The dark-clad figure wheeled on the spot, streamers of thick black smoke rolling off of him as he attempted to cover his team-mates. The bolt was already in the air, and she could only watch as her own shadow wore off. It clipped the lamp-post a few metres in front of him, and shattered. She'd been aiming high, of course - why was he yelling? Why had he fallen over? Fuck, was that blood?

Sophia shook herself like a wet dog and clenched her jaw together. The report in front of her lay half-completed, but focusing on it was... difficult. She picked up the pen again, thinking hard about what to say. She'd called in the meeting, of course, that was standard procedure, but afterwards she'd stated the Undersiders were in retreat and that was it. Even with her particular method of getting across town it took her half an hour to get back to base, half an hour of nerve-wracking uncertainty. Was he dead? Had she killed him?

Her hand shook slightly as she penned a few brief words. Fortunately, her own cover worked for her here, and the terse tone of the report would be written off as her usual self. Hell, she'd even made it clear she disliked Grue, some bullshit about powers interacting, and any time anyone asked her about him she'd start swearing the air blue. Another shake of the head, and she decided she'd had enough. The chair nearly clattered to the floor as she stood, flicking still-damp hair from her eyes, and made her way for the exit.

"Shadow Stalker!"

Fucking Armsmaster. Always sticking his nose in places it didn't belong. She schooled her features into the nigh-permanent scowl and rounded on him aggressively. No need to let on how nervous she was, no need to show him how unsteady her hands were.

Her leader strode up to her, and opened his mouth. "You reported a-"

"Here," she interrupted, shoving the small sheaf of papers into his breastplate and forcing him to fumble for them. "All in there. I'm going home."

"Now listen here, Shadow-"

She glared at him. "I said I'm done. I saw the Undersiders mid-whatever the fuck they were doing and moved to intercept like a good little hero. What more do you fucking want?" She said nothing about how it'd been part of the plan, a carefully orchestrated series of events to help the PRT view her as a hero, separate Grue from Shadow Stalker. God knew the similarities were there for all to see.

"Less attitude."

Hah. Sophia bit back a laugh, knowing full well Armsmaster wouldn't understand why she was laughing. That was almost good enough to be considered a one-liner, and everyone on the base knew he hadn't got anything close to a sense of humour.

"Whatever," she muttered. "What do you want?"

He looked at her in silence for a moment, a look that she'd come to recognise as the one he gave when accessing something in that stupid visor system of his he never took off. After a moment, he blinked and seemed to refocus. "There were reports of Grue leaving the scene injured, relying on his team-mate Regent for support. Did you see what happened?"

"He was pumping that shitty black smoke of his all over the place, I could barely see a damn thing." A bead of sweat ran down the back of her neck, and she quietly prayed to Gods she no longer believed in that he'd leave it at that.

"Hmm," was all he said, eyes already directed at the papers in his hand. "Well, if that's all you saw, I see no reason to detain you further. Your issues with Grue are... well known, but that does not give you an excuse to deviate from your patrol route without getting Console permission first. See that you remember that in future. Good day."

Sophia watched him for several seconds as he strode - the man never did anything less purposeful like walk or stroll - down the corridor and out of sight. Taking a long moment to steady herself, drawing a shaky breath, she started after him. At the intersection at the end, she turned right towards the exit where he'd gone left.

It'd been almost forty-five minutes. Three quarters of an hour she'd spent in an agony of not knowing. It was all she could do not to run for the lobby.

The rhythm of movement helped to calm her nerves, as it always did. Sophia ducked under a large conduit before vaulting off the edge of the roof and shifting into intangibility, thankful for the cover of darkness that'd keep her illicit use of her powers secret from the PRT. As she solidified on the next roof over, feet already in motion, she checked her position against the Medhall tower downtown, and angled slightly further to the right.

Public transport wasn't quick enough. She had to get there, had to know he was alright. It had been torture to step onto the bus outside the PRT building, waiting that long long five minutes for the next stop before she almost flew out of the door past startled passers-by and vanished into the settling gloom. Another five minutes spent not knowing.

The next gap was wider, so instead of merely shifting into her shadow state at the last moment Sophia broke into a dead sprint. Track had been a good call, another way of getting out all of her aggression in a safe environment where no one could get hurt. That'd been his idea, too - he was good like that.

And he might be dead.

She nearly stumbled as the thought settled into her mind, but caught herself at the last moment and jumped. At the apex of her leap she shifted again and drifted through the air, crossing tens of metres before finally starting to drift downwards. The moment the roof's edge was beneath her feet, she shifted back, grunting painfully as she dropped the two and a half metres to the ground and rolled.

At the next roof, Sophia simply stepped out into open space and dropped the twenty metres to the floor, a last-minute push of her power allowing herself to explode into a cloud of shadow that rapidly coalesced back into her human form. One more street, and then she'd know. It was too dangerous for him to contact her whilst she was in the PRT building, and it was also too risky for her to take her other phone with her on patrols. Any contact they had was outside of her duties as a Ward, the way they'd planned right back at the start.

She still hated it.

The next corner brought the heavy-duty, if a bit rusty, workshop doors into sight and Sophia finally let herself slow, breath coming in ragged gasps. Her fist had barely managed the first knock when the door was dragged open and a freckle-faced blonde reached out and dragged her through.

"He's fine, he's fine! Sophia, listen to me!" Lisa shook her, and Sophia finally focused on her.

Growling, she grabbed the girl by the shoulders. "Where is he? Don't fuck about, where? He's okay? I didn't- I... He's..?"

Sophia wasn't a girl easily given to crying. She even prided herself on her bad-bitch attitude and tough-girl persona - unlike most of the other things, that had been her idea. But at that moment in time, she didn't care. Lisa awkwardly wrapped an arm around her as she started to sob, gesturing with her free hand to Alec. He dragged the door shut behind them as she guided Sophia further inside.

"He's injured, yeah - the bolt shattered on the lamp post and a shard of it went straight through the biker leathers and into his side. Bled a lot but I took a first aid course a couple of months back and my power helped me fill in the blanks. He'll be okay, just needs to rest for a little bit."

Sophia finally nodded, accepting her words but still not quite believing it. "I... I want to see him."

"Sure," Lisa nodded, shooting Alec a look. The foppish-looking boy just shrugged.

"Last I went up he was fine, just in a lot of pain. You know how the boss-man is-... uh, ignore me, actually."

Sophia felt tears threatening to break free again as her guide glared at Alec. "Not helping, idiot. Stay down here where you can hit your head against the wall or something."

They made their way to the back of the warehouse and up the creaking metal stairs. It'd been a few weeks since Sophia had been here, and despite her current state she couldn't help but notice the improvements. A three piece white leather sofa set had been moved into the living area, and a huge TV-...

Brian lay on the largest couch, several panels stained crimson. She broke free from Lisa in an instant, shifting to shadow state in her haste to get to his side.

"Brian! Fuck, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean- I was aiming high, it should never have... fuck..."

He laughed, wincing in pain slightly, before reaching out and enveloping her in a one-armed hug despite how much it must have hurt. "Hey, it's fine, I'm fine, I'm still here, okay? Soph, listen to me! I'm alright, really."

She shook her head, dashing away more tears. Behind her, Lisa subtly withdrew, but neither of them really noticed. "No, it's not okay! I nearly killed you, Brian! My own fucking brother, and I nearly... nearly-"

"But you didn't," he interrupted her. "I'm fine, just going to have to take it easy for a week or two whilst I heal up properly. Lisa's even rung for a cape doctor, some guy who knows to keep his mouth shut at the right times. You're always telling me to take less jobs anyway, at least you got your wish, right?"

"That is not funny," Sophia growled. "You might be injured but I can still beat your ass for making inappropriate comments like that."

Brian nodded. "Yeah... yeah, sorry. Not thinking straight, Lisa had me dose up on some really strong painkillers. No, hey!" He raised a hand placatingly as her lower lip started to wobble again. "It's nothing, Sophia it's fine. You've hurt me more than this when you and Aisha teamed up on me because I came home late the first night out in costume, remember?"

That got a laugh. "Yeah, I remember. Uh, speaking of Aisha... Are you gonna...?"

"No." Brian locked gazes with her levelly. It'd always been their one point of disagreement with the whole set-up. Their younger sister hadn't triggered, unlike the two of them, and despite Sophia's reasoning that they should include her in everything they were doing Brian had remained steadfastly against the idea.

Shaking her head, Sophia sighed. "You're more fucking stubborn than I am, you know that?"

He waved her off. "Yeah, yeah. Go bug the others for a bit, kay? I'm the wounded war hero here and all these drugs are... are making me feel kinda... tired." As if to punctuate his words, he broke into a large yawn. "Go on, go talk to Lisa. She said she wanted to drop round in the week sometime to talk to us both anyway."

Sophia knew when her brother wanted her around and when he didn't. It was a point of pride for him that he was the strong one, the older brother who looked out for his two little sisters. Even letting her see him like this was probably hurting him just as much as the wound in his side, but he was a good brother.

"Alright."

Standing, she made her way out of the main living space and headed for the stairs. At the top, she hesitated for a long moment before turning back to him. Despite the well-muscled arms and broad shoulders, Brian looked... vulnerable.

"Love you, bro," she choked out, before fleeing downstairs to the others.

Brian shook his head slowly, a small smile on his lips. "Love you too little sis."