"Whoa." Taylor said in shock as she stared at the thick stick in her hand, which had formerly been an entire half-sunken ship in the Boat Graveyard.

Ever since The Locker, she had been able to sense the dimensions of every non-organic thing she touched, as well being able to know its weight down to the last gram. She hadn't said or done anything about it until one day when she had lost her temper with that damn loose step. She'd fallen off it and she had smacked it with a clenched fist.

The next thing she knew, the step had ripped itself free of the rest and had compressed itself into a twig. When she picked it up, it had still felt exactly as heavy as a plank of wood with a couple of nails in it would weigh.

After a quick trip to the library, she had found what this power was; compression. The ability to compress objects into a smaller form whilst simultaneously keeping the same weight. Interestingly enough, it was noted as being a sub-technique of density control.

After learning that, it was impossible for Taylor to not experiment, which had led to her standing in the middle of the Boat Graveyard in the middle of the night. When she had first tried to compress a ship, she hadn't been able to do it, which puzzled her, until she remembered the Manton Limit. This meant she was unable to use her power on an object that had a living being within the area of effect of her power's 'compression field' for lack of a better term.

After clearing out the ship of rats and fish, she finally compressed the ship…and it was awe-inspiring to watch. It floated out of the water before a glowing field of translucent energy surrounded it and started to shrink, the ship being crushed and compressed as it did so, until all that was left was a length of metal the length of a baseball bat that fell into her hands. Much to her surprise, she was not crushed by the weight of the thing, although she could sense that it was just as heavy as it had been in its original form.

Moving to another ship and swinging the bat, she blinked when it crushed right through the steel hull and even made the entire sunken ship shiver from the impact.

The next day, after another quick trip to the library, she found out why. It was a power called 'selective density.' This meant that she was both weighted AND weightless simultaneously. Translated, she could walk over a field of pressure-sensitive landmines without setting them off whilst also being able to interact with the world normally, as well as being able to lift things she shouldn't be able to lift, such as a compressed cargo ship masquerading as a baseball bat in the basement of her house.

As it seemed her body was influenced by her power, the next night she tried cranking up the density of her own body. It worked…too well. She could pummel solid and slightly rusted steel into scrap metal. It actually scared her how easily she could break Emma or Sophia in half if she wanted to now. After all that the Bitch Trio had done to her, she was surprised how little she desired to avenge herself upon the girls.

The desire, small as it might be, was there, make no mistake about that, but she didn't view them as being worth the bother anymore. Besides, she didn't want to go to the Birdcage, thank you very much.

One final thing she discovered that she could do was to pick up something simple, like a length of steel, and increase its density. These made excellent weapons, even thrown weapons, when she wanted something that wouldn't crush a regular human into pulp from a single hit, yet still pack a powerful enough whack to make them feel it. She couldn't use this ability on a compressed object, but she could up the density of it before she compressed it.

Squaring her shoulders, she set about practicing landing blows that didn't turn people into offal. The…costume design and a name.

Later

Henry Wong hated his first name.

His mother had been fond of the book by Roald Dahl, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, and had named him after that titular character. This, quite naturally, led to Henry being bullied and victimised in Hong Kong until he grew up big enough and strong enough to beat the ever-loving crap out of anyone who called him Henry or made fun of the fact that he was called Henry.

Then he had Triggered during a family holiday to Kyushu, when Leviathan struck that city.

He had lost his entire family, but had gained power. A worthy trade off, in his opinion. His power was very useful. He could create explosions of various yields anywhere within his line of sight. Additionally, he could enhance other explosions not of his own creation, which is why Lung had been very eager to get him on board, along with the Tinker, Jennifer Lee, who went by Bakuda.

His own Cape Name was not a very good one, yet who was he to argue with Lung?

"Hey, Haretsu!" one ABB gangster shouted into his quarters, "The Boss wants you to patrol near the new weapons stash. Empire's been flittin' about there."

Haretsu, translated as Rupture, sighed. "I'll be there momentarily."

Pulling on his costume, a long red haori, black hakama with a Tengu mask covering his face, took less than a minute. Grabbing his gun on the way out took seconds. Getting away from the insane bitch known as Bakuda took five minutes.

She was, he thought as she screeched at him in Japanese, a genuine nutcase. She was a former terrorist 'acquired' by Lung's people after she Triggered and tried to hold Cornell University hostage. The only reason why she wasn't blowing the shit out of Brockton Bay right now was because Lung scared the piss out of her, not that the arrogant Tinker would admit it.

Still, he did manage to get the bitch to fuck off and leave him alone to actually go on patrol. It was insane. She was of the opinion that he should be fucking her and thanking her for the privilege. Hell no. He hated his mother for her poor naming sense, but she had taught him that crazy women, while good in bed, were not good for your health in a relationship as it took one misplaced comment to make them go off the deep end with you.

That was especially the case with a mad Tinker with a bomb specialisation.

Prowling quietly along the streets towards the newest cache of weapons and other illegal things that the ABB had stored for the looming gang war with the Empire 88, Haretsu's eyes narrowed at the conspicuous lack of ABB guards that should be around a neighbourhood they controlled.

Pulling out his gloves and pulling them on, he froze as a scream echoed through the night…right in the direction of the stash. Brilliant. Hopefully he could blame this on Bakuda for holding him up, but he doubted it. Lung was infamous for severely punishing everyone involved in something like this.

Bursting into a run, he rounded the corner and found the unconscious forms of the ABB guards from the entire area and cursed. He glanced at the building nearby and blanched. It looked as if a giant had punched a hole in the wall!

'It would take Lung being in his fully transformed state to cause such damage!' he thought in shock. Certainly, one of Bakuda's bombs could deal more damage, as could his own explosive effect, but only the best of the Empire could cause this level of damage.

Well…technically Squealer could build something that could cause this, but the inventions she designed were purely for vehicles and, as there wasn't one here, it couldn't be her.

Right. Empire 88 then. No cuts so Hookwolf is out. Cricket doesn't have the pure muscle, ditto for Kaiser, Crusader, Fog, Alabaster, Victor and Othala. That left Fenja, Menja, Rune, Purity, Night, Stormtiger, Krieg and Rune.

Approaching the hole, Haretsu peered in and immediately spotted the only figure that was not male or Asian, making her the culprit here. It wasn't that the ABB didn't accept women, Bakuda being proof of that, but the ABB didn't really entice many females into the organisation.

The most confusing thing was the outfit she wore. It was pretty basic; a motorcycle helmet with a balaclava on beneath it, bike leathers, gloves and boots The back of the top had the symbol of a clenched fist with a spiky aura around it. It looked hand painted or something. He had to give her props for the attention to detail; it was really rather well done.

The woman was busy knocking out the remaining guards in the building before throwing them out the nearest window. A few fired bullets at her, but they just bounced off her like water from a duck's back. Again, the only person he'd seen shrug off bullets like that was Lung, although he was certain any Brute with a rating higher than 4 could do the same. Still, it told him that he would need to strike hard and that he did not need to worry about killing her.

Once the last ABB member was both insensate and airborne through the window, he struck, creating several explosions around her at once. That would kill any ordinary human, but when the smoke cleared, she stood unharmed, not even her clothes were damaged or singed in the slightest.

Haretsu gaped. Being Brute enough to survive the explosions, he could accept. But Brute enough to tank the explosions without suffering so much as a cut on her clothes was another thing altogether.

A chilling thought occurred to him. What if she wasn't just a Brute? What if she was a Breaker of some sort as well, or even a Shaker with the ability to create forcefields around her body? Either explanation would explain the seemingly invulnerable nature of the woman's clothing and made things more than slightly irritating and costly for him. Breakers were pesky opponents at the best of times as they violated the laws of nature in several ways and Shakers weren't much better. He should know as he was one.

"That was a very rude way to introduce yourself." The girl commented, her muffled voice indicating that her age range was around about mid-teens, certainly not older than seventeen.

"When you beat up thirty of the ABB and start to raid their property, politeness tends to go out the window…much like those gangers you beat up." Henry answered dryly, "I am Haretsu. You?"

"Smackdown." The Cape replied, "I'd retreat or surrender if I were you. Your little fireworks display didn't really do much to me aside from look pretty."

"Smackdown? Whatever. At least it isn't Chubster." Haretsu shook his head, "Come out into the open and we'll see about what I can and cannot do."

"As you wish." Smackdown shrugged and left the building. As she did so she grabbed it and a translucent field crackled into existence around the entire building.

"What are you doing?!" Haretsu growled, "Stop!"

"Don't know how to stop it once it's started." Smackdown replied with a smirk in her voice, "As for what it's doing…watch and learn."

He was. The field spread to the entirety of the building and then ripped it from the ground before shrinking, everything inside it being crushed and compressed into a smaller and smaller mass. By the end of it, the field vanished and a mace dropped out of the field, right into Smackdown's hand.

He was in deep trouble. That building, an old two-story shop/apartment building, had held about half a million dollars in illegal weaponry and a lot of ammo as well. All gone. All compressed into that little mace no larger than his arm.

"That," Haretsu said calmly, "Was a mistake."

With that, he let loose with explosions several times more powerful than the ones he had used before. No stupid hand gestures, not roars of anger or calling attack names, just zero to explode in less than five seconds. His specialty.

His eyes widened as his target simply strolled out of the clouds of smoke as unharmed as before. Seriously? He knew he hadn't been holding back on those explosions. Even Lung would have felt that, and this girl shook it off like it was nothing?!

Really starting to panic now, Haretsu created wave after wave of consecutive explosions, all designed to cripple her. He was pushing the limits of his ability now, generating explosions large and powerful enough to destroy a main line battle tank in short order.

Still, all that happened was a little scuff on her arm!

"My turn." Smackdown said coolly and leapt forwards with one finger extended, lightly tapping him on the arm as she went past him.

With a sickening crack, his arm broke and he screamed expletives in Chinese and Japanese as he clutched it. A single tap with her forefinger?! Seriously?! Just how strong was she?!

Against a foe as formidable as this, he decided, discretion was the better part of valour. He'd tell Lung and then he'd see who was the better brawler in town.

"My…apologies for underestimating you, Smackdown." Haretsu hissed in a mix of pain and anger, "I shall retreat for today, but be warned; you have made an enemy of the ABB on this day. You may have defeated me, but you stand no chance against Lung."

"Don't count your chickens before they've hatched, Haretsu." The other Parahuman warned him, "I'm here to push out all of the gangs in Brockton Bay. You are a disease that is killing this city and I am the cure. As a mark of respect for your courage, I will allow you to leave here unmolested. Pray that we do not cross paths again."

With a growl of frustration, Haretsu turned tail and fled.

'This is utterly humiliating.' He thought, 'At least Lung will have something to keep him from getting bored.'

A little voice at the back of his head warned him that that wouldn't happen, but he ignored it. Surely even Smackdown couldn't win against the Dragon of Kyushu.

Right?

An interesting concept, in my opinion. Not a particularly flashy set of abilities, but interesting nonetheless. The name…yeah, it needs work. But, on the bright side, it isn't bad on the same scale as Chubster.

Brute: 8 (Able to raise the density of her body high enough that she gains high levels of superhuman strength and endurance. Functionally, her skin is impenetrable while in this state.)

Thinker/Striker: 4 (Able to instantly know the weight, density and mass of any inorganic object she holds or touches, from a pencil to an airplane to a building. Able to set exactly what her Shaker ability can affect and what it cannot. Able to imbue handheld objects with increased density, although not objects that have been compressed by her Shaker ability.)

Shaker: 5 (Able to compress inorganic objects into smaller items that maintain the same density. Limited by the Manton Effect to a degree in that she cannot use her ability on something that contains above a certain amount of organic matter. 'Dead' organic matter, such as wood, does not count. The end shape and size of the compressed matter can be anything she desires.)

Breaker: 4 (Has Selective Density. Is both affected and not affected by weight simultaneously. Is thus able to walk over quicksand without being dragged down while being able to carry things that should technically crush her. Is permanently active.)