Emma triggers in the alley, getting powers that allows her hair to transform into taser-tentacles, and fights off the ABB thugs who attacked her & her father. She's also rather pissed at Sophia's wait-and-see approach, and angrily rebuffs Sophia's offer to become a vigilante duo. Being in a rather different state of mind, Emma doesn't betray Taylor when she gets back from camp, and the two remain friends. However, Sophia still wants to become buddies with Emma despite being told to fuck off, and goes somewhat yandere, seeing Taylor as an obstacle, and with some of the popular crowd, starts a nasty bullying campaign against Taylor in the hopes of driving her & Emma apart so she can move in. Emma can only do so much to help Taylor, and eventually, Sophia & her cronies pull off the locker, and Taylor triggers with her canon powerset before Emma can get her out of there & cleaned off. Emma then proceeds to beat the crap out of Sophia using her powers, which gets the attention of the Protectorate, leading to Sophia going down, and Emma isn't charged with anything. A little later, Emma, Taylor, Lily (transferred in to replace Sophia in the Wards,) and Madison (who became the 'third musketeer' with Emma & Taylor after the locker,) are at a community dance the ABB attacks to acquire more sex slaves, and while Emma, Taylor, & Lily are fighting off the attack & wrecking the ABB, Madison triggers as an aerokinetic.
After the attack's over, Emma, Taylor, & Madison decide to form a hero team together, and after a couple months of intense training under their fathers, make their debut when some OC villains stage a takeover robbery of a mall, which they take down. Subsequently, they fight off the Undersiders' bank robbery, capturing & turning Tattletale in the process, get joined by Vista, GG, & Panacea as their liaisons from the Wards & New Wave, take down Coil & the Travelers, and then help defeat the S9 when they come to town (Shatterbird was killed by New Wave in an aerial battle, Hatchet Face by Emma in a running fight in Winslow, while the rest are captured, with the Undersiders doing most of the work with Crawler.) However, there's about to be a rematch with the S9, as while the captured members are being taken to an deep, abandoned mine to be executed via underground nuclear detonation, Saint hijacked & stole the Dragon craft being used as transports, and when he saw that he had acquired several members of the S9 as well, he decided the best method to deal with the situation was to just dump them in the woods without saying a word. The remaining members of the S9 (minus Siberian, as Cauldron decided to take advantage of the confusion to grab Manton) wanted some payback, and were about to hit Brockton for a second time after making some preparations, though our heroines are also aware of the situation, and have made some preparations of their own.