Chapter Text
Normally Robert would prefer not to wake up before the ass crack of dawn, as he likes to wake up at a reasonable time just like the rest of society-- but it's unavoidable. Not when this was the only good scheduled time of when he's under a lighter degree of surveillance than ordinary.
Days prior were spent just watching his dad's habits. He's not making it easy, as he's not as consistent as Robert would've liked, but the early mornings were the exact cut and dry routine of getting ready. All the more better for Robert to plan his route around.
Underneath the bedcovers, Robert made quick work of slipping out a small outdated tablet that he had swiped from the workshop, having had hidden it underneath the mattress. The battery life thankfully still holding strong despite days of being left uncharged. He's pretty sure it belonged to an old member of the Brigade before it was left collecting dust.
The device was primitive, basically just a kindle tablet meant to be used for reading e-books, check the weather, small things. The sort of device that fancy plane trips would provide for you if you asked for it just to keep you entertained and nothing else.
But it had a screen, a keyboard, a console, and it can connect to the network. Just enough features to be used for his custom jailbreaking work. Robert jury-rigged it as his trojan to the building's system.
0501- Robbie wakes up and gets ready for the day.
Although the display quality for the e-book reader wasn't suited for live footages, it's still serviceable. Robert skims through the camera setup that Robbie has and snorted at how many he has pointing at inoffensive corners of the building. Some of them even point at walls and nothing more. But he moves on until he finds the exact, badly pixelated render of the room he was currently in.
Small mercies. He only has one hidden camera in Robert's room so Robert loops the footage to make it seem like he's still asleep. His father won't be fooled long, but it's enough to buy him time.
0514- Robbie checks on his son through the cameras, before hitting the gym.
One chance. He needs to make this quick. It's relieving to know that he now, ironically, was utilizing his father's own cameras to spy on his movement. It acts as a nice reassurance to him that it's all going to plan before he's flying blind with his next course of action.
With his crutch, he runs.
Robert was already down in the workshop in record time with the door lock to the elevator readily breached open. The dispatcher immediately went to the computer and switched it on, his hands fluttering across the keyboard like he's handling hot coal. Undeniably reaching an absolute flow state from task managing through as many program commands as he can before he runs out of time.
He knows his father was a way more competent Mechaman than him. Astral on his own rights is a brilliant mechanic extraordinaire, a one-in-a-billion genius, the best of the fucking best, and Robert accepts it. It's a horrible matchup to be against him. But if there's one thing Robert can be proud of compared to his father, it's that he's a damn good hacker.
0550- Robbie checks on his son again using his phone.
0551- Robbie realizes Robert hasn't been moving at all.
0551- Robbie goes to leave but can't, the power is flickering, the door isn't reacting to his command.
0552- The whole building complex goes into a blackout.
With the power off, the workshop was engulfed in total darkness for a second before the emergency lights kicked in. The electronic doors, however, are unreactive and will remain shut until electricity comes back again, trapping it's inhabitants temporarily. The backup power supply will flow in roughly a minute, despite how hard Robert tried to delay it for earlier through the PC. Some things you just couldn't control as it's hardwired in automatically. He accepts this too, as another challenge for his gamble.
Because it is risky. With having no power in the building means that Robert can't rely on his hacking skills anymore for anything else. He can't check if his father was still in the gym at all, or if he managed to sneak out already. He can't anticipate any possible contretemps from Robbie in return for his prison breakout.
...But with the power off, all of the mechsuits are left unguarded, including his Phoenix. Robert is still pissed as all hell that he couldn't locate where his father has hidden his original Astral Pulse, but he can work with this. He can adjust.
An eye of an eye. A pulse for a pulse.
So in exchange, Robert plucks out his father's Astral Pulse from the only suit that had it's lights still on and went to get his suit ready for his grand escape.
He's giddy. He's shaking. He threw his crutch inside and wiggled up into his pilot seat like a bird returning to nest. All of the controls didn't appear to be too damaged despite the suit's partially missing chest piece, so Robert knew the universe was finally tossing him a bone for all of his past misfortunes. About goddamn time.
Mechaman placed in the stolen Astral Pulse, felt the purring of the engines in answer and directed his Mecha towards the chute that was created for this exact reason: a way out.
Younger Robert used to dream about flying the suit through this tunnel before. Used to wonder if it's like a reversed slide situation, going up. He never thought he would actually get to use it one day, nevermind the fact that he's only using it to escape from his smothering dad. Details details.
With his rocket boosters, he shot upwards, up and up through layers of the earth before the tunnel slowly turns horizontal, signalling the near-end. The pilot can see light filtering through.
Through... a massive figure.
The tunnel was blocked.
This... isn't part of the plan.
There stands a behemoth of a mech in all it's glory of harsh lines and bulky shields. It's shadowing the exit like an angel sent to punish evil, acting as the last barrier preventing him from leaving.
Robert had predicted he would do this. His original Astral Pulse was still functional despite impossibly missing it's half, it's expected his dad would use it instead to power his suit to hunt Robert down once his son stole his.
What he didn't expect was for him to have already hidden a fifth fucking mech suit in the tunnel, just to ambush him. There must be some sort of a bullshit route that Robert never knew existed, connecting him to here. That's the only reasonable explanation he has for how his dad got out of the gym and readied himself for this confrontation.
Also he would like to point out, what sane individual builds a total of five mech suits within a fifteen years timespan for the hell of it? And who knows how long he had this suit waiting here for him, ready for the circumstance of Robert using the chute to fly his suit off.
It's freaky is what it is. Robert thought he was done with facing enemies that could aggravatingly predict his every move. Here comes another version of Shroud.
"Son." Comes the cackle from his dad's suit, engine roaring to life. The floor audibly creaks as it shifts in ready.
"Dad." Robert answered, Phoenix's Mecha legs parting into a low battle stance as he instinctively readied himself for this turn of events. Rolling with the punches, he can do that. He can face this too.
"...I'm not afraid of you."
"You should be." Astral says, winding up his own weapon of choice- a sledgehammer that could definitely level down structures if he wishes to.
Pressurized gas then releases from his back as pronged parts flutters outward, coincidentally, awfully, making it look like he did infact have wings made of metal. They catch the light like they're glowing and it's awfully tacky in Robert's unbiased opinion. Really stomps in the fact that his father was a show-off.
Robert isn't sure if he would survive this or if he'd find himself shackled again down in that windowless room, but he's not gonna lay down and give up. Not for this bastard.
"Tell me one thing though; what was your plan? To run off out there in the world and what, ask the SDN for help? They're more busy helping kids cross the junction, helping kittens down trees." Astral's laugh echoed through the tunnel. "They can't help you boy. They're just heroes for hire when it's convenient, when the job's easy. Just a bunch of useless vermin."
"I have to try." Robert gritted out, ignoring that weirdly personal and cheap jab at the SDN. They must've had bad history. No wonder his dad barely showed interest when he shared about his job. "You know I have to try. You taught me not to stay down yourself. This is the product of your lesson."
"Show me then." Astral demanded. "Show me just how badly you want to leave it all behind."
That's definitely something his dad should be unpacking with a licensed therapist and not to his son in the midst of an epic mech battle. Robert does not comment on this though, choosing to launch sidewards with his rocket boosters to avoid Astral's great swing.
Y'know for piloting a bigger, meaner mech, Astral is unfairly fast.
Odds are a bit stacked against him right now. His suit was stuck under 40% of it's performance capability, majority of his tools were out of commission, but the malfunctioned Astral Pulse that his dad was using had a noticeable effect to his movement. Made it slightly jittery and fitful, predictable in it's short rest term.
All the more useful for his other niche tool.
After the events of Shroud, Robert had opened up to Royd about how scary it was to get cornered in the suit, of being overwhelmed when his team isn't there. He's great at coming up with plans on the spot, sure, but it's easy to miss every other details that his suit can't encapsulate. Easy to trap one big target down.
And Royd? He took that as a challenge. A specially made program for the Mecha was added-- a rudimentary predictive algorithm that wasn't as advanced as Shroud's and takes a longer time to generate, but it's useful in calculating the best escape routes possible with it's tested success percentage of 99%. Robert hadn't had much chance to use it before, but today seems like a first for a lot of things.
He knows his father was expecting a fight, he knows they're not a good match-up despite the malfunctioned Pulse's nerf on his dad, but Robert just needs a single opening to slip through to win. To escape out with his dad's Astral Pulse and his suit and figure out the rest of his plans. To just get far far away from this hellhole.
Astral caught up fast that Robert wasn't looking for a battle and adjusted. Like a linebacker refusing any slip through the team's defence, the other mech stubbornly held his position under lock.
This whole situation was like a funny allegory to their current dynamic. Moving fly vs brick wall.
"What will make you stay?" His dad asked, hammer barely catching Phoenix by the arm. His wings shifted to acclimate to his center of gravity as he winds up again swiftly like a baseball player. "How many times do I have to knock yourself down until you learn?"
"As many times as possible." Robert grunted, strained as his suit caught a sneaky rocket pulse from his dad, knocking him around the pilot seat. His own crutch bounced up from the shock and bumped hard against his forehead. Traitor.
The ache in his head was flaring again. Robert's also pretty sure his nose is bleeding right now, but his hands were too busy navigating the controls to risk a wipe. He took to shouldering the blood trail off, smudging his dark shirt darker.
Not looking too good right now. His dad had already chipped down his impromptu barrier shield with a devastating blow, knocking him several feet backwards from the built-up kinetic shock. He had to wrestle himself from tripping from the unexpected push, lowering his body center and pressing weight on his Mecha heels as he slides back.
And right there. The system chimed in with a predicted opening for him to speed past in the next 2 second ASAP. He did not hesitate to take the risk, trusting the information for his freedom.
Robert is giving Royd the biggest smooch possible and a drink for this; once he gets back. He flew past the barely-there opening right under his father's raised shoulders and breezed towards the rising sun.
A peek to his back as he shot out towards the expansive skies shows his dad's mech watching him from down below, unreactive. Alone.
He's doing nothing? He's... he's letting him go. For now.
Obnoxiously, Astral waved when he saw his son staring back, so Robert pushed the mech to fly faster, begging he had enough time to plan a way to get his original Astral Pulse before his dad stopped playing around.
Because that's what this was all along: a challenge from his father to see how far he would push himself before he burns. Before he has to fall and be caught.
He's on borrowed time and borrowed resources.