The Enhancer series Box Set

by Wyatt Kane

  Ty imagined them coursing through his bloodstream and limbic system, replicating themselves as they went to ensure there were enough of them for the job. He imagined them finding the injuries and, like bees in a hive, signaling to their fellow nanites to tell them what they had found.

  Whether they really could do what Ty wanted, only time would tell.

  In half an hour or so, he would have the answers he needed. In the meantime, there was still so much he wanted to do.

  39: A Gamer’s Voice

  Ty really wanted to give himself the ability to fly. It was something he’d worked on intermittently ever since his first flight with Tempest, when the blonde superhero had carried him across the city.

  It was, in Ty’s view, the only way to travel. And while he thoroughly enjoyed it when Tempest picked him up as if he weighed nothing and launched herself into the sky, there was something appealing about being able to fly by himself.

  Yet it was far from his top priority. He’d made himself strong and durable, like Tempest. But Steam could cut through his defenses with ease, and his best offence couldn’t hurt either him or his colleague, Massive. And what if there were others out there with even greater potential? What would he do then?

  Ty knew he could make his shield more powerful, but in his mind, that wasn’t enough. He needed to come up with another offensive option altogether, something that could be used no matter what they were facing.

  As soon as he had the thought, Lilith’s ability came to mind. Unified Field Control, her character sheet had said. That was the sort of power Ty thought he might need. Even at a low level, the demon woman could literally tear down buildings, and teleport across vast distances.

  Surely, she could also tear down Steam and Massive? Surely a moment of effort would be enough to nullify them as a problem for good?

  As tempting as it was, Ty wasn’t entirely sure how Lilith’s power worked. He hadn’t seen the full schematics like he had with Tempest. The mechanism behind Lilith’s power remained hidden.

  There was also another issue. Ripping Steam or Massive apart would doubtless be fatal, and that wasn’t what Ty was looking for. He wanted to be a match for any superpowered villain he might come across, but that didn’t mean he was okay with wholesale murder.

  Ty’s head was still buzzing, but it wasn’t his skill that was lacking just then. It was his ability to see outside the box. His creativity, his capacity to do more than just build on what was currently available.

  He needed something new.

  But this time, he wasn’t ready to give up. He might not be the best at thinking outside the box, but he knew someone who was.

  Without hesitation, Ty called his friend Brad.

  “Hey,” the gamer said, answering his phone on the third ring. Once again, the gamer’s face was displayed on the small screen rather than as a hologram. Maybe that would be another project, Ty thought. Integrating his phone with the device was just a start. It would be nice if he could make use of the best of all functionalities, whether he was placing a traditional call or using the device.

  “Hey, look—” Ty began. But Brad interrupted him.

  “Did you go to that place?” he asked.

  It wasn’t what Ty wanted to talk about, but he owed Brad. “Yeah.”

  “And? Did you get in?”

  Ty nodded. “Yeah. They said I was the last they would accept.”

  “Lucky bastard! Did they pay?”

  “Yeah. Hey, look, I wanted to ask –”

  “They didn’t accept me,” Brad said. “Pretty bummed about it, actually. Although I haven’t given up hope. There might be a back door. Or at least, that’s what Sarah said.”

  Ty had known there was a chance Brad wouldn’t get in, but right at that moment, it was the last thing on his mind. “Oh,” he said. “Bummer, man.”

  But Brad shook off Ty’s commiseration. “So? Does it work as advertised?”

  Ty nodded. “Stat increase across the board,” he said. “Just like the device. And there’s something new as well. A new skill.”

  “Man,” Brad said, and Ty could sense his jealousy even through the line. “Some guys just get all the luck.”

  Ty didn’t know what to say about that. He knew Brad was right. Over the past few weeks, Ty had received more than his fair share of good luck. But in his mind, it evened out. Ty’s life up until then hadn’t been a bucket of roses.

  “Yeah,” Ty said. “Hey, listen, I’ve got a problem and I thought you could help. Got a moment?”

  Brad said he did, and Ty explained his problem.

  “So, you’ve got a bunch of these bosses appearing everywhere,” the gamer said, translating everything into his own worldview. “And you’ve been leveling up, gaining new armor and weapons to suit your level. You are like a level 15 hero, and you’ve been upgrading your weapons and armor to match. And that’s been fine against the minions and level 10 or 15 bosses, but these guys are something else. Call them level 30 or 40 villains. You could level up even more, but that would take time, and you’re not sure even then it would do the trick. Am I right so far?”

  “Yeah,” Ty replied. “That sounds about right.”

  “So, what about artifacts? Can you get yourself like a legendary sword or something?”

  That was a way of thinking about it Ty hadn’t considered. “What do you mean?” he asked. “Like a police cannon or something?”

  “Well, I guess so.” Ty thought about it. Effectively, this was what he’d done to combat Lilith when she appeared in his bedroom. Although he was hard-pressed to think of his police baton as a legendary item.

  But a police cannon was so bulky they were usually mounted on a car. Could he and Tempest easily carry one into a fight?

  “Or,” Brad said, “maybe something else. There’s this game I’m playing where you can drop mines, targeted to your enemy. Of course, if you stand on one, it’ll kill you as well, but maybe something like that?”

  Ty’s fizzing brain latched onto the idea as if it could save him. As indeed it might. “Not mines. But maybe an EMP grenade,” he said.

  “A what now?” Brad said.

  Ty saw it all clearly. He knew what he had to do. “An EMP grenade. These two guys, Massive and Steam, they get their power through the device on their wrist. I thought before about somehow cutting their arms off, but I don’t know if I even could. Steam is able to go insubstantial, and Massive—he might be too dense for anything to cut. But that doesn’t mean I can’t target their devices anyway.”

  “Oh. Well. Glad I could help,” Brad said with a grin.

  Ty was more and more certain that this was the way to go. He nodded. “Yeah, this will work. Thanks, Brad. Got to go.”

  And with that, he ended the call.

  ◆◆◆

  Ty’s brain continued to operate at a high level. Sometime during the EMP grenade design phase, Gremlin got bored of sleeping on the workbench. She yawned hugely, showing healthy white teeth that any carnivore would have been proud of. Then she stood and started to meow at Ty with an indignant tone.

  “What do you want?” Ty asked her. “You want some food? I don’t have any here, sorry. But maybe Dinah has some in the kitchen.”

  That was assuming Dinah was still there. For all Ty knew, she could be anywhere. As could Lilith. He wondered briefly what the two women were up to, and idly reached out to scratch Gremlin’s head.

  The cat ducked under his questing hand and nimbly stepped to one side. But this time, instead of simply moving half a foot out of his reach, she leapt delicately to the floor of the workshop and sauntered away.

  “Fine,” Ty said. “Leave me, then.”

  Yet he wasn’t really that bothered. He still had work to do.

  On the high Ty was enjoying, building an EMP grenade was simple. The complex part was in controlling the blast area. How big did it need to be?

  Big enough that he didn’t have to be 100% accurate with his throw, yet small enough that it wouldn’t take
out anyone he didn’t wish to target.

  It would be all well and good to disable Steam and Massive, but if it knocked out his own device or Tempest’s, it would leave them worse than defenseless.

  If the devices stopped working, it would be exactly the same as if they had been removed from their arms. And the villains they faced didn’t act alone. Massive and Steam had been supported by Rubio’s men, and Bain had an unknown number of the Master’s mercenaries to call upon.

  Even if Ty and Tempest managed to take out any superpowered villain they faced, they would still have to deal with whoever was left.

  They couldn’t do that if they were suffering from withdrawal.

  40: A Plea For Help

  The workings of an EMP device were surprisingly simple. It required only to release a massive electrical charge all at once. Ty’s design centered around a fist-sized capacitor paired with one of his power converters to ensure it stayed charged. He added a simple timer like that found on a normal grenade, and wrapped the whole in a simple steel can.

  Once the Stark Imager showed the design was finished to his satisfaction, he simulated setting the grenade off.

  “Twelve-and-a-half feet,” he muttered to himself as he measured the simulated blast radius. According to the data on the display, anything electronic within that radius would fail to work. But if he and Tempest were standing beyond that, they should be fine.

  Once again, Ty stood back from the desk to admire his work. From his perspective, this had been his most productive day ever. The EMP grenade should really help even the playing field, and as for the healing nanites … he reached over his shoulder and touched the spot where he’d been burnt to check what was happening there.

  A couple of hours ago, it had been itchy, just beginning the process of healing. But now, when he touched the bandage, it felt really good. Just like normal, undamaged skin.

  Ty grinned. He reached beneath his shirt and pulled the bandage away, then tentatively touched the place again.

  The wound was behind him, on his back, and it would require two mirrors for him to see. But it felt perfectly fine. Back to normal.

  It was a success beyond Ty’s wildest dreams. He knew now, if he wasn’t injured too badly, he would be able to heal from almost any attacks.

  Perhaps he wouldn’t be able to regrow a leg or even fight off a cold, because that wasn’t what his nanites were for. But bruises, burns, broken bones, and other injuries should now be no more than a temporary nuisance.

  Even better, his healing nanites weren’t reliant on the device on his arm. They would continue to work even if, for some reason, he no longer wore it. They would even take care of things like arthritis or chronic injuries that might developed over time.

  All in all, it was a major accomplishment, and he couldn’t wait to strip the bandage away from his calf as well.

  Before he did so, Dinah and Lilith appeared at the workshop entrance.

  Lilith’s cheeks were bright red, her lipstick smudged, and her clothes weren’t as neat as before. As for Dinah, the deerkin was almost smoldering with latent desire, and the two of them exuded an earthy, musky scent.

  Ty felt the corners of his mouth quirk into a grin. He didn’t know how far exactly the two women had gone, but it seemed that a boundary had been a crossed. Which boundary, he would have to ask, but neither seemed displeased that it had happened.

  Yet, as quickly as it began, Ty’s smile faded. Despite the overt clues of sexual indulgence on display, the overriding impression he got from them was one of worry.

  “What’s wrong?” he demanded.

  Lilith took a moment to stare at the holographic display of the work Ty had been doing, but Dinah answered straight away. “Tempest received a message from Rubio,” she said.

  Immediately, Ty went on alert. The crime lord had proved to be nothing but trouble, and if he had spoken to Tempest, it couldn’t be good.

  “What did he say?”

  “According to Tempest, he wanted to call in a marker. He said she owed him a favor.”

  “That’s rubbish!” Ty exclaimed. “Rubio never fulfilled his part of the deal. Tempest owes him nothing.”

  Dinah nodded. “That’s how I see it as well,” she said. “But Tempest has her own mind. She’ll do whatever she thinks is right.”

  Ty knew Dinah’s words were true, but it didn’t change his opinion. “What was the favor he wanted from her?” he said.

  “Remember when we told him the Master wanted the devices he stole? Well, I used the Master’s own encoding technique to spread a message online, letting him know it was Rubio who took them.” The deerkin shrugged. “It seems to have worked. Rubio’s men are under attack from the Master.”

  Ty was incredulous. “And he wants Tempest to help him?” It was incredulous. The gall of the man was unbelievable. “What was her response?”

  He asked the question even though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer. If Tempest had chosen to ignore Rubio’s message, Dinah and Lilith wouldn’t be so worried.

  “She’s on her way there now,” said Dinah.

  Feeling suddenly angry, Ty gritted his teeth and let out a growl of frustration. The target of that frustration wasn’t Tempest. She was a true superhero, and he couldn’t argue with her instinct to help. But the Master’s timing was irritating!

  It was too soon! Ty’s mind was still buzzing with the effects of the drug, and there was so much more he still had to do. If he could have just one more day to himself, he knew he could finish so many projects. But it seemed he wasn’t going to get that time.

  “Ty?” Dinah asked.

  Ty had turned his back on the woman while he dealt with his anger. At the deerkin’s word, he did his best to rein himself in and turned back to face them.

  “I have to go,” he said. “Rubio is slippery. And that talent of his – you know this has to be a trap of some sort.”

  “Yes,” Dinah agreed, and even Lilith nodded.

  Ty looked hard at the deerkin. “Where is she? How do I get there?”

  Surprisingly, it was Lilith who answered. “You don’t need to know. I can take you straight there,” she said.

  When Ty had first met Lilith, he had been struck both by the innocence of her features and the determination that gave her strength. That determination had been less pronounced since she’d escaped from the Master’s control. But now it was back in full measure.

  “Are you sure?” Ty asked.

  Lilith nodded again. “I want to help. And if Rubio is fighting the Master and Bain, I want to be there. I want to be part of it.” She shot a quick glance at Dinah that suggested kinship, and broadened her answer. “I want to be part of all of it,” she said. “Part of who you are. What you’re trying to do. It’s a good thing, what you have here, and I haven’t been part of many good things in the past.”

  It made perfect sense to Ty. Lilith was lawful good, yet had been compelled to act in ways contrary to that core nature for much of her life. He turned to Dinah.

  “How long have we got?” he asked.

  “None at all,” she replied.

  Ty cursed under his breath. “Fabricate,” he ordered. “Quantity: three.”

  The fabricator whirred into life and started to bring three EMP grenades into being.

  41: Unexpected Interlude

  As the fabricator did its work, Lilith and Dinah gave Ty a few additional details. With Lilith sensing a congregation of devices and Dinah plotting out where they were, they’d worked out that Rubio was under attack in an old industrial plant that formed part of the crime lord’s empire.

  The deerkin contacted Tempest and told her that Ty and Lilith were both on their way, and the blonde superhero said she would wait for them to arrive before she did anything.

  That was the good news. But there was bad news as well.

  “Do we know how many device wearers there are?” Ty asked.

  Lilith shook her head. “Lots. I don’t know how many. They’re too clo
se together for me to tell. Half a dozen? I don’t know.”

  Half a dozen was too many for comfort. Ty turned to Dinah. “Cameras?” he asked.

  But the deerkin shook her head. “It’s an old plant, and Rubio isn’t keen on cameras at the best of times. To me, it’s a dead zone. I can’t get anything from it.”

  Ty wondered if he should fabricate camera-wielding drones of some sort for exactly this type of situation. Maybe he would add it to his ongoing list of tasks, he thought.

  The fabricator finished its work and became quiet. Ty picked up the resulting grenades and tested them for weight, then stowed them in his pockets.

  He turned to Lilith. “Are you ready for this?”

  Grimly determined, the demon woman nodded.

  “Then let’s do it.”

  <<<>>

  Ty didn’t think he would ever get used to the soul-chilling cold of that indescribable space through which Lilith teleported. He knew without asking that Lilith could have existed there without any issues. As well as gifting her a range of other abilities, her skill seemed to make her proof against the inimicality of this fearful, in-between place.

  But if she were to leave Ty there, in less than a minute, he would be no more than a popsicle with a frozen device on his wrist.

  So when they popped back into reality having spent only moments away, Ty’s first response was to let out a sigh of immense relief.

  Then he realized they were nowhere near Rubio’s industrial plant. Instead, they had appeared next to a large, concrete fountain in the middle of a well-tended rose garden.

  He took a moment to steady himself. Unusually for her, Lilith didn’t let him go right away. She held him as Tempest usually did, for long enough for him to regain his footing.

  Ty looked all about, completely confused. “Where are we?” he asked. “Why have you brought us here?”

  “This is one of my favorite places,” Lilith said. “It’s the New Lincoln Rose Botanica, and it’s quite close to where I used to live.” She gave a quiet smile. “It’s just a place I used to come to.”