1.13- Sophia
March 15th 2008
Sophia adjusted her cape. She'd recycled it out of an old Halloween costume from when she was younger. It was too short now, and it just didn't fit right. Her first night out she'd gotten it caught on a drainpipe while gliding and nearly snapped her neck.
It wasn't going to be that way tonight. This was a new start. Her new costume was sturdy- made from dark camo and pads. And she'd been practicing with her crossbow. Who knew that sporting goods stores sold crossbows? It'd been pretty stupid to go out with just a baseball bat in the first place. She just didn't have the stopping power she needed to put down perps.
That bothered her.
It was a reminder that behind her powers, she was a scrawny 12-year old. And 12-year olds were weak. She wasn't weak, but it was an unchangeable fact that as of now, she was limited by her body. She'd already started running, and lifting some of Terry's weights when he wasn't around.
She liked running better. It gave her a chance to get away from Ste- Sophia shook her head. Running gave her the chance to get out of the house and away from her stupid family.
The wind picked up, unusually chilly for March, and Sophia shifted, letting the wind carry her. With the wind behind her, she only had to touch ground every 50 feet or so.
The feeling was incomparable. Her altered state let her feel the wind with her entire body; let it flow through her. Every eddy and change in current, every riser and thermal, every little zephyr that she wouldn't have even noticed in the flesh was like having the breath of life in her now.
Gliding beat the shit out of running, hands down. Nobody told her what to do out here. She was utterly free. She could just let everything fall away behind her. For a while, she just drifted, letting the wind carry her from rooftop to rooftop, moving where it did.
A cry from below caught her attention, and she reluctantly shifted back, dropping to the nearest roof. Physicality returned like a weight around her neck. Her good mood drained away, replaced by the familiar acid heat of her anger.
What fucking asshole was committing a crime now? And to whom? Which one of these worms was too weak to even protect themselves?
It didn't even matter.
The street below was gaudy with neon signs and displays. She'd drifted into one of the more Asian parts of town without noticing. Little Chinatown or something. She saw a few people wearing the red/green of the ABB, but most of the people out on the street were just normals, wrapping up their work for the day.
The cry came again, and Sophia shifted, flitting across the roof to look down at a side street. It was barely narrow enough to call it a street. Little more than a wide alley. A row of trashcans sat along one wall, overflowing with waste. Motion caught her eye. A man struggling with a woman. Possibilities raced through her head. Abduction? Rape? Murder?
…purse-snatching.
Good enough. She was going to hurt him like a rapist though. For spoiling her mood.
The man wrestled the purse away from the woman and shoved her into the trash. She screamed at him in Chinese, her thick eyeliner tear-smeared across her face. The man took off running; not toward the street, but down the alley, heading for a big apartment bloc.
Sophia stared at the was just sitting there, yelling for help. Why didn't she do something? Something tangible, not just screaming. It was… it was almost pathetic. How did these people manage? They couldn't even protect themselves.
Fuck them. She'd managed on her own. Not her problem if they couldn't.
Without another backward glance, she went after the man. He was slow enough that she caught up just as he ducked into the back stairs of the apartment building. He immediately began rifling through the purse, tossing out items as they came to hand. Makeup spilled and scattered on the stairs around him.
Sophia positioned herself and then glided out above the alley, falling down until she was a man's height above the ground. And then she shifted back, dropping to the concrete in a perfect three-point landing. Didn't hurt at all. The kneepads she'd bought had done the trick.
With practiced menace, she raised her head, locking eyes with the purse-snatcher.
"Drop it, asshole."
He yelled something at her in Chinese, and didn't drop the bag.
Fuckkk, he didn't even speak English How was she supposed to threaten him now?
She raised a crossbow, pointing it at his face. The rapid shift in the man's expressions almost made her laugh. From surprise to anger to piss-your-pants in 5 seconds.
Sophia stalked toward him, keeping the crossbow trained on him. The man stumbled backwards, falling into the stairs. She held out a hand and motioned for him to give her the purse.
"Hands on your head!" She barked. He didn't understand her, but shouting at him was satisfying.
The man tossed the purse at her feet, the contents rolling out onto the pavement. She looked down, and the man lunged at her. The squeak of surprise that escaped her lips was awful.
What was worse was the dreamlike slowness and certainty of what she did next. It was pure reflex. The product of all those hours spent practicing that she was so proud of.
He lunged, and she brought the crossbow up. The barest twitch of her finger on the trigger fired the bolt. There was a hiss, and then the bolt bloomed from his throat in a spray of arterial blood.
He staggered. Fell.
The world returned to normal speed, leaving Sophia standing over him, an empty crossbow in her hands. The bolt jigged in the man's throat as he tried to breathe, blood gurgling out around it. His wet gasping filled the stairwell.
"Oh shit." She whispered.
The man twitched, his leg kicking once, and then lay still.
"Ohh shit."
Her crossbow hit the ground.
She grabbed for it, and fumbled it again, dropping it into the blood now streaming down the stairs. Fuck. Oh fuck. Why couldn't she- the crossbow slipped between her numb fingers and she kicked it away, sending it spinning across the alley.
Fuck fuck fuck oh god, what the fuck!? What the fuck was he doing? He fucking lunged at her when she had a crossbow on him. He'd made her shoot him! It was an accident!
Oh Christ. Oh fucking Christ she was fucked if anyone saw.
Moving jerkily, her legs didn't seem to remember how to bend, she leaned out of the stairwell to check the alley. A slat-ribbed dog was picking through the trash, but it was otherwise empty. Thank God.
Sophia slid back into the stairwell. She looked at the man. At the corpse. His face was slack, his eyes half-open. The bolt protruded from his throat at an angle, hanging limply to the side. Little trickles of blood still flowed from around the shaft.
Sh-she needed to hide the body. Needed to pull the bolt out and- fuck what was she supposed to do? She couldn't lift him. She couldn't lift him but she needed to lift him and- Fuck- she needed to- couldn't breathe- she needed to hide him- be- because-
She pulled her mask off, letting it fall, taking great gasps of air. Big, lung-filling breaths that tasted like copper blood and moist trash and-
No no no no no No No NO NO-
No!
She forced herself to exhale. Inhale. Let the air travel through her, just like it did when she shifted. She didn't think of how the air tasted like the man's lifeblood, or how her face was wet with blood spray. She thought only of the motion of breathing.
In. Out. In. Out.
She was strong enough to do this. Strong enough to not freak out. Strong enough that she wouldn't freak out. She didn't do that anymore. Not since she'd gotten her powers. Since she'd sworn never to let him hurt her again.
She stayed there, her forehead pressed against the wall, forcing herself to breathe. Holding herself in check until her heart stopped racing.
Until her hands stopped shaking.
Until she found something.
Something to focus on, to distract her.
Right. She needed to get rid of him.
Get rid of the body. That came first.
She was…
Not calm.
Focused.
Sophia took one more deep breath and then pulled herself away from the wall. The dead man was still there, his blood now drying on the steps.
As fucked up as what had just happened was, she didn't have any intention of going to prison over some fucking purse-snatcher. She had to hide the body.
She wanted to laugh at the change. When you had something to focus on, everything was so much easier. That was how things worked. She'd focused on being strong, and she'd gotten stronger. And now she was going to focus on getting rid of this jackass.
What was she so upset about anyway? It was the guy's fault in the first place. He'd lunged at her. He'd attacked and she'd defended herself. And he was a scumbag. A two-bit, purse-snatching scumbag. Just a piece of shit that she'd gotten rid of.
It wasn't her fault.
She was still a hero.
By the time Sophia twisted the bolt out of the man's throat, she was smiling.
SPEAKSPEAKSPEAK
January 20th, 2011
She could tell immediately that Madison hadn't been sleeping. It wasn't just the dark circles under her eyes. It was all the small details; the way her hair wasn't as glossy as usual, that she wasn't wearing makeup, a slowness in the way she moved. Sophia caught the details within three heartbeats. She took a certain predatory enjoyment out of noticing. It was like an endorsement, her own body coming up to code as a predator.
Emma sat dead center on the sectional sofa that took up the entire back wall of the Barnes' living room. She sat beside Emma. Madison stood in the middle of the room. She was either too uneasy or too panicked to sit. Sophia couldn't tell which.
"What did you want?" Emma said sharply.
Madison quivered at Emma's tone. She reminded Sophia of someone when she huddled in on herself like that… but who?
"I needed to see you guys because," Madison took a deep breath. "It's about Hebert."
That's who it was. Madison reminded her of Hebert. Weak, cowardly Hebert.
"What about Taylor?" Emma said.
"I was just thinking. You two killed-"
Sophia rose to her feet, sneering at Madison.
"You two." she said in a mocking voice. "Don't try to pin this all on us, Madison. You were there. You helped too."
"Yeah." Emma seconded. "What are you doing Madison? She's been dead for three weeks. It's over. Done."
"A-and that doesn't bother you?! That Hebert died because of what we did?"
"Not really." Emma said, her voice too casual.
Sophia thought about it. Did it bother her that Hebert had died? No. She didn't feel anything more for the girl than for any of the others she'd killed as Shadow Stalker.
It was kind of funny, really. She never really deliberately killed anyone. She just didn't try very hard not to. So when people did die, it was accidental. The product of her own apathy. And if they couldn't stop her killing them, they didn't deserve to live anyway.
No, what was funny was Hebert. Sophia loathed Hebert. Had loathed Hebert. Obnoxious, irritating little girl. Someone on the absolute bottom of the food chain. But even with all that hate, it had still been an accident. Even she hadn't imagined that Hebert could be such a nobody that no one would notice her disappearance. That Hebert would suffocate inside her locker over the weekend.
Just a stupid, inconvenient accident. That's all Hebert ever was. An annoyance. Someone who got in Sophia's way just through sheer existence. Someone too weak to even keep on living.
"I mean… it wasn't supposed to happen that way." Emma said slowly. "She was supposed to survive and come out stronger. A survivor. Like I did."
"Bullshit."
Both girls looked at her.
"That's shit and you know it Emma."
"Sophia!" Emma snapped. "She was supposed to be-"
"Nothing." Sophia's patience was worn thin. "You didn't give a fuck whether Hebert died or not. At least have the guts to be honest about it."
She wasn't under any pretensions about Hebert's death, and she was damn sure not going to let Emma have any. It was… it was like it diminished the act. Made it something dirty. Something to feel guilty for.
She continued. "All you wanted to do was hurt her. And you, Madison. You fucking wuss. You were all set to suck up to us by going after Hebert, but now that things are serious, you've got cold feet."
Madison glared at her, her face screwed up like she was about to cry. "Like you're so high and mighty, Sophia. I thought I might not be the only one who felt bad about this. That I was the only one who felt guilty over it!"
Sophia strode forward. Madison was taller than she was, but as Sophia approached, it was Madison who stepped back. She didn't stop until Madison was backed up against one of Alan Barnes' shelves full of law books.
"And so what?" Sophia said. "Feeling guilty about it doesn't unkill Hebert. She's dead. It's over. Get over it."
"No." Madison said softly.
"What do you mean, 'no?'" Emma shouted.
"I meant what I said. I wanted to see if either of you felt any remorse at all over it. So that I could know that my friends were still human."
Sophia stepped back involuntarily. She didn't feel a single shred of remorse for Hebert. She felt annoyance. Inconvenience, really. Hebert's death was a lot more visible than any of the people she killed in costume, and it put her probation in jeopardy.
She and Emma were silent. Madison smiled triumphantly. It wasn't an expression she'd ever seen on Madison wear. An unexpectedly vicious smile.
"Get out of my face." Madison hissed at Sophia. When Sophia didn't move, Madison shoved by her. Without breaking stride, Madison grabbed her clutch bag and headed for the exit.
"Where are you going?" Emma said, sounding worried. Madison paused in the doorway, looking over her shoulder at them.
"The Protectorate. To do the right thing. Goodbye Emma, Sophia."
Red flared at the edges of her vision. The fucking bitch was selling them out! She was saving her own skin and throwing them to the wolves!
"I'll fucking kill you." Sophia growled. She reached for her knife. The one she always carried in the small of her back. If Madison wanted to fuck around with her cape life, then Sophia was going to deal with her like she did with cape problems.
"No!" Emma cried. "Sophia stop!"
The desperate horror in Emma's words made her freeze. The door slammed shut behind Madison, and Sophia cursed inwardly.
"Why?!" She said.
Emma pulled herself off the couch, wrapping her arms around herself.
"Don't. That's murder."
"Hebert was murder too." Sophia said. "Madison's going to rat us out."
"Let her." Emma said. "She's got no proof. Our word against hers. Nobody saw what we did. My dad will wreck them in court. She can't even use your identity as a talking point, because outing you is against the law."
"So we're just going to let her go?"
"Yeah. There's no proof. Unless she recorded us throwing Taylor in the locker or something, she's got nothing."
Sophia thought about it. Emma was wrong. The fact that she, Shadow Stalker was involved meant that shit was about to get real. Because Madison hadn't said she was going to the police. She'd said the Protectorate. And that meant she was going to use Sophia's identity as Shadow Stalker against her.
What would the Protectorate do in this situation? They'd want it quiet. If anyone found out a Ward murdered a teenage girl, the media would have a field day. Emma? The Protectorate wouldn't give a shit about Emma. But for her? Already on thin ice with her probation and with prior records of violence. She'd be lucky to avoid the Birdcage.
"Emma… I need to go."
"You can't go after Madison!" Emma said shrilly.
"No. I mean I need to leave right now."
"Why?"
She pressed Emma back to the couch, looking her square in the eye. "Because if Madison tells the Protectorate, my career is over. I'm toast. And I can't get rid of her. She's too noticeable. It wouldn't be like with Hebert. A pretty little white girl like Madison attracts the media."
"I- I don't understand." Emma said.
"I need to get the fuck out of here. Even if Madison can't prove anything, the minute the Protectorate look into this, they're going to know we did something. I'm going to get some stuff from my house, and I'm going to run for it."
"What?!" Emma cried.
She paused, looking down at Emma. Her closest friend. One of the only people in the world who could understand her. Not just predator to predator, but as a person. Emma, who she could look at without hating. Without having the familiar rage curl up inside her.
"Come with me." The words left her lips before she realized she'd even spoken.
"Sophia?" Emma looked bewildered at this sudden turn of events. "Where are you going to go?"
"I don't know. Look, I'm screwed here. It's over for me. You've got a good chance of getting off. But… I…"
Fuck. This was too embarrassing.
"You'd be doing the vigilante thing again?"
She nodded.
"I- no. Emma, forget I asked. It was stupid. You should stay here. Your dad can beat this, and you'll be okay. Tell them- tell them that it was me. That it was all me. If it comes down to it."
"Okay." Emma whispered.
Sophia sighed with relief. She shouldn't have said such a stupid, reckless thing. Asking Emma to give up her life was-
"Take me with you."
This time she was the one staring open-mouthed. Emma smiled at her.
"I'm serious. You aren't going to make it on your own. So… take me with you."
"No. I can't do that."
"You wouldn't have asked if you didn't want me to. What happens if dad can't help me? If the Protectorate wants to fuck me over?"
"Don't throw your life away-"
Emma cut her off. "You're the best part of my life, stupid."
Sophia's thoughts hit a brick wall.
"W-w- but-"
"Shh." Emma shushed her.
Slowly, she stood, holding out her hand to Sophia.
Sophia remembered suddenly, another red-haired girl, much younger. Remembered holding out her hand to that girl in the same way. Remembered how everything had changed on that day.
The day she'd first met Emma.
Sophia took Emma's hand, and her life changed once more.
SPEAKSPEAKSPEAKSPEAKSPEAKSPEAK
Ahh... Emma/Sophia, my favorite pairing of insane people.
This was around the point where I finally nailed Sophia's character down, and it's definitely a stronger appearance for her than in Browbeat's chapter.