Chapter Text
It was somber in the locker room for the first time in a while; the closest they had in recent memory was when they found out someone might be cut. But the reality of what happened on Friday night was finally settling into their very bones. Flambae was always one of the first people here, always insisting on being ready for anything as soon as possible, especially since Robert had started. But here everyone else was, and Flambae wasn't, frankly, the atmosphere felt wrong without the flame wielder. Sonar tried his best to lighten the gloomy mood, but all of his jokes fell flat.
"Really? No, Twinks?" He said with a nervous tone, his ears drooping in sadness. "Anyone. . ?"
The bat hybrid sighed and quietly set the box back in his locker before getting himself ready for his shift. For once, the only banter to be heard was asking for updates on Flambae.
"Really? You haven't heard anything from him?" Malevola asked quietly, peering over Prism's shoulder at her phone.
"Not even our usual 'good morning bitch'."
"Damn, I hope he didn't do anything stupid." Invisgal cut in checking that her inhaler was in her pocket.
"I think that's what we're all hoping for." Punch-up added somberly watching Coupé get ready.
They all grew quiet again; the only sounds to be heard were the last few members getting ready for the day to start. At least Robert could hopefully lift this somber mood that had befallen the team.
"Alright, assholes, I need you to behave for once and-"
"Chase, what the hell are you talking to us for?" Invisgal questions, looking confused before turning towards the rest of the Z-team.
"Because Robert ain't here-"
"The fuck you mean, Robert ain't here." Prim snapped, ripping off her visor.
"It means he didn't show the fuck up. I dunno, maybe he got eaten by his toilet. Now, as I was saying-"
"But Robert-"
"Still ain't here, but I am-"
"B-but-"
"Listen," he hissed at them. "I get I don't want to deal with your stupid fucking asses either, but guess what? I am. Now clear the fucking channel and let's get through this fucking shit."
There was an uneasy moment shared between the team faces contorted with worry as they looked at one another; the tension was palpable. Prism let out a shaky sigh, putting her visor back on.
"Fine," the beta hissed, slamming her locker shut. "Where are we going, Chase?"
"That's not for me to decide, but your temporary dispatcher, Chris-"
They all groaned at that, knowing that this was gonna be a long, long day.
"Listen here, Miss Blazer, we are not leaving until we have answers." The Prism said, leaning over her desk to get near the Alpha's face.
"What Prism means" Punch-up added climbing up on one of her chairs to be at eye level. "is that we're worried, is all. Right, everyone?" He asked, looking over his shoulders at the rest of the Z-team, when they all nodded. "So, the sooner we know what happened to Robert, the sooner we'll go."
"Listen, what happens to employees stays between the employee in question and me. So if he hasn't told you what's going on, then he doesn't want you to know."
"Oh, that's a bullshit answer!" Invisgal snapped, leaning forward in her chair and pounding her fist on the desk.
"Frankly, it's all I can give you."
"What if we're worried about his safety?" Coupé questioned, pulling a dagger from her wings to twirl between her fingers.
"Why would his safety be at risk?"
The team shared a look; telling the truth meant getting answers, but also throwing their teammate under the bus. They were all mulling it over before Golem took a small shuffling step forward.
"Flambae tried to torch him Friday. I got in the way." He said, looking conflicted, "Barely. . ." Golem quietly added.
Blazer looked horrified before calling someone, mumbling "pick up" several times under her breath before sighing in relief. "Could you come to my office, please?" She paused, listening to the response, nodding along to their words. "Thank you," She said quickly before hanging up.
It felt like an eternity of waiting. The whole team had fallen into their nervous habits. Invisigal's leg bounced up and down rapidly, Golem grinding his fingers together, forming a small pile of sand-like debris at his feet. Punch-up started cracking his joints, starting at his fingers before working his way up Coupé stood behind him, running her finger gently along the back of her dagger. Sonar's ears were twitching at every noise, mainly when Punch-up's joints popped. Waterboy quietly stood slightly swaying back and forth while Phenomaman rested a gentle but supportive hand on his shoulder, letting it be pulled by his movements. Malevola's tail swished back and forth violently, and Prism sat, making no visible movement but getting caught up in her own internal whirlwind.
Finally, the door creaked open. "Oh God-" Chase started after seeing the team, Beef held delicately in his arms, he glared at the group. "Don't tell me these assholes did something to Chris."
"No, Chris is alright, just- can you shut the door?" Blazer asked, wincing and giving a tight smile.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it." He said dismissively, kicking the door closed.
"The Z-team would like to know where Robert is."
"And you called me so they stop being pissy?"
"No. . ." She said cautiously. "I called you because I. . . can't legally confirm anything because of the higher-ups."
"Ah-" He said before looking down at Beef. "Your owner knows how to stir the damn pot, let me tell you."
"Yes- fuck- we know he likes to stir up trouble for God's sake, we're all still here." Invisgal snapped, standing up to face Chase. "Now, where the fuck is Robert?"
Chase raised his eyebrows, looking at her unimpressed.
She sagged, looking at him with pleading eyes. "Please," she asked him quietly.
"Shit, he's got you all whipped up." He said, shifting Beef to hold him in one arm, fishing his phone out of his pocket. "He texted me on Saturday morning, asked me to watch this little guy a little longer for him. But knowing you assholes you want to hear him, like fucking weirdos." He said, starting to dial Robert's number and putting it on speaker. The whole team started looking at the device with a hopeful reverence. However, the more it ran, the more they sagged, losing their small moment of hope.
"Hey, this is Robert." The team perked up. "If you're hearing this, then that means you've reached my voicemail." The team deflated further, looking at one another in silent horror. "Leave a message, I'll call you back."
"That's weird, he usually answers heat or not." he hung up, not bothering to leave a message.
Then a moment passed, the team processing what was just said, and it finally clicked in their heads.
"I'm sorry-" Prism said quickly.
"What?" They said collectively.
He glared at the group and their shocked expressions. "What? You assholes got a problem with that?"
"Oh, so that's why you said he needed medical leave," Blazer added, shoulders sagging with relief.
The team looked between Blazer, Chase, and Chase's phone before looking at each other. Well. . . they definitely weren't getting back to work any time soon.
"Damn!" Invisgal said quickly, fake coughing into her closed hand. "My lungs really hurt, guys. I'm not sure I can go on with my shift; you guys will have to go on without me." She finished going invisible, slipping behind Chase and out of the office, leaving the door open.
"Hey, God damn it, you can just leave in the middle of your fucking shift!" Chase yelled out after her.
Punch-up started fake coughing, too. "Damn- shit spreads fast-" He said, hopping down from the chair before looking up at Coupé with a wink. "Go on without me." He said dramatically, continuing to cough, and walking out of the office.
Just before Coupé was about to start coughing, Blazer cut in. "Are you all gonna use that as an excuse to leave?"
Waterboy coughed suddenly and violently.
She sighed, pulling out a form from her desk drawer. "Go."
They all quickly got the hell out of there. Waterboy, trying desperately to stop coughing as he followed almost everyone out of the office. The group quickly beelined for the locker room to gather their belongings.
"You know you can stop coughing, right?" Malevola said after her and Golem appeared through a portal to join up with the group again.
"I-" He coughed slightly harder. "Swallowed wrong-" He added before bending over using the bench to support himself.
"Damn," Punch-up said, looking at Waterboy before looking at Invisigal wearily. "Maybe you are contagious."
"God fucking damn it, pick up!" Prism hissed at her phone, pacing on the porch after her third failed call to Flambae.
"Does he have a key we can use, or are we breaking a window?" Sonar asked, looking for a good, breakable window and a good window-breaking rock.
"There's a key in a fake rock!" She gasped before looking at the gravel by the porch. "Mal, wanna help me look?"
Golem rumbled lowly, pushing his way to the front of the group before punching where the two doors met, breaking both in the process.
"Or. . . that works," Prism mumbled, looking into the condo.
Flambae shot up from his couch, hair looking disheveled as he whipped his head over to the deafening thud of the door putting a hole in the wall.
"My fucking door?" Flambae shouted at them from his couch, looking between them all.
"Where is he?" Prim yelled, storming her way over to him, the rest of the team following behind.
"Where is who?"
"Don't fucking play dumb with me bitch, you wanted him dead like two days ago!"
He paused, looking at her, confused for a moment, until a shocked expression took over. "Robert's missing?" He asked in a voice barely above a whisper.
"Oh fuck." Punch-up said, putting his hands on his head as he started to pace.
"R-Robert's not here?" Waterboy wheezed, physically deflating, starting to panic.
"Robert's missing? I-" He paused before grabbing Prism's shoulders. "He's missing, and no one told me?" He yelled, his breathing starting to pick up.
"Well, not like you exactly taking messages." Prism snapped, looking at the TV playing some romance drama, and the almost finished pint of ice cream melted on the coffee table.
"Fuck!" Flambae growled, hopping off his couch, running deeper into the condo, disappearing into one of the rooms.
"Where the fuck are you going?" Malevola yelled, leaning forward to figure out where he had gone.
"Changing out of these -fuck -clothes!"
"Why?" She yelled again, and Prism looked at her unimpressed.
"Because!" He yelled back before running back into the living room, dressed in his hero outfit, hairtie held between his teeth, "PJs are not fireproof." He hissed, bunching his hair together to get it in a ponytail.
"I thought you wished him to experience bodily harm," Phenomaman stated, narrowing his eyes slightly at him.
He put his hair up, hands falling away slowly from their previous task. "I wanted Mecha Man dead." He said quietly, looking at his hands.
"B-but-"
"However," He hissed at Waterboy before getting a slightly conflicted look and sighing. "I love Robert," He admitted, biting on the inside of his cheek. "So I can't have my cake and eat it too."
Watterboy nodded slowly, "So does anyone know. . . have Robert's address?" Waterboy questioned, looking around at each person in the group.
"Well. . . I know which building he lives in." Invisgal looked at Waterboy before glancing at everyone else. "Finding the exact apartment is the problem."
After getting lucky with a neighbor in the lobby, an old lady who was very willing to tell them which apartment was Robert's, with the request of making sure he was eating right, they were stuck again. Flambae paced in a small half circle, staring the door down, quietly growling to himself.
"Fuck for a guy with no self-preservation, he knows to keep his damn door locked," Sonar mumbled, trying and failing to open the front door with an expired credit card.
"Move," Golem said lowly, glaring at the door.
"What do you plan on doing, big guy?" Sonar asked cautiously, stepping to the side just to the right of the door.
They watched as Golem punched a door in for the second time today. All they got was a huge waft of pure distress and the scent of someone lighting a car engine on fire to burn down a coffee shop.
"Robert?" Flambae shouted, blitzing past the rest of the group into the nearly empty apartment.
Everyone else followed behind him, Golem squeezing in last and starting to attempt to reattach the front door.
"Damn this is. . ." Malevola started leaning against the kitchen island, watching Flambae lift the singular tipped-over lawn chair like Robert was going to be under it.
"Depressing?" Prism added walking past her toward the hot-headed alpha.
"I was gonna say sad," Malevola said quickly. "I was gonna say sad." She said to Waterboy and Phenomaman, who both shared an equally sorrowful and concerned look.
"Flambae, he's obviously not here." Prism tried laying a hand on his back.
"No!" He growled, ripping himself away like the beta had burned him. "He- he has to be." He pleaded quietly before starting to move the stack of Twinkies boxes.
"Flambae-"
"No God damn it! You don't get!" He snapped at her, looking at her hyperventilating. "Fuck" He growled, looking around frantically before making his way over to the single door inside the apartment. "Move." He hissed at Waterboy and Coupé before ripping the door open.
"Oh! Oh- kay."
"Flambae-" Prism started again chasing after him.
"No, let the lad have this." Punch-up said, blocking her way, "Anyone have a way to track him?"
"I would've said his phone, but" Invisgal said, holding up the offending object. "It's right here."
"W-What about his watch?" Waterboy questioned, walking closer to the kitchen counter.
Invisgal huffed quietly, showing the watch to the group.
"Oh. . ." He said, shrinking in on himself.
A tense moment passed before it sounded like Flambae was trying to say something to them from the other room. But before anyone could respond, a horrified shriek from Flambae, followed by several things crashing to the ground and a loud thud, let them know that, like it or not, something was found regarding Robert's whereabouts.