By saying that I was going to be tempted, I accidentally tricked my brain into exclusively thinking about a villain Robert and hero Flambae story⦠my bad
Skipping over how I got here, Robert is Daedalus, the labyrinth creator. He purposefully orchestrates tragedies and disasters to test heroes. He forces them to realize and confront their own weaknesses with the help of his āMinotaur,ā aka the mech suit that is remote controlled as often as he is in it himself
One of his first missions was testing the then-top hero. That hero failed because he refused to save a homosexual, immigrant, and juvenile offender due to prejudice and bigotry that hero society was hiding
Btw, all of those descriptions are about the same youth. Daedalus warned Chad that all heroes were like that. Chad was so radicalized that he decided to become the top hero out of spite (and also because he wants to make sure no child ever gets abandoned again)
Iām thinking Chadās name should be Aureate or something like that because itād be fun if he was a symbol of the golden thread that can navigate and rescue people from the labyrinth
Robert pays no special attention to him. Chad is intently fascinated by this villainous hero-maker (btw, Robert is 100% getting tons of nicknames and titles bc this is my au. He is the gardener who weeds out the dishonorable heroes, he is the eye of judgment and the hands of justice, he is a blacksmith, a forger, a trainer, a knowerā¦)
Like in canon, Robert is brought in to be the dispatcher for the top heroes because he is the only one who can keep up with them, able to view them objectively, refuses to put up with their pride or perceived weaknesses. He is not content with them being known as the best; he is going to make sure they are
This means the Z-Team is morally flipped, too, so theyāre all heroes. I will say that theyāre still prideful, suck at teamwork, have their own issues that Robert has to deal with
Iām debating how this AU plays with other characters because Shroud could be the hero/manager of the branch and Blonde Blazer is the AUās main antagonist. Tho, I might give her the benefit of the doubt and let the amulet corrupt her (superpowered evil side, anyone?)