by Wyatt Kane
This was different. Bain was no longer an active threat, yet Ty legitimately wanted to kill him. He wanted to place the barrel of one of his blasters up against the monster’s face and pull the trigger a few times, just to see what would happen.
He steeled himself to do so, but before he could turn thoughts into action, there was a crack of thunder over his head and a flurry of movement.
It all happened very quickly. The air filled with dust. Ty found himself turned around and gave an involuntary shout of surprise. Nor was he the only one. Tempest uttered a curse from somewhere beside him, and Bain laughed even louder than before.
Ty didn’t understand what was happening. It was like a sudden, powerful dust-storm had appeared out of nowhere and focused on the three of them in the crater. Ty was buffeted this way and that, his shield absorbing much of each impact but not all. It left him disoriented and confused.
Tempest fared worse. Ty caught sight of her as she was flung away from him. It was as if she weighed nothing, and for an instant, he wondered if Bain had used the cover of the whirlwind to rear up and hurl her aside.
“Tempest!” Ty cried.
But it wasn’t Bain at all. At last, the dust and flying debris cleared for a moment. Ty could see that Bain still lay in the crater, broken and laughing like a madman.
The monster wasn’t alone. Ty didn’t get a clear view, but what he saw was enough. There was a demon in the air above him. A genetically modified woman with purple skin, demonic horns growing from her forehead, and actual wings affixed to her back. Not the wings of a bird full of feathers and light, but dark, leathery wings tipped with claws. They were the wings of a dragon in miniature, and they were functional. To Ty, it looked as if they were actually keeping the woman aloft.
For long moments, he just gaped. He didn’t even wonder what he should do. He just stood there, disbelieving, as the demoness lowered herself to the ground with Bain between her legs.
Before Ty could gather his wits, the demoness turned toward him. The first thing he noticed was that her eyes weren’t eyes at all, but instead were blazing pits of green fire.
The second thing he noticed was that she was wearing a device on her wrist, just like Bain.
Dinah’s device, Ty thought. It had to be.
That was enough to reignite his anger. Ty didn’t know who this demoness was, but she had come at Bain’s call and was wearing Dinah’s device. Ty raised his blasters and took aim.
And then she was gone. Vanished. Winked out of existence, leaving behind a puff of dark smoke, the smell of sulfur, and a small clap of thunder. And she had taken Bain with her.
◆◆◆
Tempest rejoined Ty once the dust had settled. She was annoyed but uninjured, and hadn’t really been able to see what had happened.
Ty filled her in.
“She teleported? With Bain?” she asked.
“It looked like it. Yeah,” Ty replied. He gave her a wistful look. “I’d like to see her device’s breakdown on that. It would be a good power to duplicate somehow.”
“Well, I guess that’s it, then.”
She was right. They had no clue where Bain had gone. He could have been a hundred yards away from them, a thousand miles, or anywhere in between. For all either of them knew, he could have disappeared from this plane of existence entirely.
So they headed back to the hole in the warehouse wall that Ty had created.
Dinah was already there. The deerkin no longer looked drawn and wan as she had before. The device on her wrist had restored her to her usual elfin beauty, and Ty took a moment to simply admire her.
“Is it over?” she asked, her expression a mixture of hope and concern. “Can we go home?”
Ty glanced at Tempest, uncertain how to respond. “Bain is still out there,” he ventured. “But he’s taken a hit. He’s injured and his men are dead or incapacitated.” He shrugged. “Maybe it would be okay to head back?”
Tempest thought about it, then nodded. “Yes.” Then her expression hardened. “If anyone should happen to show up, we’ll deal with it.”
Despite her ordeal, Dinah responded to this with a broad smile.
36: Waffles And Information
Tempest flew them all back to the penthouse easily enough. It was still in disarray because of the break-in, yet all three of them shared a certain euphoria as they stepped back inside. Tempest and Ty hadn’t managed to stop Bain for good, but they had successfully rescued Dinah, and they still had their devices. In addition, they’d dealt the villain a serious blow at the same time.
Perhaps it wasn’t the decisive victory they had wanted, but it was a victory none-the-less. So instead of lamenting the state of her home, Dinah stood in the entrance for only a couple of moments before turning to the others.
“Anyone want some waffles?” she asked.
Ty realized he was famished. “Absolutely!” he said. Then he hesitated. “Are you sure you’re up to it?” he asked.
The deerkin smiled her beautiful smile. “I’m fine. And anyway, cooking is one of my skills. It helps me relax.”
“Then I vote for waffles,” Ty said, grinning.
Tempest agreed. “We can sort this mess out later,” she said.
In only a few minutes, the three of them were in the kitchen. Ty and Tempest were seated at the island while Dinah mixed the batter, and Gremlin had appeared to lend a supervisory hand, purring for no reason at all as she sat on the floor.
Ty couldn’t help but admire the deerkin as she moved about with her usual unconscious grace. She gathered eggs, milk, and butter from the fridge and flour from the pantry, and made sure the waffle iron was ready to go.
As she worked, she asked questions about how Ty and Tempest had worked their rescue, and each of them took turns telling different parts of the tale. At various points, Dinah looked concerned, surprised, and impressed, and sought clarification regularly.
“So you thought all along that Bain would try to betray you?”
“Yes,” Tempest replied. “We figured he wanted to weaken us first. He’s tried to kill us both before and didn’t succeed. But without our devices, we would have been easy.”
“Ty said he modified the prototype?” Dinah asked.
Tempest grinned. “Yes. Look.” With that, Tempest stood and showed her the device clasped around her ankle.
Dinah looked at Ty with new-found respect. Then her eyes shone with good humor. “Maybe not so handy if you want to make a call,” she said.
Tempest and Ty both laughed. “I’ll reconfigure it so it can go back on your wrist,” Ty said to Tempest. “We only put it there to keep it away from Bain’s view.”
As the first warm scent of cooking waffles filled the kitchen and Ty’s mouth started to water, Dinah also expressed interest in Ty’s shield and blaster.
“Maybe you could make one of your onesies for me,” she said. “It would be nice not to feel so defenseless. And do you think I could have a blaster as well?”
“Sure,” said Ty.
After that, Dinah began telling her side of the story. At first, she hadn’t known anything was wrong. She was in the den playing with Gremlin, trying to get her to jump up on her lap like she’d done the day before, when all of a sudden the cat had sat bolt upright and started to hiss before taking off out of the room.
Dinah had only enough time to glimpse a number of armed men who barged in before one of them grabbed her from behind. She tried to scream and fight, but they had been too strong. They dragged her away, blindfolded, to Bain’s lair, to be used as bait to capture Ty and Tempest.
“Bain gave my device to a woman who looked like a demon, complete with horns, wings and a tail. If I wasn’t suffering at the time, I would have been impressed. It was one of the best splice jobs I’ve ever seen. Even better than mine.” Dinah flipped the first of the waffles out of the iron and onto a plate and added both butter and syrup. “Who’s first?” she said.
Ty couldn’t take his eyes away from the plate. For hi
m, the waffles looked like pillows of golden deliciousness, and it was ingrained courtesy alone that prevented him from stuffing them all in his mouth right away.
Nor did his appetite go unnoticed. “Somebody get that man a fork!” said Tempest.
Dinah laughed out loud and found the requisite piece of cutlery, while Ty felt slightly embarrassed. Yet the waffle iron made four at a time, so he was able to share. Both he and Tempest dug in as Dinah continued to cook, and even Gremlin jumped up to the top of the island so she could see what all the fuss was about.
Dinah greeted Gremlin with a broad grin and scratched her under her chin. “Who said you could come up here?” she said, making no move at all to shoo the cat away. “Bad kitty. And you ran away and left me to those men, didn’t you? Yes you did.”
Dinah shook her head in mock disappointment, then turned her attention back to her story. “I don’t know what the woman’s skills might be or even if she has any. But she has my device.”
Ty swallowed, wondering how the deerkin managed to pack so much flavor into such a light, delicate waffle. It was even better than the ones he’d had before. “We met her. The demoness. She was able to create some sort of wind vortex somehow. And she can teleport. She’s the one who helped Bain escape.”
Dinah looked surprised. “Really? That’s a serious skill.”
“Yeah,” Ty and Tempest both agreed. They ate in silence for a time, each of them thinking through the implications. For Ty, having Bain out there was bad enough. But this demoness worried him. That she was aligned with Bain was obvious. What she might do with her power remained a mystery.
“Anyway,” Dinah said as she left Gremlin alone for long enough to pour more batter into the waffle iron. “It might interest you to know that Bain isn’t in charge.”
Ty had reasoned as much before, but the confirmation was unexpected. “How do you know?” he asked.
“Information, remember? It’s my skill. Someone contacted Bain through the device. He had a raspy voice, like it was broken somehow. He specifically ordered Bain not to kill you. Bain didn’t seem to like it much, but he agreed. Although he gave himself an out, saying that if it came down to you or him, he would be the one to walk away alive.”
The mood around the kitchen island had suddenly become serious.
“Did you learn his name?” Tempest asked.
“No. But he was pulling the strings.”
Ty frowned, slightly puzzled. “But why? What are they planning?”
Dinah came back to Gremlin as she waited for the waffles to cook. She patted the cat’s head and grew serious.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But it’s about far more than just us. Getting your devices – and mine – it’s just the first part of his plan. I don’t know what this hidden figure is up to, but he was frustrated with Bain’s lack of success. He said, ‘It’s like dominoes. I’ve spent months setting them up. All I need you to do is topple the first one. And you can’t even seem to manage that!’”
The deerkin shrugged. “He was talking to Bain as if he was a supreme disappointment. Which I rather enjoyed hearing, but it’s still a concern.”
She was right. It was enough to make Ty pause in his eating as he wondered about the hidden man in charge. Who was this mastermind, this puppet master pulling Bain’s strings? What was he planning? And why were the devices so important to him?
They were all important questions, but none of them had any answers.
“Do you think you can look into this?” Tempest asked. “You know, find out what you can? I have a feeling it’s going to be important.”
Dinah just grinned. “Of course. It’s what I’m here for.” Then she flicked a sly glance Ty’s way. “But not just yet. The last few hours haven’t been fun. I want to relax for a while, and remind myself of some of the good things about life. And I think I know just how to do it.”
The look in her eye was unmistakable, and both Ty and Tempest saw it. Ty was amazed at the resilience of the deerkin. He thought that if he’d been kidnapped by someone like Bain, he might not have responded so well.
Tempest’s response was more direct. “I told you there would be other opportunities,” she said, snickering into her waffle.
◆◆◆
Ty lay happily tangled in Tempest’s blankets. The stunning blonde was on one side of him and Dinah was on the other, and all three were enjoying a moment of blissful relaxation after a thoroughly satisfying afternoon romp.
Yet even in his dreamy, languid state, he couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen. They had defeated Bain for the moment, but he was a problem that was sure to return. And it wasn’t just him they had to worry about any more. There was also the demon woman and the mysterious voice on the other end of the hologram.
What were they up to? In Ty’s mind, whatever it was couldn’t be good. So how would he, Dinah and Tempest, stop them?
Then he wondered if it needed to be just the three of them by themselves. Tempest had mentioned before that there were others who wore a device on their wrists, in other cities around the world. Could they ask these others for help? And if they did, what would that mean for the dynamic that he, Tempest and Dinah had between them?
Tempest shifted her naked body against him in a dreamy, contented way, and Ty absently stroked the smooth skin on her back. It was too complex a problem for him to solve just then, as were the ongoing issues of his apartment and his job at the Concubine Club.
All he knew was that there was a lot still to do. Dinah was right. She needed to be able to defend herself just as Ty could. But there was also the need to ensure the penthouse itself was protected from attack.
Bain knew where they lived. Ty didn’t want Tempest and Dinah to have to find other accommodations if he could help it. So that meant he had to figure out some sort of security setup.
Nor was that the limit of what he wanted to do. He still remembered the dream he’d had, where he was flying with a squadron of superpowered heroes arching out left and right. He remembered what it felt like to be part of a global network of people protecting the entire world from danger.
Perhaps he would never be able to realize such a dream. It seemed so far away, and there was so much he had to do to achieve it, even if they managed to defeat Bain and his hidden master along the way.
But there was nothing stopping him from trying.
He was still thinking of that dream, of the steps he could take to make it real, when the alarm on his phone started to buzz. All three of them flinched at the sound.
“What is that?” Dinah asked.
Ty let out a groan. He knew what it was. Reality had come back to bite him.
“I’ve got to get ready for work,” he said.
Here ends book 1 in the Enhancer series.
Enhancer 2
By Wyatt Kane
1: Threats From A Toad
Ty Wilcox was sitting at the main bar in the Concubine Club with the rest of the staff occupying other stools or standing around him.
For once, the ceaseless pseudo-music that typically thudded throughout the Club was nowhere to be heard. It was still fairly dark, but at least there weren’t any flickering strobes and dancing lasers. The Club was half an hour from opening, and even though he’d had to come in early, it was still Ty’s favorite way to experience it.
Although, “favorite” might have been overstating things. Ty didn’t like the noise, the cloying, the rank smell of exhaled alcohol, or the way the soles of his shoes stuck to the floor. Yet without the perpetual noise and strobes, the place was at least tolerable. Even though Angie the Hutt was addressing all the staff as if she despised every last one of them.
“Honestly, I don’t see how any of you expect to keep working here!” the grotesque woman said from the center of the floor. In the dim lighting, her body modifications were less apparent than normal. She appeared almost human, but Ty knew that her skin had been turned a sickly green so that she looked like a toad.
“T
he numbers are in for last week, and they are even worse than usual. Drink sales are down as are the receipts from the kitchen. The only stable revenue stream is the income we get from the gaming machines. And that means virtually none of you are doing your jobs!” she thundered, spittle flying in every direction.
Ty could feel the dislike and hatred emanating from his fellow workers. He knew that most of them did the best they could. Many survived on the tips they received, so made it a point to keep people happy. Yet beyond that, there wasn’t much they could do. They certainly couldn’t make additional customers appear out of thin air.
Ty wasn’t the best placed to know how busy the Club was when compared with previous weeks, but Badger, one of the bouncers, had mentioned it felt a little light.
Not that it mattered. This was one of Angie’s normal motivation techniques. Or demotivation techniques. She would berate the staff with everything she had, lashing at them with a tongue made of venom and spite. And while they might hate her, they would still end up working harder than they might otherwise.
Ty knew from experience that the technique worked on him as well.
“But there’s nothing we can do if the customers aren’t there,” said one of the servers, a new girl who couldn’t have been more than twenty. Deb, if Ty’s memory served.
At her words, a collective wave of anxiety spread through the room. It was as if everyone there was silently willing the new girl to stay quiet.
Naturally, Angie immediately rounded on her. “Nothing you can do?” she said, her eyes bulging from her head. The girl had few mods on display. Just a purple pigment in her pupils that made them seem luminescent and elongated canines. She looked around at the others, vaguely puzzled, but didn’t understand what she was sensing.
