by Wyatt Kane
It was no wonder his energy fields couldn’t stop her. She could literally rip apart the fabric of reality. Maybe at level ten, Lilith could give Frieza a run for his money, destroying worlds with no more than a moment of effort.
Dinah started to laugh, and Ty realized he was gaping. Like everything else about the deerkin, her laugh was rich, warm and beautiful, and he could listen to it forever.
“Would you look at that?” she said, still laughing. “It seems our Ty has a serious case of talent envy.”
Lilith smiled at this, and Ty himself joined in with a quiet chuckle. But his mind was still will awash with the ramifications of what Lilith had said.
“Nearly there,” Dinah said when her laughter had faded. “Who wants a glass of bubbles with their cupcakes?” she asked.
11: Bubbles and Drool
In a surprisingly short time, the warm, enticing aroma of fresh cupcakes filled the air. Dinah artfully displayed the cupcakes on a large platter, stacking them according to the fruits she had used to flavor them. The blackberry cupcakes were tinted red, topped with a swirl of frosting that was starting to melt in the heat, and a scattering of berries for garnish. The other flavors were displayed similarly, the apricots and peaches sliced into sections, and sharing space on the frosting with sprigs of mint and a dusting of icing sugar.
It looked and smelled amazing. Ty couldn’t help but salivate at the delicious promise awaiting them. He wanted to attack the cupcakes like a pig at a trough, and only the thinnest veneer of politeness held him back.
He could see that Lilith was equally enticed, the demon woman’s attention divided between the cupcakes and Dinah herself as the deerkin filled four flutes with bubbles. Only Tempest seemed immune to the spell of deliciousness Dinah had cast. She had turned on her stool to lean against the wall, and while her expression wasn’t exactly surly, it was heading that way.
To Ty, the blonde superhero was as beautiful as ever, but he wondered at her current attitude. She was normally direct to the point of bluntness. Yet she hadn’t said anything directly negative about Lilith’s presence. Even so, she acted as if the whole situation upset her on a visceral level.
Dinah finished pouring the wine and handed over the glasses. She raised her own in a toast.
“To friends and lovers, and whatever the future may bring,” she said, her usual smile firmly in place as she glanced meaningfully at each of them in turn.
They drank. It was another new experience for Ty, who had seldom had the funds for anything more than the most basic of drinks. He found the taste of the bubbles to be surprisingly sweet. And, less surprisingly, bubbly.
“Now,” Dinah said. “Who’s hungry?”
The four of them devoured Dinah’s cupcakes. Glorious, fluffy, and delicious, Ty couldn’t choose his favorite among them. The fruit added an entirely new dimension to a familiar dish. It was like eating the lightest, most satisfying fruit medley that ever existed.
Nor was Ty the only one to think so.
“Oh my God,” Lilith exclaimed at her first bite, her expression one of open delight mixed with surprise.
Dinah and Ty both laughed at the reaction. “Good, aren’t they?” Ty said.
“Good? These are amazing!” the demon woman said. “I’ve never tasted anything like it! It’s like an orgasm in my mouth!” At the last, the demon woman colored a little, and Ty understood she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. He continued to smile, and didn’t miss the mischievous glint in Dinah’s eyes.
Not even Tempest’s mood could hold against the onslaught of aromatic and flavorful perfection. She let out a soft groan of appreciation and murmured, “These are wonderful. You’ve outdone yourself this time.”
As the unexpected feast continued, Lilith increasingly lowered her guard as Dinah steered the conversation away from the more serious topics of Bain and the Master. In between sips of bubbles and bites of cupcake-based perfection, the demon woman revealed snippets about her background.
Born in a rural environment, she’d nevertheless spent much of her life in the city of New Lincoln. But she still yearned for the open countryside and clear skies. When Ty asked why she hadn’t returned, Lilith replied that it just never seemed to be an option.
“And besides, these modifications aren’t the most practical for farm work,” she said, gesturing toward herself. “I like the country, but I don’t know what I would do there.”
“Speaking of which,” Dinah said. “Those wings of yours. You can really fly, right?”
The demon woman gave a genuinely happy laugh. “Yes, but not because of the wings. I can move them, but they’re not strong enough by themselves. It’s my skill that lets me to fly. I don’t fully understand how, but it seems I don’t need to. I can just do it.”
Ty swallowed a bite of an apricot cupcake with a hint of perfumed frosting. “Your modifications are amazing,” he said. “That tail – I’ve seen others with similar tails, but yours seems way more natural.”
Lilith nodded, apparently pleased. Not long ago, for various reasons, she’d been very angry with Ty. But much of that anger seemed to have passed.
“The splicers who worked on me were the best. I have full control of my tail, just like my wings. At first, it felt weird suddenly having an extra limb that could move in different directions, but now it feels natural. Like I’ve always had it.” As she spoke, she wound her tail about to demonstrate her control. Ty couldn’t help but admire not just it, but everything about her.
“Ty, you’re staring,” Dinah said with a grin. “Maybe drooling a little, too.”
Before he’d started wearing his device, Ty might have blushed and looked away. But he had grown considerably since then, and not just in terms of height. He looked the deerkin straight in the eye and grinned.
“Yep. And so are you,” he said.
The deerkin laughed. “Too right I am,” she said. “She’s beautiful. It would almost be rude not to.”
Lilith proved to be too shy to accept the compliment. She blushed and looked away, but couldn’t quite stifle an answering grin.
Later, in a moment of silence between conversational topics, Tempest spoke up. “I just had another thought,” she said. With the wine and wonderful food on offer, even she had relaxed to a certain extent. “You can sense other devices, right? That could be another reason for the Master to be interested in you. Ty has made it difficult for anyone to attack us here, but you’re like a tracking device. With access to that ability, he could just wait until we’re away from here. Unprotected.”
She said it all lightly, an observation more than anything else, with no intention of bringing the mood down. Yet the demon woman’s smile still faded.
But Ty shook his head. “That would be true if the Master knew what Lilith can do. But he doesn’t, right?”
Instantly, Lilith’s smile returned. “That’s right,” she said.
The bubbles and conversation continued to flow, and Dinah kept producing more cupcakes. At some point, Gremlin wandered back in, but she stayed in the kitchen with Dinah and didn’t deign to acknowledge Lilith’s presence at all. Or Ty’s, for that matter. The furry little traitor had bonded with the deerkin in a way she never had with him.
Not that he was particularly concerned. Gremlin was a cat, after all, and he was enjoying himself too much to be bothered. Not even his injuries could spoil the mood. He simply focused on the way Dinah was flirting with Lilith, joined in where he could, and relaxed.
12: The Master’s Fury
A little later, Ty felt comfortably stuffed and a little light-headed from the wine. He was starting to think they may have found, if not an ally exactly, then at least a friend in Lilith. And, given the way she and Dinah were flirting, perhaps something more than that as well. Although in Ty’s mind, that was uncertain. He still didn’t fully understand how this relationship worked with just him, Tempest and Dinah involved. Was there room for another?
How would that even work?
For the
moment, it didn’t matter. As long as everyone was happy, including Tempest, then so was he.
He was about to suggest that they all move to a more comfortable spot in the mansion when the conversation was interrupted by an electronic ping.
Dinah was finishing up one of the blueberry cupcakes and had a dab of frosting on her lip. “Oh, that’s me,” she said. But it wasn’t her device. The deerkin, Ty was learning, never went anywhere without a connection to the online world. This time, she pulled a small tablet barely as big as Ty’s phone from a hidden pocket at her belt.
She thumbed it unlocked, and immediately sobered when she saw what it was.
“Remember how the Master contacted us last time, with a cryptic message embedded in the news nets?” she asked. “Well, I set up an alert for if he did it again, and he has.” She gave Ty and the others a bright smile. “So, who wants to find out what he has to say?”
She said it all lightly, as if discussing something as innocuous as the weather. But the reactions she got were more serious.
Tempest gave a curt nod, her expression almost a snarl. Lilith looked both horrified and uncertain, and Ty couldn’t help but remember the last time the Master had delivered such a message.
The mysterious villain had put innocent people at risk at an amusement park, sabotaging the most popular ride. Only Tempest’s superhuman efforts had prevented disaster. Ty had helped as well, but Tempest had literally borne the weight of dozens—as well as the ride itself—as she lowered them safely to the ground.
He didn’t know what the Master had in mind this time, but the mere thought of another message filled Ty’s stomach with a cold knot of dread.
“I guess we don’t have a choice,” he said.
But Dinah contradicted him. “Lilith does,” she said.
Perhaps the bubbles gave the demon woman additional courage, or maybe she would have made the same choice by out of determination alone. Either way, she gave Dinah her answer. “I would like to know what he said.”
“Good. Let’s go upstairs and find out.”
She led the way, and within minutes all four of them were in Dinah’s communications room. This time, the screen that covered all four walls showed a single coherent image: a simple alert on a dark background.
As she’d done before, Dinah took her place in the middle of the room and gestured at the screen. The alert opened to display lines of code that made no immediate sense to Ty, but which apparently Dinah could read like a book.
She nodded. “Yep,” she said. “It’s another message. Looks like it’s encoded the same way as before. Give me a second. I worked up an algorithm to unpack it, just in case….” The deerkin trailed off as she brought up the program.
Moments later, she let out an exclamation. “Ha! It is the same.” Dinah glanced at Ty, Tempest and Lilith, who looked simultaneously bewildered by what was going on and wildly impressed. “Are you ready?”
She didn’t wait for an answer, but instead gestured one more time. Instantly, the screen filled with images that were shocking in nature.
The Master’s earlier message had been a coherent warning and threat, challenging Ty, Tempest and Dinah to prevent his attack at the Scare Kingdom amusement park.
This time, it was different. This time, it was an expression of rage and hate. Instead of displaying a single image of an intended target, the screens were flooded with scenes of death and destruction. Ruined landscapes, broken buildings, the aftermath of earthquakes and hurricanes were just the beginning. The images flickered and changed to show scenes of death, both animals and human, interspersed with the most gruesome images of disease and decay.
To Ty, it was awful to look at. He wanted to turn away, and would have done so if the screens hadn’t surrounded them. Nor was he the only one. Each of the women wore expressions mirroring how he felt.
They recoiled in disgust and revulsion. Lilith’s expression even included aspects of pain.
Yet the images were just one part of the Master’s message. There was noise as well, a cacophony of harsh, grating sounds, like fingernails on a blackboard, rusty metal being torn, a wailing shriek that may have been human but which just as easily could have been an animal in distress.
All of this was a backdrop to the message itself. The Master’s eerie, metallic voice rang out through the noise like a clarion bell filled with hate. It was louder than any of them expected, and Ty’s first instinct was to cover his ears.
“Volume!” Dinah shouted. “Down to 20 percent!”
At once, the worst of the insanity faded and the Master’s words became clear.
“You think you have beaten me?” the Master said. “That your success at the park means anything at all? That the lab you robbed and the devices you stole will hurt me and my plans? These are no more than splinters, minor inconveniences that mean nothing to me! I have other labs, other sources for making devices. And they are just the beginning! When I am through, there will be people with powers beyond anything you can imagine. There will be gods walking among us, and I will be one of them! And there is nothing you can do to stop it!”
As the Master spoke, the images became increasingly violent, showing scenes of people being tortured and shot. As the villain paused, either to gather his thoughts or summon further bile, the images changed to those of explosions, death on a greater scale. Far beyond what Hollywood might show, Ty knew in his heart that the explosions were real.
“Know this, you who pretend to be heroes,” the Master continued. “I have let you live so far only to see if you can become something greater than what you appear to be. In that, you have been disappointing. You have shown yourselves to be incapable of the vision required to enact real change. You fight to preserve a broken system. And you have interfered with my plans.” The Master’s voice rose to a crescendo. “I will no longer accept this behavior! You will not interfere with my plans again!”
The Master’s last words echoed throughout the room, and the message ended as abruptly as it began.
The screens went blank. Ty felt battered. Like he’d just weathered a storm made of bile and spite. The impact of the Master’s message was visceral and profound, and he could see that the others were equally shaken.
Except Tempest, perhaps, whose response was to match the Master’s anger with her own. She simmered and glared as the others recovered.
Dinah drew a deep breath. “Does he think we took his devices?” she asked.
“So it would seem,” Tempest replied.
“And this message – it’s a declaration of war, is it not?” the deerkin said.
Tempest and Ty both nodded. The message had left Ty’s skull throbbing. It was another irritation to go with the aches of his wounds. “It looks like it,” he said. “Although, wasn’t he already an adversary?”
Dinah looked thoughtful. “He made it sound as if he was holding back.”
“Why would he do that?” Ty asked, worrying anew at the ominous thought.
It was Tempest who answered. “I don’t know, but it’s consistent,” she said with a frown. “He’s been careful to keep us alive, even when he took our devices. Before that, we didn’t know they could be removed.”
“It didn’t stop Bain from killing Zach, though,” Dinah said quietly.
There was a brief silence as they all pondered the question.
Lilith had said little until then, but at that point she spoke up. “Um, maybe I should go,” she said.
Ty glanced at the demon woman and saw her beautiful face creased with worry.
“Not if you don’t want to,” Dinah said. “We’re all in this together.” The way she said it suggested she was already thinking of Lilith as part of the team, as was Ty himself. But that assumption apparently didn’t sit well with Tempest.
“Are we?” the blonde superhero asked, one eyebrow raised.
Dinah favored her with an expression of sadness. “The Master knows about the three of us,” she said. “He also knows that Lilith is no longer under
his control. Do you think his message isn’t for her as much as it is for us?”
It was a fair point, but Lilith, at least, hadn’t considered the possibility until Dinah said it out loud. She brought a hand up to cover her mouth in a gesture of surprise.
Yet her resolve remained. “Yes, I must go. I need to check on my father.”
Dinah nodded, accepting the demon woman’s concern. “I understand. Would you like me to walk you out?”
At this, Lilith conjured a smile. “No need,” she said, and teleported away, leaving nothing but a popping sound and a lingering odor of ozone behind.
Ty looked at Tempest and Dinah. “Now what do we do?” he asked. “How do we defend ourselves against the Master?” He was worried. He’d never had anyone declare war on him before.
But Tempest just shrugged. “We’re not in any immediate danger,” she said. “If we were, he wouldn’t have bothered sending this message. And your shield is still active. Not that it matters to Lilith at all.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Nor can we bring the fight to him. We don’t know where he is, or even who he is. So, I’m heading to my room. You two can do whatever you like.”
With that, she turned and left the room.
Ty turned to Dinah, who wore a disappointed expression. He wasn’t quite sure that Tempest’s disappearance had anything to do with what they were talking about.
“What was that about?” he asked Dinah.
13: Taking Control
Despite his question, Ty wasn’t naïve. He understood Tempest was upset by Dinah’s flirting with Lilith. He was asking a deeper question than that. He wanted to know the rules of how it all worked.
Had Dinah crossed a line, or was something more going on?
Dinah smiled. “Unless I miss my guess, it looks like our Tempest might be feeling a little insecure.” Ty couldn’t help but stare at her. Tempest, insecure? The thought didn’t compute. But before he could voice his uncertainty, Dinah continued. “Why don’t you go talk to her?” she said. “Spend some time with her. Show her how beautiful she is.”