The train shuddered violently, shaken by the raging storm that swirled around it. The wind slashed at the walls of the train with icy claws, slipping in through chinks in the metal shell. The frigid air burst through gaps in the sides of the shoddy cars at the back of the train waking someone who wasn’t meant to be there. They opened their eyes as their body felt the sudden surge of cold air swirling about them. He checked his watch, it read 1:00 AM. It was time for him to do his job.
From the pocket of his jeans he pulled a small metallic disc. It had a singular button on its surface, he clicked it and read the pale green words that appeared on its surface. Target : John Gonzales. Code Name: Twister. Hunter: Peter Het. Difficulty: 7.
He shut the device off and forced himself to get to his feet. The room around him was engulfed in inky blackness, that didn’t bother him. The dark and light were the same to him. He pulled on a large overcoat and checked his belt to ensure that his knife was still there. The cold wooden handle was a comfort as he set his hand on it, remembering the life he’d had when it was given to him. He stopped himself, it wasn’t the time to sulk on the past; it never was. Still surrounded by deep shadows and frigid air he stalked forward down the length of the train, he had a job to do. He’d been sleeping hidden among the cargo of the car at the very back of the train. Like most it was designed to fulfill as many purposes as possible, transporting people and whatever else would fit. There were a few others who had snuck into the storage cars, either too poor to afford a seat in the posh passenger seats or convicted of too many crimes to be given one.
Outside of the train a ruined landscape flashed by, destroyed by a war that had shattered the world decades ago. The world had crumbled as it changed, the old way of life dying as new forms of life emerged. Before the war nuclear war had been a fantastic horror, an apocalyptic future that loomed over the horizon. Then it happened and the aftermath became the grim reality of life. In the aftermath the powers emerged. They had been what sparked the war and then became the inferno that consumed the world after.
Peter stopped his musings and jumped from one car to the next. He found himself in front of the door to the passenger car, his hand rested on the handle of his blade. One deep breathe in, one breathe out. He stepped through the door.
As the door slid open the storm outside pulled out the warm air within like the void of space. It shut quickly behind Peter, the cold air drifting about the entrance like dying wisps of fog, darting away from Peter. Few of the occupants looked towards him, most of them were dead in their sleep and for those who were awake the disturbance was too small to draw their attention. Like a small child shouting, his entrance was a nuisance and nothing more to them. It wouldn’t be that way in a few moments.
Peter stalked confidently down the aisles and came up to one of the private booths. The sound of his knuckle rapping against the glass door joined the rattle of the car under the force of the deluge. The sound of his knuckle droned on and on, ignored by the people around him. The door slid open with a grating hiss and the smell of expensive tea greeted him. A well dressed man stood in the door, his hand hid behind his back.
“What business do you have with Mr. Gonzalez?”
Peter used the lie he had prepared. “I’m just a big fan of Twister and wanted to meet him in person. Could I?”
The bodyguard turned away, Peter acted in that moment. He shot forward with unnatural speed. Just as he collided with the guard his body switched places with some dark shadow. Both entities - the shadow and guard - were catapulted through the side of the train car tearing a rupture in the side of the train that the wind screamed through. A man in a sleek gray jacket sat next to the newly torn gash in the train wall, he stood to his feet barely holding in his bloodlust. He looked at Peter with eyes glimmering with a crazed excitement.
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Peter had drawn his blade.
The man across from him held glinting steel screws between each of his fingers.
Lights in the hall of the train flickered and the sound of panicked passengers struggled to overcome the howl of the wind.
Peter looked the man in his eyes, holding every emotion he felt behind a dam. It wasn’t the time to feel. A few of the passengers rushed past him like frightened animals searching for refuge from a prowling beast. Peter said. “We should wait for all the passengers to get out.”
The other man tilted his head to the side like a cocky child, he shifted the screws in his hands. “I don’t think I will.”
The wind from before suddenly felt like a light breeze compared to what followed as the air swirled together into a rioting vortex that tried to shove Peter out through the gap. Once again he disappeared leaving a dark shadow in his midst. The shadow exploded into pieces as three of the screws from the man’s hand tore it apart.
“John Gonzales, code name: Twister. Your Prime power allows you to rotate objects and control their orientation. Responsible for a minimum of five civilian casualties. Today I -”
“Shut Up And Fight!” Twister shouted. From his clenched hand he hurled two more of his screws at Peter. Peter jumped to the side, seeing the screws rip through the walls behind him like parchment paper. The wind around him twisted and tried to throw him through the hole in the wall. For the third time he switched places with the shadow, reappearing right behind his opponent.
“I’m not here to fight, I’m here to carry out justice.” He spoke the words right into Twister’s ear. The tip of his blade was on their ribs. An incensed strike passed within an inch of Peter’s face, he stepped back unconcerned. Twister caused the wind that rushed into the room through the gap to spin like a furious tornado. Peter heard a metallic screech as the hole grew and the wind tried to pull him into the storm outside. It didn’t scare him. If he’d wanted he could have already killed his target five times, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to let them live, to prove a point he so badly needed to be true. “You’re supposed to help people.”
Peter darted away from another strike and a shadow emerged from the air and struck Twister in the neck, a second one materialized behind him and wrapped its arm around his neck.
“You hurt people instead.” Peter stepped forward pointing the tip of his blade at their forehead. “To be honest I don't want to kill you, so I’ll give you a choice: leave The Watch - go live a normal life, help people - or fight me and die.”
The cocky excitement that had been in Twister’s eyes was gone now, all that Peter saw now was fear. It was the same fear he’d seen a hundred, no, a thousand times before. Rarely had he been the cause, and he couldn’t say he enjoyed the feeling it gave him. He hated the sight, the deluge of awful memories it brought; his parents dying, the subway crash, his friends’ deaths. Blinking away tears he focused on the moment. “Your choice.”
In a disgustingly pitiful voice Twister pleaded. “Please let me go.”
The shadows melted into the air letting Twister free. Peter walked away, he hoped that he was done with his task. “If you try anything… I’ll have to kill you.”
There was a moment, a breath of tense air, a single pinpoint in time that would determine a life. Peter faced away from Twister waiting for something he sensed would come. He reacted to an unseen threat too quickly for any regular person to react. Twister sent a piece of debris hurtling towards Peter. It barreled past him and through the wall on the other side of the train car.
They faced each other, Peter holding his blade, Twister gripping his screws so tightly they drew blood from the soft skin between his knuckles. “You should have killed me! You won’t get another chance -”
It seemed like he wanted to say more, he didn’t get the chance. A shadowy form appeared behind him and Peter changed places with it in less than the blink of an eye. Like a hawk swooping for its prey he moved too quickly for his target to run. He forced his blade up through the gaps in the ribs of his opponent. “I didn’t want to do this.”
Holding their body he twisted to the side hurling them out through the gash in the wall. The dying Twister flew into the night like a stone into the depths of the sea. Peter didn’t even see their body as it entered into the storm and the night.
His legs suddenly became shaky and he collapsed to the floor joining the carnage on the ruined carpet. He wished there was someone there with him, even just to share his pain. Someone to tell him he wasn’t alone.