Even though I technically flew while I was in my ghost form, flying in my regular body with Vicky was very nerve racking. She was carrying me bridal style, and I only dared to move so that I could fish out my spare domino mask from my pocket for emergencies like this. It didn't help that she was giving off a very excited energy in her aura. Vicky slowed down once we approached the general neighborhood we needed to be in.

What we were looking for was a small collection of PRT vans around a building that was serving as the "Staging Point' for this raid. They were usually set up a few blocks away from the target of any raid, so if my memory of the plans they had me review was accurate it should be somewhere in this area. Of course being high in the sky a night meant we had to check the local landmarks like the seashore for navigation often. We could also hear gunfire ring out periodically as well.

"Okay Vicky the warehouse where the merchants were should be close by he-"

*BOOM*

We both looked to our left where we saw the top of what looked like a fairly large lizard's head poke up from behind a three story building. He was then tackled by two women wearing valkyrie styled armor. It looked like Lung was busy with the Empires A-Team.

Thankfully we then sighted the staging point building which was an abandoned street corner store. Vicky adjusted our path to land just far enough away that we weren't targets for any itchy trigger fingers who couldn't ID us as friendly. Thankfully Velocity was there to get us up to speed as we ran to the collection of PRT vans.

"Glory Girl! Manes! Thank god you got here safely." Velocity greeted.

"Yeah glad to be here, I have a lot of questions so I'll just start with what are the Empire and ABB doing here?"

"Apparently they got the same hot tip we did and decided they wanted to take advantage of it as well. The ABB arrived almost right after the infiltration team got in. They tried to escape with one of Squealer's tinkertech vehicles but they got ambushed by some empire capes. They fended them off but both Squealer and Mesmerize were wounded badly when the vehicle crashed and they can't be moved easily. So they've been stuck in place for almost the last ten minutes."

"Are they going to survive?"

"They've both gotten first aid but they need more serious medical attention. Their communicators are busted from the crash so Mouse Protector has been moving back and forth with her teleporting to relay messages. I'm reorganizing the strike team as an extraction team now to help get them out of there."

"Where do you need me?"

"I'll be including you on the extraction team. It will be led by me with Vista, Aegis, and Shadow Stalker. They should be here shortly. The rest of the Protectorate and New Wave are running interference so that the battle that the gangs are fighting doesn't get out of control. One of your spare costumes is in the van over there." He pointed to the one right behind him. "Be ready in 5 mins and then we'll head out. Time is of the essence."

"Roger"

"Wait, what should I be doing?" Vicky asked suddenly. She probably hadn't received any instructions besides 'Get Manes'.

"I'll let you hash that out with Velocity, I need to change." I answered.

I dashed to the van to retrieve my costume. I wasn't a brute so the extra protection it afforded wasn't something I could easily leave behind. It was a little awkward to fit the costume over my civilian clothes but I couldn't afford to do this properly with so little time. As I finished putting my helmet on I was already exiting the van to meet up with my group.

Velocity seemed to be having a heated conversation with Glory Girl. She apparently wanted to join our group and Velocity was trying to dissuade her ("Are you sure you don't want to help the rest of New Wave?"). It was then that the others warped to the staging point just as I exited the van. Vista was the first to greet me.

"Manes? When did you get here?"

"Well my sister is on the mend and I heard you guys needed some help. Glory Girl was nice enough to give me a lift."

Shadow Stalker decided to chip in. "Figures you'd change your mind after bailing on us."

Aegis took some offense on my behalf "Stalker! Now is not the time."

"In my defense, the last I heard you guys were only dealing with one gang so I figured you would have it handled." I commented. Then a *BOOM* rang out. I turned my head towards the sound. "Guess I was wrong."

It was then Velocity made a quick announcement. "Since she is insisting so strongly, Glory Girl will be joining us as we extract the infiltration team."

Glory Girl affirmed this. "You're damn right. I'm not waiting around until someone tells me what to do, so I'll be tagging along."

"Anyways, we'll be heading south with assistance from Vista to reach the crash site. The key is situational awareness here. Between the Empire, ABB, Merchant remnants, and friendly fire from our forces we have to be careful where we step. So Glory Girl and Aegis will be our eyes in the sky, while me, Manes, and Stalker will scout potential routes. Any last questions?"

Nobody said anything, so Velocity gave a thumbs up. "Alright, let's move out."

Grouping together we let Vista shorten our trip considerably with her warping. At several stops we halted to let Aegis and Glory Girl fly up to make sure none of the fighting was too close. It helped that Lung was now tall enough that he was easy to keep track of. Apparently the only reason he hadn't outright won yet was that he had been pinned by Kaiser's iron spikes. I helped supplement the scouting as Velocity instructed. A few minutes later we were within sight of where the infiltration team was pinned down.

We had stopped in a small alleyway that led to the street where the battle was. The exact spot had what seemed like an overturned city bus, but with monster truck wheels attached and shattered windows. The glass from the broken windows was all around it. Surrounding it were two dozen skinheads huddled behind cover with rifles and shotguns trained on the broken vehicle.

Leading them was the empire's very own Stormtiger and Cricket. Glory Girl recognized their distinctive loud attacks from the air. They were staying behind cover in one of the several storefronts in the area. We could hear Triumph let out an occasional shout to keep them behind that cover. The storefront windows were broken as well, adding to the endless glass shards on the ground.

If I had to guess, it seems that when the infiltration team had tried to escape in one of Squealer's creations, Stormtiger was the one to blow it over. His attacks could be very powerful if he had time to charge them. Now they were stuck in a stalemate with both sides staying behind their cover, waiting for the other to make a decisive move. But that was where we came in. We did a quick recon report and then Velocity put forward his plan.

"Alright, our priority now is to secure the other team. Best way to do that is to neutralize Stormtiger and Cricket, the rest of the footsoldiers can be dealt with afterwards. Manes, will range be a problem?"

"Nope."

"Good, you and Glory Girl can keep them busy while the rest of us try to secure the injured from the infiltration team. Hopefully Triumph, Dauntless, and Mouse Protector can join the fight from there. Any questions?"

We shook our heads. I turned to Glory Girl to make a quick suggestion.

"Hey Glory, I'll go in first to stir the pot. Once that happens you can jump in. Sounds good?"

She gave a grin. "Sounds fun. I always like an opportunity to make a dynamic entry."

I sat my body down by Vista and I projected out my ghost. Nodding my ghostly head to Glory Girl we flew up over the little siege. I picked out the building where Stormtiger and Cricket were holed up. Then I made my first move.

Phasing into what seemed to be a convenience store, I started through the back-end to move to the front. There the two empire capes and several of their goons were focusing their attention out towards the street. There was broken glass on the inside of the store as well.

Now the hard question of who do I possess was posed. I could go with Stormtiger, he was the heavier hitter. But Cricket had very fast reflexes and once she knew I was here it would be very hard to possess her. I decided to go for her first since this was likely the best opportunity. Plus I had just the plan in mind to take out Stormtiger quickly, and it was suitably brutal for a bastard like him.

Jumping into her body from behind I was able to seize control relatively easily. Unluckily Cricket's sudden shuddering caught the attention of her compatriots, though they hadn't put together that she was compromised. Stormtiger questioned me in Cricket's body.

"Hey Cricket what's the matter? Now is a crap time to be getting sick on us. We got them on the ropes."

"Don't worry. I won't need a hospital. You will though."

"What are yo- GAH F***!" was his eloquent response to me throwing one of Cricket's little scythes into his arm. I must have been throwing it hard because it got embedded into his right forearm. He began screaming in pain and everyone else quickly trained their gun on me, not sure what the hell Cricket was doing. Vicky then burst in from the ceiling to turn the chaos I had created up to 11.

"CAPE!" One of the goons pointed out helpfully. Stormtiger was still trying to recover when I punched him hard to the ground. The glass shards on the ground made his impact to the ground extra painful. All the other skinheads were shooting at Glory Girl but her invulnerability held out.

I started throwing punches at the nearest gang members as Cricket since I wasn't up to speed on her powers entirely. For good measure I kicked Stormtiger in the face when it looked like he was about to get up. After a few seconds of firing and my punching the skinheads decided it was time to start running.

After they started running, the skinheads in the other buildings realized that reinforcements against them had arrived. Even worse for them was that they realized that their capes had lost, and so they started running away too. Stormtiger was barely conscious and moaning in pain as the scythe had dislodged and he was bleeding quite a bit from his arm. The large scratches from the broken glass and his broken nose probably hurt pretty badly as well. I decided to take some pity.

"Hey, have you got any first aid bandages on you? I can always use Cricket's jacket if you don't."

"That won't be necessary, Amy's been nagging me about taking care of the criminals I hurt more. She must be feeling overworked."

She pulled out some gauze and bandages from a small pocket in her uniform, as well as some zip ties. She wrapped his biggest wounds while I zipped tied his arms and legs. Once that was done she zip tied Cricket for me. As a precaution against Crickets power I let Glory Girl put some napkins Cricket had been carrying into her mouth and wrapped the jacket around her face to secure them. Not perfect but good enough for government work.

Once this was done I exited Crickets body. It was a small quirk of my power that since I was using their senses my victims were technically conscious but completely unaware of what was happening to them. No sight, smell, hearing, taste, or smell for them but just their own thoughts. This meant that Cricket had gone from being a free criminal to zip tied, gagged, and blindfolded without knowing at all what was happening to her body in between. So it was expected that she started thrashing and jostling immediately once she regained control of her body.

I decided to let Glory Girl watch over the two restrained criminals. I then exited the store to see that the others were chasing off the last couple of goons and approaching the overturned vehicle. I sped back to the alley. Upon my return to my body Vista made a comment.

"That was fast."

"A little bit of surprise goes a long way. Did I miss anything important?"

"The others went ahead to check the infiltration team. I volunteered to watch your body."

"Thanks, I owe you one. How about we head out and see if they need more help?"

Moving from our hiding spot we walked out to the street to catch up. With all the broken glass on the street we took care to not lose our footing, and trusted that our costume shoes were thick enough to protect us. We saw that Squealer was covered in some blood, hopefully only hers, and was getting fished out of the vehicle by a very tired looking Dauntless. Aegis and Stalker were checking the surrounding buildings for any stragglers.

Triumph and Mouse Protector looked exhausted, and their costumes were ripped and torn. Triumph looked especially downcast for some reason. Maybe he didn't like needing to be rescued or something? I only caught the end of the conversation that they were having.

"I'll go update the rest of the PRT about the situation and that it's safe to send the First Aid teams now. They'll want to know about this immediately."

"Are you sure? You're pretty beaten up."

"I can make one more jump and then I'll relax."

"Thanks Mouse, I'm sorry we couldn't get here sooner. Having to deal with the ABB and Empire so suddenly really threw us through a loop."

Triumph piped up. "You shouldn't feel bad. If anything I'm responsible for how badly the infiltration went. When they hold the inquiry I'll be sure to tell them you got here as fast as you could."

"Triumph you shouldn't blame yourself, nobody could have predicted this would go that badly."

"I'll second that. I'll be back in a minute once I update the other PRT guys."

With that she teleported away. Seeing this as our cue to join the conversation, me and Vista approached them. Triumph then looked surprised.

"Manes? When did you get here? You should be at the hospital."

"Well I heard there was trouble and I'm not going to sit around when there's an emergency. Glory Girl provided the lift. Which reminds me, she's over in that storefront watching Stormtiger and Cricket so they don't get out of their restraints. I'm pretty sure Stormtiger could use a doctor soon."

That got Velocity to give some orders. "Aegis. Stalker. Glory Girl needs help bringing in the two empire capes. Go help her." They both stopped checking the other buildings and moved towards the storefront I had pointed out. I decided to ask Velocity a followup question.

"Hey, so is Mesmerize still on the bus thing? Me and Vista can help him ou-"

"Manes, that won't be necessary." he responded quickly.

"What. Why?"

"...I'm afraid Mesmerize died from his wounds. When the bus crashed and overturned the injuries that he suffered turned out to be fatal. It was likely internal bleeding. He died before we had even arrived." Velocity said with a tone that tried not to betray any emotion he was feeling.

That brought me up short. I wasn't a stranger to death. I knew some Protectorate capes that had died in endbringer fights. But this felt different. Ward deaths were rare, and there was a lot of effort put in to keep them rare. It was different because Mesmerize had taken my place. If I had gone on the mission he would still be alive. I could also have died, but that wasn't certain. I had to know more.

"What? How… How did it happen?"

Triumph answered "It's a long story but when we were getting Squealer, Skidmark and another cape tried to stop us. The other cape apparently controlled trash or something. Then Lung burst in and started tearing up the place. In the chaos we got out of the warehouse and Mesmerize mastered Squealer into using her Monster-Bus to help us escape. Except as we were getting away the empire ambushed us. They were apparently targeting the merchants so when they saw the vehicle we were targeted as well. Stormtiger forced the vehicle to crash and we were stuck here with a dying Mesmerize and an injured Squealer."

"But I heard you say it was your fault. None of that seemed like your fault."

Triumph sighed. "Mesmerize suggested we use Squealer's vehicle. Dauntless was concerned, Mouse Protector didn't care, and I should have known better than to go along with the suggestion. I had thought it was better to take the thing with us to make sure the Merchants couldn't use it to escape the raid. Turns out I made the wrong call."

I had never seen Triumph look so defeated. In the distance I could hear PRT sirens approaching us. Everyone seemed to look downcast. I tried to reassure Triumph.

"You couldn't have known the other gangs would be here tonight. It's not your fault."

"I keep hearing that but I don't know if I can believe it."

The vans arrived and some of the PRT's EMTs and officers emerged. They spread out to get Squealer and the empire capes in the store. In the distance I started to hear fireworks. Velocity checked his comm and then he relayed the updates he had gotten.

"Looks like it's Midnight. I'm seeing some updates that say the fight between the Empire and ABB is over. Skidmark and that other parahuman were found dead in some rubble. So it looks like the mission to eliminate the Merchants is accomplished, for whatever that's worth. Happy New Year's I guess."

He said it with a flat tone that suggested he didn't think there was much to celebrate.

A/N
-I initially envisioned this battle to be a lot longer but I decided that the story wouldn't benefit much from featuring a very big slugfest at the moment. So I moved it to the background. It doesn't help that fights tend to be very short in real life so I had to figure out how to stretch this, hence the mini-siege. I'm not that experienced writing fight scenes so I'm trying not to write more than I can, if that makes sense. So basically Sam and company got to play the role of the cavalry for the poor unlucky infiltration team instead.

-Mesmerize wasn't the only death in the big battle but his death is definitely going to have the biggest impact. Sam will have this death on her conscience for a while. She was already feeling guilty and frustrated about not going. But now that she knows her inaction led to a death she's going to have to spend a long time processing it. Not to mention the PRT is going to be working overtime to try and spin this disaster.

-I didn't really get to show it but the ABB and Empire were definitely as confused as the PRT about how all this played out. If Stormtiger had known how many capes would be in Squealer's Monster-Bus he probably would have brought an extra cape or two himself for example.

-Please leave replies and feedback. They can be very helpful for figuring out what parts of the story are interesting people.