Despise having to do this, but my memory is shit. This is a fic search. PLEASE HELP ME.
Takes place during canon.
There's this scene where they all go to a hero bar in like long beach or santa monica and someone fucks with Flambae for being a former arsonist and Robert defends him, guy goes "As a guy with seven years of experience-" and then Robert claps back with a sentence like "Take it from someone who's been in the business for *fifteen*. I don't care about the past, I care about what people are doing now."
Flambae goes, ". . .Fifteen years?" and makes a mental comparison to either his niece or himself. 16 year olds weren't supposed to be out punching villains. He voices this, and Robert snaps at him about how people were dying and the city needed him and there was nobody else etc etc
there's also a scene at some point of him talking with Galen about how he *hates* heroes leaving people behind in crisis zones just because they're villains and they refuse to surrender to being handcuffed
Pretty sure they take both phenomaman and waterboy for the team but I don't rememberrr if they cut anybodyyy
afterwards Flambae texts Blazer asking her to keep an eye on him, but she's not that concerned, and he wonders how old she was when she started. he almost talks to Alice about it but he thinks "But Alice would just point out something like how Mecha Man had been active for fifteen years."