A few days later found Sophia stretched out on the couch doing homework of all things whilst doing her best to ignore Dennis. For whatever reason - she certainly couldn't think of any - the time-stopper had latched on to her tasing. The jokes had never been this bad before.
"Hey, Dennis?"
He looked up from his book with a grin that said he'd thought of at least three more jokes to try out on her. "Yeah?"
"Shut the fuck up."
"I hadn't even said anything yet!"
Sophia gave him the eye. The smile faltered slightly before he slowly sunk back out of sight behind the book, grumbling all the while. With a sigh, she returned to the work in front of her - some boring shit about the impact of parahumans on the world from Gladly's world affairs class. Despite herself, she snorted. I'm probably the best qualified in the whole class to answer this, and it's still boring as fuck.
A few hundred words later, the doors clicked open and Carlos drifted in, tugging the mask off of his face and depositing it next to Chris. The tinker was running console duty, but everyone knew that 'console duty' to Chris meant 'Tinker time'. He barely glanced up, instead scrawling another few words before Carlos poked him in the arm.
"Huh? Oh!" Chris hastily grabbed at the various pieces of paper he had jerked into the air, frantically trying to explain that he wasn't actually Tinkering this time. "Fuck!"
With a long-suffering sigh Carlos bounced into the air to avoid the mug of coffee Chris sent flying in his hopeless effort to catch all of the paper before it ended up on the floor. Sophia suppressed a grin - watching her teammates was her primary source of entertainment when she wasn't allowed to patrol. Something about schedules and "acceptable contact time". As far as she was concerned, the Youth Guard could stick its regulations right up where the sun didn't shine.
"Carlos, oh glorious leader, have you heard the rumours?" Dennis called, having set aside the book to watch Chris stumble about collecting the paper.
Their leader turned. "Yeah, I've heard. Armsmaster sent me a memo confirming it too - we're supposed to keep an extra-sharp eye out when patrolling for the ABB in case they try something."
Sophia kicked her legs off of the sofa and straightened up. "Heard what? You didn't say anything to me."
"Yeah, 'cuz you didn't ask," Dennis waved her off. "PHO was kicking off about Lung being brought in last night, but I didn't know if it was for real. Daaamn."
"Armsmaster brought down Lung?" She could hardly believe it. The man trained 24/7, and whilst she respected that she could never see him managing to beat the resident rage dragon of Brockton Bay in a straight fight. "No fucking way."
Carlos shrugged. "I'd show you the memo but it self-deleted. Everyone's getting so paranoid about the leaks."
Sophia blinked. That's new. For a moment she debated leaving it at that, but getting more information for Lisa finally won out; Gallant's absence due to a family meal certainly helped swing the decision. She'd have to be careful all the same, what with everyone on edge.
"Self-deletion? Fuck, Armsy is getting way too into this."
"Hey, the man needs a hobby," Dennis piped up, but Sophia ignored him, focusing instead on Carlos. The hispanic boy ran a hand through his cropped hair in indecision before sighing again and walking over to them, leaving Chris to collect the paperwork he'd dropped
"I'm not supposed to say much but apparently an internal investigation is turning up a lot more leaks than anyone expected," he started, dropping into the couch next to Sophia. "Everything is up in the air at the moment, but I get the impression Armsmaster is taking it like a personal insult or something."
Shit. Sophia snorted to cover up the spike of ice suddenly announcing itself at the base of her neck. If Armsmaster was turning his personal attention to the matter, things could go wrong at any moment. She had faith in her skills but the man was practically a machine when it came to his work, and if he wasn't machine enough to manage on his own he'd soon enough make one to do what he couldn't.
The conversation had moved on by the time she turned her attention back to it, returning to the topic of Lung's arrest. Dennis laid a $20 bet on there being someone else involved that the PRT weren't talking about, but Carlos shook his head.
"I'd believe it."
Sophia perked up. "What, that new guy who went after the ABB thugs a few days ago?"
"Nah," he shook his head slowly. "You didn't hear this from me but when he came in, bits of Lung were apparently rotting off. Different modus operandi, I think."
"Fuck, another new independent then." Something else to share with Lisa.
Carlos nodded. "Seems like it. Anyways, I'm gonna go hit the showers. Sophia, you and Dennis are up in fifteen minutes. Chris, you're finished right? I'll get Missy to take over console on my way."
As he stood and headed through the doors, followed by Chris - still struggling to keep all of the paper in one bundle - another door opened and a sandy-haired man stuck his head through. "Oi, Shadow Stalker, mind if I have a word."
Uh oh.
Assault - Ethan when he was out of costume - waited until Sophia had settled into her chair before kicking off his boots and resting his feet on the table. She looked at him warily, waiting. After thirty seconds of silence he chuckled and pulled open a drawer, removing a single sheaf of paper.
"Browbeat."
Sophia frowned. "What?"
"The polite thing to say is 'Come again?' but I'll let you off. Browbeat is the new independent you and Roy nearly bumped into the other day. This," he slid the document across the desk to her, "is everything we know about him so far."
She ran her eyes down the page and turned it over. "That it?"
"He's pretty new, and the only stuff we've got on him is from anything the thugs he's taken out have said to the police."
"Right, so not much," she muttered, going back to the first side and reading from the top. Apparently Browbeat was huge, a slab of muscle reaching nearly seven foot tall and almost the same across the shoulders, and very strong. She couldn't help but feel like someone had maybe been exaggerating just a little bit when they were talking to the police, but beyond 'very strong' the PRT had basically nothing on his powers. A tentative "Brute?" was stamped on one corner of the paper.
Looking up at Ethan, Sophia raised an eyebrow. "So?"
"So, we want you to try and find him."
"Me?" She couldn't keep the surprise from her voice that time. "Why me? If you want someone to do the whole Wards speech you're better off with Carlos. He's the pretty boy who's good at public speaking."
The older hero pulled his feet off the table and leant forward. "Because you were an independent before you signed up, and everyone knows it. If it's you talking to him, he might feel less intimidated, plus there's a similarity between the pair of you."
This could be a test, Sophia thought, carefully keeping her face straight. Maybe they were telling her this to see if it got back to the Undersiders, or maybe they wanted to see how good a job she did on recruiting him.
"Okay…"
Ethan smiled. "So you'll do it?"
"Do I have a choice?" She grunted, before nodding. "Yeah, whatever, I'll talk to him. How the fuck am I supposed to find this guy anyway? Says here he's only been confirmed for four incidents, another four suspected, and they're all over the place."
"That," he grinned, "Is entirely up to you. Or to put it another way, this is all on your head. Have fun!"
Sophia stared at him for several seconds before her lip pulled up in a sneer. You sneaky bastard. They asked you to do it, didn't they? Before she stood, she gave the document a final cursory once-over, and stopped.
"Huh."
Ethan looked up from his screen suspiciously. "What?"
She smiled sweetly at him, remembering how much it annoyed Brian when Aisha did the same thing. "Nothing. I'll be getting ready for my patrol now."
"You little-..!"
As she left, she heard his chair scrape against the floor as he lunged across the table for the document. It wasn't a big thing, not really. They'd just missed the fact that every time Browbeat had been confirmed on site by the police, the incident had taken place on a weekend. His targets had been almost exclusively ABB gangers apart from one possible confrontation with Victor from the Empire Eighty Eight.
And today was Friday.
Sophia smiled to herself. If he stuck to his routine, all she'd have to do was wait for Console to alert them to an incident involving the ABB, and hopefully… there he'd be.
"What is this, some kind of vendetta you've got going on? Not satisfied with one villain tasing your ass so gotta get the whole set? Or is it that you're jealous bossman got to take out the big bad Lung?"
Sophia shifted into her shadow form and allowed the weird semi-solidness to fall away, dropping through the roof and then through the wall of the building she'd been on top of as her momentum carried her forwards. She stepped back into her normal state a metre away from Clockblocker, pointing a finger at him.
"You don't know when to shut up, do you?"
He lifted his hands in the classic 'I surrender' pose. "Nope, but seriously what's going on? You've taken every call that involves the ABB tonight. Sure, Lung is off the streets, but come on! You think you can take out the rest of his gang in one night?"
"If I really tried."
"Wow," he was forced to pause and jog after her as she stepped out onto the road and started off again. "You really mean that, huh?"
Rolling her eyes, she stopped and turned to face him again. "No, dumbass. Assault asked me to try and find that new independent and talk to him, so I'm being smart. Know what that means? Smart?"
"Ha ha, Shadow. I might crack jokes a lot but I do have a brain. Go on then, share with the class?"
"Just for that, I'm not fucking going to."
"Oh, come on!" Clockblocker whined, chasing after her again. "Don't make me freeze you! I mean it!"
She held up a hand as another call came through. "Shadow Stalker here."
"Police have reports of a disturbance about five minutes from you," Missy's voice crackled in their ears. "A bunch of ABB ran out of an alleyway and tried to hold up a bank delivery but can't get into the truck."
"We're on it, location?"
A pause, filled with the sound of keys being pressed. "Uhm… got it! Juniper Crescent, leading to Oak Park Way."
Dennis threw his hands up in defeat as she turned and broke into a jog for the nearest fire escape. "I guess we're going after this one as well? How is this helping you find Beatboxer or whatever this guy's called?"
"Because," Sophia relied, swinging herself up onto the ladder, "I am smart. You aren't."
She left Dennis to make his way on foot as she shadow-ran across the rooftops. Thankfully the location was close enough that she wouldn't get in too much shit from Carlos about leaving her patrol partner behind, and in two minutes she was standing at the edge of another roof, peering down into the street.
"Yup, Browbeat on scene. Looks like he's almost done clearing up the ABB too." Browbeat was just as big, if not bigger, than the police reports said, and he was smacking aside thugs with almost casual ease. One sunk a knife into his shoulder, and the only reaction it got him was a backhand. When said back of the hand was nearly half a foot across, that hurt, and the thug bounced off the side of the van he'd been trying to rob before falling to the floor unconscious.
Dennis's voice filled her earbud , sounding distinctly out of breath. "Fuck, you were actually right? Now you've gotta tell me how you did it."
She grinned to herself. "Maybe I will. Now, stay back - I'm gonna drop in and talk to him."
"Wait, what?"
"I was an independent before I joined up, doofus. He might listen to me more, or some bullshit like that. It's what Assault thinks anyway." She didn't add that Ethan had said nothing about Clockblocker staying behind. 'Why waste a perfect opportunity for a private chat?' After a moment, she leant out over the ledge, watching as Browbeat ducked behind the van after another thug.
Obviously, she'd have to take care to be subtle in case Clock decided to burst in on them anyway, or in case she put him off too strongly and someone higher up started to suspect her, but if she could plant some doubt in this guy's head about the Wards? Maybe Lisa could talk him round, and more muscle on their team meant less grunt work for Brian.
With that thought in mind, Sophia stepped out into open space and let the shadows boil outward from her core, flash-transforming her body into a smoky, human-shaped cloud. As she drifted downwards, Browbeat clocked the final ABB member and looked about before his hand went to his waist and withdrew a set of ties.
"Nice," Sophia called out, shifting back to corporeality the moment she felt the ground start to impinge on her shadow state. The reaction was about what she expected: the hulking figure jerked upright, dropping the ties and wheeling to face her in one smooth movement. They faced off in silence for almost half a minute before he lowered his over-large fists and nodded at her.
"Shadow Stalker." The voice was quiet, but deep and rumbling. It suited him.
She gestured with one hand. "How many was that? Eight? Nine? That's pretty fucking impressive."
"Thank you," Bowbeat ducked his head at the praise. Sophia couldn't help but get the impression of a gentle giant stuck in her head as he seemed to weigh up her presence before turning back to his ties. "I assume I won't have to call the police with you on scene?"
Sophia withdrew her own ties and started on the few he'd yet to reach. "Nah, you're good. Police knew you were here ten minutes ago anyway."
The big man flinched at that, letting the thug he'd been zip-tying fall back against the floor with a groan as he looked around the street.
"Hey, don't sweat it. I'm on scene so they're holding back for now." A lie, but close enough to how things would appear that he'd believe it without question. "It's good to see someone else on the streets dishing out justice, though."
He seemed to find that funny. "Not justice."
"Then what?" She couldn't help it - her interest was piqued. "So far you've only targeted the gangs, right? Sounds like justice to me."
"Experimentation." He paused, looking at her for a long moment. "The authorities won't care who I test my powers on so long as they're criminals, no? It makes logical sense for me to target the gangs if I want to avoid going to prison."
His voice had slipped into the tones of a lecturer, like he'd put a lot of thought into what he was saying and had planned it out beforehand. Sophia shook her head.
"Asking the wrong girl - I was only independent for about a month before the Wards snapped me up, but yeah, sounds smart to me."
"Ah. Is this where you try and induct me? I confess I would like to hear what you have to say."
Weird. Who even talks like that?
"Nah, I don't dig that. Sure, the higher-ups might want me to give you the whole talk or whatever but me? If I'm honest I'd rather be doing what you do." She quietly thanked her lucky stars she'd yet to get her upgraded mask with the camera and recorder built into it. "Too many restrictions working as a Ward, but oh well. Pay is good, I get good gear, I get back-up if I need it and some kind of contract with Panacea meaning if I get fucked up she'll unfuck me. If that sounds like your deal then sure, I'm inducting you. Otherwise…"
She let the sentence hang and waited as Browbeat mulled it over. After a good twenty seconds of silence he ponderously shook his head.
"I would like to think about it. The other night I bumped into someone who said something much the same as you and outlined the benefits of staying independent. If I can, may I get back to you after assessing my options?"
Sophia secretly smiled to herself. Hopefully, that 'someone' was Tattletale and the rest of the Undersiders. "Do whatever, big man."
He hesitated. "You do not mind?"
"S'like I said, the higher-ups probably give a shit but I don't. If you'd got one of the others, maybe they'd give you the bullshit speech but I know what it's like on both sides. The rest of them joined straight after getting their powers. My advice? Play it safe, but see what suits you best. I know I wouldn't have fucking joined if I'd known about all the rules… That and Clockblocker has a terrible sense of humour."
"I see," Browbeat murmured, nodding slowly. The attempt at a joke seemed to sail straight over his head, which considering his height was an impressive feat. "In which case, I am glad it was you I met and not them. However, I would like to take my leave now. The police will be here soon, despite your assurance to the contrary. It was a pleasure to meet you."
Did he just fucking bow?
"Same to you," Sophia replied slowly. Before the last word had even left her mouth Browbeat turned and leapt into the air, flying much further than anyone of his size possibly could. In moments he was on the roof of the van, and then the rooftops hid him from view.
"You done? Just saw some huge dude leap onto a roof and run off, guessing that was him?"
She sighed. "You know, I'd almost forgotten you were here. It was nice."
"So is that a yes or what, miss Bitch Queen extraordinaire?"
Chuckling, Sophia turned away and started walking. Sirens were already drawing near, and there was no need to linger. Her job for the evening was complete.
"It's a yes. Let's go."
It was hard to ignore Dennis's moaning on the route back to base. Almost, some might have said, impossible. Sophia managed it easily - what with Aisha at home and Alec at the Undersider's base, she had more than enough experience ignoring idiots.