Chapter Text
“Please Robert, I need this!” Malevola begged, clasping her hands together and shaking them intensely to show how serious this was to her. If Robert picked up on the meaning of the gesture then he didn’t show it.
“I just don’t think that’s feasible when I’m also on the clock getting calls left and right.” Robert leaned back in the incredibly uncomfortable break room chair trying to see if he could find any pleasant use for it besides sitting and listening to, what he considered at least, an outrageous request. “It’s not like I don’t feel for the guy, believe me I do, but I can’t balance those issues while I’m working.”
“Then why not do it off the clock?” Malevola replied with clear desperation in her voice. “You’ve seen what he can do, this is just a tough time for him. Do you really wanna lose an asset like him?”
Robert rolled his eyes, trying to hide his empathy and keep the conversation professional. “Why can’t you do it? You’re his friend, I’m basically just his boss. Plus that’s above my paygrade.”
“Because I’ve tried helping him before and… I don’t know, I’m not great at wrangling him in. We’re pals but I’m not good at holding him down. Devils know I tried.” She sighed, turning her eyes away from Robert for the moment and reminiscing.
“And what gave you the idea that I’m gonna do better than you, someone who has history with him?” Robert responded.
“Are you kidding? Remember how Invisigal was when you got here? Look at her now, even with all those pitfalls you managed to get her to be top of the fucking leaderboard daily!” Malevola pointed with her thumb to the board in the office. They both looked over to confirm but Invisigal was in 3rd today. “Okay well bad day for that example but you get what I mean!”
“Fine, I see your point.” Robert conceded. She had a fair argument in his eyes and as much as Sonar’s performance had declined recently he thought it might be salvageable. Might. “Maybe I do have the chops for it. But I’m still gonna need something as compensation.”
“What do you want? Money? I could give you my paychecks for a month! I could get some item for you, I remember you mentioning you saw a ‘cool looking amulet’ at the museum the other day. Or do you want someone dead? Because I could easily-” Malevola was cut off by Robert covering her mouth and sighing.
“One, I'm pretty sure you’ll need that money. Two, if you have to commit a crime to do it then I don’t want it. Three, remember point two. You don’t have to know now, I just expect something eventually. Is that clear?” He pulled his hand back and let her respond.
“Crystal. Thank you Robert.” Malevola responded as professionally as she could muster, not wanting to trip on the final hurdle of this deal. “Oh, uhh… by the way, I think we’re both supposed to get off break now.”
Robert looked at the clock in the room and saw that they were both 15 minutes late for the next shift. “Shit. Alright, we’ve got a deal. Let’s get back to work.” They both stood up and jogged to their stations, getting ready for another few grueling hours of making their pocket of the world safer.
—
Robert checked the clock. 7:00 PM. Time to clock out. “Alright guys, good work today. See you guys tomorrow.” Robert took off his headset and stretched. Just as he was about to pack up he noticed Sonar heading into the restroom, making him remember the promise he made to Malevola. “Shit. That’s right.”
“What’s up Robert?” Mandy rose from the cubicle next to his. “You don’t usually sound that exhausted, even after a shift.”
“Really now? I’ve heard that I’m the most exhausted sounding guy, like, constantly.” Robert joked in response.
“I doubt they say that constantly. I’m just saying, last time I heard you this tired was after Shroud tore this place apart.” She walked over to his desk and put a hand on his shoulder. “What’s up, really?”
Robert sighed again. “I just gotta… have a talk with Sonar. Get him back up to snuff. You’ve seen how he’s been lately right?”
“That I have… Caught him trying to steal some straws from the storage closet the other day. When I asked what he was up to he just said ‘I need these for my niece’s science project.’” Mandy replied. “Which is weird given how we know he doesn’t have any siblings, let alone a niece.”
“That is… odd, but you see what I mean now right? I have to see what’s going on, make sure he’s alright so we can keep doing our jobs.” Mandy gave Robert a knowing look and he shrugged. “And I guess I care about him too. I would prefer the whole Z-Team stays, I don’t wanna have to cut anyone again.”
“I know.” Mandy smiled, prompting Robert to smile in return. “Well I’ll let you get to it, but don’t overwork yourself okay?”
Robert sarcastically waved his hand. “Pssshhhhh, me? Overworking myself? Please, I’m the best at work-life balance. Some may even say, ‘the GOAT.’”
“Ooh, don’t strain yourself stretching like that.” The two chuckled, Mandy giving Robert and encouraging smack on the back before walking off. “Good luck!”
“See you later Mandy.” Robert waved. Now it was just up to him. He looked at the clock once more reading ‘7:09’ on it now. Sonar had been in the bathroom for nearly 10 minutes. Robert decided to investigate.
Entering the bathroom Robert immediately noticed something was off, he could clearly see Sonar’s shoes in the nearest stall and they weren’t facing the door. That would be fine but the room lacked the sound of pissing too. Robert decided to cut in. “Hey Sonar.”
Before the words were even fully out the sound of fumbling came from the stall. In just a few seconds Sonar burst out of the stall with his hands behind his back. “Yes Bobert- Robert? What’s uh, what’s up?”
Okay. He was clearly just doing something he shouldn’t have. Robert thought to himself. “Just thought I’d invite you out. Haven’t really gotten any 1 on 1 time with you before, thought it’d be nice to get to know each other a bit better.”
“Oh, I don’t think I can make it. I got something important going on.” Sonar averted his gaze, looking towards anything that wasn’t Robert.
“Ah gotcha. I understand.” Robert closed the distance between them, putting his hand on Sonar’s shoulder and getting a flinch out of him. “I suppose THIS is more important, huh?” In one swift motion Robert pulled Sonar forward by his shoulder, using his other hand to grab Sonar’s arm and swipe what he was hiding behind his back before letting the man bat go and stepping back.
“This is…” Robert took a moment to look at what he was holding, utterly confused. It was a rag that had a small white powder on it as well as a small straw. “What the fuck is this?”
Sonar tried to swipe it back but Robert dodged. “Hey man give that back that’s got some valuable shit on it!”
Robert tried to rationalize what it was but couldn’t think of it. “Is this… were you about to do coke in the work bathroom?”
“Wait wait wait! Don’t get the wrong idea!” Sonar begged.
“Then give me the right idea, what were you doing Sonar?” Robert sternly responded.
“You’re right it is cocaine but I wasn’t planning on using it here. I had brought it in before but lost it a bit before we started work for the day. Last place I saw it was in here and I thought it’d be best to search at the end of the day.” Sonar shamefully admitted. “I didn’t wanna lose perfectly good cocaine and I didn’t wanna get in trouble if it was found.”
“You’re so desperate to get high that you brought it into work?” Robert let out a bit of the concern he was feeling for just a moment.
“Yes, man!” Sonar retorted in frustration, stumbling over to the sink and looking into it. “I can barely get by without it given all the shit we deal with on the daily. Without it I feel like I’m getting my teeth removed with no anesthesia."
“That must be… frustrating.” Robert tried to sympathize but knew that he didn’t really understand what Sonar was going through, not yet at least. “I want you to tell me all about it, but not here. Wash up and I’ll get us an uber.”
“Okay. Not a big fan of talking in the bathroom anyways.” Sonar turned on the sink, splashing himself with water. “Where are we going?”
Robert contemplated as he tied up the rag in his hand and threw it in the trash. “Does Chili’s sound okay to you?”
—
Robert looked over the Chili’s menu once more. No matter how he looked at it he couldn’t forget the sickness that followed every time he dined here. Yet he came back anyway. Just as he was figuring out if his choice should focus on flavor or what would leave him feeling less ill, Sonar scoffed.
“I haven’t actually been here before.” He said, looking towards one of the hung up TVs showing whatever sport was in season. “Anything you’d recommend or should I just try to eyeball whatever looks good?”
“I was just thinking about that.” Robert lowered his menu. “Honestly, I don't really know. I always end up feeling sick after eating here. I don’t know if every Chili’s is like this but you never really see anyone yearning for it in the first place.”
“You said we should do team drinks here though.” Sonar looked at Robert, confused.
“Yeah, drinks and not…” Robert looked closer at the menu. “Chicken Crispers. Plus you’re more likely to avoid bar fights by going to a Chili’s instead of a villain bar.”
“Oh, right.” Sonar sighed and decided to rest his head on his hands, looking at Robert. “Can we at least get some drinks then?”
“Am I boring you that much already? And we’ll have to see, depending on how this conversation goes.” Robert leaned back. “Why have you been so intent on getting high? More specifically, every single work day for the past 3 weeks.”
Sonar sat up in shock. “You could tell I was high?”
“You were pretty good at hiding it at first but then there was that incident at the pier last week. I retroactively realized you had been off your game for a few weeks by then.” Robert leaned in, giving Sonar a stern look.
Sonar stared down for a moment before he finally dared to breathe out and speak. “I’ve just felt like shit. Real big shit. Is that a good enough reason for you?”
Robert’s gaze didn’t lessen in its intensity, prompting Sonar to continue. “My portfolio is almost completely worthless, this girl I was seeing had found “someone better”, work’s been getting harder with all those scattered Red Ring dudes, and everyone’s too busy to hang out now.”
“I see.” Robert leaned back. “What about what happened at the pier? You didn’t think to stop then?”
Sonar clenched his hands into fists, nails digging into his palms. He was angry, horribly so, but couldn’t even place why. His grip relaxed and a sad expression took over his face. “I don’t know.”
Robert let out a sigh and finally relaxed. “Alright. Sorry for pushing, I guess the past few weeks have been getting to me too. We don’t have to figure this out now, but I’m glad we got some of the issues out into the open. It’s something to build on.”
“And how are we gonna build on it?” Sonar assumed his own leaning back stance, trying to match Robert in tone.
“Well I don’t know jack about investing or getting you another girlfriend but maybe we can get something going with the Z-Team. I know you probably don’t want to air your issues out to everyone so maybe we can come up with an event to celebrate.” Robert pulled out his phone, looking through the calendar.
“Yeah, I'm not a big fan of pity parties. Plus the only ones who’d get sappy over it are Waterboy and Malevola, and I don’t want him to ruin any of my good suits.” Sonar contemplated, half joking, half serious. “Halloween’s already passed, a Thanksgiving themed party is out of the question completely.”
“That would definitely seem desperate…” Robert paused for a moment, focusing on his phone. “Hey, how do you feel about birthday parties?”
“I’m neutral, I guess. Why do you ask?” Sonar’s ear twitched curiously.
“Well, Victor, it’s YOUR birthday this Friday.” Robert smirked. “I think that’s a good reason to get together.”
“Oh shit it is! I completely forgot. I used to have so many fake birthdays to keep up with. I kinda lost track.” Sonar looked off for a moment like he was reliving a fond memory before shaking the thought off and focusing. “Wait, how did you get that info?”
“Blazer thought it might build morale if I told everyone happy birthday when their special days rolled around. I did try it a few times but you guys aren’t the greatest at expressing gratitude. Plus part of SDN’s job in recruiting you was figuring out your REAL date of birth.” Robert explained with a cocky grin. “Does that sound good to you?”
“Eh, seems a bit self centered in the opposite direction.” Sonar pondered for a moment. “Buuuuuuut I do also like the attention. And free stuff.”
“Great. I’ll tell the team tomorrow. Should we hold it at your house or in the office?”
“My place should be fine. I’ll get it all nice and set up.” Sonar smiled which prompted one out of Robert as well. “I’m actually kinda excited now. I was dreading even coming here to talk but maybe this’ll be fun.”
“Only thing I was dreading was the food here…” Robert joked in return.
“Speaking of, weren’t we supposed to get a waitress by now? We’ve been here for like, 30 minutes.” Sonar’s statement had brought back another memory of why he didn’t like this particular Chili’s.
“Welcome to Chili’s! What do you two fine young men want tonight?” A waitress stepped out from the bathroom next to the duo’s booth. That waitress also happened to be the owner of an Instagram account entirely dedicated to gossiping about local heroes in Torrance, with a special fixation on the Z-Team and their most recent Dispatcher.
Robert just sighed. “Well, at least the team will have a conversation topic for the next few weeks.”