Chapter Text
The first time Sonar walked through the doors at the Superhero Dispatch Network’s Torrance headquarters, there weren’t many positive feelings crossing his mind. He was tired, hungover, nervous, and wondering what the hell Malevola was thinking when she decided to rope both of them into this. Sure, she was a great friend and hadn’t led him astray before, and the prospect of getting his crimes forgiven and avoiding jail time was pretty appealing, but this was a pretty big jump into the unknown.
He looked over at her, hoping that his trepidation would be conveyed with a look. She met his gaze with sympathy in her face. Seemingly, she understood. Still, she pushed him forward with her tail, continuing their lock-step march toward redemption or yet another failure.
Malevola checked them in and they waited in the lobby. Sonar was grateful that Malevola wasn’t trying to keep him engaged in conversation as he waded through his thoughts. Wasn’t the whole point of this place to train superheroes? It was in the name and all. But Sonar didn’t see any way that he could be much of a superhero. Malevola had powers that made sense for saving people. What did he have to offer? Financial advice of questionable legality? That didn’t strike him as something that would be in high demand around here. His bat form didn’t seem much more promising. First of all, it was hard to control when he shapeshifted. Second of all, he didn’t figure that many people were interested in being helped by a terrifying monster. Malevola wasn’t human either but at least she was humanoid and, as Sonar noted often, conventionally attractive. Try as he might, he couldn’t see the same in himself, especially when transformed.
Sonar’s rumination was interrupted by a cheerful female voice.
“Malevola and Sonar?”
He looked up to see a woman he recognized as Blonde Blazer. It was hard not to have some idea of who she was. Her face was on billboards all around town. They were sending out the big guns to talk to them early, huh?
Malevola responded for them.
“That’s us.”
“Perfect! For now, you can call me Blazer. It’s great to meet both of you! Follow me.”
Sonar got up and allowed himself to be led to a small meeting room, presumably Blazer’s office. She sat down and gestured for her guests to do the same.
Sonar felt the need to make a good impression on her. She was influential, powerful, and somehow intimidating in person despite her casual demeanor.
“So… I hear that you’re in the market for heroes? I think that we could be of assistance.”
Blazer laughed.
“We’ll see. I just want to get to know the two of you a bit more first.”
Sonar was taken aback. “Well, I graduated from Harvard,”
Blazer smiled and held up a hand.
“I’ve read through both of your files, so I know the official stuff, but I’d like to know about you. Give me an idea of what you’re looking to get out of this.”
This woman meant business.
Malevola took the reins again.
“Let me handle this one.”
She glanced over at Sonar, who nodded reluctantly.
“We would like a chance to turn things around. I know that we’ve made some mistakes and this would be a great opportunity to use our skills for good and break out of the cycle of reoffending.”
Sonar tagged himself in.
“Yep. Just trying to do things more by the book. Jail is kind of a drag. So is dealing with all the other criminals. Those people kinda suck, you know?”
Blazer cocked her head to one side.
“Well, I hope you’ll be able to get around that preference. What I was thinking for the two of you is that you would join a team that we’re putting together. Everybody in it is a new member of the Phoenix Program. The hope is that you’ll all work together and earn your second chance together.”
Sonar’s heart sank. He was not a fan of working in groups. A duo was one thing, but a bunch of other people, especially one consisting of people that he didn’t already know sounded horrible.
“Wouldn’t that be kinda dangerous? If we’re working with a bunch of other people who are fresh out of the legal system, wouldn’t that just give us more connections that we could use to get back into crime? Seems like it’d be best to keep us separate from each other.” He tried to make this sound more authoritative than scared, but it’s hard to say how effective this was.
“Isolation isn’t good for anyone, Sonar. You’ll learn more from building real connections than you could ever learn on your own. If you want to commit to this, you’ll have to give it a try.”
I already had no clue if I want to commit to this, Sonar thought, and nothing that has been said so far is making that any better.
“There are obvious benefits to this. Of course, as you know, if you manage to graduate from the Phoenix Program and become a full time employee here, your record will be wiped. Any crimes that you committed before joining will be forgiven. But I think that the both of you also stand to gain a lot from this outside that point. First of all, we’ll pay you from the start. Easy, legitimate money.”
She looked harder at them, her gaze flitting between the two. “Finally, I can tell that neither of you are bad people. You’ve been hurt and discriminated against. This is a chance to join a real community that can take care of you and build you up. You owe it to yourselves to try.”
Sonar’s fur bristled. Who was she to act like she knew his story? They’d only just met. Just because she could read a fucking file didn’t mean a thing. Before he could voice his thoughts, Malevola spoke up once again.
“Thank you for the opportunity. We’ll join.” She looked expectantly at Sonar. He hesitated.
“Fine. But I want full employee benefits beyond the pay. 401k matching, insurance, the works.”
Malevola rolled her eyes. Blazer’s face only got brighter. “You’ll have to be on for at least a month before I can promise that. But yeah, we’re not scamming you guys. You’ll get benefits.”
She produced paperwork for each of them to sign. Sonar held his face close to the document, trying to make out the text better. These damn bat eyes were not helpful sometimes. Everything checked out. The agreement was as Blazer promised.
“Should we sign with our real names?” He asked with a glance toward Blazer.
“Aliases are fine.”
He scribbled out Sonar on the paper and handed it back.
“Right. Thanks, guys. I promise you won’t regret this.”
“What now?” Sonar asked.
“Well, sit tight for a bit. We’ve just about got the team ready to go, so I would like both of you to meet everyone.”
Too soon. Interactions like that took preparation. Sonar hoped there’d be a wait.
They left the office and parked themselves in an empty break room, with Blazer promising that they’d be retrieved when everyone was ready.
The door shut and Malevola and Sonar were alone.
The demon was the first to speak. “She seems nice.”
Sonar raised an eyebrow. “I guess. Not that excited about how she talked about all this though.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
He grumbled, “But now we gotta go deal with a bunch of new people.”
“Why are you so stressed? You’re great at talking to people.”
“Not while sober, I’m not.”
As he spoke, Sonar reached into a pocket in his suit jacket, retrieving a small pill box. He took two into his hand, tilted his head fully upward, and dropped them down his throat.
Malevola looked on, disappointment crossing her features.
“Dude, come on. You can’t rely on drugs for every social situation. It’s gonna kill you one day.”
“I’m stressed!”
“We need to figure out a way for you to be stressed without taking something immediately afterward.”
“People get prescribed things for anxiety all the time. Why can’t I self-medicate a bit?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Just let me do this today, alright?”
He received a heavy sigh in response.
“Fine. But I’m serious. I’m going to be on you about this.”
He nodded. As if starting a new job wasn’t scary enough, the idea of going sober packed on a lot more stress. His friend had been hammering that point home for some time now and he had been trying to cut back, but it wasn’t easy. The anxiety and turmoil that came with sobriety was a feeling he wasn’t used to anymore. The last thing he wanted was to get into a shitty working situation and then not be allowed to cope with it in his way. Malevola had tried to push him into therapy, but he wasn’t optimistic about the likelihood that his problems would be understood. Despite his worries, he was happy to be here with Malevola. She had always been a calming presence and it made it easier to stay next to her.
In reality, they only sat around for about half an hour before being ushered off to a larger conference room.
They entered to a group of people who looked… pretty much like what Sonar was used to. They bore few similarities with one another except for the fact that not one of them looked like they wanted to be in this room. Well, maybe with the exception of the rock construct in the back, who seemed pleasant. Sonar decided he liked the guy’s vibes. His gaze collided with him and he got a nod in return. Vibes affirmed.
Malevola and Sonar took their seats next to one another, sitting across from a younger woman with an alternative style, a lady with a colorful blue and white outfit matching her hair, and a big, flamboyant-looking guy with an elaborate outfit and some serious muscle. He looked a bit gay to Sonar, not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. None of them acknowledged the entrance of the newcomers, looking more stone-faced than the guy made of actual earth.
They sat and waited for a moment. Sonar contemplated saying something to break the ice, but as he moved to open his mouth, two more hostages entered the room. One was a scary-looking, but beautiful woman with blades adorning her back while the other was nearly too short to notice. What a group they’ve assembled here, Sonar marveled.
As the final two took their seats, Blazer stood at the front of the room, flanked by an older Black gentleman with a hunch in his stance. Blazer was seemingly the only person in the room attempting to project a positive attitude. Not shocking with a room full of people presumably looking to escape a life in jail, but it was still jarring to Sonar and did little to soothe his suspicions about this. At least the meds were kicking in by now.
Blazer cleared her throat.
“Welcome to the Phoenix Program and to SDN, everyone! I’m glad that you’re here.”
There were only grunts in response. As she started to speak, Sonar let out a quick scanning noise to gauge his surroundings better.
“Starting today, you will be working with us to keep the city safe and orderly. By now, you should all have some idea of what that will entail. You’ll be answering calls as they come in from citizens to help with their problems and protect them from danger. This is a fast-paced job that will vary from day to day. This is your team. Sometimes, you will be working alone, and other times you will work alongside your teammates as your assigned dispatcher sees fit.”
The flaming guy on the other side of the table spoke up.
“Two questions.”
“Yes, Flambae?”
“What if the dispatcher sucks? And,” He looked around the room slowly. “What if the team sucks?”
Blazer frowned. “Neither one of those will happen. You’ve been selected to work with one another because we believe that your skills and backgrounds are complementary to one another. You may think that you have nothing in common with the people sitting around the table with you, but there is more similarity than you think. Additionally, the unique skills that each of you brings to the table will prove to be invaluable in working as a team.”
Flambae sat back again, looking unsatisfied with the answer.
“Any other questions?”
This time it was the alternative woman who chimed in.
“How long do we have to do this again?”
“We will judge your progress and determine when you have passed. I can’t promise a specific time frame. But I think you’ll want to stick around after that anyway.”
“Now, I’m going to leave the room. Take some time and get to know one another.”
As she began to turn toward the door, she looked back and spoke again, her tone quieter and almost pleading.
“Seriously. It’ll make working with each other much easier.”
She and the man with her left, leaving the newly minted team alone.
He looked around. Nobody looked all too enthused about the prospect of speaking to each other.
A deep, resonant voice pierced the air.
“Those ears are crazy, dude. Could you hear me if I was whispering?”
He realized that the stony gentleman was looking straight at him, his face twisted into a grin.
“Probably, yeah. They’re pretty rad. And check this out.” He wiggled his ears back and forth, moving them to face outward before turning them straight forward again, then flattened them down a bit. The construct looked very pleased with the display.
“Fuckin’ awesome.” He raised a massive hand and waved with a surprising fluidity for the colossal mass that needed to be moved. “I’m Golem, by the way.”
“You can call me Sonar.”
Flambae responded, “What, because you’re a bat?”
“Half-bat, actually. And because of this.”
He quit holding back his echolocation, performing a quick scan of the room to get a better look at the others. Most of them seemed taken aback by the chirp.
Flambae bore an expression of disdain.
“My God, man. You’ll take out my eardrums with that.”
He continued, “If you couldn’t tell, my name is Flambae. I control the fire AND the flames.” To demonstrate, he set his hand ablaze before putting it out.
“Nice, man.” Sonar did not want to get on this guy’s bad side, so he decided it was time for some good old-fashioned flattery. “Sick costume, by the way.”
The man blushed a bit before regaining composure. “Thaaanks. I designed it myself, actually.” He hit a few poses, allowing the group to take in his work.
The lady next to him with the colorful wig began to cheer him on, hitting him with an “Ooh!”, “Ok!”, or “Work!” as he hit each pose.
Afterward, she introduced herself. “I’m Prism, by the way. And just in case we never talk to each other again, I make music under the same name.”
This time it was Flambae’s turn to be impressed. He immediately pulled out his phone, allowing Prism to help him pull up her Spotify page. “You know Spotify doesn’t pay us shit, but I’ll accept it for now.”
“Let me make sure I like it and I’ll buy a CD or something.”
“Oh, you will.”
Sonar liked Prism’s confidence. His curiosity got the best of him and he decided to contribute.
“What kind of music do you make?”
“Good music!” She smirked slightly as she responded.
“Well of course, but I meant the genre.”
She wagged a finger back and forth. “You can’t make me put myself in a box like that! Just listen and find out yourself!”
Sonar theatrically sighed and pulled out his own phone. “Alriiiight, I’ll give you streaming money.”
“There you go! That wasn’t so hard.”
The quieter alternative woman spoke up next. “I’m Invisigal. If you know me, you know me as Invisibitch. But they told me I can’t go by that anymore.”
“Which name do you think fit you better?” The shorter man chimed in.
“I guess you’ll have to find out. “Invisigal said with a smirk.
This got a laugh out of the group.
The smaller man added, “Call me Punch-Up.” He raised a fist to add emphasis as he spoke.
“What the hell are you punching up to?” Flambae asked.
“I think you can figure that one out.”
“Coupe. Ex-assassin.”
Golem whistled in amazement. Sonar found himself surprised that the rock construct possessed the anatomy necessary to whistle.
As introductions continued, the icy tension in the room settled to a reserved, but not openly hostile mood. They chatted for a bit before Blazer came to relieve them, telling them that they needed to do a bit more paperwork before they could officially start work. He left, along with Malevola, and they sat in the break room again. It was positioned near Blazer’s office. As he sat to fill out the forms, he heard mumbling in the room. Curiosity took him over. Subtly, he turned his ears and began to listen to the conversation.
He heard a gruff male voice speaking, presumably the guy that Blazer was with in the conference room.
“...bunch of hopeless fucking losers are gonna blow this whole program up. There’s no way you see anything in these fucking people.”
Sonar’s fur stood on end.
Blazer spoke sternly in response. “This is going to be a difficult team to work with, but you can’t just give up that easily.”
“You’ll see. This is pointless. You’re wasting your breath talking to them. And what kind of problems is that fucking z-team going to be able to solve anyway?”
“The whole point of the Phoenix Program is to take people who have turned against society and bring them back into it. It’s always going to be hard. It’s not pointless and you’re not helping by saying it is, Chase.”
“If you keep bringing in idiots like that, there’s not gonna be a goddamn Phoenix Program anymore.”
The man stormed out of the office and Sonar quickly turned his attention to his papers to avoid giving away that he’d overheard anything.
Blazer sighed in her office, leaning back in her chair. Sonar chirped, allowing him to picture her massaging her temples with each hand without looking over. He got the impression that she was a lone voice in favor of the team.
Malevola noticed his sound and leaned closer to him. “Eavesdropping?”
“Yeah.”
“Anything good?”
“No, it’s all pretty bad. People here don’t trust us at all.”
“Well, I guess we do have the history to back that up.”
“But that guy from the conference room made it sound like we’re some group of basket cases destined to bring everyone down with us. How could we possibly be worse than everyone else they’ve brought through this dumbass program?”
Malevola shrugged.
“Guess we’ll have to prove them wrong one way or another.”
As they returned the papers, they met the others one more time. The distrust he felt seemed to be echoed by many of his new teammates. The only cooperative one was Golem. Otherwise, he could already see smaller cliques beginning to form. Prism and Flambae seemed to know each other beforehand and the same could be said for Coupe and Punch-Up. Invisigal and Golem started to chat immediately. Then there was him and Malevola. He thought it might be good to get to know the others.
As everyone began to gather their belongings, he chirped again to get the group’s attention. It worked as their heads snapped to him.
“So… drinks after this?”
“Now you’re speakin’ my language, lad.” Punch-Up chimed in. “I know a great spot.”
“Partying with a bunch of losers, huh? Sounds fun.” Flambae grinned.
“Ohhh, we’re going to get FUCKED UP!” Prism added.
The spot for the evening was The Sardine. It wasn’t lost on Sonar that they were hanging out at a villains’ joint on their first day of attempting to reform themselves. But, he reasoned, they weren’t there quite yet. Might as well embrace the opportunity to get to know his new coworkers.
The group stepped outside and got ready to leave. Some were going to wait up, but Sonar figured it’d be prudent to head to the bar early and get a nice spot for everyone to hang out. At least, that’s how he justified the plan to have a few drinks before everyone else.
As he basked in the cool evening air, he stretched out. He’d been holding back for a while. He let his body grow and stretch, feeling every muscle and tendon shift. This used to hurt when he was younger, but either he had gotten used to it or his body had adjusted to the process. The only hassle that remained was the headache that came from being transformed for too long.
“WOAH!”
He looked to the side.
The team was staring at him, jaws agape with a mixture of awe and horror. The only exception was Golem, whose face bore only pure excitement. Sonar knew he liked that guy.
“Were you going to fuckin’ tell us you do that, lad?” Punch-Up demanded.
Sonar laughed, a deep, guttural bellowing.
“Now you know!”
“Anyone need a ride, by the way?” Sonar asked, gesturing with a winged hand toward his back. “I’m illegally cleared for a passenger or two.”
“Illegally?”
“Well I’m definitely not legally cleared.”
He got no takers. Golem proclaimed that he would if he could, but he was definitely over the weight limit. The others didn’t quite have the trust necessary to put their life in the hands of a giant bat. Oh well.
Surprisingly, the evening turned out to be fairly straightforward, if straightforward meant taking at least six shots each. In between rounds of drinks, playing pool, and a little dancing during the brief period where Malevola successfully dragged him onto the dancefloor before he escaped her grasp and shimmied back to the bar, Sonar learned a lot about the group. Now, at the young hour of 3:30 AM, he was lying in bed, recounting what he had learned.
Despite Sonar’s insistence, Coupe wouldn’t divulge much information about who she had worked for, how many people she had killed (even though he asked several times), or if she had killed anyone important (all she had said was “yes, but you’ll never figure out who”). She was quiet about her motivations for joining SDN, but Sonar assumed that the sheer magnitude of the crimes she had committed warranted pretty much any action to get out of facing the consequences for them.
Her ex, Punch-Up, was a strongman who made a deal that gave him incredible strength, but at the cost of half his height. The guy seemed like a lot of fun. He could certainly handle his liquor and was a surprisingly good dancer too. He didn’t strike Sonar as a villain per se. Perhaps he was truly willing to change.
Flambae was hard to get a handle on. He struck Sonar as kind of a shithead. Maybe compensating for something. Most of his interactions had a hostile tone unless he was talking to Prism, with whom he had immediately bonded. Flambae had a long rap sheet, so he might be stuck in this unless he wanted real jail time.
Prism, on the other hand, was a lot of fun. She had insisted that the bartender play some of her stuff and Sonar found that he quite liked it. She also didn’t seem like much of a villain.
Golem didn’t get to go into the bar, which Sonar found to be an utter tragedy.
Invisigal was also a closed book. Most of her interactions with Sonar had consisted of riffing and making sex jokes to each other. Admittedly, this was a very enjoyable way to talk to somebody and he had no problems with it. But everything stayed pretty surface-level. Notably, she hadn’t said a word about what she had been up to before getting into the Phoenix Program. Whenever asked about her connections or job from beforehand, she clammed up immediately.
All in all, not a bad group. It’d be hard to get used to working with everyone, but not impossible. However, as he recounted, Sonar couldn’t see much of a “team” here. They’d be fun drinking buddies, but it was hard to see how anyone had the makings of a real hero. He sighed. This was going to be tough.