The Enhancer series Box Set

by Wyatt Kane

  It was also highly addictive, and users were known to suffer brain aneurisms at a much higher rate than normal.

  Yet it was the money Tempest mentioned that made Ty gape at her. “Millions?” he said.

  The blonde superhero laughed. “Yeah.”

  “Sounds pretty big to me.”

  Tempest acknowledged his point. “It should make a sizeable dent in Rubio’s business if the shipment found its way into an incinerator somewhere,” she conceded.

  Ty marveled at the nonchalant way she spoke of such things. “Where is it?” he asked.

  “There’s a warehouse on the lake docks. One of the officials there has been in Rubio’s back pocket for a while. Dinah spotted some unusual movements, followed it up, and here we are.” The blonde superhero was obviously proud of Dinah’s efforts. “You know what she can do with that system of hers. I swear she could track a single rat through the sewer if she tried.”

  Ty knew Tempest’s words to be true, yet there was one piece of information he wasn’t sure Dinah could provide. “Do we know if anyone there is wearing a device?” he asked.

  Tempest’s grin faded a little. She shrugged mid-flight. “No. Does it matter?”

  “It does if we’re not ready for them. The last thing we need is a nasty surprise.”

  Tempest laughed. Then she wrapped Ty up a little more tightly, bringing him close enough to nuzzle his neck and gently bite his ear. It felt delicious.

  “We are going to be the surprise, Ty,” Tempest breathed. “All going well, we’ll be in and out before anyone knows what happened.”

  For a moment, Ty forgot what they were talking about. All he knew was that Tempest was warm, soft, and completely incredible. He even forgot they were flying. He just responded to her nuzzling and nibbling by crushing her to him with all his strength.

  She gave a squeal of delight and let out a little laugh, yet she somehow managed to keep her focus. “It’ll be like a classic hit and run,” she continued. “And besides, the odds of Rubio finding someone with a useful skill so quickly can’t be that high, can they?”

  Ty knew she was right. But, as they descended back into the clouds, he wondered if they should have collected his device tracker on the way, just to be sure.

  Without it, they were going in blind.

  “Are you ready for this?” Tempest asked.

  Despite his doubts and much to his surprise, Ty actually did feel ready. He felt stronger and more capable than he’d ever felt in his life.

  “Yeah. I’m ready,” he growled.

  After all, this was hardly his first rodeo.

  4: Knock, Knock

  “Then let’s do this,” Tempest said. With that, they dropped like a stone toward the roof of the warehouse below them.

  The rush of wind and rapidly approaching ground helped to focus Ty’s attention. He hadn’t really known how vast the lake bordering New Lincoln was until Tempest had taken him there when he’d first put on his device. The lakeside port was a match for it in both size and overall activity. Massive ships were coming and going, cargo was being unloaded by cranes and forklifts, and people scurried about like ants on the piers.

  As the ants quickly grew in size to look more like people, Ty started to wonder about the upcoming fight. That Rubio would have men guarding his shipment was certain. The only questions were how many, and how well armed they might be.

  Yet he wasn’t worried. He still had the last of his modified blasters tucked down the back of his pants. Not even Bain, a monstrous, superpowered brute of a man, could stand up to the sheer firepower of Ty’s blasters if they were fired repeatedly.

  But Ty’s most important piece of tech was his energy shield. Starting off as a mesh “onesie” that covered him from head to toe, he’d since leveled it up to be a series of adhesive projector discs stuck on key parts of his body. The whole thing was powered by a set of energy converters that he kept stored in a pouch under his clothes.

  Activating it was like going Super Saiyan. The shield made him immune to physical blows, blaster fire, and fall damage to an amazing degree. He barely felt more than a tap when the shield was struck. And with his latest enhancements, it enabled him to land punches and kicks as hard as those of Tempest herself.

  It also allowed him to unleash blasts of power from the discs themselves. It was like he’d turned himself into a huge, powerful blaster, and he could do serious damage.

  Like when he’d gone to save Lilith, Bain’s unwilling accomplice. He’d let loose with everything he had, and it had led to a lot of deaths. Perhaps those deaths had been necessary, or maybe he could have avoided some of them. Either way, they weighed heavily on Ty’s conscience.

  “What’s the plan?” he asked Tempest as she slowed her approach, keeping his voice low. Below them, he could see armed guards mixed in with the workers. They were close enough that he could easily see the blasters they wore at their sides.

  All of them had the look common to Rubio’s men.

  “The drug is in a crate marked, ‘anchovies’,” Tempest said, just as quietly. “I’m thinking it’ll be the focus of Rubio’s men inside. Dinah says the drug is flammable, so how about we find it, and I’ll keep any trouble off your back while you blast it into dust?”

  Ty nodded. “Simple,” he said.

  He sensed Tempest grin. “Yeah. I like simple. And how about we go in through a window rather than the door. You know, to avoid attracting any attention too early.”

  She didn’t wait for Ty’s agreement. As she spoke, Tempest angled them toward one of the warehouse’s upper windows, a dirtied, plexiglass pane surrounded by gunmetal grey aluminum. “Knock, knock,” she said, at the same time as she let go of Ty with one arm and casually smashed her fist into the window.

  It was much tougher than it looked. Armor grade, Ty thought. The window cracked on impact but, surprisingly, held.

  The noise of the impact made one of the guards below look up. Ty felt his guts freeze up with fear as their simple plan fell apart.

  “They’re here, they’re here!” the guard yelled. Then he opened fire.

  5: Tanking Hits

  Tempest swore as she spun out of the way of the incoming shots. Ty had a moment to ponder the guard’s words and knew he and Tempest were somehow expected. Then, as plasma sizzled and burned against the warehouse windows and walls behind them, he drew his own blaster and yelled, “Activate!”

  The blue shield came to life, cutting him off from his lover’s touch.

  Additional guards were already running their way, appearing from left and right. A door opened up and even more burst out from within.

  Ty saw an opportunity to draw the attention to himself and give Tempest free rein. “Drop me on them and get inside!” he yelled at her. “I’ll catch up!”

  “Are you sure?” she said.

  “I’ll be fine! Do it!”

  The blonde superhero drew him close enough to kiss his glowing energy shield over his lips, then let him go over the gathering guards.

  Ty dropped like a stone. Blasters fired at him, but to no effect. Then he was down among them, gently drifting the last couple of feet to the ground.

  It made him an easy target. The guards hadn’t paused in their shooting, but had stepped away to give themselves room. Ty counted half a dozen doing their best to kill him, but without even a hint of success. To Ty, it felt no more dangerous than being slapped with damp sheets of paper.

  Instead of returning fire right away, he took a moment to look back up to Tempest. The blonde superhero had backed away from the warehouse window. As Ty watched, she hurled herself toward it, smashing into it at blinding speed.

  This time, there was no stopping her. One moment the window was there, damaged but in place, and the next moment there was massive Crack! and Tempest was inside the warehouse, leaving a hole that reminded Ty of his own apartment.

  He couldn’t help but grin, all his pre-battle jitters forgotten, as he heard the distinct sounds of surprise and increas
ing mayhem from within the warehouse.

  Then he turned his attention back to those he faced.

  With a snarl of anger twisting his features, he finally started to return fire.

  ◆◆◆

  The guards’ shields, in the form of body armor worn as part of their uniform, proved far less effective then Ty’s. In less than a minute, all of the guards were on the ground, wounded or unconscious, but hopefully, Ty thought, not dead. Not that he would grieve over them if they were. It was just that he didn’t enjoy unnecessary killing.

  During the time he’d taken, the sounds of carnage from inside the warehouse had risen to a crescendo. Ty looked around to make sure he’d got them all, then, with a satisfied nod to a job well done, hurried toward the still-open door.

  He came to a halt just inside.

  This wasn’t some abandoned, mostly empty place like where he and Tempest had rescued Dinah from Bain. This was a working warehouse, a massive place packed with crates and boxes and pallets. A perfect hiding place for the Ark of the Covenant.

  On a normal day, everything would likely have been neatly stacked, with automated forklifts and hoists working efficiently to keep it that way. But today was not a normal day. Today, Tempest had been hunting for a crate labelled, ‘anchovies,’ for more than a minute.

  Everything was in chaos. Whole rows of industrial shelving had come crashing down, spilling crates and boxes all over. One of the forklifts was on its side in the middle of the mess, and another had been crushed like it was a child’s toy instead of the heavy work machine it was. A dozen guards were sprawled out on the floor near where Ty entered, either groaning with pain or ominously silent.

  Further in, Ty saw what looked to be an active war zone. More of Rubio’s guards were there, and they weren’t limiting themselves to hand blasters. They were using heavy, military-grade blasters and even thermite rockets instead, and each and every one of them was shooting at a high-speed blur flying around near the ceiling.

  “Tempest!” Ty cried, afraid for the blonde superhero’s safety. Could even she survive a direct hit from such powerful weapons?

  He didn’t know.

  What he did know was that his suspicions were right. There was far too much firepower to guard a simple drug shipment. Somehow, he and Tempest had been expected.

  They’d walked into an ambush.

  An earlier version of Ty might have panicked at the thought. He might have stood in the middle of the destruction, afraid for his and Tempest’s lives but unable to do anything to help. Possibly, his inaction might have led to them both being captured or killed.

  But that was before he’d gained the device on his wrist. Before he’d come to love the two amazing women in his life, and before he’d stood up to monsters like Bain and the Master.

  Instead of panicking, Ty felt a cold, hard knot of hatred form in the pit of his stomach and work its way up his spine.

  His shield enclosed him fully, stretching as he moved and merging with itself as needed. So there was nothing stopping him from stowing his blaster under his belt at the back of his pants.

  This was not a first-person shooter. This was real life, and Ty wasn’t playing any more.

  The last time he’d really let loose with the power of his suit, it had resulted in a double-digit body count and ongoing nightmares. But whether she realized it or not, one of the girls he loved needed his help, and that was all that mattered.

  Yet he didn’t want to just kill everyone, either. Not if he could help it. So instead of letting out a guttural, animal yell and unleashing all of his suit’s power in a single, explosive detonation, he took a moment to focus.

  He aimed at a formation of guards and released a blast of energy from his hand like he was a sorcerer aiming a wand. It was a fraction of the strength of the blast he’d let loose before, yet it was powerful enough. His shield flickered for the briefest of moments, and a bolt of pure energy arced toward the men.

  Where it touched, flesh and blood erupted.

  It was like he’d set off a bomb. The men he’d aimed at flew left and right, some landing with sickening crunches and others bouncing and lying still. Perhaps some of them were only wounded, Ty thought briefly. A better result for them than it could have been if he’d gone all out.

  Those guards outside the range of destruction reacted with surprise, but not panic. They were calm and professional, with some of their number turning to face him while others kept track of Tempest.

  Ty gritted his teeth. Ignoring the barrage of blaster fire heading his way, he aimed and fired again, then again, doing his best to cut the men down.

  Such was the power of his assault that they couldn’t maintain their professionalism for long. Overwhelmed, the survivors started to give in to their fear. Some broke and tried to run. Others cried out in pain or terror, certain that their end had come.

  Ty snarled and kept firing. This wasn’t the only grouping of guards in the warehouse, nor was it the one that threatened Tempest the most. There were three other groups Ty could see, and he intended to see to them all.

  No longer was this a mission just to destroy a precursor to zzapp. Sure, Ty intended to do that too, but first he would make sure the warehouse was safe.

  Grimly, Ty stepped forward, aimed, and let off another round. Men screamed and collapsed.

  Then Ty learned he should have paid more attention to his surroundings.

  All of a sudden, he felt the most extraordinary pain hit him high on the right shoulder blade. It was the very definition of agony. Ty couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything other than cry out just as the guards had done under his efforts, and hurl himself away from whatever it was that hurt him.

  His shield caught him and lowered him gently to the ground. Ty’s shoulder was on fire. It was as if someone had applied a blow-torch to him, and he couldn’t understand. Had his shield malfunctioned? Had one of the plasma shots he’d been ignoring somehow got through?

  As he lay on the warehouse floor, panting and gasping in pain and the smell of his own burnt flesh filling his nostrils, he heard someone give voice to a smartass cackle.

  “Oooh, that looks painful.”

  The voice sounded slimy and foul, and it came from where Ty had been standing.

  Ty rolled to the side, took aim and released a blast of energy from his suit.

  It went straight through his attacker, a tall, angular man with a grin like an open wound. Uniquely for Rubio’s henchmen, this man had a shock of white hair, and he looked a little hazy, like he was a hologram instead of a living person.

  “Can’t touch this,” the man said with another slimy cackle and a small dance. “But I can sure touch you, can’t I?”

  Ty’s anger gave way to bone-chilling fear. There was no mistaking the device on the slimeball’s right wrist. Despite the odds, Rubio had already found somebody with a talent locked away in their DNA.

  Yelling out in a mixture of pain and fear, Ty let loose with a blast at full power. Like the first, this one went through his attacker as well, but this time the loathsome man staggered back a couple of steps. Yet, even though Ty’s blast took out a chunk of the warehouse wall behind him, the man stayed on his feet.

  “Wow. I actually felt that,” the insubstantial man said in amazement. Then he lunged forward.

  Ty scrambled desperately to keep away, but he was on his back and his shoulder hurt. He fired at the slimeball again and again, knocking him back each time, but the insubstantial man kept coming. And he was laughing as he did.

  All at once, the slimeball dodged one of Ty’s shots. He made a quick grab at Ty’s right leg, his translucent hand wrapping around the outside of his shield.

  Ty cried out again as the air around his right calf heated up to blast furnace temperatures. He understood then that his shield hadn’t failed. Not exactly. The creep couldn’t touch him physically, but the heat the man generated got through anyway.

  Ty jerked his foot away and fired again. Just like before, the shot p
assed clean through the man, but it also knocked him back.

  The man laughed. “Have you figured it out, yet?” he asked in his slimy, condescending voice. “This was all a setup for you and your girlfriend. And a trial run for me, I might add. Rubio didn’t get too much joy from the others who put their hands up to wear these devices, but he paid some serious attention to me when I boiled his coffee just by touching the cup.”

  Ty had started to sweat. The pain in his leg and shoulder was almost unbearable. It hurt every time he moved, and he feared for his life. His shield couldn’t protect him, nor did his weapons have any impact.

  He felt helpless, and wondered if the same thoughts of doom had gone through Zach’s mind as Bain beat him to death.

  “Guess you can see why the boss called me Steam,” the insubstantial slimeball said, his face twisted into an ugly grin that was akin to a sneer. “You might like to know he’s offered a fat bonus for the device on your arm. And believe me, that’s a bonus I plan to collect!”

  Ty thought he had only moments. There was nothing he could do. Yet even then, he wasn’t ready to give up. He would let this monster have it with everything he had, and do his best to keep himself alive.

  He gave voice to a snarl of desperation and rage, but before the slimeball called Steam could move, before Ty could set himself for another shot, Tempest blew in like an elemental force. She unceremoniously whisked Ty away from Steam’s grasp and flew them both out through the hole Ty had made in the warehouse wall.

  As they left the warehouse behind them, Ty thought he could hear Steam swearing loudly from within.

  6: Pain

  Ty’s enjoyment of flying was nothing compared to the relief he felt at just being alive. Despite the ongoing pain in his back and leg, he felt almost euphoric, and the only thing that kept him from whooping and hollering out of sheer joy was the endless flow of curses Tempest let out as they headed back up through the clouds.

  She was enraged like Ty had never seen her before, and it wasn’t hard to guess why.