by Wyatt Kane
Dinah nodded. “Lilith isn’t a fighter, despite what she can do. But that doesn’t mean she can’t help us find who we’re looking for.”
“She can sense devices.” Ty added.
“Yes.” At this, the deerkin’s expression became serious. “Tempest and I spoke after you left this morning. Things are getting out of hand. We’ve never faced superpowered adversaries before. Because of the Architect’s precautions, there weren’t any to face. But now….”
“Now there are more and more of them,” Tempest took up the narrative. “The Master has Bain, and we know he plans to recruit others. And now there’s Rubio as well. Somehow, he’s already found a way to use the devices he took from the Master. What if Steam isn’t the only one of his men with a skill? For all we know, Rubio could be building an army.”
Ty knew that the women were right, and they didn’t even know about the drug trial that Brad had spoken about. It seemed to Ty that there was the potential for superpowered people to come out of the woodwork in all directions.
He thought about telling the girls about the drug trial, but before he could, Dinah continued.
“Our normal tactics for dealing with crime in New Lincoln are no longer enough. In truth, they’ve never been enough. The best we’ve been able to do is keep a lid on things so that people can at least hope for a normal existence. But you know what New Lincoln is like.” She glanced around. “We all do. It isn’t a safe place. There are predators of all kinds everywhere you look, and they’re only getting stronger. Rubio is just one example, as is the Master, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg.”
“And the police aren’t much help,” Tempest added.
Ty remembered their last interaction with the New Lincoln police. It hadn’t gone well. Tempest had been held overnight at the local station, under the guise of questioning, but there was something deeper going on.
Lilith had implied that the Master had spies everywhere.
“So, what do we do about it?” Ty asked.
It was Tempest who answered. “We have to take the fight to them,” she said.
“Yes. But how?”
“We can’t wait for bad things to happen anymore,” Dinah said. “We need to be more proactive. Regardless of all the other crime that happens, this is the most important thing going on in the city right now. It has to be our main priority, or it will quickly get out of control.”
“You’re talking about finding Bain and the Master and stopping them before they can do anything else,” Ty said.
“And Rubio. We need to find their devices, find the labs and anything else related to the development of superpowers, and we need to put a stop to it.”
Again, Ty thought about the drug trial. Did that fit with Tempest and Dinah’s definition of “anything else related to the development of superpowers”? Or was it more as Brad had described, the next step in body modification? And even if it did fit Dinah’s definition, was it still different? Without some mastermind guiding it, was the development of these talents necessarily a bad thing?
Or was he trying to rationalize it all because he was still thinking of signing up for it himself?
Either way, he figured it wasn’t the right time to muddy the waters by bringing it up just then.
“And Lilith can help us locate Bain and the others,” he said. He took a deep breath. “When do we start?”
“We’ve already begun,” Dinah said. She gestured toward the large screen on the wall on the far side of the den. While not as versatile as the 360° screen in her communications room, this one was more than up to the task. It was large, rectangular, took up a third of the wall space, and it showed what looked to Ty like aerial view of part of a city. New Lincoln, Ty assumed.
In the middle, a single red dot shone in the middle.
“Is that someone wearing a device?” Ty asked.
It was Lilith who answered. “As near as I can tell, yes.”
Ty hesitated. “As near as you can tell?” He had created a sensor that could also track devices, but it didn’t have the same range as Lilith’s ability. He wanted to know if he would need it.
“I teleported there,” Lilith said. “Not into the building, but close enough. Someone inside is wearing a device.” The way she spoke left no room for doubt. The demon-woman was certain.
“Who?” Ty asked.
It was Dinah who answered. “You’d be surprised how many places there are around town that don’t have any camera feeds pointing their way. I couldn’t see who it was, and Lilith can’t distinguish between devices, and didn’t get too close. That said, they’re in an area that has nothing to do with Rubio’s holdings, and it’s within a few hundred yards of the warehouse where Bain kept me hostage.”
“Bain,” Ty said.
Tempest nodded. “Bain,” she agreed, her expression grim and determined.
Ty hesitated before asking his next question. “What are we going to do with him?”
Tempest didn’t flinch. “Whatever we have to,” she said.
“Hopefully,” Dinah interjected, “that will mean no more than stripping him of his device.”
But Ty shook his head. “We have to do more than that,” he said. “Bain is valuable to the Master. Won’t he just give him another device?”
“So, what do you suggest?” Dinah asked.
Ty set his jaw. It was his turn to feel determined. Yet he didn’t quite want to commit to anything fatal. “I don’t know. Prison. Hospital, maybe.” He shrugged. “If we plan to kill him, can we still claim to be the good guys?”
It was a sobering thought.
“Maybe,” Ty continued, “I could invent some sort of suspended animation chamber. A place where we can store him until we figure out what to do.” Even as he spoke, he knew it wasn’t a viable option. It might take him weeks to put together such a chamber, and they needed a solution now.
“Or,” Lilith said, “I could teleport him into the middle of a mountain and leave him there.”
She spoke with such bitterness and venom that it took Ty by surprise. He didn’t know if Lilith meant just to hold Bain in place or if she meant to kill him. Either way, he had to acknowledge that her anger was justified.
To Ty, Bain was an adversary. But to Lilith, he was one of her kidnappers. He had forced her to act according to his will instead of her own.
Nobody had anything to say to that. After a moment, Tempest looked at Ty. “Are you ready for this?” she asked.
It was a loaded question. The last time he and Tempest had flown off on a mission, it ended badly. Even now, the wounds Ty had gained made his shoulder and leg ache. Yet he knew the girls were right.
Before putting the device on his wrist, Ty had been hesitant. A lifetime of struggling had taught him doubt and worry. But he was a different man now. Stronger. More confident. And his skill (in the form of his energy shield) had been proven to be a match for Bain’s strength several times in the past.
It was time to give the good guys a win.
“Let’s do this,” he said.
22: Plans
The plan was simple. Whether Bain was alone or had company, Ty and Tempest would do what they could to render him unconscious. The only difference was if he wasn’t alone, Tempest would grab him first and take him back to the abandoned car park they had fought him in last time.
As for how to render him unconscious, their chosen method was simple: brute force.
They didn’t have any options, anyway. They had no immediate access to any tranquilizer that might do the trick, nor did they know enough about Bain’s durability to be sure that would work. So, the idea was for Ty to blast away at the man with his shield cannons or for Tempest to use her special attack and pile-drive him into the earth a few times, depending on who got to him first. Either way, they would immobilize him and bring him back to the workshop, where Ty would strip him of his device.
It would have been easier if the Architect’s fabricator had been mobile, but in Ty’s mind at least, i
t was a workable plan.
And if Bain proved to be more troublesome than expected, there was always a backup option. They could take his arm off at the shoulder instead.
When they were ready to go, Tempest looked hard at Ty. “Just so we’re clear,” the blonde superhero said, “our target is Bain. It doesn’t matter who else is there. We have to gain control of these devices. And we have to destroy them.”
Ty nodded. He flexed his shoulder, testing it out.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Dinah asked, echoing Tempest’s earlier question. But while Tempest had been referring to his psychological state of mind, Dinah seemed to be more concerned with his injury.
Again, Ty nodded. “I can barely feel it,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”
He believed he was telling the truth. He’d faced Bain one-on-one before, and with the new capabilities he’d built into his shield, he knew himself to be more than the man’s match.
“Then let’s go,” Tempest said.
◆◆◆
For the second time in two days, Ty and Tempest flew through the gloomy, New Lincoln sky toward a confrontation. Ty couldn’t help but feel his usual combination of emotions. There was fear, certainly. To not fear feel fear in the face of real danger wouldn’t have been natural. But there was excitement as well, that they were doing something proactive. And real determination to do what he needed to do.
Taking Bain out of the game once and for all would give their side a significant advantage.
Ty also felt an ominous sense of déjà vu. The last time Tempest had flown him to a confrontation hadn’t ended well. Steam had gotten the best of him, and only Tempest’s swift actions had prevented worse injuries yet.
But this would be different. Bain was a known quantity. Tempest or Ty could both handle him by themselves. The Master’s chief henchman should stand little chance with both of them working together.
Yet the sense of déjà vu remained. This mission was a little too similar to the last. Even though the earlier one had been about disrupting a drug shipment and this was more about maintaining their advantage, Ty felt like he was trapped in a game, trying to complete a level he’d failed before.
He shook his head as he and Tempest flew, trying to dislodge the thought.
“Are you okay?” Tempest asked, her voice right beside his ear.
“I’m fine,” Ty replied. “I just don’t want any nasty surprises.”
“If anything unexpected happens, we’ll just leave and try again another day.”
Ty wasn’t sure he believed her. In his mind, Tempest was a force of nature. The only time he’d seen her back away from a fight was when she’d had no choice. If Ty hadn’t needed her help, she would have battled on until the end.
Yet he didn’t argue. Nor did he ask where her head was at around Lilith. To him, it was a good thing that the demon woman had returned to the mansion, but he figured it would take time for Tempest to fully accept her.
Instead, he looked out, watching the New Lincoln buildings come and go beneath them.
In only a few minutes, Ty thought he was starting to recognize where they were. The warehouse where Bain had taken Dinah shouldn’t be far away … there! Ty saw it in the distance, approaching quickly, with the ruined parking lot beside it, evidence of Tempest’s last battle with Bain.
He didn’t need to point it out. Tempest had seen it as well, and was already slowing. “Somewhere around here,” she muttered.
At the same time, Ty’s device pinged an alert. He answered, and Dinah appeared in holographic form. “Lilith can sense you approaching the target building,” she said, all professionalism and efficiency. “You are within half a mile of it. At your 10 o’clock. You should be able to see it from there.”
Tempest had slowed down enough that Dinah’s voice was clear. Ty scanned the buildings below until he saw one matching the image that had been on the screen in the den. “There,” he said, pointing.
“Got it,” Tempest said. Dinah’s image gave an approving nod. “We’ll be here if you need us,” she said, and winked out. Tempest started her descent.
At first glance, Ty couldn’t tell what these buildings were. Perhaps another warehouse of some sort, but if so, the design was quite different from the one where they had fought Bain before. Perhaps a factory of some sort instead, he thought. Either way, it was not a singular structure, but a tight grouping of half a dozen, all with a similar architecture. Dark and blocky, they were like the curved shells of massive bugs, squatting like concrete bunkers down below. Ty thought they looked tough, as if designed to withstand heavy bombardment.
Once again, Ty thought of Rubio’s ambush. In his mind, these concrete bunkers would be a great place for another attempt.
Again, he shook his head. His earlier experience had put him on edge. There was no way Rubio or anyone else could have set a trap for them. Nobody knew what they were planning.
“Which building?” he asked Tempest.
“The screen showed him in the biggest one,” came her reply. “If he’s moved, Dinah would have said so.”
It made sense. Tempest took a moment to circle the building in question. Perhaps Ty’s paranoia was contagious, or maybe it was a precaution she would have taken regardless. Either way, there was little to see beyond the few vehicles parked out back. There was certainly no hidden mercenary army ready to pounce. Satisfied, the blonde superhero brought them down to land in an area that looked like a loading dock, with wide steel doors gaping open.
Although it was darker inside than out, Ty could make out some sort of machines within. The building, he thought, was some sort of foundry.
They didn’t go in immediately. “Check with Dinah and Lilith,” Tempest said. “Find out exactly where he is.”
Ty did as Tempest asked. After a quick discussion with Lilith offscreen, the holographic image of Dinah gave them an answer.
“He’s right in the middle.”
It was enough for Tempest. “Time to turn on your shield,” she said.
Ty didn’t hesitate. “Activate,” he said, and at once his shimmering energy shield coalesced around him.
“Shall we?” Ty asked.
Tempest accepted Ty’s invitation. “Yes, let’s,” she said.
23: Déjà vu
Together, they went in.
Just like two normal people, walking in from outside as if they had every right to do so. The blonde superhero, who never looked out of place regardless of where she was, and Ty, a fairly ordinary-looking man with messy hair and a shimmering field of blue energy around him.
At first, Ty couldn’t see anything of interest. The building was almost as large as an airplane hangar, but instead of being filled with planes, there was heavy machinery everywhere. If Bain was in the middle, he was hidden behind great chunks of steel. Nor could he see anyone else. As far as Ty could tell, the place was deserted.
They looked at each other. By unspoken agreement, they moved further in.
Both of them were taken completely by surprise when someone called out, “Now!” and the metal doors slammed shut behind them.
◆◆◆
Ty’s heart pounded in his chest. Instinctively, he spun and crouched into a defensive pose. There were a dozen men behind them, although where they had come from, Ty didn’t know.
Rubio’s men.
Beside him, Tempest spat a curse. “How in the hell—?” she started. But Ty didn’t care. All he knew was that somehow, it was indeed another trap, set not by the Master, but by Rubio Vecoli. Which meant that Steam would be somewhere nearby.
It was almost beyond belief. Ty was immediately confused and afraid, but most of all, he found he was angry that he and Tempest had walked into two traps on two different days.
Without hesitation, Ty unleashed the wrath of his shield cannons. A blinding flash of blue brilliance arced from him toward the men at the door and erupted among them, tossing them about as if they were nothing. At the same time, Ty shouted to Tempes
t.
“Bain isn’t here! It’s a trap! Can you see a way out?”
Even as he spoke, Ty became aware of more of Rubio’s men emerging from behind the foundry equipment.
Usually, it was Tempest who acted decisively in any conflict situation. She was the more experienced of them, and the strongest. She would normally act before Ty could even figure out what was going on. But this time, she hesitated, clearly conflicted. Her instinct was to engage. To take the fight to those arrayed against them. And she easily could, as well. So far, the men Ty had seen carried only blasters. Pop guns as far as Tempest was concerned. They couldn’t hurt her.
But they had agreed. If Bain wasn’t there, they were to leave and try again at another time.
Tempest’s internal struggle was brief. After only a moment, she nodded. “The walls are concrete. I could probably punch a hole through them, but you need to distract them, get their attention. I’ll see if I can open the door.”
With that, the blonde superhero left him alone to face the approaching men.
Some of them had already started to fire. But Ty’s shield was up to the task. Blaster fire from such a distance meant nothing to him. He watched as Tempest reached the door and decided he wasn’t playing anymore. With a guttural roar that any God of War might have been proud of, he again let loose with his shield cannons.
This time, it wasn’t a single convulsive blast, but rather a continuous stream of energy that he directed all around him in an expanding circle. All of Rubio’s men caught in the conflagration were blown off their feet. Whether they had their own shielding didn’t matter. They couldn’t stand against the fury of Ty’s power. He kept pumping energy into his cannons and turning around until none were standing.
Only once all the enemies he could see were down did he relent. He couldn’t tell if they were dead or alive. Somewhere, he heard someone groaning, but most were silent. A few wisps of smoke rose from the bodies.
When he’d first let his power erupt, Ty had killed a dozen of the Master’s men at once. He had been distraught about it. The sight and smell of the dead had been enough to make him retch. He’d swore an oath to himself that he would do all he could to prevent such carnage again.