Enhancer

by Wyatt Kane

  But he was already too late.

  “My turn,” Bane grated.

  With that, he launched himself across the room with formidable speed and crashed into Tempest with all of his power and strength. She couldn’t stand her ground as he had done. His momentum was enough to carry her to the far wall. They hit with a mighty bang and crashed through. It was as if the wall wasn’t even there, and both Tempest and Bane disappeared out the side of the building.

  15: Choices

  Ty was aghast. It was almost surreal. He could hear Bane roaring with anger as he fell and Tempest responding in kind. But where they had been standing just moments before, there was nothing. There was just a big hole in the wall.

  He walked through the lounge as if under a spell. Brad stayed where he was, huddled at the base of the wall. John Smith, still lying down on the sofa, watched Ty walk past and laughed.

  Ty stood right at the edge of the hole and looked down into the narrow street below. It was still early afternoon and full daylight, but he couldn’t see Bane or Tempest anywhere. Yet he could hear them in the form of massive, booming crashes and shouts of anger. The fall hadn’t finished either of them. They were still fighting.

  Ty wanted to help but knew there was little he could do. It would be like a hamster trying to fight a rhinoceros. Impossible. So he just stood there, afraid for Tempest’s safety but powerless to do anything about it.

  John Smith’s laughter turned into a sneer. “If I were you, I’d be figuring out how to get the device off your wrist. Because mark my words, Crusher will be back as soon as he’s finished with your girlfriend. And you won’t like what he does when he gets here.”

  Ty turned towards the man in raging anger. “What did you do?” he shouted. “How did that monster know to come here?”

  Still on a side with his hands bound behind him, the mercenary sneered at Ty. “I sent a signal. It was only a matter of time before he showed up.”

  Ty had heard enough. Feeling a more intense rage then than any he had felt before, he rounded on the man and hit him hard in the face with his fist. The man flinched at the blow, and Ty drew back and hit him again. And again. And several more times, until the man’s face was bloodied pulp, and Ty was puffing and panting.

  Then he hit him one more time, just because he wanted to, and the man was no longer laughing.

  That done, he turned to Brad. “Call the police,” he said to Brad, who was still sitting against the wall with a dazed expression on his face. Yet at Ty’s words, the gamer seemed to come back to himself. He nodded.

  “What are you going to do?” Brad asked.

  Ty was distraught. He had no idea what he even could do. “I don’t know. Go down and find her.”

  All he knew was that Tempest needed him, so he would do whatever he could. He took a blaster and the stun-baton and stashed them under his clothes as best he could given how tight they had become. He intended to head down, find Tempest, and blast away at the monster she was fighting with everything he had.

  But before he could leave his apartment and put his plan into action, he heard Brad let out a gasp of surprise.

  He turned around. Tempest there, looking more powerful than ever, floating in the air in the wreckage of the apartment like a goddess with energy crackling all around her and much of her hair standing on end.

  It was as if Ty’s heart had stopped. He stared in a combination of amazement and relief. He didn’t quite believe what he was seeing. Tempest must have been even stronger than she looked.

  Bane had appeared to mean business. Ty didn’t know how Tempest had survived.

  Yet she had. The proof was in front of him. And she was smiling as if she understood every thought going through Ty’s head.

  Then, all of a sudden, Ty did believe it. All at once, a flood of emotions washed through him. It was like a tsunami of relief and joy mixed with lingering anger at Bane.

  Without conscious thought, Ty crossed to Tempest and wrapped her up in an enormous hug. He couldn’t believe how happy he was to see her again. Nor could he believe how good she felt in his arms. He started murmuring words of comfort and stroking her hair, and it felt so natural that he didn’t want to let her go.

  Nor did it seem she wanted him to either. She drifted back to the floor, holding him just as tight, and nuzzled his neck in a way that he found delightful.

  Then there was more than just relief motivating him to hold onto her. It was something more urgent and basic than that. And it was contagious. Ty sensed a change in Tempest’s intent as well.

  He kissed her in the middle of the wreckage that had been Ty and Brad’s apartment. Where things might have gone from there, Ty could have easily guessed. But before they could, they were interrupted.

  “Geez, guys. Get a room already,” said Brad.

  Ty let out a laugh at the same time as Tempest, and they stepped apart. But there was an unspoken promise between them that both understood. Ty took a moment to just admire her, to drink her in with his eyes. “Are you okay?” he said.

  She nodded. “A bruise or two. Nothing more. They will be gone in a few hours.”

  A few hours? Ty understood then that Tempest’s healing ability was enhanced as well.

  “What happened?”

  “We fought. Once outside, I didn’t have to hold back. And Bane doesn’t fly. I hoisted him a couple of hundred feet into the air and drove him into the concrete to soften him up. Then I hit him a few times with a power pole. But something has changed. He’s stronger than he was. It’s like he’s boosted his stats. I don’t understand how. But even he couldn’t withstand that sort of treatment. His durability is immense, but it isn’t matched by his courage. He ran away.” Tempest grinned. “But he’ll be back,” she added.

  Ty nodded. Bane would indeed be back. The villain still hadn’t managed to get his overpowered hands on Ty’s device. And that would be bad for anyone who happened to be there.

  “Brad, have you got somewhere you can stay?” Ty said.

  Brad still looked slightly awestruck. He thought about it. “Yeah. Yeah. I can borrow a couch from one of my mates.”

  “Then do it. It’s not going to be very safe here for a while.”

  Brad looked at the hole in the wall. “And there’s that, as well,” he said.

  “Yeah. And there’s that. Um, how quickly can you go?”

  Brad sighed. The practicalities of the situation were bringing him back to himself. He heaved himself back up against the wall. “Pretty quick, I guess. Just need my rig. What about you?”

  Tempest answered for him. “He can stay with me,” she said, grinning broadly.

  Ty looked at her, but she just kept grinning. Then her grin faded. “Unless you don’t want to?” she asked.

  He wanted to stay with Tempest more than anything else in the world. It wouldn’t have mattered if she lived in a cave or right next to a sewer. But there was more than overwhelming, mind-numbing attraction to consider, and the part of Ty’s mind that wasn’t currently swimming with endorphins knew it.

  Tempest had asked him to join her team. Staying with her might not have been exactly the same as accepting that offer, but it certainly implied that he would. He chewed it over, thinking about everything Brad had said, and thinking also of his own reservations.

  “These guys are going to keep coming after me,” he said.

  “Yes,” Tempest replied.

  It was Ty’s turn to sigh. “And my Technological Enhancement skill might be more useful than we originally thought.” He nodded to himself. “Maybe it would be best if I stayed with you for a while.”

  He thought Tempest would be delighted, but her expression was strangely uncertain.

  “Really? Is that the only reason you can think of to stay with me?” she said, sounding disappointed.

  “Idiot,” Brad muttered just loud enough for Ty to hear.

  “Oh. Oh!” Ty replied. “No, that’s not what I meant. Tempest, I would love to stay with you. For all sorts of re
asons.” He gave her his best grin, and she responded in kind.

  “Dude, you really have to stop overthinking things,” Brad said, and Ty privately agreed.

  “Good. I’m glad,” Tempest said, the tone of her voice that suggested relief combined with genuine happiness. Ty found himself staring at her for long moments, just enjoying the intoxication he experienced whenever she was near.

  Brad interrupted with a rude noise. Ty glanced in his direction and found his friend grinning at him. “You are one lucky bastard,” he said.

  Ty just grinned even more broadly.

  It was then that Gremlin appeared in the doorway to Ty’s room. The cat sat primly and looked at them. “Meow,” she said in a very disapproving voice.

  Ty burst out laughing. “Sorry, Furball. Did we disturb you?” Then he looked at Tempest. “Gremlin, meet Tempest. Um, do you have room for one more?”

  Tempest seemed happy with the idea. “Absolutely.”

  <<<>>>

  It took half an hour for the police to show up. Ty used the time to pack a few belongings into his backpack, and Tempest washed away the dirt and smudges she’d gained from the fight with Bane.

  She also took the lead with the police. She explained what had happened and got it sorted in very short time. The three intruders were all on their way to regaining consciousness. The police replaced Ty’s twisted metal coat hangers with real handcuffs and marched the mercenaries out of the apartment, leaving one of the officers to take Tempest’s full statement.

  “And there’s another one you should know about as well,” Tempest said as she finished. “A big guy. You’d know him if you saw him. Imagine a rhinoceros in the form of a man. Eight feet tall, built like a tank. He’s dangerous. Now, is there anything else you need? Because we really should get going.”

  The remaining police officer, a younger guy who couldn’t have more than a couple of months on the job, was obviously flustered by talking to Tempest. He shook his head and said, “We have your statement. If we need anything else, we’ll get in touch.”

  And that was it. The officer closed his notebook and left them alone in the ruined apartment.

  Ty looked at Brad. “Sorry about all this,” he said.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Brad replied. “Most exciting thing to happen around here in years. Of course, I’m now homeless because if you, but what can you do? At least you got to walk away with the girl.”

  His words were snarky and sarcastic, but then he grew serious. “I understand what you meant now,” he said. “There are downsides to what you’re doing. It’s dangerous. Just look after yourself. Okay?”

  Ty nodded. “Yeah, man. You too.”

  With that, they were ready to go. As well as his now ill-fitting clothes and a toothbrush, Ty had packed the weapons the mercenaries had brought with them. He figured they might come in handy at some point.

  Other than that and some cat food, the backpack was disturbingly empty. His life in a nutshell. Not much to it at all. Yet there was one more thing he should pack.

  “Furball!” he called. “Come here.”

  The cat didn’t have a strong history of coming at Ty’s call, but perhaps she sensed something different about today. She approached him with a hesitant, “Meow?”

  “Good girl,” Ty said. He scooped her up, popped her in the backpack on top of everything else, and zipped everything closed. Gremlin started purring immediately and he knew she would be okay. He had carried her in the bag several times in the past.

  Then, figuring that it might be some time before he stepped foot in it again, he took one last look around his apartment. It wasn’t much of an apartment, but he’d had good times there with Brad as his roommate. In a way, it was sad to leave it behind.

  Yet he had little choice. Bane was still out there. And something told him the three mercenaries the police had left with weren’t the only ones in the villain’s employ.

  He looked at Tempest and nodded. “I’m ready,” he said, and that was all Tempest needed. She took Ty’s backpack from him and carefully put it on. Then, in the middle of the lounge, Tempest once again picked Ty up. Together, they rose into the air and, to Brad’s look of amazement and envy, drifted out through the hole in the wall.

  Ty was flying through the air for the second time that day. He felt like he’d won the lottery, and as the cold air hit his face, he knew that his life had changed forever.

  He might not have powers to match Tempest, Zach, or Bane, but he’d made his choice. He was determined to do the best he could with what he had.

  16: Sightseeing

  Ty’s second flight with Tempest was just as enjoyable as the first. He was beyond ecstatic, being held aloft by a woman who could have been straight out of mythology, who was as close to perfect as it was possible to get.

  To him, Tempest was a living angel, the embodiment of strength and beauty and grace all at once. Ty would have been content to relax in her arms for the rest of his life, even if they hadn’t been flying through the air, held up by invisible strings.

  It was still early afternoon. Unusual for New Lincoln, the skies were clear, and from so far up, the city looked almost peaceful. Sure, there was a haze of smog that blurred the edges and the sounds of traffic and sirens still reached his ears. But he could no longer see the dirt and grime on the ground, and the stink of desperation and unhappiness could no longer reach him.

  Ty wondered if he could convince Tempest to just keep flying, to leave New Lincoln behind and just go. But even as he had the thought, he knew he would not. New Lincoln might be filled with too many people struggling to make ends meet, and dominated by the mega-corporations that treated regular folk as no more than cattle, but it was still his home.

  He knew it. Understood it. Or at least, he understood those parts that he was most familiar with.

  Maybe, he thought, if he could look at it from this point of view every now again, it would help. Even if Tempest didn’t offer to fly him anywhere else, there was nothing to stop him finding a tall building and wondering about on the roof.

  Perhaps, he could work up some sort of tech that allowed him to fly without Tempest’s help.

  “Are you enjoying the view?” Tempest said, her warm, contralto voice purring in his ear.

  “I could get used to it!” Ty said. He was beaming like a kid at a fair.

  Tempest laughed out loud. “Want to do a little sightseeing?” she asked.

  Surprised at the suggestion, Ty blurted out an answer before he even thought about it. “Absolutely!” he shouted into the wind.

  That was all the encouragement Tempest needed. With a burst of speed, she took off, heading to the mega-corporation buildings in the city center.

  They spent about an hour flying over the city, weaving between massive buildings, visiting places that Ty hadn’t even known existed, and generally just having a look.

  It was an amazing, exhilarating way to see the city, and it gave Ty a different perspective. For him, New Lincoln had always seemed pretty grim. A place full of misery and difficult lives. But Tempest showed him parts he had never seen before, filled with fine houses with pools and picturesque gardens, and where everything looked clean.

  Ty understood then that the city was made up of a variety of colors, and some of them were more enjoyable than others.

  Finally, Tempest brought them out of the city completely, to one of New Lincoln’s lakes. She didn’t stop there but carried him some distance out over the water, to an outcropping of rocks in the middle, and landed on top of the largest boulder.

  The boulder was wide and smooth and seemed to be the perfect picnic spot, and just like before, Tempest waited until Ty felt steady before letting him go.

  Ty suspected few others had ever been there before. Maybe a kayaker or two, but not many beyond that. He turned in a slow circle, just admiring the view. On one side, the city crouched in its haze of smog, but the other sides were green and full of trees. It felt like they were all alone in the world,
with a picturesque spot all to their very own.

  Tempest was watching Ty’s expression. “This is one of my favorite spots,” she said. “It’s where I come when I want to be alone with my thoughts. When the real world gets to be too much.”

  To Ty, it was spectacular. “It’s amazing,” he breathed. He could easily see why Tempest would want to come here. It was beautiful and private, and Ty thought it was incredible that she would share this place with him. He wondered what he had done in his life to deserve this, and then started to laugh.

  Brad, he thought to himself, was correct. He was one lucky bastard indeed.

  He continued to admire the view for some time, then turned to Tempest, who was looking at him with an unusual expression on her face. “Do you like what you see?” she asked.

  “Very much so. It’s wonderful. I could stay here forever.”

  Tempest quirked a smile. “Well, I don’t think we’ll take that long,” she said. “But maybe a good half hour or so, absolutely.”

  Ty looked at her, wondering what she could possibly mean. He was still puzzling it through when she reached for him and brought him down to her level.

  Then, just like that, she kissed him full on the lips. It wasn’t a friendly peck, nor was it quick. It was a lingering, sensual kiss that clearly told Ty her intent, and this time Brad wasn’t anywhere nearby. The gamer couldn’t interrupt.

  After several seconds, Tempest pulled back and made a small noise of satisfied. “I’ve been looking forward to that forever,” she said with a happy sigh. “Now, are you going to stand there gaping? Or are you going to help me out of these clothes?”

  Ty realized that he was indeed gaping at her. He closed his mouth and gave her a grin. “Are you sure about this?” he asked.

  “I told you that the devices enhanced all sorts of things. I thought you understood. So yes. Absolutely, I’m sure. Aren’t you?”

  Ty had never felt anything like he was feeling right then. It was a desire so profound it made the small hairs on his body stand on end. It made him tingle all over, as if he’d been exposed to a mild electric current. His whole world compressed until the only thing he could see was Tempest standing within his loose embrace, smiling at his hesitation.