by Wyatt Kane
This time, he was fully in control of his faculties. He was strong and fit, and faster than he’d ever been. Without pausing to think, without even looking to see what Tempest might have been doing, Ty lunged toward Brad, took the stun gun from his hands, then crossed the gap to Bain.
The stun gun had proven effective against all three of the more human combatants. It had shown itself powerful enough to render opponents unconscious. But Bain was different. He was eight feet tall and built like the baddest of all bodybuilders. It was like being in a superhero movie with one of the characters come to life.
If anything, he looked even bigger and more powerful than he had before.
When Ty turned his makeshift weapon on and jabbed it at Bain’s chest, it had no effect at all. The monster simply snarled at Ty, ripped it out of his grip, then broke it into pieces with his bare hands.
Ty’s first thought was that he would never be able to repair the toaster or the microwave now. His next thought was that he was in serious trouble.
Bain cuffed Ty, a delicate, backhanded blow that was only a fraction of what he had dealt to Zach. Yet it was powerful enough to send Ty sailing through the air and crashing into the wall opposite Brad.
“Ty!” Tempest yelled.
Stunned and rattled, his ears ringing loudly, Ty shook his head to clear it and tried to stand up. Before he could do so, Tempest let out a battle cry that combined every ounce of rage and loathing and grief within her into a Banshee scream and hurled herself across the room at the monster.
Ty knew full well what sort of force Tempest was capable of bringing to bear. He expected Bain to be blown backward and to disappear into the distance. But he wasn’t. Tempest collided with him with the force of a freight train, and the sound of the impact echoed through the tiny apartment like the crack of thunder. For a moment, Ty went completely deaf.
But the monstrous villain didn’t move an inch. It was as if Tempest had hurled herself at a steel bunker, or the side of a mountain, for all the good it did.
The monstrous man laughed as Tempest rebounded. “Got me an upgrade!” he pronounced.
Tempest looked at the man with surprise and confusion. She couldn’t understand how he had withstood her blow. Yet she didn’t give up. She simply hurled herself at him again, and again, and again. But unlike in the alley, her efforts had as little effect as the stun gun.
It was like Bain had leveled up to the point where Tempest couldn’t compete. The monstrous man didn’t even try to respond. He just stood there, accepting her attacks as if to show her how badly she was outmatched. Tempest continued gamely, but she was like a canary dive-bombing a bear. She was unable to make an impression.
Ty couldn’t believe what was happening. The monstrous man was standing in his lounge, John Smith was still laughing on the couch and Brad was cowering against the far wall. Ty desperately looked around for some way to help, but he wasn’t strong enough or fast enough to be of any real use. And the only weapon he had in the place had been as useless as a bag full of feathers.
Except that his stun gun wasn’t the only weapon he had in the place. There were the blasters and batons he’d taken from the mercenaries.
Without further thought, Ty vaulted the counter that separated the lounge from the kitchen and reached for one of the blasters.
But he was already too late.
“My turn,” Bain 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 Bain disappeared out the side of the building.
15: Choices
Ty was aghast. It was almost surreal. He could hear Bain 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 Bain 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 his 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 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 was 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.
Bain 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 Bain.
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 Bain 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. Bain 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 reasons.” 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 suggesting 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 Bain.
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. Bain 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 Bain, 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 ecstat
ic, 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 not reach him at this height.
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 it might be 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 from finding a tall building and wandering 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.