Chapter Seven (The Unstoppable)

Chapter Seven: First Mission

My ears were ringing.

"Adam! Adam, come on! Stay with me now!" I leaned against a pitted brick wall in one of the more downtrodden parts of Chicago, a slum. Agent Tony Kramer stood less than a foot from my face, propping me up and looking me in the eye. For a moment my vision seemed to fade in and out as I blinked, each time my eyelids came down like a slow descent into darkness. My vision blurred, then snapped into focus.

But my ears kept ringing. Ringing so loud I could barely hear Tony yelling.

What just happened? Where am I?

My brain was still struggling to keep up. An old apartment building had just exploded in my face. Both our faces. The complex was still in flames, their light casting us shades of orange and red in the night air. Now we were across the street from it, regaining composure.

After a moment, I found my footing and managed to stand on my own. The ringing faded. Sirens wailed in the distance, a sign of the fire department on its way. Tony ignored the inferno and kept staring at me.

"You ok, man? Almost lost you there...that explosion knocked you clear across the freakin' street."

"I..." I cleared my throat, eyes locked on the fire. "Yeah...yeah. I'm good. What happened? I mean to the uh, the target?"

"Got away, I guess. Or he just blew the snot out of himself," Tony muttered, looking out at the buildings surrounding us. There wasn't much to see. This part of town didn't have enough street lights to illuminate it, and the closest one had been blown out regardless.

We watched as a fire truck wailed in, accompanied by a handful of cop cars. I peered past all the lights and deep into the gloom of the evening. I soon spied a pair of watchful eyes studying the blaze, just barely visible from behind a corner.

"Arsonists," I whispered. "What is it about them? They like to watch, right? They like to see the fire burn."

At first Tony didn't follow, until I pointed out the silent observer down the lane. "What do you want to bet," he whispered back, "That that's our man?"

I nodded and didn't speak, edging towards the target.

The target. Joshua Melville.

A 43 year old caucasian male with dark hair, brown eyes, a scar on the left side of his chin, an an extensive criminal history, all of it related to some manner of arson. The man loved to watch things burn. Or blow up, in this case.

We tried to be as covert as possible as we slipped past the bustle of the fire department, but it didn't take long for our new friend to book it. Throwing caution to the proverbial wind, I picked up my own pace. The last few weeks of training has left me in great shape, allowing me to close the distance between us pretty quickly.

Melville ducked into an alley. As I rounded the corner, I lost him for a bit. I could see towering brick walls, dangling fire escapes laden with rust, and a few old cars stripped of parts, but of the criminal there was no sign.

I glanced around in confusion, wondering how he'd escaped so quickly.

Tony soon rounded the corner, running at my heels, then quickly began to back up. "Adam...I've got a bad fee-" Before he could say anything more, a car about twenty feet into the lane exploded, knocking me off my feet. Burning metal and car parts rained down. Tony had managed to escape around the corner, but I took a laceration to the chest, and got my face and arms burned.

Though I tried to bite my lip and hold it in, I couldn't stop from screaming as the pain set in, even though I knew it wouldn't last long.

Tony helped me up. "This is getting old...we gotta shut this guy down." I growled through clenched teeth.

"Yeah..." Tony agreed. "This is really not your day, man."

---

Despite the pain I was in, I refused to stop. I ran on deeper into the darkness of the alley, wary now for signs of yet another bomb, my increasing agitation lending me power.


Let him try to blow me up now, I thought. I could feel the change in my skin as the anger took ahold of me. I could feel it in my bones. I was indestructable now.

Once we got through to the street on the other side, we soon found ourselves edging closer to a busier part of the city. More cars, more people on the sidewalks. More potential victims.

Not good.

Both of us began scanning the crowds, no longer making any attempt to be covert. We literally had a walking time bomb on our hands and we couldn't afford to be so cautious anymore.

Plus, every fiber of my being was positively itching to take this guy down. The agitation was almost more than I could handle. No wonder people like me didn't last long.

By now I was mostly healed, but my dark gray suit was a ragged, bloody mess. My tie was gone, and my shirt had a giant tear in it. It was late, but the streets weren't empty, and passersby began to stare. Some even looked concerned, but I ignored them, forging on. I didn't want to give anyone the chance to talk.

It was Tony who spotted him this time. Melville was shoving his way through a line on a ramp that led up to Chicago's elevated train. He wasn't exactly making friends. The people he was pushing around were hurling insults and shoving back.

"There. He's getting on the L!" Tony whispered urgently. "We better get up there before he does any more damage."

"You don't have to tell me twice," I growled back, sprinting towards the ramp.

"Shouldn't we like, come up with a plan?" Tony was a little heavier than me, so he was struggling to keep up.

"No...we improvise. It's what I do best And besides, there's no time. That monster could blow up the whole train!"

"So far getting blown up is what you do best, but...you're right. We'll figure something out."

I slowed down as we neared the line that was slowly shuffling into the waiting doors of the train. "The important thing is that we not let him know we're here." So far, I was pretty sure he hadn't seen us, but we couldn't count on that for long, especially given the way I looked.

Tony took quick stock of the situation, and then whipped out his wallet, showing off a picture of some kid. "Alright FBI business!" He yelled. "There's a bomb on the train! I need everyone to clear out now!" Not the voice of my partner, I realized.

When I looked, I was surprised to find an imposingly large black man with a shaved skull had taken his place. The man stood in a long, black trenchcoat, a shiny badge dangling from his hand. He looked at me and winked.

I looked down and was surprised to note my clothes looked brand new again. And even more surprised to note I now looked like a woman, complete with long hair and a black dress skirt. I growled in anger. Tony was shaking with suppressed laughter. I shook my head. No time now for arguing.

People had began to vacate the area, but there were still a few crowds milling about, chattering nervously to each other. A conductor of some sort began to make his way towards us.

And then the train, only half empty, began to move.

Not good.

The both of us barely managed to leap aboard just as the doors sealed shut. Tony's illusion dropped the second we made it inside. He dropped to his knees, gasping for breath. "God..." he breathed. "All those people...it's up to you now, Blackpool. You have to find him."

"Why...why is the train moving?" I muttered, mostly to myself. Was Melville still on board, or did he just want us to think he was? This all seemed like it was going downhill fast. We'd tipped our hand, I was certain of it.

This particular car was empty. All the passengers on this part of the train at least had heard us. Plush red benches were the only thing to be seen in the lightly rumbling compartment. I moved for the door.

"Catch up when you can," I called over my shoulder.

---

The next few compartments were empty. Outside the windows the streets of Chicago whizzed by in a blur. I continued to make my way forward, wary for a surprise attack.

But it never came. The only people I found were normal passengers, confused about all the commotion. "Move to the back of the train," I ordered them, knowing what was coming if I found our man. Baa went the sheep, and move they did. I could only hope Tony would figure something out.

It was when there was only one cab left that I realized he was still here. A shiver ran down my spine. As my hand rested against the cool metal of the final door, I had a sense of danger coming. Great, I thought to myself, my very own spider sense.

Joshua Melville was waiting for me, leaning against the glass door that led into the control room for the train. He didn't look as scraggly as I'd been expecting. His hair was clean and gelled up, his suit neat and trim.

As I opened the door, he looked at me and smiled. "Knew you'd come," he said. Melville looked at his nails, then back at me. "It's all gonna come unraveled. It's already unraveling...I didn't want to let them take me, so I chose a different way out."

"What? What do you mean?" I didn't understand a word he was saying. "Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Windows all around us. I looked outside, the streets of Chicago whizzed by. I expected the train to get shut down any minute, but I worried it wouldn't be fast enough.

"You'll understand soon enough. Nice kid like you, the system's going to rip you to shreds. And then the system, it's gonna get ripped to shreds soon enough, and there won't be a thing you can do about it. Me...I'm taking the easy way out."

"Terrorism? Terrorism is the easy way?" I was enraged and confused. I felt the fire beginning to burn inside my palms. I should kill him now,part of me reasoned, while I had the chance.

"I haven't killed anybody. I hope I'm right about you. You seem strong enough to survive. My advice? Find something to hold onto, because everything under your feet is about to collapse, son. They're going to come for you. Just you watch, everybody's going to want you on their side when all the crap hits the fan."

"Now...one last explosion..." he continued. "Here's hoping this one lights the whole world on fire." He winked at me. "Goodbye, Adam Blackpool."

Like a stage magician performing a trick, he held up a hand and suddenly something like a silver dollar appeared in his hands. But it was...thicker, and free of inscriptions. Was that how he made his explosions? Realization dawned on me. I felt like my eyes might bug out of my skull.

I turned and booked it back through the door I'd come in by, using telekinesis to slam it closed. As it was, I barely managed to scramble into the next cab back before a massive explosion hurled it off the tracks. I hit the floor, then was thrown up against a window, then conked my head against a bench as the train hit the asphalt of the street below.

When the rolling finally came to a stop, I pushed myself up on hands and knees and vomited. It had done a complete 360, the roof now skyward once more. The engine had exploded, but this part of the train seemed to have escaped the blast. Outside, I could hear screams and honking cars. The sounds of the train outside grew louder and louder. There was a moment of calm and then suddenly the roof bulged in a few feet closer.

All I could do was curl up and wait while death rained down from above. Train car after train car slammed into my cab like giant metal bullets as the whole thing derailed around me, and on top of me.

When it finally stopped, the roof was only a few feet above my head. I crawled my way to the door and barely managed to squeeze my way out. When I did, my breath caught in my throat.

The devastation was breathtaking. Joshua Melville had certainly made his mark. Behind me, a dozen train cars piled up. Above, the track had a massive hole ripped into it. Nothing had been unaffected. Some of the nearby buildings were variously burning or pitted from debris. Cars had wrecked, trucks toppled over.

A mess.

All because we'd failed to stop him. I ran my hands through my hair. We'd really blown it. I heard a groaning and was shocked to see Melville himself crawling out of the rubble. He was on his backside, trying to free himself from a fallen pillar.

He looked almost completely unharmed except for a few minor scrapes. How was that possible? But no, that wasn't quite right. I could see as he liberated himself, one of his legs was clearly broken. His shinbones fractured. I walked closer, fascinated.

"You can't be hurt by your own explosions." I declared.

"No..." he replied. "I've tried so many times." He was beginning to cry now, tears making tracks down cheeks, which were coated now with grime and gunpowder. "It's a tragedy, when a man can't choose the way he leaves this world. I wanted to leave with a bang...you know, send a message."

"Oh, you will my friend, you will." I heard the safety on a gun click. Tony appeared out of nowhere, looking pretty ragged himself, holding a 9mm aimed at our target.

"Please, please don't shoot me," Joshua pleaded. "I'm not ready to die, not-not like this!" He began sobbing loudly.

"Tony...He's not armed. We need to bring him in." I took a step towards my partner, but he started to yell.

"Look at what he's done!" He roared." This man's a monster, he's too dangerous!" He looked at me, then back at the perp, cocking his pistol. "I'm sorry Adam. This mission was Code Black right from the start. This was never a retrieval."

Joshua Melville closed his eyes and stopped trying to crawl away.

He left the world with a bang. A small bang that was lost in the chaos of the disaster surrounding us. Quietly, the two of us made our escape as authories arrived on scene to deal with all we'd left behind. There would be witnesses, but I doubted anybody would remember what we looked like. Tony had decoupled the rear car, saving all the passengers on the train, but he'd done it under another disguise.

I didn't know what everything I'd just been told meant, but I doubted a man about to go suicide bomber would have much reason to lie. I did know one thing, though. Changes were coming, and somehow, they were going to involve me. Perhaps for the same reason Katrina and Dekken hadn't been willing to let me walk in the diner.

Tony ordered me to use my powers to rip open a manhole cover. I bit back a complaint and used my telekinesis to make it happen, barely managing to control the metal lid and keep from sending it flying across the avenue.

We had to make a getaway now, never mind cleaning up. That would be well nigh impossible. After Tony plunged into the sewers, I took one last look at the sky. Overhead, the sun was just beginning to rise, illuminating a city that seemed to be teetering on the edge of chaos. I looked down into the hole in street awaiting me and plunged in.