by Wyatt Kane
Much to Ty’s surprise, Tempest again launched into the sky. They flew through the layers of cloud and came out into sunshine above. Ty’s heart started pounding. They were naked, flying above the city, in a land of sunshine. It was so far beyond his experience that he didn’t know quite what to think. Yet he knew one thing. This was a moment that would be fixed in his mind for as long as he lived.
“I’ve always wanted to try this,” Tempest said, her voice filled with suppressed excitement.
Ty understood what she meant, and it took him by surprise. “Is it even possible?” he asked.
“There’s only one way to find out,” she said.
Ty was more than willing. Yet he could already see some potential logistical difficulties. “Just don’t drop me, okay?”
Tempest just laughed. High in the air, above the layer of cloud through which only the tallest structures peaked through in the distance, Tempest and Ty clung together as they spun slowly about. Ty was unwilling to let go of her enough to caress her soft skin, but was more than happy to kiss her on the neck, chin, shoulders, and lips.
As for Tempest, she gave as good as she got. She wrapped her legs around his waist and moved against him for just a moment or two before getting impatient. She let go with one hand and guided him in, then broke out in a brilliant smile.
“Well, that part was surprisingly easy,” she said.
Ty felt incredible. Even though they were held in the air by nothing more than Tempest’s will, he felt somehow invulnerable, as if they could do anything they wished. Buoyed and enthused, he moved first one hand then the other down to Tempest’s hips, and shifted her back and forth against him.
Tempest closed her eyes and breathed out in a way that suggested intense pleasure. Ty could feel the muscles of her abdomen and thighs as they clenched and unclenched around him. He thought that even if Tempest lost control and they fell to their deaths, it would still be worth it.
But they weren’t falling. If anything, they were still ascending. Flying higher than ever. Ty clung to her with all of his strength, knowing that the superhero could take everything he had. For her part, she responded in kind, although Ty knew she was still holding back.
He wondered then about his mesh suit. Maybe he could alter it in such a way that Tempest wouldn’t have to hold back. He wondered if she would like the opportunity to unleash with someone who couldn’t be hurt.
Yet even that thought was fleeting. He had other things on his mind that were much more immediate and exciting.
High in the sky above New Lincoln, Tempest and Ty moved together in a time-honored way. Ty would have been happy to keep going forever, until they were nothing but empty husks in the air, but Tempest was determined. Within a shorter time than any of their previous sessions, their rhythm built into a crescendo. Tempest let out a gasp and clutched Ty with her arms and legs strongly enough to leave bruises, and shuddered against him.
It was too much for Ty. He couldn’t hold on. He reached his climax as well, and then they both clung to each other, gasping for breath.
Tempest was the first to recover. Perhaps splitting her focus to keep them up helped her. She grinned in honest, open enjoyment and gave him a peck on the lips.
“I guess now we know,” she said, full of impish glee.
“I guess we do,” Ty managed.
“So, would you like me to drop you off at your work?” Tempest asked.
Ty continued to grin. “Maybe a shower first?” he said, and Tempest agreed.
31: Hidden Threats
They collected their clothes from the satellite dish but didn’t bother to put them back on. Ty couldn’t help but be amused by the knowledge that if anyone happened to look up at just the right moment, with maybe a pair of digital binoculars, they would have been in for an unexpected sight.
To him, their brief, naked sojourn seemed to add to the fun, and he sensed that Tempest felt the same. They were both still grinning broadly when they touched down on the bridge outside the penthouse door.
Ty fumbled through his bundle of clothes until he found the remote, and turned the shield off so they could enter. Then, together, they headed upstairs. Tempest directed Ty not to the ensuite bathroom in her room, but to the main bathroom on the top floor, the one with the oversized shower.
Within minutes, they were both covered in suds and laughing in the wet. Ty learned that the slipperiness of liquid soap added a new dimension of interest, and he was just starting to explore the possibilities this afforded when they heard Dinah calling from outside in the hall.
“Tempest? Ty? Are you in there?”
Ty couldn’t help but give Tempest a quick, guilty look. She laughed at him and shook her head.
“We’re in here!” the blonde superhero called out. “Care to join us?”
Ty’s guilty expression became a rueful grin. He realized that he still hadn’t fully worked out how the dynamics of this relationship worked.
The bathroom door opened and the deerkin wandered in. But instead of the open expression of temptation Ty expected, Dinah looked uncharacteristically serious.
It was enough that both he and Tempest sobered.
“What is it?” Tempest asked through the glass door.
“We have received a message,” Dinah responded, completely unfazed by finding them both in the shower. “It’s unusual. I think it’s from the Master himself. You’d better come and see.” For a moment, she eyed Tempest and Ty up and down, and her expression turned into one of regret. “I’ll meet you both in the screen room.”
<<<>>>
Like mist on a sunny day, the atmosphere of fun and frivolity within the shower evaporated. Ty and Tempest dried themselves quickly, climbed into their clothing, and made their way to the room with the wraparound screen.
As well as the deerkin, Gremlin was on the floor, standing protectively next to Dinah’s feet. Yet when Ty and Tempest entered the room, the cat approached Ty, purring loudly. She rubbed against his legs in a way that seemed almost apologetic, as if she was aware she had been ignoring him in favor of Dinah.
Ty grinned and picked the cat up. On other days, Gremlin would have struggled to get out of his grip, but this time she seemed content to stay put.
Dinah had grabbed a lollipop from her stash, but other than that, she was all business. The screen in front of them was mostly black. At first, Ty wondered if there was something wrong with it, but then he understood the blackness was an image partially obscured by lines of static.
Hidden behind the largest group of lines was a symbol that Ty couldn’t make out. Other than that, there was nothing.
“This appeared all over the news nets maybe half an hour ago,” Dinah began. “It was there for no more than a moment, then vanished again. Yet it was enough to catch people’s attention, in part because someone managed to pack in more than a minute’s worth of audio into this image. They meant it to be seen, to be understood, but not quickly.”
“What does it say?” Tempest asked, her voice flat and determined.
Dinah nodded and made a gesture with her right hand. Right away, the room was filled with a harsh, scratchy voice that was almost electronic in nature. It sounded like what an old, beaten-up trashcan might sound if it had a voice.
“You see it,” the voice began. It was a male voice, though distorted and electronic, and Ty was surprised at the amount of sheer malice it conveyed. “The grime, the foulness we live in. New Lincoln is not a city. It is a slum, a ghetto. Everyday people live their miserable lives down in the sludge, like rats in the sewers. Mega-corporations build their towers so high in the sky they can’t see the vileness, can’t smell the stench of the life down below.”
To Ty, the voice was harsh and grating. It jarred with him on a visceral level, and even the sound of it made him start to get angry. Dinah’s response was different. She looked despondent, as if listening to the speaker made her sad. Tempest was just listening hard.
“The world we live in is broken. Corruptio
n is par for the course, and virtues like honor and integrity do no more than keep you down,” the voice continued. “We are so mired in the filth of a civilization,” he sneered the word, as if implying that it wasn’t very civilized at all, “doing nothing. Even those with power, even those with the strength to stand up for what’s right can do nothing. They are blinded by foolishness and their vision is limited. They try to protect from within the system when it’s the system itself that is wrong. Hnnngh!”
The speaker’s spat his bile and venom as an inarticulate growl. “Superheroes my ass. Power without insight and vision is worse than no power at all. I say enough! It is time for a change! If those with power lack insight to use it effectively, then they do not deserve it!”
The voice paused for a while, as if the speaker was consciously reining himself in. “To those who think themselves heroes, I offer a chance to prove it. It you have vision, you will sacrifice those at risk for the greater good. If not, you will sacrifice the technology that makes you who you are.”
Again, the speaker paused, and Ty wondered if he had stopped speaking entirely. But after a moment, he spoke again.
“Choose wisely.”
The grating voice stopped, and Dinah wasted little time. She made another gesture to pause the playback, and took the lollipop out of her mouth.
“It’s pretty clearly directed at us,” the deerkin said. “It doesn’t sound like Bain even with the distortion, so I’m guessing it is the Master himself. It appears that our efforts have frustrated him. And with Ty’s shield around the building, he is looking for another way to get to us. He is looking to draw us out instead.”
Tempest nodded as if in agreement, but she looked distracted. She was chewing her lower lip, but not in the way Dinah did. With Tempest, it was a sign that she was thinking.
As for Ty, he had questions. “Bain was able to talk to us directly,” he said. “Why would the Master go to this sort of effort?”
Dinah shook her head. “I don’t know. Bain used his device to contact us before. Maybe this Master doesn’t have one. Or maybe he has another reason for choosing this method.” She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Ty couldn’t help but feel irritated. “But what’s the point?” he said. “What does it mean?” Distractedly, as if it would help, Ty found himself patting Gremlin as he held her. The cat was still purring with an enthusiasm that was out of character for her.
Dinah glanced at him and nodded. “That’s what I wondered as well. And with this popping up everywhere, there are a lot of others trying to figure it out. The dominant theory is that it’s a viral marketing effort. Perhaps for a film or game of some kind. But there was more than just the audio file embedded within it.”
Before Ty could ask what she meant, Dinah gestured at the screen and expanded two different images to other parts of the screen.
The first was a simple countdown. A timer, with slightly less than forty-five minutes to go. To Ty, that was ominous enough. But the other image made it considerably worse.
It was just a static image. A photograph someone had uploaded.
New Lincoln was a vast, sprawling city. It was a grim and largely desperate place under the thumb of politicians who were intent on lining their own pockets and that of mega-corporations that treated everyone as no more than a source of profits. Yet within its confines, there were a number of parks, stadiums, theatres, and at least one of every other type of attraction Ty could imagine.
One of those attractions was an old amusement park.
Built before Ty was born, it was a monument to happier times and had seen better days. Yet it was still surprisingly popular. On any given day, several thousand people would enjoy the rides, often queuing for some time for a seat on the park’s main attraction: a huge pendulum ride that could take more than forty people at a time.
Once, when he was still a child, Ty had been lucky enough to visit the park. He could still remember the excitement and terror he’d felt at the time, and knew that the park was still popular at least in part because it helped people forget their real lives for a while.
All this made it the perfect place for the Master to target.
“Scare Kingdom,” Ty said, naming the park. The image on the screen was as recognizable as anything in the city. It showed the pendulum ride in full cry, and might have been one of the park’s own publicity shots.
Ty could barely believe it. The message, the images on the screen, the whole experience was surreal. This type of thing didn’t happen in real life. Strange messages hidden in files spread throughout the nets were the stuff of comic books or movies. Maybe the work of an arch-villain in a video game.
But it was not a comic book story, a movie, or a game. The threat was real. In less than forty-five minutes, something was going to happen at Scare Kingdom.
And it was up to them to stop it.
32: Comparisons
“We have no choice, right?” Ty said. “We’re not going to sacrifice the lives of the strangers just because this Master is threatening us, right?”
Dinah gave Ty a broad smile. It appeared that she was in total agreement. “I don’t see any choice. This Master has obviously got something planned, but if you don’t turn up, it tells him that all he needs to do is threaten us and he can do what he wishes.”
That was how Ty read it as well. If Gremlin hadn’t been still purring in his arms, Ty might have clenched his fists. As it was, he nodded and turned to Tempest.
“Let’s go,” he said.
But the blonde superhero surprised him. Normally the first to suggest direct action, she stayed where she was and glared at the screen as if it angered her.
“Do we have a sound recording of the Architect’s voice?” she asked.
Ty was confused. He didn’t understand how that could matter at this moment. Nor was it usual for Tempest to refer to the first superhero as, “the Architect”. She normally referred to him as her father.
But Dinah barely batted an eye. “Of course.”
Grimly, as if speaking through clenched teeth, Tempest asked, “Can you compare it with what we’ve just heard?”
This time Dinah was confused. “Sure,” she said. “But why?”
Even though it appeared to pain her, Tempest explained. “Because the Architect has been missing for so long, and Bain wears his device. And now we have this disembodied voice, this puppet master pulling strings in the shadows. Who do we know who works like that? Like a spider in a web? Who do we know who could have told Bain where we live? Who do we know who would go after our devices?”
As Tempest spoke, it became clear to both Ty and Dinah what she meant. Yet it needed to be said out loud.
“The Architect,” Dinah murmured.
Tempest looked as if she was facing an impossible challenge. She seemed somehow fragile, which Ty found deeply unsettling. Tempest was the strongest person he knew, both in physical strength and demeanor. It worried him to see her looking so brittle, almost desperate.
“Meow,” Gremlin said, although whether just to be part of the conversation or if she had picked up on the atmosphere, Ty didn’t know.
Ty wanted to reassure Tempest that it couldn’t be, but in truth, he just didn’t know. Nor was that the type of comfort the blonde superhero required.
Dinah understood this intuitively. Without another word, she turned back to her screens. “Archival search. Audio file. The Architect. Search.”
Right away, a number of results appeared on the screen. “Vocal signature application,” Dinah said. When the asked for application appeared, Dinah gestured at the screen to select the files she wanted. “Compare.”
Ty sensed Tempest holding her breath. Even he felt the tension. He didn’t know whether to hope that it was the Architect, or to hope that it wasn’t. If it was, then at least Tempest’s father was still alive. But the implications weren’t great.
Why would he have stayed away from her for so long? And what was he doing?
He needn’t h
ave worried. The vocal signature app displayed the results on screen. “No match,” it said, and it showed a graphic representation of the two files in waveform as further evidence.
The two files were quite different.
But Tempest wasn’t satisfied. “The voice sounded metallic. Raspy, as if he was speaking through supplemental electronics. What if something happened to him that damaged his voice?”
“I don’t know how I could allow for that,” Dinah replied. “But there may be another way.”
As fast as thought, the deerkin brought up another application. Ty didn’t fully understand what it did at first, but it also concluded that the voices didn’t match.
Dinah gave Tempest a grin. “The Master is not your father,” she said. “Even if he damaged his voice somehow, his word choice, sentence structure and diction would remain the same. This shows that whoever the Master is, he does not have the same way of speaking that your father did.”
For a moment, Tempest just stood there. It was as if she was trying to see any flaws in Dinah’s logic. Finally, she nodded, and seemed to relax.
“Thank you,” she said. “I was worried. Ever since you mentioned someone pulling the strings in the shadows, I couldn’t help but wonder. It seems like his way of doing things. And how did Bain get his device?”
The deerkin gave Tempest a gentle smile and shrugged her shoulders.
Tempest took a deep breath and pushed the worrying thoughts aside. “Can you contact the park? Tell them that there’s been a threat? Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll close it down.”
Dinah nodded, and Tempest looked to Ty. “Are you up to this?” she asked. “You know it’s going to be a trap of some sort. He’s going to come after us with everything he’s got.”
Surprising even himself, Ty was able to smile. “It’s what we do, isn’t it?” he said.
Tempest looked at him with eyes that were sparkling with pride. “I guess it is,” she said.
