The Enhancer series Box Set

by Wyatt Kane

  Ty didn’t know what to say. His first instinct was to give her what she needed, but he still had too many questions.

  “You can teleport,” Ty said. “Why don’t you rescue your father yourself?”

  Before he’d even finished his question, Lilith was shaking her head. “It’s not that easy. I don’t know where he is.”

  “Then find him.”

  “I can’t. They watch me too closely.”

  Her answer confused Ty. “Then how come you are here?

  At this, the demonic woman offered a ghost of a smile. “They think I’m with them. They don’t fully understand what I can do. Nor do I, really, but if they did, they would have sent me after you. But that isn’t their plan.”

  As she said the last, Lilith looked away. It was almost as if she had something to hide.

  Ty noticed. “What is their plan?”

  Lilith didn’t look at him. She didn’t want to answer.

  “Lilith,” Ty said, starting to feel anxious. “What is Bain’s plan?”

  The demonic woman’s shoulders slumped. It was as if she feared he wouldn’t help her if she answered. “It isn’t Bain,” she began. “He’s injured, but he’s recovering quickly. It’s the Master. He still wants your devices. He sent me and all the mercenaries he could spare to get them. He figured you would be unprepared. Given your defeat of Bain, you wouldn’t be expecting another attack so soon.”

  Ty gaped. He had a million questions, not the least of which was who this “Master” actually was. But there was one that dwarfed all others in importance.

  “Where is this attack going to be?” he demanded.

  Lilith didn’t want to answer. It was as if she was ashamed. “The Master called it your base of operations. The penthouse.”

  It was as Ty feared. Tempest and Dinah were in danger, and he was wasting his time working. Ty gritted his teeth. He stood straight and tall. Even though the thought of teleportation filled him with dread, he didn’t hesitate at all.

  “Take me there!” he said.

  Even as he said it, he knew that Angie the Hutt wouldn’t take kindly to a second disappearance. At least when he’d left the night before, he’d given her a message. This time, there was no opportunity to do that. He would just disappear, leaving the grease trap uncleaned.

  He would be in a world of trouble because of it. Yet before Lilith could respond, Ty had another thought. “Do you know where it is?”

  She nodded. “They don’t know that I do. But I can get you there.”

  “Then do it,” Ty said.

  But Lilith had her own agenda. “You will help me?” She said.

  Ty nodded. “I will do what I can.”

  It was enough. This time, when Lilith approached, Ty didn’t object. The demonic woman wrapped her arms around him in a way that Ty would have found delightful in any other circumstances. Then, before he could catch his breath, he was plunged into a moment of cold like no other.

  8: Preparing For Battle

  The cold lasted longer than before. Ty could see and feel nothing at all. There was only emptiness, and he thought he understood what it would be like to be dead. He knew that he would go mad if it lasted much longer. Yet even as he experienced the emptiness, the nothing, he thought maybe his earlier analogy was wrong.

  The sound of Lilith vanishing shouldn’t be bamf! This was no Hell dimension that she traveled through as she teleported. Rather, it was more like between. The emptiness felt right. Even Lilith’s wings reminded him of those of a dragon.

  In a moment of absurdity, Ty wondered if he should somehow add an apostrophe to his name.

  He had barely started to grin at his own private joke when he and Lilith popped back into existence. Again, Ty experienced a wave of nausea. He felt as if he’d been twisted into a new dimension and then wrenched back out.

  Nor did it seem an easy teleport for Lilith. The demoness, still holding Ty tightly, let out a gasp of pain. Yet she didn’t let him go and had the presence of mind to flap her wings. And Ty understood why. A glance quick glance around told him that once more, they were high in the sky.

  This time, they had appeared above the mansion on top of the abandoned building.

  Lilith appeared to be struggling. “Where do I land?” she grated between clenched teeth.

  Ty was holding onto her as tightly as she was to him. His skin felt both frozen and charged at the same time. He had no intention of letting her go even to point her in the right direction, but he nodded toward the mansion. “There. That bridge outside the main door.”

  Lilith let out a groan of effort, and before Ty could prepare himself, they blinked out of existence again. An instant later, they were on the bridge.

  Ty’s knees buckled as he sought to regain his balance from the unnatural mode of travel. Nor was he the only one to struggle. Lilith had already let him go. Panting with effort, she backed away from him and reached for the bridge’s handrail to steady herself.

  Despite the fact that he was still unsure of Lilith’s allegiance, Ty reached for her. “Are you okay?” he asked. If she had been Tempest or Dinah, he would have let her lean against him until she was back to full strength. But this wasn’t Tempest or Dinah. This was Lilith, a powerful woman who was wearing Dinah’s device, and who may or may not be in league with Bain.

  Ty held himself back.

  “I’m okay,” she replied. “I’ve never traveled such a distance before. Not even by myself. And your energy shield–it interferes somehow.” For the first time since he’d met her, Lilith’s words seemed unguarded. She was simply responding to his question.

  Then, as if realizing she may be revealing too much, she frowned and clamped her mouth shut.

  “I have to go,” she said. Her expression hardened. “Remember your promise.” She said it as if it was a threat, and then blinked out of existence, leaving behind the popping noise of a bursting cherry balloon and a faint whiff of ozone mixed with her own earthy scent.

  From his place on the bridge outside Tempest’s penthouse mansion, it was a little lighter than it had been on the ground. Ty could still see a faint line of blue on the horizon through the New Lincoln cityscape. For a moment, he breathed deeply, simply enjoying the cool air, so different from the frozen nothing he had experienced with Lilith.

  Then, his nausea fading and the urgency of Lilith’s message impelling him into action, he headed to the main door.

  “Tempest!” he shouted. “Dinah! We are about to be attacked!”

  ◆◆◆

  Tempest met him in the main entryway as soon as the door opened. The blonde superhero was dressed in her usual black, body-hugging costume, and looked as spectacular as ever. She was stunning, a literal bombshell, and even now, even after all they had been through together, the merest sight of her was enough to take Ty’s breath away.

  If she hadn’t been a superhero, she could have been a movie star or a model, and it amazed Ty even now that she had chosen to be with him. He would have stood there, just staring at her, drinking in her beauty if his need wasn’t urgent.

  “Ty! What’s the matter? How come you’re here?” Her expression was a mixture of puzzlement and concern.

  But Ty didn’t want to explain it all twice. “Dinah!” he shouted into the mansion. “I’ll tell you in a moment.” He could understand the superhero’s confusion. She had dropped him off for work at the Concubine Club barely an hour earlier. He hadn’t expected to be able to return until the small hours, or even later if Angie remained true to her nature. For Ty to be back already must have been surprising for her. And for him to suddenly appear outside the mansion, more than four stories up, was beyond unexpected.

  They didn’t have to wait very long. Dinah appeared within seconds. Like Tempest, she also wore skin-tight leather, but unlike the blonde superhero, Dinah had covered much of it with an apron. She was sucking on a small lollipop.

  Like Tempest, and for that matter like Lilith as well, Dinah was astonishingly beautiful. Darker t
han Tempest and with an elfin cast to her features, Dinah looked like a forest creature even without the aid of her mods. As it was, the impression was reinforced a hundredfold. Dinah sported a full set of delicate antlers and her legs were those of a doe. She also had pale markings around her eyes, and while it was currently hidden, Ty knew that she had a furry tail she could wiggle.

  Dinah was a deerkin, and the opposite of Tempest in nature. Where the blonde superhero tended to react with passion and flair, Dinah was more patient and gentle. Yet she too looked at Ty with an expression of confusion and worry.

  She took the lollipop out of her mouth. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  Just like with Tempest, Dinah’s simple presence was enough to make Ty gasp. If Tempest was spectacular to look at, then Dinah was amazing. It was as if each of them had been created by a benevolent God to redefine the standards of beauty.

  If Ty had been asked to choose between them, he wouldn’t have known what to do.

  Fortunately, he didn’t have to. Through an overwhelming, cosmic display of incredible luck, Ty Wilcox, the lowly janitor of the Concubine Club, a twenty-six-year-old man with few prospects in life and a boss who lived to grind him under her heel, was in a relationship with both of them at once.

  Ty thought about everything that had happened. He wanted to tell them everything, but there just wasn’t time. So, he skipped to the important part. “There’s another attack coming. Bain’s boss–the Master, he’s called–he still wants our devices, and he has men to burn. They aren’t taking the time to regroup. They’re on their way.”

  Tempest and Dinah both spoke at once. “Attack? Where? When?” Tempest demanded, her eyes narrowing as if in response to a threat. Dinah was more thoughtful. “How do you know?” she asked. The way she said it wasn’t an accusation. She was just interested in his source of information.

  “Here! Now!” Ty said. “I’ll fill you in later.”

  The two spectacular women shared a glance that Ty couldn’t interpret. It was as if they were privy to some secret communication that they both understood on a cellular level. Tempest gave a short nod, and just like that, Dinah spun on her heels.

  “I’ll find them,” she said cryptically, and waved the lollipop at them as she left them alone in the entryway.

  “Are you armed?” Tempest asked.

  Ty had all but forgotten that he’d left his modified blaster somewhere in the alley behind the Concubine Club. He knew it was far too late to think of retrieving it then, but he didn’t have to. He’d given one of his modified blasters to Dinah so she could protect herself, but the third one was waiting for him beside Tempest’s bed.

  He’d left it there when he got ready for work only because he was already hiding his mesh suit, energy converters, and another blaster beneath his shirt. Or Zach’s shirt, to be more precise. While the dead superhero’s clothing was loose enough that it still fit, Ty didn’t want to push his luck. There were already more than enough unnatural bulges beneath the fabric that would be hard to explain.

  And besides, he figured that a single blaster should have been enough. He was just going to work, after all. It was simply ironic that he had been proved wrong.

  “I will be in a moment,” he said, and took off at a run.

  He found the blaster on the side table where he left it and tucked it into his belt. He also found Gremlin, his cat, curled into a dark ball of fur on the bed. She looked up at him as he turned to go and gave him a questioning, “Meow?”

  Despite his urgency, Ty couldn’t help but grin. He had taken her with him when Bain and Tempest had crashed through the wall of the apartment Ty shared with Brad. The cat had really made herself at home in the mansion.

  Ty reached out and scratched Gremlin’s head for a moment and was pleasantly surprised when she leaned into his hand and started to purr.

  “Sorry, Furball,” Ty said. “I have to go. Look after Dinah while I’m away, okay?”

  As if in response, Gremlin stood and stretched, then settled herself back down. Then Ty was gone, hurrying through the mansion back to where he’d left Tempest.

  “I’m ready. What’s the plan?”

  In matters of heroism and danger, Ty deferred to Tempest automatically. She was by far the most experienced superhero on the team. And she was the strongest. Her power gave her enhanced strength and durability, she was fast, and she could fly. She was as close to the archetype of a superhero as it was possible to get, and much of that was due to her ability to manipulate energy.

  But the blonde superhero didn’t need to answer. An alert sounded on both of Ty’s and Tempest’s devices at once. Ty hadn’t yet moved Tempest’s device back to her wrist. It was currently wrapped around her ankle, which made it less practical when responding to calls. Instead of attempting an awkward, one-legged hop, Tempest simply waited for Ty to answer his.

  A representation of Dinah’s exquisite face filled the holographic image that Ty’s device projected. He held his arm so both of them could see clearly.

  “What’s happening?” Tempest asked.

  Despite still intermittently sucking on her lollipop, Dinah was all business. “The building is yet to be breached. Cameras all around show furtive movement. I count maybe forty, all armed and armored like Bain’s men. They are getting ready to attack.”

  Ty gave Tempest a quizzical look. She grinned at him. “There are cameras all around the building. My father’s efforts. He didn’t want anyone to be able to sneak up on us.”

  Ty nodded. His heart was already pounding with fear mixed with excitement. “What’s the plan?” he repeated.

  “They are preparing to storm the building. Expecting to find us somewhere within. So, I vote we outflank them. Come at them from behind and hit them with everything we have. How does that sound?”

  Ty found himself grinning. “Works for me,” he said.

  9: The Battle Begins

  “Dinah, it might be a good idea to call the police,” Tempest said. The holographic image of the deerkin nodded, then disappeared.

  Tempest turned to Ty. “Are you ready for this?” she asked.

  Even though all he’d done so far was hurry to Tempest’s bedroom and back, Ty was breathing hard. He was focused and felt angry that anyone would seek to attack Tempest’s home. He swallowed hard and nodded. “Ready,” he said.

  She gave him a sardonic look. “When this is done, we have to move my device back to my wrist.”

  Ty grinned. “Will do,” he said.

  Together, they walked back out through the main door, then Tempest stepped in close to Ty, much as Lilith had done, and wrapped her arms around him. An instant later they were flying through the air.

  Ty had learned over the past few days that flying with Tempest was one of life’s great pleasures. He knew in his heart that if flight had been one of the skills his device had given him, he would have done little else. He could imagine drifting about in the clouds, spending his days traveling around the globe, moving about like a leaf blown in the wind.

  To him, it was akin to ultimate freedom. If he could fly, he wouldn’t have to worry about anything. Not his crappy job or the apartment with the hole in the wall, nothing.

  Yet even as he had the thought, he knew it to be no more than a passing fantasy. The life he had discovered with Dinah and Tempest was not something he would ever give up.

  Maybe one day, hopefully soon, he would sit down in the Architect’s workshop and figure out how to give himself the ability to fly. But when he did, he would use it not to travel the world, but to be more of a superhero at Tempest and Dinah’s side.

  Unbidden, the dream he’d had several days before came back to him. He was flying, a blue nimbus of power all around him, with dozens of superheroes to his left and right. In his dream, he and the others had formed a ring of protection around the whole world. They were superheroes in the truest sense of the word, defenders of justice and the downtrodden. To Ty, it was a shining vision of a possible future, and even then, e
ven with so much to do to bring it about, Ty found it compelling.

  They would be the comic book heroes of a new golden age. And the world would be a far better place.

  In far too short a time, Tempest touched down the roof of a low building no more than a hundred yards away from the one she called home. From there, they could see the entire front of their building and some distance down one side. Ty looked as hard as he could, but down at this level, it was already very dark. There were few neon signs in this part of the city, and what streetlights there were refused to illuminate much more than shadows.

  “I can’t see anyone,” Ty whispered. He felt Tempest nod in response, but the blonde superhero said nothing. “Are we sure they are there?”

  “The cameras work in very low light. But that doesn’t mean we have to. Call her,” Tempest said.

  As quickly as he could, Ty touched the controls on his device and brought up the communication screen. Seconds later, Dinah’s exquisite face filled the holographic image. Before the deerkin could say anything, Tempest grabbed Ty’s wrist and spoke into the pickup.

  “Light them up,” she said.

  “Will do,” Dinah replied, and ended the call.

  Within seconds, the entire street was flooded with so much light that it could have been the middle of the day. Ty couldn’t help but wonder at it. He’d been thinking about security for the building ever since they’d found out Bain knew where it was. Surveillance and lighting had featured heavily in his plans, but that was already well under control.

  Yet there were still things he could implement that would help.

  The street below no longer looked empty. From where Ty and Tempest stood, they could see a number of mercenaries in position, ready to attack. Nor did the lights go unnoticed. It caught the mercenaries off guard.

  All of a sudden, they weren’t hidden in shadows, making their way stealthily toward their target. Instead, they are shown in stark relief, two separate columns of men in dark uniforms. They had their blasters out and wore body armor much like that favored by the police.