by Wyatt Kane
In truth, Ty had never known Brad to be particularly lucky in that regard. He’d been known to bring a girl home every now and again, but he wasn’t exactly the greatest catch in the world. He tended to talk about nothing other than games, and there weren’t many women in New Lincoln who would willingly overlook his habits.
“Of course you can,” Ty said blithely. “But what’s all this?” he asked, gesturing at both Brad and the apartment. “How long has it been since I was last here? A couple of days?”
Brad grinned again. “Yeah. It’s all been a bit quick, really.”
“Well? Spill,” Ty said. All thoughts of why Brad had called him to the apartment in the first place had fled from his mind.
But instead of telling his story right away, Brad announced out of nowhere, “I’m hungry. You want something?”
Ty looked at him suspiciously “Seriously, are you still Brad? I haven’t found myself in some parallel universe or something?”
Brad laughed and made his way past Ty to the kitchen. “Nah, it’s still me. It’s just that since Sarah cleaned out the kitchen, I’ve actually been using the oven occasionally.” So saying, he went to the cupboard and pulled out a bag of bagels. “Bagel?” he said.
The cupcakes Ty had eaten for breakfast seemed a long time ago. “Sure,” he said.
With the unexpected smoothness of familiarity, Brad turned the oven on and took out a baking tray. Ty remembered the only baking tray in the apartment as being thick with baked-on gunk and in no fit condition to actually use. But, like everything else in the apartment, the tray was clean. Spotless, in fact. No longer a health hazard.
Brad split three bagels in half and set them on the tray, then moved to the fridge. Ty couldn’t remember a time when that fridge had held anything beyond left over fast food boxes, many of which had been ignored to the point where they were starting to evolve. But somehow, Brad conjured a delicate, glass bowl filled with a yellow, buttery substance.
“Garlic butter,” Brad supplied before Ty could ask. “The green bits are chives or something. Sarah made it for me.”
Ty was impressed. He was genuinely looking forward to Brad’s garlic butted bagels.
The gamer slathered a generous helping of the butter onto the bagels and popped them in the oven.
“Now,” Brad said. He looked at Ty, who still stood in the entryway. “Are you just gonna stand there looking untidy, or what?”
Ty laughed again. He stepped into the lounge and sat on the couch. Brad followed him, perching himself down the other end.
But he didn’t say anything. He just grinned like a loon.
“Sarah,” Ty prompted.
“Yeah,” Brad said. “Sarah.” He grinned even more broadly.
“Are you going to say anything? Or just sit there grinning like a guy who finally got laid?” Ty asked.
18: Episode Recap
Brad gave a kind of braying snort, an acknowledgement of Ty’s words. It was enough to break the spell. “Yeah. If you’d got here an hour earlier, you would have met her.”
“So, given that I didn’t, how did you meet? What does she do? What does she look like?” Ty asked. Despite himself, he was genuinely curious.
“Oh, I can show you,” Brad said. He started messing about with the screen remote. At the same time, he answered Ty’s questions.
“I was out with some of the guys in my game guild,” he said. “I’d done a couple of jobs, trying to earn some cash, you know? One of them was basic-bitch farming to get enough gold for the client to afford a +3 armor set. The other one … that one involved tracking down the Pearl of Nevermere.”
“Didn’t you tell me once that was nearly impossible?” Ty asked. It wasn’t unusual for Brad’s stories to start and end with a game. Ty was used to it, and figured he’d get to the point eventually.
“Back when I was little better than a noob, sure,” Brad replied. “But I’ve gotten enough mad skills since then to make it happen. The pay wasn’t anywhere near enough to fix the wall, but it was still a major achievement trophy for me. I figured a celebratory drink was in order.”
“And?” Ty prompted.
“And there she was, chatting with a couple of friends at the bar.” Brad’s grin was back again. He seemed totally smitten. “I mean, it wasn’t like I was even trying to pick up. No idea why she even looked twice, but by the end of the evening it was like we’d known each other for years. Here it is,” he added.
He’d been flicking through images while he spoke. The one he settled on showed an attractive young woman who Ty would have immediately assumed to be out of Brad’s league. But then, he would have thought the same about Tempest and Dinah – and Lilith as well – being out of his league. So, who was he to judge?
Sarah might not have been as stunning as the women in Ty’s life, but he could certainly see the appeal. She was slim, dark-haired, and had a broad, open smile that contained just a hint of mischief, as if she was the type of woman who would be up for anything on a dare. In a world where body modifications were common, the only changes Sarah had made to her appearance were her ears, which were pointed like those of an elf. She wore a number of different earrings along the extended lobes, and her makeup was dark enough to suggest a Gothic vibe.
“Isn’t she great?” Brad said.
“She’s very pretty,” Ty replied. He looked at Brad. “What’s she doing with you?”
Brad didn’t take offence. “I know, right?” he said. “It’s like Tempest and you!” He scrolled through a couple more images, and Ty saw that Sarah had a purple streak dyed into the back of her hair.
“When did you meet her? Ty asked.
“Couple of days ago. After that builder guy came around to give us that quote.”
Ty couldn’t help it. He looked around at the apartment, and at Brad himself. “Just a couple of days?” he asked, even though he knew Brad was telling the truth.
“Yeah.” Brad said. He colored a little. “She didn’t exactly approve of the way I was living. She helped me clean up.”
“Well, I’m glad you found someone,” Ty said. “You deserve it.”
He said it without reservations. Ty knew that Brad was at heart a slob, but he was also Ty’s best friend in the world. He was about to ask the gamer about why he’d called when Brad abruptly change the topic.
“What about you?” Brad said. “What have you been up to? Why are you moving as if you’ve been hurt?”
“It’s nothing,” Ty said. He was a little embarrassed that Brad had noticed and didn’t really want to go into details.
But Brad was insistent. “Come on, man,” he said. “It isn’t nothing. You’ve been doing some superhero shit, haven’t you?” he said. “You know I live vicariously through you now, right? Give!”
Ty gave in. “All right, all right. What did I tell you last time? What do you know?”
“I know there was this recurring boss you had to fight, and a mega boss somewhere pulling the strings. I know that somehow you manage to score that superhero chick, Tempest, and you mentioned something about another one, Dinah. Right?”
“Right. So, you don’t yet know about the other bad guy who has appeared on the scene?”
“Another boss?”
“Yeah. Mega boss, the same as the Master. Maybe worse, even. His name is Rubio Vecoli. He was already a crime lord, but now he’s got a supply of these devices. That’s why I’m walking funny,” Ty made a face. “Tempest and I walked into an ambush yesterday. There was this guy there, called himself Steam. He managed to burn me through my shield. We were lucky to escape.”
“He burned you through your shield?” Brad asked.
“Yeah. I need to work out some way to combat that for next time we meet.”
As he said the last, Ty half hoped that Brad would come up with a suggestion. The gamer had a unique way of looking at things. Sometimes he could come up with ideas Ty wouldn’t have thought of himself.
But this time, he just nodded in understanding and s
aid, “What else?” as if Ty was the gamer’s own private entertainment channel.
That said, Ty had actually thought of something else to tell him. He grinned broadly and nodded at the screen.
“You might find this interesting,” he said. “Do a search. Amusement park heroics or something,” he said.
Brad gave him a vaguely puzzled look, but did as is he said. It didn’t take long for him to find what Ty was looking for.
“That’s it,” he said. “Play that.”
It wasn’t an official news story that Brad had found, although Ty was sure they were around. Instead, it was just a shaky video, taken by someone in the crowd. But it was clear right from the start what was happening.
When Brad hit play, it was like being back at the park. Once again, Ty could hear the crowd yelling, their exclamations of fear mixed with wonder and worry.
The camerawork was shaky, but Ty and Brad could clearly see Tempest doing all she could to hold the massive pendulum ride in place.
“Holy shit,” said Brad.
“Yeah,” Ty agreed.
“What’s happening? Why is the ride stuck like that?”
“It was the Master. He sabotaged the ride to put all those people in danger. And Bain was down at the bottom at the base, pounding away at one of the legs. The whole ride would have collapsed if it weren’t for Tempest.”
Brad Watt continued to watch the video with his mouth open. “Whoa, he said. “What – who was that?”
“That’s Lilith,” Ty replied. “She had been coerced into working for Bain and the Master.”
“Huh? Where did she go?”
“She’s a teleporter.”
“She looks like a demon,” Brad said.
“Yeah. One of the best splice jobs I’ve ever seen.” Ty grinned at his friend. “She came over to the mansion last night. We ate cupcakes together. Dinah and I are trying to add her to the team.”
At first, Brad just stared at the screen, his mouth still open in amazement. Then he shot a look at Ty. “Add her to the team? Do you mean…” he didn’t finish his question, but his meaning was clear.
Ty just grinned.
“You son-of-a-bitch,” Brad said. Ty kept grinning.
The screen emitted the sound of rending metal, and Brad turned his attention back toward it. This was the end, Ty knew. He watched as Tempest, with superhuman strength and effort, lowered the entire weight of the pendulum ride, complete with the fifty or so people on board, to the ground.
The video ended and Ty and Brad looked at Ty again.
“Holy fuck,” he said.
Ty nodded. “Yes.”
“Were you there as well?” Brad asked.
Ty nodded. “I was on the ground, fighting Bain and a small army of the Master’s men.”
“Wow,” Brad said. Then he shook himself. “But that’s not when you were injured?”
“No, that was yesterday,” Try said. He flexed his shoulder and grimaced at the pain. “If I had Tempest’s healing ability, it would be mostly gone by now. I’m trying to work out how to duplicate it, but I’m drawing a blank on it right now.”
“Her healing ability?” Brad asked.
“Yeah. I thought I could just replicate it, but because it isn’t the same as a skill, it’s not easy.”
Brad studied him for a moment. “You said the device adds nanites into your bloodstream, right?” he said.
“Yeah?” Ty replied, vaguely puzzled.
“Well, that makes it easy, doesn’t it?”
Ty didn’t follow. He just gave Brad a puzzled expression.
“You don’t need to figure out what how Tempest’s healing ability works. You just need to program some nanites to act like your own system. Use them to repair any damage that happens. If you can do that, you’re all done. Instant immortality, or as near to it as you can get.”
Ty stared at his friend. Once again, the gamer had managed to cut through to the heart of the problem. Ty had been looking at it all wrong. He almost laughed at the simple elegance of what Brad had suggested.
“Brilliant,” he said. “That might actually work.” He made a mental promise to talk with his friend more often, especially when he had a problem that he couldn’t solve by himself. Then he drew a deep breath.
“Now, how about you tell me your other brilliant idea. Why am I here? What are we going to do about the wall?”
19: What Could Go Wrong?
Brad opened his mouth to start talking, but the oven timer chose just that moment to bing. Brad shut his mouth again, and to Ty’s growing frustration, the gamer leapt out of his seat and headed to the kitchen.
“I don’t want these to burn,” he said.
Ty drew a deep breath and waited.
Fortunately, Brad was efficient. He returned with two plates stacked with bagel halves smeared with garlic-butter, and handed one of the plates over.
Ty accepted it gratefully and inhaled the warm, delicious aroma of hot bread. As Brad settled himself back down, Ty bit into a bagel with relish. It wasn’t up to Dinah’s standards of baking, but for Brad, who had barely touched an oven before, it was better than he would have expected.
It was delicious and satisfying, and both of them wolfed down their first bagel half without pausing to breathe.
But as he picked up his second, Ty repeated his question. “What is your grand plan?” he demanded.
Brad sucked molten garlic-butter from his fingertips. He grinned. “Yeah. It’s Sarah’s idea, really.”
Ty just waited.
“She works for one of the pharmacological megas. In a testing division. There’s this new drug they’re working on that sounds really interesting. I’ve got a pamphlet around somewhere, but essentially, it’s designed to tap into hidden potential locked away in our DNA. Sound familiar?”
Ty had been about to take another bite from a bagel. Instead, he stared at his friend. It did indeed sound familiar. The device on his wrist did exactly the same.
Brad grinned. “They don’t know what they might be able to bring out, but the way Sarah was talking, she’s thinking superpowers. Telepathy. Telekinesis. The ability to shoot flames out of your ass. I don’t really need to tell you what she’s talking about, right?”
Ty could scarcely believe what he was hearing. “No,” he said.
“But it’s more than that as well. Sarah says they might be able to induce abilities in people even if their genetics don’t originally support it. Like, someday in the future.” Brad grinned. “Can you imagine it? It’d be like a performance enhancement booster, a permanent buff for your health and general well-being. With the chance of a bonus skill on top.”
Ty didn’t know quite what to think. His first thought was that somehow, the world was on the verge of a superhero explosion. Just a few few days earlier, Ty had been skeptical that superheroes existed at all. Now, he was one, and the number of superpowered people had effectively doubled.
With an unknown number of devices in the Master’s and Rubio’s control, he had expected there to be even more, eventually. But with what Brad was saying, the world – or New Lincoln at least – could be on the cusp of a major change.
It could be evolutionary in nature.
Ty was still struggling to grasp the implications when Brad continued.
“Sarah says that they expect the changes to be minor. You know, like the body modifications that are all the rage at the moment. She thinks that mostly, people will grow scales, or become taller. Maybe grow claws instead of fingernails. She expects it to become the next big thing in the body mod industry. But there will be a continuum. And those on the far end, maybe they’ll be like your friend Tempest.”
Brad was probably right, Ty thought, but he was thinking about something else he’d said. What would happen when the pharmaceutical company could create powers to order?
Would a random person be able to order up Bain’s strength, Tempest’s ability to fly, and Lilith’s strange ability all at once?
Ty wasn�
��t entirely sure that was a good idea.
“Um, how does all this relate to fixing the hole in the wall?” Ty asked.
“That’s the best part!” Brad exclaimed. “You know I said Sarah was part of the research team? Well, they’re in the testing phase. They need guinea pigs. Human guinea pigs. And they’re willing to pay.”
An image of Angie the Hutt sneering at him, telling him he would have to sell blood to survive, appeared in Ty’s mind. He grimaced, thinking that maybe the awful woman had been right after all. Wasn’t being a drug tester much the same thing?
Yet he had to ask. “How much?”
“More than enough,” Brad replied. “But we’ll have to be quick. They only want a few candidates right now. And I don’t know what their criteria for acceptance might be. But imagine it. You’ve already got that thing on your wrist. What if we do this and I end up turning invisible? Or, you know, gain the ability grow to 100 feet tall? Wouldn’t that be awesome!”
“Yeah,” Ty agreed weakly. “Awesome.”
At the same time, he was tempted to give it a try. His misgivings about whether the megacorporation should be doing this research or not aside, he really did need the money. What would the drug do to his system, which had already been enhanced by the device on his wrist? Would it simply act as a buff?
Or would it somehow offer him something new?
And just how much was, “more than enough?”
“Are you going to do?” Ty asked.
“I don’t see why not. What could go wrong?”
“That’s the problem,” Ty said. “Why would they be willing to pay so well if there weren’t any risks?”
Brad hesitated, but only briefly. Then he shrugged and gestured around the apartment. “Dude, look at my life. I’m never going to reach the top level as a gamer. I’ll always be struggling. Sure, life’s pretty good right now, but if this is all there is, even if something goes wrong, it’s not like I’ve lost very much.”
Ty didn’t know what to say. He’d always thought of Brad as someone who could live his life on his own terms. But he was just like everyone else, struggling in a world arranged to benefit those at the top, without much hope of a better future.