Chapter Text
Mecha-Man was no longer a household name. The legacy that had been passed down to him was tarnished, wiped from the book of heroes. He had initially intended to be good; He really, really had. But when he realized that at the end of the day, humanity was still a cesspool, that there was no true benefit to being a hero..
Well, it had certainly lifted the rose colored lenses from his eyes. His father’s death had been preventable. Had left him without a father, something that permanently altered the trajectory of his life. Maybe if his dad had survived, things would have turned out differently for Robert. He wasn’t super though, not like his father. Not like his grandfather. Really, they should have known that he would turn out fucked up. Damaged. Despite his lack of powers, he was strong, especially with the Mecha suit in play.
Once he had renounced his position as a hero, Shroud had left him alone. Their petty rivalry was no more-- The desire for revenge.. Gone. He didn’t care anymore, instead focusing his anger and thirst for vengeance on the heroes that had let his father down. Of course, not many of them were still kicking, so his focus had turned to the new generation of heroes that had filled the gap. It was sad, really, how some of them crumpled in the face of his suit. His plasma blade had taken more limbs and lives than he could keep track of, though he mostly stuck with petty crimes and minor disturbances, these days.
Robert was tired of it all. He hung out with some of the villain crowd, their respect evident in the way they treated him, but he still.. Didn’t fit in. Outside of his Mecha Man suit, he was just Robert Robertson the Third. He wasn’t easily recognized in the ‘new’ hero community, but most of the lower level villains did know him by face. Shroud had kept his name quiet, a silent nod to their hesitant truce. They both had bigger fish to fry and a newfound dislike of the same people. It worked out in both of their favors-- If Robert had been left unchecked as a ‘hero’, he almost certainly would have taken Shroud’s life, probably at the expense of his own life. Revenge had a funny way of narrowing the things you cared about down.
His new objective, goal, whatever you wanted to call it, was to destroy the very foundation that heroes operated on. He wanted to ruin their credibility, their livelihoods. By the time Robert was finished with them, there would be nothing left. Until then, he wouldn’t stop.