[h2]Alessa Heather: Streets of Denver --> PRT Headquarters[/h2]
Maybe it was the shock of seeing Sonar- anybody, really- so badly injured, but everything seemed to happen in mere seconds. Sonar injured on the street. EMTs coming to take him to medical care. The Wards gathered into the conference room, Alessa shivering for some reason, the Director discussing his upset with Sonar, and so removing him from the team. The revelation that Sonar- Collin, only fifteen years old- would likely never recover - his helmet was almost certainly irreparably damaged, leaving him in a coma at best, or as a madman at worst. A swift death might almost be the more merciful option.

It was as the Director said, much as she hated to consider it so: seven hostages saved today wasn't worth the potential lives saved in the future where Sonar continued to lead the Wards. They'd messed up, and the very thought that they'd failed- that [i]she[/i] had failed, and in doing so cost a dear ally their future- was beyond upsetting. Digging her nails into her hands helped distract her from the idea of curling up into a ball and weeping, and helped her focus enough to hear Directors Kens' announcement that, as of Sonar's untimely removal from the Wards, she was now their leader. She would handle the other Wards, including training and patrol schedules; she would lead in the absence of a senior Protectorate hero; she would report to Inkscape and the Director. And, most importantly, she would need to decide upon her second, by tomorrow.

She began to consider her options almost immediately, looking down the table at the people who were now officially her subordinates. From the offset, she was forced to disregard Tulpa, for valuable as she surely was, she was almost literally brand new with regards to heroism, or at least as far as being a member of the Wards. It'd be disingenuous to the other members of her team, should she declare an untested asset as her second, only for them to turn out to be less competent than believed. This was only confirmed with Lyn's angry glare at the Director, followed by her swiftly stalking out of the room. A cool head was needed for this sort of thing; for that same reason, Margrave's ostentatious nature and tendency to act before thinking, including his own swift transition out of the meeting, put him out of the running for second too. That left two options, Dean and Ira, and of those, Ira's nature as a Tinker was the less useful in a pinch, she was less experienced and less skilled in combat, she was physically less fit. Realistically, though, the experience alone would likely have swayed Alessa: if she needed to bounce ideas off of just one person, it'd end up being Dean almost consistently.

Dean it was, then. She could report to the Director the next morning. By the end of the night, however, she'd need to announce that to all the other Wards, and ideally make sure everybody was happy with the decision, or at least knew why they hadn't been picked for the role. In fact, she'd need to make sure Dean himself was okay with being the second-in-command, since the last thing the Wards needed was conflict between its most senior members, especially after today's events... and oh good, what a way to slam herself back into the reality of the situation, which was that a valuable member of society and acquaintance was as good as dead. Shit. Shit.

'I think it's fair to say the situation has been summed up,' she muttered into the room after a moment of contemplation. 'I'll need to speak with you all later on about who'll end up as my second, Wards. We’ll meet in the Ward’s common room in a couple of hours; if somebody could find and tell Tulpa, that’d be fantastic. And I’ll come to you with my decision tomorrow, Director Kens. Until then,' she concluded, standing from her chair and exiting the room; far from heading off to do her own thing, though, she instead leant against the wall next to the conference room’s door. She’d wait until Dean walked out, get him to walk and talk with her, and discuss his probable new position somewhere private. And, of course, hope he didn’t reject the proposal out of hand. Not that she expected him to, but the chance existed nonetheless.

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