#brainfreeze dispatch au

[quitealotofsodapop]

Genuinely thinking of writing a one-shot fic for the "Brainfreeze" Dispatch Au. Unconnected to the "double widowed!Robert" idea, but still taking one or two elements cus my mutuals be amazing writers.

Flambae is pissed off after a long shift. A few calls went south that day, no doubt contributed to their current dispatcher and the Z-Team's general lack-of-cooperation. It's nearly 5pm at least, and there's only one more call left on the map.

Z Team Dispatcher: "Flambae, we got a call asking specifically for you. A kid at Torrance General."

Flambae, heart-dropping: "Really? Shit... Am I like, some kid's Make-A-Wish?"

Z Team Dispatcher: "There isn't much details, but the kid says he's your biggest fan."

Flambae, no hesistation: "Alright. I'm going."

Prism: "Want me to have some bottles and frogurt on stand-by, Bae?" (Code phrase: "If it gets emotional and you need a cry about it afterwards.")

Flambae, wind whooshing past his ears: "Yeah. I'll text you when I get out."

He lands outside of Torrance General Hospital. Despite the evening winding down, there's still a lot of activity on the wards.

The dispatcher gives him the kid's name and has him relay it to the charge nurse.

She tells him that "Kiren Robertson" is currently in the long-term acute care ward.

Not a comforting sign.

Flambae is surprised when he's led past the children's ward, and into the adult section. The nurse has to use at least two keycards to access the next ward.

In the bed lies, not a terminaly ill child, but a grown man. A grown man hooked up to machines and resting as if in eternal slumber.

Flambae is about express confused profanity when a tiny form rises from the man's side.

A boy, no older than five years. Messy chestnut brown hair, and a face littered with a million freckles just like the man in the bed.

A boy who stares at Flambae with icy snowflake-pupiled eyes he last saw on the battlefield when he was still a villain.

Guilt burns the phoenix's heart.

Kiren: "Are you really Flambae?"

Flambae, pulling himsef together: "I am. Are you Kiren? I was told you were a fan wantong to see me."

Kiren, shuffling off of the bed: "Uncle Chase says If I ever need help, and him and Daddy aren't around, I sould call SDN and ask for a hero."

Flambae, kneeling down to the kid's level: "That's good advice. What do you need help with?"

Kiren, fidgets with his hair, clearly unsure: "Can you wake up my Daddy? He's hurt and he's been asleep a really long time."

The firestarter's eyes shoot back to the man in the bed.

It couldn't be.

But the boy's age and his familar eyes were strong evidence.

And the name on the comatose man's medical file proved it.

This was the widow of the hero Brainfreeze.

The very hero Flambae had unintentionally slain in battle five years ago.

Confidence exits his throat before tears can.

Flambae: "I'll do my best."

[quitealotofsodapop]

about your fic: do you think chase and chad carpool to the hospital after work sometimes? i feel like spending 1-on-1 time together in an environment that encourages flambae to be less egotistical lends to them becoming at least kind-of friends. maybe flambae even does research on track star after kiren mentions him and realises how familiar the guy looks [probably assumes chase is track stars uncle/dad because of the age disparity though]

im also fond of the idea that chase would fill the silence by telling kiren and flambae stories from when robert was young [very carefully leaving out the superhero/mecha man parts]. just flambae first meeting robert through the perspectives of people who adore him down to their bones; how can you not fall in love with that?

meanwhile chase is growing to genuinely respect flambae when chad shares his own stories of his sister/parents/niece, seeing the effort the ex-villain puts in to be there for his family.

hell maybe the new mutual respect has flambae climbing even further up the leaderboard when chase is dispatching. hard to want to make a guys life difficult when you're driving him to the hospital in a few hours

Prev.

Most certainly.

After Chad learns that Chase is Robert's and Kirin's next of kin, he offers to carpool with him to Kiren's daycare and the hospital. (Just to save gas - Not because he's worried about the old man and kid, shaddup.)

Putting the adults in a space where Flambae doesn't have to perform for the leaderboard, does open him up to reveal his softer, family-oriented side to Chase. The elder dispatcher sees how concerned the hot-head gets for Kiren, and hears him share stories of his own tumultuous upbringing.

Flambae in his own time looks up "Trackstar" online and in the SDN records room. A member of the same team as Mecha Man Astral, speedster hero, dropped off the face of the earth some time ago. Nothing exceptional when compared to other heroes from the same era. Chad compares a close-up photo of the speed hero to the older dispatcher, and figures there's a familial connection. He's not entirely sure why Chase and Robert appear so close, but Chase himself explains it as "friend of the family" situation. Unofficial adoption through babysitting.

It takes Chase about a week or two before he starts opening up about what kind of person Robert was before the "accident".

I adore the idea of Chad slowly getting to know Robert through the eyes of others. Growing affection for someone he has yet to meet in person.

Chase, showing photos: "Here's when Kiren was born. Took most of a day for him come out. As you can see, both were exhausted!" (*Photograph shows a very tired Robert sitting up in a hospital bed. A much smaller Kiren bundled in his arms, his wrinkly, red face matching his dad's tired expression*) Flambae, laughing softly: "Reminds me of when my niece was born. My sister was tearing into the doctors over every little thing, and when my niece finally arrived she screamed at them too." Chase: "How old is your niece?" Flambae: "About say... she'll be six in June." Chase, does the mental math: "Damn. So you had to miss out on some of it?" Flambae, nodding: "Yeah, I got put away just before she was born. My sister shared me the photos when she visited... It took my family a while to forgive me for what happened." Chase, frowning: "For the Brainfreeze thing?" Flambae: "Yeah... that and the arson. My Papi was forced to retire cus of health shit, and we needed the money. Met up with some guys planning an insurance scheme. They promised me cash in hand if I did the dirty work. Didn't expect it to attract heroes." (*an uncomfortable silence fills the space*) Chase: "Not sure if it'll make you feel better - but Brainfreeze was a piece of shit." Flambae: (*look of surprise!*) Chase: "Not on the job, mind you, but at home. Robert showed up at my house one night after years of no contact, crying and hurt with a baby on the way. Tells me his husband did something terrible, and he needs somewhere to hide. I tell him he's got just as bad a taste in men as his daddy... and I held onto him to this day." Flambae, still processing the information: "What about Brainfreeze? I mean, what happened when he died?" Chase: "Robert got the call from SDN the night it happened. Made a statement for the press. Got in contact with a lawyer, all that jazz. Then, once the funeral was over and done with, he cried like a baby." Flambae, guiltily: "Shit..." Chase: "Not out of sadness, mind you! He was glad the fucker was dead! Like I said, Brainfreeze was a piece of shit through and through. I wouldn't be surprised if he shakes you goddamn hand when he wakes up!" Flambae, still stunned: "I... so it was a good thing that I killed him?" Chase: "Eh, maybe don't say it out loud. But yeah, I'd say you did good." Flambae: (*gaze falls on Robert's bed, where Kiren lies sleeping against his Daddy's side, a half-finished drawing in his hand. Flambae feels a five-year weight being lifted from his shoulders, only to be replaced with one anew. He needs to make sure Kiren gets to see his Daddy wake up.*)

Flambae shares some of the details with Prism when they meet up again. Prism isn't surprised that Brainfreeze wasn't a good person, from her social media deep-dive; he seemed to be a real tool. The pair agree to give Chase less of a hard time, knowing that he's got a heart of gold hiding under all those wrinkles. Plus Chad doesn't want to lose carpool privileges.

[quitealotofsodapop]

If Kiren - Robert's son from the Brainfreeze/Widowed Aus - was a fox hybrid; he'd look like a little Arctic Fox.

His fur, save little auburn patches, would be pure white. :3

And yes, he would do the bouncing into snow and soft things all the time. <3

[quitealotofsodapop]

Had more thoughts regarding Robert fankids, especially Arthur from the Parhelion Au; aka lil Robert clone who's origins are either multidimensional, temporal, bioengineered, or magical.

∙Mixing the "Actual Genetic Clone": origin with Abby the blobby mimic baby (see prev origin story). I have also considered the idea that Sam the Phoenix chick's egg could have been in custody by VandLabs to test for routes of immortality.

Arthur was one of the many experiments performed by VandCo & VandLabs after Mecha Man's RE-style clean up of the facility. The scientists decided to build on the data collected from the presumably lost "Experiment 122-I" (Abby) in combination with some... unethically obtained brain cells they harvested from a comatose Mecha Man. In Vanderstenk's mind, if the hero died, they could "resurrect" him.

"Arthur" (the "code name" the clone insisted on using) was the most "perfect" Mecha Man clone to date, but the accelerated cell ageing technique stoppered around the 6-years-old mark before it started causing DNA damage.

(maybe a small "imperfection" could be one of his eyes being a brilliant blue colour, not unlike a certain villain...)

He was allowed live by virtue of being a control standard, but not handled delicately. The child clone stayed in VandLabs custody for months, convinced through false memories that he's a much-younger Robert Robertson the Third that has been abducted by villains or displaced across time.

One day, an assistant working at VandLabs did something very reckless but very heroic - they took Arthur, and dumped him somewhere SDN could find him.

When SDN gets a call from a scared child claiming that he just escaped "bad people" and his dad is Mecha Man - they fall over themselves trying to tend to the poor kid. The superhero world at large assumes that the Red Ring or some other opportunistic group captured Mecha Man's child following his explosion, intending on using him as a hostage or worse.

If Robert is still in a coma at this stage - he awakens to, in addition to his adopted blobby daughter and the hatched phoenix chick, to a very confused Chase holding the hand of a six-year-old boy claiming to also be Robert Robertson the Third.

Robert immediately identifies Arthur as being another lil bioengineered person from VandCo - but takes him under his wing regardless. He needs to find a way to conduct a full investigation into VandCo before he blows the whistle to SDN on what Arthur truly is.

Arthur doesn't understand exactly what is happening, but he knows that this Robert is a "bigger/older him", that Chase is super-old now, that Abby and Sam are Robert's babies, and that Robert isn't going to let the "bad people" hurt him ever again.

Arthur is a great big brother, all things considered. Abby has finally figured out how to stay solid as a human-shaped baby, and Arthur was her biggest cheerleader. He plays all sorts of songs to Sam to teach the lil bird new tunes to sing.

Meanwhile, Robert is dealing with a corporate conspiracy that stole his DNA, at the same time he's dealing with raising himself and two kids he adopted from the same Umbrella-esque lab.

∙"Magical/Changeling" origin: Mixing with the "Brainfreeze/Widowed!Robert Au", and/or for more chaos the "Double/Unwidowed Au".

Robert's son Kiren wants a sibling, but his Daddy just laughs and tells him "maybe".

In the family's darkest moment, a sibling does appear to support his new brother.

Chase sees a mini-Robert in the hospital room, gets extremely confused, wonders if a "Parent Trap"-situation happened, and demands answers. He isn't very amused when Kiren claims "I asked for a brother, and here he is!"

He is further unamused when an investigator from SDN identifies mini-Robert (aka Arthur) as being magical in-origin somewhat like a Changeling of old folklore.

When Robert awakens, he can't bare to separate Kiren from his new brother, even if Arthur is technically "just" a genetic copy of him made by wild/fae magic. At least the pair get along so well.

And if this is the "Unwidowed" variant? Blackjack wakes up to news of an in-coming baby, and an adopted fairy child.

Blackjack: "Oh damn! You sure Kiren didn't get some of my luck magic? Manifested a whole bonus son!"

Most people just assume Kiren and Arthur are twins. Including Robert's in-hiding ex-husband Brainfreeze...