‘Well, I can now, sure. If he doesn’t have some power to heal faster, it could easily take this long to recover.’
‘It’s a point.’
There was a little pause and then June asked, ‘How’s the cosmic energy scanner thing going?’
‘Well, it works,’ Cygnus replied. One of her tricks for finding Blacklight was to set up some of her power in a constant search for cosmic energy emissions. She had even talked to Doctor Ultimate about analysing the frequencies and modulations. ‘I keep spotting Skadi. I’m expecting a spike if Blacklight fires his beam power at someone and I’m not seeing anything like that.’
‘Have you figured out what that background noise was?’
There had been background noise which she had filtered out. ‘No. I’ll talk to Hugh about it. I suspect that it’s really background noise. Like, the general cosmic energy background. I’ve noticed several little point sources around town though. I think those are undeclared Ultras. Minor ones. Maybe a bit like Damian. They may not even know they have any powers.’
‘Hugh is always saying there are more–’
‘Hold on. I think I’ve got something.’ Something was flaring as a sort of humanoid outline of bluish light in one of the alleys below and off to the right. Someone, or something, was manipulating reality, warping space–time in some manner. Maybe in a manner that made light flow around a body.
‘What is it?’ June asked.
‘Not sure yet, but it’s the best lead I’ve had all week. I’m going to go look.’ Cygnus shifted her flight path to bring her in over what she had decided to call ‘the anomaly.’ The buildings here had flat roofs: they were all small apartment blocks, survivors of the riots. Generally, the rent was not that high, so the buildings were full. Landing on the roof, Cygnus looked down over the edge and immediately spotted two men in balaclavas carrying a TV set out through an open window and onto a fire escape. She scanned down to the alley, and that was when she spotted Blacklight.
He had no costume: he was invisible to more or less everyone, so he was out on the street in a sweatshirt and jeans. It was dark and Cygnus could not really see colours, but he looked like he had brownish hair and paler eyes. He worked out, or looked like he did, but it was his face which drew Cygnus’s attention. There was something about his face she thought she should recognise, like she had met him before, but if she had, no name was coming to mind and she could not think of where they had met. He was young: late teens. Maybe she had met his father or something. He was just standing there, waiting. There was a third burglar down there below the fire escape, ready to receive whatever was stolen. When they came down…
Vaulting over the low wall around the roof, Cygnus dropped past the fire escape and down to ground level. The man waiting there gawped at her for precisely the right amount of time for her to slam the heel of her hand into his nose. There was the sound of crunching cartilage and a lot of blood, and the owner of the newly broken nose collapsed onto the dirty tarmac, clutching at his face.
Down the alley, Blacklight turned and started back onto the main street. Cygnus looked up at the men, boys really, on the fire escape. ‘You two stay where you are or a bust nose is going to be the least of your worries.’ She took off, lifting up and over Blacklight to land in front of him. Cocking a hip and resting one fist on it, she smiled. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’
He just stared at her for a second. Then he took a step back and lifted his right arm, index finger pointing at her chest. ‘Stay back! You let me go or–’
‘Or what? I’m not a guy in some powered armour, kid. You come quietly… or not. Your choice.’
He fired, a thin beam of light flashing between his finger and Cygnus’s chest. The beam blazed white, appearing far thicker than it was. There was the crack of air exploding away from it and Blacklight lit up brightly in Cygnus’s cosmic energy vision. Just before the stream of photons began burning through Cygnus’s costume, however, it hit the force field she had set up. The field shimmered as it absorbed and dissipated the attack. Cygnus just stood there, smiling. The smile had gone distinctly nasty, however.
Another beam lanced out and got essentially the same results. ‘Shit!’ Blacklight yelped. He turned and started running. Cygnus held out her hand and light flared briefly in her palm before lancing out toward the fleeing teenager. It hit him in the back, but it did not pierce or burn. Instead, it flared out from the impact point, streamers of blue-white energy rapidly enveloping him in a web which stopped him in his tracks. Unbalanced, he fell to the ground and lay there, squirming against his bonds while Cygnus walked over to him, crouching down beside his prone body.
She rolled him onto his back and looked down at him. The streamers of force were over his mouth, so he could not speak. ‘You’re not getting out of that,’ Cygnus said. ‘If you try to use that beam of yours on it, all you’re likely to do is burn your own leg off.’ He glared at her with angry eyes, but there was definitely an element of fear in there too. Maybe he was angry because he was afraid. ‘I get what you were trying to do. Really. Idiots like these need to be put away so the rest of us don’t have to suffer for their actions. Sometimes, we need to kill one of them because there’s no other way of stopping them. But you crossed the line. When you almost killed Night Shift…’ She shook her head. ‘You’re out of control. You’re ready to kill anyone to keep this crusade going. I’m going to stop you. Permanently.’
His eyes widened, but all she did was reach out and put her hand on his forehead, closing her eyes and concentrating. Then she got to her feet and walked back toward the fire escape where the three burglars were waiting for her, looking rather ashamed of themselves, except for the one holding a handkerchief to his streaming nose.
~~~
‘What did you do to him?’ Caldwell asked. ‘He looks… shocked.’ Caldwell was talking to Cygnus while his partner, Halliwell, was dealing with Blacklight. Caldwell had decided that keeping Halliwell away from Cygnus was for the best. They had Blacklight in neurotronic cuffs, but the young man had been unresisting, trying nothing. He did look shocked.
‘I took his powers away,’ Cygnus said. ‘I’m not sure how long it’ll last. Might even be permanent.’
‘You can do that?’
‘What the UID appears to refuse to believe is that I can do more or less anything I can work out how to do. Or maybe your bosses just don’t like the fact they can’t control me. Whatever, yes, I can take away someone’s powers if I feel it’s needed. Actually, it was the UID who showed me how to do it.’
‘Right.’
‘They also showed me how to resist it. Look, you’ve got this, right? I want to stop off at Night Shift’s place and let him know we got Blacklight.’
Caldwell nodded. ‘Yeah. Good work.’
‘Thanks.’ Cygnus turned to head upward and then stopped. ‘Have you identified the kid?’
‘Not yet. Why?’
‘No reason. Well, he just looks like someone I’ve met before and I can’t figure out who.’ She lifted into the air. ‘Goodnight, Special Agent. Have a good weekend.’ And then she was gone.
New Millennium City Penitentiary, MD, 7th August.
New Millennium City Penitentiary was not, technically, in the city. It had been built on a spur of land just north of Churchton to handle all of the detention needs of the new city. That meant it had a large block for the remand of prisoners awaiting trial, two blocks for handling the general population of prisoners, and a fourth block to hold maximum-security prisoners. It only had two cells in the maximum-security wing with neurotronic power suppression systems and, despite having no powers now, Jackson Thurlow had been put in one of those.
There was some jurisdictional confusion over who should be handling his case. When he had committed multiple murders in the name of fighting crime in Churchton, Thurlow had been an Ultrahuman and that put him under the jurisdiction of the Ultrahuman Investigation Division. Genetic testing suggested he was still, at least technically, a
n X-class, but his powers were not functioning and the New Millennium City District Attorney’s office had demanded custody be retained within the city until his exact legal status could be determined. Since the penitentiary had neurotronic cells, the UID had agreed, if not exactly graciously.
As far as Jackson was concerned, the cell was more comfortable than the room he had had in his foster parents’ house. All the furniture was bolted down, but he had a bed and a desk, space to exercise, and an attached shower and toilet room. Okay, so there were cameras everywhere and the neurotronic field made his skin feel a bit funny despite his lack of powers. He was not allowed out, which was why there was the exercise space and Jackson used it. He was not sure when his powers would come back – he refused to believe they might never return – but he was going to be ready when they did. Ready to get on with his mission.
He was doing press-ups when the first shooting pain dropped him to the slightly spongy flooring. It lashed through his left arm, up into his chest, and he rolled onto his back, clutching his arm as another pain shot through him. His chest seemed to be contracting and he could barely breathe. He tried to say something, to shout for help, but the pain was too much and his vision was narrowing. He had never learned first aid and had no real idea what he was feeling, but the pain suggested it was bad, very bad, probably terminal. Then he was thinking nothing at all.
Andrews Field, MD.
Jackson was not especially religious. He had always viewed the existence of an afterlife as a nice idea, but probably wishful thinking. When his eyes opened and he saw the grey, concrete walls around him, his first thought was that Heaven was more boring than he had expected. Or Hell was a lot more boring than expected. If he was in Hell, someone needed to work on the demons.
The room was better appointed than his cell, featuring the addition of a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. The furniture was not bolted down. There was a small entertainment area too, with a reasonably sized TV screen and a couple of comfortable chairs. In one of those chairs, an old man sat watching Jackson as he began to stir. Jackson met his eyes and… There was something about those eyes that was kind of demonic: they were cold, dispassionate, and highly intelligent.
‘My name,’ the old man said, ‘is Doctor Kopf. Please, come and sit with me, Mister Thurlow.’
Jackson rolled off the double bed and, since he had nothing better to do and no idea what was going on, he walked over to take the other seat. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.
Kopf gave a small smile. ‘Officially, you died of heart failure this afternoon. Jackson Andrew Thurlow is dead.’ The German accent somehow managed to make that statement sound worse. ‘My employers wished to have me take a look at your case, so they arranged to have you removed from public notice.’
Jackson considered all the questions that statement raised. ‘My case?’ Pick the more personal one.
‘It would appear that Cygnus has managed to permanently suppress your Ultrahuman abilities, Mister Thurlow. This effect generally lasts for a few minutes without a continuous field of some kind. It is unlikely that your powers will ever return without intervention. I will determine how this was achieved and how it can be reversed.’
‘You’re going to give me my powers back?’
‘If the effect can be reversed, I will do so. The research necessary to achieve this will not be comfortable. There will be pain. Considerable pain.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Jackson said, determination in his voice.
‘That is a very good attitude! When I have returned your powers… Then my employers will wish you to use those powers for their purposes.’ Kopf held up his hand to forestall whatever Jackson might have said in reply. ‘I think you will not find the work distasteful. You will be asked to kill, I think, but the people you will assassinate are very likely to be criminals, terrorists, or traitors.’
‘That shouldn’t be a problem.’ It might even work for him, Jackson thought. These people could supply resources and information Jackson had no access to.
‘Good.’ There was a slight pause and then Kopf said, ‘I knew your father.’
Jackson’s eyes widened. ‘You knew Ultranova?’
Kopf gave a nod. ‘We worked together before…’
‘Before he was killed by Ghostfire.’ Jackson had never met his father. There had been times when his mother had still been alive that he had not believed her story about the great hero’s one-night fling leading to the birth of a son. Then his powers had developed. Ultranova had not had invisibility, but the light beams were the same.
Getting to his feet, Kopf gave Jackson a smile. ‘Perhaps, one day, I will tell you the full story of how your father died. For now, get some rest. Tomorrow we will begin your examination. You will want to be very well rested.’
‘I’ll be ready.’ Okay, so it was going to hurt, whatever Kopf had planned for him. At the end of it, he would have powers again and he would be able to carry on his father’s work. That was worth whatever Kopf had to throw at him. That was worth any price he had to pay.
Interlude: Fire and Shadows
Wearily, Andrea hauled herself up the last of the rock face and onto the lip of the volcano. She lay there for several minutes, trying to regain her strength. She had been climbing for… Well, time had no meaning here, but she had been climbing for a long time. Looking back, she could no longer see the beach she had woken up on, though whether that was from distance or the steadily thickening ashfall she was not sure. Sitting up, she took a step over to the edge of the caldera and…
It was not a volcano. There was no molten rock in the pit which formed the core of this mountain. There was fire. Heat poured up from below, lifting a column of ash and smoke high into the air, but there was no lava. Instead, fire belched up from what seemed like huge machines, furnaces. What the Hell was this place?
‘She’s trying to burn away your memories.’ Andrea’s head snapped around at the sound of the voice, familiar and yet not. ‘She’s trying to destroy you. I was easy, but you… She’s having trouble with you.’
There was no one there. The voice was coming out of nowhere, but it sounded so familiar. ‘Who…’
‘You don’t remember me? Figures. She’s really been messing with your memories. I don’t think she can really do it. I think…’ That was when Andrea noticed her shadow on the rock beside her. Her shadow was shaking its head and she was more or less sure she had not done that. Her shadow was talking to her? ‘You were always better at the metaphysical stuff. I think, if you really try, you’ll remember. I was the first to go. She needed me gone so that she could take over.’
‘Twilight?’ Andrea asked, her voice hesitant.
‘That’s me!’ Images flickered through Andrea’s mind: darkness, pain, anguish, two figures fighting and one of them falling, falling into fire… ‘You need to stop her, Andrea.’ The bright tone which had sounded in Twilight’s voice on being recognised was gone again. ‘Look, on the far side of the mountain. Do you see that patch of light?’
Andrea squinted, looking out over the sharp black rock of the landscape. Far in the distance, there did seem to be a ray of sunlight breaking through the black clouds. ‘I see it.’
‘That’s where you need to go. You’ll need to go down into the pit. There are stairs. Go down into the pit and you’ll find a tunnel heading that way.’
‘What do I do when I get there?’
‘You’ll know,’ Twilight replied, and there was a finality in the statement which made Andrea look down. Her shadow was gone. There had never been light to make a shadow where it had been.
‘Okay,’ Andrea said, and she set off around the lip of the pit to find the stairs down. Down and into the fire.
Part Three: The Fire Giant
New Millennium City, MD, 31st August 2015.
‘New Millennium City is perfect for me,’ Captain Freedom said. ‘In many ways, better than New York City was. I’m closer to the seat of government, but not too close. North Beach has the advantage
that I can have some space around me. It’s been known for people to try to attack me at home and there was a lot of opportunity for collateral damage around the apartment I had in New York.’
‘That’s reasonable,’ Penny commented, her eyes on the screen. The news that Captain Freedom had been moving into a house in North Beach had been all over ACPN and several other networks that weekend. Now Marta Hendry was interviewing the hero on the evening news.
‘Yeah,’ June agreed.
‘Of course,’ Hendry said, ‘the “seat of government” has moved since you last saw it. It’s operating out of Andrews and is likely to stay there for some time.’
Freedom nodded. ‘From what I’ve been hearing, no one is sure what they’re going to do about that. Not many people want to move back to a place which may still have radiation problems. Washington has been the capital for a long time, but it never used to glow in the dark. Some people want to construct a new centre for the national institutions somewhere else. Of course, that presents various constitutional and logistical issues. I try to stay out of that kind of thing. I’m just a guy with some power and a responsibility to the country. No one elected me. I leave the big decisions to the politicians and stick to handling trouble when it shows up.’
‘Does this mean we can expect to see you working with Cygnus? New Millennium City had two heroines working to protect it before you came back. Tragically, Twilight was lost in May.’
‘She gave her life to see to it that the world was safe from alien aggression,’ the Captain said. ‘That’s the way any of us who feel a responsibility to the public would wish to go out. I look forward to doing what I can for my new city. If I have nothing of a more national scope to take care of, I’d imagine I’ll be working with Cygnus and the city’s other heroes to keep the streets safe.’ He grinned. ‘It kind of goes with the job description.’
Hendry smiled. ‘I suppose it does. Thank you, Captain Freedom, and welcome to New Millennium City.’
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