The time had come for another holiday, a widespread event which appeared to gain its power from the majority beliefs of the local population of New Bay… which was sort of a self-reinforcing phenomenon. For example, monsters came out on Halloween- and people dressed up as monsters to limit the numbers of actual monsters that showed up. And the next year, everyone had those experiences whether or not they previously believed.

That was what my information indicated, at least, and I had no reason to doubt it- and regardless of why, it happened and was going to continue happening. The next holiday that I had to concern myself with was Christmas. It had finally come, even though it felt like it took forever. Probably because of how early they had begun putting up Christmas related paraphernalia.

“Alright gentlemen,” Ice Guy stood with his back straight. “Time to talk about the mission plan for tonight. We have to save Christmas.”

“From what?” I asked. “And how? And why us and not someone more important?” I still didn’t understand how all of this was supposed to work. There was supposed to be some Santa guy handing out presents, and that was it.

“From villains. They’ll be trying to kidnap or rob Santa, and we have to help him in any way possible. As for why us… well, Santa has to go to every house in a single night. Which means being in many places at once. Everyone will be covering their own sections.”

“I… see,” I nodded, vaguely understanding. Midnight didn’t seem much more clear on things either.

“Because of the situation we’ll be staking out a few rooftops and escorting Santa through our section. Most likely the incidents won’t overlap with anything else…” Ice Guy shook his head. “But there’s a good chance of us interacting with nearby teams. We’re to coordinate with any heroes we come across, and any mercenaries from companies neutral or friendly with us.” He pointed to the information displayed behind him. “Expect to meet the Beast Family or the Flying Force.”

I nodded. They both operated in the same region of New Bay as Power Brigade HQ along with SSI but they were certainly less antagonistic. “... Why are these other mercenaries so… specific? Beasts and flying and burly dudes with guns… didn’t seem like balanced squads.”

“Because branding is useful for growth,” Ice Guy said, “And it’s not like the Brigade doesn’t do that sometimes. Look at us, the Elemental Magic Squad.”

“... We do have variability in our powersets, though,” I said.

“Even so,” he shrugged. “It happens. On that note… well, there are things to talk about after the season is over. For now, let’s focus on Santa.”

-----

My eyes scanned the night sky, finding little but disparate clouds. My goggles picked those out as areas of higher density. And, as expected, some more distant members of the Flying Force. Presumably. I hadn’t yet memorized every single super active in New Bay, especially not those of less consequence. Those who were low or moderate in power weren’t something I intended to fully ignore, but if they were not from hostile organizations I treated them with lower priority. I only directly recognized The Falcon, wearing a bird-beak mask on his head.

I saw a good number of other individuals hanging out on rooftops, but no villains yet. In the streets down below there was a steady trickle of individuals coming back from various holiday parties, many staggering drunk. But I had been given no reason to disbelieve that Santa would arrive eventually.

My current position was on the opposite side of HQ from my apartment. It was simply easier to avoid any trouble that might occur from people looking for me around my dwelling, and I didn’t exactly get to pick my assignment anyway.

I could sense Midnight on another rooftop, though from my angle I couldn’t see him. He was bored as well. I knew some people were waiting with excitement and anticipation, but I had no personal connection to this Santa, no matter how important he might be.

Then I finally spotted something. Another anomaly in the sky, descending from above the clouds. Sleigh? Check. Reindeer? Check. Fat man in a red suit? Check. Magic bag full of presents?

Unclear. Presumably it would be in the sleigh with him, but I was below. The only thing I could say for sure was that there was some magic going on. It wasn’t just him, but something about the world itself. As the sleigh descended from the sky, snow began to fall. That was… most unnatural. New Bay hardly had any precipitation on account of its coastal position and low elevation- and it was also rather dry, considering the large body of water. Snow was just wrong.

The next thing I noticed was a flying saucer coming in- there was an immediate report on our network that it was not authorized to enter the area. The Falcon swooped towards it, landing atop the small craft and effectively diverting it as it attempted to throw him off. Santa descended until he was atop an apartment building a few blocks away. “Target spotted,” I reported on squad comms. “Should we converge?”

“Negative,” came the response. “Closer personnel will deal with it. Maintain your position and watch for threats as he continues to move.”

Santa stepped out of his sleigh- which was just hovering over the rooftop, the strange creatures pulling it wagging their legs like they were treading water. Out with the man came his sack- which immediately produced a mass-overflow error in my goggles. Well, extradimensional storage should do that. I just wondered why it was such an impractical designed container.

The bearded old man walked across the rooftop until he reached out for an HVAC and… got slurped up. I was told he traditionally descended chimneys, but he had ways to magically enter anywhere necessary, it seemed. And it certainly was magic, though I could not have named a school to which any of his powers belonged nor equated them to a spell- despite some similarities.

Then I could no longer focus on that task, as villains began to come out of the woodwork. The Mod Squad was only the start, but thankfully they were conservative with their lasers when dealing with buildings. Next came rats. Flying rats too, though not the birds some people called flying rats. Rather, these were rats with jet engines strapped to them. Little ones that fit their frame, whether they were ‘standard’ rat sized or closer to mid-sized dogs. Rodentia was making her play, then- and no doubt others.

I spotted one making her stake on the next building over. A woman with golden skin and curling ram horns, as well as batlike wings. Given the fact that she didn’t appear to have flown to her position, they either didn’t work freely or she was going for subtlety. Though given the way she was surrounded by numerous individuals in golden clothing and masks, that only went so far.

This was… Golden Queen. Or Golden Demon, sometimes. I could feel the power pouring off of her. It wasn’t comparable to Stargirl in impact, but rather a constant flow- which made sense because as far as her power had been discerned she could empower people or nearly miraculously heal their wounds and quickly recovered her own stores almost immediately when she expended any effort.

We’d have to take them out quickly- which meant backup. Midnight was nearby, and I immediately had him head towards my location- which would unfortunately take a bit scaling the buildings. They were intentionally placed far enough for it to be difficult to leap between them, and Midnight wasn’t the sort to attempt that anyway. I could probably have carried him with Mage’s Reach, but I could imagine him protesting at that as well.

Rocker was still recovering from his injuries. The captain was with Shockfire, and together they were engaging Rodentia along with some other heroes. I wished them good luck dealing with her cheese ray and flagged down Acid Man.

No offense to him, but he wouldn’t be enough with just myself and Midnight. Not based on the threat level I had seen for Golden Queen. I scanned the area, and only saw more trouble down below. I didn’t recognize the face- and it was hidden anyway- but Swarm had a pretty distinctive outfit for effectively being just a guy. Or many guys.

He looked up at me, and held a finger to his lips. I frowned. Why would I keep secret the presence of a guy who definitely shot at me at some point- even if he hadn’t been the one with the sniper rifle. Actually, if he had been the one, I probably would have ended my life full of holes in either sniping incident. I quietly spoke into my earpiece, but even as he watched me do it as we maintained eye contact, he didn’t seem upset.

Swarm didn’t have a weapon out, instead clasping both hands together in front of him, a look of intense concentration on his face. Suddenly, despite him always being there he suddenly felt more there. Though I couldn’t really describe why. A moment later, however, he began to split into at least a dozen of him. The primary one still kept my gaze, miming something like a toss, pointing first to my building then the one with Golden Queen. Then he pointed to himself and in both directions around the side of the building. Some of him started climbing up the nearby fire escape.

“What do you think, Acid Man?” I asked my approaching compatriot.

“I don’t know, but what I do know is I’d prefer to be on the same rooftop as you. See you in a minute.”

Not long later, Midnight and Rasmus were by my side. At some point, Golden Queen had spotted me, but merely smirked at my presence. “What do you guys think?” I asked the two. I would have gone for the whole squad, but I didn’t want to fill the lines with unnecessary chatter.

“I don’t know,” Midnight admitted. “I don’t think they’ve worked together before. And if they did, he would have just come with her.”

“So he’s probably not planning to join up, then,” I nodded.

Acid Man provided his own theory, “He might be planning to take out competition. That’s fine for us, even if he intends to mug Santa later. We can conserve our own strength a bit while taking out a threat.”

Swarm stopped about one floor from the top, waiting- presumably for the rest of him to get in position. Then one of them caught my eye and signaled. It was pretty clear what he meant as he immediately began moving.

I’d had time to think about what to do. My first thought had been Mage’s Reaching my staff over the divide and smacking her with it, shutting down her powers. However, as her power was mostly recovering power, even if it worked I imagined it wouldn’t work for long, not with the amount of energy I could expend. So I went for old faithful, Mage Reach with the intention to Shocking Grasp. Midnight did the same, floating cat paw sneaking around on a slightly different trajectory than my own hand.

I have to say, Swarm knew how to be a distraction. He first started on the far side of the building, taking shots into the enemy group and forcing them to duck into cover. They dragged their fallen comrades over to Golden Queen who glowed brightly and touched each of them, after which they seemed fine.

On the other side, Swarm also moved in close with combat knives out. If he was a merc I might have to chastise him for not even considering nonlethal options, but as it was supervillain on supervillain and minions, it wasn’t my responsibility to stop everything. Besides, after the surprise wore off those same minions fearlessly charged back into the gunfire, unafraid.

Good for them I guess. I was just going to try to zap down their leader, and from the way Acid Man was hefting a basketball sized green orb of acid, he was ready for his move as well.