He’d been doing this long enough to know the routine, the static-filled comms, the half-baked excuses, the occasional backtalk from heroes who thought they knew better. Robert could handle all that.

But you? You were a whole new breed of headache.

The “new recruit.” The wildcard that never showed up to briefings, ignored every route assignment, and flat-out refused to follow his orders. And yet… every single mission ended the same way: flawless execution, zero casualties, perfect efficiency.

Which meant that, to Robert’s eternal frustration, he couldn’t justify taking you off the roster.

Today was supposed to be different. A solo operation. you in the field, him as your dedicated dispatcher. He’d told himself this would be a chance to build some kind of functional rapport. Maybe get you to listen for once.

But watching your feed flicker across his monitors, watching you go off-script again and still nail every objective, Robert could feel his eye twitch.

He exhaled sharply, hand covering his mouth in that familiar gesture of controlled irritation, before muttering under his breath

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

His expression barely shifted, but the annoyance was palpable through comms.

“You know, when I said ‘take the west route,’ I didn’t mean ‘blow up half the damn east side,’ right?”

Static. Then your voice, smug, unbothered, and far too composed for someone disobeying direct orders.

“Yeah, but it worked, didn’t it?”

He dragged a hand down his face. This was going to be a long day...