Glory Girl stumbled backwards, hand pressed against her head before her heel hit a section of a broken desk and she collapsed in a heap. Sophia barely had time to realise the blonde heroine was still alive before Panacea let out another scream and flung herself across the distance between her and Tattletale.
Shit, Sophia berated herself, and burst into a dead sprint, flickering between states to pick up as much speed in the short distance as possible. Panacea was faster, vaulting another broken desk in an ungainly display of acrobatics before stretching her hands out, seeking contact with bare flesh.
As fast as the renowned healer was, Lisa was faster. Even as Panacea took the final pace in closing the distance, the costumed villainess twisted on one heel to avoid her desperate lunge. Panacea stumbled, finding herself suddenly without anything to brace against, and Lisa jumped on the opportunity. An arm snaked out, wrapping tightly around the other girl's neck and stopping her dead.
"Glory Girl, I'd appreciate it if you didn't try and kill me whilst I've got a gun pressed against your sister's skull - same to you, Shadow Stalker," Lisa's voice was pained, and Sophia belatedly remembered the blood soaking into her costume from where Glory Girl had flung Lisa away from Panacea. She did her best to abort her sprint by swapping into her alternate state, sliding across the floor for a short distance to end up only five or so metres away from the pair. For her part, the frizzy haired girl froze, twisting against Lisa's hold to stare at her sister as she dizzily sat up, still pressing a hand against her forehead.
"Vicky!"
Glory Girl blinked to focus her eyes before her expression changed and she leapt to her feet unsteadily, reaching out to catch herself on the already destroyed desk and sending her hand straight through the wooden surface like damp cardboard. "Shit! Ames!"
Lisa tightened her hold slightly, cutting off any reply. "She's fine. You, on the other hand, are concussed. New experience, miss Invincible? It was a good front, I gotta say - even had me going for a bit with the whole "Alexandria Package" deal, but I worked it out just after you dump tackled me through a fucking bank door."
Sophia threw a glance at Glory Girl and saw she'd frozen, outstretched hand clenched against the wreckage of the desk as she glared at Lisa and her sister.
"A shield that shorts out after a big enough hit," Lisa continued, wincing in pain as Amy shifted. "Stay still, idiot. Do you want this thing to go off and kill you? Because then I die, and I really don't want that."
"Let her go, Tattletale," Glory Girl spat, standing up straighter. "If you hurt her, how do you think this'll play out? You're so smart, you tell me - not just the Wards, not just the Protectorate, but New Wave, all the heroes and villains she's ever healed after an Endbringer battle. Think you and your pathetic team can take on the whole world?"
Lisa choked out a laugh, turning a way for a moment to spit blood. Her eyes never left her opponent, and the pistol remained pressed against Amy's jaw. "Nah, but that's not gonna happen. What is gonna happen is you're gonna walk yourself into that vault and stay there unless you want me to redecorate the ceiling red, capiche? I let you live once, but now I've got it figured out you're just as vulnerable as anyone else is."
"Ames…"
Again, it was Lisa who answered. "She won't do anything. Too timid - no, too scared of people realising, isn't that right? I know all of her secrets better than she does. Besides, my costume is too thick, she can't get to me even if she wanted to."
"Don't fucking bet on it," her hostage spat, prompting laughter from the captor.
Across the room, Glory Girl threw a helpless glance at Sophia, who merely stared back mutely, shrugging her shoulders as if to say 'I'm useless here'. In a situation like this, there was nothing she could do - even Armsmaster, a man with about as many social graces as a dead skunk, was trained to de-escalate hostage crises over taking direct action. Regardless of the fact, she moved - more to keep up the image than out of any hope of forcing Lisa to release Panacea - taking several steps sideways to line the crossbow up with Lisa. As she expected, the other girl merely rotated her captive slightly, forcing the healer to shuffle sideways.
"Don't push it, Stalker," Lisa warned, and she halted, slowly lowering the crossbow again.
What the fuck are you doing, Lisa?!
Again, Glory Girl shifted in place, clenching both fists angrily at her side. "If you surrender now, I'll try to get you leniency. Just let my sister go! I'll even stay where I am."
"I don't think so," Lisa tutted, sweat breaking out across her brow as Glory Girl's aura racked the tension up another couple of notches. Sophia momentarily wondered how much it was costing her to abuse her power like this. "You don't have that kind of authority, and any idiot could see you're lying. The moment I let her go you'll throw yourself across the room and smash me against the wall like so much pulp - isn't that what you do to all those poor helpless gang bangers? The only reason you're not in jail yourself, Glory Hole, is because your sister covers for you. And let's be honest here, with your concussion, are you sure you'd miss Amy and hit me?"
The heroine lurched forwards angrily at that, but as if to emphasise Lisa's point she misjudged her footing and stumbled again, only catching herself by drifting away from the ground completely. Sophia watched as what little colour remaining in the girl's face fled before shaking her head in anger.
"Tattletale," she finally spoke, keeping her voice to a low growl. "Don't be fucking stupid. The Protectorate will be here soon - let her go and come quietly."
"No," Lisa seemed to deliberate for a moment before gesturing quickly with the gun at Glory Girl. "I think I'll stick with my plan. The vault, now. Or I start digging through all these secrets I really shouldn't know, and let me tell you - darling Ames here isn't going to like what I find."
Sophia watched as the rising star of Brockton Bay slowly collapsed in on herself, staring helplessly at her sister. After a long moment, she slowly turned, and - one eye on Lisa the entire time - drifted towards the open vault door.
"Thank you," Lisa mumbled, so quietly that only Panacea and Sophia heard amidst the door being dragged almost shut by a very angry Glory Girl. "That was killing my head. Now, you-" Here she turned to face Sophia, "-are going to move backwards three steps. I don't want to hurt the world's most famous healer any more than anyone else does, fuck I even like her, but if you push me I will do what it takes to keep myself alive. Clear?"
Sophia scoffed. "You're full of shit."
The sound of a safety slowly being removed seemed to lock the hostage's body up again in terror as she did her best to stare at the weapon pressed against her lower jaw.
"Try me," Lisa ground out. Sophia had to suppress a chuckle at her acting skills - after being accused of being full of shit, the other girl had revealed exactly how full of shit she was by demonstrating the fact that Glory Girl had been conned into the vault by a safetied pistol, and she was pretty sure Panacea hadn't even realised. Externally, however, there was an image to think of. Slowly, reluctantly, Sophia took three steps backwards and cleared the route to the doors leading into the lobby.
Lisa smiled, just enough to show her she'd noticed the amusement. "Good. Now, Panacea - Amy - I want to have a word with you, and with little miss Ward here to watch I know you won't do anything to fuck me over. Whilst I'm at it, undo whatever you did to my teammate's spiders, please. No brains my ass, that's a straight power interaction you're messing with."
"Get fucked."
"Thank you, the headache was killing her," Lisa replied, cocking an eyebrow above her mask. "And also, sorry but you're not my type."
Panacea had gone suddenly rigid at the villains' words, and Lisa took the opportunity to release her and move clear, pistol still lined up with the back of the healer's head. Within moments, she'd stepped sideways, putting the other girl between her and the vault whilst keeping it difficult for Sophia to feasibly launch an attack on her.
"That's what I thought," she continued sadly. "You're angry right now, but you've got a lot of shit going on in your head. Too much shit. Now excuse me for taking an interest but I was bargaining for my life back there and I couldn't help but notice a lot of things - kind of how my power works. And you… Well."
Panacea opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. After a moment, she shut it and swallowed before trying again. Her voice was weak, barely audible. "Shut up. Please."
"Yeah, no worries - not gonna piss off the 'healer' who could create a goddamn plague keyed to my genetic material, no sir." She even did the air quotes, her pistol making the gesture ungainly. "All I'm saying is talk to someone. You're going to fucking explode, Amy, and when you do it's not gonna be pretty. For anyone. I might be a villain but even I care about small things like, oh, I don't know, the safety of everyone else on this planet?"
Panacea's shoulders were trembling, but she still turned to face the villain behind her. "A-and you just know all t-that, huh?"
"I'm fucking psychic, okay? I know all about your daddy issues, your family problems, your sister… Now, I'm not gonna say anything else - I don't need to, you're a smart girl - so walk. I'm right behind you and the gun is still pointed at the back of your head. Shadow Stalker, don't try anything. I'll know before you do, and bam. You get the picture, yeah? No one wants to be responsible for the death of the world's premier healer."
Sophia nodded jerkily, focused on the healer as she started to shuffle towards the exit. Throughout the confrontation, she'd looked scared, maybe even terrified, but angry all the same. Now… Now, Panacea looked broken. Her eyes didn't leave her feet as she walked towards the door, and her shoulders looked as if the weight of the world had suddenly been laid upon them.
What did you do? Sophia glared at Lisa, hoping the other girl would pick up on the angry thought. If she did, the Thinker didn't acknowledge it at all.
"Panacea?" Sophia finally addressed the frizzy-haired girl directly as she passed her. "I'm sorry. Next time I see the bitch, I'll put a tranq dart or three in her ass."
There you go, ignore that one. She'd definitely be having words with Lisa next time she saw her, and if the explanation wasn't good enough maybe tranq darts would be involved. As it stood, Sophia could only watch helplessly as the villain and the hero walked out into the lobby, leaving her standing motionless - and useless - behind them.
Sophia barely hesitated as the doors the duo had just passed through gave up the fight against gravity and crashed to the floor, turning and diving for the vault and the time bomb waiting to happen inside. It had only taken her a moment to put herself in Glory Girl's shoes and Aisha in Panacea's, and her decision was made - stop the angry teen capable of bench-pressing a tank from doing something really stupid.
She was nearly at the vault door, flickering back to human form to pass through the small gap, when the entire metal slab shook once, tumbled away from its seating in the wall and nearly took her head off were it not for a last-instant application of her ability.
"Where," Glory Girl growled in a tone that echoed off the small room's walls to magnify itself tenfold, one arm hefting a large metallic strip of the vault's interior wall like a weapon, whilst her eyes spat fire and lightning. "Is my sister?"
"Your side, dumbass. Put the club down."
The wave of terror hit her like a wall, turning her legs to jelly and forcing her to her knees. Glory Girl stood before her with her platinum blonde mane framing her head like flickering St Elmo's Fire, her very presence sending icy cold spikes of fear through Sophia's heart. She'd heard about the aura, of course - most in the Bay knew of it to some degree - but for it to be this bad?
She took a shaky breath, teeth chattering. "Glory G-Girl! You dumb fucker, what a-are you trying to do here, get your sister, you, me and the Wards killed? Or m-maybe you'd like the psychic thinker out there to work out you're after her ass, and take the other fucking route - the one where Ames doesn't make it out the other side in one piece. Remember that?"
Slowly the pressure slackened, and although the sense of terror didn't quite fade Sophia was able to pull herself to her admittedly unsteady feet. Glory Girl seemed to shake herself loose of her anger for a moment, staring at the Ward in front of her like they'd never met.
Then…
"You didn't stop Tattletale."
It wasn't so much a statement as it was an accusation, and Sophia fought to keep her wince from showing in her body language. The pressure of the aura was back, building to a crescendo once more as cold sweats broke out across her skin.
"I guess you really are a dumb blonde, huh?" Sophia spat as she shoved her masked face right up into the blonde's own, and half-smiled half-grimaced at the resultant flinch. The aura seemed to lessen slightly at its owner's shock.
Now to sell this.
"Your sister's fine, I just couldn't do anything because that bitch had her at gunpoint; if you keep fucking around like this though, she might not be for much longer. I came to get you rather than your sister because you're the one with a combat applicable power, right? Amy doesn't do brains, she just heals."
There's no way in hell I'm telling you what Lisa said about that particular detail. Sophia knew she wasn't the best when it came to managing people, but Brian had told her that if you didn't know how someone would react to something, it was best to wait until you did.
A pause. "... Right."
"Okay, so - you were angry and, if I didn't come get you," Sophia punctuated the statement by prodding the blonde in the chest with her crossbow, "You were likely to do something dumb and get people hurt - including my team. Right?"
This time the pause was even longer, and when the answer came it came with a volume most didn't associate with the blonde bombshell in front of Sophia: almost inaudible.
"Right."
Sophia took another breath and found it markedly easier to breathe as the final vestiges of terror began to ebb. Must be getting through to her, finally. "Good, so now I've calmed you down we can go in there and kick ass, right?" After a moment of hesitation, she took a risk. "I… I've got a sister. I can relate."
Glory Girl's smile was not a pretty thing.
"Damn straight."
Turning on her heels, Sophia broke into a run, flickering in and out of shadow state to barrel straight through the ruined office. Glory Girl took to the air barely a moment later, the pair reaching the door into the lobby of the bank at the same moment. There was no hesitation. One hammered through the remaining splinters of wood like an airborne tank, the other diving through the wall next to it as she brought her crossbows up…
Too late. They were too late. Sophia suppressed a snarl as Tattletale ducked her head close to Panacea's ear and muttered something, their proximity drawing Glory Girl's reckless charge to a stumbling halt. Whatever was said, Panacea slipped backwards to land firmly on her ass, and darkness exploded out from Grue just as Sophia pulled the trigger. At the last moment her arm jerked upwards, loosing the bolt into the ceiling.
When the cloud faded, Glory Girl was on her knees next to her sister, the pair locked in a fierce embrace. Of the Undersiders, nothing remained but a few bugs hovering menacingly in a cloud by the door. Within moments, even they seemed to crawl back into the woodwork, leaving the Wards - and the two sisters - alone with the hostages.
"Well," Clockblocker mumbled from his position on the floor, pinned by a baton frozen at his neck. "I think it's safe to say that was a colossal fuck-up and no mistake, huh?"
The chorus of "Shut up, Clockblocker" broke the tension, and slowly hostages started to pull themselves to their feet. The movement broke the spell over the other Wards, who rushed forward, checking for injuries.
After a moment, Clock piped up again. "Uh… someone wanna lend me a hand here?"
Sophia couldn't help but snort at the plaintive tone, watching as Gallant stepped away from Glory Girl to lend their teammate a hand. Free of anything to do for the moment, she let herself relax just slightly, leaning her head against the wall of the lobby as she surveyed the devastation wrought by the battle.
Much of the front of the bank was a wreck. Windows had been shattered, the double doors appeared to have taken a vacation and there was a large hole in one of the walls where Glory Girl had made her dramatic entry. Sophia quietly shook her head.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Brian, in her opinion, should have known better than this. She looked up to him as her brother, but that didn't stop her from pointing out his faults - usually with a fistfight or two. This… it didn't seem like him. Brian took his job very seriously, and this attack smacked of hasty planning and a lack of preparation. Something else had to be going on in the background.
"Stalker?"
Blinking to clear her thoughts, Sophia turned. "Yeah?"
"Piggot wants us back," Aegis grumbled, already turning away. "Let's go face our chewing out."
She went, unaware of Gallant's eyes on her back as they trooped out of the doors and onto the street. It was still raining, as if to make matters worse, but it wasn't long before two replacement PRT vans rolled up next to their destroyed counterparts. Carlos, Chris and Missy wearily clambered into one whilst Dean held the door of the second for Dennis and Sophia.
"Your sister?"
Sophia hesitated. "Must've left already, didn't see her there. Doesn't make it okay."
Dean merely nodded, pulling the door shut behind him.
The door to the debriefing room slammed open and a large figure in a tailored suit strode through, clutching a stack of folders under one arm, followed by the imposing form of Armsmaster in one of his earlier suits of armour. Sophia frowned, making a mental note of the downgrade for Lisa's ears later that evening. I wonder what happened to his latest version? Director Emily Piggot made her way around the table and dropped into the chair, which creaked alarmingly. Not a single person in the room dared to even smile.
"This," Piggot growled, opening one of the folders and throwing an array of paperwork onto the table showing pictures of the Bank fight, "Was a shambles. Explain."
Behind her mask Sophia rolled her eyes as Carlos made to stand. The Director waved him back into his seat dismissively.
"Aegis, I understand you have redundant biology, but I can see your spine through your chest. Sit down and let someone with actual lungs explain."
That got a round of laughs. Piggot turned baleful eyes on the other Wards and soon they fell silent.
Dean eventually stood. "We got thrashed, ma'am."
"Anything aside from the obvious?"
With his dented helmet sat on the table in front of him, Sophia got to witness the rare sight of the smooth-as-ice boy blushing. "Ah, that is… The Undersiders changed their usual tactics. We expected them to run at first contact and instead they took the fight to us."
Piggot nodded, gesturing for Armsmaster to pull up a whiteboard. "Good. How so?"
"Hellhound's dogs," Carlos wheezed. "They knew… Dennis and I had switched costumes. Hoped to… bait and switch, tag some of their… muscle."
Sophia bit her lip before interjecting. Make it believable.
"That's Tattletale. She's a Thinker, said she's psychic but I don't buy it."
Here Piggot lifted an eyebrow in her direction. "Elaborate."
"Well," she shifted in her seat under the Director's gaze. "After I lost comms-"
The Director's lips thinned as she cut across her. "We will be talking about your operational procedures after this meeting, Shadow Stalker. Continue."
"It wasn't my damn fault!" Sophia protested, and to her surprise Armsmaster came to her defense.
"Grue's darkness has been noted to interfere with Shadow Stalker's breaker state, ma'am. My earpieces are designed to survive her usual transition, but I would not be surprised to find them unsuitable for use within Grue's area of effect. PRT teams retrieved the earbud - I will examine it later." His piece said, the Protectorate hero clasped his hands behind his back and returned to his brooding, eyes twitching beneath the visor.
Mollified, Director Piggot shuffled the files in front of her and gestured for Sophia to continue.
"Anyway, after I lost comms I tried to work out what was happening and made the tactical decision to remove Grue from the fight." Sophia smiled at Piggot's look of abject surprise. "Sh- Things went south and Tattletale took Panacea hostage. I was in the room but unable to do anything because she had a gun pressed to Panacea's head."
"What are your observations?"
Sophia made a show of mulling over her thoughts as she tried to work out what she could and couldn't say without giving the game away. "Well… She knew a lot about Panacea just from looking at her."
Armsmaster spoke up. "Cold reading, or perhaps post-cognition."
"Whatever," she retorted with a shrug. "She talked Glory Girl into the vault too."
"Cold reading seems the more likely then," Piggot mused, and Armsmaster turned to the whiteboard, dividing it up into five columns, each headed with the name of a different member of the Undersiders. Bug Girl's column was titled '?'.
Dennis shuddered. "Their new member controls bugs. Lots of bugs."
"Anything else?"
The Ward shook his head, still looking pale. He'd switched costumes from his standard full-body suit, and Sophia got the distinct impression he was regretting the decision with every bone in his body. Bug Girl hadn't gone easy on him.
"In which case," Director Piggot continued, placing her hands on the table in front of her. "Let's move on. Not only did you fail to contain the Undersiders, or capture any of their number-"
Chris piped up. "Grue was injured!"
"- Injured and not in a jail cell, but you also managed to deal tens of thousands of dollars worth of property damage to the building. Civilians watched you fight like brawlers rather than trained capes, and lose. The blow to our PR will have to be mitigated. Armsmaster, see to it that your Wards' pay is docked for the next month."
Director Piggot stood, collected the folders and made for the door. Before throwing it open, she cast one final glance over her shoulder.
"Next time, Gallant, tell your girlfriend to keep out of official Protectorate duty. She's done enough damage as it is."
The doors swang shut behind her with a soft hiss, leaving a dejected Wards team to pull themselves to their feet and start for the locker room. Sophia hesitated, sneaking a glance at her teammates. None seemed interested in her as they trooped past, so she made to follow them.
Gallant waited until Sophia had left before turning to Armsmaster.
"Sir, I think I need to talk to you about something."
The older hero blinked. "I'll have your armour repaired by your next patrol duty, Gallant."
"It's not about that, sir," Dean sighed. "It's about the mole. I think I might know who it is."