Author's note (again):

And here we have the epilogue. (Make sure you read chapter five first!) Truth be told, when I first started writing this story, this section here was originally planned to be closer to the halfway point. I had every intention of detailing Romeo's first encounter with the PJ Masks as well. But my plans for that particular episode weren't very well-defined at all, and as I said earlier, this fic took long enough to write anyway, so that by the time I got here I was honestly just ready to be done with it. I think it does end the story as a whole rather nicely, in a "and the story is just beginning" kind of way that all origin stories should lol. It also still leaves the option open of continuing from here in its own story should I ever gain the inspiration to pick it back up.

I'm upping the rating of this story due to just a few lines in this last part. You'll understand why when you get there.

And lastly, I'd like to thank all of my readers and reviewers. Your support means a lot to me!

-Commander

…

Far, far on the outskirts of town, where few ventured…

Federico Mecano staggered his way into his opulent mansion, far past his usual quitting time at work. Beer and wine of every kind was sloshing through his system, and when the bartender had refused to pour him any more, he set off for home to partake in his own stash.

There was not enough alcohol in the world for this day.

Federico Mecano was a workaholic at the research facility. Not only could he come up with the most brilliant theories any of his coworkers had ever heard, he could also test them and implement them to real-world applications. And he put in ridiculously long hours at work—heck, many days he just stayed there overnight to continue the next morning right where he'd left off.

This day, however, he could not get any work done.

It was six years ago today exactly.

Federico flung open the front door and stumbled into the foyer. The grand entryway was mostly bare; Yvonne had taken most of her things when she left with that… that guy, and the rest Federico had thrown out himself.

Not from any real sadness, mind you. Federico couldn't really remember a time he'd ever been sad, and the logical part of his brain (ie, all of it) saw no need for such a debilitating, useless emotion anyway.

But anger… there had been plenty of anger.

The anger had begun shortly after he married Yvonne, sensing that she didn't fully respect him and appreciate all he'd done for him. For a woman who had grown up destitute like she had, you'd think she'd be a little more grateful that someone with money and prospects like Federico would even give her the time of day. But she was distant. Blank. Coldly regarding him some times, flat-out ignoring him the rest, but never ignoring his paycheck.

He had been angry when she revealed that she was pregnant—and that he was not the father. And then five days later she said that he was. Her answer flip-flopped throughout the entire pregnancy, the identity of the father seemingly changing to whichever answer would benefit her the most that day, with either Federico or… that other guy.

Federico got really angry thinking about him.

Even after the baby was born, she still never came clean with the truth. Oh sure, the child had Federico's last name, lived in the mansion, and since he and Yvonne were married when he was born he was listed as the father on the birth certificate automatically… but he had his doubts.

Especially when Yvonne was home less and less.

Finally, one day, she pointedly walked out of the house while he walked in, dragging a large rolling suitcase behind her, her cold blue eyes looking at him straight on for the first time in months. "I'm not coming back," she said bluntly, and taking that and (as Federico later learned) more than half of his money, HIS money from their joint bank account, walked away.

True to her word, she never came back.

As of today, she'd been keeping her word for six years now.

Growling angrily, Federico awkwardly made his way down the hallway and to the kitchen, feeling his way along the walls for support. The clatter of cupboard doors reached his ears through all the booze, and a small wheeled robot zipped past him merrily.

Federico gritted his teeth, not at all in the mood for this. What was that damn kid up to now?

The door to the dining room was open, and on the opposite corner of the room it opened up into the kitchen. And there was the boy, perched on a robotic, retractable stepladder, rummaging through the cabinets. The sound of the additional occupant in the room turned his attentions away from searching for food.

"Oh—hello, Father!" His face was apprehensive and guarded.

"What have I told you about getting into my stuff?" Federico growled.

"But—but the food's our stuff, and I'm hungry," the boy protested.

"I'm not talking about that, Einstein." Federico kicked the stepladder roughly, and the boy stumbled and clung to one of the cabinets for balance, only barely keeping himself perched on the top step. His father took no care or notice of the peril he'd caused, though. "All this robotic crap you build. You're going through my supplies to build it. Those are mine and mine alone, do you hear?"

The boy glared defensively at his father. "But you never use it! It just sits in those closets forgotten and rusting away! I've been using it to create some amazing things! You need to see the robot I—"

SLAP!

Federico backhanded the boy with a direct hit to the face, and the boy tumbled to the wooden floor, crying out in pain and shock.

This did not move Federico, still glaring at him with an expression dripping with nothing but hatred.

Wincing, the boy looked up fearfully at his father, his dark blue eyes wide.

Yvonne's eyes.

Federico snapped again.

"You ungrateful little shit! Going through my things and using them like you own them! You're just like your whore of a mother! And the worst thing that bitch ever did to me was to leave you here with me when she left!"

With that, he flung open the fridge, pulled out two bottles of beer, and stormed out of the kitchen, leaving the boy alone on the floor, with only the rolling robot that zipped back into the room for comfort.

The robot rolled up to its master, buzzing and whirring with concern.

And, wearily, Romeo Mecano rubbed at the side of his arm that had taken the fall. "I think I like it better when he acts like I don't exist."

The robot whirred in sympathy.

Romeo slowly stood up, his hip and leg protesting in sharp pain from the fall. Trying to ignore it, he hobbled over to the fridge, opening it up. The beer only took up one shelf; the rest was decently stocked with food that the young boy had ordered and had shipped to the house. With his father gone all the time, Romeo took to the internet to have food delivered to keep him fed, using his father's credit card. His father never noticed, or if he did he never cared, so the system worked out well enough. Romeo grabbed a small hunk of cheese and swung the door shut behind him, slowly making his way out of the kitchen and nibbling on his snack.

The robot followed him, whirring again, seemingly asking a question.

Romeo snapped back at his creation with a silencing glare. "No, I'm not staying in here while he's home! I'm going to my lab!"

The robot said nothing more, but continued to follow him through the winding hallways and out the back door.

Romeo breathed in the warm night air, already feeling a bit better. Even when his father wasn't home (which was most of the time) he wasn't in the house much; the mobile lab he'd constructed for himself a few months prior was a much more conducive environment for his genius and inventions. Parked a short way apart from the mansion, it was a welcome sight.

So was his largest and most complex robot creation, who was simply named Robot. "GOOD EVENING, MASTER," Robot greeted him, standing guard outside the lab. "THE HOUR IS VERY LATE AND I WAS NOT EXPECTING YOU."

"I know," Romeo said wearily. "I was planning on staying in the house tonight, but the paternal unit showed up and threw those plans out the window."

"I AM SORRY, MASTER. ARE YOU LIMPING?"

"I'm okay." Romeo made himself walk more naturally to his mobile lab, although the motion caused pain to shoot up his leg. He gritted his teeth through it and climbed up the ladder to the roof of his lab. "Any unusual activity tonight, Robot?"

"NONE THAT I SAW."

Romeo sighed. "I'll do one more round before calling it a night," he said. He trusted Robot's report, but he wasn't quite ready to go to bed yet—at the very least, he wanted to wait for the pain from the slap and the fall to subside a bit. Scanning the city for any unusual activity would kill some time and hopefully give his body a chance to heal, at least a little bit.

Pulling his telescope towards him, he scanned the sleepy city.

Now, there was another flaw in the animal totems' plan to keep their young charges hidden from view. They were fully prepared and equipped to hide them from public view, yes. But they hadn't counted on such advanced technology that the young genius Romeo possessed.

And as he scanned the city park, his telescope caught something very strange.

"What the heck is going on there?" he asked, befuddled, as his telescope presented him a very strange sight.

For starters, there was a large totem pole in the center of the park that hadn't been there before. Blue, red, and green figures were carved into it, with enough care that Romeo was pretty sure couldn't have been the work of merely a day's labor by city employees or contractors. That sight would have been strange enough, but there was more. Zipping around above the totem pole were two figures. One was red and seemed to be flying via the use of some sort of cape and/or wings, while the other was using some sort of hoverboard.

"Robot, did you see this?" Romeo demanded.

"SEE WHAT, MASTER?"

"What's going on at the park!" Romeo adjusted his telescope to scope out the base of the newly-appeared totem pole, finding an even stranger spectacle. A blue-clad and green-clad figure were standing off against another figure clad entirely in dark blue, flanked by similarly garbed smaller figures in dark purple.

"I DON'T KNOW, MASTER. I OBSERVED NOTHING UNUSUAL DURING MY SCAN OF THE CITY."

Romeo leaned in closer towards his telescope, hardly believing what he was seeing despite it appearing clear as day through his lens. "This is highly unusual," he breathed, unable to comment anything more than the obvious.

It was like something out of a movie.

The brightly-colored figures fighting against their darker-colored antagonists. The antagonists slinking away in defeat. The protagonists gathering together in front of the totem, congratulating each other, clearly discussing their next steps on the path towards righteousness.

"Do… do you know what this is, Robot?" Romeo breathed in excitement.

"NO, MASTER, IN ACTUALITY I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE EVEN OBSERVSING."

Romeo ignored his robot's quip. In fact, he barely even heard it.

For the first time in his life, something wonderful was playing out in front of him. Something that proved that the world was ready for him. His grandiose ideas and creations seemed so out of place and ill suited towards the world before tonight, but they fit right in to a world with brightly-garbed superheroes and supervillains.

And as of tonight, that world was officially his.

Well, no… not exactly. But he could make that world his. He had the tools and the brains and the power to make it happen. And he could!

A small part of his mind realized that this line of thought was making him out to be one of the villains in this world, but strangely that didn't bother him that much. It was still a role he could play, a large and important role, and much more of a purpose than anything he'd had up until now.

"Robot?" he called out, lowering the telescope.

"YES, MASTER?"

"Tomorrow night, we're going to go out and meet these superheroes."

And Romeo grinned at that, bigger than he'd ever grinned before.