Naruto-sensei had told Sophia that heroes were held to a different standard.
Sophia still didn’t know what the hell that was supposed to mean.
She sat on one of the benches near the wall, tightening the straps around her forearm while heroes came and went through the doors. Some were local. Others she recognised from television or PHO threads, capes who had travelled across the country the moment the sirens sounded.
Nobody seemed particularly eager to be here.
Good. At least everyone understood what they were walking into.
Sophia pulled the strap tighter and flexed her fingers.
Maybe she’d figure Naruto’s stupid lesson out eventually. First, she had to survive long enough to get the chance.
A distant announcement came through the speakers, calling another group of capes toward their assigned transport. The room emptied a little more. Sophia glanced toward the nearest clock.
Leviathan was coming, and Sophia hated the fear that came with the name. She knew the statistics. Everyone did.
Endbringer fights were meat grinders. It didn’t matter how strong you were or how many fights you’d survived before. Endbringers killed capes by the dozens, and afterward someone read their names from a list.
She could die today.
Sophia expected that thought to scare her more than it did.
She was afraid, obviously. There had been a tightness in her chest since the sirens started, and every new announcement made it worse. Sophia had learned a long time ago that fear was useful. It told you when sticking around would get you killed, and ignoring that warning was how idiots became corpses.
Everything in her was telling her to stay the hell away from Leviathan, but that didn’t mean she could hide in a shelter while the city drowned.
Sophia leaned forward, resting her elbows against her knees.
Running was an option. Naruto had taught them that much, and Sophia wasn’t stupid enough to mistake standing her ground against Leviathan for bravery. He was stronger than her. Faster too. A fight between them wasn’t a fight at all.
If she encountered him alone, she would run. Simple as that. Naruto had drilled enough sense into her by now to know when a fight was impossible.
Hiding in a shelter while the city drowned was different.
Brockton Bay was her territory.
The thought came so naturally that Sophia almost laughed.
Her city was a shithole. The gangs were everywhere, the Merchants smelled like they had declared war on soap, and Winslow probably violated enough health codes to qualify as a bioweapon.
It was still hers, though. Her mum was here. The others were here.
Sophia’s eyes shifted across the room until she found Halle standing some distance away. The girl was adjusting part of her costume for what had to be the fourth time.
Her hands were shaking.
Sophia looked away before Halle noticed.
So much for the shelter.
She flexed her fingers again and glanced toward the clock. If she was going out there, she needed to figure out how the hell she planned on coming back.
She wasn’t stupid enough to think she could overpower Leviathan. Alexandria was somewhere in the building, and even she hadn’t managed to kill one. Sophia certainly wasn’t going to kill him by trying to hit harder than Alexandria.
Her gaze dropped to her hand as she let it slip into her shadow-state.
Hitting things had never really been how her power worked anyway.
The PRT had spent weeks testing what happened when she mixed chakra with her power. Most of it had involved repeating the same exercises until Sophia wanted to put a bolt through the observation glass. Testing her crossbow had at least been interesting.
Her gaze shifted toward the weapon.
The first chakra-enhanced shot had gone through more than the technicians expected. They’d made her repeat the test six times after that.
Then came the warnings.
She smiled.
Somehow, she doubted Leviathan counted.
She had seen enough footage to know the Endbringer was ridiculously durable. Capes had thrown attacks at him that could flatten buildings, and the bastard kept moving.
Sophia looked at the crossbow.
Walls didn’t stop her bolts. Armour didn’t either.
Her eyes narrowed.
Would Leviathan be any different?
The thought had occurred to her earlier. She had dismissed it almost immediately because she would need to get close. Much closer than anyone sane should want to be to Leviathan.
It was stupid enough that Naruto would probably tell her to forget the entire idea, and for once, Sophia might even admit he had a point.
Her shadowed fingers slowly curled into a fist.
He hadn’t told her yet.
Sophia grinned.
Maybe her bolts would pass straight through him and accomplish absolutely nothing. Maybe it would work exactly the way she hoped. Maybe Leviathan would kill her before she ever got the shot off.
There were a lot of maybes.
Sophia stood and reached for her crossbow.
Maybe Shadow Stalker would be the one to finally kill an Endbringer.
That would certainly prove something.