Surround Sound didn’t quite know what to do with him self. The day before had been a disaster by anyone’s measure. Sure no one had died, and the skyscraper had been deemed unsafe and was scheduled for demolition anyways. None of that really mattered. Surround Sound had always though of himself as being good at three things. The first was designing communication and sound equipment, as far as he knew he was the best at it. Hell even overwatch had commissioned him to design the phone network for them. The second thing he was good at was programing those systems. He was the second best at that, but whoever overwatch had hired to do the job was better than he was. A little upsetting sure but overwatch had access to every genius on the planet. The third thing he was good at was leading his team. He had never claimed to be the best not even in the top ten. He had still thought that he was pretty damn good at it however.
Well he had, these days he wasn’t so sure about that anymore. Back in the day he wasn’t even the team leader, he had just sat back in command and orchestrated thing from afar. Every now and then they had needed his technical expertise in the field. It was often but with with the growing amount of tech freely available to civilians and villains it became more frequent. He had never gotten good at fighting but he was competent. The speedster was the first one to quit, his increased metabolism had lead to premature aging. He had retired at thirty five but walked like a man in his seventies.
Sound looked down at the table in front of him. There was a drink sitting before him, it had been placed there by Aquamarine. Aqua was a water type elemental and one of the most delicate looking creatures Sound had ever seen. Not so when they were deployed, when deployed his delicate crystal body was covered in water turning him into a towering behemoth. Aqua had been with the team for just over four years now. It was funny to think that Aqua had never had to be a hero without overwatch support, he probably took it for granted.
Not so back in the day, it had been Sound’s problem to do all of the research about who they were fighting. It had also been Sound’s job to help relocate their first telepath after her mask got destroyed on live television. She had to stay underground for six years before things died down enough for her to return to the lifestyle. It hadn’t worked out, she was off her game and got killed a week later. She wasn’t the first person he had known that had died, but the first one that had been on the team.
Rouge had sat down next to Aqua. She was the other heavy hitter of the team, could generate and manipulate red energy that interacted with things like a solid. She had been with the team just under six months now but was fitting in very well. She had never said her real age but Sound suspected that she was barely out of her teens if that. Her and Aqua fought well together and that is all that really mattered. She had just showed up on the door step one day asking to join, apparently the team had saved her during a bank robbery when she was a kid. Sound had his doubts, mostly because he didn’t feel like the team had existed that long. But overwatch had confirmed her story and these days that was enough.
The first rogue on the team had been had been this special forces girl out of Israel they had met during one of the first major off planet deployments. Damn it hadn’t been one of the first, it was the first, was he really that old. Never did find out what happened to her, she went on a deep cover mission and just never came back. She never gave them enough info to even start looking. They had looked of course but they didn’t find anything useful, as far as anyone could tell she dropped off the face of the earth. Overwatch had tried once but had come back empty handed.
The new team rogue called himself Scent was now sitting on the other side of Aqua. There was only one other chair at the table, it had been added the morning before for the new healer. No one would be sitting in it tonight. Sound wondered how he had ended up in this chair sitting across from the others. How he had become the team leader, it really was odd that. He had been the techie the one with the least field experience the one whose only role was to support others. Six years ago the old leader had left two things a note and his keys.
Sound
I really am sorry to do this to you man. Everyone else on the team, well they are a bunch of kids. You are the last of us, I hope you realize that. None of the old guard is in fighting shape anymore, except you. Keep them safe and guard our legacy. will you. I can’t do it anymore. I know you never wanted to lead but remember you are the last founding member. You have fought in every alien and inter dimensional invasion on record and some that aren’t.
Keep up the good fight for the rest of us, old friend.
Surround Sound took a drink and paused for a moment before speaking. His new team, because that is what they were. None of them had even been around long enough to remember a time when he wasn’t in charge. They grew still and looked up at him understanding that he had just made a decision.
“I’ve been thinking about retirement for some time now, feeling my age. Hell I couldn’t keep a hold of that healer for more than a day. But fuck that, Aqua, Rouge, Scent put out the word. We’re recruiting again.”
Continued in Drinks
Raising Angels & Defection 