Work Text:
Waterboy has been having a rough day at work, it's ninety degrees outside and dry in LA. Half his calls are just running around and cooling people off by filling their pools or just spraying them with water.
It's exhausting.
Not only is he overbeared with multiple jobs, but some of the Z-Teamers are being extra obnoxious today due to the heat. With a loud sigh, Herm sits down for his mandatory lunch break. He sprawls his arms out across the tabletop, face down. He finds himself appreciating the SDN’s air conditioning. His lunch break doesn’t last long, with just ten minutes to eat a soggy meatball sub, Herm finds himself sighing wistfully for the umpteenth time today.
The day is only half over and Waterboy is panting and heaving from one call to the next. From fires spawning from the dry heat, to dehydration in construction crews, Herm hasn't had another moment to spare. His energy is running thin, and the sun is still blasting all of LA. He can barely be in one place, let alone multiple locations at once.
While the sun is just setting, a new call comes in from his dispatcher, Robert. “Looks like a radioactive waste containment facility. Warnings of a potential leak with low worker presence. Waterboy, think you can handle this?” And being the sponge that he is, Waterboy accepts the call.
“At least it’s not another person asking me to spit on them.” Waterboy sighs as he walks by himself, “Or to fix their AC. I don’t even have an AC! I- I don’t know how to fix those things…”
The factory itself looks like something straight out of Team Fortress 2, with shoddily bolted together framework and mismatched colors on the exterior walls. Lights are flashing and sirens resonate off the metal walls. Waterboy makes way through the entrance, finding a few workers inside. When they said low worker presence, they really weren’t lying. The few people there included an older guy sleeping in a chair through the alarms, two people running around with mops, and a fourth person who at the moment could give Waterboy’s powers a run for their money with the amount of sweat they were conjuring.
“Oh great, they sent the soggiest guy to help with a liquid contamination. SDN really just be doing anything these days.” Herman held back an annoyed groan at the insult.
“Whatever. More importantly, we have 8 vats of this radioactive slop that we treat and one of them popped a hole in its bottom about thirty minutes ago… So now there’s several gallons of glowing shit that we need to put back into a new container. Can you do that?” The tired worker raises their eyebrows.
“Yeah. Sure thing.” Waterboy gives a tired thumbs up and is led to the leak by one of the mop wielders. Herm gets a good look at the leak site and massages his temples. There's a huge pool of green slop and a steady stream from vat 5. There’s a drain on the floor that leads to who-knows-where, which is drinking up the green goop.
“Hey- uh, where does that drain go to..?” Waterboy asks anxiously. In response, a shrug and the worker walking away from him. “Wh- Oh- okay. Okay.” Herman sighs and begins to push the radioactive slop away from the drain with his water.
Miraculously, Waterboy is able to gather the lost green slop and relocate it into metal buckets. He also placed a metal bucket beneath the leak in the vat and found someone capable of welding the gap shut.
After about an hour of cleaning, Herman treks his way up a flight of metal stairs carrying four buckets of radioactive slop. He groans in annoyance and exhaustion as he shuffles to the top of vat 5 with the buckets. He pours one in after another, every bucket feeling heavier than the last.
Finally, at the fourth bucket, Herm takes a breath. He leans on the railing overlooking the vat that he took such great care cleaning up. He stands up straight and turns to leave, yet he trips over one of the buckets and falls backward straight into the vat.
Panicking, Waterboy expels the green goop from his mouth with water, and he swims to the surface. He crawls, clutching at the metal platform. “GAH- ACK- EUGH-” Herm hacks and coughs, spitting out the toxic chemicals. He struggles, but is able to pull himself from the vat and onto the platform. Too weak to call for help, he lies there, panting, as he loses consciousness.
...
"WATERBOY! ARE YOU OKAY??" Herman awoke to familiar voices shouting, but it seemed oddly quiet. Yawning, he prepared to meet the new day until his eyes opened to see many familiar people surrounding him. Well- surrounding his face.
"Hey! He's awake!" Malevola pointed out, leading everyone to pay attention to Herman. Disoriented and confused, Herm tried to reach and itch his nervous face, his hand knocking into several people in the way- causing him to apologize and freeze.
"Woah- slow down Waterboy. You're okay. Just- you're very... very large. So we need you to stay calm. Can you do that for me?" Robert spoke, always knowing just what to say to Herm.
"Ye-yeah... Uhm." Waterboy looks around the dark anxiously, realizing the gravity of his situation. His stomach tensing with the panic and disorientation that comes with being at least ten times your original height. His surroundings are confusing to him, especially considering that while lying on his side he can see the top of Robert’s head.
Herman brings his hands to his face, the whole Z-Team watching him. His hands find their way to Robert, who already stands close to him. Robert only stood still, letting Herman wrap his uncertain hands around him.
“Hey bud. You doing okay?” Robert asks, allowing himself to be held by the anxious mess. “I saw what happened back at the factory. I’m really glad you were able to get out of that vat. Looks like your powers were able to flush out most of that crap.” Robert places his hand on Herm’s finger.
The parking lot is dark with only the street lamps illuminating the area. A splitting headache sprouts inside Herman’s skull, making him wince. “How… How did I get here?” He looks into Robert’s eyes, the details of his face a bit hard to make out now that he’s so much smaller than Hermie.
“Well, uhm. You weren’t like this an hour ago.” Robert answers, his clothes getting wet from being held by Waterboy for only a few minutes. “It was actually Flambae who flew out to pick you up-”
“Yeah. Whatever.” Flambae admits, “Don’t expect me to move you again though. Because. You know.” He gestures to Waterboy, who is currently taking up 18 parking spots.
Waterboy fidgets with Robert in his hands, listening to the conversations between the Z-Team. He doesn’t realize that he’s squeezing Robert until he hears a faint whimper from his hands. “O-oh I’m so sorry boss- Robert.” He sets him on the ground, leaving him drenched and flustered from the embarrassing noise he made.
Everyone is startled when Waterboy finally sits up, making them realize just how much Waterboy they have to deal with.