[h2]Alessa Heather: PRT Headquarters[/h2]
She'd seen Dean's rather negative reaction to her initial chatter, but relaxed along with him, and even managed to smile when he accepted the offer to become her second. 'Well, that's excellent!' she exclaimed. 'I'll announce the proposal to the others in the meeting, and if they have their qualms, I'll explain why. And you can pass along your idea as well, whilst we're at it. We need all the ideas we can get, what w...'

And like that, she'd saddened herself once again. She grimaced to herself, glancing down for a moment before returning her gaze to Dean. 'Well, considering our present turmoil,' she finished lamely, before standing up and holding a hand out for Dean to shake. 'So I'll see you and the others in a couple of hours. I'm going to go ahead and meditate until then. Good talk, and if you come up with any other ideas, do talk about them at the meeting.' With the end of that sentence, she turned and exited the room, heading toward her personal room in the HQ, complete with roaring fireplace. After how she'd been expending energy on trapping Eyeblight, and given her own state of mind, she needed some time to recharge, in both senses of the word.

[hr]

With a few minutes left before the meeting's scheduled start, Alessa finally left the comfort of her room and headed towards the meeting hall. She'd gotten a fair amount of energy back to attack opponents, but not so much any particular peace of mind. Meditation is rather difficult when one can't shake the thought of somebody being as badly injured as Sonar was, and in turn crippled beyond functionality as he inevitably would be. Nevertheless, the impression of being wholly composed was rather important, she felt: as the new leader of the Wards, she had to set an example, to make a point that even though they grieved, the rest of the world would not stop for them, and they in turn could not stop, or else they'd be left behind.

She entered the meeting room designated for the Wards, not dissimilar to the setup in the larger conference room where the Wards met with the Director and the Protectorate, save for its reduced size and modified colouration, and was pleased to see the others had already arrived. She frowned at the presence of six seats, not five, just a further reminder that where they'd gained one member today, they'd lost another. But, the meeting was being led by her, so she took the empty seat at the head of the table, feeling that perhaps she didn't derserve the spot, shouldn't be sitting in that position. Somebody had to fill it.

'I'm happy to see you've all made it to the meeting, team,' she began, placing her hands in her lap and schooling her tone to the same formal designation as she'd used with Dean two hours before. 'As we are all acutely aware, Sonar is no longer able to fight alongside us. I, as much as anybody else, am saddened to see his loss, but it is perhaps an inevitability of the position we hold. I trust we've all accepted the risks associated with being a Ward, and with being an active parahuman in general, thus our presence in this building; Sonar, I think, would want us to continue on as soon as possible, and many others certainly do, be they the civilians we protect, or the people in charge of us.

'That said, Director Kens has set a tight deadline for my selection of a new second in command for the Wards, that being part of the reason I've called this meeting in. I have considered the matter, and firmly believe Dean would be the best possible choice for my second, by virtue of his extensive experience in fighting crime. If anybody has any reason to dispute this judgement, now is the time to say so. Additionally, I'd also like us to use this time to discuss any ideas that might help the team to integrate more thoroughly with itself, to function more effectively if you will. Dean has already intimated such an idea in private; if you'd like to discuss it further, I'm sure we'd all be willing to hear it.' She had nothing particular to say on the matter herself, but since Dean's idea involved Elliot and Ira, they at least would need to hear it to put it into effect.