Chapter Text
“Here you go, Tesoro,” Estrella gently spoke making sure that the pillow that was place behind Robert’s back was settled nicely. His ears, which were now pointed slightly droop down a bit.
“You don’t have to do this,” Robert tries to tell her, but scurnches up his nose when she flicks it.
“Of course I do!” Estrella stated rather firmly, “I have seen this many times before since my Victor has joined the Shadows and after the law was changed. This is going to be very painful, Tesoro… you need to be as relax as you can be when the true pain hits.”
Sonar lets out a chuckle as he grabs a bottle of garlic “There’s no point in fighting mama, Bobert!”” Sonar gently sprinkles the garlic into a large saucepan filled with sausage, red peppers and onions. “Astrid is the cream ready?”
“Almost,” Astrid hisses softly, stirring the cream that was made of melted ricotta cheese, shredded Parmesan cheese, fresh goat cheese and mozzarella cheese, adding in tomatoes and tomato paste.
“Don’t worry about rushing things, babes,” Mal said cutting into the middle of large Italian bread. She grabs hold of the stick of butter she had gotten out earlier to soften, and begins cutting it into pieces, “this is a spur of a moment thing. We usually just go out for a drink at a bar that hasn’t ban one of us… which we now have to find a new one since Crypto Night banned Flambae,”
“Lammmmmme,” Sonar drawled out, throwing a smirk at Robert over his shoulder. He frowned when he saw the guilt shining in his brown eyes, “Hey Bobbo don’t go blaming yourself. As soon as I told them that Mal and I wouldn’t be coming to the regular get together to keep an eye on you as you transform, they drop everything and plan this… their pretty excited too. Golem and Invisgal is bringing their consoles… going to have a tournament of Mario Kart.”
“Hopefully you won’t get blue shell,” Robert teases before he grimaces in pain, squirming on the towel that was set up in case of blood being spill. He looks up when there was pounding on the door and Estrella walked over.
“Welcome! Welcome!” she greeted as she opens to the door for Flambae, Prism, Coupe and Punch Up. All of them were carrying various things in their hands. “Make yourselves at home!”
“Thank you for having us, madam,” Punch Up beamed, holding onto a onto a large green ceramic bowl, “I brought some creamy colcannon, Sonar Where you want me to put it lad?”
“Put it on the coffee table!” Sonar calls out, slipping the baking pan into the oven, “If any of you brought food or drinks just place it on there. Just make sure you don’t get any on the carpet,”
“I will not be happy if you stain my carpet,” Estrella chirps, but her green eyes were wet, “Oh I’m so happy my boy has some actual good friends… better than the friends he made at Harvard,”
“Mama!”
Prism snorts, “I’m worried about what kind of friends you made in Harvard if your Ma likes us, Sonar”, she jokes as she walks over to the coffee table , “Can’t cook for shit, I usually mooch off of Bae. His cooking is to die for. But I brought a bunch of pop for us and a cheeseboard,” Settling herself onto her knees, Prism places down the cheeseboard before opening up the bag, pulling out all kinds of soda. Coke, Pepsi, Sprite and much to Robert’s delight, Dr. Pepper. Prism’s chuckles seeing how his eyes went immediately to the Dr. Pepper, “Seems we got ourselves a winner, huh Roberto,”
“How dare you!” Sonar gasps, sounding all offended but there was a smile on his face, “Calling soda, pop,”
“Bitch that’s what it is! It’s called pop!” Prism jokingly scolds, grabbing a red solo cup and throwing it at Sonar’s face. He yelps, taking a few steps back when it smacks against his pink snout.
“You're both wrong,” Mal chuckles, mirth shining in her yellow eyes, “It’s called a soft drink.” She cackles when Prism throws one of the cushion pillows at her.
Prism rolls her eyes before turning towards Robert, “Well look at you, looking all comfortable. I see you’re wearing the booty shorts I chose for you,” she grins pointing toward the dark green booty shorts, “But I also see your wearing one of Sonar's hideous hoodies,”
“What can I say?” Robert shrugs, pouring himself a cup of Dr. Pepper, “They’re comfy,” he defended himself, and it was the truth, the hoodie was very comfy but also comforting. When he woke up this morning it had almost been too much. From the way his bones ache to the way the light just shined a bit too brightly in his eyes. He had slammed the palms of his hands against his ears to block out sounds that had once been regular background noise to him. Cars honking and driving by, dogs barking and random shouts of angry people going among their lives.
The soft whine that Robert had let slip from his lips had alerted Sonar immediately. He had come into the room and bundled him up, giving him his Harvard hoodie before setting him on the couch where Estrella has created a soft nest while Astrid had made breakfast that was easy for Robert's stomach. Apparently, the spell that had sealed away Robert’s hybrid features was very common among the hybrid community and all three had experience in helping those who were in the breaking process. The hoodie, much to Robert’s embarrassment, was comforting to his nose. Almost a calming presence to all the harsh smells that just seem to smell… more.
Robert was pulled from his thoughts as a hand ran through his hair. He snorts at the disgusted look Prism shot at him, “Bitch! What the hell do you use for your hair?! It’s greasy as fuck!”
“I use three in one,” Robert answered, which earned him a sound of disgust from Flambae who walks over with now a heated platter that was completely covered in rice, carrots, some sort of meat and what Robert was sure were raisins.
“Bobbob, I thought you couldn’t disappoint me even more,” Flambae snarks, crossing his arms over his chest. “Three in one? No wonder your hair looks like a disaster. But don’t worry Flambae has you covered.”
“He won’t be able to use regular shampoo anymore, Flambae,” Sonar informs him, placing down plates filled with all sorts of food. Bacon wrap dates, pretzel bites, a bowl of tortilla chips with dips of nacho cheese, artichoke dip and buffalo chicken dip and much to Prism disgust, a bowl of rats. “He got to use hybrid brand stuff,”
“Hey I know where to get the good stuff,” Flambae waves Sonar’s concerns away, “My brother-in-law is a hybrid as well as my niece. Cat hybrids. The many times I had to make a quick trip to a hybrid store to pick something up for them? I know what I’m doing,” rolling his eyes he then sends a glare towards Astrid, “Don’t you even start,”
“You put raisins in your food,” Astrid hisses in disgust, nose scrunching up making Mal bark out a laugh.
“Bitch it’s part of the dish! It goes with the flavor!” Flambae exclaims, glaring down at the cobra hybrid who just sticks up her nose.
“It’s raisins. Raisins are disgusting!” She hisses out but she throws the fire user a smirk, mirth shining in her yellow and blue eyes.
“Then pick them out you big baby!” Throwing his hands in the air, Flambae shoots Mal a look, “Your girlfriend has no taste whatsoever!”
Mal cackles, loudly but at that moment, Visi and Golem were brought inside by Estrella. Golem was caring many cosoles in his arms while Visi was hauling a bag of candy over her shoulder.
“What got you so upset?” Robert asked, noticing the frown on Invisigal’s face.
“Golem has no idea how to play, Fuck, Marry, Kill,” Visi bemoans as she drops the bag of candy onto the floor, grabbing a pack of Sour Patch Kids from within, “Every person I call out he says marry because he doesn’t fuck and he doesn’t like the thought of killing…”
Robert couldn’t help but chuckle at this, taking one of the bacon wrap dates and popping into his mouth. He heard a small chuckle from Coupe who calls out from behind the counter, placing strawberries into a blender, “Fuck, Marry Kill: Mecha Man,” at this, it took a lot out of Robert to not choke.
“Fuck, oh definitely fuck!” Prism grins, taking a gulp of her Pepsi, “He has the waist of a slut, be so easy to hold him down and watch him squirm.” Robert was trying everything in his power to not react at these words.
“Same, will fuck him as well,” Coupe smiles, placing bannans into the blender, “I like a man who knows how to fight,”
“Eh….fuck,” Punch Up nodded, “Guy has a good sense of humor. He made Coop laugh calling Flambae Sunglasses Indoors at Night Guy which is good in my books,”
Robert was feeling the heat growing slowly down his neck as Golem chimed up,“I’ll say marry,” sitting down on a bunch of blankets which made a loud thumped. “He seems nice from the little interviews he had and word is that as long as you’re not part of the Red Ring he’ll let you keep your limbs,”
“A man who not afraid to get down and dirty is hot as fuck,” Mal said and gods Robert was so happy that she wasn’t staring right at him. In fact he was so glad no one was staring at him except Sonar who was clearly doing his best to not break down in laughter, “I definitely fuck him,”
Astrid nodded her head agreement, “I agree with Mal. I think he would love being pegged,”
“Here! Here!” Visi grins, setting up the switch to the large flat screen, “Fuck him all the way.” She holds up her hand towards Astrid, the cobra hybrid frowning before she rolls her eyes and high fives her, “peg hard and long until he cries… guys like him look good fucked out,”
“Flambae I can’t believe I’m saying this but save me. Tell them how their all disgusting and how’ll you kill me,” Robert thought, mortified as his blush went to the newly pointed tips of his ears.
“Fuck,” Robert was so thankful as the others howl in a delightful manner, blocking out his choking noise at Flambae’s answer, “What can I say? I have fucking eyes! He’s a twink with nice hips that are easy to grab,” Robert slowly sinks into the couch trying so hard to keep his face neutral.
“The hate sex would go hard,” Prism laughs before eyeing Sonar, “What about you batboy?”
“Marry,” Sonar responded, staring at Robert, who stares at him with wide eyes, “Marry means I can keep him all to myself and fuck him,”
The others laugh loudly, Punch-Up slapping Robert on the shoulder, “Looks like you have competition, Robert,”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Robert sputters, “What competition?” he stares in confusion when the others broke out in laughter, though Sonar just snorted smirking towards Invisgal who glares at the bat hybrid.
“What about you Bobbob?” Flambae asked, mirth in his golden orange eyes, “Fuck, Marry, Kill: Mecha Bitch?”
“Kill,” Robert answered with no hesitation, which caused Sonar, Mal, Astrid and Estrella to shoot him a concern look. He made sure to not turn his gaze to any of them, grabbing another bacon wrapped date, which cause him to not notice the other looks of concerns that grew on the other members of the Z-Team faces, “Because after all the shitty sex from you all I think he appreciate it if I end his shitty life.” he scoffs, rolling his eyes as that broke the group into chaos, all of them either breaking down in laughter or yelling at him saying that sex with them wasn’t shitty.
“Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!” Visi rants throwing the controller at Prism who shrieks, “How dare you fucking blueshell me bitch!”
“Not my fault that I’m the queen of Mario Kart!” Prism cheers before she ducks down as Visi throws a handful of skittles into her face. This is what Chase walks into, holding Beef in his arms, watching Prism and Visi wrestle about on the floor.
“What the hell are these bastards doing?” He asked before he spots Robert on the couch, leaning against Sonar’s side, “Well you look like shit.” He remarks before glaring at Sonar, “Did you even give him anything for the pain?”
“Geeze, thanks Chase,” Robert groans as he forces himself to sit up, “Give me my son,” he holds out his hands and Chase huffs, plopping Beef right into Robert’s lap. The little dog yips happily, small tail wagging up a storm as he jumps up, licking Robert’s face so fiercely you think he hadn’t seen Robert for a whole year, “Hey Buddy, you've been a good boy for Uncle Chase?” He whispers, not surprised at all by Beef’s reaction. It was the same reaction he got when he came home from his interview with Blazer and after his first day at SDN. After being stuck in the pound for four months while Robert had been in his coma, Robert wasn’t surprised at all that Beef now has separation anxiety.
“He was a complete angel,” Chase rolled his eyes as he sat down, still glaring at Sonar, “You haven’t answered my question Batboner,”
Sonar huffs, “We gave him the pain medication that was given to us by Doctor Harrison but he can’t have another dose for another two hours. That’s what the directions say.” he brings a clawed hand up and begin to scratch at Robert’s scalp which made Robert relax slightly.
“Stop treating him like a fucking dog,” Chase barks slapping Sonar's hand away much to Robert's dissapoiment but Visi groans dropping her controllers.
“Ok, I’m done playing video games why don’t we play something else?”
“Tired of getting you ass beat, you mean?” Mal chuckles, sputtering when Visi throws a cushion, “Alright then, what do you suggest?”
Visi hums a bit, “How about a game of Never Have I ever,”
“Isn’t that a drinking game?” Punch-Up asked, “We all agree we wouldn’t drink since Robert here can’t drink while on pain medication.”
“Yeah but we can still drink our soda for it,” Visi holds up her cup of coke, “Come on, it’ll be fun and a team bonding exercise shit or whatever,” the others exchange look before shrugging and Visi grins, “Ok then, I’ll start. Never have I ever been caught streaking naked,”
“Oh you bitch!” Prism yells before she takes a large gulp. Much to their surprise, Chase curses under his breath before shooting back the mountain dew.
“There is no way…” Visi she trails off making Chase scoff.
“I was a kid once ya know. In fact I’m not that much older than the flaming hot head here,” he gestures to Flambae who reels back in shock. “I was in highschool and was drunk off my ass from a party…”
“Oh god I remember that,” Robert’s shoulders shook as he laughs, “Dad was so mad at you he yelled at you from straight dawn to the afternoon and then pops got on you for misusing your powers like that."
“Was worse because I had a fucking hangover,” Chase grumbles before he holds out his cup to be refill. He then glares at the Z-Team, noticing that they were all staring at him, “What you fuckers looking at?”
“What you mean you’re not much older than Bae?” Prism asked and Chase huffs at this question.
“If you want to believe it I turn 39 a few months ago. Went to Dave and Busters,” he throws a grin at Robert, “Shit was lit, need to take this pissant there the next time I go,” he nudges Robert’s side with his elbow, “But the reason I look so old as shit is because of my powers. I won’t be telling you what it is,” he glares at them when it looked like they were going to ask, “But I will say that every time I used them, it made me age 50 times faster…”
“Well… that’s a sucky power,” Golem acknowledge before he begins to ponder in thought, “Never have I ever…. Uh broken a bone?” at this, Coop, Punch-Up, Astrid, Chase and Robert took a drink.
“How you broke a bone?” Punch Up asked Astrid who lifts her hand up.
“My family came from a long line of martial artists,” Astrid chuckles as she runs her hand through her silver hair before pulling it back up into a ponytail. “Having a few broken bones is just a natural part of life,” she smiles softly at Mal and leans close to her, nuzzling into her neck.
“That was a given for me,” Robert agreed, wiggling his foot and rolling his arm. He rolls his eyes when Chase grimaces, “Hey, I take a dislocated arm than having a bullet through my head,”
“Bullet through your head?” Flambae exclaims, “Bobbob what the fuck?!”
Robert huffs, wondering how much he could tell without them figuring it out he was Mecha Man, “I was a kid… got angry that my dad was being a hero than being my dad so I took a hammer to his gear and tried to break it. Thought that if it was broken he would had more time with me. Instead it cause it to… think of me as a threat and tried to take my head off. Chase got me out of the way in time but he pulled my shoulder so hard it dislocated and I got this,” he pointed to the missing chunk in his ear.
“That.. that is shit,” Mal mutters, “I was raised by a demonic goddess and human healer who had no idea what they were doing in raising a half demon but even they knew to lock away stuff that could possibly and would hurt me,”
Robert shrugs his shoulders and remained quiet. He lightly kicks Chase’s leg when the other opens his mouth, not wanting him to mention the Get Up moment to the others. They all sat in silence before Punch-Up spoke up, “Never have I ever got obsessed over a book series,”
“How dare you,” Coop quietly scolds as she takes a drink. She raises an eyebrow though when she noticed that Robert took a drink, “Which book series are you obsessed over?”
“Haven’t read them in a long time, not since I became a hero,” Robert shrugs, “But I use to be a big warrior cats fan,”
“Shit!” Visi grins, holding her hand up for a high five, “Same as me! My favorite was Bluestar who was your favorite character? And when did you stop reading?”
“Firestar was my favorite and the last book I read I think was Fading Echoes…” he blinks when Visi blanches, “Wait… what happen?”
“No one tell him,” Visi declares, eyes wide, “No one tells him,”
“Not any of us can because we never read Warriors,” Punch-Up pointed out chuckling a bit as Robert stares at Visi in confusion before he glances over to Coop who was now browsing on her phone. “Let me guess, you’re getting him all the books,” Punch-Upwhispers, leaning over to her.
Coop smiles but glances over to Robert, “You said you haven’t read them in a long time but have you read any books recently?”
Robert hums at this, pondering, “Project Hail Mary… I got it in a yard sale for cheap and I absolutely loved it.”
Flambae snorts, “Of course you love that nerdy shit,” he then grunts when Prism slaps his arm.
“Oh stop teasing him, you’re just upset that you can’t understand any of the science stuff in the book,” she turns towards Robert with a grin, “You know…. Their making that book into a movie. Suppose to come out next year and Ryan Gosling is playing the main character.”
Robert’s eyes widen at that and he sits up, “Their making it into a movie? Oh god their going to make Rocky into a marketable plushie…. Ok I got to see it… I’m so going to save up some money…” he leans forward to grab a pretzle bite when his eyes landed on the bowl of rats. Frowning a bit, he takes one and holds it in his hand, sniffing at it before taking a huge bite. His eyes lit up at the fresh, meaty, delicious and wonderful flavors that sang in his mouth. The others shot him looks of disgust, but Sonar and Astrid look at him happily, grabbing their own rats and swallowing them whole.
“I’ll take you,” Sonar stated with his mouth full, making the others cackle whenChase glowers at him, “What?” he frowns, shrugging, “I read the book too and I would like to see it as well. It's more fun to go to the movie with others,” he looks at his cup, “Never have I ever played in mud,”
Prism scoffs angrily before taking a big gulp, followed by Robert, Chase and Punch-Up, “I lived in Michigan on a farm. Of course I played in the mud as a kid! Made my ma some nice old mud pies.”
“Chase pushed me into a puddle of mud because I took the last twinkie,” he chuckles when Chase grabs his hair and pull.
“And then you turned around and threw it into my face!” Chase exclaims which caused Robert to snicker, “And then pops had to hose us down before he would even let us back into the house.
“Wait are you guys like… actual brothers?” Mal inquired, looking between the both of them.
Chase huffs rolling his eyes, “Yes, we do share the same last name,” he pointed out, ignoring how Prism shriek out that people can have the same last name and not be related, “I was adopted when I was eight, a year before this freckle face fuck was born,” he smiles softly at Robert, scratching at Beef’s ear, “Never have I ever done cocaine,”
“Oh fuck you old man,” Sonar snarls before he drowns his cup of Pepsi, blinking a bit when Prism did the same thing as well, “Shit you too?”
Prism shrugs, “Only once… I got convince to do so by my old manager. Told me it would keep me awake while I do a show, which caused my manic episode that resulted in me being arrested. Never again,” she declared firmly and Sonar nodded his head in respect. Prism snorts before she grins at Flambae, “Never have I ever dangle someone out of a window to get information!”
Flames flicker along Flambae’s shoulders as he growls, “Oh fuck you,” he goes to drown his own cup of Dr. Pepper when they all turn as Robert takes one very long and very loud sip, “What the fuck?!” he exclaims making Mal and Sonar burst out laughing while Chase stares at Robert with a disappointed look on his face.
“Listen, he works for Shroud he broke into my aparment to try and get me. I got the jump on him and I needed information…” Robert trails off, heat rising in his cheeks, “And I left a mattress so when I did drop him he wouldn’t die!”
“You fucking drop him!?” the others exclaimed and Robert laughs nervously before sharp pain shit up in Robert’s legs. He blinks, having never felt this sort of pain before, the red solo cup slipping from his fingers as a blood curling scream tore from his throat.
“Robert!” Chase exclaims, suddenly sitting up as Beef jumps off of Robert’s lap, barking madly as Robert screams his lungs out. Robert couldn’t hear any of it though. All he could do was desperately rolled onto his side and curled into a ball, his hands flying back to his hair and gripping it tightly as his ears moved toward the top of his head becoming pointed though the one with the missing chunk flopped a bit. His body arched as the white hot pain flared even more, throbbing worse at his lower back.
“Its too much!” he screams, tears falling down his face.
“Hold him down!” Estrella barked running from the kitchen, “He’s transforming!” she explains as Astrid and Mal jumped into action without a word, soon followed by Flambae and Punch-Up. Astrid and Punch-Up grabbed at Robert’s arms, forcing them away from his hair while the other two seized his legs, forcing them straight to make it easier to pin it down. Of course, Robert wasn’t making this any easy, snarling as he twisted in their grasp, fighting against them as he screams.
But the screams broke off the sound of bones snapping rang in their ears. They all looked down, Flambae and Mal letting go of his legs, watching as dark brown fur grew along the skin, reshaping slowly to be more angle like while the feet warping into that of paws. With a choked cry, Robert pulls his arm free and swinging it, smashes it into Astrid’s face. With one of his arms free, Robert was able to turn off his back and rolled onto his stomach, Punch-Up being force to let go for just a second as with a pain hissed, Astrid, lunges back to grabbed Robert’s hand and slamming it into the ground not caring at all about the blood trailing down her nose. The two of them pinned Robert to the ground, thrashing about as his legs scraped and kicked at the ground.
Sonar’s nose twitched, and his eyes landed on Robert’s lower back to see blood staining the back of his shorts. “Shit!” he mutters and comes forward, “His tail is growing!” he pulls down the shorts a bit and freezes, seeing the black bat tattoo that was proudly displayed on his lower back. Sonar felt his mouth dried, seeing his mark claiming Robert’s skin… his eyes flashed red, “Robert is mine. He knows he’s mine! He has my mark on him he wants me to clai-”
He drawls his head back as blood splatter across his face as a dark brown fur tail emerge just below the tattoo. Shaking his head, Sonar stares as the wet and matted limb twitched a bit before Robert finally cease his struggles falling limp. He opens his eyes a bit, which were glowing a bright which made Sonar tense a bit, prepared if Robert was about to suddenly transfomed fully into his Mega form before he relaxes as they faded back to their nice warm brown.
Robert brings his head up a bit, looking around at the others before they landed on Astrid, “Sorry…” he slurrs a bit but even that felt hard to force out… his tongue felt so thick and heavy...his whole body was still throbbing, pulsing with light pain.
“What are you sorry about?” Astrid hisses slightly, raising an eyebrow before she gestures at her face, “You mean this?” she chuckles, wiping off the blood with the back of her hand, “This is nothing to worry about. I had much worse, I assure you of that,”
Robert stares tiredly at her but presses his cheek against the floor, shutting his eyes tightly. Sonar stands up a bit, grabbing his phone, “I’m gonna call Doctor Harrison...you guys get Robert settle in his room so he can rest,”
Robert blinks but shakes his head, “Mmmph...I’m fine… no… no need to worry about me,” his ears pinned to his head as he tries to sit up, “I… I can get up…”
“Robert no!” twitching a bit, Robert turns his head towards Chase who was staring at him with a frown on his face, holding Beef close to his chest. “You… you don’t have to get up… please,” he whispers and Robert swallows, though it caused him to grimace in pain. He… he never heard Chase begged… not once in his life, “Don’t get up… you can rest… its ok to rest when you’re in pain,”
“A-alright…” Robert mutters before he freezes as Mal slips both of her hands under him and lifted him up. Closing his eyes, Robert relaxes slightly as he was carried to the guest room and place gently on the bed on top of the covers. A soft tired huff slip from him as he felt a wet nose pressed against his cheek and he smiles as he cracks his eyes a bit to stare at Beef, “Hey buddy...I’m ok..” he whispers assurances as the chihuahua lays down, pressing against Robert’s side. “Good… good boy…. Good boy, Beef.” his eyes felt heavy and for once, he didn’t fight the urge to keep them open. As Chase places a wet cold cloth onto his head Robert allowed himself to succumb to the darkness and for once…
He didn’t hear his dad’s voice telling him to get up in his head.