Initiation 1.3
Shadow Stalker had to admit, Bitch wasn't a bad brawler. She hit hard, but with control, clearly experienced. Her first punch sunk into Shadow Stalker's intangible form and stayed there, keeping Shadow Stalker from rematerializing and hitting back. She had to drift back using the momentum of her dodge, giving ground to Bitch before she could solidify and throw a punch.
Bitch accepted the punch, pushing forward so that she took it on her upper arm instead of any of the soft, more vulnerable spots that Sophia was aiming for, and took advantage of the moment of physical contact to swing another blow at Sophia's head, which she barely avoided by going into her shadow state. Bitch then stepped back, whistling.
Sophia had no time to dodge before a snarling monstrosity the size of a truck barreled through her.
It hurt as she pulled herself back together, her body reforming out of scattered particles. Her shadow state wasn't totally intangible, more of a gaseous state that could pass through thin surfaces, and running into something like that wasn't pleasant. Enough damage like that and she'd collapse out of sheer exhaustion.
Shadow Stalker went into solid state briefly, felt her heart start beating again as she gasped in a breath of air, then pushed herself backward before immediately going into her shadow state again. The momentum was enough to let her get over the dog-monster as it came around for another pass, and she solidified against the wall of the alleyway before pushing off again. She could feel herself recovering. So long as she didn't take too many hits like that, she'd be okay.
Above her, she could see Grue had expanded his power over the alleyway, muffling the sound of their fight. The alleyway had been plunged into darkness, lit faintly by a few electric lights.
Below her, Bitch was using her power on the other two dogs, making them grow as the other one growled up at Shadow Stalker. This was going to be tricky.
Shadow Stalker drew her crossbows, aimed at the dogs. Bitch could replace them later, and it was her fault for picking this fight in the first place, anyway.
The shadowy bolts passed through where the dog's brains should have been. No effect. The dogs just kept growling and barking at Shadow Stalker as she returned down to the ground, solidifying briefly for the landing. Maybe they were like that one species, whatever it was, you could chop off its head and it wouldn't die for a while? Shadow Stalker was pretty sure she'd heard that somewhere.
The dogs charged her again.
No, not charged. They encircled her, cutting off her escape routes, before one, and only one, bounded forward with a snarl. Pack tactics. Shadow Stalker couldn't dodge without running into one of the circling dogs.
Instead, she jumped, going into her shadow state as the dog charged her, only for the dog to jump mid-charge, catching Shadow Stalker and dispersing her body.
Shadow Stalker rematerialized on the ground, clutching at her chest and breathing heavily. She felt like she'd just run two marathons back to back.
Around her, the dogs circled, growling. Shadow Stalker glanced over at Grue, Tattletale, and Regent. Grue had his arms crossed, motionless except for the movement of his darkness, Regent was leaning against the side of the alley, clearly disinterested, and Tattletale was smirking. She'd get no help from that quarter. This was a fight where she had to prove her worth on her own.
Bitch yelled another order, and the dog closest to her charged Shadow Stalker. Nothing for it, then, Shadow Stalker decided as she dragged herself to her feet. When the dog charged, so did she.
She went into her shadow state almost immediately after she started running, moments before she would have hit the dog. She felt it tear through her, her form disrupted, but with conscious effort she maintained her shadow state, continuing to move once the dog had passed with almost the same momentum as before.
As she approached Bitch, Shadow Stalker went solid again, feeling the rush as the mass of her body abruptly reappeared. She crashed down onto Bitch in a tangle of limbs.
Bitch wasted no time in hitting back. Shadow Stalker took a hit to the side before she could go into her shadow state, and a frenzied kick passed through her, disrupting her body a little more. She grabbed for her crossbow, went solid again, straddling Bitch, and pressed the point of it to Bitch's chest, digging it in a little just to drive the point home.
"I win," Shadow Stalker hissed. Around her, the three dogs growled menacingly, baring their teeth and pawing the ground as they prepared to pounce the moment their master was safe.
"Enough," Grue's strange, echoing voice spoke. His hand pressed down on Shadow Stalker's shoulder. She glared up at him. He stared back calmly, darkness swirling around his shoulders. "You've made your point. Don't make me make mine."
Shadow Stalker hesitated for a moment before removing the crossbow. She could have turned and shot him, then and there, but there'd be no point. "Fine." She stood, and the dogs growling intensified.
"Bitch," Grue ordered the girl on the ground, "Call them off." Bitch glowered at him for a moment before whistling and barking a few words, causing the dogs to back down.
Shadow Stalker reached down and grabbed her by her shirt, hauling to her feet. It was harder than she'd expected-Bitch was heavy, lots of muscle, and Sophia was tired, but she managed. "Good fight. Stay the fuck out of my way and we'll get along fine."
Shadow Stalker thought for a moment that Bitch would take another swing at her, but she just grunted and ambled over to tend to her dogs. Shadow Stalker watched her back as she yanked the bolts out of the dogs as they shrank back to normal size. Tough, antisocial, and totally fucking crazy. Yeah, they'd get along just fine.
"So, now that the hazing's done, what do you think?" Shadow Stalker turned to see Tattletale smiling at her. An actual smile, not a smirk, though there was a hint of smugness there.
"You stopped them from interfering," Shadow Stalker noted, thinking. Could it be that Tattletale was the leader of the group, the one that had turned Grue from tough but small-time parahuman muscle into the leader of a supervillain gang? It would make sense-she had some sort of Thinker power, Shadow Stalker was pretty sure, and Thinkers tended to be leaders, if they had a power that let them strategize.
"Figured it'd be better to let you fight it out. It's part of how she thinks. She won't challenge your place on the team, now, not without good reason."
"Your power tell you that?"
"It's versatile." Tattletale shrugged. "Since you're wondering, my power's information. It lets me take a situation and get hard info out of it, no research needed. I can figure out passwords and people, like how I knew you'd be a good fit for the team."
"You hacked the Protectorate?"
"The PRT," Tattletale corrected, "They've got surveillance on the Protectorate's base. I caught a nice little conversation between Miss Militia and Triumph about you using lethal bolts instead of the boring kind. Neither of them likes you very much."
"Not surprised," Shadow Stalker muttered. Triumph was annoying, had been even when he was team leader for the Wards. He pushed into people's business, acted all concerned about their welfare and their private lives. Gallant was worse, since he actually knew when people were emotionally vulnerable and tried to interfere no matter how well it was hidden, but he'd at least given up eventually. Triumph was persistent, and the exasperated tone he adopted when he was talking to Shadow Stalker grated on her nerves.
Miss Militia, the second in command for the Protectorate, was worse. Her power made her deadly, powerful and a force to be reckoned with, but the preaching speeches she gave to the Wards about moderation had quickly made Sophia lose respect for her. Predator or not, some people she just couldn't stand.
Not that it mattered now.
Tattletale touched her arm. "Hey." Her voice was almost gentle. "C'mon. We'll show you the evil lair. And we got you a present, a welcome to the team sort of thing." She reached into a backpack that she had slung across her shoulder, and withdrew a hockey mask, painted gray. The same kind that she'd used before she had joined the Protectorate.
Shadow Stalker accepted the mask, fitting it back onto her face with some gratitude. She could get to like Tattletale. "No expense spared, I see."
Tattletale just smirked and guided Shadow Stalker back to the van. They got in the back, this time, sat close together. Bitch's dogs piled in, clustered themselves around her. Regent sat a distance away from Bitch, across from them. He removed his mask with a flourish, revealing a pale-skinned boy about Sophia's age. Pretty, in a sense, but not Sophia's type.
"What's your power?" Shadow Stalker asked as Grue started the car and began to drive. "I don't recognize you."
Regent grinned at her, and snapped his fingers. To her right, Shadow Stalker saw Tattletale, who'd been watching with her hand on her chin, jerk back just in time to avoid slapping herself in the face. Nice power. Low-level, but pretty versatile if he knows how to use it.
"PRT's probably going to end up classifying him as a Blaster and low-level Master," Tattletale said, as if she hadn't just lost control of her body. "Anyway, introductions. We already know your name. I'm Lisa, that's Rachel," she glanced over at Bitch, who was stubbornly ignoring them.
"Alec," Regent introduced himself. "Great to have another crazy person on the team. Us sane people were outnumbering Bitch."
"I'm not crazy enough for you?" Tattletale pouted, and Regent laughed.
"Nah, you're not cool enough. Shadow Stalker's crazy-awesome, like, remember when Grue came back with an arrow poking out of his stomach? Great stuff. I'm sure everyone'll get along great." The words sounded sarcastic, but Regent's eyes didn't show it, and he kept on smiling.
"Ruined a nine-hundred dollar couch," Tattletale confided in Shadow Stalker, who grinned behind her mask. That had been a good night. For a while she'd thought that she'd managed to kill Grue, that he had bled out somewhere and she'd be fucked when the PRT found the body, but he'd turned out to be fine. Good thing he's tough. For a lot of reasons. Shadow Stalker leaned back in her seat, letting the grin stay on her face. It felt good, to be joking about this stuff. She'd never been able to talk about it with the other Wards, since she wasn't supposed to be shooting to kill, but with these guys she could let loose a little. They had the right mindset. Not friends, maybe, but definitely worth working with.
"Yeah," Shadow Stalker replied to Regent, "We'll get along just fine."
