Enhancer 5

by Wyatt Kane

  It had partially cauterized the wound as it went, but Ty could still see more of her internal organs than he ever wanted to see.

  “Tempest, hold on!” he blurted, and fumbled for the pokeball at his waist. As quickly as he could, he released his healing nanites, and watched them flow into the blonde superhero’s wound.

  Yet even as they disappeared into her flesh, he knew they wouldn’t be enough. They’d been designed to repair damaged tissue. Not to rebuild it. If the other part of Tempest’s flesh that had been sliced away had been nearby, then maybe the nanites could have knit her back together. But the blonde woman’s arm and part of her torso were nowhere to be seen.

  Bain hadn’t carved them away so much as he had obliterated them with the impossible heat of his plasma weapon.

  In the dark recesses of Ty’s brain, he knew that pressure was supposed to be applied to a wound. But this wound was so big, so major that he didn’t know what to do. All he knew was that Tempest had stopped staring into space, and was looking at him instead.

  “Ty,” she managed, sounding impossibly weak. “Hold my hand,” she said.

  Ty did as she asked without hesitation. He turned off his shield and grasped her hand in his own, trying not to think about how cool it was to touch, and how little strength there seemed to be there.

  “Just hold on,” he said. “We’ll fix you, make you better again.”

  He couldn’t begin to understand the agony Tempest must have been feeling. Every nerve ending she possessed must have been burning. Yet she was the strongest person he’d ever known. She managed a smile.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not going to make it.”

  The stark truth of her statement was enough to break him. Ty had never been much of a crier. But now, all at once, his eyes were flooded with tears. He shook his head.

  “No,” he said, refusing to listen. “No. You’ll be fine.”

  Tempest seemed to relax at his words, as if some of her pain had gone away. The strength in her hand, what little there was, faded even more, and Ty gripped it more tightly.

  “I’m sorry,” Tempest said again. “I wish we had more time.” The blonde woman took one more breath, then let it out. “You are beautiful,” she said to him. “I wish I had told you how much I…”

  But she didn’t complete her sentence. Instead, the light in her eyes slowly faded, and Ty knew what had happened.

  “No!” he said. “No! Tempest, no!” He gripped her hand even tighter, but felt no return pressure at all. “Tempest! You can’t leave us! Not so soon!”

  He wanted to shake her, to wake her back up, but was afraid of the damage he might do. He didn’t want to accept that she was gone.

  Instead, he raised his head to the heavens. “Lilith!” he shouted. “Lilith! Come back! Tempest needs you!”

  Whether the demon woman heard him, or if she had would have returned at that time regardless, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she returned, popping into existence above them within moments of Ty’s call.

  Ty didn’t hesitate. “Take her to the mansion! The med bay. Do it now!”

  Lilith’s look of horror as she saw Tempest’s wound matched Ty’s own. Yet she was up to the task.

  “Let me have her,” she demanded, and even though he didn’t want to let go of Tempest’s hand, Ty did so. In one, fluid movement, Lilith reached down and picked Tempest’s damaged form up off the ground, and with her familiar pop and hint of ozone, she teleported out of existence, leaving Ty all alone.

  14: Promises

  Ty stared at the spot where Tempest had lain. If Bain or Concussion had returned at that moment, they could have tickled his nose with a feather and he would have been oblivious. He wasn’t even aware that he’d sat down on a slab of pavement, or that he was surrounded by ruin.

  A dim, dark part of his mind knew that the remains of the Concubine Club were nearby. People he’d known for years could be buried alive, waiting for rescue. Others, perhaps Badger, Martin, or even Angie the Hutt, could be dead, their brains squashed by collapsing concrete.

  Yet none of that carried the same weight as what had just happened.

  Tempest had died as he held her hand. Just like Jason in the rubble of the last building Concussion had collapsed, and most likely like Ty’s friend Brad as well.

  Ty had been aware of the dangers of being a superhero when he agreed to be part of the team. Already, he’d suffered injuries, and had fought for his life on many occasions. But in his way, he’d accepted the danger.

  He knew that his life was at risk, but he’d never even thought that Tempest could be in danger as well.

  In Ty’s mind, the blonde superhero was the strongest of them all. Powerful, durable, she possessed all of the strengths of the comic book heroes and none of their weaknesses. His only hint that she could be vulnerable had come in the foundry where she had fought against Massive. Other than that, Ty had always thought of her as indestructible.

  And now, he’d watched as her life faded.

  It was unbelievable. He didn’t want it to be real. He wanted Tempest to continue to live, and not because of her strength and indomitable power.

  Ty wanted her to live because he loved her.

  Tempest had saved Ty’s life the day he had put on his device. She was the first superhero he’d ever met, if he didn’t count his brief exposure to Zach. She had invited him into her home, and shown him what he needed to know.

  And she had welcomed him as a lover as well.

  Unbidden, images of the blonde superhero standing naked on the rock in the middle of the lake came to his mind. It was the first time they’d made love, and in his mind, it had been perfect.

  As he stared into it at the spot where Tempest had fallen, he acknowledged to himself that they had been together for only a short time. But that time had been the greatest in Ty’s entire existence. Beyond the lovemaking, he felt a connection with Tempest that was rivaled only by the one he felt for Dinah and Lilith. Yet even among the women he loved, it was Tempest who held a special place.

  She was the first. The strongest.

  The best.

  And now, she was probably gone.

  Although, even then, Ty clung to hope. As he sat and gazed into the abyss, Ty knew that Lilith and Dinah would be doing all that they could. Adrenaline and a defibrillator to restart her heart if it had stopped. The medical robot would be engaged in procedures Ty couldn’t begin to imagine, and Dinah wouldn’t accept any failure at all.

  Between them, it would be okay. Tempest would live. And that was all that mattered.

  What they would do about the awful damage done to her was secondary. A problem to be solved only once Tempest was stable.

  Ty drew a deep, shuddering breath. He thought of Tempest as she had been just a few minutes ago. Exuding power as she stood tall over the crumpled form of Concussion. At that moment, she had seemed indestructible. A match for the villain who’d been causing Ty so much trouble without even breaking a sweat.

  If she’d worn the cape, it would have been fluttering about her shoulders like that of One Punch Man as he ended a fight.

  Then, moments later, Bain had cut her down. And Ty had been unable to return the favor.

  Ty felt the bile build up in the back of his throat. He was angry, furious even, at Bain and Concussion, but also at himself as well. Despite all he’d managed to do, it seemed that the villains they fought were more than his match. For a while, he’d been Bain’s equal, but not that of Steam, Massive, or even Concussion. And now, with the advent of AZT-407, he was falling behind.

  And the cost of that had been high.

  Perhaps if he hadn’t spent so much time trying to work out how to fly, he would have been able to develop a more effective weapon. Something that could stop Bain, Concussion, and whoever else crawled out from the Master’s sewer.

  As Ty sat there on the pavement, feeling helpless and knowing that Tempest’s life was in the balance, he made himself a promise. What
ever happened, he would do his utmost to ensure that when he next faced Bain, the outcome would be different.

  He was still thinking about what he could do to address the balance of power when Lilith popped back into existence before him.

  Ignoring the look of wide-eyed shock mixed with horror on the demon woman’s face, Ty lurched to his feet.

  “How is she?” he demanded. “Is she alive?”

  But Lilith shook her head, whether answering his question or denying it altogether, Ty didn’t know.

  “Dinah needs you,” she blurted, and she launched herself at him.

  There was nothing gentle about the way she collided with him, but Ty didn’t mind. He simply crushed her against him as hard as he could, and gritted his teeth in preparation for the cold he knew to be coming.

  An instant later, they emerged in the med bay. As she’d done before, Lilith held onto Ty for a moment to make sure he had his footing, and in that time Ty took everything in.

  Tempest was there, as expected, on the surgical table. Her top half had been stripped to enable sensors to be placed on her skin, and the medical robot was hovering above her.

  Ty could tell at a glance that she hadn’t responded to anything Gregory or Dinah had tried. Her eyes were still open, still unfocused, and there was a slackness to her expression that Ty didn’t like. The screen on the wall seemed a hideous confirmation, with most of the lines showing so little sign of movement. Heartbeat, respiration, both of them were flatlined.

  Only one of the lines on the monitor showed any deviation at all.

  Ty wasn’t well-versed enough in what the lines meant to understand, and could only hope it meant there was still a chance. But all of that meant nothing when compared to what Ty saw in Dinah.

  The deerkin, normally so calm and at ease even under pressure, was anything but. Tears were running freely down her cheeks and her expression was one of ultimate anguish. In her hands, she held the paddles of a defibrillator, and instead of the orderly arrangement of storage drawers with everything stacked neatly away behind her, it looked as if a typhoon had gone through the room, tossing bandages and tools in every direction, with many of them ending up on the floor.

  Before Ty could say a word, the deerkin hurled herself at him. At first, he feared she blamed him for what had happened to Tempest, but his interpretation was entirely incorrect.

  “You can save her!” she yelled. “Hurry!”

  Ty didn’t know what to think. What could he do that Dinah and the medical robot couldn’t? Yet, at the same time, he hoped the deerkin was right. Her primary skill was that of information control. What did she know that Ty didn’t?

  “How?” he managed.

  “Your skill! It’s the only one that can help her!”

  Ty didn’t understand. “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

  “I don’t know!” Dinah cried, her voice almost a howl of pain and grief. “I don’t know!” she repeated. “It’s not my skill! Think of something! Quickly! Or it’ll be too late!”

  Ty racked his brains, but was coming up empty. In the end, it was Lilith who voiced the only possible solution.

  “Put her in a cryo chamber,” she said. “It will buy Ty time to figure it out.”

  Ty nodded. It was the only solution that made sense. But Dinah was distraught. “We don’t have any free!”

  This time, it was Ty who saw the obvious solution. “We have to choose. Spit Bitch and Sparkles don’t need to be held in stasis. They’re just there so they can’t do any more damage.”

  It was enough. Both Spit Bitch and Sparkles had been moved to one of the empty apartments in the building below Tempest and Dinah’s mansion. In the seconds that followed, Lilith once more grabbed hold of Tempest and blinked out of existence. Dinah and Ty didn’t need to discuss it. They simply ran to the elevator and hurried as fast as they could to meet up with Lilith at the cryo chambers.

  By the time they arrived, Lilith had already worked Spit Bitch out of her chamber and installed Tempest in her place. Already, Spit Bitch was showing signs of struggling back to consciousness, but neither Ty nor Dinah gave her a second glance. All that mattered was Tempest.

  Dinah brought up the cryo chamber’s controls, and quickly pressed a sequence of buttons. Then, slowly, the deerkin started to relax.

  Still looking at Tempest through the glass window, the deerkin breathed deep. Then she turned to Ty and Lilith.

  “She’s in stasis,” she said. “Ty, whatever you have to do to get her back, do it.” As she spoke, her voice broke, and Ty could see the tears well up in her eyes. Yet he understood what Dinah was saying. And he agreed.

  Whatever it took, he would bring Tempest back.

  “I will,” he said, even though he had no idea how to begin.

  Only after Ty had spoken did Dinah turn her attention to Spit Bitch on the floor.

  “Lilith, if you could transport this woman to the med bay, that would be good. We’ll keep her sedated and restrained until we can get another cryo chamber delivered.”

  15: Minimal Brain Activity

  Ty had asked Lilith to teleport the cryo chamber with Tempest inside up to the Architect’s workshop. She had done so, but only after moving Spit Bitch to the med bay as Dinah suggested. That awful woman was now restrained and sedated. Dinah had hooked an alert to the monitoring devices that would let her know if Spit Bitch started to wake up.

  Because the woman had been in stasis, if she happened to wake, she would still be in the throes of device withdrawal, but might be able to use some of her power. And that, on top of everything else that had happened, wasn’t something any of them wanted to face.

  Despite the relatively trivial nature of dealing with the woman, it was only when Spit Bitch had been thoroughly tended to that Ty and the others could focus on Tempest.

  Now they stood in the workshop, looking at the blonde superhero through the glass of her cryo chamber.

  Dinah’s distress was still apparent in her expression. She looked like she might burst into agonized tears at any moment. Yet she was more in control of herself than she’d been before securing Tempest in the chamber.

  Lilith didn’t seem to know how to react. She alternated between covering her mouth as if afraid to speak, and reaching for Dinah to offer her support. The deerkin accepted the demon woman’s expressions of comfort, but never took her gaze away from the chamber.

  As for Ty, he felt a bubbling horror that threatened to overwhelm him. The cryo chamber hid all of Tempest except for her face, but the image of that terrible injury was scorched into Ty’s brain. He could see it even now, the cauterized wound that stretched from the crook of her neck to the top of her hip, exposing lung, part of her heart, diaphragm, pancreas and more. It was an image he would likely never forget, and he wished with every fiber of his being that he’d never seen.

  For the moment, it was all he could do to stare at Tempest with the others and hope that somehow he could do as Dinah asked.

  As if she had been reading his mind, Dinah spoke.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked. The deerkin left no room in her tone for any hint of backing out. Nor did he have any intention of doing so.

  He just didn’t know what to do.

  “I don’t know,” he said. On no more than a whim, he brought up his character sheet. As expected, most of the buff granted him by the AZT-407 had worn off, leaving a single extra point on his primary skill and nothing else. “I guess, to start with, a dose of Upgrade might help. Maybe then I’ll know better what to do.”

  He half expected Dinah to argue. She knew better than anyone how potentially dangerous the drug could be, especially given that he’d used it recently more than once. What another dose might do to his own system, even with the aid of Sarah’s serum and Dinah’s restorative concoction, Ty didn’t want to guess.

  Yet the deerkin simply nodded and turned to Lilith.

  The demon woman understood. Without a word, she blinked out of existence.

&
nbsp; For a moment, the two of them, Dinah and Ty, stood in silence. Then Dinah asked a question.

  “Do you think you can do it?” she asked, her voice cracking and uncertain.

  Ty swallowed. “If she was a machine, I would just go in and repair her. It would be simple. But she is not a machine. Maybe her body is, sort of. Maybe I can do something to rebuild her muscles and bones, and everything else besides. But her mind?” He hesitated, not knowing what to say. “What did the lines on the monitor mean?” he asked her.

  It was the deerkin’s turn to hesitate. “Minimal brain activity,” she murmured quietly, as if unwilling to say the words out loud.

  Minimal brain activity. The words alone felt like a hand of ice clutching his heart. They sounded too much like ‘brain dead,’ and that wasn’t something Ty was willing to face.

  Roughly, he forced himself to continue, to follow his thought through to the end. “What does that mean? Does it mean it’s too late? Even if I manage to repair her body, will she still be gone?”

  As he said the last, Ty heard his own voice start to shake. And Dinah heard it. It was as if she understood for the first time that Ty was as impacted by Tempest’s fate as she was. All of a sudden, some of the anguish she expressed faded, to be replaced with compassion. She reached for him and held him tight, and it was all Ty could do to return her embrace.

  They were still locked together when Lilith popped back into existence.

  “I got it,” she said.

  The demon woman offered the inhaler over, and Ty accepted it with a sense of determination.

  By unspoken agreement, the three of them headed to the medical bay. They all knew the drug was dangerous, and the danger was compounded by Ty having already taken a dose that morning. Yet by then, they’d already worked out a pattern to minimize the risk. The only thing different this time was that Spit Bitch still occupied the surgical table.

  Ty was all for heaving the woman off onto the floor, but Dinah was more pragmatic. She pulled up the chair she often used in the med bay and gestured for Ty to sit.