Officer O'Neill made me sit in the backseat of his patrol car, but at a diagonal so when he looked back he could keep an eye on me. Not that it mattered where I sat due to the steel mesh cage and the bulletproof glass.
But let me tell you, these seats were some of the most uncomfortable things ever created. They were some kind of hard plastic. It may have been just me but the ceiling seemed a little lower than normal cars too. It smelt like someone used a lot of cleaning chemicals to drown out another scent, just making the entire smell worse. All in all, it was terrible.
Expertly O'Neill pulled away from the curbside making his way down the road.
"So what do you remember?" the Officer asked without looking back.
I thought about it for a second, I didn't remember much besides things. If I tried to think of people it was like touching a boiling kettle, especially for when trying to remember things about myself.
"Only some basic things, beyond that it's empty," I respond truthfully. "Where am I?"
Even from the backseat, I could see the officer tense. "You mean what city?" He studied me with a critical look through the rearview mirror.
I nodded. "Yes."
"Brockton Bay." He said almost mechanically.
Brockton Bay was not a city I was familiar with, granted I wasn't familiar with most cities at the moment.
O'Neill turned into another street, we had moved from the residential to a more commercial area. Small shops lay on either side of the street.
There was a pull on my gut, something wasn't right.
I spotted the danger a second before officer O'Neill but I was still too late.
An Asian man dressed in red and green ran at the police cruiser from the right. His arms swung wildly at his sides, a crazed look on his face.
Just as he was a couple of yards from the car he exploded. He exploded. The explosion started in his chest blowing his limbs and head in every direction. The cruiser rocked to the side, the entire right side was gone, all that remained was a smoldering ruin.
Today was not going to be a good day.
Unfortunately, I had been seated on the right side. The blast initially slammed back into my seat, my entire body was smoking. I could feel as shrapnel was pushed out of my wounds, it wasn't painful it just felt tingly.
I spared a glance at O'Neill, he had fared far worse than me in the explosion. Not everyone was a pseudo-immortal alien demon killer.
I couldn't tell the full extent of the wounds he had received but I knew just by the looks of his more clear injuries without medical attention he would die.
I knew what I had to do, with all the shrapnel removed moved to the left side of the car. I tried to open the door but there was no handle. Bracing my feet against the door I pushed, due to the weakened state of the vehicle and the inhuman strength I was able to open the door.
I slid easily out of the car, before turning to the front driver door. It actually looked worse from the outside. Blood covered the window, blood that I knew without a doubt was from O'Neill.
Originally I tried the handle but the door was locked, then I tried forcing the door open all that accomplished was a broken handle.
Next, I forced my fingers into the crack between the door and the car frame. With one single pull the door flew off the car, it went across the road into a ditch.
Ignoring the part of me that said not to move injured people I removed Officer O'Neill from the wreck. Once I finished I took note of his injuries for the first time, his stomach was a mess of blood and guts, something had eviscerated him.
His pulse was weak, I could almost hear his heartbeat slow.
I knew there was nothing I could do. O'Neill at the most only had a couple of seconds left. The light left the Officer's eyes. I could just stare helplessly as O'Neill died.
The radio O'Neil had on his duty belt blared to life "This is Dispatch to all units, ABB has placed bombs in civilians around the city-" I never heard the last part, as the radio shorted out.
But now I had a target. The ABB. They were going to pay. They had killed officer O'Neill, the first friendly face in the entire city.
Another explosion rocked the city, and now I had a heading. I took off in a run towards where the last explosion had happened, into the heart of the city.
The sound of gunfire alerted me that I was getting closer to the fight, so did the explosions.
Smoke drifted up into the sky, blocking the sun.
My feet pounded against the pavement, every step I took seeming to echo through the city. I passed people running in the opposite direction, terror-filled their eyes.
I soon found the source of their terror. The downtown area looked like a warzone, large chunks of the buildings had been blown off, but that was the better part.
Other areas looked like they had been turned into glass, even the people. It was one of the worst things I have ever witnessed. Of course, that didn't count for much since I hadn't witnessed much at all.
One of the bombs exploded in my view, instead of pushing out it pulled in, like a mini black hole. It pulled everything and everyone into it. Worse was that it had originated from a running civilian.
I steeled my nerves against this all. Did I actually have nerves?
I finally found where the fight was thickest, a building that reminded me of a police station but not. Attached to the front was a shield on it were the words PRT. The building was also mostly heavily barred windows.
In the street before the building was a three-way fight between what looked like the authorities and two other groups. One of the groups wore green and red, I assumed they where the ABB.
The other group wore red and black they seemed a little better equipped than the ABB. over all the three groups seemed to be at a stalemate.
I could change that.
Currently, the ABB was in front of me, holed up in front of the PRT building were the authorities, beyond that down the street the red and black group.
The ABB was my target at the time, the other groups I would deal with later.
Sprinting forward, I came into contact with the first enemy combatant. An overweight Asian man, with a revolver. He went down with a scream as I grabbed the collar of his shirt. He landed with a thud against the pavement and I brought my heel down on his face. There was a sickening crunch as my heel connected with his face.
The screams from the man ceased but it was enough to draw the attention of his friends.
One of them opened fire on me with what looked like a World War II rifle. The rifle rounds ripped through my body sending a spray of bullets behind me.
No this would not do, I needed the bullets to stop. I felt a shiver down my spine as I felt my body harden.
The spray of bullets from the rifle no longer went through me but was stopped. Pressing into my flesh and then falling to the ground with plinking sounds.
I didn't pause to think of the change. I charged forward taking advantage of the confusion.
The guy with the rifle realized how screwed he was as his rifle jammed. In his panic, he threw the rifle at me which I dodged with ease.
With a bolt forward I punched him in the gut before spartan kicking him in the chest. He flew back into a car unmoving.
The only problem with the new hardness of my body was that I now felt the impact from every round. In particular, the shotgun that was used to blast me from the side.
I was a blur of motion as my shoulder collided with the shotgun-wielding thug. He skidded over the ground. He was knocked cold from the impact his head experienced. He would also have one nasty case of road rash when he woke up.
By now I had attracted the full attention of the ABB, all of them were out for my blood.
I ripped a rear passenger car door off a small Honda civic nearby. Throwing the door like a frisbee it downed a thug. I would have laughed under different circumstances.
I debated grabbing the entire civic but decided against it.
One of the ABB members rushed me with a hatchet, what was wrong with these people and hatchets? He swung it horizontally at me, I didn't bother blocking or dodging. Instead, I went straight at him. With a well-placed instep kick, I downed him. But not before his hatchet collided with me, the blade shattering on impact. I almost felt the pain he experienced. Almost. Let's just say I think that kick ended his genetic line.
This time they got smarter, two attacked me at the same time. One of them had what look like a katana, which he didn't know how to use. The other, like so many thugs before him, had a hatchet. I was beginning to wonder where they got all these hatchets, the hatchet factory?
The one with the katana whipped it around like he was in some action movie. Hatchet thug looked more experienced.
Now that I thought about it, why were they still attacking me? They should have seen what I did to the last four of them.
Too late did I realize it was a distraction, I heard the crack after it hit me. A high powered rifle round tore through my leg before stopping halfway through. The injury didn't hurt me but the kinetic energy from the round made me stumble.
It was obviously the chance the duo were waiting for, they rushed forward, just as another round hit my shoulder.
Katana man stabbed me with the katana, I knew he was inexperienced. Originally, he was going to pull away after realizing that the tip of the blade broke as it hit my skin. As he pulled his sword away I grabbed the blade pulling it into me, the blade shattered. Using two-fingers I hooked them under his jawline. After that I swung him over me, he hit the pavement with a crash.
Hatchet guy took my occupation with katana man as an invitation to attack me. He swung the hatchet in a downward stroke.
It would have been an easy strike to block if it wasn't for the next rifle bullet that hit me in the shoulder. Put off balance from the high powered bullet I was unable to dodge or block the hatchet that easily impacted the top of my head.
The hatchet glanced harmlessly against my head, the thug tried to back away.
Like lightning, I seized him by the neck. The man-made a choking noise. I closed my finger around his windpipe. I lifted him almost half a foot off the ground before with a flick of my hand I crushed his windpipe.
I dropped him on the ground as he continued to make a gurgling sound through his damaged windpipe. In the back of my mind, I knew that in a few minutes at the most he would be dead.
I now had the full undivided attention of all of the ABB. All of them looked at me with a mixture of awe and fear, mostly fear.
The authorities in front of the PRT building took advantage of the situation by pushing the red and black group back.
I observed the battleground, I had dispatched nine of them.
The only one that actually seemed to cause a problem for me was the sniper camped out in one of the buildings. Even the problems caused by him had only been little hiccups in the fight.
One of the ABB members decided that he could kill me. In all actuality, I was not expecting it. A spray of bullets hit me in the chest. Most of them bounced off, some entered my skin before being pushed out of me. There was a plink as the deformed rounds landed on the asphalt.
I felt my face twitch into my best impression of a featureless grin.
The man threw his gun to the side, reaching behind him he pulled out a knife. It was the kind of knife you would see in a movie, it was even curved backward.
What was wrong with everyone around here….
The ABB guy turned his trot into a full-blown sprint as he rushed me. His heavy footfalls echoing across the street.
Upon reaching me he tried for an upward stroke, to which I dodged effortlessly. His next attack was more thought out as he fainted to the left before bringing it around from the right.
I let the knife hit me hopefully making the thugs arm numb from the backlash of hitting a solid object.
Grabbing his arm I twisted it around before bringing my knee up to his elbow. There was a satisfying crack as I broke his arm. The thug screamed profanities at me, most of them were about my mother.
Letting go of his arm I grasped the back of his head bringing it down into my knee which ended his screaming. I tossed the now limp body to the side.
The next one went down when I kicked him in the neck. He had rushed me with a little switchblade knife. He crumpled like a napkin.
Three of them attacked me at once, the one in the middle had a shotgun with which he shot me twice, slugs once and the other birdshot. He stood a little farther back than his teammates.
The two thugs in the trio tried to engage in close-quarters combat with me while wielding short but wide half swords.
With the shotgun thug unable to shoot I advanced on the sword-wielding thugs. One of them seemed more eager than the other, he rushed forward with his sword above his head. He was screaming something in Japanese before I spartan kicked him in the chest. The kick almost sent him across the street. He stopped a few feet from the curb. What an idiot.
The other thug dropped his weapon and finally ran off screaming, coward.
I look about the fight, the authorities in front of the PRT building were pushing the red and black group hard, only a couple of them fought the ABB.
The ABB looked utterly terrified of me, none of them were actively fighting anymore.
Rushing forward at the remaining ABB members I vaulted over a car.
One of the ABB took off running at me, I almost didn't hear it, the little beep as he got closer. He was barely five feet from me when he exploded. The explosion threw me across the street into a car. The car lurched onto its side before settling on its wheels. Car alarms sounded around me as I pushed myself to my feet. Smoke curled off my form.
All around the fighting had stopped, most of the ABB looked to have been killed by the bomb.
Given the rather large crater in the middle of the street and the scorch marks all around.
There were even some pieces of the ABB members around.
I turned and watched as the black and red group decided to retreat after seeing me get up.
Maybe today is going to be a good day.