by Wyatt Kane
It worked. The part of the net where he’d aimed disintegrated under the plasma blast of his weapon. Even better, his shield barely noticed. It was as if he’d been hit with a pillow and nothing more.
With a triumphant yell, Ty fired twice more, and the rest of the net disappeared. Then he rolled to his feet and fired at the mercenaries again, downing several.
The mercenaries returned fire, but their blasters were useless against Ty’s shield. One of them aimed a net gun at him and Ty leapt to the side. He swore under his breath as the net passed him by, but he didn’t back down. He fired again and again, and they wilted under the pressure. To Ty, it was like playing on ‘novice’ once he’d already beaten the game, but to them, it was as if they were under powered in a fight with a high-level boss.
They couldn’t compete. Within less than a minute, a third of them were down. “Take cover!” someone yelled, and that was enough. Those few remaining ducked behind their fallen associates or took refuge between cars and buses.
Ty didn’t pause to catch his breath or consider his next move. There was no time for any of that. He’d already been away from Tempest too long and had no clue what was happening.
He turned and ran as fast as he could.
◆◆◆
By the time he neared the pendulum ride, Ty was starting to pant. His energy field allowed air to pass back and forth without any issues, but it seemed to trap the heat. He was sweating as well, although that may have been because he was anxious. He needed to know what was happening but couldn’t get close. There were people everywhere.
Ty would have expected them to run, to try to get away from the madness that was Bain. But it seemed that the drama acted like a magnet. Instead of scattering, it was as if all the people in the park had gathered, forming a living barrier between Ty and the ride.
Nor were they quiet. There was an ongoing chatter as they expressed their concerns and fears. Beyond that, Ty could still hear the passengers in the gondola screaming and the rhythmic pounding of Bain’s fists against steel. He could see Tempest still holding onto the pendulum although it couldn’t have been easy.
The blonde superhero couldn’t lower it to the ground. It was all she could do to keep the pendulum vertical. She didn’t have the strength to do anything else.
Ty tried to shoulder his way through the crowd. “Excuse me! Coming through!” he said, his frustration increasing with every moment. The people seemed reluctant to move. Perhaps they thought it no more than a spectacle and were unwilling to give up their place.
Finally, Ty had enough.
“Get out of the way!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Perhaps the sheer volume of his shout took the crowd by surprised. They parted in front of him, but Ty continued to yell as he pushed his way through. “Don’t just stand there, call the police! And the fire service! Call everyone!”
It took far longer than Ty wanted, but he finally made his way to the front where the pointy-eared gnome and his assistant were doing what they could to keep people back. Ty ignored their efforts entirely and once more hurdled the fence.
The scene was much as it had been before, with Bain pounding on one of the legs and Tempest doing her best up above. And yet, it wasn’t the same. The leg Bain pounded upon was buckling under his efforts. Ty knew that it couldn’t last much longer, and if it was to go, then nothing Tempest could do would keep the pendulum stable.
Nor was that the only difference. Lilith was there as well, on her hands and knees beneath the pivot point, obviously injured. Somehow, Tempest must have gotten the better of her, although how that could have been, Ty didn’t know.
Despite her uncertain loyalties, Ty’s first instinct was to go to the demon woman to see if she was okay. Instead, as he’d done before, Ty charged toward Bain with his blaster aimed and ready.
This time, he started firing his blaster from twenty yards away. Bain’s laughter turned into howls of fury, and he ducked behind the steel leg he was abusing. Grimly, Ty stalked him. He drew closer and closer, shooting whenever he could.
Bain couldn’t hide behind the girder forever, and some of Ty’s shots found their mark. As he drew closer, it became clear that Bain couldn’t resist the force of them. He snarled and raged at Ty as he tried to protect himself, but Ty kept shooting, kept advancing.
Finally, it was too much for the man. He let out a bellow full of rage and hate. “Lilith! Get me out of here!”
It was just as before. Even though she was wounded, Lilith appeared beside Bain in an instant, and Ty checked his shot.
He could have blasted the demoness in the same way that he blasted Bain, but did not. The demon woman looked at him as if she understood, then blinked out of existence.
◆◆◆
Ty looked around to make sure that there were no more enemies in sight. He wasn’t yet ready to relax, not with Tempest still doing what she could high above, but at least Bain was no longer a threat.
But the danger hadn’t yet passed. Bain had wrought considerable damage. The whole pendulum ride shook as if it was on the verge of collapse, and Ty was stuck on the ground.
He looked up and shouted as loudly as he could. “Tempest! What do you need? What can I do?”
Amid the ongoing screams of the passengers came her reply. “It’s too heavy!” she yelled, and even at the distance Ty could hear the desperation in her voice. “I can’t hold it!”
Ty’s heart was beating fast in his chest. Once again, he and Tempest had survived an attack. Somehow, Tempest had fought off Lilith at the same time as Ty had defeated a small army of mercenaries as well as Bain himself. After all that, they couldn’t fail now. Not with so many lives at stake.
And yet, Ty’s shield was solely defensive. He lacked Bain’s or Tempest’s strength. Nor could he teleport the way Lilith could. There was nothing he could do.
Except that his talent wasn’t just in the technology he created. It was in the way he saw things.
He could understand how things worked.
Surely, if there was a way to help Tempest, he could figure it out.
With grim determination, he studied the problem from his place on the ground. Tempest was keeping the pendulum balanced straight up and down. The weight of the pendulum, the gondola (which by then had stopped spinning), and the counterweight must have been many tons, even without including the weight of the passengers themselves. As it was, she could do what was required, but if the pendulum moved away from the vertical, it would be too much.
Nor could she just hold it in place until the emergency services arrived. The pivot point was broken and crumbling. Even then, it was letting out groans as the steel faltered. It could give up entirely at any moment, and that would be it.
Tempest would be left trying to hold the weight of all that metal aloft.
It couldn’t be done. Even if Ty could somehow get up to the pivot point with a welding torch, it still wouldn’t be enough. He didn’t know what to do.
36: A True Superhero
Except that maybe he did know what to do.
“How is the gondola joined to the pendulum?” Ty yelled. “Can you see?”
“Looks like a couple of bolts!” Tempest returned.
Ty hesitated. This was the critical point, and it all depended on Tempest. There was nothing Ty could do to help. “Can you break them? And carry the weight of the gondola all by itself?”
Tempest didn’t answer directly. Instead, Ty saw her reposition herself, and then the blonde superhero let out a cry of incredible effort.
With the rending of metal, the gondola came free of the pendulum. For a few seconds, Tempest Flaire held aloft the entire weight of the circular apparatus with all the people dangling from it upside down.
Without Tempest’s strength acting to balance it, the pendulum stayed upright for just a moment, then started to swing. Once it reached no more than ten degrees from perpendicular, the pivot point gave out. The leg Bain had damaged couldn’t sustain the pressure,
and tons of metal twisted and came crashing to the ground, hitting with such force that the earth shook.
People screamed, and the air filled with dust. Ty’s shield kept the dust from getting in his eyes, but it was still hard to see.
Yet it didn’t take long for the dust to thin. Ty wasn’t the only one watching for Tempest. He and half the crowd saw her at the same time, coming in to land with the gondola, now flipped up the right way, safe and under control.
As the blonde superhero touched down next to the wreckage of the pendulum ride, the crowd behind Ty erupted into spontaneous cheers.
She’d done it! Through monumental, superhuman effort, Tempest had saved them! To Ty, it was an incredible sight, even partially obscured by the dust.
Ty found himself cheering and whooping along with the rest. What he had witnessed was almost beyond belief.
If there had been any doubt in his mind before, now there was none. Tempest was a real-life superhero, a match for any in the comics or on film. And everyone who had watched the drama knew it.
◆◆◆
Ty was awash with a confusing mess of emotions. He was elated that they had done it. He and Tempest had weathered the storm of the Master’s latest attempt to gain their devices. He was in awe of the sheer, impossible strength Tempest displayed in lowering the gondola to the ground. He was relieved that aside from the mercenaries in the car park, no one had been seriously injured.
At the same time, he was angry. Angry that the Master hadn’t given up. Angry that Bain seemed so willing to cause destruction.
He was also kicking himself that he hadn’t found the time to enhance his own capabilities. He had the skill. With the Architect’s workshop, he had the tools. He also had the ideas. All he needed was the time to implement them.
Ty was also worried about Lilith. He was more and more certain that the demoness was acting against her will, and knew that for her, every minute that passed was one more minute in danger. And not just danger for her, but for her father–stepfather–as well. And, if Lilith’s words were true, possibly many others kept under guard by the Master’s men.
And, lastly, Ty felt irritation at the crowds of people who turned the successful rescue into chaos.
Within moments of Tempest touching down, along with the cheering and applause, the watching audience surged forward. The pointy-end gnome and his assistant could do nothing to keep them back, and nor could the low fence. Within moments, a horde of people descended on Ty, Tempest, and the passengers on the gondola. Heedless of the dust, the audience did what they could to help.
The trapped passengers were released from their seats within seconds and given what comfort they needed. At the same time, there were so many hands all wanting to touch both Tempest and Ty, to offer their thanks or expressions of amazement, that Ty couldn’t immediately get close to one of the women he loved.
It was all Ty could do to bear it stoically, accepting the congratulations and pats on the back in the vein they were offered, nodding and smiling and trying to work his way toward Tempest.
Finally, he reached the superhero’s side. He could see by her expression that she was exhausted and was reminded that was not the first trial she had endured within the last twenty-four hours. There had been the battle outside of their building and the grilling at the police station as well, and she’d only had a couple of hours sleep.
“Is there any reason we need to stay?” he asked, hoping that there was not.
Tempest shook her head. “I’ve had enough of talking to officials for one day,” she said. “If they need us, I’m sure they can work out how to contact us.”
Ty was more than happy with that response. “Home?” he said. He didn’t even think about it. In his mind, he still had the apartment with Brad (even with the scarily expensive hole in the wall), but that’s what not what he meant.
She raised an eyebrow and offered a wide grin. “Home,” she confirmed, her expression and tone strongly suggesting it was Ty’s home as well.
Ty didn’t know what to think about that. Nor did he have the time. To a collective gasp of wonder and awe from those on the ground, Tempest took him in her familiar embrace and launched herself into the sky.
◆◆◆
Ty needed another shower. His shield had prevented the dirt and dust from his adventures getting through to his clothes, and the flight back with Tempest had freshened him up. But he still felt decidedly sweaty and grimy.
Yet it was more important to debrief, both to fill Dinah in and so Ty could find out what had happened to Lilith.
So, once again, Ty and Tempest sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen while Dinah cooked.
Ty didn’t know what the deerkin was making, but as usual, the aromas were intoxicating to the point where he couldn’t stop himself salivating. He found himself watching her as she flowed about in the kitchen, her graceful movements akin to a dance.
Her dance wasn’t made any easier by Gremlin, who had chosen the most in-the-way spot in which to curl up and go to sleep. At any moment, Dinah could have inadvertently kicked her, but through some miracle of awareness, that never happened.
Dinah had already told them that she was watching as best she could on the news nets. While there had been no official journalists at the scene, there were plenty of witnesses with various tech. The entire episode had been uploaded to numerous sites, from various angles, and there was little that Dinah didn’t already know.
“I don’t think I can put a lid on this one,” the deerkin was saying as she stirred one of the pots on the stove. “There were too many recordings, and they have already been shared by hundreds of thousands of people. For better or worse, it looks like we are going to be more than just rumors from now on. It will be harder for the people of New Lincoln to disbelieve our existence.”
Tempest looked grim at the deerkin’s pronouncement. Yet it didn’t last long. The superhero took only a moment to accept it.
“We knew it would happen,” she said with a sigh. “And it’s not like we’ve been completely invisible. People knew there were superheroes since my father started all this as the Architect.”
Ty nodded in agreement. He didn’t know of anyone in New Lincoln who hadn’t heard of the Architect. Yet Dinah was also correct. For much of his life, Ty had considered the stories of superheroes in the city to be no more than wishful thinking. A counteragent against the oppressive reality of life under the thumb of the mega-corporations.
Like the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, and even UFOs, there had always been stories and rumors, but little in the way of real, believable evidence.
“Yes, but it’s likely to change things. How exactly, I don’t really know,” Dinah said.
At that, Gremlin stood up, stretched in that peculiar way only cats have, turned a complete circle to her left, then settled back down again as if somehow the exact same spot on the floor had suddenly become more comfortable.
Ty, Tempest, and Dinah examined their own thoughts for a moment. Then Ty spoke up. “What happened with Lilith?” he asked. “When she dropped me in the middle of the mercenaries, I thought you would be next. What happened?”
Tempest nodded. “She appeared next to me. I thought I was done for. I didn’t think I could fight her and save the people on the ride at the same time. She’s too quick, and all she needed to do was take me somewhere else. Or use that earthquake thing she’s got.”
The blonde superhero looked contemplative for a moment. “And she did. I couldn’t stop her from teleporting me away. To the other side of the city as near as I could tell. She was holding onto me like I do when carrying Ty. But I think it was because she didn’t want to be observed.”
Dinah had stopped stirring the pot and was looking at Tempest with interest. “What did she say?”
“She told me to hurt her.”
37: Enhancements
Ty’s first thoughts came straight from the gutter. Maybe it was because of the undeniable attraction he felt for Lilith, but when Tempest
spoke of ‘hurting her,’ he thought of spanking, of Tempest in black leather and holding a whip. It was a powerful image, and one he intended to explore further at a later time. But just at that moment, it confused him utterly.
He blinked, totally thrown and not understanding at all.
Then, all at once, he realized he’d made a leap Tempest hadn’t intended. Yet even then, the content of her words was such that Ty could only stare at the blonde superhero in shock.
“Hurt her?” he managed. At the same time, he tried very hard not to smile at his own assumption.
Tempest nodded. “She sounded desperate. She didn’t want those people to suffer, and unless I miss my guess, it was the only way she could think of to help them. What could I do? I agreed, expecting her to blink us back right away, but she had more to say.”
Both Dinah and Ty were staring openly at her. Neither of them had witnessed this, and it was beyond surprising.
“I needed to get back. The pendulum was balanced, but I needed to be there. It was constantly shifting, and I didn’t know how long it would stay upright. But she didn’t take me back until she delivered her message.”
Tempest paused, gathering her thoughts. “She said she saw one of the guards with a branded pizza box. Hobgood’s Pizzeria.”
Ty was confused. He didn’t understand the significance of Lilith’s message. But Tempest hadn’t finished. “Then she brought us back at the amusement park.” The superhero gave Ty a vaguely guilty expression that Ty didn’t understand, compounding his confusion. “I did as she asked. Tried not to hurt her too badly.”
Before Ty could ask for clarification, Dinah explained. “Lilith is being held near one of the Hobgood’s restaurants,” she said.
Tempest nodded. “That’s what I think.”
Now Ty understood. “Is it enough? Can you use that to find where she’s being held?”
“I’m not sure. But when she was here, she said she felt it was to the west. I don’t know how many Hobgood’s restaurants there are. Enough that I know the name, but hopefully not too many. It should help to narrow it down. Maybe.”