Rachel hovered above a building with binoculars in her hands. She adjusted her position occasionally to watch specific people moving in and out of the building. A neon sign was lit up in the front announcing ‘fresh hot rolls’ on sale available at the bakery. She was flying high enough that only those who were looking for her would see her red and white costume. She tapped her earpiece and spoke.
“I see them moving the boxes we were looking for inside. The license plates we were looking for also match. What would you like me to do?”
Rachel looked over to Emma who was also hovering in the air though higher than her because of the jet of flames coming into being around her hands and feet.
“Ben and I are still moving into position after setting the traps. Do you have a spot to land on the roof?” responded Dan.
“Negative. They have a camera on the roof next to the door. I could try and get behind it, but I would risk being seen by the unloading.”
“Ok. We’ll update you in a minute. Emma are you ready to set the distraction.”
“I’m ready to swoop in when you need me.”
Dan held his back to the side of the building next to the one they were scouting. He kept track of Ben who carried the trap and was occasionally dropping into the ground with his phase ability as workers came by. Dan updated Ben on their movements as he worked. Soon Ben returned to where Dan could see him and gave a thumbs up.
“It’s go time,” said Dan to the others.
Emma flew down from the opposite side as Rachel and crashed into the two trucks that had been unloading. She began starting a few fires and worked to disrupt the trucks. Dan rushed in towards the front entrance while Ben worked on phasing through one of the main walls and causing chaos inside the building. As Dan entered and forced his way through he started taking bullets to the chest that bounced off him as he tossed hardened objects from around the room at criminals. Finally, Rachel dropped down and landed in front of the door of the roof. She crushed the camera before pushing the door off its hinges. The door creaked for a minute before the joints cracked and the screws came loose.
Rachel pulled the door away from the wall and stepped inside. The loud entrance had alerted some of the thugs inside and they were halfway up the stairs when she entered. Shards of ice flew toward her face from one of the three attackers, and she covered her face. They pelted her suit causing a few tears. They were more of an annoyance to her, so she kept pressing forward. Rachel grabbed at the first guy she could and threw him into the others. She had a goal in mind to reach and they were in the way. Now that there was enough room Rachel grabbed the railing and jumped down to the lower floor passing them. She ignored them as they started to chase her.
Outside Emma had melted the tires of the cars stopping anyone involved from leaving the scene easily. Her focus was on preventing the thugs from getting over to the boxes they had taken out, but some did so anyway. Inside the boxes held guns like the ones she had dealt with in recent months. Powered by a volatile energy source, the guns were dangerous for both the user and receiver.
“I need help out here. They pulled out the guns anyway. I’ve got them stuck in the fenced back area but with the only way to go being back inside they are pulling the most dangerous move,” said Emma.
“I can be over there in a minute, but Ripper will have to cover for me. How is the entrance doing?”
“I’ve blocked it off with some reinforcement thanks to my power. I was going to start on the windows, but I can cover them for you. Just remember to keep the vehicles intact. We need to pull their identification numbers so we can track down the owners. I don’t want another dead end after working on these leads for so long."
“I’ll try.”
Dan pushed forward through the building taking out those he came across. Using his powers, he reinforced his suit so that any bullets that came bounced off his suit, and when the superhuman strong man thug he doubled down with his power. He got down and pushed more power to his legs and then hands before throwing a punch. His feet locked into place and were immovable as he threw his punches. Despite not being super strong the punches created an eerily similar effect. His hands became an unstoppable force. Nothing the thug could do would prevent the punch from going through except dodging. Which he did not. The punch hit the man and Dan continued the momentum of his punch through the strong man pushing him back causing him to fly through one of the plaster walls. Relaxing his powers Dan turned towards the nearest criminals and continued onward.
One floor above Rachel was dealing with thugs of her own. The three from before were still behind her as she raced to the offices of the weapons shop fronting as a bakery. Inside one of the offices was the leader she was looking for shredding documents. As she stepped inside her body was jerked to the side as a blast of ice solidified on her keeping her against the wall. The other thugs had caught up to her.
The boss looked at her and smiled evilly. His hands which had been cracking with electricity burning documents and destroying evidence turned to her. Her hair stood on its end as the power around him grew. Rachel tensed and tried to break out of the ice when another blast of ice hit her.
“Shouldn’t have tried to run away,” said the ice-wielding criminal with a smirk. He walked closer with his friends behind him. They had been defensive at first but with two strikes now and her pinned down they grew more confident.
Rachel wanted to say something back but was hit with the electricity. It coursed through her for a moment before dissipating but was extremely painful as it hit all of her pain receptors and parts of her nervous system. She shook for a bit longer before it was over. Rachel knew that if not for her mild super-strength she would have passed out by now.
“I need help up here,” she said to her team over her earpiece.
Outside Emma was finishing dealing with weapon wielders. She kept their attention on her in order to prevent damage to the surrounding area while Ben helped. Ben maneuvered around the criminals with ease. Because Ben could phase through everything he wanted he ignored most of the threats coming his way and took the weapon’s power from the thugs.
“Which room are you next to?” asked Ben.
“The first one by the stairs,” responded Rachel.
“Got it,” said Ben.
He remembered which one it was from their briefing and mapped it out onto the real building and searched for it. Ben was intangible for a moment longer before grabbing one of the guns from an unconscious thug. He hefted the oversized gun with a large muzzle on it towards the window.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Here we go. Three. Two. One.”
He fired off the weapon and he stumbled back as the recoil hit him. He dropped the weapon back onto the ground as the plasma hit the wall. It began eating through the wall for a moment before causing a small shockwave in the office where the boss was.
Rachel was hit by the shockwave partially but not as bad as the lightning-throwing boss. She broke away from the wall partly thanks to the blast and ran to deal with the ice thug before he could slow her down and she needed that to end. Her punch came with a bit more force than she intended towards the thug-wielding ice, and she heard the crunch of a broken nose on her fist.
She continued with the other three before returning to the boss. He was on the ground against the wall covered in blood and parts of the wall. She looked out the now very open window and saw the other three outside finishing up the fight. Few thugs weren’t unconscious or worse. A few fires had been started thanks to Emma and a few more potholes had been made than intended thanks to the charged weapons. One of which had gone off in the hands of a thug instead of away from them. It left the thug a charred mess with plasma burns. Rachel reminded herself to be careful with the guns when they went around to collect them. It was in part a large reason why they had come to bust the criminals and collect the guns. Even in the right hands, they produced too high of a damage output to handle safely.
Rachel flew the boss down to the ground through the open wall. He tried to squirm in her grip, but she did not let up. He was dropped next to a few other thugs who Dan watched over.
“Thanks for the save back there,” said Rachel to Ben on her way back up to the other thugs.
“No problem. I’m glad my aim was good.”
“The cars will be around to pick up our friends here pretty soon. Make sure we get all of the stragglers,” said Dan to the group.
“I‘ve got it.”
Together they continued to clean up the scene and checked the other rooms in the building for stuff they missed. Police trucks soon arrived to pick up the criminals. Power dampening cuffs were thrown to those who required them while the rest were stuck with regular cuffs. Once they were loaded into the trucks regular officers came through the scene to take care of documenting information for reports. Documents and evidence were also gathered to be filed away at the police station.
As Rachel and the others were preparing to leave the scene the radio on Dan turned on with a crackle. Dan took it off his belt as a voice came through.
“Assistance needed to handle the crowd and the scene of a death. A man in his seventies or so stabbed himself with a steak knife. I am located at the Bay Restaurant by fifth south and West Brooke road.”
“That’s five minutes from here if I fly. Maybe a little less,” said Rachel.
“Should we stop by?” asked Emma.
“Go ahead and stop by while additional police cars can come. We’re almost done here anyway. I’ll let them know you’re coming. Just make sure to write up the information about today and send it to me to compile.”
“Will do.”
Together Rachel and Emma flew over to the restaurant where a young armorer sat in waiting and held back by the two cops already at the scene. They had arrived almost immediately after the death. Some customers had taken their chance to pay and get out as soon as they could. Jason while waiting in line got stuck in the restaurant by the cops who started to go around and speak with everyone inside.
The pair set down their feet in front of the restaurant and pushed their way through the entrance. Rachel scanned the room for the cops. One was speaking with one of the chefs while the other was finishing up blocking off the table where the dead man sat. As she searched the room and took it all in she saw Jason.
“Talk to the cops already here. I’ll be back,” said Rachel to Emma. Emma nodded and Rachel turned away.
Rachel pushed her way through the crowd until she got to Jason and Sydney seated at a table. Jason noticed her when she entered and waved at her as she walked up to the table. She grabbed an empty seat and sat.
“Nice to see you here,” said Jason, “Lovely day am I right?”
“Didn’t think I’d see you today.”
“Me neither,” said Jason, “You have not been around very much. Things busy at work?”
“You could say that. It is also nice to see you as well Sydney. What can you tell me about what happened? I’ll probably have to interview a few others, but I’d rather start with you. What do you have for me?”
“Guy stabbed himself four times before his body gave out says the others. The wife was moved out of the restaurant and is probably around the back. They probably didn’t want her seeing her husband anymore while this stuff is cleaned up,” said Sydney.
“Was the guy’s suicide really a murder instead? Is that why you’re here?” asked Jason.
“No. I don’t know. Maybe. I just got here. I’m supposed to be here to help with the crowds. I just got off a fight with some guys and was finishing the clean up there. I’m also gonna need to stop by your shop tomorrow to have you repair this.”
Rachel held up her arms. The gloves were scuffed and a bit bloody. Around her arms, there were also tears in the suit thanks to a mix of ice spikes and the exploding building.
“I can take care of that for you. Were any of the electronics damaged as well during your kerfuffle?”
“Not that I could tell. Just tears and some breaks. The usual. If that’s it then I’ll pick it up on my lunch break.”
“That’s a quick turnaround but, I got it. So, do you think we can get out of here now or what? It was a busier night for the restaurant, and no one want to be standing near a dead body.”
“Sorry. I’ll see what I can do. It shouldn’t be too much longer now that a few more cars are stopping by here. They just need to make sure everything is in order. And I do know that feeling. I find it weird that the guy stabbed himself to death here of all places. In the open and right in front of his wife. It isn’t right. I’ll have to get more information from the wife for a better picture and usually, the mentalism superhumans that could do this are locked down very well and they would have had to be here while it happened. The video footage will have to be reviewed. Just stay here and you can be home soon.”
Rachel was going to speak more but she heard Emma’s voice from across the room calling to her. She got up to join her. Emma was interviewing one of the waiters. As she listened she realized that it was the one who served the couple for the evening.
“Come listen to this,” Emma beckoned to the woman, “Can you repeat what you told me, sir.”
The waiter looked flustered and exhausted. He had unbuttoned his dress clothes and his hair was a bit messy. His hands were covered in some bandages with blood bleeding through them and around them. He looked at Rachel and told her what he saw.
“I wasn’t at their table when he started but I got there soon after the lady’s first screams. He put the knife right through his heart in one go and then kept going. He looked like he didn’t care about what he was doing and had no concern or hesitation. I tried to stop him from continuing but it was a bad idea as you can see. With some strength in his left, he cut my hands and kept my hands away long enough to put the knife in his neck,” the waiter paused and looked to the ground before continuing, “The entire time he kept the same expression except when I tried to stop him. He just looked up at me and smiled a partial smile with the energy he had left. I shouldn’t have tried to stop him. Nothing was going to prevent him from dying. It was all so sudden and after two such fatal wounds. It. I don’t know,” the waiter said her voice faltering.
“It’s ok. Thanks for sharing what you did. We will call on you if we have other questions to ask,” said Emma.
The waiter nodded before slumping and walking away.
“Sounds like someone with psychic or mentalism powers could have done it. From his story at least. Either that or the husband had already decided walked in here that he was prepared to kill himself when he did. Who was the guy in question?” asked Rachel. She looked to the table and the body which was covered by an extra table cloth.
“He is or he was on the city council doing stuff for zoning laws and the like. We would have to hear from the wife about his medical history but I’m also leaning towards this being caused by a super. He was one of a few normals on the city council and similar city administration boards. I’m not sure what he did to go out like this though.”
“Someone with a grudge and well off enough to find and pay for this outcome. Maybe. There are just too many questions right now. Do we know if there have been any other recent suicides that could have been done this same way?”
“I’ll have to look through the records and see what I find in between our usual work. For now, this case isn’t under our team but maybe it will change if they gather enough circumstantial evidence that it was powered related.”
“And until then we will be on the sidelines helping out.”
“Something we should be doing anyway,” said Emma as she looked around at the restaurant guests still stuck at the store.