Rachel stepped into the Superhuman Task Force’s office. Since her first mission with them, they had not done much fieldwork but had been busy here. The Whisperer had started spilling the info they were looking for after a day of interrogation. Yesterday they finished up confirming the information and had set the Whisperer off to jail.

The information the Whisperer shared helped them locate the weapons factory they had searched for and find one of the storerooms for the criminal organization. After raiding the storage location, they had started moving quicker because what they did could be easily learned by the Whisperer’s boss and the rest of their organization. They still had not found out who ran the business or who was funding it yet. Whisperer could only say that he had never met the boss in person.

Rachel felt her place in the task force become more comfortable and she grew used to the police work that she had stepped away from a few years ago when she had taken the mantle of Legacy. Dan had welcomed her with open arms, but it still felt uncomfortable to slide back into work like nothing had happened. Though it hadn’t been her choice to leave, and he knew that. Things grew more complicated now that the family’s titles were split between the two parts. She had no idea how the Alvarez Fire School kept it together at times. They had an almost separate way of looking at the mantles with their separate rules and conduct for those training with them to wield fire. They had kept the rules consistent and had had no issues in the long term when their mantles had left the family in the short term. In a way, everyone who entered their school became a part of their extended family and lineage of excellence. Everyone who joined was no simple fire wielder who could spray fire from their hands. Instead, almost every one of them could manipulate fire in their palms and with their minds in some cases like clay and a sculptor. Sometimes Rachel wished that things were simpler for her family. At least for her, they had. She had experienced some of the family politics when she had gained the title of Legacy. It had involved many rules and a code of conduct for how she was to present herself to the public and what she could and couldn’t do. One of those things was standard police work. Now though she was no longer in the running for the mantle. She was just one of many before her that could not carry the future of the family anymore. It in a way gave her the freedoms she had been missing while as Legacy. Rachel missing the suit but dwelling in the past would not change her future. She was not an older member of the family who could retire now that she had lost so she would have to work and present some sense of power to their enemies as a former holder of the Legacy title.

Emma greeted her when she entered the office, and she found her seat next to her.

“You ready for more fieldwork?” asked Emma.

“Depends on how much I get hit. The bar was no fun and it sucked to be hit by that guy's powers. Do you know what we will be facing today?”

“I don’t know. A mix of supers and regulars but Whisperer couldn’t share more about them yesterday. Are you doing okay? I know his powers messed with your head pretty bad. Do you want to talk about it?”

Rachel thought back to her experiences with him and the events afterward. She had been out of it for the rest of the day and felt like shit. His powers had gone deep into her head and pulled out some of her deepest feelings to breach the surface and resonate stronger than they had in the past. All of her feelings about losing the Legacy mantle and her insecurities about her first mission back had caused her to freeze up in the bar and it had taken a while for Emma to get her back in a stable state and not shaking, crying mess. Rachel never wanted to experience that again and had shied away from being in the office when Whisperer was being interrogated even with a collar depowering him. She had taken the day off and then she had gotten the call from Caleb after his injuries a few days later. Even though the effect of the power had dissipated her feelings came to the surface quickly and without stopping. She had gone to Frey’s hospital and waited for Jason to wake up. He had been attacked and she hadn’t been there to help and use her powers. Instead, Caleb had to step in and was injured in place of her. He wasn’t even supposed to do fieldwork regularly. She wished she could do more, but the case had already been assigned to others and Caleb was working on it. Then Jason had explained that his memories were missing. She wasn’t sure how to best deal with it and proceed. She had recognized some of his strangeness when she picked up her mask, but she had been too busy thinking about her upcoming event to worry about what might be happening with Jason. There were plenty of things she wished she could change about recent events, but no one had the power to change the events of the past. For now, she could only wait for her grandmother to respond and assist this ‘new Jason’ in return to normal and protect him from a past that he couldn’t remember.

“I don’t need to talk about it?” responded Rachel curtly. “I am fine now. It was just a bit overwhelming for a first day back.”

The two of them continued talking for a little while longer until Dan and the others entered the office. They all sat in chairs and spun their chairs around to face the front where Dan stood in front of his bulletin board.

“Everyone gather around and whatnot,” said Dan. “Here are the floor plans for the factory,” he said as he stapled new documents to the board. “There are four entrances, and it should have at least three dozen people there who will put up a fight with us regardless of whether or not they have powers. I just got approval that we can go in and start this raid. We leave now and you can ask questions on the way. We can’t let them know we are coming so we will move in quickly and disrupt any vehicles if they try to leave.”

Everyone was already in their suits and gathered the stuff they needed as they walked out the doors. They repeated the same formula of having Emma and Rachel carry Ben and Dan to the location. Jake stayed behind as usual as their eyes in the sky and watched over them. He minimized his programs that were watching Jason and focused on the needs of his team. He had already pulled the CCTV of the surrounding area and was ready to give updates on fleeing people when necessary.

Emma and Rachel approached the factory from high above before dropping to the parking lot in a quick descent. Emma started melting the tires of the cars in the area while the others approached the doors. Rachel flew towards the back entrance while Ben and Dan took the main entrance and loading bay.

Rachel was met with gunfire when she broke open the backdoor of the factory. The non-powered people got behind boxes and held up guns. A few bullets hit her suit as she jumped behind cover. The factory’s machines were running loudly masking some of the noise of the gunshots. A few supers stepped forward to deal with their arrival but had focused on Dan and Ben.

They opened up the bay doors and went for the two of them before they could get very far in. Ben took out a small, bladed energy weapon and a taser. When he was met with the first thugs he turned his body intangible as they tried to hit him. He strategically kept parts of his body real as he counter-attacked and stepped behind the thugs with super-strength, enlarged limbs, and enhanced speed. He only occasionally ducked under hits or dodged causing them to grow annoyed. His attacks stung as he repeatedly bludgeoned them and made small cuts on their bodies. Next, the taser would shock them aggravating them further until he could finish them off. While using his powers he was able to make sure no one person could overwhelm him at a time.

On Dan’s end, he had entered the loading bay next to the front doors that Ben had entered. Dan had pushed into the building a bit further and had broken parts of the semi-truck that had been parked inside. Using his powers his skin hardened and became like steel if hit with anything the thugs had. He became a bulldozer as he threw punches that broke bones and stood his ground as energy attacks glanced off his body. He was an immovable object that was only stopped when one of the thugs got behind him and threw him into the air. He twisted in the air as he tried to reorientate himself. The thugs that could get back up during this time helped move the injured out of the way. Dan activated his powers as he hit the steel beams in the ceiling. They softened and stretched out of place as all of the energy of the throw was absorbed until his head was touching the ceiling. Dan gripped the steel beam as he adjusted his stance once more and activated it further. The overstretched steel beam dropped down with his weight now that there was no upward force. Like a rubber band, the steel beam snapped back, and Dan readied his impact. He flew downward and slightly angled as he impacted the ground around a group of thugs. The cement shattered in a ring around him, and debris flew at the thugs sending them back.

Rachel observed her situation as wood chips flew through the air around her. The people around her were unpowered and had her in a figurative corner with so many guns and people. She would be able to take some hits from the guns but she did not have very strong super strength so the pain of the attacks could get pretty bad. She looked over her shoulder and observed the nearest thug. The bullets had slowed because she was hiding. Taking a deep breath in she rushed out and flew to the nearest thug in a tackle. Bullets ricocheted off the walls as soon as she had stepped out of her hiding spot. She was able to move fast enough to avoid the guns for a while. A few bullets hit her chest as she talked to the guy who was shooting at her. ‘This will cause some bruising,’ she thought as she spun the man around. She ripped the gun from his hands and turned it to the thugs. This time it was their turn to duck as she sprayed the bullets in a half-circle around her. As she did so one of the thugs behind her shot at her head. Rachel felt the impact and some blood. She spun around and broke the hand of the man she had tackled before flying to meet the person who hit her. As she flew to the next person and the non-supers brought out their guns again Emma entered the building covered in flames.

Emma had taken her time to remove the functionality of all of the cars around the factory. She had also taken the time to knock out the thugs that had been hanging out behind the building. When she flew through the back door it melted off and the heat rose in the building. Some of the people shot at her but the bullets melted and became ineffective around her. She fired fireballs at some of the machinery as she floated above the people and the now burning boxes that she kept an eye on. She didn’t want the fires to get out of control quite yet. Because the non-supers were now busy with two heroes they had backed away and Rachel was able to focus more on taking down individual opponents.

An ice blast hit Emma from behind and the heat dissipated around her as she dropped to five feet above the ground. She spun around to see another shot coming at her. This one hit her arm and she brushed it over easier this time. The attacks came from a thug standing on the upper level holding an overly large gun. For the third shot, she heard it charge up and she was able to get out of the way in time. The blast hit the flaming boxes near her and shattered them into pieces of scrap and ice. Other thugs fired guns from the upper level toward them all.

“We’ve got more on the second level,” said Emma to the others as she fired a blast of flame at the gunman. They dodged out of the way, but the metal railing melted in a few places.

“I’m on it,” said Ben.

His three super-powered thugs were already down, and he was busy clearing out some of the thugs with guns. Ben went intangible and then completely invisible as he ran for the stairs. The gunman knowing this was happening shot his ice gun at the stairs. A block of ice covered several parts of the stairs stopping Ben from continuing on that path. Ben returned to visibility at the bottom of the stairs and when he did, so the gunman thug threw something at him. As soon as Ben saw the flash of light he returned to intangibility. With a bang, the stairs and the wall exploded with a shockwave.

“It is time to go,” said the gunman to one of the thugs that had been shooting from up above. “Contact the boss.”

The thugs stepped back onto the upper level and went to grab more of the bombs. When they did so Rachel was given some room to fly up towards them. She landed on the top of the stairs while Dan was busy breaking up the ice to get to the top. A blast from the gun went past her as she charged the gunman. He fired again and she was thrown back because she was too close to dodge. Emma was stuck down below waiting for her power to recharge as she fought the remaining ground floor thugs.

Stopping her had allowed the other thugs enough time to leave down the second set of stairs and prepare more bombs. The gunman was passed another bomb and he tossed it towards Dan and the stairs again. As the bomb flew Dan took out a tarp and spread it out and activated his powers in tandem. The tarp spread out to ten feet across and its properties changed to that of steel. The bomb's explosion hit the tarp and shook it but did not break it. Instead, the heat and force were redirected back towards the gunman. The gunman thug fell back but held his gun in place while firing. Dan continued his approach while holding the tarp which he had let grow smaller in the area for convenience's sake.

Rachel took this opportunity to tackle the gunman and point the gun away from anything dangerous. The ice gun fired a few more times in random directions as she wrestled with the gunman for control. The battle with him ended a few seconds later after she broke the thug’s wrist and was able to pin him down.

“We need to chase the others down,” said Rachel.

“They trapped the factory,” said Dan.

An explosion was heard as the back stairwell was blown apart.

“Do you think they would have had time to rig the entire lace to explode?” asked Ben.

“Unlikely but they probably are throwing their bombs down at the exits. We need to get out of here.”

“You should go first then along with Emma,” said Rachel, “I will wait here for a little longer with him for you to clear the way. Try to round up as many more as you can."

“Will do,” said Dan as he readied him had made shield.

“What’s the status of the thugs outside,” said Ben into his phone.

“There are about a dozen thugs outside the factory leaving south with a few more who have already woken up from their concussions searching their vehicles for stuff. I can’t say when they will have escape vehicles ready, but it will be soon. Some are already bringing vehicles that were parked a block away over here,” said Jake.

“We’ll be on it,” said Ben.

There was another explosion as Dan detonated one of the bombs left behind. It shook the building slightly as its set off a minor chain reaction. Emma was already outside the building and had left the same way she came. She flew above some of the thugs and targeted the ones with superhuman abilities. Rachel waited a few more minutes before carrying the gunman thug out of the building. Jake had already contacted the rest of the police force and the bomb squad would soon arrive to clean up and then cart away the thugs. Rachel set the gunman down next to a few other unconscious thugs. She and the others had already taken the gun from him and the other thugs creating a small pile of weaponry away from the unconscious people. As she was carting some of the thugs out of the building she received a message from Jake.

“I seem to have run into a problem. I’m not sure how this happened but I lost track of Jason and he is gone.”