"It seems we arrived just in time, are you alright miss?"

I pushed myself off the gravel just enough to see who had spoken. The first thing I saw was an outreached arm offering help. The owner of the arm was an attractive man with a lean and muscular body. He wore neat civilian clothes, nothing fancy just a white button up shirt and jeans. His hair was gelled back and his beard neatly trimmed into a goatee. His smile was warm and friendly.

Next to him was a young blond girl wearing a spotless white surgeons suit that looked out of place on such a small child.

She regarded me calmly as the man helped me up. "Do you need first aid?" She asked.

I shook my head in a daze. I had seen these two online, it couldn't truly be them could it?

"Holy crap, are you-"

"Hey!" The girl interrupted. "No swearing!"

It must be. Jacob and Bonesaw were here which must mean the rest of their team had arrived as well. They were here to save us.

I looked out in the distance where my teammates were fighting Legend. He certainly wasn't making it easy, but now that backup had arrived defeating the Endbringer started looking much more likely.

One month earlier

Tonight was the night. I was making my first patrol as a new Superhero.

To be honest I had no idea what to expect. It's a big city and everyone knows the docks are filled with crime. However who knows what I should even be looking for. Not all crime is as blatant as robbing a bank. I would wager that if the average person was in the presence of a drug deal they wouldn't even notice.

Nevertheless I managed to find some criminal activity. Or at least I found some criminals, whether or not they actually do any crime tonight is the question.

I crouched on the rooftop and watched the scene below me. Several members of one of Brockton Bay's gangs were standing around talking. I couldn't quite tell which gang they were from. However the snippets of conversation I'd heard convinced me they were worth watching.

I couldn't quite hear their conversation so I inched closer. As I did a new figure stepped out of a nearby building and joined the gang members. The moment I saw who it was I ducked back undercover and prayed he hadn't seen me.

He was a tall figure in what was probably Brockton Bay's most distinctive set of armour. Dark blue with black highlights, only his mouth and untrimmed beard were visible. In his hand he held his signature halberd.

Armsmaster.

He lead the Minutemen, arguably Brockton Bay's most feared gang. Crap, if he's here then one of his powered subordinates might be here as well. This is really more than a solo cape can handle. I should leave.

"-no mercy to those little brats. If you see one of them on the ground, shoot them twice to make sure the bitch is dead." As I heard this my roving bugs found out what the gang members were holding - guns.

The realisation hit me like a bolt of lightning. "Little brats" must mean children. The Minutemen are going to murder children!

I can't let this happen. Mentally kicking myself for not bringing a cellphone I realise I only have one option. I have to stop this myself, even if Armsmaster is the most dangerous Tinker in the city.

I reach out with my power and felt the swarm I had been building. Shutting my eyes I focused on sorting each bug. I can't use any of the more poisonous bugs such as the several hundred brown recluses. However I had enough bees to scare the thugs off. The risk that one of them was allergic was just one I would have to take.

Attack.

First I send in the bees, aiming for the hands of the gang members and the exposed part of Armsmaster's visor. There were a few yelps of pain below as the first bees arrive. A few Minutemen drop their guns and ran. Others tried to pull out phones, I had a few of the more intimidating arachnids cover those.

My bugs on Armsmaster sensed him turn on his Tinkertech halberd and I felt a few of the bugs instincts to pursue the light that just appeared. He swung the weapon and a few of my bugs were killed instantly. Not enough to matter.

Giddy with adrenaline I had to suppress a laugh. Is that it? The great tinker doesn't have a way to deal with bugs?

The last of the thugs gave up and ran from the swarm, fortunately none of them had gone into anaphylactic shock.

There was a roar of defiance as Armsmaster watched his men route. He shouted something in a rage however it was too muffled through the swarm for me to hear. Fortunately I'm hidden here, so long as I don't move into sight he can't see me.

Or not. In an instant he turned in my direction and ran straight for the building I was on top of. Crap, some sort of tinkertech device to locate people most likely. Heat detection maybe?

I scrambled to my feet and tried to run to the fire escape but I don't make it in time. Using his halberd Armsmaster ascends to the roof and looks directly at me. Now that I'm seeing him with my eyes I can see dozens of bee stings on the exposed part of his visor.

"I've got you, bitch." His voice is muffled through the bee stings. "You thought you were clever hiding on the roof."

He took a step forward and grabs me as I try to climb down. I fumbled in my belt for something I can use. An epi-pen? Pepper spray?

I hope this works. I think to myself as I empty the can directly into Armsmasters face.

He screams in pain, that can't be good on his beestung face. However he doesn't let me go.

I grab the epi-pen, maybe if I stab him with it in the right spot?

As my fingers closed around it I heard a whoop followed closely by a dark shape the size of a van flying through the air and hitting Armsmaster. His loses his grip on me and goes flying. The bugs I still have on him detect him trying to wrestle with the large creature. His halberd is a few metres away however it teleports back into his hand. With it he is able to fight the creature back.

Two more of the creatures arrive on the rooftop, each with two riders. It was hard to see in the dark however it looked like two girls and two guys. The riders dismounted to watch the fight and one of the guys - tall with a black costume and a mask with a stylized face - stepped towards me.

"You really saved us a lot of trouble." He said. Now that I could see his costume up close it looked professionally done. Full black leather with what must be kevlar underneath. His helmet was thick and seemed to be made of a similar material to motorcycle helmets. It looked good, maybe even a little expensive. In the back of my mind I felt a dim recognition however it struggled to surface though the shock of my one sided fight.

He reached his hand towards me and held it there. I could only stare at it not trusting myself not to turn this situation into something worse so I maintained my silence.

He jerked his hadn't over his shoulder. "We were training nearby when we got word Armsmaster was planning something. No one else could arrive on so we decided to handle it ourselves, intercept him and his cronies before they did too much damage."

A loud whistle came from one of the girls and the other two creatures joined the fight.

"Wouldn't you know, his flunkie Miss Militia was there with half a dozen cronies, but no Armsmaster to be found." His laugh was surprisingly normal.

"Militia's tough but without her boss she was no match while outnumbered four to one. I guess you're responsible for that?" He waited for a response from me. When I still didn't offer him one he stepped towards the edge of the roof and looked down.

He whistled the spoke without looking back at me. "Damn, the fuck did you do to him?"

One of the girls answered for me, not the one that whistled earlier. "Pepper spray, wasp and bee stings, fire ant bites." She wore a skintight suit that was black with a pale blue while her long blond hair was free to blow in the wind. She grinned, "even if he has some fancy tinkertech he'll feel that in the morning."

Grue looked over his shoulder at me. "You aren't saying much. Are you hurt?"

"The reason she isn't speaking isn't because she'd hurt. It's because she's shy."

The man in black finished watching the fight and turned back to me. "Introductions. That's Tattletale. I'm Grue. The girl with the dogs we have to call Hellhound for PR reasons however in private she prefers to go by Bitch. Last and certainly least we have Regent."

"Fuck you Grue." Regent chuckled.

My mind finally caught up. I do know these four. "You're the Brockton Bay Wards." I exclaimed with a gasp before I could stop myself.

The three paying attention to me chuckled. Regent elbowed Grue. "Look, we're famous."

Grue was about to say something until he was cut off by a groan from Tattletale who had lost her smile. "Heads up."

My bugs detected a new person enter the scene. He quickly finished off the exhausted Arsmaster and joined the five of us on the rood. I recognised him as well. Lung, head of the Brockton Bay Protectorate.

I should have been excited to meet real life superheroes. Honestly however I was too tired to care at this point.

He regarded us before speaking. "I thought I told you four not to engage Armsmaster before backup arrived."

Grue was the one to respond. "He could have killed someone before then. We had to try something. And besides everything turned out well thanks to this girl."

Lung looked directly at me and I had to fight the urge to step back from that scrutinizing gaze. "And who is this?"

"We found her fighting Armsmaster and winning for the most part." Huh? In what world would you call that winning?

"I see, do you have a name?"

I shook my head. "Do you know how hard it is to come up with a bug themed name that doesn't make you sound like a villain?"

Regent spoke up with a slightly mocking tone. "Butterfly? Ladybug? Honestly even something lame like that is bound to be more creative than 'Lung'"

Lung simply glared at him. "What were you thinking going up against someone like Armsmaster alone?"

"I don't know, I overheard him saying he was going to attack some children and had to step in. I didn't think to bring a way to contact someone for help."

"That's why we have the Ward program. In addition to the training and the backup we think of things like that for you so you're never in the position of wishing you had thought to bring a phone."

I nodded at that without commenting. I had considered joining the Wards initially however the notion of escaping teenage high school drama by diving into teenage superhero drama didn't appeal to me. Though I have to say from what I've seen tonight the Wards were actually more down to earth than I was expecting.

Grue spoke up. "I get that you want to do the solo hero thing, I did too initially. However I have to recommend the Wards as well. Much easier to fight bad guys when you have allies at your back."

Lung handed me a card. "Just think about it for a few days. Now we need to decide what we do about the credit for capturing Armsmaster."

That caught me off guard, I was about to respond when he held up his hand and continued speaking.

"You did good work tonight. Playing a role in getting a major supervillain into custody. However we need to consider the consequences before mentioning you. Armsmaster has a large gang as well as powered subordinates, Miss Militia being the one you should be most worried about."

"We fought Miss Militia. She escaped." Grue mentioned.

"Unfortunate. And exactly what I was getting at. Someone like her is bound to try and get revenge for tonight."

"You're saying I shouldn't take any credit?"

"What I'm saying is that we'll hold off on announcing Armsmaster's capture for 48 hours. If you do decide to join the Wards we can offer you protection. If you go solo it's better to fly under the radar and not make any enemies."

I nodded slowly.

"Like I said think about it for a few days, no need to feel pressured."

I guess it's the best choice I'll get.

Lung looked back at his Wards. "And don't think I've forgotten about you four. There'll be double patrols for all of you after tonight." Groans all around. "We're heading off, we need to get Armsmaster into custody."

"You want a ride home on one of the dogs?" Grue asked while pointing over his shoulder at the van sized creatures.

Those things are dogs?! I thought as I backed away shaking my head.

The Wards chuckled. Regent clapped me on the shoulder. "No shame, takes some getting used to for everyone." With that they climbed on the dogs and left me alone on the roof.

It was going to take half an hour to get home. I glanced at the card Lung had given me before starting to head back. I had a lot to consider over the next two days.