On the -

Brink stepped out of the gateway and into the night air of New York City, the sudden rush of sound and lights a massive difference to the ever-present clinical calm of the travelling area of the shared living space the RRD kept. The view from the edge of Central Park tower deck he walked onto if you weren’t used to heights would be dizzying and awe inspiring all at once. The couple having drinks on the deck just stared for a moment before the man took out his phone and took what was obviously a selfie at a safe distance from the hero with the rifle scanning the park below. Brink knew they wouldn’t come any closer to him, he wasn’t made for the public to want to come closer. He wasn’t like an EPIC designed to garner public love. “Dispatch, I am on scene, have you any updates on what I am facing here?” The sounds of gunshots and screams from Central Park along with the lights and sirens of the approaching police keeping up a cordon letting him know where he was headed shortly. The crisp clean accented voice of Dispatch came through his earpiece, something he had grown comfortable with over the last two years. “No further updates Brink, this is a battle between a number of local gangs who are known to possess some tech enhancements and we have reports of at least one firing bursts of concentrated Plasma, the reason for the battle and the exact number of combatants is unknown at this time, they have wounded several first responders and we have reports that one officer is likely to not survive his injuries without the intervention of a healer.” The rifle moved quickly and the scope gave him a clearer image of the park and the fight below, the trees and foliage made picking out exact numbers difficult at first, taking a moment to regulate his breathing and focusing ,Brinks eyes changed, the normal view of the world replaced with a thermal view of everything below, after a very brief count of the 10 fighters on the ground he quickly turned his eyes back to normal, it was well timed as the Plasma blast came from one of the attackers would have blinded him briefly, he learned that the hard way when Prometheus had done that once in their Sophomore year. Brink watched, as the fight unfolded, the shots wild and panicked, seemed there were at least 6 supers in the gangs as well as some of them having seriously powerful weapon enhancements on their arms, he spotted two with extended blades and one with some kind of electrical cannon. After watching for half a minute he knew what he had to do. Moments like this the advice Casing gave him came to his mind “You got handed life and death as a power” A couple of squeezes of a trigger could deal with everything from here. It would be easy to take that choice, easier than people sometimes realised. Taking a moment to level out his breathing Brink squeezed the trigger twice in rapid succession both kneecaps of the super flinging Plasma exploded and he collapsed, obviously screaming in pain which was lost up here. As his fellow gang members panicked as they believed him to be safe behind the part of the bridge he was using for cover Brink put his rifle back over his shoulder, opened a gateway and stepped through into the park and into full view of the conflict. The appearance of the hero led to a moment of almost silence cut through only my the screams and muffled cries from the downed Plasma user. Using the shock to his advantage Brink spoke in a quick clear voice that sounded like it was used to giving commands, “I am giving you all three choices, Surrender, hospital, or body bag, Pick” Some of the gang members hesitated and it almost looked like they might pick wisely, One however chose hospital. He fired a shot from the electrical charged cannon that came out of his right forearm, Brink dodged to the side drawing a pistol and aiming a shot to his left at a gang member lining a shot up on his head, taking the woman in the hand holding the automatic weapon and forcing her to drop the weapon from her now destroyed hand. Brink’s second hand cracked like a whip and something like powder exploded from a small object he threw into the eyes of the man with the cannon, the man screamed as he scratched at his eyes, now on fire with pain and useless to take in anything for at least a full minute. The sudden sound made the area erupt in noise as suddenly they all had a single point to focus on. Brink had chosen where to stand to ensure any shots aimed at him would lose velocity and do the least damage to areas he had checked were packed with civilians and officers maintaining a perimeter. He was able to deal with that, others were not so lucky. Supe City had showed him how easy it was for innocent kids to get caught up in moments like these. One of the gang suddenly began to move and the acceleration from nothing to charging towards Brink would be staggering to see if he had not been in a class with Dirge and Fletcher, As he ran forward, blade enhancement on his arm levelled ready to take the heroes head clean off Brink’s free hand grabbed something in a pouch and flung it off the ground where it bounced up onto their leg, as soon as it made contact the discharge of the throwing taser overloaded their nerves and they fell rolling to the ground and smacking against a tree knocking them out. Bullets began to hit him, some making dents in his armour, others punching through, Brink trusted his body to take care of itself but knew full well how dangerous it could be to assume anything with other supers, better to end this quickly now they had made their choices. With the speed and grace of someone blessed with his talents Brink put his guns away and took out sharpened metal barbs which he began to throw with deadly precision at the arms and knees of the numerous ones shooting him with guns. Within a few seconds screams of pain and panic were the main noises in the area as his wounds were closing in front of their eyes, they were good shots a lot of them, but they panicked too easy, didn’t know how to just detach from the moment. It reminded him of the Market in supe city when he first arrived, the panic that the ghosts he and Casing were on overwatch for caused in their wake, before it was levelled. Brink scanned the area which gave him the warning he needed to roll aside, a park bench cracking him in a glancing blow instead of squarely in the chest, the force of it cracking some ribs but none of it showed on his face as he took in the woman who had launched it at him, she was smart, she had waited till he was dealing with the others until she threw the bench and was using this time to close the distance to him. Finishing the roll he pulled something flat and circular out of his pouch and threw it on the ground in the path of the oncoming strongman type, too late she realized the landmine was in her path and she was launched up and away as she stepped on it. Taking only some damage from the ordinance but giving Brink time to recover. Something was off, there was someone missing in the group, in the moment of calm Brink realised that the plasma wielder had stopped screaming….spinning his head round Brink saw the super with their throat cut and a backpack they had originally been guarding lying opened and empty, looking through the area and with his training with Professor Carlisle the hero was able to spot the point in the bushes where the invisible super was slightly displacing the leaves, they were waiting for the fight to end to make their escape from his estimation. And they were holding something heavy, the pressure on the ground showed that. As he started to move towards the area a concrete block slammed into him, the strongman type had recovered and had closed the distance in his momentary distraction. She looked pissed and at this distance he realised she fought like his dad did when out of his armour. She was brute force mixed with a mastery of close combat that meant he was vastly in the worst kind of fight he could be in. Brink drew both his guns and began a familiar drilling motion with his arms designed to deal with this type of super, she stepped to the side and kicked him in the chest sending him down, as she stepped forward and over him he quickly ran through plans in his head, she left him little to no time to recover as she grabbed him close in a bear hug and began to squeeze. “Gonna kill me a baby Hero, you picked bodybag” she said with malice in her voice as she could feel the bones and armour start to buckle under her strength. The super couldn’t see the smile on Brink’s face, but if she had it would have clued her into the fact that something very very bad was about to happen. Brink’s hand moved quickly and under them both a gateway opened, in the brief moment of realisation she had, the super could see she was looking down at the city below them, I say brief moment as a second later she was in freefall holding Brink as they both fell from what was easily over a kilometre of height through the air. The gang member didn’t let go, holding tight to the bearhug she was holding Brink in, as the ground rapidly approached, her brain not quite accepting that what she felt was a winning move against the hero was now a fall to the inevitable. Brink waved his hand again and they fell through another gateway this time flying out sideways near the entrance to the park where the first responders were present, Brink moved and made sure to secure his head catching sight of a poster for the Mermaid show out of the side of his eye along with the shocked faces of a number of police officer, a year nearly of training to fall through gates in his senior year coming to the fore, suddenly the ground came up at them both and it hit like a sledgehammer blow breaking the hold. Both rag dolled across the ground bouncing at the speed of terminal velocity across the open park, each bounce breaking bones, damaging organs and churning up earth until they both eventually came to a stop, the gang member as she hit the side of a building with a sickening wet slap and Brink as he hit a tree. As the police officers who had maintained the perimeter came in, they saw the hero lying there along with the still groaning and in some cases screaming gang members and the prone body of the woman who had led to him doing such a desperate move. “holy shit………” said one officer as he grabbed his radio and started to bark instructions into it “We need paramedics in here now, we have a number of injured prisoners and the hero is down too, we nee….” His voice cut out as Brink sat up very groggily and after a few seconds of staring at each other he removed the low lower part of his head armour, something he put in after someone gave him the idea it would be helpful and spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground. “If you are wondering, that sucked even worse than it looked” Brink stood up and as the officer moved forward the hero raised a finger to his lips giving the gesture for silence, ten heartbeats passed and the hero turned suddenly and he had a strange looking gun in his hand that fired making no noise at all, the bullet went into the middle of a patch of darkness covered in bushes and dense undergrowth, as it passed in a scream could be heard inside as well as the thump of something heavy dropping to the ground. The hero walked in and a few moments later he emerged with a bloody looking man clutching his leg leaning on Brink to help the limp, in his other hand he held a solid black box marked with Regenerate Logo covered in a small amount of dust where it had hit the ground. Brink passed the bleeding man to the paramedics. The box was tempting to open but he knew his limits, this was something to pass on to better minds than his to figure out what exactly it was and where it was from. "Thanks for keeping the area safe Officer Campbell" the brief flick of Brinks eyes to the badge could easily be missed, I will come with them to the hospital, I have some questions to ask about where they have been shopping recently......."