Chapter Text
“That was - freaking horrible,” Flambae doesn't want his voice to come off as off put in- any sort of way. Because it isn't, really. Really truly it isn't. He's dealt with blood- and gore before. He's seen bad things.
That doesn't make being covered in blood any easier, though. No matter how hard he wills his brain to forget about it- to pretend it isn't there, it clings to him. It's disturbing in every sense.
He steps a few feet further into SDN, trying to steady himself on the corner of a desk. HIs feet are shaking, wobbling against the earth. There's footsteps for a pause and then around the corner comes Robert, head of soft brown hair bobbing as he comes to meet Flambae with even purposeful strides.
“Flambae. Jesus christ- are you hurt?!” He asks first, and that makes his stomach twist more than it was already.
He blinks- and for a minute he expects his brain to take over. Say something arrogant- slap the other around with quick wit and a remark. He doesn't do anything, though.
“I- no. No im- im not hurt.”
“Are you sure? Thats a lot of-”
“I'm sure, bob bob!” He spits, aggression leaking out of his voice. He takes a moment to survey the blood leaking down his chest. “...What happened?” Roberts' voice is tentative, debating. Soft spoken like smoke rolling down empty hills and knolls. Gentle but provoking.
Flambae swallows. His eyes hurt, bitterly blotting with tears he doesn't want to acknowledge.
“...Lost someone.” His tone comes out like grimy coffee made without a filter, rough and concentrated and bitter.
Robert stares at him. And for a moment he sees mechaman. The proud man in a death trap of a suit. Whos lost people too many times to count but his biggest loss was somehow the same as the source of what he once considered his only sense of life. Robert seems tall and far, swallowed up in a suit that's still a little big for him. And Flambae stands small, and dull. Flames sputtering at the harsh wind of uncertainty. So close to snuffing right out.
The nubs on his hand start to ache.
“Get yourself- cleaned off. Okay? It wasn't your fault.”
“I know,” He says slowly. He did everything he could've done. It isn't his fault children bleed out so fast.
“Then say it till you believe it. I’d back your stuff. Blazers probably going to send you home. I know after something like that your- itching to do something useful, but the best thing you can do is be in the moment and not in your own head. More people will die if you don't give yourself space.”
That sounds a lot like advice Robert would never take himself, but he tries to ignore it for now.
“Alright. I'm going to the bio room.” He tries to sound bored, unaffected. It doesn't work. The walk to the shower rooms is a slog. Somehow too fast and too slow. Nobody looks at him with judgement. Instead it comes out to be understanding.
Somehow, that's worse.
The only people who look at fire like it's something that isn't dangerous are cave men. All normal people are supposed to see of him is a hazard. They shouldnt be staring, they should be keeping their heads the fuck down.
He pushes the door ajar and sinks down to one of the close benches. He starts trying to work off his suit. His hands streak orange- the blood moistened by the steam of the shower rooms, pooling down his fingers.
It's terrible. He hates seeing it. His suit is also terrible at this moment- too tight and too concentrated- pulled around his chest and squeezing. It's hard to rustle off- and his shoulders are far too wide and the material-
“C- can i… Help you?”
He spins his head as far back as it can go. He takes a look at waterboy- standing there, all stupid. Eyes wide with that pathetic-ly optimistic look.
“What do you want?”
“I-... To to- to help… you. I just said that.” He says, ringing his hands. Flambae's head goes momentarily light as he finally remembers the breathing bit of being alive. He sucks in a breath. “You think I don't know how to get out of my own damned suit wetfartboy?”
“I think it's harder to get out of anything when its- moi-moi-wet.”
Something about his tone is easy. Despite his inane stuttering, the way his tone carries is a flow. Progressing and gentle. He softly touches the nape of Flambae's neck, offering assistance with his eyes. Flambae makes no move to stop him. He’ll at least wait for his face to get closer to slap and scald him.
Waterboy manages to help his suit off his torso with relative finesse. It makes sense- he would be more used to handling wet clothing than anyone ever should be. But he seems weirdly fine with the way Flambae looks right now. He decides to press some.
“Arent you going to ask about the blood?”
“...well I thought- you wouldn't want me to.”
“Well duh, idiot. But most people would ask. Isn't it creepy to such a newbie like you?”
Waterboy seems to debate on that in his head for a minute, thinking. “Not really.”
Flambae scowls, setting his head into the web of his hand, bracing his forehead against his palm. “Of course it doesn't. For how much of a dope you are things seem like they just-”
“Roll right off of me?”
“Yeah. Like that. We insult you all the time, man, and you - don't even seem that bothered by it.”
Waterboy chuckles, just a little. “I- I wouldn't say it doesn't bother me. It does. But I - I can take some tough love.”
“Is that what you think we do?” He raises an eyebrow.
“Well I dunno. You’d have to tell me.”
Waterboy turns the water on to one of the nearby showers heads. He gestures at the opening to flambe. He stands up and stares. He wants to clean all of this off- to put the mess behind him. But he can't seem to move himself.
“...you okay?” Waterboy asks after a tense moment.
He swallows. “She was the same age as my niece."
He watches the other man's expression get serious. Sharpen behind his goggles.
“...when chasing- when he got… hurt. I was really upset.”
“Yeah. I know. You put a hole through the vending machine, you idiot.”
Waterboy sighs, a slight laugh to his voice but the tone is still serious. “Yeah. Because I was mad. I'm not… close to chase. I don't even think he likes me. But him getting hurt made me think about what I'd do if my grandma got hurt. I - I would imagine… It's similar. For you and your niece and - this… girl that died.”
His face tightens. He breathes out. “Yeah. I guess it is, in a way.”
“... did she.. Go while she is with you?”
For a moment, Flambae wants to yell at Waterboy. Tell him to leave him alone. To get out of the shower hall, to stop asking insensitive questions. He doesn't do any of that , though.
“... Yeah.”
Waterboy nods. He picks up Flambae's discarded suit, glancing at the blood. He still doesn't seem all too bothered.
“I’ll talk to the family.”
“H-huh?” he snaps his head up. For once, Waterboy seems more certain than ever. He stands with straight posture, coming to his full height.
“Im going to talk to the family. And clean your suit. Trust me, Okay? I… I know just what to say. The best thing for a grieving parent is knowing their child wasn't alone. But I think I’d have an easier time saying that than you would.”
Flambae's eyes widened in shock. A protest dies on his lips.
Something about the look waterboy gives shows that he isn't exactly going to be able to sway on this. Goes with the flow like water, but as unwavering as a steady sea when he wants to be.
“... Thank you.”
“Of course. I’ll have this back to you lickity slip! I- I mean, lickity spit. Slick. I - i don't really- … bye flambae.”
Flambae chuckles a little. He can't help it at the idiots' harmless bumbling. He watches for a moment as Waterboy leaves, humming a song as he goes.
There is something seriously wrong with that boy.
There is something seriously wrong with waterboy.
Flambaes breath heaves in through his chest, in hot choppy rushes as he wakes up from his dream. Well- it wasn't exactly a dream. A memory, he supposes.
He hadn't seen that incident from a couple of weeks ago as anything particularly important. Well- important to him,but not too much else. He didn't think it was going to have an effect on anyone but him and the waterboy. After all, they were the only two people there.
Except- for some reason it feels like it is going to affect things. Because of one thing that's stuck- hanging around his mind. Flambae wrestles the duvet off of his legs, kicking and twisting until his white socks touch the soft carpet of his bedroom. He sucks in a breath. His mind works back to something that Waterboy had said to him- on that day in the bio room three or so weeks ago. About the chase thing from the week they took down shrouds.
It was mainly fine now. Chase no longer had blazers crystal- but working with some expensive fancy medics and royd they found a way to keep him stable. Wheelchair bound- yes , but stable. And invisigal was back, and nobody felt that big of a stir.
Nobody besides Bruno and Robert were going… out of their way with her, because she isn't exactly a pleasant force to be around, but nobody was being rude to her. Belief in redemption in all that. The only person that seemed outright opposed to her appearance was waterboy. He was quiet about it, of course, never the type to speak up, but everyone in the office knows he doesn't mess with old people getting hurt.
He guesses it makes sense. Waterboy isn't like them. It isn't exactly a bad thing- but he isn't like them. He isn't a killer- or a criminal. He doesn't seem to want to harm anybody. He will when it comes down to it, Flambae is sure of that. But he doesn't know if Waterboy would kill someone for a cause. So it was understandable he was feeling a bit more sensitive to invisigal almost being the reason chase… died.
But that's what was nagging at him.
Waterboy doesn't really get on with invisigal.
So why- last night. After so much chaos, so much struggle and chaos and weirdness-
Did Waterboy and Invisigal leave together?
Flambae swallows down a dark feeling. He rises to his feet- shimmying around the side of his bed and finding his clothes. He dresses himself, in casual slacks and a tank top with a flame retardant jacket. He pulls his hair tightly into a pony tail, twisting his wrist as he pulls the elastic taught around the mass of the hair. A strand or two falls out of place but he really doesn't give it much thought. As he toes on his shoes, he pulls his phone off the bedside charger and opens it up. The group chat has several notifications.
Whatever they mean, it can't be good.
~~~
Invisigal watches as Waterboy coughs against a dwindling cigarette, sputtering smoke and wrinkling his nose. It really is a pathetic sort of sight.
She watches him take a hit and plucks it from his trembling fingers before he can do anything else stupid. He only got it a little wet, which is surprising. She puts a hand on her hip, and uses the other to take a drag herself. She breathes out a cloud into the early morning air.
It's around 5:30 AM. Too early in her eyes, but this was an opportunity she couldn't really see herself passing up. So here she sits, on a park bench, waiting for the early bus, with none other than Waterboy.
The slender man- three years her senior, sits hunched over, on the same bench as her and scribbling away furiously in a notebook. He's in dark clothing- a black hoodie and baggy pants over his regular clothes- hints of blue and yellow peaking at his collar and ankles. His hair is pushed back, out of his face. He's dripping still, face visibly glistening with stress and unease.
He's drawing.
Waterboy doesn't normally draw. She knows that much. He writes notes to himself all the time, but he doesn't draw. He's not even that good, and he keeps smudging the ink everywhere.
It seems… a little pointless.
Still, she leans over.
“What's that?” she uses her pointer finger to tilt the sketch pad over, just enough to see the smeared drawings. There's lots of little disjointed things. An IV drip, part of somebody's face, a small cat, and a crappy sailboat. She hums softly.
“What's with the IV drip? You draw that because of your-”
“I didn't get my- my- seme sort of weird surgery on something g-gross, invisigal. It was a - a routine medical thing.”
“Rigght. Remind me to check you out next time you're in the shower for a boob lift.” She snorts. He makes an uncomfortable face. “Please don't.”
He worries about the corner of his lip with his fingers. To be honest, Invisigal never saw him look this shaken up and weird. She almost feels sorry for the guy.
“Fine. Your - routine medical thing that you won't tell anyone about.”
“My medical business is not anyone else's business."
“Didn't Robert say that was your first ever surgery? Or was that just an excuse for him to spend more time with you?” She asks, holding back the acidity in her voice as she reduces her cigarette down to just the butt. Waterboy deflates a bit more. His hands stop moving.
“I- no. And I lied to him.”
Her eyes widened. Didn't see that coming. “Really?” She laughs.
“You lied to him? Didn't think you had it in you!”
He huffs weakly. “Why’d you lie about having not been to the hospital before? Were you scared to go alone or something?"
“N-no. I just… I went a lot as a kid. To the doctor, I mean. I just didn't want to get into it. It's all complicated and not very clear- its. Unclear.”
Invisigal takes in a breath. “I used to go to the doctor a lot as a kid, too. Asthma stuff.”
She doesn't miss how his eyes trail to the sputtering light of cigarette ashes going out. She stomps on it. She can hear the slow hiss of the bus coming down the way.
“I like this new rebel side of you.” She starts, tempting.
“Lying to robert, sneaking out to go expose some creepy villain lady? You're riding the same waves as me, Waterbitch.”
“I- were not exposing or taking down- a - anything! I just want to check one thing out. Then we're going home.”
She puts her hands up as the bus comes to a halt. “Fine, fine. I get it.”
“We're going in and then out.” She agrees, hand behind her back , fingers twisted.
“Everythings going to go according to your plan.”
~~~
“Where does a bitch who's constantly wet even go on the weekend?” Prism sighs to herself on the fifth knock on Waterboys front door. Golem chuckles beside her.
“Life guard, maybe?”
She snorts. “See that's why I like you, Bruno.” She brings her knuckles back up and wraps against the door. After a moment, an adorable old woman answers.
“Hello? Oh, are you more of hermies work friends?”
Prism nods. “That's right mam. Is he home today? We're looking for him to… help us with some work.”
She adjusts her glasses on her face. “Well I'm not sure. Do you folks want to come in? I’ll shout for him but I have trouble going up and down the stairs by myself.”
Sympathy blooms in Prism's chest, but she quickly disregards it, focused on the mission at hand. “That sounds- fine, but we can't stay too long.”
“Well alright then.” She turns around and heads back inside. Prism turns to golem, who bends down low. “Do what you gotta do, little lady.”
She smirks, and plucks his head off of his body. The rest of him mushes into a pile.
“Boy your gunna get my suit all messed up.”
“When we get a waterboy here, he can clean it off.”
She sucks her teeth, huffing out once. “Thats true.”
They come into the small house and are quickly ushered to chairs. Luckily- because Waterboy lives there, there's plenty of newspaper and towels for prisms to set golems head onto. Herman's grandmother insists on tea.
The older woman sits two cups in front of either of them , with just the tea bag in, and no water. She debates on asking the old woman on why, but she's cut off by whistling. She whistles away, and the tap of the sink seems to start flowing on its own. Water comes out of it in a gentle stream, coming through the air and filling up the cups. She claps her worn out hands and the water starts to rumble, boiling inside the little tea cups.
Prism is glad her glasses hide her shock.
“Miss- mam, you have- water powers too?” She asks, failing to keep the shock from her tone.
“Oh me?” Her eyes squint, glasses slightly fogged.
“I don't have powers, just a family quirk.”
“A… family quirk?”
She smiles, getting into the low down cupboards and pulling out a bag of biscuits. Slowly she speaks. “Water spirits tend to like our family. My grandfather used to say that his mother made a deal with a water spirit for protection- but we never knew whether or not to believe her!” She laughs softly. Prism and Golem exchange a look.
It seems … untrue. But at the same time, with the kind of magic in the air, it's not something they can rule out.
Prism takes a sip of her tea. It's… good.
“How does it heat up like that? And- how’d you make it- come out?”
She hums. “Water likes to bond with energy. That's how water spirits are made- energy and water, really. Sure there are other things- but its - complicated. Sound is its own sort of energy, dear. And if water favours you- it favours your sounds.”
“So… Your little tune and the water hooked together- got turned into something else. And it heated up from-”
“Energy conversion.” Golem finishes. “Energy doesn't leave, it dissipates into other forms. The energy concentrated in the water and then turned to thermal energy and boiled.”
Prism looks at Waterboy’s grandma. She confirms with a single nod.
With new information, some energy of her own stirs in her. She stands from her chair.
“Well- thank you for the drink, miss. I'm gonna go see if Herman's upstairs, alright?”
She doesn't wait for a response. She goes up the stairs and walks around the hall till she finds the room with a sufficient lack of paint on the top of the door frame from that living bean stalk hitting his head.
That's got to be the place.
She turns the knob and steps into the room.
As expected, there's no Waterboy. She takes a minute to poke around, and finds a few things. The first is boot marks on the window, which is probably how he got out of the darn place. The second is his medical sheets sitting on the night table.
In a moment of what could be brief stupidity, she takes them.
SHe heads back down stairs, and picks up golems head. She talks her way through a reassurance for Herman's grandma about where he might be, and gets them out of there. SHe closes the door, and gives Golem a moment to reattach himself.
“What's the plan then? If water bro’s suddenly not showing up for his work after leavin with visi- like flambae said was weird- and after having some weird… medical thang- and now he's not at his house do we think-?”
“He went after that doctor lady on his own? Maybe. It doesn't sound like him at all, but you know, I think this might help us get a read.” She brandishes the curled up papers.
“Sharp eye.”
“I say we read through this, see if we can find something. Then we meet up with Z team- and talk to malevola about water spirits. See if we can't find what's up with our moist-boy.”
“Word.”
Prism climbs up onto golems' back, letting him walk while she leaves through the information. The first five pages describe the details and recovery of a surgery for the placement of a PEG tube. The bottom of the fifth has blondblazers signature in frilly even font.
But there's a sixth page.
The staple must have been messed up- detached it a little.
Just to be thorough, she reads it.
There isn't much. A singular paragraph. But reading it dries up Prisms throughout and leaves a nasty feeling in her head.
Patient Herman O. Maris has augmented medical devices attached to the back of his skull left off of his medical record. This will be noted in his file following the date of the surgery, but upon the earliest convenience , it would be beneficial if a call to the following number could be made to give reasoning as to the device and the nature of the medicinal cause- as well as the doctor that placed it.
~~~
Robert stands anxiously by the front door of SDN headquarters, pulse heavy in his chest. The following week had gone from weird to bad so quickly it was making his head spin.
He knew after all of the shroud things went down, things were going to be… chaotic with the Z team. But he hadn't expected this. He hadn't expected this sort of thing, especially with Waterboy of all people.
He nervously scratches his wrists, waiting with expectant eyes and baited breath by the doors. Any minute now, Prism and Golem would be back. If Waterboy was at home- all would be well. Flambae's suspicion that something was up that he’d come to the group chat with in the morning would be a loose end. Everyone could focus on taking down this new bad, and it would be okay.
But for some reason Robert didn't seem so confident in that.
Flambae and Blond Blazer stand behind him, silent but in equal suspense. Whatever happens next is going to make or break the day.
In a matter of minutes, Golem's frame comes across the rising sun of the sky line. He comes in, and Robert holds his breath. Soon enough he can be seen, with a prism on his back.
No sign of waterboy.
His heart sinks.
“Damnit.” He can hear Flambae grumble, hands sparking. Robert swallows down his own doubt, putting himself back into a leader mindset.
“Prism! Golem!” He shouts.
“What happened at Herman's house?”
Prism hops down off of golem with the clack of her heeled boots. She rubs dust off of her clothes.
“Well we found out something but he sure wasn't there Mr. dispatcher. “ Her tone is a little bit sharp, and unfriendly.
“Why are you talking to me like that-”
“Why were you and blazer hidin’ the fact that Wetboys got an augment?”
Robert freezes. “Waterboy has a - a what?”
“A damn augment in his head! We found the report for the surgery he got that the three of you were being all hush hush about, and the back paper said something about augments attached to his skull!”
Blazer finds her composure faster than Robert can.
“We- we didn't - we weren't hiding anything like that from you all! We were just trying to keep hermans privacy- the medical papers I signed were for a feeding tube, not for an augment. You must have something wrong-”
“Don't you tell me what I got wrong, miss thang. I can see it pretty clearly.”
“L- let me see it.” Robert demands.
Prism huffs, and stuffs the roll of paper into his hands. He scans through it.
“...Blazers right. She signed this on page five to approve his medical leave. Page six wasn't well connected- look at this staple. And it's barely water wrapped. This has probably been sitting on waterboys desk - it doesn't even look like he took it in with him to work. Neither I nor Blazer saw this page.”
Prim's eyes still look hard, and untrusting. Robert sighs, and calms his voice.
“I wouldn't hide something if I thought it was important. Prism. I've led us all through things way worse than a surgery for- stomach issues and I made sure everyone was okay. You trust me, don't you?”
That finally breaks her resilience.
“Fine. But it's still on his paperwork. That means- waterboy was hiding something from us. On purpose.”
“Or he didn't know either.” Flambae cuts in. The crowd turns to look at him. He huffs.
“Look, all I'm saying is that i don't- think he’d lie about this sort of thing. Hes - really honest. Annoyingly so. I don't see him hiding something unless it was, like, mega important. I would even go as far as to say he didn't even know it was in there.”
“What, the augment?” Golem asks.
“The paper- was unattached. Maybe he never looked at it. It's barely waterwarped.” Blazer brings up, tone neutral. Robert sighs. “We can't say for certain what he does or doesn't know. But he's still our friend, so we've still got to find out. Which means finding him first. Him and invisigal. Let's go inside and try to put together some sort of a lead indoors.”
“Fine.” Prism bristles. “But we need to talk to Malevola about something, too. Hermies grandma was talkin about some freaked out spirit crap, and I wanna know more.”
~~~
In the end, the remainder of Z team gets split two ways to cover ground. Prism, coupe, sonar and malevola go to one meeting room to talk spirits, while punch up, flambae, and golem go with robert and royd to talk tracking.
Blond blazer is left for a moment by herself, but decides to follow behind Prism to go talk about spirits. She isn't inherently interested in spiritual stuff most of the time, but the way they had gone about wanting to talk about it made her feel it was important.
So she followed them into that meeting room.
Sonar is still not quite himself, laying low with his ears folded down and bandages on his chin , in a chair beside malevola. Mal seems welcoming to whatever prism had said to get her in there, Coupe not so much.
“Nice of you to join us, blazer.” Mal greets. Blazer finds a chair and sits down in it.
“If there's something going on concerning one of SDN’s employees- i .. I find it important to know.” She tries to explain herself. Nobody seems to really care.
Prism shuts the door.
“Alright, spooky bitches.” She settles her hands on her waist. “What do you two know about water spirits?”
Malevola hums. “Well- the demonic realm doesn't really do amazing with water, but I know it out there.” She says quietly. “What do you want to know about them?”
Prism sits down. “Can they like- favour people? Be nicer to some people than others, or something?”
She nods after a bit of hesitation. “Well- sure. If you do something good for a good, they might bless your family. Send you goodies or something. Why?”
“Waterboys G-ma said something about their family having a connection to water spirits.”
She hums. Malevola tilts her head. “So do all of his family members have powers?”
“Well, sorta. Bruno and I saw his grandma do this trick where she sang to the water to make it move, but she wasn't.. Like a waterboy is.”
“If I may.” Coupe pipes in.
Everyone turns to glance at her.
“I’ve read stories about water spirits before. It's said that- sea shanties originated in some continents as a way to calm waves. While they were helpful for sailors , they were also important for making the water calm down and like those who crossed it more. Other accounts said when sailors helped large sea fairing animals out of strife, the ocean responded positively. Creating bountiful schools of fish around their boats to be eaten and clearing the skies for safe passage.”
“So… Do we think the waterboy was saved like… a really big sea turtle and got extra powers from the water gods?” Sonar asks, sitting up from his slouch. The others debate amongst each other for a minute while Blond Blazer gives herself a moment to think.
“... It could have used him as a vessel.”
“Hm?” Mal tilts her head.
“Well- my amulet … it sort of- uses the body of whomever wears it as a vessel. It heals whomever has it on and makes them stronger. imbues them with magic. Maybe waterboy had something happen, where he needed the water's help. And because of its favour towards his family- it … used him. Like with chase.”
Prim's face goes serious. “Are you suggesting Waterboy might’ve drowned or something and got revived by the water?”
“Im.. im saying it's possible. But we can't know anything for certain until we-”
“Weve tracked down waterboy!” Royd comes into the room, slamming open the door. Everyone besides sonar jumps up in fright.
“Thats- thats great, royd.” She sputters, softly. “How?”
“Punch up gave me his communicator. When the scoper lady used it to cut his signal, it left a unique electro magnetic pulse in it that cut back to some sort of secret lair. Crazy stuff. But using that, we were able to find a lair- and with Robbies help we could hack in and find a familiar connecting wavelength. Invisibles communicator.”
Mal stands up. “So if the two of them stayed together last night-”
“They're probably in the same place.”
The room goes still for a moment. Blond blazer swallows.
“Z team. Go to your captain. I’ll set her up at roberts desk. Prepare yourself for a rescue operation."
~~~
“Steph!”
Doctor Stephanie S. Hill’s head jerks up. She looks to her left, to see one of her hospital friends sitting in the doorway of the room with a worried look. She slinks in, a small trainee frame absolutely swallowed up by her white coat.
“Its.. quite a mystery, isn't?" she says, awkwardly, looking down at the patient.
A seven year old boy. With ginger hair and pale skin, asleep on the bed. HIs face was worn, tired. Body still damp, even though it'd been two days since he’d been admitted to the hospital. There was a big storm, which knocked the poor child's family car off of a bridge. Crashed off of the side- into the nearby ocean. The father died on impact- the mother drowned shortly thereafter. The little boy's body got tangled up in the waves, drifted out. Local hero Mecha man had been there- and removed him from the water.
He’d seemed dead. They’d pronounced him at the scene. But somehow the child got up, Looked around. And once he saw his parents, dead in the water, he’d started to cry. Sources say the water that came out of him was like a hose- un-natural.
When they got him to the hospital, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't seem to get him dry. He was … aware. And awake in little bursts, but had no pulse.
It was a medical marvel.
Jasmine, the other doctor, sits besides Stephanie. Gently runs fingers on her hand before giving it a squeeze.
“I know it's hard for you. Since you lost your son, to see cases like this, Steph.”
She swallows. “It is hard.” She’d never seen another child with such unique magical properties since her son. But her son was far too young when they’d started testing. He couldn't handle it. Maybe this one could.
“His grandma should be here soon. He - we still can't figure out how to.. Bring his pulse back, but since hes… well, still alive every other way, we figured she should get to take him home.”
Bitterness swells in her chest. She closes her eyes.
“How many minutes until the night shift begins, Jasmine?”
She checks her watch. “... Just shy of ten. Though knowing the night shift, it’ll take me a fifteen to get here.” she giggles a little. Stephanie forces a smile.
“Alright. You go ahead and make us some coffees then, alright? I’ll take you home so you don't have to get on a bus so late.”
She smiles. “Oh Steph you're such a sweetheart!” She reaches for a hug. Stephanie lets it happen briefly. With that , Jasmine leaves the room. She closes her eyes, and thinks.
She taps her brain into the security camera , and watches as she walks away. Once she's gone, she zones back into her own mind.
She needs to bring this sweet boy home with her.
She needs another subject.
So she's going to make sure she gets him.
~~~
“There you go… Good morning, sweetheart.” Hermy blinks his eyes to the talking of his foster mom. The back of his head really hurts, but her nice voice makes it better.
He groans, opening up his eyes. Stephie leaned over him, watching carefully. Her sweet smile is nice to see. He sits up, but he feels,.. Weird.
He's wet now. He has been for a while- all the time, and he's not sure why. But it's not freezing cold ocean water anymore. It's… room temperature.
“You like it?” She smiles. “Not so icky anymore, is it , baby?”
He shakes his head sleepily.
Since Stephie took him in, she's been doing lots of good things for him. She made him a special chip for his head- so he’d have a pulse again, and not seem so scary to other people. She gave him blood- and new organs that worked right. She gave him lots of new things to help him feel better about his accident.
This was just one of those things she gave him.
“I like this better.” He mumbles. She smiles.
“Thats good, bubba.” She praises. She sits off of his bed, standing up in his echoey room. “Thats not the only thing I got for you, sweet boy.”
He tilts his head. “It's not?”
“Got you something else.”
She steps across the room, to his bedroom door. It's heavy, and it takes some time to get open, but she does. She slinks out , and then comes back in with a box. She sets it on the floor.
“Would you like to open it?”
He nods slowly, trying to wipe his hands dry before touching. It doesn't really work. He lifts up the lid of the box and grins.
“Ooh!”
He reaches into the box, and picks up a teeny tiny kitten. It's brown and soft , with strippy fur. It mewls at him getting it wet, but Hermy doesn't really care.
“Do you like it?” Stephie asks softly. “I do! I do!” He cries excitedly, stroking the kitten's head.
“I'm glad, pumpkin.” She cups his head, and kisses his cheek.
“Now you just rest, alright? We’ll start your videos in a minute.”
That makes her feel really sad, but he doesn't show it. He nods softly. He knows she has to.
Stephie gets up, and leaves the room. He sits on his bed, and starts to rock. His skin starts to feel funny- getting wetter than usual. That's been happening a lot lately.
Herm likes Stephie. SHes nice to him, and gets him nice things, but not all of it is good. She makes him do things with his water, sometimes.
Most of the time, it's easy stuff. Cleaning up icky puddles of red stuff off of the ground, using his water to hit down soda cans, or fill up containers.
But other times, it's not so easy.
Other times, there's the videos.
He watches the TV mounted on the wall. He knows stephie has got something weird like he does. A magical thing that lets her control TV’s and stuff. But he knows she isn't the one doing this- and that she has to do this in order to keep her.
So she does. And it's bad, but it's going to be okay. He's going to be okay.
The TV turns on. The first few pictures are … okay. More bloody puddles, sometimes with stuff in it. That doesn't really scare him anymore. The next is a hurt animal, which does upset him. His skin starts to drip in large splashes. He gets his bed all wet, soaking the floor. He swallows shakily. He's supposed to be strong as long as he can.
There's a picture of a car on the TV. turned over in the sand.
He doesn't like that at all.
He doesn't like seeing his mommy's head open like that.
His eyes start to water, and then start to rush. He can't help it. He doesn't know why this is happening. He isn't crying anymore, the water is.
Water spirits are strong, but not very strong. They were supposed to protect Hermy's family. But they didn't.
They let him Mom and Dad die. And they feel just as sad as he does.
Water gushes from his head. In an instant water starts to flood the room. He can hear Stephie's voice over the speaker, messed up and loud in his ears.
“HERMAN! You’ve got to calm down ! You're going to drown your kitty! You don't want to do that, do you!? You don't want to do that! DON'T DO IT! YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO BE A HERO. I TAUGHT YOU HOW TO CLEAN UP MESSES. HOW TO USE YOUR POWERS. SO WHY ARE YOU HURTING PEOPLE?!”
He can't seem to stop crying. He really wants to.
He doesn't want his kitty to die. He doesn't want anything bad to happen. But he can't stop it.
The water is up to his knees. He can't hear the kitten anymore. He tries to jump after it. The idea of it dying only makes him cry harder.
The radio crackles again, and Stephie starts to sing.
Music makes the water happy.
Like a siren in the night.
He stops crying when she starts to sing. She does his favourite. The sea shanty.
The water drains away out of the room slowly through a crack in the door, in a concentrated stream. All of hermy's things are damp and icky.
He reaches down and picks up the kitty. It mewls slowly.
He knows it should be dead, just like he should be.
But the water owes him life, so it does what it can.
~~~
Despite his weakness, Waterboy is very very hard to kill.
If he had to guess, It was because the universe likes him. He's really unlucky. But in the way where- in a contribute sense it circles right back around to making him lucky.
Because regularly he is put in impossible circumstances and expected to escape. And just as regularly, he does.
He didn't want to come into Steph-a-scope's lair. INfact, he just wanted to check if it was there and then take three days off sick to stay in bed and cry. But invisigal had a way of convincing people to do things they really didn't want to do.
Like- for example, going invisible and charging into a creepy lair at 6 in the morning. And as much as waterboy's brain was telling him to not engage, to run away , to call Robert, he didn't do anything.
Because he was scared.
For some reason, the waterboy started to remember some things.
A few weeks ago, a little bit after the shroudcedent, Waterboy started to feel a little bit sick. To catch a cold, maybe.
It started slowly- as a creeping nearly imperceptible case of the sniffles. A little headache.
It was workable. He was working. Waterboy takes pride in his job as a hero, so they want a thing about a cold that could stop him from showing up to work.
And then- things started to get … weird. He talked to flambe one day about a child who died. And for some reason- the thought about parents and children made him feel really really sad.
But he ignored it. And then- last week- his sickness got worse. And then he went to the hospital with Robert.
The night he did he dreamt about his parents' deaths.
He knew he was an orphan. But it wasn't very often where he actually thought about his parents. It almost felt like sometimes, he couldn't. Like trying too hard to hurt his head.
THat was how he felt about a lot of his childhood. He hadn't really thought to question anything about himself.
He simply just.. Was the way he was. And it sucked a lot, but he didn't see any point in looking into it further.
Though maybe, he should've.
The lair was ocean side, which was nice. Lots of water, which made the waterboy feel better. But that little bit of feeling better didn't exactly help with the fact that he was being hung upside down by the ankle over a very very large pit.
This is what head to waterboys initially thought.
He's very hard to kill.
Logically- terrifyingly, he should've died already. Being upside down like this as long as he has should have asphyxiated him- or caused heart failure. Something. It should have done something.
But it hasn't.
He doesn't know what to make of that.
Invisigal is dead, maybe. He hopes not. She did lead him into this mess- but she didn't leave him intentionally, at least. She fought hard , but she couldn't keep up with stephie.
Steph. Doctor steph a scope. He doesn't know why his mind wants to call her steph so badly.
His head hurts.
He really hopes invisigal isn't dead.
“Do you remember the game we used to play?”
Herman doesn't want to open his eyes- in fear they’ll pop out of his head, but he knows the Doctor is underneath him, besides the pit.
“I don't - i don't- know who you are” He chokes out, but somehow, he knows he does.
“So it hasn't broken all the way, yet.”
“What does- th- that - MEAN?!” He can't keep himself from screaming. God his head is pounding.
“Shhh… calm down, sweetboy.”
he feels a little too sick to yell again, so he says nothing.
“What did you want to be when you were small?”
He answers on impulse. “A hero. I've always wanted to be a hero.”
“Why?”
His mind cycles through answers- through things he's told people. Most of the time he says he doesnt know why that's what he wanted to do.
But he knows that's not true.
“Because..Because…”
Did somebody tell him about heros? Did something happen to make him think they were cool?
Thinkthinkthink think-
“Mecha man!” He gasps, voice heaving. “I- i-... mecha man. He.. he saved me… when my parents died- he - he was there!”
There's a satisfied pause.
“There you go.”
He feels his eyes starting to leak. His head hurts. His head hurts so bad.
“Do you remember the game we used to play?”
“We used to play.. Play heros.”
“No.” Her voice is stern, and terrifying.
“We're going to play a new game now. A test. To see if you’ll sink or float.”
He can feel the rope starting to loosen around his legs.
He screams. If he falls into this pit he's going to die. He's going to die here.
He doesn't want to die here. Not after all the work he's done. He wants to be a hero- so he needs - help.
He needs the water.
He remembers the game now.
SHe was going to make him a hero. Teach him to use his powers.
He needed to use his powers. He needed to make water.
He opens his eyes.
He's dripping wet-from every part of himself, soaking. His breathing is choked, and terrified. He swings dizzyingly above the pit- stomach tossing as he's shaken above a drop that’ll kill him. He forces his hands as steady as he can, and he starts to focus.
On the toppled over car.
On the idea of his grandma being hurt.
On injured animals of his parents of his friends getting hurt-
And his fingers start to drip.
It rained.
To pour.
“You wanted to be a hero. So be a big boy and do what heros do. You’ll never do anything great sitting there and crying. Your emotions always hindered you, Herman! They always made you worse! I would have kept you if you were better!”
His head pounds.
“You wanted to be a hero ! They have to do hard things, so just do it!”
His head snaps.
He remembers a cold day. 9 or 10- he can't remember.
His anxiety got worse. Stephanie's constant testing took its toll. He couldn't think about anything without being sent into a panic- dripping wet. His energy ran out of his body and slowly killed him.
It got to the point where he couldn't even move.
So Stephanie decided one day he was no longer fit for the practice. No longer good enough to be a hero.
She adjusted the augment in his head. Attached a new part. To suppress his memory of all that came before.
She dropped him off not far from his grandmother's house in the middle of a storm. With nothing to his name but a cat and vague memories of parents who died in an accident.
His grandmother spotted him then , and took him in.
It was news, for a little while. But it got brushed over.
It was strange. For a child to randomly vanish for three years- but that was chalked up to an abduction. And his lack of memory about the whole thing was just residual trauma.
He moved on. The world moved on. Because herm- with his small family - wasn't exactly the type of thing the world cared about.
Except for the water. The water cared. The water kept him alive- and kept him wet. Kept him an outcast, sure, but for the remainder of his childhood, he was happy.
But eventually the anxiety came back- and it put stress on his augment.
Put stress on the memory suppressor.
And now that it was time to sink or swim- it finally popped.
~~~
“We need to move, NOW!”
Robert didn't want to make a point of yelling at his team, but right now he found it warranted.
All of the Z team had got together and came to where the signal from Invisigals communicator led them- which was an underground bunker on the far side of town- just a ways away from the main hospital of the area.
Blazer was taking over on communicators while he led from the front lines. He’d had time to make a plan, and now it's time to put it into action.
“Sonar Punch up coupe you take the main entrance, golem and mal you go after visi , me and the rest are going to try and find a stealthier way in. Got it?”
“Sounds good.” Golem agrees, bending to let Mal catch a lift. Punch up and the couple share a good luck kiss and sonar sticks out his tongue. “I’ll fly ahead to get away from these chucklefucks.”
Flambae seems a bit on edge. “Alright alright your planning is good now lets go get out wet boy back.”
With everyone in agreement on the move, they split up. Robert leads Prism and Flambae up to the air ducts. Flambae complains about it getting smokey as the three of them climb through tight tunnels across the main channels of the building. It Royds map is right, then there's a large centre room where the Doctors are most likely to be.
“I don't do well in enclosed spaces, bob bob.”
“Yeah, i know, but im hoping if we create a heat signature-” He grunts “In the ducts we can distract her away from waterboy.”
“What do we even think these ladies deal with him anyway?”
Prism asks.
“Whatever it is, it cant be good. Now keep moving, I'll be right behind you.”
He lets the other two move ahead of him. He slows his crawl to manually work on hacking into whatever he can. Blazer speaks into his ear piece.
“You know it doesn't seem like they need a dispatcher anymore. Seems like they just need you.”
He cracks a smile. “Flattered. But they wouldn't be listening to me so well if they weren't worried about their friend.” he murmurs.
“And who do you think placed that brick?”
He scoffs. “Alright- im charming and irresistible, we can talk about that later, ive got the connection i need”
He taps into the data pool he needs, and connects to something. A camera, he thinks. He shifts it around, surveying the area. He looks around. All he can get a field of vision on is a large pit in a concrete floor and some containers and other things meaningless to him.
He huffs. He finally worms his way out of the vents and looks around. Prism and Flambae seem to be taking the course up the far left through the next duct.
“Did you do that?” Blazer asks.
“Do what?”
“Hack Flambaes communicator. I can't get into his signal.”
“Our vent diversion must have worked. This doctor lady must have got the heat signature and has over there focused.”
He decides to use that chance to check a different camera/ He spends a few tense minutes on it, before getting it to open. It's the same shot of the pit, but from a bit higher up.
There's a rope in the air above it, with nothing attached.
“FUCK!”
“What's wrong lad?” Punch ups voice taps into his line.
“You- you and sonar and coupe need to rush ahead- i think- i think waterboy might be dead.”
Silence falls over the communicators. Then yelling.
“Everyone shut up!” A voice cuts through. Invisigal.
“When did you get here?” Sonar gasps.
“Ive been here! Ow- i - i got knocked out- listen he isnt dead alright! This- maniac has something to do with him- a grudge or something. Could've killed him ages ago if she wanted to. There's not a shot a proper villain would keep him around this long if not for a reason so we’ve still got a chance.” She huffs.
“Okay. Golem and Mal, you two teleport to visit cords. Vis you lead them into the main room. I want everyone to throw everything you've got at her. I’ll run to the rescue as best I can.”
“Roger.” He gets a symphony of more affirmatives.
Comms go quiet again. He watches everyone's tracking dots blip as they approach the centre room, bunching up together in a mass of lights.
Robert moves forward, taking the same path he set Flambae and prism on but going down a level at a grated vent. He opens it and slips down, using his feet to guide himself down a narrow tunnel. From there he drops into a crawl and comes through the vents. He crawls and holds his breath as he sees the first wave of Z team meet in the pit room. The fight was about to go down, and it was anyone's game.
~
By the time he gets out of the tunnel system and into the main room, it's a beautiful sort of chaos.
He's never seen anything like it.
He feels small in the middle of a fight, without his suit. It doesn't help that the room is so big, and that his team is so big, but at the same time, he relishes in seeing it.
Z team and Doctor Steph-ascope are fighting in the main room, around the hole. It's clearly a hard fight, but the team is working as one great entity. Fighting together without having to be told what to do. Blazer is dishing out encouragement and praise as much as she can, but it doesn't seem like they need it.
Helping their team mates is enough.
Helping their friend is enough.
It's as heart warming as anything gets.
A week ago he thought Herm would find it sweet that the Z team worried about him when he took the day off sick, but now he's getting a front row seat to just how much they care about him and each other.
But he can't let that distract him yet.
There's still a bit more work left to do.
With a surge in determination, Robert comes down into the room, moving slowly. He sneaks his way into the middle of the chaos, trying not to be detected. He places his comm on a box to keep his true location unknown if the doctor happened to come across the transmission, and slinks to the pit where he's certain waterboy will be.
He comes down to it,and peers down. He can't see anything in the dark water below- clouded by shadow. Cant see if waterboy is down there. Can't shout because of the echo , either.
It's a gamble. Either Robert falls down there, and waterboy is there and dead, or not there at all- or he's there and alive.
He’d much rather risk getting himself stuck than leaving his companion there, so when the moment is right, he jumps.
The air feels like knives cutting his face. He falls for a minute before hitting the water with a splash. It's pretty deep, enough to swallow him up. He sits under the surface for a moment, adjusting to the cold before swimming to the surface, coughing but trying to stifle it.
It's fairly big, about as big as four of SDNs bathroom stalls arranged in a circle. He kicks to keep himself above the water,trying to brace on the wall but not having much to grip.
He stares around the circle, and looks for Waterboy.
To his horror, he doesn't see anything. No waterboy. Nobody. Nothing.
“Fuck.” He whispers, and not a moment later he feels a sharp tug on his foot.
He's dragged down in a surge, making a loud splash. He thrashes around, banging his head on the wall, before another hand grabs his neck. He's lifted out of the water, and pushed up against the wall. By waterboy. Who was sitting waiting below the water.
He coughs and kicks as his throat is squeezed, and waterboy blinks at him a few times, before gasping and dropping him.
“Oh my god! Robert! Im - im- so sorry i thought- you were- somebody elseidunno i-i i panicked!”
“Jesus christ herman why were you hiding below the water!?” He can't stop himself from scolding.
“I was- i don't know trying to confuse her into coming down here so i could attack her!”
“Thats a horrible plan you could've gotten yourself killed!”
“Y-you did the same thing I did!” Waterboy argues weakly. Robert takes a moment to acknowledge the ridiculousness of the moment and pushes off the wall to hug Waterboy.
“I thought you got your idiot self killed.”
There's silence, for a moment.
Waterboy lets him stay right where he is, so he doesn't have to struggle to swim as much, which is a relief. He breathes in.
“I don't like her.” waterboy says, suddenly.
“Yeah, I figured you didn't. You got a history?”
“She ruined my life.” His tone isn't angry, not quite bitter. In shock. He whispers. “Shes the reason why my life has sucked. Shes why i cant- i cant control- my body anymore” He whispers, huffing his breath.
“I know, I know, you're angry. Your upset, but the others are taking care of that, right now we’ve got to find a way- out of this hole-”
“Im going to do something stupid.”
“What?” He looks to Herman again, whose jaw is set in concentration. His eyes seem to fog over- go distant and far.
“Herman!? Hey, waterboy, whatever the hell you think your doing has to-”
Robert is cut off - because suddenly, the waterboy starts to cry. And the tears come like a geyser.
~~~
Flambae has seen waterboy use his powers to levitate once, and it was gross. He made a spire of pressurized water that basically served as a jet pack. And it worked, but once again, gross.
This wasn't anything like this.
This was a geyser.
Him and the others had been doing their best to hold their own against the Doctor but it wasn't turning out to be an easy fight. Her powers were a real pain in the butt.
Sonar's ears got injured from high frequency sounds- doors were randomly locking- voices were being mimicked - it was turning into a mess.
The villain was weak, but so were they.
It was going to take a real miracle to get it done.
And that miracle came in the form of waterboy- causing a flash flood.
THe giant pit they’d been fighting around and that Bob Bob had presumably climbed into suddenly exploded in a wave, and filled the room with water. Flambae sincerely hoped to be stricken from the record that he fell right onto his ass and was - briefly unconscious as a result.
He woke up soon enough to see the Z team in a scrambled mess. He stood to his feet- sopping wet and weakened power wise - and started to look around.
The doctor was also seemingly thrown by the blast, and off into the back corner.
The first person Flambae sees is Robert, so he goes to him, moving swiftly.
He goes to the man and shakes him. Robert coughs , sputtering on liquid.
“Hey-hey, easy man- get it up-”
“Waterboy!” Robert chokes.
“Wheres waterboy gone?”
That's… a great question.
Flambae looks around. He sees prism and punch up getting off the ground, coupe and malevola on the high ground, and invisigal reassembling golem. No waterboy. He cusses.
“I don't- i don't really know man but you need to let me know if you are - your hurt or something-”
Flambae looks around again. The water on the ground is moving.
That's probably an issue. He stands up and hauls Robert over his shoulder and moves away from the water, to somewhere away. He finds some crates and hopes onto them to create some distance.
He watches as the water builds up, circling over and over again, moving fast and creating sound. A howling- almost like crying, moving faster and faster and faster, creating energy.
The water settles, and then there's waterboy. But he doesn't seem quite himself.
He stands straighter. With more purpose. His hands and face are dripping wet, and his hands are rippling- like a body of water. His eyes went from a light blue grey to a blue so dark it looks like the mariana trench.
He moves forward slowly, deliberately, and stands over a recuperating doctor staff.
~~~
When you're taught how to float on the water as a child, you’re told you need to trust it.
To put your faith in the water. Because if you don't trust it- you’ll kick and you’ll sink.
Waterboy trusts the water, and the water trusts him back.
It trusts his family. For being kind to the spirits of the water as long as they’ve been around.
It was an accident that his parents died in the spirit of the water. And so they owed his family a favour. That favour was Herman's life.
He should have died, but he didn't.
Instead he was taken over by the water. Imbuged with its spirit. Kept alive.
Most of the time, he's nearly human. He has his quirks, issues with energy and digestion, and the manifestation of his powers.
He can only use his powers so much before running out. That's the mercy of the tide.
But if you put all of your trust into the water, sometimes the tide will provide you with greater mercy.
And push you closer to shore.
So the waterboy trusted the spirit of the water. To take over his head and mind. And do what had to be done.
He watches as his body moves to Stephanie. Creeps low down to her, and starts to pour from his hands. He watches it like a movie as she's waterboarded- suffocating and choking.
In between gasps of water, coughing and choking, she tries to calm the waters.
“They say I hang for money.
Hanging aint bloody funny.”
It's a familiar sea shanty. One used to time the hoisting of sails on the ocean. The sea tended to favour it, which is why it got so popular.
Once upon a time it might have calmed the spirit of the waters turning to a tempest inside of a waterboy's body.
But today it won't.
She was forcing him to become something.
To be ready to be a hero.
And today he was.
Because sometimes, heros have to do hard things.
Sometimes heros have to end somebody.
~~~
In two weeks time, SDN is back to normal.
For the most part, anyways.
Waterboy swears he doesn't remember a thing past falling into a big pit- and that his memory is spotty from the time before it too. He tells the team about the memory hindering augmentation, but he doesn't speak to much else on what his relationship with the Doctor was. He swears that there isn't much else he remembers about her.
Robert isn't so sure how much he believes that, but he's willing to accept it for now. Give him some time to process things.
News gets out about a supervillain being taken down. Blazer makes a public service announcement on television advising people to go to the hospital and get an MRI to check for any sort of unknown augments on their next check up or if they're experiencing gaps in memory.
He's sure that’ll keep the actual doctors busy for a while.
Waterboy comes back after another few days off seemingly… better. There's something a bit more confident about the way he acts and talks. A bit more assured. Roberts sure he’ll start opening up more about his past to them directly when he's ready.
But until then, things seem fairly peaceful for Herman. On early enough mornings he's even caught him a few times enjoying time at the beach. Swimming laps or standing ankle deep in the ocean, always singing the same sea shanty under his breath.
They call me hanging Johnny
They say I hang for money