The Watch – Part 139:

There was an explosion a couple of houses away. The fire ball filled the sky, spreading as far as it could go, engulfing as much of the scenery as it could before evaporating away, leaving a cloud of thick smoke to carry on the legacy. The sound was a thunderous thud, forcing Amy and I to cover our ears. A very high-pitched ringing sound stayed with me for several seconds afterwards as my eardrums struggled to settle back down. The shockwave nearly pushed us over, but the buildings in front of us took most of the force, but suffering for it as the windows were blown out of their frames.

‘What the hell was that?’ Amy said, her voice muffled. ‘What on Earth could have caused something like that?’

I took an educated guess, ‘must have been some kind of oil container to create an explosion like that. And a big one at that. The question I’m asking, though, is how we managed to miss the fire for it must have been raging for quite some time.’

‘Not necessarily,’ Amy said, ‘it only takes a drop of something in the wrong place to create a chain reaction.’

‘True,’ I agreed.

‘You have to go and see if you can help,’ Amy said, looking at me with wide eyes as if to say her decision was final.

‘Right,’ I said, fumbling a little. I reached for my watch. I changed my clothes to my suit, making sure that I add the sunglasses to hide my identity, increased my strength so that I would be able to lift anything heavy out of the way, my speed so I can get there quickly, and my invulnerability so that I don’t get affected by fire, or anything else that might pose a threat. I finished setting everything to the levels that I deemed reasonable, and felt the powers run through my body, filling up my muscles, my skin, directing me away from being a normal human being and into the realms of superhuman. Amy watched my fingers dance across the watch’s screen, selecting all that I need. I breathed in and out, signifying that I was ready to advance.

‘Ready?’ Amy said.

‘Have never been more ready,’ I answered immediately feeling as if I was being disrespectful to the situation at hand, being a little bit too enthusiastic when I should be serious and down to Earth, but I shook that thought out of my mind and focused getting the job done.

‘Then go,’ Amy ordered.

‘Right.’ I ran forward, reaching my maximum speed in a matter of seconds, rushing past the houses, turning them into a constant blur. I turned a corner and came to an instant stop.

An uncontrollable blaze stretching as far as it could. I did guess right with an oil tanker being the cause of the explosion, but I was wrong in thinking that it was just the one. Five massive oil containers engulfed in fire, the flames licking the sky, trying to climb higher with each second that passes. I could feel the heat from here, a good few metres away. I counted about six fire crews trying their upmost best to control the blaze. From where I was standing, I couldn’t see any injuries, just damages to property.

That fire isn’t going to go out without a fight, and a long one at that. I need to somehow stop it at its source, which is within the epicentre, which is guaranteed to be exceeding 1,000 Degrees Celsius.

I have an idea. I searched through the watch, finding exactly what I wanted, increasing its strength to the level needed to complete the task at hand. I felt my body gain another power. It was a weird sensation to think that I will be able to generate my new power at will as if I’ve been doing it for a very long time. My brain might not have adjusted to the feeling of gaining a new power, but my mind has, and that’s very strange indeed. I was ready to put out the fire.

I walked forwards. The heat of the fire intensified with every step, but my invulnerability prevented me from being burnt.

‘What the hell do you think you are doing?’ I heard someone shout beside me. I turned my head and saw a firefighter rushing up to me.

‘I can put this fire out before it gets worse,’ I said confidently. The firefighter stopped in his tracks the moment he realised that I was the person he saw all over the news.

‘You’re him,’ he said surprised.

‘Which means you have some idea of what I can do,’ I said, ‘which also means I can put this fire out.’

‘How? What are you going to do?’ he asked.

‘I’m going to extinguish it with water,’ I said. Now you know what new power I gave myself. I now have the ability to blast water from my hands at the intensity equal to that of a standard firefighter’s hose.

‘I’m going to extinguish the fire at the epicentre.’

‘That’s over a thousand degrees in there.’

‘I can take that,’ I simply. ‘Just give the order to make your men retreat and I’ll do my job.’

‘How can I trust you?’ he asked seriously.

‘Do you want this fire to rage on for many more hours, potentially causing catastrophic damage?’ It’s already exploded once, who’s to say that it won’t do it again.’

‘Fine,’ he said. I could tell he was still a little sceptic of me, ‘but if I find out you’re lying, I’ll make sure I spread the word that you are a villain instead of a hero as everyone thinks you are.’

‘Deal,’ I said without hesitation. I didn’t have to worry about that. This fire will be out in mere moments.

The firefighter gave the order and, very confusedly, everyone backed away, letting me take centre stage. They stood behind me, watching me curiously. I took a deep breath, preparing myself to enter the belly of the beast. I took my first step, the momentum generated from that first step propelled me forward, and soon I was nearing the raging fire itself. I could hear the monster roaring as it has increased in strength now that there’s no one here to fight it. The heat was now insane. My suit was burning, my shoes and sunglasses melting. I had to take my sunglasses off so that I would be able to see better; I was so close to the fire therefore far enough away from everybody that they wouldn’t be able to see who I really am.

I lifted my foot, ready to enter the flames. The soles of my shoes made that noise as if a plunger was being pulled away from a shiny surface. I then entered the fire. Nothing but red, yellow and orange all around me. Heat so intense I nearly backed away. My suit was starting to burn. I probably should have considered fireproof clothing before entering. Do I have the time to search for that now? The fire’s raging on. I can’t spend minutes searching through my watch trying to find what I want. I must if I am to stop the fire from burning away my clothes, though. It was now completely on fire, burning away entirely.

‘Interface,’ I called out. He appeared in front of me, completely unaffected by the fire. He just stood there, casually.

‘I need you to make my suit fireproof,’ I ordered.

‘Certainly,’ he nodded, and in only a matter of seconds, my suit had restored itself, and was now protected by the fire. Why I didn’t think about fireproof clothing in the first place, I’ll never know? That makes no sense why I would not think of that. I mustn’t dwell on that mistake. I’m in the middle of the flames, I can’t do anything about it now. All I can do is carry on extinguishing this fire.

I lifted my arms up so they were stretching outwards either side of me, and focused, concentrating on what I wanted to happen, and immediately, water fired out from the palms of my hands, drenching everything around me. I knew immediately that it was working; the flames started to die down, the roaring of the beast turned into a whine as it knew it was beaten. Even with my powers, it took a couple of minutes before every flame was extinguished.

Oil, burnt pieces of metal, destroyed cars, trucks and the containers that were carrying the oil was all that was left after the fire was out. I stood in the middle, observing the fire’s handy work. I then realised that I was standing out in the open.

Without saying anything else to the firefighters, who were all standing around, mouth aghast, absorbing what has happened right in front of them, trying to understand the impossible, I left the site. I then proceeded to run back to where Amy was still standing, where I made her jump by appearing out of nowhere.

‘So?’ she asked, holding her heart and recovering.

‘Done,’ I said simply.

‘You need to clean yourself up,’ Amy noticed the soot all over my face and hands. ‘Come on, let’s get you home.’

***

After I had washed away all the soot, I came downstairs to find Amy sitting on the sofa watching the news.

‘You did it again,’ she said happily. ‘You’ve saved the day. I’m absolutely amazed beyond belief that no one was hurt during all of that. It’s just incredible.’ The news report showed an aerial shot of the fire as the news reporter talked about what caused it and the official damage produced. The report then switched over to what I did. The camera in the helicopter managed to get an almost cinematic view of me walking up to the fire, entering it and then the flames being gradually put out until there was nothing but smouldering remains.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)