by Wyatt Kane
Ty breathed deep of the dusk air and immediately wished that he hadn’t. The alley behind the Club wasn’t as thick with alcoholic miasma of the Club itself, but it was dirty and damp and was home to three separate dumpster bins filled with trash.
It stank like the pile of fetid, decomposing garbage that it was. Ty couldn’t help but screw up his face in disgust as waves of the noisome odor hit him. It was a long way from the fresh, clean air he had hoped for.
Muttering under his breath, he gripped the top of the green, plastic bags tightly and swung first one, then the other into the closest bin.
In times past, he had struggled to swing the heavier trash bags high enough to get them over the edge. More than once, a bag had opened or ripped, showering Ty with the worst sorts of waste that the Club could produce.
Ty glanced at his sleeve where the device was hidden. The nanites it had injected into his system had caused him to grow several inches. He figured he must be close to six feet tall, where before he had stretched to claim five foot eight.
Yet even that was a minor difference compared to some. The villain Bain had grown much bigger and stronger as well. The monstrous man must have been more than eight feet tall, and he was built bigger than Arnie at his very best. Yet Ty was happy enough with his own gains. He had been expecting nothing when he picked up the device.
And anyway, it was his skill with electronics that was the most important.
The trash taken care of, there was nothing else for it. It was time to turn his attention to the grease trap.
Unlike in other places, the Concubine Club’s grease trap was outside, in the alley with the dumpsters. Ty stared at it with an expression of disgust. He had cleaned it at least once a month since he had started working there, and it was never much fun. He had to get down on his hands and knees and scrape layers of the worst rotting foulness he could ever imagine out of the trap.
It was so bad that more than once he had thrown up at the stench, and he would have preferred to do almost anything else. Even cleaning out the worst of the bathrooms wasn’t as revolting as this.
Yet it was the job he had signed up for. At the time, he’d had little choice. Ty had been broke to the point of starvation, and any job had been better than none. He had bills to pay, and his student loan wasn’t going to take care of itself.
So, he had done his job, imagining emptying his buckets of sludge over Angie’s head as he did. And he would do it again, because despite how much his life had changed, his bills still remained.
There was no point in putting it off any longer. He had already brought out his buckets, scraper, and thick, rubber gloves. Wishing for a nose-peg or maybe a gas mask as well, he approached the trap with the same wariness he might have shown on entering a sewer, and told himself that this was only temporary, that sometime soon, he would leave all this behind him.
“Some superhero you are,” he muttered to himself. He might have said more, postponing his least-favored task for just a bit longer, but before he could do so, everything changed.
He was still in the alley behind the Club. The last of the daylight was fading. The air was still filled with the stench of decaying food and waste. But instead of the normal faint chill causing the small hairs on his skin to stand on end, the air became filled with energy.
It was as if the entire area had become charged. As if the gods had chosen the alley as the next place to be struck by lightning. With the air filled with static, Ty wouldn’t have been surprised if a ball of energy suddenly appeared with lightning sparking left and right, and for Arnie himself to step out, fully naked, and demand Ty give him his clothes.
It was a fleeting thought, and yet it was surprisingly apt. There was a pop! of energy, but instead of Arnie appearing in the alley, it was the demoness. The woman who had appeared from nowhere to spirit Bain away when the villain had been on the verge of defeat.
The teleporter.
She was a woman with devil horns growing out of her temples, a demonic tail, and a pair of wings that a small dragon would have been proud to display. She wore little more than strips of cloth wound about her and sported a device on her wrist that matched the one Ty wore.
It was Dinah’s device, taken from the deerkin by Bain and his men and given to this woman.
She was standing there in the alley. Tall and dangerous, her eyes filled with green fire and her open, beautifully formed face twisted into a severe expression, she had appeared as if by magic.
Ty made a strangled noise of surprise mixed with fear. He didn’t know how this woman had found him. Nor did he have any clue what her purpose might be. Part of his mind acknowledged that she was, in her own way, as stunningly beautiful as either Tempest or Dinah. For a moment, it was all he could do to stand there and stare, and if she had chosen to act at that time, there would have been nothing Ty could have done to prevent it.
Then he shifted his stance to a defensive position as decades-old martial arts lessons came back to him. “Activate!” he said, and his mesh suit responded. All at once, he found himself enclosed in an energy field of his own making and immediately felt more secure.
But the shield was purely defensive. It was no good at all should he wish to take the attack to the woman.
Which was why he carried a blaster tucked into his pants.
As fast as thought, Ty reached for the weapon, drew it out, and aimed. Without pausing to stop and think, operating under the assumption that this woman was there with malicious intent, Ty fired at her.
The blaster was one of those he had modified so he could adjust the strength of the blast. For the sake of nothing but caution, he had set it at its weakest strength. Yet the demoness was only a few yards away. At this distance, the blaster should have blown her backwards. It should have knocked her unconscious and left her with multiple bruises. Perhaps even a fracture or two.
But it didn’t. It didn’t hit her at all.
Not that Ty missed her, exactly. At this distance, it would have been difficult to do so. Ty had never had any formal training in using a blaster, but his roommate Brad was a professional gamer. Ty had played more than his share of first-person shooters and knew how to aim and fire a gun.
Yet none of that mattered. Between the time Ty aimed the blaster and pulled his trigger, the demoness vanished with a pop and a distinct smell of ozone, only to appear an instant later balanced on top of one of the dumpsters.
Ty had been aiming down the length of the alley. The plasma blast from his weapon dissipated before it hit anything.
As fast as he could, Ty aimed and fired again. Once more, he was too slow. The demoness vanished with another pop! and hint of ozone. Ty couldn’t help but think that the popping was wrong. His mind told him that the sound should have been “Bamf!” which to him was a completely different noise. Yet it was definitely a pop!, like the sound a tiny balloon might make when squeezed until it exploded.
This time, the force of Ty’s shot expended itself against the lid of the dumpster. The blast was concussive and explosive at once. The dumpster lid flew apart, its edges melted, and the dumpster itself was thrown back a few inches, as if knocked by a truck.
Ty whirled about, looking for the demoness. His heart was pounding and sweat formed on his brow despite the cool of the evening. He knew that she could be anywhere. There was nothing stopping her from appearing right behind him and doing whatever she wished.
Yet despite his panicked reactions, he was still surprised when she called out from above.
“Stop that!” she said, her voice filled with urgency and irritation both at once.
6: Lilith
Ty ignored her. He sighted again and fired, but it was too late. She was already gone.
“I said stop that!” she snapped from back where she’d first appeared. “I don’t have time for this nonsense!”
Ty was too rattled and scared to figure out what she meant. He fired again, knowing that he couldn’t hit her other than by sheer chance but hoping to get lu
cky. At the same time, he yelled out, “What do you want?”
She answered from behind him. “If you stop that, I’ll tell you!”
Ty whirled about. He had no intention of stopping. For all he knew, his attempts with his blaster were the only thing keeping him safe. He and Tempest had already rescued Dinah from Bain’s clutches. He didn’t want them to have to rescue him in her stead.
He fired again and watched the blast dissipate against the brick of the Club. He wondered briefly how much charge his blaster retained. At the lowest setting, a single cartridge should be good for perhaps a hundred shots. But he had taken this cartridge from one of Bain’s men and didn’t know how much charge it retained.
Then the demoness appeared right in front of him, so close she was almost touching him. Ty flinched and jerked his arm back, so he could aim at her again. Despite the overwhelming stench from the dumpster and the general grime of the alley, Ty caught a hint of her scent. To him, the demoness exuded an earthiness that put him in mind of forests and moss.
Even as he sought to defend himself, he couldn’t help but feel that in her own way, the demoness was as intoxicating to him as both Tempest and Dinah.
Before he could properly bring his blaster to bear, the demoness wrapped her arms around him as if drawing him into a hug, and then Ty felt the world lurch. It was as if he missed the last step and stumbled onto the ground.
Fearing the worst, Ty looked about, but nothing had changed.
“What the hell?” the demoness exclaimed. She had tried to teleport him away, but something had gone wrong. Perhaps his shield interfered with her ability.
He didn’t have time to wonder about it. The demoness gripped him more tightly and tried again.
It felt like Ty had been kicked in the chest. There was a moment of cold as if all semblance of heat had vanished forever. He felt disoriented and instantly nauseous, and he opened his mouth to give voice to a wordless scream that never came out. He knew in his bones that during that moment, Ty and the demoness were no longer in New Lincoln. They weren’t even on Earth, or anywhere within the known universe.
Somehow, she had taken them somewhere else. Through a different dimension, perhaps. Somewhere where human beings were not meant to be.
It was terrifying and amazing and awful all at once, and Ty fervently wished that he would never have to experience it ever again.
And then they were back. Ty knew it the instant it happened. Wherever they had gone, wherever the demoness had taken him, they were no longer there.
He felt the most profound sense of relief in his entire relatively short existence. Ty swallowed hard on the bile that was rising in the back of his throat, then realized his relief was premature.
The demoness had teleported them straight up into the air.
“Now will you listen to me?” the demoness asked. She was still holding onto him as if they were lovers. Pressing her body against his the way Tempest and Dinah had done. Yet this was no time for Ty to appreciate the woman’s warmth or voluptuous curves. Somehow, they were hovering in the air. The demon woman’s wings were unfurled and flapping, but Ty didn’t believe for an instant that they were big or powerful enough to keep them aloft.
He couldn’t help himself. This time, he did let out a cry of fear. At the same time, he started flailing about, twisting and turning in an effort to get out of the woman’s grip. What he would do if he succeeded, he didn’t know. Ty wasn’t thinking clearly. He wasn’t thinking at all. He was gripped in a mindless fear and simply reacted.
The demoness cursed out loud. “I don’t have time for this!” she repeated. Then, “Fine, then!” she said.
With that, she let Ty go.
Ty screamed in mindless terror. He lost his grip on his blaster and it went sailing away into the gloom. He desperately kicked and struggled, but there was nothing he could do. He was falling and would hit the ground within moments.
Desperately, he wondered if his shield would protect him, but even as he had the thought, he figured it probably would not. His shield nullified the strength of an impact. Bain could hit him with an iron girder and he would barely feel it. But if his momentum was suddenly halted, that would be a different story.
The shield wouldn’t slow him down. If anything, it would protect the ground against the impact of him falling.
But Ty himself would take fall damage.
In the last few moments before he hit the ground, Ty understood that the defensive technology that had worked so well against Bain had at least one serious flaw. All he could do was bring his arms up to cover his head and cry out as the ground approached.
Then the demoness appeared at his side again, wrapped her arms around him for a second time, and teleported him back up into the sky.
“Now will you listen to me?” she demanded.
Ty was breathing hard. His heart was hammering in his chest and he could hear the blood charging through the veins in his ears. His stomach had turned into one big knot, and his mouth had become dry. He had never been so intensely afraid in all of his life.
The demoness could have killed him. Instead, she had caught him and brought him back into the sky.
It was all Ty could do to nod. Then he found his voice. “Okay. I’m listening.” It wasn’t as if he had any choice. He no longer had his blaster and knew that against her, he was next to defenseless.
It was enough. The demoness took him through the moment of non-space one more time, and they were on the ground next to the dumpster. If it had been Tempest, she would have held him for long enough to ensure he’d regained his equilibrium. But this woman let him go at the first opportunity and stood back.
Ty almost collapsed onto his knees. He bent over and breathed deeply, trying to forget the moment of cold, the feeling of dislocation and the terror that he’d experienced mere moments before. Then he forced himself to stand upright.
The demoness was studying him, her flat and determined expression again at odds with her innocent, delicate features. Her eyes were no longer pits of green fire, but instead were a more normal, luminous green. Bright enough to be artificial, body mods like her wings, horn, and tail.
As soon as he thought his voice wouldn’t shake, Ty started to speak. “Who are you? What do you want?” he asked.
“My name is Lilith, and I need your help.”
7: Unwilling Servant
There was a light over the back entrance of the Concubine Club, so Ty could see clearly even in the gloom of late evening. He took a moment to really look at Lilith. Not as an enemy combatant or ally of Bain, but just as a person. He tried to see past the modifications that gave her a demonic appearance as well as the power that made her a threat.
Instead, he took in her expression of determination mixed with anxiety, so at odds with the stamp of innocence on her face. He noted that her clothing was rumpled and smudged. Her skin, while modified, showed shadings that could have been bruises. And her pink-tinted hair around the demon horns was decidedly untidy, as if it hadn’t seen a brush in more than a week.
That she was beautiful was undeniable. More voluptuous than either Tempest or Dinah, she was the epitome of modified perfection. Only Dinah came close to her, and Lilith had wings!
Ty couldn’t help but be attracted to the demonic woman. It was the same reaction he’d had with both Tempest and Dinah. And that reality made him wonder.
Tempest had said that the attraction felt between those who wore the Architect’s devices varied. She’d also said that her response to Bain was akin to loathing. To her, he was repellent on a visceral level, a hideous monster so different from her that he couldn’t be considered the same species. Tempest had theorized that this might be due to the villain’s alignment.
Like Ty, Tempest and Dinah were both neutral good. They didn’t know what alignment Bain had, but Ty wouldn’t have been surprised to find he was evil.
If Lilith was also evil, wouldn’t Ty find her just as off-putting as Tempest found Bain?
It
was a question for later. More immediate was Lilith’s apparent desperation and need.
“What do you mean?” Ty asked. Despite his assessment, he wasn’t ready to trust the demoness.
Even so, Ty saw a measure of relief steel across Lilith’s face. She took half a step toward him, but he backed away and raised a hand in defense.
“Stay back!” Ty said. He didn’t want to be teleported away again any time soon.
Lilith appeared disappointed. But she nodded and did as Ty said.
“They have my father,” she said.
“They what?” Ty asked.
“Bain. The others. They have my father. If I don’t do what they say, they’ll hurt him.”
Ty stared at her. He wanted to believe her. It made perfect sense and explained the apparent contradiction between her actions and his attraction to her.
“How do I know that you’re telling the truth?” he asked, still suspicious. “How do I know that you’re not here on Bain’s orders? How do I know that you’re not after my device even now?”
Lilith clenched her fists in obvious frustration. Yet she stayed where she was and didn’t make any threatening moves. “If I was, I could have just taken you back to them. You’d be under their control even now, and there would be nothing you could do about it,” she said. “They don’t know I am here.”
Ty realized she was right. She had teleported him three times already. At any moment, she could do it again. She could whisk him away to Bain’s lair in a heartbeat. For all he knew, she could even teleport him into the sun, if she had a desire to do so. He was completely at her mercy.
Yet her response gave rise to another question. “How did you know where to find me?”
She ignored him. “Look, I don’t have much time. The longer I’m gone, the more likely it is they will notice my absence. And that isn’t a risk I’m willing to take. I ask you again, will you help me?”
