After a quiet and rather somber lunch, in which most of us just nibbled on something light to keep us going and not much more, we returned to the basement. We were finished planning as much as we could with what information Alya had provided. After concluding that we couldn't trust the sieve that was PRT security to keep this a secret, the only remaining decision to make was when we would engage in our raid.

"I can't vote for anything beyond as soon as possible," I admitted with a deep frown, almost a scowl. "We've already left the victims in that hell overnight. We need to act now, no more waiting. We can handle any extra difficulties that might arise from not being patient and waiting for the opportune moment."

"I agree," Manpower said with a nod. "Not only do we owe it to those who are trapped there, but operations like this often run on inverted schedules anyway, to avoid business happening in the light of day. Now may be the better time to attack, even if we didn't have victims suffering."

That made a lot of sense, and the rest of New Wave clearly agreed with him. None of us wanted to stretch this out any longer than we needed to, and we were all prepared to do what was necessary to help the poor people trapped inside the facility.

With everyone on the same page, it was finally time to get the ball rolling. We quickly moved from the basement to the front lawn, where Crow, Lady Photon, Laserdream, Glory Girl, and one of my golems gathered around me. I pulled my staff off of my hip, morphed it out straight from its coiled form, and pulled out my spellbook.

"Is everyone ready?" I asked, waiting for everyone to nod. "Once we teleport in, the chances of getting discovered start to rise quickly. So we need to move fast. Everyone who is coming on the second trip, get ready to grab on when I return."

Another round of confirmations later, and I began chanting, the teleportation chant flowing easily with how often I use it, the spell book keeping me from messing anything up, since I could read along with the incantation. When the spell was complete, we vanished from the Dallon front lawn, reappearing in the same alley Alya had stopped me in the night before, when she had positively confirmed the location of the Farm. We were now only a few streets, less than a hundred meters, from our target and well within their monitoring circle.

"I can see it again, Alya whispered, making the others jump a bit as she talked to them too. "It does seem to be slower, I believe Manpower was correct. There are fewer non-victims."

"Good, then this is our perfect chance," I said, before nodding to the group I had just teleported in with. "I'll be back, just hang tight."

I began to chant again, once again teleporting to the Dallon's house. As soon as I arrived, my remaining golems latched on, followed by Shielder, Flashbang, and Manpower. Panacea remained behind, sitting on the porch with her arms crossed, as we flashed away from the home, back to the alleyway, where everyone else was waiting. The fact that I could and could defend myself better made bringing her into the situation pointless.

We had considered bringing her in closer in case something happened to me, but ultimately decided that if we ran into something heavy enough to hurt me, be it a cape or a weapon, we didn't want the squishy healer close enough to get hurt. Panacea did not exactly agree with that conclusion, but ultimately promised to stay behind.

"Right, next up is buffs," I said, my spell book flicking through its pages as everyone gathered around. "Stay close, it should only take a few seconds."

"Hi sunt socii mei, qui pugnant extra me. Per meam voluntatem et magicam velociter se moveant, clara intentione congruunt. Motus eorum velociores motus eorumque velociores."

As I chanted, flickers of blue energy sparked out from my staff, searching out each member of New Wave and Crow. Once a flicker found someone, it would spin around them, weaving a complicated pattern that soon solidified into a line of mana. Arcane symbols followed the original spark. The energy sank into each of them when I was done.

"Just one more," I assured them, now slowly sliding my staff back and forth in front of me, starting to chant the second my spellbook flicked to the right page. "Circumstant me amici, fortitudinem petunt. Magia mea super eos abluat, corpora sua confirmet ad resistendum aliis nocumentum inferre."

This time, the spell was a deep orange that flared out from my staff in a wave that washed over New Wave and Crow. Three arcane symbols spun around my staff rapidly, as several more waves of magic flowed out over everyone, sinking into them until their bodies pulsed once, the magic settling into them.

"Right, That's it," I said, nodding to Lady Photon. "Ready when you are."

Lady Photon nodded and deftly took control of the situation, giving orders with clean, practiced precision. Thankfully, we didn't have to talk much since we all already knew the plan. Glory Girl grabbed Manpower and Flashbang's hands while my golems and I climbed onto hovering shields created by Lady Photon and Shielder. The two stronger shield-generating heroes could handle our weight, while Crow climbed onto Laserdream alone. Slowly, we then rose up into the air, with Glory Girl carrying the men and the shields carrying everyone else. My golems and I took a knee for stability as we sped out of the alleyway, all of the fliers moving as fast as they could, directly down the road. Soon, the warehouse was in sight, and we all made a beeline for it.

In a tight formation, we smashed through the various windows of the warehouse. Immediately, ignoring everyone around us, my golems, and the adults from New Wave all made a beeline to the two stairways that lead downward into the facility. Behind us, as we moved, Glory Girl, Laserdream, and Shielder started rounding up the people "working" in the warehouse, guiding them to a side room and keeping watch.

Their jobs were simple: intercept any reinforcements and keep anyone from escaping. None of the parents wanted their kids exposed to the absolute horrors that were being committed on the lower floors, so the kids would stay on top. None of them were very happy about that, but we were able to convince them of the importance of keeping watch and holding off reinforcements.

Honestly, Glory Girl was the only one who needed real convincing. I got the sense that Laserdream and Shielder were secretly happy to stay up top and not venture into the facility. Either way, we managed to convince all of them to keep out of the lower levels, leaving it to us.

While the younger members got to work, my golems and I rushed to the closest door, two of them working together to rush and bodily slam through the heavy, probably reinforced metal barrier. Just before they made contact, I raised my staff.

"Frigus trabem virtutis!" I shouted, two symbols spinning around and lining up to the end of my staff, a dual triangle of bright blue spinning as a beam of frozen energy fired out and slammed into the door.

Between firing it from my staff and using the full incantation, the lower-end ice spell was maximized, flash-freezing the door enough that the thick glass that was built into the top left corner cracked. Then my golems slammed into it, and the whole door crumpled and shattered, flying from the door frame, slamming into the opposite wall, all the way across the stairwell.

Time was of the essence, so I didn't slow, following two of my golems as they jumped over the railing, falling down into the gap at the center of the stairwell. I reached out for the railing as well, jumping up and over, grabbing the rail to direct myself down, following all the way to the bottom floor with enough force to crack the concrete, which was already damaged from my first golems.

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My remaining two golems stayed behind, now under Alya's direction, and began making their way to the first hidden floor. According to Alya, the first floor was a sort of office space and did not contain any victims, only ABB members. With our primary goal to protect the victims and the younger members of New Wave keeping anyone from escaping, we were happy to send in the golems to take down or flush out ABB gang members on the second floor since we didn't need to worry about any of them taking hostages.

As I recovered from the three-story fall onto concrete, I looked up and barked out orders to the golems who had landed before me.

"Open it!" I commanded needlessly, since the first two golems were already slamming their fists into the door, prying it open slowly. "Move!"

My second order overrode my first, both golems pulling away as I once again thrust my staff at the door, this time focusing the tip on the already damaged lock.

"Momentum vis exploding!" I shouted, a single flicker of arcane symbols appearing, almost invisible, as the air itself seemed to ripple and explode forward.

The door bent around the lock, slamming open, pulling partially from the frame. The explosion of pure force cracked the door frame by the lock, freeing the door to slam open.

"Three directly to your left, two to your right in a separate room, five straight ahead in the central guard area," Alya said in my ear, even as I rushed forward through the now open door.

Sure enough, I stepped into a hallway running on either side of me, with an open doorway into a room ahead of me. There were several doors along the wall on each side of me, and to my left, three ABB gangers stood, their eyes wide.

"Alya, guide golems, prioritize the victims," I shouted, rushing forward, swinging my staff up, the gem pulsing as I quick cast a blast of air, which caught the closest ABB ganger in the chest, launching him up and back hard enough that he tumbled backward against the ceiling.

The gangers, broken free from their surprise, both pulled out guns, one a simple pistol, the other a MAC-10. The ganger with the submachine gun pulled his finger back and held it, dumping his entire magazine down the hall. With no idea what was going on behind me, I swiped my staff down, creating a green barrier. Several bullets still hit me, my ablative shield taking the damage and cracking before the green barrier appeared and absorbed the rest, the useless bullets flattening against it and falling to the ground, their energy spent. By the end of the barrage, the green, conjured shield was cracked and struggling to hold its form.

With a shout of force, I jabbed my staff through the shield, which collapsed once I did before I cast a barrage of low-energy sparks. The skittering lances of electricity zapped and shocked both of the gangers, the closer one with the submachine gun getting a face-full of sparks before seizing up and dropping to the ground.

The third ganger cursed and turned to run, only for me to zap his leg and then slam a knockout spell into his back as I ran forward. I literally kicked a healing spell into him, then into his two buddies, before knocking them out with my lightning spell as well.

I turned, just in time to watch my two golems, directed by Alya, drag the pair of gangers who had been in the side room. Behind them, I could see a dark, sparse room, with a bed frame in one corner, the other hidden by darkness.

"The five in the middle are splitting up," Alya shouted, prompting me to rush forward. "Three coming this way."

"Take the golems around!" I ordered, watching as the golems immediately shifted and ran, disappearing down another hallway.

I sprinted forward, arriving at the entrance to the center space just as the three ABB members walked out. Two of them had shotguns shouldered and ready, while the third had what looked like a flavor of Russian assault rifle. I moved quick, reaching them as they turned to fire at me, my staff slamming into one of the shotgun-wielding goons' stomach, lifting him off his feet. I quick cast a knockout ball into him before he hit the ground, before spinning around to slap the rifle from the other ganger's hand, bending the barrel and breaking his hands in the process. The third and final gang member managed to actually pull the trigger of his weapon, a barrage of buckshot making my ablative barrier glow before most of it failed. Any pellet with any kinetic energy left bounced off of me, their energy too drained to even penetrate my enhanced clothes.

The ABB member didn't get a chance to fire again as I clocked him in the chin with my fist, which I followed up with a knockout spell before he hit the ground.

"I've gotten the other two. The golems are dragging them back," Alya said quietly as I double-checked that all of the bastards were out cold. "The other teams are almost done, we- Arc, turn around."

I followed her voice as it moved, turning quickly, ready for a fight, only to find a battered-looking woman, bruised and with a cracked lip, limping out of the room Alya had dragged two ABB members out of. She looked around, shaking like a rabbit. What little clothes she had on were torn and bloody.

"Ma'am, everything is alright," I assured her, talking softly as I curled up my staff and clipped it to my belt, holding my hands out, palms out to show I was unarmed. "My name is Arcanum, I'm a hero, we are here to get you all out."

She backed up as I stepped forward, so I stopped, not wanting to traumatize her any more than she already was. As I watched, she scrambled back into her room, hiding back in the corner of the bed, eyes locked on me, gripping her bedframe with white knuckles.

"Alya, drag all of the ABB to the center room and watch over them with the golems," I said, my voice cold as I took a slow step back. "Then tell the others that I cleared out my floor and that we need the police here as fast as possible."

I could feel her pull away for a moment, passing on my words and whispering orders to the golems, who returned a moment later, carrying gangers. I added my own knockout spells to each of them, assuring that they would be out for several hours. It might make things a bit more difficult for the police, but I wasn't taking any chances.

As I felt Alya pull back in, I asked about the victims.

"Are there any who look particularly hurt?" I asked. "Anyone being actively in danger or in exorbitant amounts of pain?"

"No, most of them seem to be sleeping," she responded. "Or at least pretending to be. There are bruises and cuts all around, but… nothing life-threatening. Are you going to release them?"

"Are there still forty of them?"

"Twenty-seven down here," She responded softly. "The rest are upstairs."

"Then no, we can't," I said, shaking my head. "We can't handle forty traumatized, panicking people at once. The cops will have the personnel and training to handle this. We just need to keep them safe until they can. How are the women upstairs?"

"Scared, but Lady Photon is keeping them calm enough."

I nodded before settling in to wait for the police to arrive. I might not be able to truly help these poor victims, but I could at least stand watch for them.

Soon, they would be free.