I hit the rooftop with a muffled thud that was lost in the noise of a nearby air conditioner. Next to me, Emma landed without a sound and an amused smirk.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm working on it!" I hissed, trying to stay quiet.

We'd been busy over the last month. Under the guise of sleepovers we'd been sneaking out whenever we could and going on patrol. Mostly, we had been focusing on the Merchants.

As the weakest of the gangs, and the most lacking in capes, they were the safest option. After our run-in with Skidmark and Squealer, we picked out targets carefully. Sticking to small safe houses and dealers.

If nothing else, they made good practice.

Most of the money we picked up from that first raid was gone now. Our new costumes had taken most of it and then we had spent some more on some equipment. We'd bought a pair of radios that came with earpieces and microphones so we could coordinate our attacks.

The range wasn't great, barely reaching a block but it was better than nothing. They were consumer grade after all, which also meant they weren't as secure as we would like, so we had to be careful what we said.

I'd also used the last of the money to find a fighting instructor. There was a gym not far from my house that offered men and women's kickboxing lessons. The woman who ran the lessons was loud, tall, blonde, gorgeous, and strong enough to scare most of the men.

Rolling her eyes, but still smiling, Emma walked passed me and looked at the street below. Our constant attacks were making the Merchants nervous. They were starting to move in larger numbers and Skidmark and Squealer were making more patrols.

They were also getting more aggressive. The Merchants had never been the most well armed gang but there had been a noticeable increase in guns during our fights.

I'd suggested we switch to one of the other gangs for awhile and let them cool down. We could handle (almost) anything they could throw at us, but I was more worried about some random person getting hurt.

Stormtiger had been 'rescued' by hookwolf last week so we decided to mess with the Empire in retaliation. That was why we were currently roof jumping in the south side of the city. We were looking for signs of the Empire but they had been worryingly quiet for the last month of so.

Below us, an Empire drug dealer was talking to a client.

"Go now or wait?" Emma whispered.

"Wait for now, can you hear what they are saying?"

Laying flat on her stomach, Emma turned her head and tried to listen in. Her power included enhanced senses, like night vision and improved hearing.

While she did that, I repositioned my shoulder guard.

Our new costumes had arrived two days ago and this was our first time wearing them.

Emma's looked like her old costume but was made from the same tinker-tech fabrics as mine. It was much more durable than normal fabric and while it couldn't stop a large bullet it was tear and knife resistant. It was also fire proof.

My costume was a sleeveless, very dark red leather short jacket with a shoulder guard on my left shoulder. Both were trimmed in gold. Under that, I was wearing a sleeveless bodystocking with a mandarin collar. The bodysock was reddish grey colour that contrasted well with the dark top and pants.

This left my arms completely bare and the stretchy material of my top showed almost every contour of my torso. Thankfully, Parian had made the material much thicker around my chest so even without my sports bra on, nothing was visible.

My face was covered by a red scarf that wrapped around my lower face and hung down my back. Fired proofed, of course.

I hadn't been sure about showing so much, but with Emma's assurance and the muscle tone I'd been developing I was starting to like the look.

Over my legs, I wore a tight pair of dark red pants with built in knee guards. I'd been worried that they would limit my movement but whatever they were made out of stretched easily and comfortably.

The last addition was a pair of black combat boots. Emma's costume had very slight heels, but I didn't have her enhanced agility and balance.

Emma moved away from the edge, she was clenching her fists so tightly her knuckles were turning white. "They're saying something about kidnapping girls!" she hissed.

"Fuck! Okay, as soon as he's alone, we go down and find out what he knows."

Down below, the client was just vanishing out of sight. Sharing a look with Emma, I frowned and jumped off the roof.

I hit the ground with a thud a meter behind the dealer, not bothering with subtlety.

Hearing me, he dealer took one look over his shoulder and bolted. Before he could reach the end of the alleyway, Emma was there. Stepping out in front of him, she lashed out. There was thud and he fell to the floor with a shout.

"Fuck! You fucking cunt! You can't do this! Do you know who I am!? Krieg is going to fuck you up!"

As he ranted, he crawled backwards until he ran into my legs. He briefly looked up at me before trying to crawl forwards towards the wall. I put my foot down on his back and pushed him into the ground so he couldn't move.

"You were talking about some girls!" Emma snarled, "Tell me everything!"

"No chance! Do you know what they would do to me?"

I lifted my foot so I could pick him up but Emma's foot slammed into his side and he curled up, cursing breathlessly.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her away from him. "Bell! what the hell?!" I hissed quietly.

"They're kidnapping people," she said simply, not looking me in the eyes, "We need to find them!"

I tried not to sigh. I could understand where Emma was coming from, but beating the shit out of him wasn't going to help.

"Fine, but let me do the talking," went unsaid, was and when we're done, we are going to have a long talk.

I'd never tried anything like this and we were not quite sure what to do. I tried to think about what my instructor had said when she spoke about self-defense and grinned.

Walking forwards, I grabbed the dealer who was trying to climb to his feet, turned him round and slammed his back into the wall. I positioned myself in front of the dealer and punched the wall besides his head. It wasn't hard enough to do any damage but I did create a brief flash of flame.

"Now start talking," I said.

"Go to hell bitch!"

I smiled and before he could move my free hand dropped down to his waist. He made a pitiful squeaking as I grabbed hold.

"Now, here's the thing. I can crush steel barehanded," I grind as he pressed himself against the wall and lifted himself onto his toes. "what do you think I can do to you"

To emphasise my point, I squeezed, getting another squeak out of him.

"Listen, bit-" squeeze, "Ma-" and again, "sir! If you know what's good for you, you'll let me go!"

Frowning, I tightened my grip. He was starting to turn an interesting shade of red.

"Okay, okay! Look, don't hurt me! I'll tell you everything!"

Well, that was easy.

"So talk. What's the Empire up to?" I demanded, trying to sound more confident than I felt and keeping hold of him just incase.

Besides me, I could see Emma smirking.

Almost panicking, the dealer started talking, "I-I don't know much! I'm just a dealer that's all, I swear! They don't tell me shit! But there's a rumor that the bosses are collecting girls!"

"What girls?" Emma asked with a frown.

The dealer looked at her, then me and for a second, I thought he was going to bolt so I grabbed his shirt in one hand and lifted.

"Answer the question! Which bosses and which girls? "

"T-the capes! I don't know which, I just heard they were on the lookout for girls. Niggers, chinks, it doesn't matter so long as they are young a pretty!"

Besides me, Emma had gone very, very still.

"Where are they taking them?" frozen tundra had more warmth than her voice at that moment.

"I can't, I can't tell you that!"

Lowering him to the ground, I let my temper go. Immediately, my eyes flashed red and smoke rose from my hair.

"Where. Are. They!"

"South side! Scrapper said if I found any I should take them to an old fish processing plant to the south! That's all I know, I swear!"

"Come on, we need to move," Emma said as she quickly walked away.

"We can't just leave him here," I called back.

"We don't have time to hang around! We need to check this out!"

Still glaring, I drove my fist into the dealers stomach and let him fall. While he was still coughing, I grabbed his wrists and zip tied them behind his back.

"And if we leave him and he warns the others were coming?" I shot back.

"I won't, I promise!" he squeaked.

Emma sighed and pulled out the burner phone she was carrying. We both had one, we only turned them on while we were on patrol. She was barely on the phone long enough to say "Belladonna, tied up drug dealer" and the address before hanging up.

That done, she took a running jump to a nearby ledge and used that to vault back onto the roof tops.

"E-Bell! Wait!" I shouted as I ran after her. Jumping, I created a blast to propel me to the roof. By then, Emma was already running towards the south side. Cursing, I chased after her.

Emma ignored my first few shouts but when I threatened to call our dads she stopped dead and turned to glare at me.

"What?" She hissed.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! You can't just go running off!"

"We don't have time for this! We need to stop them!"

"I know that, but that doesn't justify beating the shit out of some guy!"

I could see Emma digging her heels in, she could be almost as stubborn as me sometimes so I tried changing tactics.

"Emma, if this is true, we -You- can't just go running in," I said softly, "If they are really kidnapping people, then it's going to be well guarded. You're not bulletproof, what happens if someone gets lucky and I have to carry your corpse home?"

It was manipulative and I felt guilty for it, but Emma needed to stop and think. The Empire was bigger than the Merchants. They were certainly better armed and had more capes than anyone else in the city.

Turning away from me, Emma let out a shuddering breath, "W-when those… Those people had me trapped in that alley, they kept talking about a farm. Do you know what that is?"

Not trusting myself to talk, I nodded.

The 'farm' was something of an urban myth. Young girls grabbed off the streets or taken from families that crossed the ABB and sent off to some hidden location. Rumor was, they were then forcibly addicted and 'trained' before they were either sold on, or used by the ABB. There had been several investigations which turned up nothing, but the rumors and the threats continued.

"T-they never," she shook her head and I wrapped my arms around her, "I triggered before they could do more than cut me. But I-I can't just walk away from this. If the Empire is grabbing girls off the street…"

She wasn't crying but I could feel her tremble.

"I-It's Okay," I lied. Whenever Emma spoke about that time, I worried if she would ever truly recover. "I understand, you don't want anyone else to get hurt. But you can't help anyone if you just go rushing in."

I held her until she stopped trembling, "Good, now this is what we are going to do. We go to this place and see what's happening. If they're are too many for us to handle, we call the PRT and wait for them to send help. Okay?"

Nodding, Emma took a minute to fix her costume and we took off.

##

Brockton Bay had started as a fishing port that had grown over time. As such, there were plenty of places along the bay that could process large amounts of fight. These days, the bay was all but impassable. A protest by dockworkers, caused by the shrinking economy and demand, sank a number of large ships inside the bay.

This effectively closed bay to most of the larger ships and left many of them trapped. Smaller ships could still get through but it was risky, with only the gangs rumored to risk it.

If the Empire was trafficking people, sneaking small boats out of the bay would be a good, if risky, way to do it.

The building had been surprisingly easy to find. The docks were nominally ABB territory and they held the north side of the city, so we worked our way up towards the docks looking for anyone in Empire colours.

They were being careful not to attract attention but three people, all armed, hanging out near an abandoned fish plant weren't exactly inconspicuous.

Staying low to the rooftops, we had move slowly and stick to the shadows to avoid any possible lookouts. Once we were close enough, we could see the silhouette of more guards through the windows, a few dark shapes that could be extra guards on the roof, and I was sure I saw the light reflect off something on the roof, possibly a scope.

Pulling a small, cheap, viewfinder out of one of the pouches on my belt, Emma and I carefully looped 'round the building. They were definitely guarding something.

Thankfully, most of the guards were looking north, towards ABB territory.

Moving like a shadow, Emma landed on the factory roof not two feet from of the guards and pulled him into a choke hold. By the time I'd managed to reach her, being careful not to make too much light or noise, he was out cold.

To be safe, Emma pulled his shirt off and stuffed it into his mouth before she tied him up.

Inside the building, we found an empty office that gave us a view of what was once the main loading bay. There were more than two dozen men inside, all armed but what really drew my attention, was the cages.

Made from box steel that had been welded into cages, they were just large enough for the girls inside to sit in. Three girls to a cage, four cages in total and each had metal rails running along the sides, probably for a forklift.

The girls inside were young, mostly around my age and a mix of ethnicities.

Next to me, I could hear Emma's deep, shuddering breaths.

Before she could do anything, I moved over and put my arm over her shoulder, keeping her from doing anything rash.

"I know, I know!" I hissed, "But if we just charge in, one of the girls might get hurt. We need backup."