Fresh day for the building smasher. (Atlas)

"Mom! I'm going out for a bit." Jake called out from his bedroom door as he secured some of the leather straps of his costume being careful not to tug on it too hard in case he ripped it.

"I expect to see you home by seven young man." Her voice was distant but firm, she was still upset that he was an hour late yesterday for curfew but he couldn't help it, being in a costume and running around sometimes demanded a few extra hours of lifting up rubble and digging, a sore reminder that his power was something not to be simply trifled with like his normal strength. Checking the clock, Jake would read it being five in the afternoon, that gave him two hours to find somewhere to put his fist and return home in time for dinner. Easy.

"No problem Mom. And I won't be late this time... Also taking the Window." Jake would quickly add as he brought the training mask to his face and connected it to his hood, completing the disguise. He would take a quick glance at the mirror, only recognizing the man in red, his eyes being the only notable feature but no one could really remember the amount of facial structure that he revealed, that and he never stayed in one place. Opening the window, he would exit onto the fire escape, his apartment being three stories high and below him an alley way, he could enter and exit without much worry of his identity being blown. No one but him used the fire escape which was also a boon.

Cracking his fingers, Jake would jump on top of the railing of the fire escape, balancing himself before jumping to the other building's wall, his feet connected with the wall of the other side and with a quick use of his leg's amazing muscle strength to jump off the wall to the top of the building he had just left moments ago. It was always exciting to do that, to break the rules he followed, to use his strength to it's full extent rather then the limit's he placed on himself at the gym, there was just something freeing about it.

Making his way from rooftop to rooftop, no leap to long for him, he would make a stop three blocks away from his home, on a rooftop that over looked a parking lot, one that had car's, one that had people trying to break into these cars. "Well. Seems some people decided to be bad." Jake would say as he jumped from the roof of the building onto the ground, the shock vibrating his legs for a second but no more, still exhilarating. Walking towards the three, they would take noticed of the red dressed... vigilante? Hero? Jake hadn't thought a name for himself yet or what he considered his tag. Hero? Vigilante? It was up to those who saw him to decide he guessed. "I'd say desist now. Or suffer the problems that shall be ensured." Jake would say, his voiced muffled to not be easily recognized but not muffled enough to not be heard.

"Yea? What are you going to do freak?" One of the men stood forward, a glint of light emitted from his pocket, a knife? Jake wasn't sure what his two friends had but they kept there space and distant. Which was smart because in a world like this, you didn't know if the man you were staring down was a meta or a human which was why Jake was also reluctant to move in, just in case he was walking into a triple meta threat or some norm's just trying to break into and steal from cars or the actual cars themselves.

Weight pressed down oppressively, threatening to force Damian to his knees and yet he remained firm within the face of such adversity. His fingers clenched around the barbell, heavier now thanks to artificially induced gravity, something that he used to train. They had told him this was going to make him stronger, or maybe even test the limits of his own strength, if there were any limits. Some of them had said that there might not even be any true limits, though they usually were the ones that had forgotten that his hearing was a lot better than theirs. A single bead of sweat traced down his brow, the first one that he had actually let down in a while, since he was just developing these grand powers sixteen years ago. ”Am I doing good?” He would ask, knowing that his voice would carry to the little speaker that let the researchers hear him within their room; safe from the gravity.

”Damian, you’ve broken your previous records. Right now you’re lifting approximately ten million tons, and that’s no small feat.” That was the response, and yet not quite the one he was expecting. Something about hearing his own strength with a number tacked onto it, well it gave a sort of  weight to how much he was growing.

”Woah, really? That’s awesome!” He hooted with an almost childlike enthusiasm, something that seemed to give him even more strength as he hefted the barbell over his head without any visible difficulty. All feelings of exertion were lost within his mind, as he would let the thing fall forward with a resounding clang that flowed through the room well and proved painful upon his ears. Two massive dents were left within the floor, though they seemed to push themselves out almost instantly. The ringing would persist for a few seconds, as he held hands to them. ”Crap, forgot that kind of thing happens.” He grumbled, waiting for the sound itself to quiet down before removing the hands from his ears.

”Don’t let this go to your head Damian, your powers are still growing and could prove a great danger if you don’t control them.”

”I know mom, it’s just hard when everything around you is so….fragile.”

”Well everything isn’t made to withstand your level of strength, humans can’t lift like you can.” Just like that the feeling of heaviness would fade from the room, Damian wiping away a single bead of sweat from his forehead and stepping out of the room. Suddenly being lighter gave him a feeling of weightlessness, though his body adapted as well as it usually did to sudden gravitational changes in the area.

”But when you gotta protect people from the bad guys, sometimes you have to be strong like me.” This was something that she could agree with, though he felt as if her view on things would have been worded more elegantly.

Mismatched eyes would scan around the bland looking training room, catching sight of the gravitational nodes, and letting them fall back to the only door as it opened. He stepped through said door, running fingers through slightly curly hair as he  didn’t really give too much obvious attention to the woman.

”Going out again?” She asked, adjusting the spectacles on her nose.

”Yeah, feel like going out and just enjoying the view. New York just looks even better after all the rebuildin, specially if you see it from up above.” No word against it was said, and so he would walk through the winding complex until he found his way to the exit and then took off into the sky.

There was first the exhilaration of breaking free of the bonds of gravity, soaring through the air with an almost reckless abandon as he continued to propel himself. Memories of his first flights would come to mind, and yet he continued to climb ever higher into the sky. People below would appear to the normal eye like ants and yet his vision caught onto them with such clarity. Couples holding hands, people walking their dogs and just overall city life as it unfolded. Damian was only dressed in a white tanktop and a pair of basketball shorts, the usual fair for after his training, but then again he did not care too much about people knowing who he was.

Apparently so long as he kept the collateral damage to a minimum, it was legal and so he went along with that. That came with so many restrictions and yet now they were actually beginning to let him go out, perhaps a sign that he had accrued enough trust within them.

On and on Damian continued to fly, until something caught his eye. It looked to be someone jumping along in an almost superhuman fashion, doing things no normal person could do, or at the very least easily. This caught his interest and so he would follow, wondering what this person was up to and partially wanting to talk to them. His tongue traced over his lips as he thought things over, body going slightly into a sort of autopilot, one that kept him on a vague track.

Would be nice to have some hero friends. He thought to himself, lowering the altitude to give himself a better view of what was going on, as they appeared to jump into a situation that heroes would take part in. Part of him wanted to do nothing and the other part wanted to jump in, maybe have a little heroic team up. Still, he would check to see if they were even competent enough to deal with a few petty criminals, though he knew he would jump in before anyone did any lethal harm to anyone. Afterall, he was a hero and that was what heroes did.

So Damian would fly down and land on one of the rooftops, peering over just enough that he could watch what unfolded without risking being spotted by anyone as well.

”Let’s see what you do.”

It was all quiet for a few sparse seconds. Jake stared down the three, quite unsure on what to do, he hadn't really been in many fights, actually every time he had gone out, so far he had destroyed a few things, punched a truck into submission and lifted stuff. But now, now he had three people who were able to stare down a meta because seriously, if anyone didn't think he was a meta with this costume then they obviously didn't live in this world.

Suddenly, the one to the left of the knife holder run forward, a fist risen to strike at Jake who in a panic, jumped, the thug looking up in confusion as Jake landed back down where he once stood before swiftly turning to the guy and striking them with an open palm. As soon as the thug was hit, he flew back and crashed into the building Jake had jumped down from, the wall was slightly cracked from the force. "Ohhhh. Sorry?" Jake said as he turned around, only for his face to be met with the fist of the second guy who had stood behind the knife holder. At first, Jake wasn't sure what had happened, he felt a hot pain in his forehead and a sudden lightness only for the world to come crashing down as his back slid along the pavement, coming to a stop at the wall of the building the other guy silently laid at the base of. That guy could hit hard.. Like really hard.

Standing, Jake lightly touched his forehead as the guy came up for a second swing to which Jake pivoted to the right, avoiding the swing. Slightly annoyed on how this turned out, Jake brought his fist back, a bubble of red like energy however began to grow over it, encasing his fist in a chaotic yet fine looking red colored energy. As Jake swung at the man, he noticed the red energy, it was something to love and fear, a force of power, a destructive force at that. Fearing that the man in front of him didn't have the durability to survive this punch, Jake shifted to the right, his fist just missing the man and instead, making slight contact with the corner of the building. It was barely enough to be considered even making contact, a scrape of the knuckle yet that was all it needed. Within a second of that contact, the ground shook and broke, pavement cracked and rose into the air, the thug was thrown away from the force into the building opposite of them, nearby buildings cracked along with the cars he was trying to protect moments ago from the sheer force but the worst of the damage was the massive hole and cracked walls that was the building, that and his hand. The one conscious thug looked rather afraid of Jake, stunned into silence but he was also looking at the building, which was dangerously tilting from the lack of supports that were destroyed from the punch.

With a groan of metal, the building started tilting even more and looked as if it was going to collapse on top of him, Jake thought of running, hell it was a viable option seeing as the knife thug was already gone from sight, he was already considering it when he remembered two crucial facts, that there was an unconscious man, a bad man maybe but still a person and secondly, there were people in this building. With that in mind, Jake Backed up till he found a part of the wall that had survived his red energy and held one hand up, waiting to catch it. His other hand lay useless next to his side, painfully jarred from the punch, but at least it wasn't broken, if it was, then this building wouldn't have survived, not if he was truly trying to punch it. But even then, without that hand he wasn't sure what if he could catch it, he didn't know the limit to his strength, if it would crush him, kill all the people who were inside it.. Maybe he should have just stayed home today. "Please work.. Please work." Jake silently begged as he looked to the ground and kept his good hand risen, ready for the weight of the four.. five something storie building unsure if he was going home badly hurt or guilt ridden or worse...

Thanks to sharp hearing, Damian could hear the sound of the criminal colliding with the wall in a painful fashion. He winced, wondering if that had lead to an unintended casualty within their heroic career. ”Yikes, looks like they don’t really know what they’re doing at all.” Slowly he poised himself to spring, and yet what happened next appeared to move things along. This involved one of other criminals punching him in the face, sending the kid reeling and appearing to cause some damage to them, despite how minimal it was. Honestly, he just wanted to see how things were going to progress and that was the only thing that kept him from jumping into the fight.

This did not look to be the end of the fight however, as they would rise and unleash another of their powers. Their fist was covered within a red energy and then, instead of colliding with the metahuman it was instead directed towards a wall. To eyes like his, the damage done to the building was likely catastrophic and so he would have to move into action now. ”Dammit.” He cursed under his breath, rising from his kneel and  letting the strength pool within his legs for the jump to come.

As if to prove his assumption right, the building itself would begin to tilt, as if threatening to fall over. Not even wasting a second, Damian would spring into action with speed rather difficult to follow. His hands extended forward, pressing against the falling building as he would exert his strength against it. Effort required was minimal, the building would quit tilting over rather quickly, but that left him with both hands rather busy. ”Might wanna be a little careful with how you throw your strength around. Could accidentally knock something over.”

The voice scared him at first, unexpected, but welcoming horrifying. Jake would slowly open one terrified eye open to see a stranger holding the building up in the air.. If it wasn't for what had just happened and the growing pain in his right hand or the fact he was in a somewhat tight red suit. He would have been awestruck but right now, right now was not the time to stare at a flying man.

Forgetting what the man had said about his own strength and control something something. Jake made his way to the guy he had knocked out first and grabbed him, lifting him over his shoulder, Jake would walk him away from the buildings range and place him down before walking to a nearby car and leaning on it. This calmness was rather.. A fault, in reality Jake was freaking out from the fact he almost became a pancake along with a multitude of other things, people becoming pancakes because of his mistake, the other was his hand. He had jarred it before, broken it before, practicing the power, it was not something fun, it was a raging fire of pain going though all his fingers right to the very end of his wrist and he could barely lift it, not only that, the fabric of the glove had been ripped, showing a badly bruised and swollen hand and that was just a jar.

Jake brought his hand good hand to his mask and almost ripped it off before remembering he wasn't alone. Tearing the mask off at a time like this just didn't seem like a good idea, he could remember what his mum told him after they moved to New York. That being a meta only brought pain, that if he wanted to live life, he should do it as normal as possible. Letting his mask go, Jake would look to the flying human and call out. "Yea Thank the ability I don't have much control over." Jake called out, making his voice low and loud for while the mask did indeed muffle his voice, it didn't hurt to not take chances at chance meeting this guy in civilian clothes and getting called out. "Well I'd stick around but I need to go so.." Jake said this as he tried to get up off the car but found his legs couldn't move, they were shaking, so was his hand.

There had to be some way he could move this building in a way that it wasn’t falling over, but then again rebuilding things was not exactly his forte. So that left him with a weight that he could not exactly let go of, at least not while there were people for some reasons till in it. Honestly, he had no idea what a populated building was doing in such a shitty looking side of town when there were so many other, better places. Honestly, just looking at the kid with a bit of the xray vision, he could tell they had broken a few bones from their exertion. This suggested that they had little actual control over their own strength, meaning that they were walking around with a weapon that damaged them as well.

They said something about having to leave, and then tried to do just that. However, that went as well as their attempt at heroism, collapsing like the building nearly did. The male appeared to fall to the ground, their legs shaking, or rather that was what his advanced hearing could pick up within the air. Maybe there was a position he could push the building into, making it stay I the position long enough for anyone stuck inside still to escape unharmed, or maybe he could be making a huge mistake. ”Wow, you...don’t look like you have a lot of control over yourself at all. It’s probably not realistic for me to hold this all day, so i’m probably gonna let this thing down in a few minutes, might not wanna be sitting there when it comes down.”

Jake watched as the many people who was lived in the tall multi apartment building leave with valuables and there family's. And this was his fault, again he winced as his legs finally stopped shaking and he looked away from the building, not listening to the hero who was already doing a better job of holding a building up and only being around for at least a minute by now. Looking to the building across of the building that was going to be resting where he stood, Jake picked the guy he had knocked away earlier and moved him away from the buildings range before placing him down and jumping to the roof, wincing as the pain in his arm jolted from the action.

On the roof, Jake Sat down and held the broken or fractured hand, not exactly knowing why he was out here. He had spent an entire year thinking about this, making his suit, he had gone out and tested things and today he got into his first real fight and it ended in the damage of a home, a home for many, many people who were just trying to live and for what? So that he didn't blow apart a thug who was just trying to steal a car. He felt like crying and swearing and calling himself stupid but he did none of that, he just sat there and stared at the growing purple of his skin, thinking about it all, what he did wrong, what he could have done, why he was out here, should he even be out here. There were plenty of people who were heroic and even if his hand would heal in a couple of hours time. Would that just give him another chance to ruin the lives of more people..