It was after my dad left to take care of some errands that I realized that I didn't really have anything to do in the infirmary. My ward's phone would take some time to get replaced, I didn't have any books or magazines on me, and the only TV in the infirmary was strictly public access TV (I swear the PRT picks the weirdest ways to save money). And walking around wasn't advisable since I only had some underwear, a hospital gown, and a generic domino mask to protect my identity. My dad had brought some of my pajamas from home but those weren't much better.

Right now the TV was set to the reruns of the local public news channel's morning broadcast, WMUR. Now I didn't have anything against the local news per se. They could do some decent journalism here and there. But there was a reason I preferred just reading the online articles for local news.

"If you thought the potholes after winter were bad, you'll want to avoid using Terry Ave for a while. The damage really does give a new meaning to 'Rocky Road', doesn't it Carla?" The most annoying news anchor in the world, Will Cannon, said.

"It sure does Will. But as it stands this was only one of several streets that was heavily damaged by yesterday's fight. The Mayor has put out a statement that promised that repairs would be made as soon as possible. However no timetables for this work have been released just yet." Carla reported.

Will added on "I'm sure that the repair crews will 'resurface' soon. After all that is their job, eh?"

Uuugh, why did they even hire this guy? His puns weren't even that good! Dennis did puns too but at least he didn't try to shoehorn them in every opportunity he got. It was bad enough anticipating the fallout coming my way for putting a hole that big in the street without someone making dumb jokes about it.

I'd shut the TV off but then I'd be stuck alone in the Wards infirmary with only Nurse Murphy to keep me company. She was busy handling paperwork and wasn't much for small talk. And I did want to see how the news was covering yesterday's fight.

"And now for more on yesterday's visit by Dr Jurassic. While the wily tinker managed to escape, the local PRT has made the most of it by arresting the entire ABB's roster of parahumans. Including one that nobody had expected to be in Brockton, the infamous Cornell Bomber Bakuda."

"A truly explosive villain career she's had. Blowing people's minds with her strange tinker explosives and large parts of Brockton's streets." Will threw in.

Carla continued "She and Oni Lee were taken into custody alongside their leader, and Dr Jurassic's main target, Lung. All three are being considered for the Bird Cage. However Bakuda is the least likely to be sentenced there, given no deaths have been connected to her yet. Her public defender has stated that he feels confident that if found guilty she'll be serving her time in a parahuman asylum instead."

After that she went into some more details about each of the capes. Playing up Lungs reputation as well as Oni Lee's psychopathy. Bakuda got some more coverage but since her cape career was shorter, there wasn't much new ground to cover. Honestly it was typical coverage of villains the Protectorate just arrested.

When they're at large the threat villains posed were downplayed. Not only did the PRT want to avoid panicking the public, the news stations were careful about demonizing people with superpowers. A few years ago one news station in Indianapolis learned that the hard way. They had just an expose about a local villain named Raincoat who was being linked with a new drug trafficking ring, and the next day the whole station was found flooded.

However once the villains were in custody, the incentives changed rapidly. Arrests of villains were great ratings, and the media was not above milking them for all they were worth. The PRT loved taking a victory lap when they could. Being able to play up how bad the criminals they "took down" are did help justify their budget after all.

Never mind that all they did was slap some handcuffs on everyone. Taylor had taken down Oni Lee almost by herself, and Dr Jurassic had finished off Lung. I could take credit for catching Bakuda as a ward but as far as the news coverage went, they were papering over that as well. I was mentioned, but only as assisting Armsmaster in the arrest. The PRT didn't want to explain that a ward had gone off on an unsanctioned side-quest to check on her sister for obvious reasons.

"As for the rest of the ABB, it is unclear whether the gang will continue as is or splinter like the Merchants did earlier this year. The Brockton Bay PD has stated they're already looking into launching new operations to break up the ABB's sex trafficking networks. Also too early to tell is how other gangs are reacting to this news. At the very least, the Protectorate has pledged that they'll be stepping up to ensure the city remains safe no matter what."

I almost scoffed, but instead just muted the TV before the anchorman started making dumb puns again. Keep people safe? Most of the Protectorates roster had wasted their time trying to arrest a robot T-Rex. They probably didn't even realize it was a drone until Dr Jurassic set off his self disassemble protocol.

They could've split up and gone after Lung, instead of just having Armsmaster watch him. But I think the hero's were still scared of him after he had beaten the whole roster a few years back. As far as they knew they saw Lung running away, and didn't question that he was retreating until Armsmaster noticed him fighting Taylor. Hardly crossed their minds Lung might've been going after someone else, as long as he wasn't an immediate problem. Just typical.

I was really starting to wonder if the PRT's and Protectorate's reputations for competence were undeserved. After all, the fight on New Year's Eve had been pretty disastrous. Not to mention they'd botched the whole situation around me and Taylor. After yesterday it was really starting to look like their reputation had just been coasting off catching some low level villains and regular criminals. Nobody here was actually ready for a "real" threat, which a very concerning thought to have.

Before my mind could turn to other things I noticed Carlos at the infirmary entrance, and he looked very displeased. Suddenly it occurred to me that my misadventure yesterday may not have gone over well with just the PRT or Protectorate. He was still wearing his Aegis costume, without the mouth plate that he disliked because of how it fogged up his goggles. In any case I could clearly see his frown as he briefly greeted Nurse Murphy.

He asked for some privacy and she agreed to go get her lunch at the cafeteria early. She made sure we both knew her number before stepping. As she walked out we were left alone with only Carlos standing by my bedside.

He started out straight to the point "So when exactly was I supposed to find out about your little side trip?"

I cringed into my hospital bed "I was kind of hoping Gallant could pass it on when he had a chance?"

Carlos did not look impressed "Yeah, he did get around to mentioning it after everything had gone down. I've already had a long talk with him about that. I also had to drill it into his head that when we're in the middle of a crisis, he shouldn't be letting teammates run off by themselves. Especially without checking in with anyone else."

"He isn't in trouble is he?" I felt obligated to ask.

"Only enough that he'll be pulling a few extra shifts of monitor duty. As for you, I'm still making up my mind." He said ominously.

"But what else was I supposed to do? I tried calling Zookeeper but she was using a burner phone. If you heard that anyone you cared about was in danger would you sit around?"

"No, but the difference is that I'm more durable. If Gallant had gotten me into the loop I could've gone to check for you. I probably could've done it faster too since I could, you know, fly."

"Oh, I… hadn't thought of that."

"Yeah, look I'm not going to fault you for getting panicked. That's natural. But what worries me is that your first instinct was to go off on your own. I get that Stalker does that sometimes on patrols, but this was a crisis. You can rely on us."

"I guess so but… you know what happened last week right? They were inches away from throwing the book at me because they 'thought' I knew Zookeeper's secret identity. I don't want to drag you guys into my drama."

Carlos sighed "Manes, I get that you're not entirely sure who to trust right now. But you're a part of my team. If I can help it you shouldn't have to worry about getting in trouble for asking for help. Sounds good?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

"Great. Now that's been settled, I think I can drop the pretenses. I already know who Zookeeper is. She's your sister isn't she?"

I wanted to be surprised but Carlos was pretty smart. If anyone could figure it out it'd be him. "Oh, it's that obvious huh?"

"Only because I know she's the only person you'd care this much about who just happened to have something trigger event worthy happen to her back in December. Honestly I only figured it out this week after you talked to me about the whole interrogation fiasco."

"So I guess the other guys have already figured it out too huh?"

"If they did, they haven't told me."

I let out a sigh "At this rate Taylor might as well join New Wave. Hopefully she doesn't kill me after she gets out of holding."

Carlos suddenly made a face, like he just remembered something unpleasant "Umm about that..."

"What? She's getting out of holding soon isn't she?" I tried to confirm.

"Maybe not so soon. I was just talking with the deputy director an hour ago. He was asking if any of the wards would be willing to spend some of their shifts to watch the holding cells for the next week or two. All the ABB villains are over in the high security block right now, which means Zookeeper and Precaution are the only capes in those cells right now. So I'm guessing your sister might be stuck here longer than expected." Carlos suggested.

This got my attention immediately. "Wait what? Why would they keep holding her? There should be enough evidence she didn't do anything wrong to let her go."

Carlos started rubbing the back of his neck "I asked about that too. Renick just said that they still weren't ruling out any charges yet. Renick also mentioned that I could get back to him with the other ward's answers after one. He said that he'd probably be done with his meeting with Zookeeper by then."

My mind felt like it paused when I heard Carlos say that. Was all this implying what I thought it was?

"Hold on, you said they're not ruling out any charges?" I tried to confirm.

Carlos looked at me funny. "Well yeah. Renick was sort of talking like they hadn't changed their minds from yesterday."

"But they know damn well that what happened with Oni Lee was self defense! I told them exactly what happened! They shouldn't have a case for anything. Unless…" Then a realization dawned on me. "Those bastards. Those absolute bastards!"

"What? What's the problem?" Carlos asked

"They're going to try and use those bogus charges to scare them. It's going to be one big bluff to press gang them into joining the wards."

" Hold on. I think you're jumping to conclusions there. Why do you think they'd do something like that?" Carlos asked.

"Because they think they're troublemakers. It's not like the PRT has ever been shy about pressuring people to join them. Now would be the best possible time to get them under their thumb."

And if I had anything to say about it I wasn't going to let that happen. Both Taylor and Julia had saved my life out there. They'd had my back while the heroes were still trying to tie their shoelaces. Why should they be punished with being press ganged just for helping me?

Even worse, what if Taylor blamed me for letting all this happen? It was my fault she and Julia had been caught up in yesterday's fight after all, and she could hold one hell of a grudge. I needed to find a way to head this off.

"I mean they're just asking questions right now, nothing is happening yet." Carlos crossed his arms "This is all sounding just a bit paranoid, Sam."

"Is it? They already tried to screw me over just to try and recruit them last week! Why else would they be looking to hold them longer? And it's just a coincidence they're going to have another meeting with her when our dad isn't here?" I continued asking.

"I don't know but you're still recovering from surgery. Freaking out about what the PRT is doing isn't healthy."

"This isn't just about the PRT. My sister doesn't know the PRT like I do. And the PRT doesn't know her like I do. Do you know what she'll do if they back her into a corner? Hell all it could take is them threatening Precaution and she could summon every bird, bug, and stray here to defend herself."

Carlos wasn't convinced "That's a bit extreme Manes. Are you sure she would do that?"

"She has authority issues and is stubborn enough that the PRT is definitely going to overplay their hand. Believe me when I say that I know my sister." I said.

"Why don't I just call the deputy director? I'm sure that if we all talked you'll see that you're just blowing this out of proportion."

I scoffed, "I really doubt they'll even listen."

"We don't know if we don't try." Carlos shot back.

I threw up my hands "Fine, but I reserve the right to say I told you so if nobody listens to me."

"Sure," Carlos said. Fiddling with his phone for a minute he held it up to his ear and waited. When it connected he almost immediately started talking. "Hello Director Renick? I was just talking to Manes and it might have slipped out that you were about to meet with her sister. She's a bit worried you might provoke her and…Yes sir I understand that the conversation was confidential but…Look if my teammate thinks there might be a problem then I'm not going to ignore it!…Yes I understand sir… goodbye."

Aegis shut off his phone and I asked him "So what did Renick say? I'm assuming I get to say I told you so."

Carlos pocketed his phone and answered "Yeah, he blew us off. So what now?"

I groaned in frustration and threw up my hands "I don't know! If I'm going to get them to listen to me I need them to y'know, be here to listen!"

"Okay I know it looks bad but maybe they know something we don't. Maybe we should have a little faith that they know what they're doing."

"Aegis, tell me. How do you think the PRT handled yesterday?"

He scratched the back of his head and looked to the side a bit. "… It could have been worse. Casualties were pretty low at least."

"Well speaking as a casualty myself, being wounded and all, I can't say that's a ringing endorsement of the PRT's competence." I said pointing at where my bandages were.

"Do you really not trust them anymore?" Aegis asked.

"Honestly I wonder why I trusted the PRT and heroes for as long as I did. I guess when you think someone's on your side it's easy to overlook stuff. Now I know better than that at least."

"And what about us? Me and the rest of the wards. You think we're not on your side?" Aegis asked.

"I like to think you are but at the end of the day you guys have to watch out for yourselves."

"That's a bit harsh. We're not going to turn on you just because it's inconvenient. I was with Missy yesterday and you want to know how she reacted when it came in that you had to be evacuated to the hospital for surgery? She was this close to flipping out" Carlos held his fingers out, with a centimeter of space between the index finger and thumb. "Almost had to restrain her from going to the hospital right then and there. Now does that sound like a fair weather friend to you?"

"No, it doesn't…" I admitted.

Carlos nodded and continued. "Good because she happens to be on her way. And I want you to remember what good friends you are because she's going to have some choice words for you when she gets here, judging from what she said in the Wards group chat. Stuff like 'If she doesn't get any scars from this I'll give her some so she doesn't forget how stupid she was.' Or something like that."

I cringed again, "Yeah, that sounds about right."

You know the toughest part about having so many good friends is that they have no qualms about saying you messed up. Good for me in the long run but still tough for the ego.

"Honestly I can't remember the last time she was ever this angry with you. You guys are as thick as thieves." Carlos said.

"Oh I remember the last time. You know how some of the troopers were a bit trigger happy with the confoam around me during my first few months as a ward? Me and Missy might have pulled an ill advised prank that got both of us confoamed when they found us."

"Was this the infamous Halloween Hallway prank you guys did?" Aegis guessed.

"Yeah that one." I confirmed

The prank in question was a rather brilliant application of our powers for novices to pull off in my opinion. I dressed up like that girl from the ring, and when my ghostly form appeared in the hallway it sent half a dozen people running. Missy's contribution was to constantly extend the hallway so our victims couldn't get away immediately. Easily a top 3 prank in my books.

"I'm surprised, she usually isn't that squeamish about containment foam." Carlos noted.

"No it wasn't that. She was only angry about how long it took to get out of it. She missed being able to go trick or treating…"

Then an idea came to me. Removing containment foam can take hours if enough of the stuff gets poured on you. And right now Taylor was sitting in a room almost certain to have confoam nozzles in it. Not to mention if anything were to get somebody important to clear their schedules over here to talk to me, this would be it. With this thought a plan came together in my mind.

It wasn't the smartest plan ever, but it could work and I could do it right now. Would I get in trouble? Yes, but I'm already in trouble so that's not new. It would be best if I was alone, but being an infirmary patient that wasn't happening soon. With them determined to pressure Taylor time was of the essence as well, so it was best to start ASAP. Of course I should make sure Carlos doesn't get in trouble.

"Hey Carlos" I started suddenly. "If anyone asks, you tried to stop me from doing what I'm about to do. And don't worry too much, nobody should be getting hurt."

"What? Sam, what are you talking about?" Carlos asked. Then he started getting the meaning of what I was saying "Oh my god whatever you're about to do please don't."

"Yeah that's good. Make sure to yell it so everyone can hear." I advised.

"Sam! I'm seriou-" Carlos started before my ghost left behind my body.

I watched as my body went limp onto the bed, my head hitting the pillows dead center. Waving goodbye I drifted up towards the ceiling. Carlos was scrambling for his phone as I exited upwards. At the very least nobody could say he let me go as long as he stayed by my body.

Taking advantage of the ventilation system having sparse camera coverage I sped through them to my destination. Unlike in the movies my ghost was silent. As I navigated the building's maze of vents I carefully considered the message I would convey. It had been a while since I'd explored the vents of the building, but I knew where to go.

Soon I found my destination, the holding cells. Poking my head in ever so slightly to each room, I quickly found my sister on the second try. She was still wearing her Zookeeper costume, though she seemed to have removed a few pieces of the armor for comfort at least. She had also been made to surrender her original mask and wear a domino mask, since sometimes the PRT got worried about capes smuggling stuff in through parts of their costumes. She must have noticed something was amiss because she was looking around. Either her bug minions had noticed me or someone had set off the general alarm because of my stunt.

Knowing my time was short I went into her room and made sure to get into her line of sight. I did manage to startle her, which was not my goal but it was amusing to watch her try and compose herself. With the way her powers worked I'm betting moments like this in the future will be few and far between.

Once she was composed I began trying to communicate with American sign language, only to realize from the look of befuddlement on her that she wasn't following. Oh right, I had only spent a week going over this with her after she got me that sign language book for my birthday. She probably didn't remember any of it.

Switching tacks I stopped and repositioned myself besides her. Then as she looked at me I held up six fingers, for a message with six words. Then I began tracing each of the letters of the words into the floor for her, to spell out my message:

WAIT, TRUST ME, DO NOT PANIC

It was a short message but it got my point across. If I was going to get Taylor out of this mess I needed her not to do anything to upset the plan. Even if she was imprisoned here her animal minions could do a lot of damage.

It seemed I had not been a second too soon because whoever was managing the holding area found the containment foam button. I had counted on the fact that the confoam guns were set to manual instead of automatic for prisoners in regular holding. The reason I heard why was that confoaming a potentially innocent prisoner could give ammo for a lawsuit (lawyers man, what can you do?).

So as the confoam nozzle guns emerged from their hiding spots, Taylor noticed them near instantly. It gave her just enough time to swivel her head towards each one that appeared. From my lack of reaction to this development she must have quickly realized this was a part of my plan. I guessed this because when she looked back at me it was with her patented sisterly death glare, saved for special occasions like this.

I mouthed 'sorry'.

Reading her lips I got 'Fuck you Sam' as the reply. Then the containment foam came raining down and almost immediately she was buried in the stuff.

When her birthday rolls around I'm really gonna have to make this up to her. Maybe I should see if I can bribe her favorite author to meet her or something.

I wasn't too worried about visiting Julia's holding cell. They'd probably spray her as a precaution anyways (honestly she was just begging for the irony with that name). I should probably ask Taylor for her birthday as well, assuming she hadn't killed me in my sleep already by then.

Satisfied that I had accomplished what I had set out to do I made my way straight back to the infirmary. I wasn't worried about getting spotted since surprise wasn't necessary anymore and nobody could really stop my ghost. Armsmaster had tried quite a few different materials during my power testing but none had stopped me.

So I made my return to the infirmary, where Carlos and a half dozen troopers surrounded my body. I was thankful they had only confoamed my hands and feet to the bed. A little consideration for me as a patient I suppose. As long as I could talk I could finally get someone to hear me out.

When they spotted my ghost everyone instantly gave it their full attention, regarding my spectral form with the appropriate amount of caution. However I wasn't looking for a fight. To their surprise I returned to my restrained body.

As I got my missing senses back I could already hear the troopers barking orders in my ears "Freeze! Stay where you are and don't move!"

I glanced over to my confoamed hands on the bed. "I hope you don't expect me to raise my hands because…"

"Quiet! You're under arrest!" The lead trooper shouted.

Once I had closed my mouth to comply with him he started speaking into his earpiece relaying that I had returned to my body. I glanced over to Carlos, who was very pointedly staring at me very disapprovingly. I gave a sheepish smile as I tried very hard to think of what I could say to him. But I decided to keep my mouth shut until his anger had cooled off a bit.

Then came in Deputy Director Renick, with Battery at his side. He looked absolutely steamed as well and he honed in on us immediately. He pointed his finger at Carlos first.

"I don't know what possessed you to tell her about our conversation Aegis, but we'll be discussing that later." Then Renick turned his head towards me. "As for you, this is the last straw! What were you even thinking with this stupid stunt!"

I was already screwed so I decided to be a bit cheeky. "What? My body hasn't left this bed the whole morning."

"Don't play stupid, your ghost was just seen down in Zookeeper's holding cell. You were trying to help her escape!"

"Actually you have it backwards. I actually helped you guys out." I said.

Renick raised an eyebrow "Oh really? And how do you figure that?"

"Because now my sister is going to be spending her afternoon getting fished out of containment foam instead of taking a meeting with you guys. And if you thought my interrogation from last week went badly, you would not want to be in a room with my sister trying to press-gang her into the wards."

Battery stepped forward "Manes I think you're jumping to conclusions here. We're not out to get you or your sister."

"Somehow I have a hard time believing that." I replied.

Renick practically sneered and pointed his finger at me "I don't care what you believe. What you did was unacceptable. You just admitted to obstructing important PRT business. And I don't recall having to consult with you to do my job."

Carlos stepped forward "Sir I know this looks bad. But we did try to bring her concerns to you before you chose to ignore us. And as far as I can tell nobody's been hurt."

I glanced over at Carlos a bit surprised. Even after all this he was sticking up for me? I could hardly believe it.

Renick wasn't impressed "I didn't ask for your opinion Aegis. We can't dismiss this as just another silly prank from Manes. There needs to be consequences!"

But before he could continue, a new voice entered the conversation.

"I'm inclined to agree with you, Stephen. However I think that I'll need to hear the whole story first before we do anything else."

Recognizing the voice instantly, I looked over towards the door where Director Piggot was standing. She was carrying some papers with her and was wearing her usual suit to go with her displeased expression.

"Director, I have this under control." Renick assured her.

"If you did, I don't think we would be here. Aegis you mentioned 'bringing your concerns' to him. Elaborate." Piggot instructed, pointing her finger at Carlos.

Carlos complied, saying "Well Manes found out from me that we weren't going to be immediately releasing Zookeeper or Precaution, and was concerned that they were going to be forced to join the wards."

"And I'm guessing that when she was ignored, she decided to do the equivalent of pulling the Fire Alarm." Piggot surmised, almost shaking her head. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Director, I can explain." Renick said.

"No need, I told you it was top secret and you followed orders. Even if it did have some unintended consequences." Piggot said, a bit exasperated. "But before we continue this conversation I'm going to have to ask Battery and all the troopers to leave the room. Aegis you stay."

Battery looked confused by this "Ma'am, what's this about?"

"It's nothing you need to be concerned with right now. You'll be briefed about it when you need to know. All you need to do now is wait outside and make sure nobody enters until we finish our conversation." Piggot ordered.

Getting the hint, Battery nodded and followed the troopers as they filed out of the infirmary. Soon it was only me, Aegis, Renick, and Piggot.

Once we were alone Piggot spoke first "Before we continue, I'd like to make it clear we're not going to force Zookeeper or Precaution to join the wards at this time."

Despite how firmly she had said this, I could hardly believe what I was hearing "You're not?"

Renick confirmed this "No, we're not. If you'd had the patience to wait a few hours you wouldn't have had to cause so much trouble to learn that."

"Wait, but then why were you asking about having the wards help watch the holding cells for the next week?" Carlos asked

"Actually that didn't have anything to do with this. After Manes was wounded we needed a job for the wards to do that was reasonably safe. Since we're expecting more ABB members to be arrested soon the holding cells are expected to be busy for the next few weeks as we process them."

"Oh… so you aren't…ah I feel like an idiot." Carlos lamented.

"You think you feel bad? I just realized I got my sister buried in containment foam for nothing." I admitted.

I was already dreading having to explain to her why she had to get confoamed. Then I realized that I'd have to explain this to dad as well, and that my impending grounding probably just doubled in length. Why is it so hard to actually try and help people?

Piggot briefly coughed to clear her throat and get our attention again "Speaking of guilt, we need to talk about your punishment Manes. I could just assign you to console indefinitely, but you probably wouldn't learn anything. I've even heavily considered forcing you to transfer to another branch. However I've been sounded out about something that's as good as a transfer. Have you been told about the apprenticeship program?"

"Yeah, it's been brought up." I said warily, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Well I've been told that a part time hero named Trinket has volunteered to take you on. Once you get out of this infirmary I expect you to either take her offer or find someone else in the next week. If you don't, I'm transferring you out of my branch."

"What?! But I live here!" I sat up in protest, though still restrained by my hands being confoamed to the bed.

Piggot wasn't fazed at all by my reaction. "I honestly don't care. I've exhausted my patience dealing with you. There's a dozen other things I need to deal with that are more important. So either join the apprentice program or pack your bags."

Carlos tried to protest."Director, this is a bit extreme-"

Piggot cut him off "Not in my opinion. Manes needs to learn the consequences of her actions, and as far as I can tell the rest of you have been enabling her."

This got Carlos nervous for a second. "What do you mean by that?"

"I just think that it's very convenient that neither Gallant or Shadow Stalker reported that she had left her post yesterday. I don't have any hard evidence about what they did or didn't know. But I will never tolerate someone deserting their post. If she wasn't a minor I'd recommend she leave the wards." Piggot said a little angrily, like I had personally offended her.

"Hold on, what's stopping me from leaving the wards myself then? You can't make me leave Brockton Bay if I don't want to." I tried to counter.

"Go ahead if that's what you want. You'd only be hurting yourself though." Piggot said with a light condescending tone, suggesting she didn't care either way. "For example, ex-wards have to pay for their own college tuition. Not to mention a lot of the safety nets go away. I could go on but you get the point."

Shit she did have a point. My family had been counting on the financial support I got from being a ward for the past two years. If I quit now I might as well give up on college, and even getting into Arcadia High would be a big lift. If I didn't secure some financial assistance quickly, I'd be stuck going to the hive of scum and villainy known as Winslow.

Not to mention losing PRT protection meant Dad would be as vulnerable as anyone else. Even if they hadn't caught all the Empire goons who had assaulted Taylor, the PRT had made sure the rest were put on the run afterwards. If I left the wards altogether would that embolden someone to try something against Taylor? Or worse, Dad? He didn't even have any powers to defend himself with. I couldn't afford to find out.

"Fine, I get it. No matter what, I'm not welcome here anymore if I want to stay in the wards program. Guess I should have seen this coming." I said.

Carlos however wasn't about to give up just yet "Ma'am, please reconsider. Manes has been very valuable to our team. She literally has the most cape arrests among the wards here."

"She's only valuable if you ignore the thousands of dollars of collateral damage she's racked up just yesterday. Only reason she's not paying for it herself is that there was reward money for Bakuda's capture, which will be used to fund repairs as specified in her wards contract." Piggot said, pulling out a list of financial figures that looked like a damages summary. Judging from the numbers visible I had just dodged a massive financial bullet. She continued on "I would suggest you get more conscientious about collateral damage Manes, Trinket won't be as tolerant about it as we are."

That's really saying something, because we get written up if we so much as scratch a car's paint job. Though she might just be trying to scare me before I got dumped on this Trinket lady. Which made me wonder; why was she taking me on?

"You keep mentioning Trinket, but I've never heard of her. Did she say why she was stepping up to make me her apprentice?"

Renick decided to volunteer an explanation "She has her own reasons. And the reason you haven't heard of her is that she's an unofficial information broker who uses her power to gather intel."

I felt myself die a bit inside as I realized what that meant "So she doesn't go after any villains herself?"

"No, she doesn't. Instead she points us towards villains we need to take care of and tell us what they're up to. She's usually based in Boston but she'll be spending some time here to help us with a certain case. It's big enough that we're willing to give Zookeeper and Precaution an alternate offer besides joining the wards. To do something that none of the wards or heroes can do." Piggot said

"And what exactly is that?" I asked.

"It's an infiltration mission. Wards can't do those for a variety of reasons. However independents like Zookeeper and Precaution are a different story. We had hoped to keep you in the dark, but after this stunt I think it's clear that keeping you uninvolved isn't going to happen. Especially since you'll likely be working with Trinket." Renick said.

"Wait, you want them to help you? Why would they agree to do that?" I asked.

"We're willing to offer some carrots. However the exact details will be between us and them." Piggot said.

And I could tell the unsaid part was that there were sticks as well. They suspiciously hadn't mentioned the real reason why they were keeping those bogus charges on the table. Even if it was a weak case, we'd still need to go to court to beat them. It would make good leverage for them if they wanted to play hardball.

'You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride' is a saying for a reason.

So if my sister and Julia wanted to say no, the PRT had a neat way to tie them up with criminal charges for the foreseeable future. So whether they say yes or no, the PRT wins. And to think my opinion of these bastards couldn't go any lower.

"Hold on, why are you asking them? There's got to be some other independent heroes with more experience that can do this." Aegis protested.

I thought for a moment and realized it was a valid point. If I were Piggot I would be looking for anyone besides my sister or Julia to do something like this. They were too inexperienced. Unless there wasn't anyone else who could do it. And of the remaining parahuman gangs, there was one only composed of teens that Taylor and Julia would fit right in with.

"Except that there really isn't. Not unless they're infiltrating who I think they are." I said.

Carlos whipped his head towards me "Who?"

Knowing the answer I told him "The Undersiders, the only teen villain group in Brockton Bay."

A/N

-Oh boy I need to get better at finding good chapter break points because it was hard to settle on a good place to stop this one.

-If Sam seems a bit impulsive remember she's a budding teenager who's coping with a heavy dose of paranoia. It was only a matter of time before the local leadership decided they wanted to make her someone else's problem.

-The Undersiders are finally about to make a proper appearance in the story. As you can see Taylor is going to be in a much different position meeting them than in canon. Of course being an official mole instead of a self-appointed one is going to be much different for Taylor as well.

-As always please leave any feedback you can, its always appreciated positive or negative.