Your guess is as good as mine bud😶‍🌫️👽 @erumara-ambrosius - Tumblr Blog

Here’s the current story of my villain Robert AU:

For nearly fifty years, Mecha Man has been one of Los Angeles’s most infamous supervillain identities.

The armor was created by Robert Robertson (Bobby) and later inherited by his son, Robert Robertson II (Robbie). Robbie transformed Mecha Man into a technological terror whose attacks, schemes, and battles with heroes caused destruction across the city. When Robbie died, the identity passed to his 16 year old son, Robert Robertson III.

Robert never possessed his father’s ambition or appetite for power. He became Mecha Man because that’s what he was raised to do. Villainy was presented to him as his inheritance, his responsibility, and the only way to remain loyal to his family.

More than anything, Robert inherited his father’s enemy.

Fifteen years earlier, Robbie had been killed by Elliot Connors, the hero now known as Foresite. Elliot had worked with Robbie on the creation of the Astral Pulse, a revolutionary power source, without realizing that his supposed partner was secretly Mecha Man, believing what they were making was being done with good intentions. Robbie manipulated him with lies, false identities, and compartmentalized research until the truth was exposed.

Track Star, Chase, had been working for Robbie at the time. He was young, angry, and already moving down a criminal path when Robbie took advantage of him, grooming him under his guidance and control. Through this, Chase met Robert, coming to act as an older brother to him.

When Chase learned enough about Robbie’s plans for the Astral Pulse to understand how dangerous they were, he finally turned against him. The confrontation led Elliot to discover Robbie’s true identity. Robbie refused to stop, the situation became violent, and Elliot shot him in self defense.

Chase served time for the crimes he’d committed under Robbie. With Elliot advocating for him and insisting that Chase’s final actions had saved lives, Chase received a reduced sentence. After his release, he rebuilt himself as a hero, though years of using his powers eventually damaged his body badly enough that he had to retire from fieldwork.

Robert never forgave either of them.

He believed Chase had betrayed Robbie and that Elliot had murdered his father before being rewarded with fame and respect. Robert inherited Mecha Man and spent the next fifteen years attacking Elliot, trying to avenge Robbie and prove himself worthy of the family legacy.

Robert’s villainy was real. He robbed facilities, stole technology, attacked heroes, kidnapped people for information, and caused immense property damage. People were injured and lives were disrupted because of him.

Yet Robert was never quite like Robbie.

He was exhausted rather than triumphant, isolated rather than powerful, and far more interested in completing his revenge than ruling anything. He avoided unnecessary deaths where he could, built contingencies to protect people he threatened, and frequently seemed irritated by villains who hurt others simply because they enjoyed it.

Nevertheless, he continued. By the time the story begins, revenge is the only thing holding his identity together.

Elliot uses the Astral Pulse to power cybernetic enhancements he gave himself, which are meant to enhance his already impressive intellect. With it, his mind can process probable outcomes quickly enough to support his abilities as Foresite.

After repeated failures to take down Elliot by his own merit and skill, Robert decides to instead aim for the Astral Pulse. He intends to use it to power a new, original Mecha Man suit he’s been secretly designing and, ultimately, to kill Elliot.

But, Elliot anticipates the attack and sets a trap. The confrontation ends with Robert’s mech exploding. Unfortunately, when the wreckage is searched, the Pulse is missing.

Robert survives, but his mech is destroyed and he’s critically injured and ends up in a coma. When he wakes up, he’s taken into custody.

Without the Pulse, Elliot’s predictive enhancements are severely weakened, making fieldwork too dangerous. He temporarily takes over as dispatcher for an underperforming SDN unit known as the z team, who he’d been trying to work with and train from on the field.

The z team are legitimate heroes, but none of them fit SDN’s preferred image.

Flambae is a tremendously powerful fire hero who genuinely loves saving people. He entered heroism to prove that his flames could protect rather than only destroy. Unfortunately, he’s also reckless, confrontational, egotistical, and prone to causing extreme collateral damage.

Invisigal is a self-taught street hero who chose heroism partly to defy the assumption that invisibility naturally makes someone a thief or spy. She’s brilliant at reconnaissance, infiltration, and hostage rescue, but treats every locked door, security system, and personal boundary as a challenge.

Sonar is a schemy businessman who treats heroism as a competitive industry filled with branding opportunities, performance metrics, and networking. Beneath his obnoxious corporate language and questionable habits, he cares deeply about the team and uses his monstrous bat transformation to protect people.

Malevola is a hero whose demonic appearance, portals, and abrasive personality lead people to assume she must be a villain. Rather than soften herself, she embraces a theatrical “benevolent devil” persona while saving civilians, terrifying criminals, and insulting SDN executives.

Coupe is a graceful and lethal knife fighter raised by a family of assassins. She chose to become a hero instead, but still struggles with proportional force, emotional openness, and remembering that ordinary criminals aren’t assassination targets.

Punch Up is a former carnival strongman granted the strength of ten men at the cost of being physically shrunk. He’s a blunt, working class protector whose drinking, insecurity, stubbornness, and tendency to hit problems far too hard keep him on SDN’s least prestigious team.

Prism is a celebrity hero and performer who sees fashion, music, spectacle, and public emotion as legitimate forms of heroism. She genuinely protects and inspires people, but her personal brand, strong opinions, and frequent fights with sponsors make her difficult for SDN to control.

Golem is an enormous magical construct of earth, stone, and natural material. He was created by a villain, but after gaining consciousness decided that he didn’t want to hurt people. He becomes a gentle disaster response and structural rescue hero, though his size, literal thinking, anxiety, and accidental property damage make team placement difficult.

Chase and Mandy intervene before Robert can be sent to prison. They argue that Robert was groomed from childhood to become Mecha Man and that conventional imprisonment will only reinforce everything Robbie taught him. Mandy uses her influence and credibility to convince SDN and the proper authorities to approve a controlled rehabilitation arrangement.

Thus, Robert is placed in SDN custody under the supervision of Elliot and Chase.

The z team, when introduced to this new guy sitting along with Elliot, is told that Robert was a serious technological criminal who’s now being rehabilitated so that he can use his skills for good. They aren’t told that he was Mecha Man. His criminal background explains the surveillance, restrictions, and containment surrounding him without revealing the full truth.

Robert assumes from the beginning that SDN only wants his engineering knowledge and the location of the Astral Pulse. Elliot, Chase, and Mandy repeatedly insist that the arrangement is meant to help him.

At first, Elliot primarily treats Robert as a dangerous problem that needs to be managed. Robert’s tried to kill him for fifteen years, and Elliot urgently needs the Pulse returned. He tries to remain patient, reminding himself that Robbie manipulated Robert just as he manipulated Elliot and Chase.

Robert is still an aggravating, sarcastic little shit.

Since Elliot is the dispatcher, Robert begins as a closely monitored technical consultant. He assists with computers, engineering, villain strategy, and mission analysis. He understands how criminals choose targets, how they hide technology, and how they react when cornered.

He’s infuriatingly useful.

Elliot’s strategies are orderly and calculated. Robert understands irrationality, ego, spite, panic, and the fact that some criminals will ruin a perfectly sound plan simply because doing so is funny. Their approaches clash constantly, but together they become much more effective.

Engineering becomes the first area in which they can communicate without immediately returning to Robbie’s death. They argue over designs, repair systems, criticize one another’s work, and gradually develop genuine respect.

Elliot begins to see that Robert’s intelligence isn’t merely an inheritance from Robbie. Robert is a gifted engineer in his own right, with his own design instincts and ideas.

Robert also begins spending time with the z team.

Invisigal is the first to give Robert a genuine chance.

She knows what it feels like to be treated as inherently criminal because of her abilities, and she dislikes the way SDN staff constantly watch Robert and assume the worst of him. She begins talking to him partly because everyone seems to prefer that she doesn’t.

The two quickly develop a blunt friendship. Invisigal invades his space, asks questions no one else would dare ask, and tells him directly when he’s being an asshole or shutting down emotionally. Robert complains about her constantly but gradually comes to trust her.

Robert and Flambae begin with genuine hostility.

Flambae sees Robert as a smug criminal receiving special treatment. Robert sees Flambae as an impulsive egotist who refuses to follow plans. Robert knows exactly how to provoke him, and Flambae is extremely easy to provoke.

Their arguments slowly become banter. The banter becomes friendly. Eventually, it becomes unmistakably flirtatious, though both of them remain capable of pretending otherwise.

Coupe recognizes something familiar in Robert’s posture, habits, and understanding of violence. She sees how he scans rooms, tracks weapons, measures exits, and becomes more sarcastic whenever anyone approaches the subject of his childhood.

Robert eventually tells her fragments of the truth without using names. He describes a father who trained him from childhood, treated the family work as inevitable, and never seriously asked what Robert wanted.

Coupe understands more than Robert realizes. She begins using strategies from her own recovery to help him distinguish between what he was trained to do and what he actually enjoys.

She also attempts to find him hobbies, including introducing him to romantasy novels. Robert mocks them relentlessly while continuing to read.

Sonar treats Robert like an undervalued business asset and repeatedly proposes legitimate applications for his inventions. Robert assumes Sonar’s trying to exploit him. Sonar insists that true exploitation would involve much worse percentages.

Beneath the comedy, Sonar introduces Robert to the possibility that engineering could support a life beyond Mecha Man. Robert could create things, sell them, and be valued for his work without using it for revenge.

Malevola bonds with Robert through their shared contempt for SDN executives. She refuses to treat his criminal past as proof that he’s permanently untrustworthy, though she never pretends that trust should be automatic.

Punch Up helps Robert rebuild his physical strength after the coma and treats him with practical honesty rather than therapeutic language.

Golem becomes a quiet thematic counterpart to him: a being created by a villain to serve as a weapon who simply chose to become something else.

Prism pushes Robert to participate in things that have no tactical value. Team celebrations, music, performances, ridiculous clothes, and ordinary social events begin to occupy parts of his life that were previously reserved for revenge.

For the first time in years, Robert begins doing things purely because he enjoys them.

Partway through Robert’s rehabilitation, he, Elliot, and Chase pass a pet store displaying a litter of chihuahua puppies.

Robert stops at the window.

He tries to pretend he’s only looking, but Chase immediately notices how captivated he is and suggests that they go inside. The employees allow them to sit with the puppies, and one particular puppy repeatedly returns to Robert.

The puppy is tiny, sweet, clumsy, and not especially intelligent. Robert’s entire demeanor changes around him. He holds him carefully, speaks to him in a softer voice, and patiently retrieves him whenever the puppy wanders away and becomes confused.

At one point, another puppy steals his toy, and Robert remarks that the little dog now has ‘beef’.

The name sticks.

Watching Robert with the puppy becomes one of the first moments Elliot clearly sees the person beneath Mecha Man. Not Robbie’s son, not his attacker, and not a route to the Pulse, but a lonely man capable of extraordinary tenderness.

They eventually leave without the puppy. Robert tries to act indifferent but is visibly disappointed.

The following day, Chase arrives with the puppy, supplies, veterinary records, and evidence supporting the rehabilitative value of caring for animals.

Elliot is skeptical. Chase points to successful animal care programs involving incarcerated people and argues that responsibility for another living creature could help Robert build routine, empathy, and stability.

Robert is more suspicious than excited at first. Gifts in his life have rarely been uncomplicated.

Then Beef recognizes him and runs straight into his arms.

Beef becomes Robert’s emotional anchor. Caring for him gives Robert a daily routine and a responsibility unrelated to revenge, engineering, or usefulness. The puppy gets him out of bed, forces him to take walks, and loves him without knowing or caring who Mecha Man was.

The rest of the team also becomes attached to Beef. Courtney teaches him bad habits, Alice buys him clothes, Victor tries to turn him into a brand, Malevola calls him a hellhound, and Bruno is terrified of accidentally stepping on him. Chad claims Beef is ugly while repeatedly allowing the puppy to sleep against him.

As time passes, Robert becomes happier and healthier than he’s been for most of his life.

He has friends. He has people who notice when he’s absent. He has Beef waiting for him. He begins rebuilding his relationship with Chase and growing genuinely close to Elliot.

Though, not everything is perfect.

Despite their growing friendships, Robert still hasn’t told the z teams about his identity, and instead has to hear about how they were affected by his actions as Mecha Man.

Flambae once fought Mecha Man where, after ignoring a coordinated plan and rushing in alone, he cut off Flambae’s fingers to incapacitate him.

Far worse, one of Mecha Man’s attacks destroyed the building where Flambae’s brother-in-law worked, killing him and leaving Flambae’s younger sister widowed and his niece without her father.

Invisigal was once caught by Mecha Man, after infiltrating one of his temporary bases, interrogated, and left, tied up, to be found.

Sonar complains that Mecha Man was responsible for a bizarre number of failed investments, destroyed developments, and financial disasters throughout his career.

Prism, Punch Up, and Malevola knew people harmed by Mecha Man’s actions. Coupe and Golem spent years seeing the aftermath left across the city.

But Robert is doing better. He’s making good choices, building connections, and genuinely using his skills and knowledge for good.

Elliot’s own motivations change. Recovering the Pulse becomes less important to him than helping Robert build a life outside Mecha Man. He no longer sees Robert primarily as a target, threat, or source of information.

Robert begins believing that the rehabilitation truly was the intention all along.

It turns out that he’s known where the Astral Pulse was the entire time, but he couldn’t retrieve it while under constant surveillance. Initially, he kept the location secret as protection and leverage. Eventually, he decides to tell Elliot, choosing to return the Pulse voluntarily because he trusts him.

Robert approaches Elliot intending to confess that he knows where the Pulse is and explain how to recover it.

Before he can actually tell him where it is, though, he notices an official document Elliot has open.

The document reveals the original justification for Robert’s rehabilitation arrangement.

SDN never truly cared about giving him a second chance. The program was approved as a strategy to recover the Astral Pulse and exploit Robert’s technical abilities. Building trust and rapport with Robert was presented as a method of making him disclose its location.

His relationship with Chase was described as leverage.

His developing attachment to Elliot was an operational strategy.

His friendships with the z team were treated as tools for increasing cooperation.

The reality is that the higher ups at SDN and the legal authorities weren’t convinced merely by the idea of rehabilitation. Only by Chase and Mandy instead framing it through the lens of using him were they able to get the idea approved.

Elliot had opened the document because he intended to revise it. He wanted to formally remove recovery of the Pulse as the program’s primary purpose and replace it with the goal of genuinely helping him improve.

But Robert sees the original language first.

He realizes that his earliest suspicions were correct. SDN was using him.

Mandy was using him.

Chase was using him.

Elliot was using him.

Worse, Robert had repeatedly been encouraged to believe that his suspicions were paranoia.

Elliot tries to explain that his motivations changed and that their relationship became genuine. Robert hears only another manipulator saying whatever needs to be said to get what they want.

To Robert, it’s Robbie all over again.

He explodes and escapes SDN custody.

In the aftermath, the z team learns that Robert was Mecha Man and the revelation shatters the team.

The team is furious with Robert, but they’re also furious with Elliot, Chase, Mandy, and SDN for concealing the truth and using them as unwitting participants in his rehabilitation.

Coupe admits that, actually, she’d already suspected who Robert was.

She’d recognized his movement, combat instincts, conditioning, and understanding of Mecha Man’s decisions. She never had proof, and she refused to make an accusation that could destroy Robert’s progress or place him in danger.

Now, however, Robert is gone.

It turns out, before his capture, Robert had been secretly creating his own original mech.

He goes directly to the hidden location where the unfinished machine and the Astral Pulse are waiting.

He installs the Pulse and activates the mech.

The new machine is Robert’s design rather than a recreation of Robbie’s. It’s faster, more efficient, and built with better safeguards for the pilot. Yet Robert used the code from the original mech to make it compatible with the Pulse.

Robert attacks SDN specifically to reach Elliot.

Robert has had his trust and hope absolutely shattered. His attack is dangerous, destructive, and deeply personal. He uses what he learned about the z team against them, exploiting their habits and weaknesses.

Eventually, Robert gets through everyone.

He catches Elliot in the mech’s grasp.

Elliot no longer has the Pulse powering his predictive enhancements. No one else is able to stop Robert.

After fifteen years, Robert finally has the man who killed his father completely helpless.

He can crush him.

But Robert can’t do it.

Whatever their relationship originally was, Elliot is no longer an abstract murderer. Robert knows him now. They’ve worked together, built things, fought, laughed, and become important to one another.

Robert releases him.

As Robert spares Elliot, the Pulse finishes integrating with the mech, and something starts happening.

A dormant program hidden inside Robbie’s legacy code activates.

The mech immediately begins seizing control of surrounding technology. Vehicles, drones, weapons, machinery, security systems, and pieces of the SDN facility are torn apart and assimilated into the chassis.

The mech grows larger with every system it consumes.

At the same time, the program takes control away from Robert.

Chase recognizes what’s happening.

His reaction makes it clear that he knows more than he’s ever admitted. When the others confront him, Chase finally reveals the secret he’s kept for fifteen years.

The system was created with the intention to integrate and assimilate surrounding technologies, building the mech up to mass destruction proportions while dismantling any technological approach anyone could make. But, in order to work properly, the system required the use of a biologic component. It would suppress the autonomy of its pilot and use their consciousness to direct the assimilated network.

Robbie never intended to pilot the completed weapon.

Robert was always meant to be inside it.

The system was built around Robert’s body and mind. Throughout his childhood, Robbie had been preparing him to become the living core of a weapon of mass destruction.

This was the truth Chase discovered.

This was why he finally turned against Robbie.

He could never bring himself to tell Robert that his own father had raised him to be sacrificed.

Elliot is horrified. He knew Robbie planned to weaponize the Pulse, but he never knew Robert had always been its intended pilot or what it would do to him.

Inside the mech, Robert encounters Robbie’s original plan through the code. He feels the system taking control of his body and understands what it’ll do if it continues spreading.

For the first time, Robert fully accepts that Chase and Elliot were right to do what they did.

Robbie was never going to stop.

Elliot had to kill him.

As the Pulse spreads through the surrounding technological network, Robert’s consciousness is carried with it.

His body remains trapped inside the mech, but parts of his awareness can move through connected cameras, computers, communications systems, drones, and machinery.

Elliot’s cybernetic enhancements provide another route, which Robert uses to reach out to him.

Elliot initially experiences the connection as an attack, but Robert manages to convince him that he’s still conscious and fighting the program.

Without the Pulse, Elliot’s predictive enhancements can’t operate at full capacity. Through their connection, Robert can give Elliot access to the Pulse’s power.

Robert chooses to let him in.

Elliot’s predictive abilities return, allowing him to see the mech’s probable responses, anticipate its attacks, and guide the z team.

Robert assists from inside. He interferes with weapons, opens sections of armor, delays the assimilation process, and feeds Elliot information whenever he can.

Together, they begin directing the team through a path that might stop the weapon.

As Elliot follows Robert’s guidance, though, he begins noticing a pattern.

The targets Robert is identifying will destabilize the mech’s central core and destroy the assimilation network.

They’ll also kill Robert.

Elliot stops issuing the next command.

Robert insists that it’s the only way to prevent the weapon from consuming more of the city.

He finally admits that he was wrong.

His hatred of Elliot was unfounded. Elliot had to kill Robbie to stop what he was doing, just as Elliot must now kill Robert to stop the mech.

Robert argues that he put himself in this position. He retrieved the Pulse, activated the mech, attacked SDN, hurt his friends, and wasted the second chance he’d been given. Even more than that, he spent fifteen years hurting countless people in his selfish quest for vengeance.

He believes that his improvement was temporary and that his return to villainy revealed what he truly is, a Robertson, bad to the core.

In his mind, the only meaningful act he has left is to die stopping the weapon.

Elliot refuses.

He doesn’t deny Robert’s responsibility. Robert made terrible choices. He made them for fifteen years and has made even more.

But Elliot rejects the idea that Robert is anything like Robbie.

Robbie knowingly designed the weapon and intended to sacrifice his son. Robert spared Elliot when he finally had the chance to kill him. Now Robert is fighting from inside the machine and trying to save everyone else.

Robert isn’t his father.

Elliot searches for another path.

The z team also refuses to let Robert sacrifice himself. Even while furious about his identity and his attack, they choose to help save him.

Robert must finally accept their choice and trust them with his life.

They must trust that the information and openings he provides are genuine.

Elliot guides them using his restored predictive abilities. Robert assists from inside the network. The team uses its unusual powers and imperfect coordination to dismantle the constantly changing mech without destroying Robert’s central chamber.

Together, they achieve what Robert believed was impossible.

They stop the weapon and pull him out alive.

Robert emerges from the wreckage holding the Astral Pulse.

Everyone is injured and exhausted. No one knows what he’ll do.

Elliot walks toward him without threatening him.

He extends his hand.

“Give me the Pulse, Robert.”

Robert looks at Elliot and then at the device.

He gives it to him.

Elliot doesn’t defeat him and take it.

SDN doesn’t successfully manipulate its location out of him.

Robert returns it voluntarily.

Robert is taken into medical custody.

When he escaped, he left Beef behind with carefully prepared food, supplies, and instructions. He hadn’t expected to come back.

After Robert wakes, Beef is brought to him. The puppy launches himself onto the bed, frantic and overjoyed, and Robert finally breaks down while holding him.

Robert must still answer for escaping, attacking SDN, and the harm he caused before Robbie’s program took control.

At the same time, Elliot, Chase, Mandy, and SDN must answer for the original rehabilitation arrangement, the manipulation surrounding it, and the decision to use the z team without their informed consent.

Coupe becomes Robert’s strongest advocate for another genuine chance.

She cites her own violent upbringing and past actions, along with the serious mistakes made by every member of the z team. None of them became heroes because the people they hurt ceased to matter. They became heroes by continuing to make better choices and repairing what they could.

The others support her.

They point out that Robert’s growth had been real. He’d become happier, formed genuine relationships, cared for Beef, used his skills to save people, and voluntarily decided to return the Pulse before discovering the document.

His relapse occurred after an extreme institutional betrayal triggered the deepest parts of his trauma. That doesn’t excuse the attack, but it demonstrates that he needs genuine therapy and honest support rather than another manipulative program.

They also argue that being forcibly consumed by the weapon his father designed for him, learning that Robbie had always intended to sacrifice him, and believing that his only remaining option was to die already constitute devastating consequences.

Further accountability should focus on restitution, trauma focused treatment, transparency, making amends, and continuing to use Robert’s skills for good rather than purely punitive imprisonment.

Robert isn’t immediately forgiven.

Flambae remains furious about the death of his brother-in-law and the loss suffered by his sister and niece. Invisigal must process that Robert allowed her to discuss her encounter with Mecha Man without revealing that she was speaking to him.

But he’s not the only one who has amends to make.

Elliot has to acknowledge that his relationship with Robert began as an attempt to recover the Pulse, even though his feelings later became genuine. Chase must face the damage caused by keeping Robbie’s plan secret.

The z team’s trust, as well as Robert’s, must be rebuilt individually rather than restored all at once.

The new arrangement is fully transparent. Robert sees every condition, objective, and report. The team is no longer used as leverage and instead are active participants in his rehabilitation. Robert receives serious therapy, participates in restitution, and works to dismantle the remaining technology and criminal infrastructure he and his family built over the years.

Most importantly, Robert is finally allowed to build a life that doesn’t revolve around proving his loyalty to a dead father.

Robbie treated Robert as property.

SDN initially treated him as an asset.

Robert tried to treat his own life as the acceptable cost of stopping the mech.

The story ends with the people around him refusing all three ideas.

Robert doesn’t earn the right to live by suffering enough.

He accepts the much harder responsibility of surviving, making amends, and continuing to become someone his father never intended him to be.