cellmate is quick to try and soothe them. His tone is near-maternal, cradling both as if they'd birthed from him.
The Beauty's name is "Robert". Arthur seems confused by this knowledge - "Thats my dad's name."
(Dagon's stomach feels as if it can't sink any lower.)
During his next scheduled fight, Dagon manages to get a good look at the wolves' cell. The elder pup Arthur is indeed, the vision of his caretaker. The younger pup is sports grey fur and a longer snout, casting question to his origins. Robert refuses to relinquish his hold of either of them, staring at the passing guards and inmates with deep calculation.
Dagon wonders if they could have been friends in another life.
-
Shroud knew from early on that Robert could have been swooped-up by hybrid-trafficking vultures, and uses a proxy to buy an ex-yakuza's contract. He couldn't go straight for the jugular, less he scares those cockroaches into moving shop.
He strikes gold when his purchased bodyguard recognises the photograph he shows him.
Dagon, testing his new throat augment: "Ro...bert."
Shroud, hiding his elation: "Yes. He is my son. He is currently missing, and I suspected that the Menagerie have him. He is a part wolf-hybrid, and they no doubt are exploiting that."
Dagon, using a writing slate: "Seen him. More wolf now. With two pups."
Shroud, tone darkens: "Pups..? How old?"
Dagon: "Elder pup five maybe six? Younger pup baby, small."
Shroud: (*goes quiet for some time, calculating*)
Shroud: "I need to call in a favour. Robert won't be excited to see me, but perhaps he'll listen to a hero."
Later that night, Chase receives an anonymous tip about a suspected "dog fighting ring" in his inbox. He swears he recognises the typing style.
Robert, the two pups, and countless others held captive by the Menagerie, are soon rescued in a massive sting operation.
Though, not before Sonar nearly gets torn apart by a dire wolf!Robert thinking he's a threat to his pups. Sonar is quick to indentify himself and teamup with the feral wolf-hybrid.
SDN holds the trio on medical watch aa they process all the rescued captives. Robert identifies the two pups as *his*, and refuses to be parted from them. Sonar backs up his claim.
In bar closeby; Shroud watches the news report of the historic sting operation with apt interest.
He's already let his new henchman tear the well-dressed director of the Menagerie apart.
The older boy in Robert's arms is the very vision of him. The parentage of the baby cradled by the rescuing manbat is unclear, and Elliot hopes that Robert isn't the parent. Less he nearly killed his own grandchild, and left them to be born as a captive.
Elliot starts planning a family reunion. His grandchildren deserve to know their grandfather.
