The Rising Dawn, # 34— "Grim and his Gang"

Grim Bart and his gang outnumbered the Rising Dawn, and they all alike were hopped up on Adrenal, the drug that gave superpowers to non-Outliers (non-Gifted). The Strong Boyz carried fire-arms, and yet they could tear a man to pieces with their bare hands. The current strain of Adrenal on the market gave the Users super-charged strength and endurance.

When Grim Bart realized that Carny had led them into a trap, he was unperturbed.

“The Rising Dawn,” he said, “why don’t you just give up? Adrenal is here to stay, and you ain’t killers. The police can’t do nothin’, even if you beat our heads in.”

The Dawns had the escape routes blocked.

“Beating your heads in sounds acceptable,” said Pointer.

“We’ve had intelligence you’re holding three Outliers and harvesting their blood,” said Wraith, “Give them up along with your Adrenal stash, and we’ll let you go.”

“For now,” said Brawler.

Even without Diego (Brawler)’s bravado, Wraith’s terms would have been unacceptable, the Strong Boyz unwilling to part with their captives, let alone their Adrenal.

However, the Dawns were spoiling for a fight, as their hearts were with any Gifted who were being abused. The Shop, The Magister and his Fraternity, and now rebels like the Strong Boyz all alike were thirsty for the harvested blood of the Gifted, which was used to make both The Drive and Adrenal, granting the power of Gifts to normies.

“We’ve fought your punks in pajamas before,” said Grim Bart, “this time, the playing field will be level,” and he rubbed his knuckles.”

“Still ain’t using guns, huh?”

Without additional fanfare, the Strong Boyz opened fire on the Sentinels.

Daniel Thrift, a robotics scientist and the lover of Civella Candin (Mech), had pioneered superior protection for the human head that generated a small, limited-strength ether shield, which was not as difficult to wear as the recent design of helmets worn by the military. It was simply called Headgear, it was more comfortable than helmets, and could last against multiple bullets. Otherwise, the Dawns wore protective bullet-proof apparel, meaning it would take more than standard fire-arms to break them.

However, with the hyper-charged strength granted by Adrenal, the hammers, crowbars, baseball bats and even the fists of the Strong Boyz hit much harder than bullets, and after their ammunition was spent, they closed the distance between them and the outnumbered Sentinels (and the other Gifted).

Mech had in her array of weaponry a number of pulses comprised of ether, darts that induced paralysis, and a blade that was capable of piercing body armor. She would have been immune to blunt instruments, except the Strong Boyz hit so hard that she soon experienced damage to her left arm that would take weeks to repair. Their endurance was such that her darts only slowed them down, and the ether-pulse was entirely spent only to neutralize two of Grim Bart’s gang. By necessity she deployed her blade, only able to stop the other two by killing them outright.

Wraith’s protective gear was lighter than the others, but she was prolific in various forms of martial arts, and along with her ‘shroud’ Gift, she was quite untouchable. However, her strength was limited, and she could not strike hard enough to subdue a Strong Boy. At length, when the opportunity came, she artfully deployed a stun grenade that subdued three more of Grim Bart’s gang.

Pointer’s telekinesis was not strong enough to fend off three Strong Boyz, even though it was enough to disarm them. He used their own weapons against them, the weapons seeming to fight on their own, but their endurance was great and he was quickly running out of ether.

Brawler’s power was in full use, the energy he had stored in his arms and legs being at full power. With his mastery of kick-boxing and tae kwan do, along with the fierce energy obtained using his Gift, he did the most damage of all, subduing six of Bart’s gang, without killing them.

Needle occupied two of the gang, and using her peculiar form of martial art, the two gangsters couldn’t land a blow. She used her astonishing mastery of acupuncture, her needles loaded with drugs, to fill her assailants with anesthetics. Because of the Adrenal, this took longer than it normally would, and by the end both of them had absorbed three times the lethal dose of the anesthetic she employed, and finally succumbed.

Grim Bart himself was bearing down on Pointer, along with three of his fellow hoodlums. He was nearing the point of being beaten to death, his telekinesis not able to subdue four thugs on Adrenal, but Gallant was waiting in the wings to protect whoever needed assistance. He flew in and made short work of the remaining Strong Boyz, his strength and combat training, along with his armor, making him more than a match for Grim Bart and the remaining Users.

None of the Strong Boyz escaped. Mech needed repairs, and so would not be able to fight for at least two weeks. Four of the gangsters had been killed. The rest were filled with drugs and other tools for inducing paralysis, and personnel from Freedom Tower arrived in vehicles to capture the criminals.

The municipal police, being either crooked or cowardly or simply unable to fight Adrenal Users, were not taken into account.

From now on, The Rising Dawn was the police of Rook City.