by Wyatt Kane
Idly, he wondered what it might take to be able to repair not just the people, but the buildings as well. To return the world to how it had been before disaster had struck. Randomly, he wondered if he could program his medical nanites to work on masonry. To define what was necessary from the building blueprints and program his nanites to scavenge whatever materials were available to rebuild.
He was still contemplating that possibility when Lilith, looking tired and drawn, reappeared by his side.
“It’s been a while since I found any survivors,” the demon woman said. “The first responders have their dogs and drones out looking, and I think you and I are starting to attract a bit more attention than I like. How about we call it a day and head back?”
Ty looked around. He’d covered a significant area on foot, and knew Lilith had gone even further. As well, he understood the odds of anyone surviving beneath all the mess to be shrinking all the while. He was exhausted, as was Lilith.
They had done their share. Done the best they could.
Lilith was right. It was time to go.
Ty nodded. As Lilith stepped close to him once again, Ty started thinking about his new idea for his nanites. Ever since Tempest had crashed through the wall of his apartment fighting Bain, Ty had been worried about the cost of repairing the damage.
But maybe, just maybe, if he could reprogram his nanites as he planned, it wouldn’t cost him a thing.
◆◆◆
The biting cold of that space between two points of reality was almost too much for him. In the infinite time Ty and Lilith during which they were exposed, it felt as if the weight behind his eyes froze solid. It took his breath away and seemed to freeze his blood in his veins.
It was all Ty could do to grit his teeth against the pain and pray that the pressure didn’t cause his head to explode.
After what felt like an eternity, they emerged from that awful hell onto the demon woman’s regular landing spot, the bridge over the koi pond outside the mansion. Such was the shock to Ty’s system that his knees buckled as he gasped for breath. Lilith had to clutch at him to keep him from collapsing, and if it weren’t for the railing on the bridge, he might have fallen into the water below.
“Steady,” the demon woman said, her voice full of concern. “We’re here. You’re okay.”
Ty thought Lilith was trying to reassure herself as much as him. He didn’t feel okay. Not by a long shot. He felt instead as if someone had inserted an ice balloon behind his eyes and was blowing it up, steadily increasing the pressure on the inside of his head. At the same time, he felt tired to the point where the muscles in his legs were starting to vibrate.
Yet he didn’t want Lilith to worry. He knew that this was no more than the after effects of the drug he had taken. In his mind, that made it self-inflicted, and he was stubborn. This weakness, and the headache as well, were of his own making, and were therefore his to bear.
Leaning part of his weight on the railing and part on Lilith, he waited until he felt strong enough to stand under his own efforts.
Then he nodded. “I’m okay,” he said, mirroring Lilith’s words. “That just took a bit longer than I wanted it to, is all,” Ty said.
Lilith bought it. “That’s why I came here rather than trying to get through the shield. It doesn’t affect me so much, but not many people seem to like teleporting.” She gave Ty a gentle grin. “Tempest didn’t seem to mind, though. It doesn’t faze her.”
Ty was feeling stronger by then. “Nothing much ever does,” he said. At the same time, he wondered if the blonde superhero hadn’t been simply trying to match Lilith herself. Tempest had mentioned before that the demon woman intimidated her. Perhaps she just wanted to prove herself Lilith’s equal.
Not that it really mattered. Tempest was either tough enough that teleporting didn’t worry her, or was tough enough that she could pretend it didn’t. Either way, Ty couldn’t match it.
“Come on,” Ty said. “Let’s get inside.”
He turned off the shield and Lilith helped him through the main entrance. But as soon as they were inside, Ty’s failure seemed to loom large once again. There was so much he hadn’t been able to do. Sure, he had saved people, but what about all those he’d failed? Not just Jason, although the image of the boy filled Ty’s mind like an image on the screen in Dinah’s communication room. But also the dead he’d seen, crushed, partially buried, beyond his help.
Perhaps, if he’d been quicker, he might have been able to help them as well. And that didn’t even count all the dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of people he’d never even noticed, buried under the rubble.
Ty didn’t even have the ability to sense them, let alone offer them aid.
He wanted to go to the workshop and magic up some elegant solution to all of his problems. Flying wasn’t good enough. He needed to be able to replicate Lilith’s teleportation skill. And while his nanites could help repair injuries far quicker than anything else, they were no good at all if Ty couldn’t get to the injured.
The drones used by the first responders would help, but what of those who were buried?
Was there some sort of x-ray technology Ty could make use of? And, if he could find survivors that way, perhaps he could automate his nanites, send them on the back of some scurrying drone, to keep victims alive for just long enough.
There was so much to do, and Ty wanted to begin. Yet, as soon as he stepped inside the mansion, his exhaustion claimed him, combined with a sense of relief at being back in the place he was growing to think of as ‘home,’ and the remnants of his grief for Jason.
For that moment, the seats just inside the door looked more than appealing.
He let Lilith go, sat down, and gave the demon woman a grateful grin. “Maybe I’ll just sit here for a bit,” he said to her.
9: Cryo Sleep
Lilith studied him for a moment. “Do you want to be alone?” the demon woman asked.
Ty didn’t really know what he wanted. He was tired, suffering from his AZT-407 hangover, and needed to process his own thoughts and feelings about everything that had happened. Yet he enjoyed Lilith’s company very much, and what she had done in the disaster zone had shown her in a new light.
When he’d first met the demon woman, she had been a terrifying, powerful minion of the Master, able to take on Tempest one-on-one and walk away unscathed. Then, when freed from the Master’s control, she’d shown herself to be a mix of shyness and determination, a genuinely good person in a world where good people were chewed up and spat out all the time.
But somewhere in the ruins, she had become a real superhero, acting with confidence, saving lives, and achieving far more than Ty had been able to do.
With all that in mind, Ty would have been foolish to wave her away. So he gestured to the seat next to him instead, and she settled herself down.
Then, without any prompting, the demon woman began to speak. “I think we made a real difference out there today,” she said. Apparently, Ty wasn’t the only one who needed to process. “I don’t know how many people we helped. Some of them might have survived anyway, but some of the others…” The demon woman trailed off with a small shrug.
She gave him another appraising look. “You weren’t there at the hospitals where I dropped them off. Some of them were badly injured. Broken bones, burns, what the doctors called ‘crush injuries’. Those that were up to speaking all offered their thanks. We saved them. Me and you. We changed their lives for the better, and they will remember what we did for them.”
Ty heard the demon woman’s words and knew she was right. Yet, in his heart, he felt he should have done more.
“All my life,” the demon woman continued, “I’ve done things because I had to. It’s a hard world out there, and I was never one of the lucky ones. The ones who got to live lives that felt right to them. Those who could follow their passions. I’ve always wanted to help people. But my father—we were always in debt to one megacorp or another.” Another shrug.
“What I wanted to do always came second to what we needed to do to survive.”
As Lilith spoke, Ty reflected that he actually was one of the lucky ones, if he looked at it the right way. Always driven to work with technology, he’d managed to find a job where he could do so, despite never finishing his qualification. Sure, it had only been a small part of the work he’d had to do at the Concubine Club, and Angie the Hutt had made every moment a misery. But at least, at a low level, he had been doing what he’d always wanted to do.
“It was even worse when the Master had my father,” the demon woman continued. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone, and yet that’s what he forced me to do. But now, everything’s different. We helped people today.”
Ty knew Lilith was trying to make him feel better. She knew that Jason’s death had hurt him, and maybe also that he blamed himself for the boy’s loss. And, to some extent, it worked. But not in the way she might have expected.
In his own mind, Ty had failed to live up to expectations. But Lilith had surpassed any he might have had for her. He didn’t know how many people the demon woman had managed to save, but knew she’d had a hand in nearly all of his rescues as well.
He also knew Lilith wouldn’t have even been there if it weren’t for him.
He had rescued the demon woman from the Master’s clutches. And he had been instrumental in getting Lilith to join himself, Dinah, and Tempest as part of their superhero team.
So, perhaps he wasn’t as much of a failure as he’d originally thought.
Ty looked at Lilith for long seconds, just to take in the kindness of her beautiful face. To him, her green eyes were luminous, almost magical, and he wondered what color they might have been before she’d been modified. Not that it mattered overly much. Ty was certain he would have found her as beautiful then as he did now.
“You are amazing,” he said.
Lilith smiled and blushed at the same time. She placed a hand on Ty’s thigh, and might have been going to say something in return. But before she did, Dinah approached from somewhere else in the mansion.
“I thought I heard someone come in,” the deerkin said with her usual broad smile and the distinctive sounds of her graceful hooves on the tile floor. As she drew near, she tilted her head to one side. “Ty? What’s wrong?”
Dinah had said once before that she was good at reading expressions, and this confirmed it. Yet the answer to her question was more complex than Ty could easily express. Fortunately, before he could figure out what he wanted to say, Lilith came to his rescue.
“There was a boy,” the demon woman said. “We couldn’t save him.”
The deerkin nodded, understanding right away. “Ah,” she said. She offered a smile that was devoid of her usual mischief and mirth, but which held instead a full measure of empathy. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve made sandwiches. How about you and Lilith get a few of those into you, and you can tell me and Tempest all about it?”
Ty gave himself just another couple of seconds. Then he nodded. Tempest and Dinah both needed to know what he and Lilith had seen and figured out. With a sigh, he heaved himself back to his feet, and he and Lilith followed the deerkin not to the kitchen or dining room, but through to the conservatory where he, Tempest, and Dinah had shared a pleasant afternoon not so long ago.
The conservatory was enormous, and had been planted out to resemble a tropical rainforest. Somewhere among the trees, there was a pond complete with a small waterfall, and even thinking about that brought a smile to Ty’s lips. But Dinah didn’t lead them anywhere near that far, stopping instead at the entrance.
The small table where Ty had eaten before boasted a large platter of sandwiches, but that wasn’t what drew Ty’s attention the most. Tempest was also there, as was her father, who was visible through the glass screen of a cryo tube.
Ty hesitated at the sight, not quite knowing what to say. In his mind, the cryo tube looked like just the sort of thing that could have kept Fry in accidental stasis for a thousand years.
“It’s amazing what you can get delivered at short notice,” Dinah said, her tone almost solemn. “We thought this might be the best place for it. For him, I mean. This was one of the Architect’s favorite parts of the house.” Then the deerkin grinned, much of her usual good cheer returning as she looked directly at Ty. “His other favorite place was the workshop, but we figured you might not like having the Architect looking over your shoulder while you try to work,” she said.
Ty caught some of the humor, but when he spoke, it was to Tempest.
“How is he?” Ty asked.
The blonde superhero looked pale and stiff as she stood in front of cryo chamber. Brittle, almost. Yet she answered readily enough.
“Those nanites of yours helped,” she said. “At least on the surface. You can see the wound in his head is almost healed, and before we put him in the chamber, we had Gregory scan him again. His prognosis has improved, but it’s as you said. The nanites couldn’t do anything to combat the toxin directly. It’s still there. And every moment he’s not in stasis, it eats away at him.”
To Ty, that didn’t sound like very positive news, and Lilith seemed to agree. She made a small noise that Ty interpreted as concern.
“I’d give anything to be able to talk to him,” Tempest said. “But he wasn’t really conscious even with your nanites. And to keep the toxin from killing him, we had no choice but to put him in the chamber.” The blonde superhero sounded heartbroken, yet determined as well. She would keep him alive, and Ty silently promised he would figure out some way to combat the toxin.
Tempest lapsed into silence, and when it became obvious she wasn’t going to say anything more, Dinah gestured at the table.
“It’s been a busy day so far. Why don’t we all take a seat and hear what Ty and Lilith have been up to?”
10: Frustrated Rage
Ty, Lilith, and Dinah all settled themselves in at the table, but Tempest couldn’t drag herself away from the cryo chamber.
Lilith and Dinah both helped themselves to a sandwich, but Ty didn’t feel much like eating just yet even though he knew they would be delicious. As well as the trauma of working in the rubble, he still had his ongoing headache making him nauseas. So, it fell to him to talk about what had happened.
Ty described the destruction sparingly, skimming over the number of dead he had encountered. He might have gone into more detail, but Dinah said there wasn’t much need.
“It’s all over the newsnets,” she murmured between mouthfuls. “From multiple angles. The devastation – it’s unlike anything I’ve seen. The New Lincoln archives show explosions and building collapses, tragedies that have happened in the past. But there’s been nothing like this in years.”
Ty nodded, then continued. He spoke about infecting the victims with his healing nanites, and his hope that they would greatly improve their recovery time. At this, Dinah nodded again, but didn’t say anything, and while Tempest still stood close to the cryo chamber, most of her attention was on Ty.
He didn’t want to talk much about Jason. Nor did he want to mention how he’d produced additional nanites from his own skin. He wasn’t yet sure he wanted to talk about his new skill, and he definitely didn’t want to discuss how it had come about.
Instead, he talked about how Lilith had saved so many of the victims by blinking them to different hospitals around the city. And he spoke about how the first responders were doing a good job, and that he and Lilith had done all they could.
Dinah had finished one of the sandwiches and was hard at work on a second. But when Ty lapsed into silence, she swallowed her mouthful and asked, “Did you learn anything about what caused it all?”
Ty nodded. “I asked some of the victims if they saw anything. And some of them did.” He glanced at Tempest. “We think it was one of the device wearers we’ve come across before,” he said. “I don’t know his name, but I think of him as Concussion. The device on his wrist gives him the power to create a power
ful shockwave by clapping his hands together. From what victims said, that’s what caused all the destruction.”
Lilith responded to Ty’s words with shock, and Tempest’s expression became hard and angry. She clenched her fists at her sides.
But it was Dinah who spoke first.
“That supports what I’ve been able to find out,” she said. “He must be extremely powerful if he can knock buildings down. You said you fought him before?”
Ty nodded. “He wasn’t that strong before,” he said. “Something must have happened –”
“Where is he now?” Tempest interrupted, her tone flat and dangerous.
Ty couldn’t help but be startled by the blonde woman. Nor was he the only one.
“Tempest?” Dinah said, her expression uncertain.
“Can you find him?” Tempest demanded. With a snarl, she turned to Ty. “We should have done more when we met him last time,” she said. “If we had put him out of action then, he wouldn’t have been able to cause so much damage!”
Ty had to agree. When last they’d met, Ty had used one of his EMP grenades. It had taken Concussion out of the fight, and the man’s device was one of those on the workbench downstairs. When Tempest and Ty had left him, Concussion had been writhing in pain on the ground, suffering a painful withdrawal caused by the device no longer being integrated with the system.
At the time, Ty had thought the Master might simply give Concussion another. Now, it seemed he was right.
“Tempest?” Dinah said again.
The blonde superhero turned to the deerkin. “That man works for the Master!” Tempest said, her expression one of suppressed fury. “The Master did this to my father!” she said, gesturing toward the cryo chamber. “I want to find him! I want to put an end to his efforts! Do you know where Concussion is now?”
Both Ty and Lilith were taken aback by Tempest’s expression of rage. Ty had never seen her like this before, although Lilith might have done, when the two had fought before it had become clear Lilith wasn’t acting out of choice.
