Sophia

Sophia wasn't used to feeling unsettled. On the streets at night she'd fought and clawed to put the fear of her into the hearts of every would-be gangbanger and racist out there. In Winslow, she'd quickly asserted herself as the dominant force, the apex predator. Star of the track team, attractive, and more importantly strong; even in a school full to the brim with wannabee Empire and ABB scum everyone knew not to fuck with Sophia Hess.

Everyone, it would seem, except Myles Everett. Some nobody, less than nobody, stood up to her in front of who knows how many other students. People prey do not change like that, not that quickly and definitely not that much.

Sometimes working for the PRT paid off. The image training that all the Wards had gotten, primarily to identify key characteristics in any criminals or capes they apprehended for future study, told her that the boy had shot up almost two feet since she'd last seen him. Of course, she couldn't measure the exact change but he had shot up like a weed. A damn, suddenly strong weed that embarrassed her, putting her on her ass in her school. Her territory.

Myles' personality had changed drastically too. Where before he had quailed before her like grass in the wind (and rightfully so Sophia's mind spat scathingly), now he seemed entirely unbothered by her attention. Like she was beneath him. Her! Every time she closed her eyes, every time she was out on patrol, she saw the not so little worm looking down at her. Just standing there, grinning down at her like they were equals. Like it was a joke that she should find funny, like she should just laugh with him.

A part of her, a part that she did deep inside, whispered about the strength she had felt in his grip. Her wrist throbbed under her costume, Sophia knew that under it her skin was darkened in vaguely finger shaped bruises. Even now, the following day, she could feel iron wrapped around her wrist and her fingers numb from lack of blood. And she hated it, everything about it, everything about him.

But Sophia was a simple girl, under normal circumstances she'd just go out on the street and find some asshole who thought they were hot shit to vent her fury on. It's not like it was hard to find one. In the Docks you could barely walk a few blocks before being waylaid by some gangster or thug looking to start a wallet collection. Normally, said person would then find themselves found by the cops, via an anonymous tip, beaten black and blue. If they were lucky, they'd only be half dead and with one new hole in their body.

The following day wasn't a normal day. Instead, immediately after school she'd been told in no uncertain to make your way to HQ, and fast. So it was that instead of doing any of that, instead of unloading untold pain on the criminals of Brockton Bay, instead of doing something useful, Sophia was forced to stew in her anger.

Sophia sat in an uncomfortable plastic chair, waiting for Armsmaster to turn up and at least two seats away from any of her costumed but maskless 'teammates', though Vista had made an attempt at conversation with her. As usual, Sophia's grunting or acerbic replies ended that as quickly as possible. She wasn't there to play with the nice, goodie little two shoes 'heroes', she hadn't wanted to be there at all. Stupid kids couldn't even see the PRT for what it was.

A gang. It buried itself deep in laws and legality, hiding itself from the public but that's what it was. She remembered well how she had found that out. A dark room with a flickering light, two large older men looming over her. Wards or jail. Which was little more than a choice between shit and shitter. A metaphorical cage versus a literal one. At least in the Wards she'd be able to use her powers, be Shadow Stalker not poor little Sophia Hess. All for doing the right things, the things that the PRT wouldn't do. That was the day she found out that the 'Protectorate' was more interested in protecting literal Nazis than her. It wasn't a lesson that she ever forgot.

Around her the quiet murmur of conversation slowly petered out as the electric doors slid open with a hiss. In stepped the armoured asshole, decked out in his usual blue and silver suit and walking like his famous halberd was stuffed up his ass. Again, as usual.

"Good, everyone's here," The Protectorate nodded firmly, not pausing at all before continuing, "Last night the PRT took Lung into custody."

Silence fell on the room. Sophia didn't know what she had expected but it definitely wasn't that. She rocked back in her chair slightly unsteady. Lung was a criminal, yet he was also one of the pillars of Brockton Bay. Not in any supportive manner but he was a constant. For all intents and purposes, to the people of the Bay Lung was the ABB and he was an unstoppable, raging force. And now he was just gone?

Armsmaster held his hand up to stop the clearly brewing questions from the Wards. Vista and Clockblocker had shot to their feet while Aegis had leant forward onto his knees deep in thought. Kid Win and Gallant just seemed stunned, staring out the window or at nothing in particular. Sophia, as usual, couldn't read Browbeat who like her sat slightly away from the others and remained motionless.

"In the early hours of the morning Lung went looking for the Undersiders," his voice was clinical and detached.

"Those nobodies?" Sophia spat out without thinking. Only stopping when she saw how everyone else in the room was staring at her. Stupid bottom feeders. In her mind she saw the tall teen in the skull helmet, and darkness so like hers. Asshole, she wished she'd put that bolt through his head instead of his stomach.

"Yes, them," Armsmaster replied after a long pause, "Before he could find them however, he was engaged by two new capes. I called you here to inform you of the situation and discuss them."

Without turning the large flat screen behind him lit up, showing a woman in a dark costume with bug eyes, mandibles and long black hair flowing behind her. The costume was all sharp edges but looked well put together for a first showing. In the dimly lit street any other features were impossible to pick out from the imagine.

"This is from the recovered CCTV footage. From what we could gather from the footage, this currently unnamed cape engaged Lung unprovoked," there was another pause to let that settle in, someone attacking Lung? A video clip replaced the image, showing an enraged Lung flailing and shooting bouts of flame at a swarm of tiny creatures, "Initial observations show a large amount of control over bugs and insects, though the degree of which is unknown. Tentative Master rating for the Bugs, nothing further known. She's around five foot six in her costume."

Sophia could see a lot of the Wards shudder at that and the video. Even she felt a shiver go down her spine imagining all the small legs crawling all over her, not to mention the bites. This seemed to be the final straw as Clockmaker shot his hand up in the air like he was in a classroom. She could almost feel the sigh that escaped Armsmaster.

"First, ew," Vista dug an elbow into his side making him flinch, not that it looked like she really disagreed with him, "Secondly, she seriously attacked Lung? This is the same, 'turns into a big angry dragon' guy we're talking about right?"

"Yes," the screen again changed to show a still imagine of a larger, much more scaled Lung, "according to her she overheard him talking about shooting children. Although she later realised the children he was talking about were the Undersiders."

"Should've let him." Sophia let out under her breath. Good riddance. From the way the Wards largely stiffened, Vista's glare and Gallant's disappointed look, it was clear they had heard her. None of them called her out on it, as usual. Wimps.

Perhaps sensing the slight tension in the air (wouldn't that be a miracle) Armsmaster swiftly moved on to the next image. In contrast to the bug lady, the screen showed a towering cape dressed mostly in a seamless white suit that covered every inch of his skin hovering behind the woman. Golden lines stretched across parts of the suit, including a semi-circle around his head. Shimmering eyes of the same colour glowed on his otherwise featureless face mask. Next to the dark colours of the previous cape, he seemed even brighter. Without any clear reference as to height it was hard to tell, but the man in white was taller than the bug lady by far.

"This is self-named Invictus, the second cape who fought Lung. He turned up partway through the engagement between the first girl and Lung, helping her and turning the fight around," Armsmaster quickly cycled through some more images and videos while speaking briskly. One showed the new guy talking to the woman before an irate Lung shot into frame and smashed the distracted cape into a building. What a rookie, getting distracted like that in a fight like that with someone like Lung. The lead hero let the footage speak for itself.

The next showed him inside a corner shop, covered in rubble before getting up and easily brushing himself off. Sophia's eyes narrowed when she saw no sign of injury to him or damage to the suit. What felt like a lifetime of hunting assholes had given her a pretty good understanding of what pain looked like, even without a view of his face. His body language was just as casual as someone getting up after tripping over, much more embarrassed than hurt.

Between one frame and the next the man disappeared, and the next video returned to a view from the street just as the flying 'Invictus' smashed his fist into Lung without stopping. She'd never seen another cape move so fast, at least in Brockton Bay, except Velocity and he couldn't hurt anyone in his Breaker state. Something which Sophia swiftly learnt wasn't the case for this new cape, as at first Sophia thought that his fist was going to go straight through the criminal's body, hoped for it even. But alas instead the mostly dragon man careened down into a freshly made crater in the street.

Clockblocker let out a low whistle but everyone in the room was too focused, or agreed too much to get on his case, even Vista. Sophia couldn't deny that the guy was strong, stupidly so even among capes, but something felt off to her. Her well-honed instincts whispered in her ear that Invictus wasn't even trying or that he could do something more. Another one of these pussy foot heroes? She scoffed. No-one noticed.

By the time Invictus had floated down to Lung, the ABB leader had torn himself from the ground and had evolved into his quadrupedal fully draconian form. The video showed that the two exchanged some words before exploding into motion. What followed left the Wards stunned.

Claw slammed into fist before just melting away like it had been vaporised. But the wave of force didn't stop there. The video feed cut out to another to get a better angle, showing a group of completely collapsed buildings and a shredded Lung missing his entire arm and a section of his torso. Sophia heard Vista gasp distantly but was too focused on the feed to look away.

Invictus looked to have been startled by the destruction of the buildings (he was that new to his powers?), which Lung capitalised on with a vengeance. Another amateurish mistake. Though this one didn't cost him, and even Sophia took in a sharp breath of air without realising when she saw dragon's wrist snap like kindling against the white-clad cape's frame. It didn't even budge him. What level of strength was that? Did he let Lung punt him through the building?

The cape turned back to Lung slowly, away from the destruction, almost robotically. He floated up to eye level with the dragon before his hands shot up to wrap as far as they could around the scaled throat. Sophia and Wards' eyes widen comically, watching the much smaller man choke out a dragon. For long, long seconds they saw Lung, the strongest one of the strongest capes in the Bay, grow and roar and scratch with his one remaining front claw futilely. Eventually, he fell limp in Invictus' hands. But the man didn't stop.

He squeezed harder, and Sophia saw Lung's neck scales start to crack and dent inwards. Her fingers twitched, like it was hers wrapped around the supervillain's throat, like it was her choking the life out of him. Do it, her mind whispered.

Do it.

Do it.

DO IT.

Invictus let go of the mass murderer like he'd been burned, stumbling away from the prone body which flopped onto the street bonelessly without the hands holding it up. Sophia fingers unclenched, releasing her stranglehold on the creaking armrests of the chair that she hadn't realised she'd been holding. Coward, useless. Weakling. Maybe not in body but in mind. He could've ended it right there, no more fear, no more killing, all of it. Armsmaster stopped the video without moving again.

Silence.

"Is Lung…" Aegis asked uncertainly, like he wasn't sure what answer he was hoping for.

"He's… alive," Armsmaster answered slowly, and it felt as if a tense breath had been from the room in one great sigh. Though Sophia's was aggravated, unlike her teammates. She frowned, from the momentary grimace on the man's face it seemed that wasn't everything, but he didn't expand further. Curious, "And in PRT holding cells in HQ, heavily sedated."

The room fell into silence again, Armsmaster seemed content to let them think things through on their own for a while before he spoke up.

"There are two reasons I called you in to talk about it now. Firstly, these are new elements in Brockton Bay. People that you need to know are out there and how to engage if you see them," He didn't specify what type of engagement he meant and Sophia found herself grinning ferally, "Secondly, Invictus and the as of yet unnamed bug controller are, by their own accounts, Ward age."

There was a beat of quiet, and then another.

"What?!" Vista jumped out of her seat, voice shrill. The other seemed frozen, even Sophia was frozen. Bug lady girl wasn't that much of a surprise but Invictus was around her age?

"They told the truth," Armsmaster might have shrugged if he was any other kind of man, "Invictus out right said it when I didn't realise."

A quick summary of the conversation the two had had with the halberd wielding hero followed, as he passed out folders with a complete script. No-one doubted that Armsmaster had recorded the conversation for later analysis. Sophia idly flipping during the summary, finding the condemning lines.

'Yeah, I'm around that age.'

Well shit.

"Taking that into account it's not unlikely that either or both of them could be going to school with you." He looked briefly as Sophia and then at the others who went to Arcadia. She sneered when he looked away, failure teenage heroes go to the fancy upper class school while she's stuck in Winslow, "I would like to… encourage you to look out for him."

Aegis frowned at that.

"But sir, the Unwritten Rules…"

Armsmaster nodded at that, "Are important yes. I'm not suggesting that you bring that information to anyone," he wasn't condemning it either, Sophia noted, "but it's even more important for you to know if you're in danger. They said they were heroes and I didn't pick up any lies about that, but there's no telling what they're like out of their suits."

Sophia barely held in a snort. The Youth Guard would have their hides if they found out they unnecessarily sent Wards into an overly dangerous or unknown scenario.

"With all due respect sir," Aegis wasn't satisfied, "just actively looking into a cape's secret identity would be violating the Rules…"

Armsmaster interrupted before the Wards leader could continue.

"Understood, don't do anything you're uncomfortable doing. The priority is avoiding antagonising either of them. Official PRT channels are being used to try to reach out to them but," he tapped his own folder lightly against the table, "Invictus at least has previously stated his… distaste for the idea of joining the Wards. If you see him when you're on Patrol or at any point, in costume at least, you must contact Miss Militia, Director Piggot or I before making any attempt to approach. Is that clear?"

He waited for a round of nods of various enthusiasm before continuing, although he stopped for especially long staring at Sophia when she at first refused to agree.

"With that said, Invictus has been preliminarily rated as a Mover and a high-level Brute. As you've seen, fully able to withstand and heavily damage a fully transformed Lung even if he hadn't yet evolved fully," thank whatever deity was out there for that, or Brockton Bay would still be on fire now, "and has shown extremely fast flight capabilities. From my estimates, he's nearly seven feet tall."

Sophia blinked. She'd realised he was tall but not that tall. Something rang in the back of her mind, a reverberating recognition. An extremely tall teenager that was new to his powers. Someone that had just turned up on the cape scene, that had changed, triggered recently. There was no way, just no way that it could be him. The worm that she'd been so fixated on before the briefing had distracted her.

Yet even as she thought that Sophia questioned if that was really the case. Why couldn't it be? He was strong, at that her fingers twitched to edge along the bruises on her wrist, circling them gently. If this was true…

She shot up from her seat, running for the door without looking back. A loud, shrill ringing piercing her ears. There was just no way!

It was only when she reached the door handle that noise from the rest of the room pierced her ears. The Wards called after her, and Aegis gripped her wrist. His fingers had grabbed her right over the bruises and Sophia flinched in barely concealed pain. She couldn't remove her hand, his hand strong enough to lock her arm in place. Just like his.

"Miss Hess?" Even when Armsmaster asked a question he didn't sound uncertain, just focused and brisk. Not emotionless just… not quite right, "Where are you going?"

"I-" She stuttered out, uncharacteristically hesitant and unsure, "I have to go. I need to, I need to."

Even just from the down turning of his lips Sophia could see the man frowning, confused? Concerned? Angry? He seemed to be mulling over what to say but she jumped back in before he could.

"I think," her voice gained strength and certainty again. She could fix this, she was strong after all, "I think I know him. Invictus. I have to go. Let me go, please."

Everyone in the room froze again, she could've heard a pin drop from the other side of the building. Half-forgotten half deliberately buried memories resurfacing, a hand around her throat. Her mum just watching, watching while she was slammed again and again into a wall and then-

Sophia entered her breaker state, slipping through Armsmaster's suddenly empty fingers as a shadow. Nothing could touch her there, there she was safe and then she was gone. Without opening the door she shot through it and out the building. Ignoring the calls coming after her from her 'teammates' and Armsmaster alike.

Her only thoughts as she burst out onto the roof, slipping out of her shadows and back into the corporeal world was of Myles Everett. Somehow, some way, the worm had grown into that. She had to make it safe again, she had to.

No matter what it took.

A/N: Firstly I'll say that Sophia is a real bitch to write. Not that much of a surprise considering how much of a bitch she is herself. I have plans for Sophia, and she won't like them, but I'm also not into just bashing on a character and saying they're bad. Like I said, through Myles, a lot of these grey characters or quite dark characters are just broken people in my eyes. This isn't for people like the Nazis or Jack Slash, but for people like Sophia and Emma? Hope you enjoyed it, let me know.

This was originally going to be posted yesterday but my internet went out the moment I clicked to post it. Next chapter should be the start of the chapters and away from the interludes.