With a last glance at the slip of paper Brian had given her a week ago, Sophia crumpled it up and found a nearby trashcan to dump it in. When it came to keeping her brother secret, there were no lengths she wasn't prepared to go to. The building in front of her was imposing, over ten stories high and in one of the nicer areas of town, something that the social services would have taken note of. As she approached the glass doors, they buzzed, causing her to hesitate. On the other side, the receptionist waved her in.
"Your brother said you'd be dropping by today, Miss Laborn. You are Miss Laborn?"
Huh. Swanky service. "Yeah, that's me. Thanks."
The elevators were in the corner of the lobby, and after a ten second wait the leftmost one dinged open for her. Unfortunately, the 'nicer area of town' didn't cross over into a better selection of elevator music, but Sophia bore it out stoically, finding a little amusement in the fact Brian would have to listen to that every time he wanted to leave or return to his flat. Actually, knowing Brian, he probably took the stairs.
By the time the elevator dinged again, Sophia was drumming her fingers against her leg in agitation. She didn't like enclosed spaces much, and the awful funky-jazzy music wasn't helping. Stepping out into the corridor, she looked both ways before setting off left at the behest of a sign giving directions. This place is actually pretty large, she mused, taking a right hand turn at another intersection before halting outside a door marked 215.
"Coming!" Her brother's voice sounded distant and slightly surprised, like she'd caught him off-guard. Sophia grinned, and channelled Aisha - maybe she was interrupting something. A few moments later the door opened to reveal Brian, topless and sweating. "Hey Soph, come in."
She did so. The hallway was nicely furnished, if a little spartan, but Brian didn't linger, leading her through into the kitchen-cum-dining area that must have filled most of the floor plan.
"Nice," Sophia said, a little begrudgingly. She still lived at home or at the Wards base, and Brian knew how much she hated that. "How much did it cost you?"
He looked up from where he was rummaging in the fridge. "A fair amount, but it's worth it. Three bedrooms too, so you're welcome to crash here every now and then if you really have to. Coke?"
"Diet, if you've got it." She accepted the proffered can in silence, hoping her stony visage would hide just how much him setting aside a room for her meant. Brian chuckled, so she must have failed, but didn't comment.
The next hour was spent in companionable quiet as Sophia worked her way through some homework before watching a little TV. She treasured times like this, where it wasn't just business and she got to spend time with her actual brother and not Grue, the cape moniker he was increasingly growing into. Brian spent some of the time boxing - the rigorous training regime their father had helped him devise took back-seat to nothing, not even Sophia - before plopping himself down on the couch next to her.
"So, how's Aisha been? It's been a busy week and I haven't really had a chance to call her up or anything."
She made a so-so gesture. "You know what she's like - causing trouble every opportunity she gets. New boyfriend is an asshole too, but I distract him every time he starts throwing glances in her direction. I do my best to keep her out of trouble, you know that."
He smiled, bumping shoulders with her. "I do, and you know how much it means to me that you look after her when I can't, Soph."
"She's my sister too," she half-protested, flicking between two films as she tried to decide which one she hated less. "I don't just do it for you."
"You know you'd spend as much time away from home as you could if I hadn't asked you," he grinned to show he was joking before settling himself more comfortably. "Lisa will be over in a bit."
Sophia grimaced. "Pah. I thought this was supposed to be family time?"
"Yeah," he smiled ruefully. "It was, but she wanted to go over your patrol routes and you know how hard it is to keep secrets from her. She worked out you were coming over today and invited herself round."
She huffed, but said nothing more. Lisa had always rubbed her the wrong way, never knowing when to stop running her mouth or digging for secrets. That being said... ever since the incident that ended with Brian laid out on the couch for two weeks recovering from a wound she'd given him, the Thinker had been less... well, less Lisa-like. She couldn't work out what had changed, but Lisa treated Sophia with a little more respect and kindness than she had before.
The sound of someone knocking broke the pair from their reverie, and Brian rose. "That'll be her, I guess."
"Yeah, yeah, go let her in," Sophia grunted, giving him a little shove to show him she wasn't really that pissed. Family time was rare, yeah, but business had to come first. It was a dangerous game the pair of them were playing, and for all her failings the freckle-faced irritant was instrumental in making sure it worked as smoothly as it did. For that, and for that alone, Sophia tolerated her.
How Brian put up with being her team-mate, however, was something she could never understand.
"... oh, and I'm patrolling with Gallant in two days time, so keep out of trouble then."
Lisa nodded, fingers a blur as she typed up the various tidbits of information Sophia had given her. It was a well-rehearsed setup by now: she'd give them the latest passwords, fill in the blanks that Lisa's power couldn't or give the missing piece she needed to work something out, and in return Lisa gave her a few useful addresses or names to check out.
"Gotcha, we'll steer clear. Wish the Wards didn't have an emotion-reader but what can you do, hmm?"
Brian sighed. "Stop hinting, Lisa. Sophia said she wouldn't give any names and I agree with her; that's heat we really don't need coming down on our heads."
"Awh," the Thinker whined, looking up from her laptop. "But bribes make things so much easier, and that's without blackmail. We've got the perfect in and we aren't using it!"
"You survive because you're small fry," Sophia put in. "No offence, but you guys get less attention than the big gangs because you don't up your game too much, you stick to the stuff you're best at. Start looking for names and you'll go onto the list big time, and I can't fucking keep Piggy off your head if you start blackmailing people. That's just dumb."
Lisa sighed. "Yeah, but it'd be fun. Fine, fine, you win... again. No going after names. Anything else before I get my list of addresses up for this week?"
"Uhm," Sophia hesitated. There was. "I think the PRT is getting suspicious."
"What?" Brian jerked upright like someone had electrocuted him. "Of you?"
Lisa shook her head, looking at her pensively. "No, not of her specifically. I've seen some indicators in the stuff you helped me get access to, but the most they're saying is that they think the Undersiders have a 'sponsor with access to classified information' or 'an inside source'. They'll be checking carefully though. Damn."
"You can say that again," Brian ground out. Sophia tried not to notice the way his fists had clenched; Brian was an over-protective big brother to a fault, and at the start he'd argued against her joining the Wards completely. It was Lisa's idea, backed by Sophia herself, and he'd still not acquiesced easily. "What do we do?"
"I'll be more careful," she began, but Lisa raised a hand to cut her off.
"We'll have to arrange another 'spontaneous encounter'. Maybe this time Alec can tase you, knock you out of the fight? Hmm, they might be suspicious of that, actually - how'd he know the exact counter to your power? Wait, no - they know he uses a taser, so if we set it up right we could move some suspicion off of you. We'll have to do more, of course..."
She tailed off, staring into space. Brian gestured for Sophia to stay quiet - this was her 'power' face, the one she pulled when she was letting her ability off the leash and risking migraines in the process. The last thing she needed was an angry Sophia yelling at her.
After a minute, Lisa shook her head. "I've got a few ideas but for now we'll go with Alec and Rachel bumping into you on a patrol, and Alec can tag you. Make sure to make it as believable as possible, okay?"
Sophia glowered at the direction. Of course she'd make it believable! Brian asked a few more questions, but Lisa managed to calm him down and assure him his little sister would be as safe as always.
The next half hour was spent carefully memorising five addresses and descriptions of one or two people to look out for at each one. Sophia hated it, but these tip-offs were the real reason she was off probation with the Wards, not her 'good behaviour'. As much as she passed it off to Armsmaster and Piggy as being good at recon ops because she was nearly impossible to spot in the dark, it was Lisa who guided her like a missile to the right places at the right time.
That was how it went. Sophia worked on the right side of the law to help remove things that the Undersiders couldn't deal with themselves, and at the same time helped to keep her big brother safe. Brian, for all his muscle and brains, had a tendency to take responsibility upon himself, and Sophia knew as well as Lisa did that he put himself at risk if he thought it'd keep his team, or his family, safe. This was her way of doing her part in return.
Sophia glanced at her watch. Almost time to go, she had a patrol in an hour.
"I better start heading. Don't do anything stupid til I see you next, okay?"
Brian stood up as well, wrapping her in a brief but bone-breaking hug. "Same to you, Soph. Same time next week? We could go for a meal, bring Aisha along..."
"Yeah," she nodded. "I think we'd both like that."
Lisa glanced up from her screen, a thoughtful look on her face, but thankfully she kept her mouth shut about whatever it was she'd learnt from that last line. Sophia internally sighed - she'd love the mouthy blonde to give her an excuse to hit her, but Lisa knew that just as much as she did.
"Later," was the only thing the other girl said before turning back to her work.
With a grunt, she gave Brian one last hug and made for the door. She still had plenty of time to make it to the PRT building, more the pity; shadow-running was the best method of relaxation she'd found short of beating the ever-living shit out of a deserving gang banger.
Oh well. Can't have everything in life.
Sophia ground her teeth together, and waited.
The most annoying thing about Gallant, she decided, was not the emotion-reading ability or the golden boy attitude he always had, oh no. It was the fact that he was slow. So mind-numbingly, irritatingly slow. But then again, he was the most likely to cotton on to what she was doing in the Wards, so maybe the emotion-reading was about equal for most annoying thing, especially in light of the PRT's recent suspicions about the Undersiders. She shook her head to clear that line of thought as her earpiece crackled.
"I get it, I get it! I'm going as fast as I can."
She growled softly to herself before keying the mic. "I've told you I don't fucking like it when you do that."
"And I've told you I can't help it," the other Ward replied, finally pulling himself up onto the roof with her. Normally the pair of them would patrol together but slightly separate, with him on the ground and her on the rooftops serving as some kind of overwatch for trouble too distant for him to detect, but about five minutes ago he'd told her to wait up so he could join her.
"Whatever. So?"
Sophia turned and started walking towards the next roof over. This was an area where Gallant could actually move around on the roofs with relative ease thanks to the boost his armour gave him, so she didn't have to worry about losing him. As much as I'd like that.
"Heh, there's the Sophia I recognise," he mumbled, moving to catch up. "Nothing, I just thought we could have a chat. See how you're doing and stuff now you're a full member. You know, things team-mates do."
Sophia didn't have to worry about him seeing the light flush his words caused, but she battled with her emotions to keep him from seeing it in her 'emotioscape', as he liked to call it. "Sure."
He sighed and followed her across a narrow gap onto the next roof along. "That means you're supposed to do some of the talking too, you know. It's just..."
"Just what?" Sophia growled, wheeling on him. Gallant quickly raised his hands placatingly.
Fuck, hope I didn't just give the game away.
"No no, not anything bad. It's just I... well, I've noticed how you've mellowed out recently. You were pretty antagonistic - sorry - when you joined up but over the last couple of months you've been better. I was just wondering what changed."
Sophia let herself relax, hand moving away from the crossbow at her hip. "I dunno," she replied, turning away and starting off again. "Just been feeling a lot better recently."
Dean waited for her to continue, suit of armour clanking in the silence as he kept pace with her.
"Fine, I like being part of the team," she finally all but spat, knowing that was what he wanted to hear. "Nice to know someone's got my back, you know?"
In truth, it was the fact she was finally managing to get results in keeping Brian safe, that people were starting to listen to her when she said 'I think we should check this place out'. Maybe her whole attitude thing hadn't been the brightest idea ever; people took longer to trust her, and she knew she was still the least-liked member of the team. Am I more suspicious because of my attitude? Damn, I should have thought about this more.
"That's good," Gallant replied, and Sophia just knew he'd be smiling that genuine smile of his. How the hell is he always so... nice?! "Carlos mentioned to me he's thinking of moving you into a more important role as recon, by the way. We do notice when you put the work in, Sophia."
She just nodded. Internally, she was cheering. At last! They - at least, the Wards - were finally really starting to trust her, and she'd have even more opportunity to lead them to places that needed dealing with. For all that she cared about Brian and wanted to keep him safe, Sophia had to admit there was something awfully therapeutic about using her powers to beat the shit out of some punks. That she was a Ward and said punks had to be on the other side of the law? Well, that wasn't really a problem. Less people like Steven in the world was a plus, as far as she cared.
All she needed to do now was shake any suspicions the higher-ups had.
"Guess I'll tell him you like the idea," Dean chuckled. She flipped him the bird, but chuckled along with him.
Dean's nice. Maybe I can actually start to enjoy this whole 'team' thing if they're gonna work with me. The rest of the patrol passed in silence, but unlike so many times before it was companionable and not because she was refusing to talk to them.
Inside his armour, Dean smiled. Finally, I'm getting through to her. I just wish I knew why she was so nervous around me.