by Wyatt Kane
The dose of Upgrade he got from the dealer came as a single-use inhaler. All he needed to do was hold it to his mouth, snap the seal, and breathe in deeply.
As Ty held the newly-acquired inhaler in his hand with the dealer grinning at him in the drizzle, he considered doing it right then. If he did, by the time he reached the mansion, his brain would be buzzing again.
But caution prevailed. The first time he’d taken the drug, he’d had a severe reaction. Perhaps he should take precautions before trying it again. And then there was the question of whether it was wise to brave the AZT-407 hangover again, especially when he didn’t know how hard it might hit, or if he was going to be needed for anything else.
Decision made, Ty got back on Dinah’s bike and made his way back through the streets of New Lincoln.
32: An Apocalyptic Future
As he rode through the ongoing wet, Ty thought about everything that had happened. The drug really was a game changer, as he’d earlier concluded. A Pandora’s box that had already been opened. And, with so many people throughout the city having already taken the drug, there was nothing he, Dinah, Lilith and Tempest could do to turn back the clock.
But that didn’t mean there was no room for hope. Even the brochure he’d read in the clinic had said that if the drug gave rise to unusual abilities, those abilities were would likely be minor.
Perhaps someone would gain the ability to levitate a coin three inches above the palm of their hand. Maybe someone would be able to change the color of their hair just by thinking about it, or sing three octaves higher than normal. Harmless talents that the Master would be hard-pressed to exploit.
But then again, it was hard to predict how useful a skill could become. Ty hadn’t truly understood the value of his Technological Enhancement skill to begin with, and now it seemed to hold the key to everything.
And as for his secondary skill, it currently seemed largely worthless. An ability to absorb and expel technology from his body was hardly on par with Tempest’s power, or Lilith’s Unified Field Control. And yet, what would happen if he absorbed the fabricator from the Architect’s workshop? The medical robot? Or the technology that governed Dinah’s communication room?
Could he become the ultimate cyborg, able to adapt to any immediate need? And what if he was to absorb an industrial laser? Sure, he could already use his shield as a canon, but there would always be limits to that sort of concussive device. With a laser operating as part of his arm, he could cut his way through anything, whatever needed to be cut.
The possibilities were potentially endless.
Ty gritted his teeth inside his helmet. There was no getting away from a stark truth: he couldn’t predict what might happen. Nobody could. When those who’d taken the drug came out the other side, they could be gods walking among men.
It was a sobering thought, and one which played on Ty’s mind all the way back to the mansion. It was serious, far more so than he could ever have imagined when he’d watched Bain murder Zach in the alley.
Ty parked Dinah’s bike in the garage under the building with a heartfelt sigh, and headed up to find the deerkin in the kitchen, partway through whipping up a big feed of waffles.
She greeted him with a hug and a kiss that made him feel like he was truly home, then told him to sit down as she danced back behind the counter to check the waffle iron.
“What’s happening?” Ty asked.
“What, you mean aside from the best waffles you’ve ever tasted being about to be served?” the deerkin asked with a broad grin.
Ty would have liked to catch her good humor, but could not. “Yeah,” he said.
Dinah had always been intuitive, and could read him like a book. Her expression sobered.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” she began, “but you did it. That serum you sent with Lilith is doing the trick. My sources are telling me that everyone impacted by the Master’s drug is improving. Looks like we can keep them alive.”
Ty had to admit, it was good to hear.
“What about Lilith and Tempest?” he asked.
“They’re still out and about. This epidemic is far from over. In fact, it might get worse before it gets better. Now that the risk of death is less, it might make it easier to distribute.” She grinned again. “I’ve automated the process of finding the victims, to a degree. My system now sends locations directly.”
Ty was impressed, but the thought of ‘distribution’ led to another question. “Who is the Master using as a distributor?” he asked. “It’s not Rubio, is it? Or is he using his own men?”
Dinah shook her head. “As far as I can make out, it’s one of Rubio’s competitors. The Master didn’t much like the part Rubio played in our last confrontation. So he commissioned someone else.” The deerkin shrugged. “A more basic organization than Rubio’s, by the looks. Low level crime, guns, and drugs. Still, the leader is ambitious, and with the supply of this drug going through them, they could become dangerous.”
“Great,” Ty said. “Just what we need. Another player in the game.”
The deerkin didn’t deny it. She nodded instead, then turned to flip the first batch of waffles out onto a plate. “It might be best if we let these cool for a bit,” she said.
Ty just looked at her for a moment. He’d recovered from his AZT-407 hangover, yet he still felt drained. Or maybe that wasn’t quite right. Overwhelmed was a better description. Exhausted by the scope of the problems they faced. To his way of looking at it, things had never been so dire.
In comparison, the deerkin looked positively cheerful.
He wondered if perhaps she’d missed some of the implications he’d been thinking about. With a heavy sigh, he told her about his meeting with Sarah, what he’d found out, and what he’d surmised.
The deerkin was outraged at the machinations that had gone into using Ty as a guinea pig. She smiled when he told her about Sarah’s clandestine efforts to create the serum Lilith had brought to her. But when Ty started to talk about how the AZT-407 was designed to work alongside the devices they wore, and his own thoughts about what that might mean for the future, her expression turned grim.
Ty hated to take away her joy. Yet, in his mind, he didn’t have a choice. Their situation was potentially dire, and it wouldn’t get any better if they refused to acknowledge it.
She looked at him with sadness in her eyes. “Everything is going to change,” she said.
Ty nodded. “And what will we do about it?” he asked.
“Everything we can,” the deerkin replied.
It was a good answer, although perhaps not concrete enough. Ty reached into his pocket and brought out the single use inhaler, which he placed on the counter in front of him.
Dinah stared at it. “Is that what I think it is?” she asked.
“They call it Upgrade on the street. It’s a stronger dose than the one I was given the first time round.”
Dinah transferred her dark-eyed gaze to Ty. “What are you planning to do with it?” she asked.
It sounded like an accusation, but Ty didn’t back down. “You said it yourself. We need have to do everything we can to combat this. That means we need to understand what the Master is planning. These attacks of his. Concussion, Sparkles, Spit Bitch. And now this. We need to know what his endgame looks like, so we can figure out what might be coming next, and what to do about it. Is this just the start, or this him throwing his toys out of the cot? And we need to know it before anything else happens. Before the next phase, whatever it is, begins.”
As Ty spoke, Dinah stared at him, listening to his words, turning them over, looking for flaws. Yet when he was done, she remained silent for some time.
Ty knew she didn’t want to accept what he’d said. But she had little choice.
“So, what do you intend to do?” she finally said.
“If anyone knows what the Master is planning, it’s the Architect,” Ty said.
Dinah nodded.
“The Master communicate
d with him while he was captive. While he was in cryo suspension. I have a theory about how he did it, and would like to test that theory.”
“Go on,” Dinah said, her tone flat and determined.
“I’m going to build a neural interface,” he said.
Dinah slowly nodded. “And you need that to do it?” she asked, indicating the inhaler.
“Maybe I could do it without it,” Ty said. “If we had plenty of time. But we don’t. The Master is enacting his plan as we speak. Sure, he’s lost a couple of his minions, but look at what he’s done with the drug. If things go as I fear they might, he could have thousands of potential replacements by tomorrow. And while Sarah’s serum has been saving lives, that actually makes things worse, not better. Think about how many possible recruits the Master might have.”
Ty paused, not wanting to continue, but knowing he had to. “What is he going to do tomorrow? How much damage is he going to cause? We need to find out all we can now.”
Dinah didn’t look completely convinced, so Ty tried another approach.
“This drug, Upgrade, AZT-407, whatever you want to call it. It gives the user that skill buff like nothing else. Even at that weaker dose, it was like my focus and abilities were far greater than normal. If I take this, I’ll have the neural link done within a couple of hours. What else I’ll be able to do before it wears off, I don’t know. But in my mind, it’s got to be worth it just for that.”
Ty knew that he could have just taken the drug without telling anyone, and Dinah wouldn’t have been any wiser. He’d done that once before, and it had left a sour taste in his mouth. They were a team, and it had been wrong of him to hide what he was doing from them.
Yet he wasn’t really asking for permission, either. He was just trying to get Dinah to understand his decision.
And Dinah understood this as well.
“What about the side effects?” she asked. “You’ve seen how bad they can be. That girl, Melody….” The deerkin let her sentence fade.
“I’ll take some of Sarah’s serum to counter the worst of them,” Ty said.
It was an obvious answer, but Dinah still hesitated. “Are you sure about this?” she said.
“Yes,” Ty said. He realized the deerkin didn’t want him to put himself at risk. “Unless you can think of another way I can get a week’s worth of work done in day?”
Dinah didn’t have an answer to that. She looked at him once more and gave an unwilling nod. “Okay, then,” she said. “We’ll do it in the medical bay, and monitor you just in case.”
Ty realized he’d been holding his breath, waiting on the deerkin’s response. He let it out, and managed a grin. He held his hand up to show her the embedded grenade.
“And anyway, how else am I supposed to sort this out?” he asked.
The deerkin couldn’t return his grin. She nodded again, and found a cover to put over the cooling waffles on the plate. Then she turned the waffle iron off, and popped the unused batter in the fridge.
“We’ll come back to these later, if you’re up to it,” she said.
33: Upgrade
Once again, Ty was lying on the surgical table in the med bay. This time, Dinah had reconfigured it so it wasn’t flat, but instead let him sit up. It was like being back in the clinic once more, right down to the sensors Dinah had attached to his skin.
Ty had the inhaler out and ready, and the deerkin had signaled everything was good to go. But before he could use it, Dinah hesitated.
“We can’t do this,” she said.
Ty looked at her. “We don’t have a choice.” They’d been through this already.
“No,” Dinah said. “That’s not what I meant. Not without Lilith and Tempest.”
Ty understood. “Call them,” he said, and Dinah did just that.
As expected, it was Lilith who arrived first, blinking into existence just outside the med bay, but Tempest wasn’t far behind. They both hurried in, the seemingly indefatigable Tempest demanding to know what was going on, and Lilith looking both tired and uncertain.
Ty repeated his story, including his rationale for what he was about to do. Lilith’s look of confusion turned into one of concern for Ty’s well-being, but Tempest’s reaction was more complex.
“Are you crazy?” she began. “That drug is causing chaos all over New Lincoln, and you want to take it deliberately?”
But Ty was adamant. “Yes,” he said simply.
At the same time, he knew Tempest couldn’t deny him. This could be her best chance of talking with her father for the first time in years. Even as she raged against the risk he was taking, he could see the unexpressed hope in her expression.
In the end, it was Dinah who put an end to Tempest’s objections.
“We have the serum,” she said. “And Ty survived without it the first time. He’ll be okay.”
The blonde superhero turned back to Ty, her expression a combination of all sorts of feelings at once.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” she asked finally, her voice unexpectedly filled with emotion.
Ty smiled at her. “Just you being here is enough. All of you. I just hope this isn’t going to be as bad as it was the first time.” He looked around at the three women he loved, and saw no reason to delay any further. “Well, here goes,” he said.
With that, he brought the single use inhaler up to his lips, cracked the seal, and inhaled hugely.
At first, just like the first time, Ty felt nothing. Dinah, Tempest and Lilith leaned close, all of them touching various parts of his body, although whether that was to reassure him or themselves, Ty didn’t quite know. They were expectant, worried, and hopeful all at once, and Ty had never felt more loved in his life.
Then the burning started in his veins, and he thought it would be the same as before. But it wasn’t. The burning accelerated much, much faster. In an instant, his brain had become incandescent. It burned like the inside of a star, and Ty was sure he was going to die. He opened his mouth to scream, and that was all he knew.
◆◆◆
A lack of consciousness didn’t protect him. Even though Ty was unaware of Tempest, Dinah, or Lilith, or anything in his immediate surroundings, somehow the agony of the AZT-407 in his system still made itself known.
It was like someone had built a bonfire in his brain and thrown a can of gas on the top. In a way, it was like passing through that place between points Lilith took him when she teleported, but totally different as well.
That place was so cold even atoms would freeze solid given the chance. But this was totally the opposite.
This was fire. Explosions going off in his head. Energy coursing through his veins like he’d been struck by lightning or dipped in a furnace.
Yet, there were similarities as well. The endlessness of it all. The impossibility of any hope of escape. The feeling of perpetual torment that came with both.
How long Ty’s subconscious torture continued, he didn’t know. He had no frame of reference within which to tell. It could have been no more than a couple of seconds all the way through a hair’s breadth from eternity.
Then, between one heartbeat and the next, he was awake once again.
All about him, there was chaos and confusion. Tempest and Lilith both leaned over him, their faces pictures of real fear as they held onto his arms as if it could help. At the same time, he could hear Dinah’s voice from behind him.
“I’m not sure what to give him,” the deerkin was saying. Usually the soul of level-headedness, there was near-panic in her voice. “Anything I try might interact with the drug. I might make things worse,” she finished.
“It’s okay,” Ty tried to say, his voice thick and uncertain. It was just like last time when he’d woken up in the clinic. His head was still pounding, and his veins were on fire, but that familiar discomfort was enough to put him at ease. And even as he spoke, he could feel the pain started to fade.
“He’s awake!” Tempest said, and that was all Dinah needed. In a he
artbeat, the deerkin returned to the table, looking down at him with an expression of concern.
“Ty, are you okay? Can you understand what I’m saying? Ty, talk to me,” the deerkin said.
Ty tried a nod, and realized the pain in his head hadn’t yet faded to the point where he could get do that without feeling nauseous. He swallowed once, then again, then forced his tongue into action.
“I’m okay. This is just what the drug does,” he said. “Just give me a moment or two.”
At this, the three women in his life gave a collective sigh of relief. But their worried expressions remained, and they stayed as they were, leaning close as if to give support by their presence alone.
Ty focused on breathing. He gripped Lilith’s hand and reached for Tempest’s as well.
And, in less than a minute, he nodded again.
This time, he managed to do so without the sloshing, uncomfortable feeling that he was about to throw up.
“I’m okay,” he said, this time with considerably more confidence that the last.
More of the tension in the room faded. It seemed that they believed him this time.
“You gave us quite a scare,” Dinah said.
Ty offered a weak grin. “Sorry,” he said. “Maybe I should have said what it does to those who wear devices like ours. Or maybe it’s just me. I don’t really know.” He shrugged, then frowned as he tried to work it out. “All these people are getting sick, and maybe they’ll stay that way for while. A day, two, maybe more. But for me, it’s like all their symptoms get compressed into a few minutes. And then I’m good to go.”
Dinah nodded. “And are you? Good to go?”
In answer, Ty let go of Lilith’s and Tempest’s hands and brought up his character sheet.
General
Name: Ty Wilcox
Modifications: None
Unique Skill: Technological Enhancement