by Wyatt Kane
He realized Dinah was looking at him. “Brad?” she said. Ty had spoken about his roommate before.
“Yeah.”
“What was he talking about?” the deerkin asked. “What dilemma?”
She seemed no more than curious, but Ty shook his head. “Nothing important,” he said. His money issues didn’t have anything to do with the girls. They were superheroes, doing their best to keep the streets of New Lincoln as safe as they could from the worst the city had to offer. He didn’t want to distract them with anything so mundane.
And besides, he had always solved his own problems. He saw no reason why that should stop now.
“Well, how about you go see him while I do what I can to make sure Tempest really is okay?” Dinah said.
Ty hesitated for a moment. “What about the Master?” he asked.
But Dinah just smiled. “This isn’t the first time we’ve been threatened,” she said. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll keep an eye out for anything nefarious going on. And if anything happens, we’ll contact you.”
Ty nodded. “Before I go, could you help me with something?” he asked. He didn’t want to go anywhere without replacing the shield projector disk on his shoulder.
17: Slow Connection Speed
Ty really should have spent the morning adjusting his shield so he could fly, he thought grumpily to himself as he made his slow way through town to his apartment.
He’d become used to travel being far easier over the past few days. He had become spoiled. But just then, Tempest was still asleep, and Dinah’s bike was still parked outside the Concubine Club. So he had little choice other than to use public transport.
He promised himself two things as he rode one of New Lincoln’s grimy, worn-out buses. First, he would prioritize flight more highly, when he got the chance. And second, he would pick up Dinah’s bike on the way home.
It was a considerable distance from the mansion to Ty’s apartment. A single bus ride wasn’t enough. He had to change services twice, and stand in the ongoing New Lincoln drizzle for half an hour in between.
By the time he made it to his apartment building, he was wet, irritated, and tired of the smell of wet hair and body odor that seemed to be a perennial part of every bus ride. There had even been a hint of vomit and urine in the air.
“The life of a superhero,” he muttered to himself, and laughed at the thought.
The building was just as he remembered it. Filled with the hopelessness and despair of ordinary people doing their best to make ends meet in a world that treated them like commodities. The New Lincoln megacorporations were too good at extracting every last coin they could, while paying largely insufficient wages.
It was no wonder so many people supplemented their income by selling drugs or committing other petty crimes.
Idly, Ty wondered how he might redress that balance. He was a superhero, wasn’t he? Sure, there were villains to deal with and everyday problems to solve, but the real problem beneath it all was the megacorporations. The greed of the few at the top who had the power and will to shape the world in a way that benefited them at the expense of everyone else.
Above all else, Ty’s purpose ought to be fixing that, shouldn’t it?
Once again, he thought about his dream. Not his nightmare where he was battling Steam, but an earlier one. His dream of a shining future where he was flying, a league of heroes by his side, working together to cast a net of safety and happiness around the whole world.
Surely, freeing the world from the shadow of the megacorporations would be a primary goal for such a league?
Even the thought was enough to bring a smile to Ty’s lips. But, as reached his apartment, he acknowledged that he had no idea how to even begin.
Ty placed his hand on the sensor to unlock the door and went in.
He took a single step and stopped dead. It was like he’d been frozen in place. His first thought was that somehow he’d managed to open the wrong door entirely. The door hadn’t yet closed behind him, so he turned to stare at the number, just to make sure. But it was right. Apartment seven thirty-six. Same as always.
Yet the apartment was in no way, shape, or form what he expected.
It was clean.
Before, the kitchen had been a jumble of disused appliances, the toaster and microwave in pieces from when Ty cannibalized them to make his first weapon. Now, it was recognizably a place where people could cook. The bench tops were clear, everything had been put neatly away, and there was even a faint smell of orange blossom in the air, as if someone had been using cleaning products.
Beyond the kitchen, the lounge also seemed tidy. It still contained the same lounge suite and screen as before, and it was still small. Yet even from where Ty stood at the door, he could see that there was less buildup of dust in the corners. The walls looked as if they had been washed. Even the sofa and carpet looked freshly vacuumed, with the cushions arranged neatly instead of being bunched into corners.
But the biggest difference Ty could see was the wall. Last time he’d been there, the large hole through which Tempest and Bain had fallen had been covered by no more than a flattened cardboard box.
Now, a casual glance wouldn’t be enough to tell anyone there was a Bain-sized hole there at all.
Perhaps the cardboard still covered it. If it did, Ty couldn’t tell, because someone had hung a large poster over everything, effectively hiding it all.
Goku and Krillin stared at Ty across the lounge, with Master Yoshi looking on from behind them. A throwback from the past, but still one of Ty’s favorite franchises.
Having assured himself that despite appearances, he was indeed in the right place, Ty let the door close behind him. “Brad!” he called. “Brad, where are you?”
Bradley Fletcher, professional gamer of middling ability, emerged from his bedroom door and stood grinning at Ty as if he knew how surprising the change in their apartment would be.
Brad was the ultimate slob. He habitually worked in his pajamas, and used his dressing gown as an all-purpose cleaning rag. He could go for weeks without shaving or even a bath, and Ty wouldn’t have cared to guess how long it had been since his teeth had been brushed.
The gamer was an absolute slob, and the while Ty had tried to do his share, he wasn’t about to clean up after his friend. The general state of their apartment was due, in no small part, to Brad’s habits.
Yet the figure who emerged from Brad’s bedroom was at least as surprising as the rest of the apartment.
Brad also was clean. So clean he was like a new person. His raggedy beard was gone, and his hair had been cut. Instead of his habitual pajamas and gown, he wore casual pants and a button-down shirt. The only evidence of the original Brad that remained was his hair, which was a shorter version of his unruly ginger mop, and his favorite fluffy slippers on his feet.
Ty stared at his friend for a moment. Then he quirked a half-grin. “Who are you and what the hell have you done with my roommate?” he asked.
Brad laughed. “You stole my line!” he said. Brad had said the same thing when Ty first put on his device. The physical changes he’d gone through at the time were even more striking than Brad’s.
“Well, it seemed appropriate,” Ty replied.
“Yeah,” Brad said. “Well, it turns out you’re not the only one who has met someone.” He grinned broadly.
Ty felt his eyebrows both rise up in surprise. “Really?” he asked.
“Seriously, dude, you look like you’ve just been taken out by an opponent on 1% health. Is it really that surprising? Can’t I strike it lucky as well? It’s not like you have a mortgage on that type of thing, you know.”
In truth, Ty had never known Brad to be particularly lucky in that regard. He’d been known to bring a girl home every now and again, but he wasn’t exactly the greatest catch in the world. He tended to talk about nothing other than games, and there weren’t many women in New Lincoln who would willingly overlook his habits.
“Of course
you can,” Ty said blithely. “But what’s all this?” he asked, gesturing at both Brad and the apartment. “How long has it been since I was last here? A couple of days?”
Brad grinned again. “Yeah. It’s all been a bit quick, really.”
“Well? Spill,” Ty said. All thoughts of why Brad had called him to the apartment in the first place had fled from his mind.
But instead of telling his story right away, Brad announced out of nowhere, “I’m hungry. You want something?”
Ty looked at him suspiciously “Seriously, are you still Brad? I haven’t found myself in some parallel universe or something?”
Brad laughed and made his way past Ty to the kitchen. “Nah, it’s still me. It’s just that since Sarah cleaned out the kitchen, I’ve actually been using the oven occasionally.” So saying, he went to the cupboard and pulled out a bag of bagels. “Bagel?” he said.
The cupcakes Ty had eaten for breakfast seemed a long time ago. “Sure,” he said.
With the unexpected smoothness of familiarity, Brad turned the oven on and took out a baking tray. Ty remembered the only baking tray in the apartment as being thick with baked-on gunk and in no fit condition to actually use. But, like everything else in the apartment, the tray was clean. Spotless, in fact. No longer a health hazard.
Brad split three bagels in half and set them on the tray, then moved to the fridge. Ty couldn’t remember a time when that fridge had held anything beyond left over fast food boxes, many of which had been ignored to the point where they were starting to evolve. But somehow, Brad conjured a delicate, glass bowl filled with a yellow, buttery substance.
“Garlic butter,” Brad supplied before Ty could ask. “The green bits are chives or something. Sarah made it for me.”
Ty was impressed. He was genuinely looking forward to Brad’s garlic butted bagels.
The gamer slathered a generous helping of the butter onto the bagels and popped them in the oven.
“Now,” Brad said. He looked at Ty, who still stood in the entryway. “Are you just gonna stand there looking untidy, or what?”
Ty laughed again. He stepped into the lounge and sat on the couch. Brad followed him, perching himself down the other end.
But he didn’t say anything. He just grinned like a loon.
“Sarah,” Ty prompted.
“Yeah,” Brad said. “Sarah.” He grinned even more broadly.
“Are you going to say anything? Or just sit there grinning like a guy who finally got laid?” Ty asked.
18: Episode Recap
Brad gave a kind of braying snort, an acknowledgement of Ty’s words. It was enough to break the spell. “Yeah. If you’d got here an hour earlier, you would have met her.”
“So, given that I didn’t, how did you meet? What does she do? What does she look like?” Ty asked. Despite himself, he was genuinely curious.
“Oh, I can show you,” Brad said. He started messing about with the screen remote. At the same time, he answered Ty’s questions.
“I was out with some of the guys in my game guild,” he said. “I’d done a couple of jobs, trying to earn some cash, you know? One of them was basic-bitch farming to get enough gold for the client to afford a +3 armor set. The other one … that one involved tracking down the Pearl of Nevermere.”
“Didn’t you tell me once that was nearly impossible?” Ty asked. It wasn’t unusual for Brad’s stories to start and end with a game. Ty was used to it, and figured he’d get to the point eventually.
“Back when I was little better than a noob, sure,” Brad replied. “But I’ve gotten enough mad skills since then to make it happen. The pay wasn’t anywhere near enough to fix the wall, but it was still a major achievement trophy for me. I figured a celebratory drink was in order.”
“And?” Ty prompted.
“And there she was, chatting with a couple of friends at the bar.” Brad’s grin was back again. He seemed totally smitten. “I mean, it wasn’t like I was even trying to pick up. No idea why she even looked twice, but by the end of the evening it was like we’d known each other for years. Here it is,” he added.
He’d been flicking through images while he spoke. The one he settled on showed an attractive young woman who Ty would have immediately assumed to be out of Brad’s league. But then, he would have thought the same about Tempest and Dinah – and Lilith as well – being out of his league. So, who was he to judge?
Sarah might not have been as stunning as the women in Ty’s life, but he could certainly see the appeal. She was slim, dark-haired, and had a broad, open smile that contained just a hint of mischief, as if she was the type of woman who would be up for anything on a dare. In a world where body modifications were common, the only changes Sarah had made to her appearance were her ears, which were pointed like those of an elf. She wore a number of different earrings along the extended lobes, and her makeup was dark enough to suggest a Gothic vibe.
“Isn’t she great?” Brad said.
“She’s very pretty,” Ty replied. He looked at Brad. “What’s she doing with you?”
Brad didn’t take offence. “I know, right?” he said. “It’s like Tempest and you!” He scrolled through a couple more images, and Ty saw that Sarah had a purple streak dyed into the back of her hair.
“When did you meet her? Ty asked.
“Couple of days ago. After that builder guy came around to give us that quote.”
Ty couldn’t help it. He looked around at the apartment, and at Brad himself. “Just a couple of days?” he asked, even though he knew Brad was telling the truth.
“Yeah.” Brad said. He colored a little. “She didn’t exactly approve of the way I was living. She helped me clean up.”
“Well, I’m glad you found someone,” Ty said. “You deserve it.”
He said it without reservations. Ty knew that Brad was at heart a slob, but he was also Ty’s best friend in the world. He was about to ask the gamer about why he’d called when Brad abruptly change the topic.
“What about you?” Brad said. “What have you been up to? Why are you moving as if you’ve been hurt?”
“It’s nothing,” Ty said. He was a little embarrassed that Brad had noticed and didn’t really want to go into details.
But Brad was insistent. “Come on, man,” he said. “It isn’t nothing. You’ve been doing some superhero shit, haven’t you?” he said. “You know I live vicariously through you now, right? Give!”
Ty gave in. “All right, all right. What did I tell you last time? What do you know?”
“I know there was this recurring boss you had to fight, and a mega boss somewhere pulling the strings. I know that somehow you manage to score that superhero chick, Tempest, and you mentioned something about another one, Dinah. Right?”
“Right. So, you don’t yet know about the other bad guy who has appeared on the scene?”
“Another boss?”
“Yeah. Mega boss, the same as the Master. Maybe worse, even. His name is Rubio Vecoli. He was already a crime lord, but now he’s got a supply of these devices. That’s why I’m walking funny,” Ty made a face. “Tempest and I walked into an ambush yesterday. There was this guy there, called himself Steam. He managed to burn me through my shield. We were lucky to escape.”
“He burned you through your shield?” Brad asked.
“Yeah. I need to work out some way to combat that for next time we meet.”
As he said the last, Ty half hoped that Brad would come up with a suggestion. The gamer had a unique way of looking at things. Sometimes he could come up with ideas Ty wouldn’t have thought of himself.
But this time, he just nodded in understanding and said, “What else?” as if Ty was the gamer’s own private entertainment channel.
That said, Ty had actually thought of something else to tell him. He grinned broadly and nodded at the screen.
“You might find this interesting,” he said. “Do a search. Amusement park heroics or something,” he said.
Brad gave him a
vaguely puzzled look, but did as is he said. It didn’t take long for him to find what Ty was looking for.
“That’s it,” he said. “Play that.”
It wasn’t an official news story that Brad had found, although Ty was sure they were around. Instead, it was just a shaky video, taken by someone in the crowd. But it was clear right from the start what was happening.
When Brad hit play, it was like being back at the park. Once again, Ty could hear the crowd yelling, their exclamations of fear mixed with wonder and worry.
The camerawork was shaky, but Ty and Brad could clearly see Tempest doing all she could to hold the massive pendulum ride in place.
“Holy shit,” said Brad.
“Yeah,” Ty agreed.
“What’s happening? Why is the ride stuck like that?”
“It was the Master. He sabotaged the ride to put all those people in danger. And Bain was down at the bottom at the base, pounding away at one of the legs. The whole ride would have collapsed if it weren’t for Tempest.”
Brad Watt continued to watch the video with his mouth open. “Whoa, he said. “What – who was that?”
“That’s Lilith,” Ty replied. “She had been coerced into working for Bain and the Master.”
“Huh? Where did she go?”
“She’s a teleporter.”
“She looks like a demon,” Brad said.
“Yeah. One of the best splice jobs I’ve ever seen.” Ty grinned at his friend. “She came over to the mansion last night. We ate cupcakes together. Dinah and I are trying to add her to the team.”
At first, Brad just stared at the screen, his mouth still open in amazement. Then he shot a look at Ty. “Add her to the team? Do you mean…” he didn’t finish his question, but his meaning was clear.
Ty just grinned.
“You son-of-a-bitch,” Brad said. Ty kept grinning.
The screen emitted the sound of rending metal, and Brad turned his attention back toward it. This was the end, Ty knew. He watched as Tempest, with superhuman strength and effort, lowered the entire weight of the pendulum ride, complete with the fifty or so people on board, to the ground.
