At midnight, the entirety of New York City had fallen into darkness.
Only the nightlife spots remained lit.
High above New York City, a figure in a black robe, face hidden beneath its hood, was moving swiftly through the sky.
This figure was Brian.
After a three-hour clash with Raven, Professor X and the others had finally fallen asleep. Brian had quietly slipped away from Xavier Manor once Raven was fast asleep.
After leaving, he passed by a store, "acquiring" a black robe for himself. His first target tonight was Sean Cassidy, also known as Banshee.
Why not Angel? Brian thought to himself, "Her powers are too weak."
The mutant ability to grow insect wings and spit acid was, in his opinion, useless.
So, he ignored Angel and decided to start with the young Mutant who had not yet fully mastered his sonic abilities.
Brian soon arrived at the New York State Aquarium.
According to Professor X's intel, Banshee—Sean Cassidy—was currently working here.
The aquarium was closed for the night.
Only a few dim lights illuminated the fish tanks.
In front of one tank, a young man was casually tapping on the glass, a confident smirk on his face. Each tap seemed to draw the fish closer to him.
This man was Brian's target: Sean Cassidy.
"Catherine, isn't this amazing?" Sean turned to a young woman beside him, winking as he spoke.
"What's so amazing?" Catherine asked, sounding unimpressed.
"Well, you like fish, and I like fish too. Maybe we should find some time to get together and have a nice chat."
Sean's flirting technique was well-practiced, and it was clear he'd used it to win over plenty of girls before.
"I'd rather date a fish than go out with you, Sean."
Catherine flatly rejected his invitation, turning on her heel and walking away.
Sean's smirk faded, and he turned back to the fish tank.
Annoyed, he released a burst of infrasound that was undetectable to human ears but resonated through the water.
In an instant, the fish scattered, vanishing into the shadows of the tank.
"Catherine, you see, I'm the only one left now!" Sean Cassidy called out, hoping for a reaction.
Catherine glanced back to see an empty fish tank, all the fish gone.
"What a lame trick," she scoffed, giving him a look of disdain before turning to leave.
"Sean Cassidy?" A deep voice echoed through the aquarium, stopping both Catherine and Sean in their tracks.
They turned to see a figure with his face obscured under the hood of a black robe.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Sean asked, frowning with confusion as he eyed the robed stranger.
The figure was, of course, Brian.
Ignoring Sean entirely, Brian raised his right hand, and with a wave, Catherine's body was pulled toward him, drawn by an invisible force.
She was shocked, struggling to understand why she had suddenly lost control of her own body.
"Oh, My?!"
As she came closer, she saw Brian's face under the hood, his expression calm and confident.
"Cool, sir. Care to join me for dinner? Maybe we could make it a wonderful night." Catherine's eyes sparkled as she extended a charming invitation to Brian.
"Seriously, Katherine?!" Sean Cassidy stared at her, stunned. Watching this unfold in front of him made his blood boil.
Glaring at Brian, Sean couldn't hold back. With rage in his eyes, he charged forward.
Brian raised an eyebrow, looking at Sean with a mix of amusement and disdain. You're a Mutant, and yet you're trying to fight me without even using your ability?
With a casual wave of his hand, Brian sent Sean flying backward, crashing hard against a fish tank.
"Agh... you… you're a Mutant?" Sean managed, coughing as he struggled to get up.
"Since you're a Mutant too, don't think I won't use my own abilities!" Sean took a deep breath, then let out a powerful scream.
The sound waves from his scream rippled through the air, vibrating intensely as they barreled toward Brian.
The glass of the fish tank behind Sean shattered instantly, sending shards flying everywhere.
Facing Sean Cassidy's attack, Brian stood unfazed. An invisible Psychokinesis barrier effortlessly blocked Sean Cassidy's sound waves.
"What… how is that even possible?" Sean Cassidy's eyes widened in disbelief.
His power allowed him to create various forms of sound waves through his voice, and he'd tested that his sound waves could easily shatter glass. But here, against this mysterious, hooded man, his ability was useless.
"You could have been the Black Bolt of Earth, someone who could make people's flesh melt with just one word," Brian mocked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "And yet, here you are, using your ability to shatter glass."
In truth, Sean Cassidy's ability was impressive. He had the potential to create various forms of powerful sound waves, releasing them as energy blasts. This ability bore a strong resemblance to Black Bolt's devastating power.
With low-frequency infrasound waves, Sean could even trigger resonance within human organs, potentially shattering them and ending lives with a single sound. But, as Brian saw it, Sean had barely scratched the surface of his potential.
He could also shatter solid objects by releasing resonant sound waves.
However, Sean Cassidy had only used it for low-altitude flight and echolocation.
There are no useless abilities, only people who waste them—and Sean Cassidy was definitely wasting his.
"But now, this ability is mine~"
Brian looked at the shocked Sean Cassidy, and without hesitating, he used Psychokinesis to pull Sean Cassidy toward him. In Sean's horrified gaze, Brian raised his index finger, and a sharp blade of Psychokinesis cut across Sean Cassidy's forehead.
Sean screamed, unleashing powerful sound waves that shattered the aquarium's glass tanks. But Brian remained completely unaffected.
Amid Sean Cassidy's agonized screams, Brian calmly proceeded to access his brain. The searing pain eventually caused Sean to lose consciousness.
A minute later, Brian stood up, having fully mastered Sean Cassidy's sound wave ability.
And, thanks to his power to understand the operating rules of all things, Brian's new sound wave ability was now fully optimized and at its peak potential.
The energy contained in the sound waves he could now release could easily spread across tens of kilometers.
At the same time, Brian could create ultrasonic and infrasound waves of various frequencies. With just a word, he could make people explode instantly, much like Black Bolt. He could also condense the sound waves into a focused line, achieving effects similar to long-distance sound transmission.
Now, Brian had become a replica of Black Bolt in terms of sound wave abilities. The only difference was the sheer destructive power.
His Level 5 sound waves couldn't devastate all of humanity like Black Bolt's could.
Moreover, Sean Cassidy's ability allowed him to generate sound waves but not to receive or process them as images within the brain. This limitation meant that Brian's plan to use ultrasound to scan the brain and easily acquire new abilities had to be abandoned.
"Oh, there's another downside," Brian muttered, "You can't get too close to Scarlet Witch Wanda."
He shrugged, then looked at the barely conscious Sean Cassidy. Brian casually nicked his index finger, letting a drop of his crystal-clear divine blood fall into Sean Cassidy's mouth.
Buzz.
As Sean Cassidy absorbed the drop of divine blood, a warm red glow spread over his body, and the wound on his forehead healed at a visible pace.
In almost the blink of an eye, he was as good as new.
This was naturally the blood ability Brian had obtained from Father Asa.
Divine blood.
Just one drop was enough to heal any injury.
Brian observed the healing effect on Sean Cassidy, nodding in satisfaction. Then he placed his right hand on Sean Cassidy's forehead and activated the brain blockade.
He directly erased Sean Cassidy's recent memory.
After wiping Sean Cassidy's memory, Brian did the same for Catherine, ensuring neither would remember the events that had just taken place. Satisfied, he left the aquarium.
"It seems that until I acquire a perception ability, I'll still need to cut open brains," Brian sighed as he walked out.
...
Half an hour later, he arrived in Manhattan.
Here, there was a Mutant whose ability intrigued him.
In a dimly lit room, a man lay sleeping soundly.
Suddenly, his body tensed, and he jolted awake, hair standing on end.
Just moments before, his danger-sensing ability had gone off with a frantic alarm.
The air around him seemed thick with imminent threats, compelling him to flee immediately.
He jumped off the bed directly and ran towards the door quickly.
However, just as he reached the door, his danger sense began to warn him again, and the door in front of him seemed to have turned into a giant beast ready to swallow him whole.
The man rolled away from the door without hesitation.
Bang.
Just as he moved away from the door, it suddenly flew backward and slammed into the wall of the bedroom.
Then Brian appeared in the doorway.
Danger!
Danger!
Danger!
Upon seeing Brian, the man's scalp tingled, and his hair stood up. The warning signals made his heart race uncontrollably.
Brian radiated an aura of extreme danger that left the man feeling completely trapped, without a way to escape.
"What… what do you want?" the man stammered, terrified. His ability to sense danger nearly overwhelmed him.
Brian did not respond.
He was in a hurry now.
He used Psychokinesis to immobilize the man and then opened his brain remotely.
One minute later, Brian gained the man's ability.
Danger Prediction!
"Early warning of crisis? Isn't this similar to Spider-Man's ability?"
The Danger Prediction ability has no level difference. It's a spontaneous early warning mechanism of the body.
Once Brian encounters danger, the Danger Prediction will give him a warning, allowing him to instantly recognize that he's in a dangerous situation and avoid it in advance.
However, unlike Peter Parker's Spider-Sense, Danger Prediction does not allow the body to spontaneously evade danger.
"This ability of Danger Prediction feels a bit redundant for me," Brian mused.
He already had Adaptive Evolution, which made him stronger the more dangerous the situation.
With Danger Prediction alerting him to avoid threats, it seemed almost unnecessary.
"Still, this Danger Prediction is a passive ability. Even if I erase his memory, his Danger Prediction might still detect the threat I pose to him and other Mutants."
Brian looked at the unconscious man.
After obtaining the Danger Prediction ability, Brian understood that he couldn't leave him alive.
Since this is a passive ability, if he joins the X-Men, every time he sees Brian, his Danger Prediction will activate.
With Brian's ability to plunder other Mutants' powers, he is undeniably a source of constant danger to someone like the man with Danger Prediction.
Brian doesn't want Professor X to know that this man's ability is always sensing a threat.
So, for the sake of safety, it's better to eliminate him.
"Die."
Brian opened his mouth and released a concentrated sound wave.
The rolling sound wave hit the man on the ground, and his body began to vibrate uncontrollably.
Boof!
The man's body exploded instantly, turning into a pool of blood and tissue.
"The power of sound waves is really convenient."
Brian was satisfied with the destructive potential of his sound wave ability.
Now he only needed to utter a few syllables to shatter a person's bones and internal organs, reducing them to mere remains.
"Next, it's Alexander Summers."
Brian left Manhattan and made his way to the NYPD building.
Shockwave Alex had voluntarily imprisoned himself there.
Whoosh.
Brian blew a whistle.
A low-frequency infrasound wave instantly spread through the entire NYPD building.
The infrasound made everyone in the police station dizzy, causing them to fall straight to the ground, unconscious.
Brian walked into the NYPD building and located Shockwave Alex's room.
Looking at the heavy door in front of him, Brian waved his hand lightly, and the door broke away from its frame, landing aside with a thud.
"Who are you?"
Behind the door, a young man with a surprised expression stared at Brian, speaking blankly.
"You can call me Sylar."
Brian released a focused sound wave, and Alex collapsed to the ground in pain from its impact.
Swish.
Amid Alex's painful cries, Brian opened Alex's mind.
When Brian left the police station, he had successfully obtained Alex's ability:
Ambient Energy Conversion!
And now it was leveled to full mastery.
Alex struggled to control and focus his ability, but Brian doesn't have such troubles.
He can launch energy shockwaves from any part of his body causing huge amounts of damage.