Chasing the Future
1
Thomas Chantry dreamed.
He stood on a corner near Lake Michigan. He noted the street signs so he could make his way back here when he was awake. His dreams showed him the future so that he could change it.
Chantry saw a hand erupt from the lake. It was blood red, with long dark fingernails. A man in a worn coat struggled in its clutches. He noticed the ring on the man's finger, noticed the glow it emitted.
Chantry frowned as the man turned into a ball of fire that was squashed out in the giant hand.
The edges of the dream collapsed gently as he awakened. One of his hands searched for a pen and the pad he kept by his bed. The pen point scratched against the paper as he drew his memory as fast as he could. He wrote the names of the intersecting streets down so he wouldn't forget where he needed to be.
Chantry had dreamed the future as far back as he remembered. He had been able to avert tragedies, and help those in need. He had even worn a costume when he needed to protect his identity from discovery. His dreams were his aid, and his curse.
2
Cory Chase stepped off the train, duffel bag over his shoulder as he looked around the platform. Any minute some huge monster might appear to have words with him. Still he had two of the twelve stones he needed, and a list of where the other ten should be. Things were looking up as far that goes.
He still didn't know why he had been given this weird inheritance by Oliver Hunt, or who was behind the two monsters he had already faced. On the other hand, the emerald from the waters off Cutter Bay gave him strength beyond measure, and the bloodstone from Jack Dragon's house let him divide into two, weaker versions of himself.
Insurance from his wrecked boat gave him some money to pursue the quest he was on. That had really started him thinking about finding the rest of the jewels. He would have been content to sail and bum around if a sea serpent had not smashed boat into a million pieces when he had been pulled to the first stone.
If someone was going to come after him before he had one stone, there were likely not to care if he was looking for the others or not.
3
He shuffled his cards with ease as he waited for his plane to roll to a stop. Soon he would be walking through the terminal to get a cab for his hotel.
The cards had always helped him in the past. He could get anything he wanted when he used them. Now they had failed him twice in the last few months. It worried him.
The sea serpent and the knight of wands should have destroyed Chase when they met. Instead he had turned the tables. He shouldn't have been able to do that with the one jewel from the ocean off Cutter Bay.
The card holder flipped through his cards as he thought. He knew that the Blinker had been on the scene in Cutter Bay. He shouldn't have made a difference. The serpent should have eaten both of them.
He put the cards away as the plane finally halted.
4
Thomas Chantry scratched his nose as he waited at the corner he had seen in his dream, the lake stirring slightly. He had other dreams with clearer images of the future since the first. The confrontation would happen not too far from where he stood.
At the moment, he didn't have a clue how to change the outcome he had foreseen.
The scarlet hand would burst out of the water, holding its prey in a crushing grip. Then the two would battle until the Ringbearer was burned to death.
Chantry pondered how he should approach things. His time as the Veil had shown him that people rarely wanted to know what was going to happen to them. He needed a way to convince this Ringbearer of his sincerity in the fastest way possible before the taloned hand appeared on the scene.
Chantry saw the object of his thoughts appear on the street corner to his left. He moved to intercept the fast-moving man pushing his way through the flow of people. He saw that the man noticed him cutting a path toward him.
"You don't know me," Chantry said. "I know you won't believe me, but you are in danger. Whatever is in the lake will draw something here to try and kill you."
"I can't say I'm surprised," said the Ringbearer. "It's always one thing, or another."
Chantry smiled slightly. He didn't need to be persuasive after all.
"Let's go somewhere and talk," Chantry said. "I don't know how much time we have before that thing arrives."
"Lead the way," said Cory Chase, gesturing for the other man to proceed.
The two men entered a small restaurant in the middle of the block. They followed the sign asking them to seat themselves. Chantry settled in the corner so that he could watch the street. Maybe his vision would give them a warning when their mysterious enemy was about to show its hand.
"I see the future in dreams," Chantry said. "This what I have seen about you."
The painter described his dream in full detail, adding in remembered details as he went. He noticed the other man nodding, as if he had seen something similar. He finished the description with the body burning that ended the dream.
"Thanks for the warning," Cory Chase said. "These monsters have been after me since I got this ring. It's become obvious that one man, or group wants to stop me gathering the rest of the jewels. I just don't know who he is yet."
"I'm sure that this devil will appear soon," said Thomas Chantry. "It's probably coming this way as we speak. I remember there was a similar monster when I first started out. I just don't remember any of the details."
"When you first started out?," Chase asked.
"Back in the Fifties," said Chantry, sipping his water. "I was just starting out then, using my dreams to help people. I don't think it had anything to do with Chicago. I think it was back east in one of the cities there. Church Hill, or Cutter Bay, is what I want to say."
"Could you do me a favor?," said Chase. "Could you find out for sure? If I can find the man behind the monsters, maybe I can stop these attacks long enough to assemble the rest of the jewels."
"I can do that," said Chantry. "I'm afraid my gift is not great for physical confrontations, never has been."
"Hopefully I will be able to deal with this devil thing on my own," said Chase, standing up. He dropped a couple of dollars on the table to cover their drinks. "Be careful. This guy might go after you if he thinks you're getting involved with my problem."
Chase turned, pulling his jacket close as he stepped away from the table. The next jewel was in the lake, and he had to go in after it. Having something come after him was just icing on the cake.
Chase followed the lake shore to a place where he could rent a boat to sail out on the water. After a few moments of chatting with a balding, pasty man behind the counter, he had something he could afford to lose if that monster showed like Chantry was sure it would.
He would have dismissed the painter out of hand before he had received the ring. Now the meeting was something to take in stride with the rest of the weirdness that was becoming his life. He was ready for it, as if chasing the missing jewels was readying him for some unknown future where he would have to meet challenges greater than the monster maker.
Chase didn't find that thought extremely comforting.
Chase took his rented boat out on the water. He steered away from the freighters, and pleasure craft plying the waterway with him as he headed for the spot given to him by the magician in Church Hill. His ring began to glow as he moved closer to its component under the water. The Ringbearer kept his eyes on the sky, looking for the thing that wanted to stop his quest.
Chase didn't have to wait long as a scarlet devil from a grim fairy tale appeared overhead in a trail of fire. Cloven hoofs left foot prints as it descended toward the rental boat like a comet. The sailor knew the boat was the only solid area where he could fight from. He also knew he had to have that missing jewel if wanted to have a chance of getting out of this in one piece.
Chase dove overboard and started swimming down as fast as he could.
Lake Michigan was a grimy shroud as Cory Chase pulled himself toward the bottom. Generations of shipping had passed overhead as Chicago supplied the rest of the nation. Chase knew that some of those boats had sank in the Great Lakes from storms. He hoped the jewel was trapped in one.
He wanted to recover it quickly, not search for it while a burning thing boiled the lake as it came for him.
Chase saw a gleam ahead of him. A yellow line reached from the ring on his hand to that shimmering in the silt on the bottom of the lake. As soon as the line connected the two of them, the magnetic attraction between pulled the sailor down faster than his own superhumanly strong arms could. He grabbed the jewel, placing it in its setting with an economy of motion as the water exploded overhead in a cloud of bubbles.
Chase flexed his hand, wondering what this jewel did. He hoped it was something that would prevent him from going up in smoke.
Chase hit the bottom of the lake. Metal raced up his hands and arms as a giant scarlet hand wrapped around him. His coat caught fire from the touch as the huge fingers closed tight. The new metallic covering started heating up, but the sailor seemed safe for the moment.
He just needed to break the thing's grip on him, and get out of the lake before he drowned. It sounded easy.
Chase grabbed the fingers. He began to push against the red skin, trying to get his feet up to kick out. The boiling water obscured his vision as he slipped free with an effort. He kicked out with both feet. He jetted away with his superhuman strength. He hit the bottom of the lake in a cloud of disturbed debris.
Chase got to his feet, looking at the glowing devil rushing him in its burning aura. Time to take this to a neutral ground since the water wasn't bothering it at all. Chase kicked against the lake bottom. He shot up straight up toward the surface of Lake Michigan. When he ran out of momentum, his hands pulled him forward in great leaps toward the surface of the water. He broke out in the air with a great splash.
Chase started swimming for the dock areas as fast as his metal body could go.
5
Thomas Chantry stood on the shore, looking at the fireball approaching from the spot where Cory Chase's boat had gone down. His gift couldn't help him now. He needed something relevant and able to deal with the menace. Water hadn't dimmed the thing's furnace at all.
Chantry looked around for something that might work. There had to be something usable to protect the city, and Chase if he made it to shore. The dream of the future had already been changed by his urging Chase to hurry, and the fact that the sailor had been able to claim the jewel from the bottom of the lake before any conflict had started. That might be a lever to change the rest of the dream.
Chantry saw something in double vision. The present and the future overlapped in the next few minutes. It was tantalizing in the hint that it gave him. All he needed to do was get his bait to lure the thing to the place he had seen in his glimpse of the future.
Chantry ran to where Chase was swimming toward shore. He cupped his hands over his mouth to form a megaphone. He shouted for his new acquaintance to get to the fast food place on the street. He didn't wait for an acknowledgment as he ran up to the street and toward the place he had pointed out.
Hopefully Chase would go along without thinking about what was going on. There was no time for hesitation.
Chantry pushed his way inside the restaurant. He shouted for the crew and customers to clear out before the devil arrived. The management looked ready to throw him out until they saw Chase run toward them, skin gleaming through the rips in his coat, and shirt. The fiery menace was right behind him. Everyone started running out of the back door away from the two enemies.
Chantry moved to the fire alarm trigger next to the grease fryer. He heard the glass door shatter in the front of the place as Chase didn't stop to push the door open. The Ringbearer turned the corner, and jogged to where the dreamer waited.
"He's right behind me," Chase reported.
"Good," said Chantry, hand on the white switch.
The Tarot's Devil boiled the glass away from the last window next to the door as it entered the dining room. Furniture and decorations caught fire as it looked around for its prey. It had been confused by the hardened skin that it had encountered under the lake. It still needed to complete its mission, and that stayed the same.
It had to destroy the Ringbearer.
The Devil hovered until it saw the two men standing by the cooking equipment halfway to the other end of the building. It raised a hand, fire shaping into a ball in its palm. The old man was nothing to it, but the Ringbearer was there to be destroyed.
"Come and get me," said the metallic man, waving with his hand. The ring on his finger glittered on his hand as it moved.
The Devil threw his fireball as it stalked forward. Fiery hoof prints appeared in its wake. The fireball smoked the air as it headed for Cory Chase. He ducked under it, wincing when the flames exploded against the back wall.
"One more like that and we won't have to trip the switch," Chantry said.
Chase nodded. He charged forward as the sprinklers in the lobby finally snapped on. That wouldn't stop the fiberglass tile from burning. The Devil reached for the Ringbearer with taloned hands. The sailor grabbed the arms of the thing, feeling the heat through his new protective armor. It wouldn't take much more to start burning the skin off his hands. The two enemies glared at each other for a second of hatefulness. Then they tried to kill each other.
The Devil tried to pull out of Chase's grip, while trying to bite him at the same time with the oversized fangs in its mouth. Chase ducked the bite, turning his body. The strength he gained from his ring allowed him to throw the living picture over his shoulder. It flew into the ceramic tile, smashing the floor apart with its flame. Chantry pulled the switch on the fire fighting system over the fryer and grill near him. He covered his mouth as he backed away from the cloud of chemicals jetting down on the living picture.
Chase waited until the chemicals cleared out of the way. He hoped Chantry's plan worked. Ordinary water hadn't done much to stop the thing. He didn't see what a Halon System could do. The cloud cleared away after a few seconds. The Devil was hunched up inside the small crater he had dug into the floor, fire out for the moment. It was staring at its hands in sudden fear.
Chase smiled slightly as he jumped the wrecked counter, puddles of water making him slide as he hit the floor. He leaned forward and punched with all his might as he started to fall. He was happy to see that his new enemy's chest ruptured from the blow.
"That takes care of that," Chase said, rubbing his hands together.
epilogue
Cory Chase stood on the Amtrak platform, waiting for his train to arrive on the rails. His list was in his wallet, but a little faded from the rough treatment it had received in the lake. His bag was on his shoulder as looked toward the east for his train.
"Cory Chase?," said Thomas Chantry's strained voice. He had taken a dose from the Halon system, and it had hurt his throat. "I have something for you."
The Ringbearer turned, smiling at the sight of his colleague. He had bailed from the burning restaurant as soon as he had made sure the painter was able to get help. He had not wanted to answer any questions from the police. He felt like that would have put him in a spot where his hidden enemy could keep trying to get him without any problems. At least while he was free and roaming around the man had to search for him, even though that didn't seem much of a problem for him either.
"How's the throat, Tom?," Cory asked.
"It'll heal," said Chantry. "I just wanted to give this to you before you left town."
The painter held out a manila envelope. Chase took it, weighing it in his hand.
"I called Cutter Bay to check my memory," Chantry said. "I had someone look up what they could about the monsters we talked about. She faxed me what she could find. Some of it does date back to the fifties like I thought."
"Thanks for your help," Chase said, taking the envelope. "I couldn't have beaten that thing without you."
"Don't worry about it," said Chantry. "Part of the job. Good luck with your search."
The painter turned and vanished in the station crowd.
Chase tried to spot him making his way to the door, but gave it up as his train pulled into the station. Time to start looking for the next jewel.