When you've been a ward as long as I have, you get good at spotting signs of trouble. One of the most obvious signs of trouble tends to be when you are requested to pause your patrol. Sometimes it's just that there's a miscommunication and someone needs to sort out if you're in the right place. But more often than not there is something going down and you're about to get redirected somewhere else.

I was patrolling downtown with Kid Win when we got told to stay in place and standby for new instructions by Aegis from the console. I made a comment to Kid Win about this.

"So what do you think it is this time? You think one of the gangs is making a move?"

"Probably. Only a question of which one. I'd put money on the Empire starting some trouble."

"Want to bet? Loser has to cover one of the other's console shifts. I'm thinking it's the ABB."

"You're on."

It was then that Aegis gave us an update "Manes and Kid Win, you are asked to report to the intersection of Walker Street and Norris Avenue. There is a developing situation in Empire territory and a perimeter is being created to direct civilians away from the fighting. A van will be there to pick you up shortly. Further updates will be coming shortly."

I grinned at Kid Win, "Looking like Lung decided to go for a stroll today."

"Hey, maybe it's Coil guys or the Undersiders. If it's either of them then neither of us win the bet."

"Well attacking in broad daylight doesn't fit either of their MO's but crazier things have happened. We'll know soon enough."

A PRT van came screeching up to the corner we had stopped at and the door slid open. We jumped in and we were on our way. I noticed Dauntless was one of the passengers in the back. Maybe he would have more info?

"Hey Dauntless we heard someone was making trouble for the Empire, any details who it is?"

"Well unless another animal master is in town, it's Zookeeper. She's hitting several locations and the empire's mobilizing its capes. It's getting very chaotic very quickly."

I leaned over to Kid Win. "Lucky you, guess the bet is off."

He just grinned at that. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find someone else you can unload your shift onto."

I grinned back and nodded. The trip was pretty quick so we soon arrived at the newly established police blockade that was directing traffic away from the fight. They were still parking the last of the three police cruisers to block the street when we drove up to them.

Crowd control was generally the kind of duty where wards were deployed during big cape fights. We weren't supposed to fight other capes, which meant it was unlikely me or Kid Win were going to see any action. So it wasn't a surprise that when we got out of the van, Dauntless didn't.

"Stay here and help Lieutenant Blake handle the traffic." Dauntless pointed towards one of the officers who was directing traffic and wearing lieutenant patches on his sleeves. He looked a bit older than the other half a dozen officers here and he was wearing the extra body armor police brought when parahumans were involved. "I'm going on ahead to see what I can do. Listen to him until you get orders from the console otherwise."

"Roger that" Both me and Kid Win said.

Norris Avenue was one of the bigger roadways so a big traffic jam developed quickly as the police began redirecting cars. We quickly got our bearings as we directed each car to turn around or detour through Walker St. It wasn't the most exciting duty, especially compared to the occasional updates we were getting about the fight from our ward communicators. Every time I heard a new message ding I eagerly played the recording of the fight updates. They definitely painted a concerning picture.

From what I could piece together Zookeeper had hit a few empire locations at once, which had two of their capes, Victor and Crusader. Unfortunately they somehow failed to notice that two other empire capes, specifically Stormtiger and Cricket, were in the area as well. Apparently they decided to put their dozen or so brain cells together and figured out where Zookeeper and her friend were hiding. At some point Alabaster and Hookwolf had joined in as well. So now the Empire capes were all chasing them around in a running battle and the Protectorate capes were playing catch up.

It was twenty minutes after me and Kid Win started directing traffic that we got an update that was a very different kettle of fish. The fight was heading in our direction, and it was still going strong. That was bad, because I could see that the traffic jam our blockade had caused was still getting worse. Walker Street was too small and it had gotten backed up from all the cars we were directing into it. I made my way over to Kid Win, who seemed to be talking to Lt Blake about the situation. I quickly interrupted when I got within earshot.

"Hey, did you hear? The fight is headed our way."

"Yeah, I heard. There's no way we can get everyone here away in time. There's just too many cars. I'm open to any ideas right now." Lieutenant Blake said.

"I wish I had that alternator cannon I finished last week. Even if I couldn't fire it I could maybe scare the Empire away." Kid Win lamented.

That gave me an idea. "Well if we can't scare them off with a gun then as the team ghost I could give it a shot."

The lieutenant gave that suggestion a few moments of thought. Then he responded by saying "Alright if you want to take a shot at slowing them down I won't stop you. I'll get one of my patrolmen to watch your body. Fair warning though, if we see them we'll have to move your body away from here for safety. Will that be a problem?"

"As long as you keep track of it then no" I turned to Kid Win. "Hey Kid, I know you'll probably be busy if any capes show up but could you keep an extra eye on my body?"

"No problem. But if you could activate your homing beacon that would give me a little peace of mind."

"Yeah, I can do that." I went to my ward's communicator and turned on a homing signal. It was an extra precaution I sometimes took if I couldn't be certain my body would be in the same place that I left it. Anyone from the PRT should be able to find me now if necessary. Lieutenant Blake had called over a patrolwoman to be my 'Bodysitter' for the evening.

"Officer Bigelow, this is Manes. Your job is to make sure her body stays safe until her uh… 'ghost' comes back. Any questions?"

"No sir"

"Good. Manes I wish you luck."

I gave them a thumbs up as I took a seat on the ground, and leaned my body on the patrol car by us. "Don't worry, I bet this will be over as soon as they see me."

"Making another bet so soon?" Kid Win teased. I only stuck my tongue out in response to that.

After I was situated I projected my ghost out of my body. A few of the police officers who were standing nearby stepped back when they saw my ghost rise up, but they seemed to take it in stride after a few seconds and went back to work. Rising up I could get a birds eye view of the intersection, where the cars from Norris Ave were trying to fit into the smaller lanes of Walker St.

I hit the limit of my range going up and turned toward the general direction of where the fight should be. It quickly became clear where the fight was currently because I could see bunches of birds and small swarms appearing over the nearby buildings about a block away. They were certainly closer than I had expected. Which meant it was even more urgent for me to intervene.

Silently gliding over the buildings I cut a diagonal path over the block of buildings to reach where the fighting seemed to be happening. As I approached I noticed the birds and insects dive back down out of my sight. When I reached the other corner of the block I saw quite a scene.

The first thing that caught my attention was Armsmaster and Dauntless both trying to subdue a fully transformed Hookwolf in the distance. They were further down the street that was going into the intersection, a few hundred feet away. The giant wolf shaped collection of metal spikes and blades was sizing the pair of them up as it approached. It was too far away for me to do anything about so I turned my attention away from their fight.

The next thing I saw was two capes being hemmed in by Cricket, Alabaster, and Stormtiger. I recognized Precaution from our earlier encounter, but the other cape was someone I could only guess was Zookeeper. Her costume was almost completely black, with some armor plates covering different parts of her body. She wore a dark mask with orange lenses covering her eyes, and seemed to cover the rest of her head with a gray fabric. It took the shape of a hood, with the bottom end of the fabric covering her shoulders as well.

I could tell they were in trouble. That was because they were stuck in the open in the center of the intersection. The three empire capes were blocking three exits of the intersection with the remaining one containing Hookwolf further down the street. Zookeeper seemed to be down to a small collection of birds and insects that she was keeping close to her and her partner. Looking closely I could see that Stormtiger and Cricket were both pretty scratched up and had quite a few insect bites on the skin I could see. Alabaster looked okay, though his damaged clothes suggested he hadn't been spared from Zookeepers insects and birds.

As I finished mentally noting down who was where Stormtiger made a move, throwing a very large airblast he must have been charging up at the pair of vigilante heroes. Alabaster and Cricket were on opposite ends of the intersection perpendicular to where Stormtiger was so they only had to stay in place not to get hit. Precaution suddenly pushed Zookeeper out of the way just as it was unleashed and then she jumped back to avoid the blast.

While it missed the capes it definitely hit almost all of the birds and insects, causing the birds that were hit to be thrown across the street. The insects were simply squished by the force. After that attack Zookeeper had been reduced to barely any minions at all.

I decided waiting any longer to intervene didn't make sense so I sized up which of the Empire capes I would possess. Taking Alabaster could be useful but I wasn't sure how his reset power would interact with my possession. It would probably just cause a quick failure of the possession but the possibility it could reset me out of existence just like his injuries made me nix the idea of testing that.

So that left Stormtiger and Cricket. Given how well going for Cricket went during the New Years battle it definitely made me want to see if I could go two for two in possessing her. So with my choice made I made sure I stayed high so the combatants didn't notice me (to take advantage of the fact people don't look up often). She and Alabaster were staying at the intersection exits so they didn't get caught in the crossfire as Stormtiger switched to a quicker series of slashes in the air. Zookeeper and Precaution kept dodging them as they came, but they were clearly getting more tired.

Once I was right above Cricket I made my move and dove straight down towards her quickly, which let me make contact with her body for a second flawless possession. I must be very lucky today because Alabaster and Stormtiger were focusing on the dodging vigilantes, since they didn't immediately react to me possessing Cricket. I quickly took stock again now that I could hear again with my host's ears.

"You can't keep dodging forever you bitches." Stormtiger bellowed out before letting out another slash.

I had to act fast because he wasn't wrong. With a closer perspective I could hear the two of them breathing heavily like they had just finished a marathon. I decided to pull out one of my dirty tricks I had come up with during some of my idle hours.

"Stormtiger I just saw Manes! She's got Alabaster!" I shouted. One of the perks of having a Master/Stranger rating is that in the right circumstances you can weaponize your opponents paranoia. It at least got their attention.

"Wait, what!" Alabaster responded in confusion.

That got Stormtiger to immediately switch his focus towards Alabaster. I pushed down the urge to immediately hit him then, the distance between us was probably too far to attack the same way I did during New Years. Plus I wanted to see if I could goad them into friendly fire. The two vigilantes paused then, probably from surprise but also from the near exhaustion probably. After he turned to face Alabaster Stormtiger bellowed out.

"I'm going to get you for what you did to me on New Year's you little bitch!"

"Storm, wait! I'm not her! She's obviously the one being possessed!"Alabaster shouted, pointing towards me.

"Don't listen to him! I saw the bitch possess him with my own eyes!" I countered. Hopefully the added profanity would help me sound more authentic.

"Ask me a question only I would know! I can prove I'm me!" Alabaster said.

That was my cue saying that goading Stormtiger into simply attacking him wouldn't work. My ploy did give me time to acquaint myself with Crickets body though. I had read up on her after her last escape and found she had a personal sonar to go with her super fast reflexes. There was speculation she could do other things with it but that wasn't relevant now, I just needed to get ready to strike. After a few seconds Stormtiger had chosen his question.

"Who won the drinking contest between you and Crusader last weekend!"

"Easy, it was me because my power doesn't let me get dru- Look out!" Alabaster said. His warning was a bit late since my dash closed the distance between me and Stormtiger almost instantly. Just as Stormtiger had turned to face me I was too close for him to launch another attack in time. That let me use one of Cricket's scythes to slash his left arm quickly.

Unfortunately he pulled away quickly enough that it was only a flesh wound. He also dodged my followup strike. He quickly threw out an air slash towards me. But using Cricket's reflexes I dodged it, at the cost of dropping one of the scythes Cricket was holding. Suddenly I noticed that Alabaster was running up to us and I chose to pull back to avoid getting pinned down between the two of them. I jumped back a few meters and saw that Stormtiger had chosen to stay still. His wound may not have been serious but it still clearly made him cautious.

Once Alabaster was at his side Stormtiger screamed out to me "IT'S YOU!"

"The one and only." I said confidently.

Alabaster decided to add his two cents here. "You have a lot of nerve interfering like this. Those two bitches crossed a line today. We're just here to give them what they deserve."

I glanced over and saw that Zookeeper and Precaution running away down the street Cricket had formerly been guarding. It was good that they were choosing the smart option of using the opening I had given them. If I could delay these two chuckleheads a little longer they'd probably have to give up the pursuit. Maybe I could waste some of their time?

"Oh really, I doubt that."

"You haven't seen what that Zookeeper bitch did to our boys. If Othala hadn't been around they'd be dead. They were minding their own business when that bitch sicced half a million bugs on them."

I wanted to immediately dismiss what they said as lies but then I remembered what happened to the Tigers. They all had brute ratings and they still needed medical attention after Zookeeper dealt with them. It wasn't implausible she wasn't any more gentle with non-brutes. On the other hand, why bother worrying about what some Nazi's thought? So I decided to sidestep the issue for now.

"That sounds a lot like your problem, not mine. I'm not here to take your complaints, you know?"

Looking to my side I noticed that Hookwolf must have beaten or gotten past Armsmaster and Dauntless because he was tearing down the street toward us. That complicated things but I wasn't too worried. If I played my cards right I could hold on to this body long enough that Cricket could get arrested.

"Speaking of problems, I see that big, tall, and spiky is about to join us."

Hookwolf, all pointy metal in the shape of a wolf, skidded to a stop a couple of feet away from where Stormtiger and Alabaster were standing.

"What are you standing around for! I told you I wanted those two maggot's heads today!"

Stormtiger pointed at me "We have another problem, the ward that can do body snatching showed up and got Cricket. If we don't do anything we're going to lose her."

"Grrrhh… Like we didn't have enough problems today." Hookwolf turned his metal head to me "So you're Manes. Where do you get off fucking around with us? We'll tear you apart once we find your body."

"Yawn" I put my hand over my mouth more for effect than politeness. "My sister is better at death threats than you are. She's way more creative."

Suddenly a harsh blast of air hit the scythe I was still holding out of my hand. I didn't look back but I could hear it tumbling away on the road. I realized that Stormtiger had just taken advantage of me being distracted by Hookwolf to disarm me. I turned towards them and noticed Alabaster was charging in my direction. I dodged to the right as he went to tackle me. Suddenly I felt an incredible pain come from my right leg. Looking down I saw that Stormtiger had sent another slash that had opened a large cut on my leg.

I paused briefly to try and regain my focus so that I could ignore the pain coming from the cut. However Alabaster recovered quickly from his first failed tackle and now that he was closer I had less time to react. Just as he was about to finish his tackle I decided I've had my quota of pain for the day. I had my ghost leave Cricket's body just as Alabaster made contact.

While I was a touch disappointed she probably wouldn't be arrested today, seeing her get tackled to the ground by Alabaster was a nice consolation. It definitely looked like it hurt. Alabaster was a full grown man throwing his whole body on a petite woman with only road pavement to break the I lacked hearing I could tell Cricket was probably letting out cries of pain after Alabaster got off her.

I turned towards Hookwolf and Stormtiger, who's mouths looked like they were speaking, but I couldn't hear them. They probably weren't saying anything nice. More likely they were trying out some new slurs for ghosts. I settled on presenting a middle finger to them for my farewell as I floated away. As a precaution I went through a nearby building to help disguise which way I was going.

I was able to quickly make my way back to where I had left my body, and was reassured to see nothing obviously bad had happened in the time I had been gone. The officer who was guarding my body noticed me approaching and waved her hand to greet my return. I reentered my body, and once I felt my senses again I stretched my arms out.

"I didn't miss anything important did I?"

Officer Bigelow responded quickly "Just that Armsmaster and Dauntless needed to pull back because of injuries. It wasn't anything serious but they did need some medical attention."

"That's a relief, I saw they were up against Hookwolf. Real piece of work that guy. He definitely deserves a place in the birdcage if you ask me."

"Amen to that."

I noticed Kid Win walking up to me and he had a concerned expression on his face. When he got within earshot it became apparent why.

"Hey Manes, I had to tell the console you sent your ghost out to check on the fight. Apparently somebody at PHQ didn't like that. I got a message from the console that once we were dismissed here you need to report over to HQ immediately."

That definitely sounded bad. I guess I had overstepped but hopefully once they heard my side of the story they wouldn't be too harsh. It's not like anyone had died or any property damage had been done. I'd probably be stuck with some console duty for a week or two until this blew over.

"Just typical, I show a little initiative and they get all huffy."

"How did things go by the way?"

"I managed to distract the empire capes long enough that Zookeeper and Precaution got away. At the very least I think the fight is over for now.
I'll tell you the whole story once I get debriefed and when the other wards are around."

"Looking forward to it. I'll check with the lieutenant to see if we're still needed here. Better to get your scolding over sooner rather than later."

"Yeah, I guess so."

Thankfully Lieutenant Blake was fine letting us go once we got the official all clear that the fighting was over a few minutes later. We said our goodbyes and hitched a ride in one of the PRT vans heading back to headquarters. Me and Kid Win mostly joked about some of the drivers we had seen directing traffic to lighten the mood ("I think I saw a guy doing a newspaper crossword while they were driving." "That's nothing, I saw someone driving while eating spaghetti on a plate with a knife and fork." ).

Once we were at HQ we had to go our separate ways as I was directed to a conference room. Apparently this was an urgent issue so I had to go there immediately. There I saw Triumph and Miss Militia, standing at the end of a table.

"Manes, thank you for coming. Have a seat. There's something we need to discuss." Miss Militia said politely.

As I took my seat I tried to defend myself. "If this is about what I did today I'm sorry I didn't check with the console. For what It's worth I did check with the police lieutenant before my ghost left."

Triumph responded first "That's actually not the main reason we called you in here today. Though to be clear you are going to have to explain yourself regarding today's events soon enough."

Miss Militia followed up "We believe you've been collaborating with Zookeeper. Wards are prohibited from working with independent capes without official sanction or if there is no immediate danger present. So if you are found to have done this you'd be going on probation."

What?! I couldn't believe my ears. They thought I was working with Zookeeper? Where the hell did they get that idea?! Today was literally the first time I've seen her costume for fuck sake. There had to be a misunderstanding somewhere.

"But… that's impossible! Why would I help her? I don't even know who she is!"

That got some raised eyebrows from Miss Militia. She seemed a little surprised at how hard I was pushing back here.

"Are you really claiming you don't know who she is?" she said skeptically.

"Yes. All I have are some guesses and theories. I haven't even talked to her before in person." I said with as much sincerity as I could manage. I had tried to check if it could be Julia's old friend Charlotte but I hadn't found any solid leads. So I genuinely had no solid clue.

However Miss Militia still seemed skeptical "Well Triumph has been taking the lead on the investigation determining the secret identity of Zookeeper. While we don't interfere with independents in their private lives we do try to keep tabs on them the best we can for various reasons. Triumph can explain."

Triumph looked a little uncomfortable but he began speaking. "We try to keep a hands off policy for most independent heroes since they tend to be a net positive for us. However Zookeeper's initial appearance suggested she might be too violent a wild card to ignore, which today's events helped to confirm. During my investigation into her I found you have a strong connection to her civilian identity."

He was probably talking about Julia. From that point of view it was an understandable mistake. Since she was probably Precaution and that only put me one degree of separation from Zookeeper (If you didn't count my encounters with her as a cape). Clearly he was just looking for connections where there were none.

"Okay, you say there's a strong connection. If you're going to give me probation I ought to hear who you think I'm connected to."

"Manes, we have to be careful with identities." Triumph said sternly. I understood that but they were about to punish me for something I didn't know. I deserved to see their evidence.

"Well you think I know so there's no reason to hide it from me. Come on, just tell me who it is so I can explain myself properly. If you can't do it here it'll never hold to a judge and you know that."

"...I suppose you have a point. The reason you're suspected of collaborating with Zookeeper is that we've found that her secret identity is your sister, Taylor Hebert."

A/N
-So the moment many of you have been waiting for has arrived, Sam finally finds out Taylor's little secret. Of course you'll have to wait until next time to see Sam's reaction. I can promise she is not going to take it well.

-As for why Taylor and Julia's attack on the empire went so poorly, it was a combo of bad luck and underestimating the Empire. It's not said in the story but Stormtiger and Cricket were driving in a car when the attack started, so Taylor's minions didn't notice them. As for how they found them you can chalk that up to Stormtiger's enhanced senses and Crickets sonar. Since Taylor and Julia didn't realize they were nearby they could track them down relatively quickly by triangulating between the three locations they attacked. Once they're found out Taylor's already committed most of her bugs so they can only run once Julia realized they were in danger.

-The PRT does genuinely believe Sam knew Taylor's identity, hence why Triumph decided to 'reveal' it. They've been hands off up until now since it was possible Taylor would come in to apply to the wards eventually. But the attack on the empire kind of made it clear that wasn't happening, hence why they're sitting Sam down for a talk now.

-Please leave feedback, I appreciate it immensely. I'm always looking to improve.