by Wyatt Kane
It was like his mind and hers were melded together into one, and he couldn’t help but wonder if doing that was possible with the AIs they were making. But again, that sort of experimentation was for the future.
Right then, all he cared about was comparing their consciousnesses with that of Tempest, analyzing the three of them to determine where the spark of consciousness actually was, and replicating that spark within the consciousness that was Tempest.
Ty was dimly aware that someone famous had once said that if the human brain was simple enough to understand, humanity would lack the intelligence with which to do so.
For the entire history of mankind, that may have been true. But Ty didn’t need to understand it exactly. All he needed was to analyze the differences and then adjust Tempest’s consciousness to suit.
It was late afternoon by the time they were done. Ty looked at what they had wrought and stood back from the workbench.
They’d done it. They had achieved something that should have been impossible. They had grafted a piece from their own minds onto Tempest’s, in digital format.
And, at first, it seemed to work. There was a ripple of color that went through the visual representation of Tempest’s mind. But then, nothing.
Ty looked at the holographic image over the workshop with something akin to despair.
“It is possible to make no mistakes and still fail,” Ty said sadly, repeating an old quote he’d heard in his youth.
“Huh?” Vixen said.
“Nothing,” I replied. “I just thought this would work.”
“Me too,” Vixen said, sounding just as despondent as Ty felt. They both stood there, not wanting to give up, but for the moment they were out of options.
“Now what?” Vixen asked, and it was Ty’s turn to shrug. He was about to suggest they go up and see how Dinah and Lilith were doing when the need to do so vanished.
Ty’s device sounded an alert. It was Dinah.
“I guess we’ll find out what’s next in a moment,” Ty said. With that, he answered the call, and Dinah’s beautiful face appeared in holographic form above his wrist.
The deerkin didn’t give Ty the chance to speak. “We haven’t found Brad or Concussion,” she began without preamble. “But we have located Bain. What do you want to do?”
35: Preparing For Battle
Ty’s immediate answer to Dinah’s question was obvious. Of all the Master’s minions, it was Bain who would be the most likely to be able to answer their questions. It was Bain who had orchestrated Dinah’s abduction. And it was Bain who had carved Tempest almost in half.
Of all of the people in New Lincoln, Bain occupied a special place in Ty’s heart. He wanted to kill him. To rip the life from his chest. To break his neck and stomp his head into the ground.
Ty had never been a violent person before. Video games aside, he’d rarely been in a fight, preferring to run and hide rather than stay and be involved. Since donning the device and joining Tempest and Dinah as one of New Lincoln’s superheroes, he had directly contributed to more deaths than he wanted to think about.
But that was different. Those deaths had been largely unavoidable. Self defense, even. The people Ty had killed would have killed him, if they could have done so.
In such circumstances, Ty was willing to do whatever it took to stay alive, and keep those he loved alive too.
But with Bain, the man could be bound in chains, completely immobilized and defenseless, and still Ty would have jumped up and down on his head until his skull broke. And he would have done so with glee.
At the same time, he knew full well that Bain’s death wouldn’t help any of them.
“We have to take him alive,” he breathed.
Dinah studied Ty via the holographic image. “Can you do it?” she asked.
Ty knew what she meant. The last time he and Tempest had gone into battle against the huge man, Tempest had wound up missing much of her left side. Only Ty’s new skill and Lilith’s timely intervention had prevented him from meeting the same fate.
If Bain was still operating on the AZT-407 drug, did they have what it took to defeat him?
Ty thought about the plasma blade he’d absorbed, and the crawlers he’d made to help search through the ruins. The blade needed power, but ought to be useful as it was, and perhaps they could adapt the crawlers to help.
“If you can keep an eye on him for an hour, I’ll be ready. But we can’t face him in a crowded area. It would do too much damage to the surrounding buildings. We have to face him somewhere isolated.”
Lilith’s face appeared in the hologram beside Dinah’s. “I can take care of that,” she said.
Ty nodded. He knew what she meant. “And when we have him under control, then what? We don’t have any more cryo chambers. And even if we did, Bain is enormous. We’d have to chop him into pieces to get him to fit.”
Even though Ty wasn’t averse to the idea, it pretty much went against the idea of keeping him alive.
This time, it was Vixen who answered. “What if I use the fabricator to build a cryo chamber just for him?”
Lilith looked at the dark elf via the hologram. “You can do that?” she asked.
Vixen gave a small shrug. “I’ve borrowed Ty’s skill. I can do it.”
At this, Dinah pursed her lips, and Ty knew what the deerkin was thinking. Vixen gained the powers of others through intimate contact.
Yet the deerkin didn’t say anything about it. She just nodded. “Right. You have an hour. We won’t lose him in that time. Work quickly.”
With that, she ended the call, leaving Ty and Vixen to it.
◆◆◆
Ty didn’t know how the confrontation with Bain was going to go. It would be great if Lilith could simply grab the monstrous man’s device and teleport it away as she’d tried to do with his first one. But the huge man was vicious, and she had only been able to get close once she’d knocked the stuffing out of him first.
If she tried that before it was time, Bain would likely just sweep her aside.
Nor could they simply teleport the man to the med bay and get Dinah to sedate him. With his size and durability, there was no telling how much sedation they would need, and Ty didn’t want to think about how much damage he could do before they were done.
Their only option was to battle him to the point where he became more pliable. That could mean slamming him into something harder than his head enough times to do some good, or it might mean somehow ridding the man of the enhancements granted him via his device.
With that thought in mind, Ty fabricated a couple of EMP grenades, but Bain was familiar with them and knew enough to avoid them at all costs. So Ty also looked for other options.
First, he willed the plasma blade to reappear. Ignoring Vixen’s look of incredulity, he hooked the weapon up to his power converters and tested it briefly just to make sure it worked, before re-absorbing it into his flesh.
Then he got to work on his crawlers.
Originally designed to seek out survivors from Concussion’s demolition jobs, Ty was satisfied with their physical capabilities. It was their programming he wanted to change.
Ideally, Ty would have preferred to remove Bain’s device in one piece, but he had no time for that at the moment. He programmed his crawlers instead to seek out technology and turn it into dust.
Ty also made sure to program them to deactivate at his command. It wouldn’t do him any good if his own crawlers turned on him. Ty could absorb his tech and give the crawlers nothing to fixate on. But Lilith didn’t have that ability, and he didn’t want to risk his crawlers attacking her device by mistake.
Just because it wouldn’t hurt to do so, he also fabricated a couple of additional power converters to boost the effectiveness of his shield.
Then he was done. Ty clipped the grenades and crawlers to his belt, and his shield was, as usual, all set to go. With the plasma blade ready for use at a moment’s notice, he was as ready as he ever would be.
> With a nod to Vixen, who was staying behind to fabricate an oversized cryo chamber, Ty once more made his way up the stairs to Lilith and Dinah.
◆◆◆
Ty didn’t have to ask Dinah if she still had eyes on Bain. He could see that she did for himself. The man filled up much of the screen on one wall of the communication room.
He was monstrous, a massive man with muscles on top of his muscles, and he was walking along a random pavement as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Which might have been accurate. Even in a city like New Lincoln, where the desperate and greedy prayed on the weak in broad daylight, Bain would never be a target.
Ty felt himself frown in anger at the mere sight of the man. Then he looked closer, and saw that Bain had replaced the plasma cutter on his arm with something different but equally dangerous.
“Is that a photon cannon?” Ty asked, almost incredulous. Photon cannons were typically too big and clumsy to be used as hand weapons, but that didn’t mean they were ineffective. The New Lincoln police often had them mounted on the roof of their tactical cars.
“I think so,” Dinah replied.
Ty wondered if his shield would stand up to a blast from such a weapon. It should, he thought, especially with the additional power converters boosting its strength. But there was only one way to know for sure.
He looked at Lilith. “Are you ready for this?” he asked.
The demon woman looked determined and strong. She nodded.
“Okay. Where are we going to take him?” Ty asked.
“We’ve been thinking about that,” Dinah said. “We need a large, empty space, where there’s a low chance of innocents getting in the way. So how does the abandoned lot where you fought him the first time sound?”
Again, Ty nodded. The place was ideal. He also liked that he and Bain had fought there before. The monstrous man had been soundly beaten, and only Lilith’s intervention had enabled him to escape.
Ty didn’t know if the man would be subject to lingering negative memories of the place, but from his perspective, it couldn’t hurt.
“Perfect.” He looked at Lilith again. “When you’re ready,” he said.
Lilith took her cue. She stepped close to Ty and wrapped him in her familiar embrace. Then she blinked them both out of Dinah’s communication room.
36: The Battleground
Perhaps Ty was getting used to being teleported. Or perhaps his determination and ongoing fury toward Bain acted to shield him somewhat from the aching cold of that place between two points through which they had to travel. Either way, Ty gritted his teeth against the frozen, infinite hell, willing himself to endure, and then he and Lilith were miles away, hovering over the abandoned lot that was their target.
From above, Ty could see the evidence of the previous battles. The vacant lot was scarred and broken, a wasteland with a deep crater in the middle where Tempest had pile driven Bain before.
With the monstrous man’s increase in power, Ty couldn’t help but wonder if the same technique would still work. Either way, he would have given anything to witness Tempest back in action.
Lilith lowered them to the ground, but held onto Ty for longer than necessary. She kissed him on the lips and smiled at his surprise.
“For luck,” she said. “And you look like you needed a reminder of what we’re fighting for.”
Ty couldn’t help but return the demon woman’s grin. He knew what they were fighting for. In his mind, it was about revenge, to pay Bain back for the things he had done.
But Lilith was also correct. There was a higher purpose as well, and it was good to be reminded of it.
They were fighting to make the city of New Lincoln a better place. A place where people could enjoy what life had to offer without having to worry about the villains in the world.
Simply because he wanted to, Ty kissed her back, but his was more than just a reminder. It was a promise for later as well, after this task was done. Then he drew back.
“Go and get him,” he said. “But be careful. You can’t let him get a hand on you. He’s too big, too strong. And he has that photon cannon as well.”
Lilith nodded. “I’ll come at him from behind. He’ll never see me.” Then her expression hardened. “You know, I could teleport just his head, and all of this would be over,” she said.
Ty was surprised that the demon woman would suggest such an option. It was, in many ways, counter to her nature. At the same time, Ty understood it. And it was tempting. Very tempting.
But he shook his head. “Bain isn’t our primary target. He’s the key to locating the Master. As much as I’d like to see him ripped into pieces, we need him alive.”
It was Lilith’s turn to nod. She stepped further away, giving herself room.
“It was a thought,” she said. “See you soon.”
With that, with her familiar pop and a hint of ozone, she blinked out of existence, leaving Ty to wait for her and Bain’s return.
◆◆◆
Ty didn’t have to wait very long. He didn’t see Lilith return with Bain, but he heard the end result. As expected, the demon woman had reappeared high above their chosen arena. The first Ty knew of her return was when the air became filled with the sound of Bain crying out in pure fury as he dropped like a stone toward the earth.
Lilith had used this technique before, and while not as effective as Tempest’s pile driving approach, it was better than most other options. Ty watched with some satisfaction as the plummeting man grew larger in the sky, then realized that Bain wasn’t just tumbling through the air. In his rage at what Lilith had done, the monstrous man was firing his photon cannon repeatedly, in every direction.
There was little control to the man’s aim, but even so, Ty quickly activated his shield as he watched the massive man crash into the ground.
It was like a bomb going off. Bain hit with an almighty crunch! and Ty would have sworn that he felt the ground shudder at the impact. At once, Ty grabbed his weapon of choice, one of the EMP grenade at his belt. He intended to use the brief moment while Bain was stunned to end the fight before it truly began.
But this time, the end result of Bain’s fall from high up in the sky was very different to the last.
The monstrous man was even more monstrous than he had been before. Juiced up on AZT-407, it wasn’t just his size that had been enhanced. It was his strength and durability as well. Instead of landing in a heap in a crater of his own making, Bain actually bounced.
Ty checked his throw, uncertain of his target, and that gave Bain all the time he needed. In midair, he twisted about like a cat, and when he touched down a second time, he was already on his feet.
He saw Ty right away, had maybe already seen him during his fall. Either way, it took him no time at all to focus his photon cannon and let rip.
“You little shit!” Bain bellowed over the repeated sounds of his cannon. “I’ve had about enough of you getting in my way! Let’s see if that shield of yours can stand up to this!”
Ty had little choice but to fling himself to the side, but he wasn’t quick enough. He caught a glancing blow from the photon cannon, and despite his shield, it was enough to spin him around. He realized that he’d already taken the pin out of the grenade, and for crucial seconds, he couldn’t even see his target. Out of sheer desperation, he lobbed the EMP grenade away from him, just to make sure he didn’t get caught in the blast.
When the grenade went off, he heard Bain start to laugh.
Then, all at once, Lilith joined the fight. But instead of teleporting Bain into the air once again, she’d chosen a different option. As Ty scampered away from the man’s cannon blasts, Lilith appeared above the villain with a chunk of masonry the size of a small truck.
Ty’s first thought was to wonder that the demon woman possessed such strength, then he realized she’d simply used her teleportation ability. She didn’t need to pick up a slab of masonry weighing several tons. She just needed to teleport it from where she found it to a
spot in the air.
Bain’s laughter stopped abruptly as the huge piece of masonry fell on top of him.
“Ha!” Lilith shouted in triumph. “That’s what you get for collapsing Ty’s building!”
For a moment, all was silent. Ty wondered if they’d already won even as he stared at Lilith in amazement. He knew it was Concussion who had actually knocked down his apartment, not Bain, but Lilith’s intent remained true. Bain was at least partially responsible for the destruction.
And it seemed that Lilith’s tasteful vengeance included some poetry. Had she really blinked all the way to Ty’s ruined apartment just to drop a piece of it on top of Bain?
It seemed that she had.
With a quiet grin of appreciation at the thought, Ty plucked his second EMP grenade from his belt and started to approach.
But before he drew close enough to his target, the masonry exploded into rubble, courtesy of Bain’s photon cannon.
If Ty had hoped that the impact would be enough to give the monstrous man pause, that hope was in vain. Bain clambered back to his feet looking as fit and healthy as ever, but twisted into inconsolable rage.
“You little bitch!” he bellowed, firing his cannon in every direction. “Drop a piece of a fucking building on me, will you? We’ll see about that!”
To distract the man, Ty unleashed with his own shield cannons, aiming a massive blast of pure power at him. At the same time, he shouted at Lilith.
“Get out of here!” he called. “He’s too dangerous!”
But he needn’t have worried. The demon woman popped back out of existence before Ty’s words were all the way out of his mouth.
In the face of Ty’s power, Bain stood firm. Ty could hear him roaring in anger over the sound of his attack, and then, somehow, Bain managed to turn his own weapon toward him.
Even with Ty’s shield at full strength, it felt like a blow from a hammer. Ty tumbled backwards and lost his grip on his second grenade. This time, he hadn’t pulled the pin, so he wasn’t worried about that. What concerned him was that his options against Bain’s strength were both out of his reach.