Broker

Sonya flipped her hair back, her jaw set, as she strode towards the conference room. It was easy to relax with her sister and Marta. The truth was her gut was still doing flips just thinking about what was on the other side of this door. She exhaled and reached up to stroke Levi’s chin. The familiar clung to her shoulders in his salamander form. He seemed quite pleased with his new shape now for some reason and had been a puddle of lazy goo for the past few hours.

“Scamp,” she chuckled, feeling a little better. She glanced up at Erina. “You sure?”

Erina crossed her arms. “It would be a waste not to use the identity that Colin created for me.”

Sonya smiled. “That’s true. It’ll be good to have you present.” She glanced towards Marta next - a force of nature that would tear through walls just to stand one step behind at her shoulder. She took a deep breath and nodded to her. “Marta.”

Marta inclined her head smoothly. “Right away, Miss Chernovna,” she said and slipped forward to open the door. Sonya stepped in and adjusted her tie, a grin stretching across her face. Inside was a long conference table with a screen attached to the wall at the far end of the room. Sitting at the table were the members of Team Wallbreaker, dressed in casual clothes. Good. She swept forward to the near-end of the table and put her hand down on it as they all sat up.

Her eyes swept over their faces, lingering for a moment on Nietz’s face. She felt her jaw tighten again but she pushed through it. “Welcome, Wallbreaker. Normally your Guildmaster should be handling this, but since you are staying with me, I will be handling your debrief and combat breakdown,” she stood up straight and crossed her arms, chin up. “Fortunately, we have a recording of the action.”

She raised one hand and gestured lazily to her right as Erina stepped forward. “You haven’t met. But this is Erina Chernovna. She is my sister.”

The young heroes all looked at one another in confusion as Erina stopped next to her and crossed her scarred arms, tilting her head to the right. “Sonya quietly retrieved me from Russia after your contest. We were unaware of one another until certain information came to light,” Erina said evenly, her gritty tone a stark contrast from Sonya’s pep and charm. Her hard eyes flicked between their faces. “I was special forces. I will be my sister's security as well as providing my perspective on your tactics.”

Hui rose to his feet and inclined his head slowly. “I’m happy to hear families were brought back together, not just torn apart, after everything that’s happened.”

Diplomatic as always, Sonya thought.

Glint leaned back in his seat, grinning. “You look competent as hell, welcome.”

Dragoon rested her chin on her knuckles. “Perspective, yes. That would be helpful.”

Kong looked her up and down and rested his hands behind his head, grinning widely. “Statuesque,” he said with a chuckle and click of his tongue.

Sonya glanced towards him, and he met her eyes. Cheeky boy, she thought with amusement but said nothing further. Her eyes swept towards Nietz, who sat with his back straight and his eyes fixed on the two of them. His smile was natural. “Happy to have you,” he said with a nod before looking to Sonya. She felt a chill run up her spine but met his gaze with a smile she didn’t quite feel. Every cell in her body screamed danger, death, violence, but she pushed it down.

Sonya grinned at them and walked past them while Erina took a seat at the end nearest the door and Marta stood off to the side. She snatched up a remote and, with a click, the screen turned on, showing the initial frame of the recording from the Tenebra fight.

“Alright!” she said brightly and pirouetted into a spot to the left of the screen. “Guildmaster Bluestar had some notes for you all, I have my own commentary of course, and Erina will provide hers. Three perspectives,” she put her hands on her hips. “First off, though, I want to commend all of you for your restraint. Holding back was hard, I’m sure.”

They looked at one another in confusion.

She tapped her nose. “Not using your improved abilities just yet. I’m certain that took a lot of discipline, gang,” she shifted her hip. “Throwing new tricks at an opponent like Tenebra without practicing them? Bad idea.”

Hui visibly relaxed and sat back in his seat. “It’s a relief to hear you say that. Shame we let her get away.”

Sonya grinned and let her get swept into her role. She turned and tapped the button on the remote, fast forwarding to the brawl between Tenebra and Nietz. Her eyes narrowed just a little as she maintained her poker face. There he was, gray skin and titanic, bearing down on Tenebra with the same ruthless brutality she remembered from the past timeline. Majordomo. She took a breath as she watched the scene play out and used the time to catch her breath. She paused as Tenebra fled. “Tenebra is slippery from what the Pandora Committee knows about her. Her ability is versatile and deadly. You caught her by surprise here, Nietz.” She turned back to them. “She won’t be surprised by you again.”

She rewound to when Nietz was first caught by the umbral tentacle and slammed into a distant wall. “You took a while to get up here. Are you still sensitive to shocks?”

Nietz frowned but nodded, tapping his finger on the table. “I’m pretty well resistant to most blunt force, but a direct shock to the head at that force spun me.” He grinned. “It won’t happen again, though.”

She met his eyes. “Not at that force, it won’t,” she reminded him.

He paused and leaned back in his chair. “She was holding back?”

“Very likely,” Sonya said. “You need to build up your resistance to head trauma. You are your group's brick wall. The Forward Juggernaut.” She glanced towards Erina. “Erina, you watched the footage, thoughts?” Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on novel-fire.ɴet

Erina sat up as the others turned to her. “I’ve heard Hero Nietz fights well alongside Hero Kong. That should be a standard strategy against Villains,” she said calmly. “Kong appears to be faster than you. Practice moving together in fights.”

Sonya nodded and gestured to Kong. “You are a fabulous martial artist, Kong, but you can’t take the same hits Nietz can. Split with him only when necessary and when you know you can win.” Her eyes twinkled. “You’re good at assessing people,” she added with a grin.

Kong wrapped his hands behind his head and cracked his own grin in response. “Got it.”

She turned to Dragoon and skipped to the scene where she was positioned at the head of the fight with Nietz. “Dragoon, Bluestar had some commentary for you in particular,” she said. “You have protective shielding features to your ability, yes?”

Dragoon nodded rigidly, dark hair pulled back into a bun. “Yes, ma’am.”

Sonya turned and fast-forwarded to the end of the fight. Dragoon was on the ground, spear raised over her shoulder and aimed at the sky. She released the spear, and it flew with a brief sonic burst. Sonya looked back at her. “You knocked the dungeon reward from Tenebra’s hands at a significant range.”

Dragoon’s firm expression quirked up into a small smile, and Nietz reached over and clapped her on the shoulder. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Rearguard,” Sonya said.

Dragoon narrowed her eyes. “I’m sorry?”

Sonya exhaled. “You possess features to your ability that will allow you to protect the support team, but you also have exquisite range, power, and accuracy. While I understand the desire to fight on the front line - believe me, I get it,” Her thoughts turned briefly to her own Inner Circle and their work on the field. She flicked her eyes towards Dragoon and met her gaze before continuing, “you need to watch Hui’s back as well as Hammond and the others. With your range, your presence will be felt from afar. If an enemy sneaks in from behind…” she trailed off.

Dragoon clenched her fists but nodded, her eyes dropping. She let out a sharp breath. “It’s hard to hear, but it makes sense, ma’am.” She looked towards Hui and nodded to him.

Hui smiled. “Having you close will let me enhance your throws, Dragoon,” he said, “Best to stay close to the power-ups in a fireteam game.”

Sonya turned to him and brushed her hair back, “Speaking of which,” she said with a wicked smile, “Didn’t see a lot of action out of your abilities,” she crossed her arms. “Though that was less a fault of ability and more a need to better coordinate. Who knows how things could have gone if everyone had been buffed?”

Glint sat forward. “That’s why-”

She held up a hand and held Hui’s gaze. “What could have gone differently?”

The Mythic-tier support specialist leaned back and exhaled. He glanced towards the others and rubbed his chin, turning left and right in the office chair. “Hammond,” he said finally. “We should have scouted ahead with one of Hammond’s familiars. Get an idea of what we’re up against, and then I buff everyone ahead of time based on what we know,” he said quietly, his own expression one of self-reproach. “Should have been my first thought. Damn.”

Sonya beamed at him. “Gold star!” she said and clapped her hands. “Exactly right. Hammond doesn’t just have healing familiars, gang, he’s part of your support staff. Take every advantage.”

She turned finally to Glint, who sat up and grinned. “Bluestar had the most notes for you, and I will spare you from reading them verbatim,” she said, almost looking apologetic. “Glint, you are not rearguard. Teasing the windows was inspired, but you could have done that from mid-range,” she waggled a finger at him. “I heard you told your sister not to intervene out of concern for hostages, good call. However, again,” she crossed her arms, “your ability could have helped reflect Tenebra’s powers and add pressure. Where were you?”

Glint deflated. “At the rear with Hui,” he muttered, pressing his finger to his lip in thought.

“When you should have been where?” she pressed.

“Mid-range, like you said,” he sighed, nodding and conceding the point. She smiled at him. He was proud but he also wasn’t a fool. He knew when he messed up. “I have more practice with my new ability than the others too; I could have used it more.”

Sonya glanced up at Erina and stroked Levi’s head. The little familiar roused from his dozing and hopped off her shoulder, landing on the table before jumping into Dragoon’s arms. Dragoon let out a small gasp and chuckle before petting him. Sonya squinted at the little guy as he got… extra close. What is that little… She snapped out of the curious thought and looked back at Erina. “Ahem, any thoughts?”

Erina sat forward and fixed Glint with a stare. “You use disks only. Why?”

Glint raised an eyebrow. “Mirrors, obviously.”

Erina crossed her arms. “Are all mirrors shaped like that?”

Glint blinked a few times and slumped back into his seat, his eyes fixed on the table with a deep frown on his face. “I have work to do.”

Nietz laughed. “We all do, man!” he said and leaned on the table, rapping his knuckles on it. “That was our first time with a villain, and we chased her off, no casualties, and only some scrapes. I’d say we did good, but we could have caught her off guard more.”

Erina leaned back. “A fair assessment. Adequate but with a great deal of room for improvement, some more than others, but that is why you train together.”

Sonya nodded. “Yup!” she said and put her hands on her hips. “Not bad, gang. Not bad at all. You got the stuff, that’s for sure, and a good composition. Now you just need to capitalize,” she winked at Hui. “Let’s watch the full fight through one more time and then you can scurry away from my scrutiny.”

The others laughed, and Sonya turned to the screen, letting out a breath. Nietz's presence was easier to tolerate with the others present, and when she was focused on her job. Still, she felt him nearby like an itch that made her blood boil and freeze at the same time. Just pretend he’s another hero. He’s out of my reach for now, and poetic revenge is not something I can do; not unless he crosses the line first. She swallowed once as the footage started playing again from the top and glanced his way. Besides… he makes a good hero. She looked back at the screen. Chunhua, I need you right now. The temptation is too much, she thought and clenched her fists.

—

Sonya flopped onto the couch in the Inner Circle lounge with a groan and a whine, kicking her legs out. “He’s right there!” she pouted, rolling over to bury her face in the cushions and let out a pathetic sound.

Marta chuckled somewhere behind her. “Miss, perhaps you need to get your mind off of a problem you can’t deal with now and focus on something more immediate?”

Sonya rolled onto her back. “Yeah, like I’m hungry and I want snacks, all of them. Binge eat time is now,” she grumbled to the ceiling. “Gonna eat my feelings into a coma,” she muttered and turned her head towards the wide coffee table, squinting at the white lump on it. “And don’t think I didn’t notice you copping a feel, you little perv,” she said accusingly to Levi.

Her familiar opened one eye and looked at her. You are mistaken.

She sat up and squinted at him. “Don’t you lie to me. You were practically motor-”

“Miss Chernovna,” Marta cut into her bickering. “Your arrangements to see Erebus have been prepared. Also, no binge eating, especially when you have dinner coming up with a friend. That’s rude.”

Sonya winced and flopped back onto the couch with a sigh. “Fine! Fine!” She looked up and shouted to the bar behind her. “Sis! Marta’s bullying me!”

“Do you deserve it?” Erina called from her stoic perch, a glass of something amber in her hand.

Sonya hopped up to her knees on the couch and planted her hands on the back, staring at her sister in shock. “Erina! Et tu!” She declared, slipping her hand down over the couch and creating a can of soda with a small bubble pop of sound.

A pair of hands landed on her shoulders, and she felt Marta hanging over her. “Miss Chernovna…” she said warningly.

Sonya turned up with a wobbly smile and grinned at Marta. “...Zero calories?”

Off to the side, at the door, as Marta wrestled the can out of Sonya’s grip, Amos popped his head in. “Hey, boss! Got those initial designs for Wallbreaker’s-” he paused, took in the scene, and glanced towards Erina, who shook her head. “It can wait,” he said and slipped back out.