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Detroit was once known as the Motor City.
Located in America's Great Lakes region, it was the largest city after Chicago and the fourteenth-largest metropolitan area in the United States.
Its proximity to the Windsor metropolitan area in Canada made the Detroit–Windsor border crossing the second busiest international crossing point in North America.
The busiest, of course, was the San Diego–Tijuana border between California and Mexico.
However, the combined effects of industrial relocation and globalization had dealt an irreversible blow to Detroit's cornerstone industry: automobile manufacturing.
The workers who had once flocked there during the post–World War II economic boom eventually found themselves trapped by unemployment and poverty, becoming a source of social instability instead.
The resulting decline in public safety drove wealthier residents away, which in turn reduced municipal tax revenue.
Meanwhile, the labor unions and pension systems established during the 1960s, welfare programs for low-income residents, and the maintenance costs of extensive public infrastructure continued to grow year after year.
City revenue shrank.
Expenses increased.
And the ordinary people living there could clearly feel the steady deterioration.
In Henry's memories from before his transmigration, Detroit's municipal government had declared bankruptcy and entered restructuring in 2013.
In this Marvel universe, it seemed destined for the same fate, steadily marching toward insolvency.
Even in the 1990s—an era when America viewed itself as invincible and far ahead of the rest of the world—Detroit already carried a lingering air of decline.
Today, however, what briefly stirred life into the stagnant city was hardly a good thing.
A runaway car had plowed through crowded streets, smashing road signs and colliding with numerous vehicles, damaging both public and private property.
Several police cruisers were already in pursuit.
Yet none of the officers dared open fire.
Because screams from a woman and children could be heard from inside the vehicle.
Some believed they were kidnapped hostages.
Others assumed they were innocent family members of the driver.
In practical policing, shooting at a moving vehicle was rarely the preferred way to stop it.
Methods like the PIT maneuver—Pursuit Intervention Technique—were far more effective.
If officers could catch up to the suspect vehicle, all they needed to do was bump the rear quarter panel with the front of their cruiser.
This typically caused the rear wheels to lose traction, sending the target vehicle spinning out of control until it crashed or rolled over.
After all, stopping a car with a handgun was incredibly difficult.
Even if you blew out a tire, a determined driver could often keep going.
As for shooting other parts of the vehicle, there were very few places where a single bullet could stop a car, and hitting those spots while both vehicles were moving was even less likely.
There was also another reason.
A suspect who got shot didn't necessarily stop driving.
Most simply gritted their teeth and kept going.
Usually, you had to kill them before the car stopped.
And once someone died, paperwork followed.
Police generally preferred wrecking a vehicle over killing a suspect.
Whether through PIT maneuvers or spike strips, the American policing philosophy was less about minimizing damage and more about ending the situation as quickly as possible.
The belief was that rapidly ending an incident ultimately minimized overall losses.
The runaway vehicle did not escape one of the police's traditional techniques.
Fortunately, it did not flip over.
Instead, it crashed directly into a roadside fire hydrant.
The crumpled front end jammed against the hydrant as water sprayed skyward.
At last, the vehicle stopped.
Police cruisers boxed it in from both front and rear.
Several officers immediately exited their vehicles with guns drawn.
"Detroit Police Department! Everybody in the car, hands where we can see them! Get out now!"
The woman and children in the back seat kicked open a door warped by the collision.
Ignoring their injuries, they stumbled out.
Officers quickly moved in and secured them.
Terrified, the woman and children began rattling off Russian at high speed.
Not a single officer on scene understood them.
They simply detained the family and moved them away from the vehicle.
The driver, meanwhile, remained trapped behind the deployed airbag.
Combined with the collision itself, he was unable to move.
The officers showed little sympathy.
With weapons raised, they carefully approached the front and driver's side of the car.
The water from the fire hydrant soaked them, but none wanted to risk letting the suspect escape.
"Put your hands where we can see them and get out of the car!" shouted the nearest officer.
Struggling to raise his arms past the half-deflated airbag, the driver replied in heavily accented English:
"I can't get out.
"I can't leave the driver's seat.
"There's a bomb under it.
"If I stand up, it will explode."
Not a single officer believed him.
"What kind of bullshit is that?" one barked.
"Do you have any idea how many people you hit during that chase?
"Get out of the car!"
The driver stubbornly repeated himself.
"I can't.
"The accelerator jammed after I stepped on it.
"The brakes jammed too.
"I didn't know how to stop.
"I was trying to get out to the suburbs before figuring something out."
At this point in history, Americans weren't especially sensitive to the concept of car bombs.
The British, after years of dealing with the IRA, were much more familiar with them.
Only after the Iraq War, when insurgents frequently employed vehicle-borne explosives against American forces, would car bombs become deeply ingrained in the American public consciousness.
As a result, the officers dismissed the driver's insistence as an excuse.
His thick Russian accent only made the white officers trust him even less.
With a gun in hand came the confidence that they controlled the situation.
An officer roughly grabbed him.
"I don't care what your problem is. Get your ass out of the car!"
The pressure trigger beneath the seat had been deliberately calibrated to be relatively insensitive.
Otherwise, normal bumps during driving might have triggered it accidentally.
But the sudden removal of an adult man from the seat created enough pressure change to activate the detonator.
The TNT hidden beneath the driver's seat exploded with a thunderous roar.
Contrary to Hollywood depictions, car bombs did not always produce giant fireballs.
Unless the vehicle's fuel supply ignited, spectacular flames were uncommon.
Furthermore, this particular bomb lacked any dedicated fragmentation enhancements.
Grenade shrapnel, steel ball bearings, and similar additions were usually included to maximize lethality.
This device relied solely on the raw explosive force of TNT.
The blast tore apart the seat cushion and hurled both the driver and the officer dragging him to the ground.
Officers standing farther away but still surrounding the vehicle were thrown backward by the shockwave.
Some were so startled they fell onto the pavement.
Moments later, flames and black smoke began pouring from beneath the hood.
An explosion powerful enough to destroy a car's interior was bound to damage the vehicle itself.
The officers closest to the blast were still suffering from ringing ears.
Those farther away recovered first and immediately rushed forward, scrambling to drag the two men away from the danger zone.
But both the driver and the squad leader were already bleeding from their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
The blast had devastated their internal organs.
Compared to that, the random fragments and debris that had struck them were insignificant.
The condition of both men at the center of the explosion was dire.
The surviving officers frantically called for ambulances.
Although neither victim displayed dramatic external injuries, both later died in the hospital from multiple organ failure.
Their insides had effectively been liquefied.
Not even miracles could save them.
Remaining to-do list: 7.
Collateral casualties: 1.
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