by Wyatt Kane
Lilith nodded and stepped forward.
7: Spiced Chai Latte
Ty and Lilith materialized above the bridge over the Koi pond outside Tempest and Dinah’s penthouse mansion. This trip proved gentler than most. The aching cold of that place between points barely had time to work its way into his soul before they popped back into normal existence.
The demon woman lowered them to the bridge, made sure Ty was steady on his feet, and gave him a quick grin.
“Try not to worry,” she said. “We’ll find him.”
Ty knew the demon woman was just trying to make him feel better, but he was more than worried. His crawlers had shown that there were just two more survivors in the rubble. How many corpses were buried there, he couldn’t tell.
He knew the chances of one of the survivors being Brad were impossibly slim. Even so, he couldn’t help but feel a touch of resentment that he wouldn’t be there to finish the job. That the police were looking for him when there were villains like Concussion wreaking havoc made him unaccountably angry. That they actually had reason to look for him made it even worse.
Part of him wanted to rail at the injustice of it all, to unload on Lilith just because the demon woman would understand. Yet he didn’t want to keep her from the disaster zone. Tempest was the strongest of them, but in Ty’s mind, she took too much on herself. He would be more comfortable if he knew Lilith was with her, helping her as best she could.
Instead, Ty just nodded, accepting the demon woman’s words. Lilith gave him a smile, leaned forward and pecked him on the lips just as Tempest had done earlier. Then she stepped quickly back and, with the familiar popping sound and a hint of ozone, vanished once more, leaving Ty alone on the bridge.
With a heavy sigh, Ty made his way to the main entrance and disabled the shield.
◆◆◆
Dinah must have started making her way down from the communications room as soon as she hung up from her call. She was waiting for him just inside the door, and her expression suggested she understood Ty’s inner turmoil. Normally, she would have greeted him with a broad, appreciative smile, but this time, she studied him for a moment instead.
Ty couldn’t hide his anguish. Not from her. He stared at her, unwilling to give in to his grief, and that was all she needed to see.
She wrapped him up in an embrace, and held him for some time. When she stepped back, she kept a grip on his arm. “Come on,” she said. “I’ve got something that will help.”
With that, she tugged him toward one of his favorite places in the mansion. The kitchen was Dinah’s domain, and Ty would never have thought to encroach upon it in any way. But the attached breakfast bar was another story. Ty sat himself down on one of the stools without prompting and wondered what culinary masterpiece the deerkin might be about to produce.
At the same time, he worried that he wouldn’t be able to do it justice. His failure to find Brad had left him feeling hollow inside. He had no appetite at all.
He needn’t have worried. Instead of conjuring a selection of delicious pastries or cakes from thin air, the deerkin took a matched pair of ceramic mugs from a cupboard and set them on the counter.
Ty realized she must have set things in motion before calling him. Instead of reaching for a kettle, she took a simmering pot from the stove and poured a hot, aromatic liquid through a strainer directly into the cups.
Ty couldn’t help himself. Despite how he was feeling, he inhaled hugely. The liquid smelled warm and familiar, and remarkably comforting even though he couldn’t name the scent.
“Spiced chai latte,” the deerkin supplied. “With a touch of vanilla and cinnamon. My own recipe. The best thing possible for cold winter nights, days of sadness, and for getting over the flu.”
She finished pouring and popped the strainer into the pot, which she sat back on the stove, away from the heat. “Not that any of us have had to worry about colds or flu since putting on these devices. Although I dare say it will also help with the after-effects of that drug you’ve been taking.”
She offered one of the mugs to Ty and started to lean against the counter, but then changed her mind and joined Ty on the other side, settling herself onto one of the other stools. As Ty held the drink close to inhale the flavors, he thought about what the deerkin had said. He could still feel a slight buzz from the AZT-407, but knew the strongest effects of it had already passed. Yet he hadn’t reached the hangover stage. Or, if he had, the effects of that were being masked by Sarah’s serum in his veins and the restorative Dinah had given him before.
To Ty, the drink smelled like luxury and warmth, and he knew before he took his first taste that it would be both delicious and exactly what he needed just then.
Dinah was watching him with an expectant expression. Ty blew gently into the mug and took a small sip.
It was an explosion of flavor like nothing he’d ever tasted before, and he knew it would do everything that the deerkin had said it would. He’d never been much of a tea or coffee drinker, but if he had been, one sip of the deerkin’s spiced chai latte would have been enough to convince him to change his drink of choice from that moment on.
He couldn’t help himself. He stared at the deerkin as he swallowed, then blurted, “That’s amazing!”
Dinah gave him a grin and took a sip of her own drink with as much evident pleasure as he had done.
“It is, isn’t it?” she said. “Now, why don’t you tell me how the morning has gone?”
In between sips, Ty did so, and it seemed that Dinah was impressed with what he had done. Her eyes lit up with pride as he described his success with his crawlers, and how they’d enabled him, Tempest and Lilith to find an unexpected number of survivors and reach them far more quickly than they otherwise might.
As Ty spoke, he refused to think about how many lives had been lost in Concussion’s other disaster zone. How many people had died beneath Ty’s feet, simply because he hadn’t thought to create his crawlers yet?
For her part, Dinah told him in turn that she’d started to contact some of the others from the Architect’s original group of device wearers.
“It’s preliminary just for the moment,” she said. “Just giving them a heads up rather than asking them to drop everything and come right away. They have their own villains to deal with in their own cities.”
Dinah and Tempest had mentioned that there were others who wore the Architect’s devices before, but hadn’t really gone into much detail. If Ty hadn’t been so focused on his failure to find Brad, he might have asked for more information. He had no clue who these ‘others’ might have been, or what their skills were. Nor, for that matter, did he know how they might fit with their little group.
The Architect’s devices enhanced every aspect of the people who wore them, including their attraction to one another. Ty wasn’t convinced that having someone else show up would be a good thing.
Either way, that was a problem for later. Ty took another sip from his drink and uttered a sigh.
“I think Brad’s dead,” he said, once Dinah had finished speaking.
Surprisingly, Dinah offered him a gentle smile. “I’ve been keeping an eye on the hospitals and morgues, as well as monitoring the rescue operation from here. Your friend Bradley Fletcher doesn’t appear on any list. So how about this. Until we know for sure that he hasn’t made it, how about we both continue to believe that he popped out for a random walk and just left his phone behind?”
Ty appreciated the effort, and there was truth in the deerkin’s words as well. There was always a chance, and Ty wasn’t willing to give up hope entirely. Not yet, anyway.
The spiced chai latte was doing its job. Despite himself, Ty couldn’t help but be buoyed by the warmth and deliciousness contained within the brew. He was even able to muster a smile in return.
As he put the empty cup back on the bench, Dinah took one last swallow of her own drink, and set her mug aside.
“Now,” she said. “It’s time for phase two of m
y devious plan to get Ty Wilcox back up on his feet. You’ve been working hard all morning, in something akin to a war zone. How about you get yourself out of those clothes and into the shower?”
She grinned impishly at him. “I guarantee you’ll feel better if you do.”
8: Technological Assimilation
Ty’s shield protected him from much of the dust and grime from the disaster zone, but he hadn’t had it activated all the time. A small child had looked at him with obvious fear as he’d tried to help, and Ty had realized it wasn’t him but his blue energy glow that the child had been scared of. He’d turned off his shield then to gain the child’s trust.
Later, he’d turned it off again to avoid interfering with Lilith’s teleportation. Not for long, in the scheme of things, but the rubble was dusty. It hadn’t taken any time at all for that dust to adhere to his skin and glue itself to the dampness on his shirt where he’d been sweating.
Because of that, it would have been a relief to soak in the shower anyway. But with Brad still playing on his mind, Ty turned up the heat and did his best to let the water wash his worries away.
For the longest time, he stood there, eyes closed, vaguely wishing he’d taken off his projector discs so he could get properly clean. Then, despite himself, he barked a laugh.
He didn’t need to take off the discs. He had another option.
His secondary skill, the one that had caused him so much trouble when it was forming, was technological assimilation.
A quick check of his character sheet showed that even though the buff from the AZT-407 drug was fading, the skill remained. Ty focused on what he wanted to do, and seconds later, all of the discs—as well as the device on his wrist—had been completely absorbed into his body.
He let out another laugh. As yet, he didn’t really understand what this skill might be good for, but just at that moment, he was grateful for it. Having technology adhering permanently to his skin sounded fine, but after a couple of weeks, that very permanence started to itch.
With considerable relief, Ty reached for the soap.
Ty was mostly clean when the door to the bathroom opened and Dinah walked in. Ty’s first thought was to worry that something had happened, but when he looked again, he realized the deerkin had something other than delivering news on her mind.
She was naked from the tips of her antlers to the hooves on her feet, with only the device on her wrist breaking the perfection of her deer-mottled skin.
The deerkin paused on the other side of the glass shower door and gave him a warm smile. “Do you have room for one more?” she asked. “I thought you might like some cheering up.”
Despite everything, despite his concern for his friend, it was an offer Ty would never refuse. As he opened the door for the deerkin, he reflected that he had never before been so sexually motivated, or active. In his earlier, pre-device existence, he wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the pace. But now, it seemed completely normal to bed any or all of the women he loved at least once a day, if not even more often than that. He knew this was most probably another part of the enhancement due to the devices they wore, and as Dinah stepped into the shower with him, he said a silent thank you to the Architect for inventing them.
The deerkin made no pretense of getting clean. Instead, she pressed her magnificent body to his and drew him close, ignoring the water running over them both.
“Mmm,” she murmured as she looked up at him. “One of these days we’ll have to find a way to sleep in in the morning. It’s not fair that you, Tempest and Lilith are being taken away from me so early. Doesn’t the Master know I usually have plans for you all?”
She said it with a quirk of a smile, but Ty still sensed the truth in her words. All at once, his problems faded away and he wrapped his arms around the deerkin’s narrow waist. He intended to pick her up and crush her against the shower wall, but before he could do so, the deerkin pushed him away and looked him up and down with a frown creasing her eyebrows.
“What happened to your discs?” she asked. “And your device?”
Ty grinned. “My new skill, remember? They’re still there, but not on my skin.” He gave shrugged.
Dinah considered this for a moment, then gave a nod. She ran a finger from collarbone to collarbone, through where two of the discs used to be. “Useful,” she declared, then kissed him on his shoulder, taking care to angle her antlers away from his face.
For long moments, Ty just accepted the attention, standing in the water as Dinah worked her way down from his shoulders, kissing first his chest, then his belly, then kneeling on the shower floor and taking him in her mouth.
Ty felt himself start to throb almost at once, and had to grab hold of her hair to slow her down. She did so, moving sensuously, holding onto his hips. Even so, Ty found it difficult to stay in control. He endured her attentions for as long as he could, then, his breath growing shallow, helped her back to her feet.
“Too much?” she said, grinning broadly.
“Yes. No.” He shook his head, returning her grin. “I just didn’t want it to finish too soon.” With that, he did what he’d been planning before, lifting her up and pressing her against the wall.
Her smile grew even broader. She wrapped her arms around his neck at the same time as she wrapped both her legs around his hips. If Ty hadn’t had the device on his wrist, he might not have had the strength to hold her up. As it was, it was easy. He entered her and they began moving together in a way that was as old as time.
As the deerkin planned, Ty forgot all about Brad, his building, and everything else. He focused all his attention on what they were doing, and would have been content to keep doing it until the shower ran cold, and probably even longer.
But, not long after Dinah started to breathe in short, sharp gasps, her device signaled an alert.
Ty gave a grunt of disappointment. He knew that any alert Dinah received was likely to be important. Perhaps another superpowered villain had come out of the woodwork. Maybe there was a fire whipping through an apartment complex, or the Master had left another of his messages.
Either way, it wasn’t the type of thing to be ignored, and in all the comics Ty had read, the heroes virtually always responded to such alerts appropriately.
Then again, he’d never found a comic where the heroes’ powers came with an enhanced sex drive at the same time. Nor did the comic book alerts happen when the heroes were in the shower together, making love against the shower wall.
Ty’s sense of duty fought a valiant fight against a more primitive, animalistic need. It might have won the battle if Dinah had so much as paused. But the deerkin showed a moment of irritation at the alert and breathed, “Don’t stop,” with her eyes closed and jaw set. At the same time, she used the strength of her legs wrapped around him to hold him in place.
The animal need in Ty won out. With a growl worthy of a wild beast, he took Dinah at her word. He thrust into her once, twice more, then again, and that was enough. Both of them cried out at the same time, and for some seconds, Ty leaned his weight against Dinah as he held her against the shower wall.
When they could both breathe again, he found the deerkin grinning at him.
“Perfect,” the deerkin said. She swallowed, shook herself, and breathed deeply. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s see what that alert was all about. Grab your pants. I have a feeling you might need them.”
◆◆◆
As well as his pants, Ty grabbed the rest of his clothing and one of the large, fluffy towels Dinah and Tempest kept in the bathroom. The deerkin reached for another of them, wrapping it around her, then lead Ty, still naked, through the mansion to her communication room.
Once there, Ty quickly dried himself and climbed into his clothes as Dinah brought the alert up on the screen.
“It’s Concussion,” she said, her speech quick and efficient. “Hang on, I’ll see if I can access the video feed.”
In moments, the deerkin had done so. Ty found himself l
ooking at a large man with oversized shoulders and arms like those of an ape. Beyond that, he was ordinary enough, with dark hair and a face that spoke of malignant glee. If it weren’t for his disproportionate build and the device on his wrist, Ty doubted he would have given the man a second thought.
“Where is he?” Ty asked. Already, he was thinking of summoning Lilith. Despite Dinah’s warning about the police looking for him, this was important. Concussion was dangerous. How many people had died at his hands, Ty didn’t know. All he knew was that the man had to be stopped.
For Ty, it would be an absolute pleasure to have a hand in that stoppage. Acting on the Master’s orders or not, Concussion had destroyed Ty’s apartment building. The man was responsible for hundreds of deaths, including, perhaps, Brad’s, as well as all the associated misery and grief.
And anger.
Ty realized he’d stopped doing up the buttons of his shirt. His hands were clenched into fists at his side.
“Can you see where he is?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Give me a moment,” the deerkin said. With a gesture at the screen, she panned back and out, so that Concussion was just one of a number of people on the street.
Ty’s mouth dropped open and he stared in astonishment. Dinah flicked a glance his way, and if he’d been looking at her he would have seen that she understood. But his entire attention was fixed on the screen, on a building he knew intimately.
There had been a mathematical chance that the attack on Ty’s building had been nothing more than a coincidence. A sick, cosmic joke played out against Ty by an uncaring universe. Sure, the chances of that were extremely slim, but in Ty’s mind, he couldn’t discount it entirely, for one reason only.
He couldn’t figure out what the Master would gain by destroying his building.
But there was no mistake. Ty knew the Master was targeting him. There was no doubt at all.