‘They could at least let us put him in lunar orbit or something,’ Penny said. ‘It doesn’t seem right to just let him orbit the sun until he hits something.’ She was watching the evening news with June. Magmatic was, of course, the lead story and looked like he would be taking up much of the broadcast.
‘He could hit Earth,’ June replied. ‘I’d have thought some form of stable orbit would be for the best.’
‘Doctor Ultimate also stated that the Union has more than one resource capable of retrieving Magmatic once a decision is made,’ the presenter went on. ‘Experts suggest that Cygnus, having proven herself capable of spaceflight on two occasions now, would be the likely choice. Russian astronaut Colonel Demyan Volkov, aka Zvezdnyy Volk, has worked with the Union in the past where rapid deployment into space was needed. However, it is believed that his top speed would be insufficient to catch up with Magmatic.’
‘He isn’t super-strong either,’ Penny said. ‘Not necessarily an issue, but he’d have more trouble than either of us would.’
‘Rumours of another space-capable Ultra have been making the rounds, though the Union would neither confirm nor deny them when asked. Amateur astronomers have suggested that a second Ultra could be seen with Cygnus as she overflew the nightside of the Earth on her way back to her home in New Millennium City.’ An image appeared on the screen, obviously blown up so far that there was little recognisable in it. ‘This may show two humanoid figures, but the details are insufficient to allow a definite conclusion.’
‘Thank you, atmospheric scattering,’ Penny commented.
‘My costume likely helps,’ June said. ‘Black on a black background.’
‘Probably. Mute that, please, Denny.’ The presenter was going on to discuss what was likely to happen with Magmatic. Cygnus had already heard that no one really knew, from several sources. It was quite likely that it would go to the Supreme Court – which still needed two new members after the sitting ones died in May – which could easily take months. That was assuming the UN did not decide to step in.
‘So,’ June said, ‘the coverage was not too bad. I was expecting a lot more focus on Captain Freedom facing off against his nemesis.’
‘That is the focus of much of the reporting, June,’ Denny said. ‘I have been monitoring other channels. In a few cases, it is difficult to believe that anyone else was involved.’
‘Huh. Well, that figures.’
‘I wonder what he does think,’ Penny mused. ‘I mean, Magmatic and the Captain fight each other to a rocky prison. When it comes to the rematch, the Captain gets in one good punch and then I come in and whisk Magmatic away without breaking a sweat.’
‘Well, Hugh said it, didn’t he? They didn’t have you twenty-seven years ago. Neither of us were even born.’
‘Yeah. He did say that. They didn’t really have people capable of getting Magmatic into space, so they had to make do with what they had. I just wonder whether the Captain sees it that way.’
‘Don’t know,’ June replied, frowning. ‘I’d have thought he would want rid of Magmatic, but…’ She shook her head. ‘You know what? I think it’s just the fact that I can’t seem to get along with him. I’m sure he’s fine with it.’
‘Yeah,’ Penny said, nodding. ‘I’m sure he is.’
Union of Ultrahumans HQ, Antarctica, 26th September.
June, still in her Astraea costume, followed Alice through the cavern beneath the Union HQ which housed the massive fusion reactors. June had seen the machines a few times now, but they were still impressive. The largest fusion system on the planet, and it just barely kept up with the load requirements for the base.
‘How are the classes coming along?’ Alice asked as they walked.
‘Oh, good,’ June replied. ‘I’m glad I can heal the bruises, but I am getting better. And not just at defending myself. The more theoretical stuff is very useful too.’
‘I’m glad to hear it. Has Zap plucked up the courage–’
June interrupted with a giggle. ‘Nope. It’s almost weird. He was confident enough to go out fighting crime without any training. He’s always pretty forward in classes. When it comes to Fleet, he hasn’t a clue.’
‘If he doesn’t figure it out soon, I’m sure she will sort it out. She seems like a girl willing to put in the effort when she wants something.’
‘Uh-huh.’
They walked through into the lab beyond the reactor room. It was split-level, and Doctor Ultimate’s lab occupied the majority of it, down on the lower floor. The great man could be seen at a workbench, dressed in a moth-eaten lab coat as he poked at something with a signal probe. As the two women walked down to join him, there was a bright flash and the smell of burning solder. ‘Well,’ Ultimate said, ‘that wasn’t it.’ He looked up as they approached, blinking a couple of times as though trying to work out who they were. Then a look of realisation dawned and he said, ‘Ah! Astraea. Yes, just pop your clothes off and we’ll–’
‘No, Hugh,’ Alice said, the very heart of patience. ‘You wanted to talk to her about the new Frostburn armour.’
It was a bit like watching a driver crash the gears on a fast car before jamming the vehicle into the right gear. You could almost see Ultimate’s train of thought derail to be replaced by another one. ‘Aha! Yes, the new armour.’
‘You’re making new armour for Jacob?’ June asked.
‘Well, the first was new idea for the use of several enhancements potential–’
‘Hugh!’ both June and Alice chorused. ‘Serialise,’ Alice finished.
Ultimate raised a finger, frowned, and then tried again. ‘The first was essentially a prototype. Something to get him going and allow him to operate in normal conditions. I always assumed that I would be able to improve upon it. I’ve come up with a number of efficiency improvements and one new idea that will give him a ranged, low-lethality weapon. I would like your assistance regarding the aesthetics, however.’
‘Sure. I’d love to. You’ll have to provide me with the technical requirements. How much space you need for components. How much material it has to have over various parts of the body. Stuff like that, you know?’
Ultimate nodded. ‘I believe I can supply sufficient data. I must admit, I find the exercise rather interesting. I’m used to just putting something together for functionality. Obviously, I aim for a bit of style, but that is not the priority. A collaboration like this should be most interesting.’
‘I’ll get a scan of Jacob done next chance I get. Once I have your figures, I can work something up.’ June giggled. ‘I’ve never had to design a helmet before.’
‘I’m quite sure you’re up to the task.’
‘Probably. Um, do we, which means you, know where Avatars get their power? I know it’s different from the way I do, for example, but I don’t know how they work.’
‘That,’ Alice said, ‘is a complicated question.’ While she spoke, her husband’s face shifted through several expressions before settling on something musing.
‘Indeed,’ Ultimate agreed. ‘The general answer is no. There is a hypothesis I favour which has recently received some interesting confirmatory evidence. However, there are competing hypotheses.’
‘Well, what’s your favoured one?’ June asked, because if he favoured it, she suspected it was a pretty solid idea.
‘The collective consciousness. As I believe I’ve indicated before, the EMX-one gene exists in a sizeable percentage of the populace. This is responsible for the ability to direct cosmic energy which Ultras, such as yourself, use to perform miraculous feats of power. In most, this gene never expresses anything that can be called a power, but it is still there and may be able to affect reality. To a lesser extent than an Ultrahuman, obviously, but still… Essentially, the hypothesis posits that Avatar-class Ultras come into existence and receive their power through the… collective will of the populace.’
June nodded, frowning thoughtfully. ‘That… was very well explained.’
�
�Thank you. I’m occasionally able to explain a concept without needing Alice to translate.’ Alice smirked and shook her head at her husband, who just grinned at her.
‘I can see how that explains the national heroes. I’m not so sure how it fits with someone like Ever.’
‘Ah, but EMX-one is not a gene limited to humans. We know that it exists in genomes belonging to species across a number of phyla. There are species of archaea with EMX-one in their genomes which would seem to indicate that the gene has been around for a very long time. Uh, for our purposes, you can think of the archaea phylum as containing a peculiar form of bacteria, though they are technically quite different.’
‘Okay, but a bacterium doesn’t have a mind to form a collective consciousness.’
‘Every living thing has a desire to survive,’ Alice said. ‘Well, desire is probably the wrong word, but the most basic purpose of every living thing is to survive to pass on their genes.’
‘Which may allow such simple creatures to direct energy to some form of guardian,’ Ultimate said. ‘In such cases, the form of the resulting Ultra would come from the… the host. To take Ever as an example, Perpetua Donnelly, an ardent environmentalist, is killed by people harming the environment of the Everglades. Her dying mind wishes that she could continue to protect the place she loves, and this thought meshes with the desire of the creatures of the region to fight back against the humans destroying their habitat. Ever is born. The reason that Avatar-class Ultras seem to be immune to neurotronics, to take one example of a difference from the more common Ultrahumans, is that their power is directed through more than just their own mind, channelled to them from their… patrons.’
‘Which would explain why Ever has problems when the swamp is polluted,’ June said, grinning. ‘Her patrons, great word for it, are harmed or unhappy with her performance.’
‘Just so.’
‘You said you had new evidence for this theory.’
‘I did. The first is you and several others like you.’ June blinked, getting a smile in return. Obviously, an explanation was needed, so Doctor Ultimate went on. ‘There is no reason for you to have started exhibiting powers. I’ve come across several similar cases in other parts of the world. Using you as an example, it would appear that you embody something of a moral concept: justice. But you also appear to have powers related to a mythical woman you had never heard of prior to going looking for her. You are not an Avatar, but your genesis appears to have come about in an analogous manner. You are the result of a collective desire to see justice and the return of some form of golden age.’
‘Uh, oh.’
‘A lot to take in, I’m sure,’ Alice said. ‘Perhaps you should sit down.’
‘I think I’ll be okay. I, um, do seem to be a bit more powerful than a lot of newly minted Ultras, I suppose.’
‘You are,’ Ultimate agreed. ‘The other interesting evidence comes from our recent problems with Naryan Tan. Not entirely. I was able to sequence the genomes of several of the soldiers Tan deployed and, of course, Rho Ashigna’s genome was sequenced when we were first examining the fallen ship in San Francisco. While the genomes are quite different in various areas, they show a significant similarity to each other… and to that of humans.’
June frowned, though she had a feeling that if she had more of a science background, her jaw would be hanging open. ‘But… shouldn’t aliens have really different DNA to us?’
‘Put simply, yes. It’s not explicable, but it also does not affect the interesting part of the discovery for our current discussion. Both of these other species have the EMX-one gene, suggesting that their unusual abilities are the result of the same process of cosmic energy direction as Ultrahumans on Earth. However, their powers are more collective. The members of these species all have the same adaptations. The force fields the hodrite soldiers can generate, for example.’
‘So, humans have the collective power to manifest heroes?’
Doctor Ultimate gave a shrug. ‘It’s only a hypothesis. There are a lot of holes in it.’ He smiled. ‘Frankly, my dear, I may be a genius, but even I don’t have the ability to understand everything.’
New Millennium City, MD.
‘Brian.’
Brian looked up as his mother’s voice carried up the stairs. It was about four p.m. and dinner was not going to be ready for a couple of hours. He had heard the doorbell ring… Still, he could not think of anyone who would be coming to the door for him. Climbing off his bed, he opened the door to his room and started out onto the landing. ‘Coming,’ he called down. Then he heard the voice below.
‘… self-defence class. We partner sometimes.’ That was Fleet’s voice!
‘We were quite pleased when Brian said he was joining a club,’ his mother said. ‘He doesn’t talk about it too much but he did say he had made a few friends.’
Brian made it to the bottom of the stairs, almost at a dead run, and his mother turned to smile at him. And there was Fleet, standing in the doorway. She was wearing a matching top and shorts in red and black, a dark-grey hoodie, and running shoes. Brian could also see the straps of her backpack over her shoulders. She had to have run down from Bethesda, but she had left Cygnus’s house to go home…
‘Hi, Josie,’ Brian said , choosing to use Fleet’s given name in front of his mother. ‘Something up?’
‘Nope,’ Fleet replied, grinning. ‘I was at a loose end and I wondered if you’d like to go out and grab a coffee or something.’
Brian glanced at his mother. She seemed to be suppressing laughter. There was definitely a twinkle in her eyes. ‘I haven’t started dinner yet,’ she said. ‘Go on out. Grab some food at the mall or something.’
‘Okay,’ Brian said. He turned back to Fleet. ‘Okay. I’ll grab my jacket.’
‘Great!’ Fleet said, grinning.
~~~
Brian’s eyes widened as Fleet emerged from the restrooms at the Brewster Street Mall, which happened to be the closest to his house. She had dumped the hoodie and her shorts had been replaced with a plaid skirt which was… short. She had fantastic legs and, with the hoodie gone, the shape of her breasts was more obvious through the clinging, sleeveless top. Brian swallowed.
‘You look great,’ he managed to get out past the lump in his throat.
‘Thanks. A girl’s gotta look her best for a date, right?’
This was a date?! ‘I guess. What did you feel like doing?’
A playful tilt settled over Fleet’s bee-stung lips. ‘Well, it’s early for food. I figured we could wander around some. On a serious note, things are kind of up in the air about DC. The nuke was bad enough, but now there’s a volcano where the White House used to be. Rebuilding is probably not going to happen and they’re talking about having to evacuate. Cygnus put Magmatic in orbit, but the vent he opened is still smoking.’
‘Okay.’
‘Basically, my parents were talking about moving to New Millennium City, and I figured you could give me an idea of what the place is like.’
Brian narrowed his eyes a little. That sounded like a rather practical date. Also, it sounded like an excuse. ‘You could’ve got that by coming here and running around for half an hour. You could probably see the entire city in that time.’
‘But then I wouldn’t have my native guide with me and…’
‘And?’
‘Look, I have friends in DC, yeah? They’re great, but ever since the Fleet thing, everyone looks at me like, well, like I’m a freak. You’re the only person I know that’s my age who really knows what’s going on. I can talk to you about all of it. Well, the only person I know on this side of the continent anyway. Plus, I like you.’
‘Okay,’ Brian said. ‘We’ll get on the O.’ Fleet blinked at him. ‘It’s the city’s monorail. The track goes around in a loop, a bit like an O. It goes through Uptown, Downtown, and Friendship, so you’ll get to see most of the city.’
‘That sounds like a plan,’ Fleet said, grinning. ‘Which way?’
‘Yeah?’
‘I, uh, I like you too.’
Interlude: The Light at the End
There was light at the end of the tunnel. After an indeterminate amount of time walking through the pitch-black interior of the mountain, Andrea was pleased to see the dim glow. Her pace quickened, and the light grew bigger and bigger…
Stepping out onto another bleak, black landscape was like suddenly finding herself at the surface of an ocean she had been drowning in. She had not realised how stale the air in the tunnel had been. Out in the open again, she breathed in fresh air and looked out on the new environment she found herself in.
It was bleak, but not as bleak as the land beside the beach. The light here had direction, which gave the landscape more depth. There were what appeared to be rolling hills, perhaps even shapes like trees, living ones not blackened stumps. Everything was focused around the beam of light breaking through the clouds in the distance. That was where the light was coming from. Andrea figured that it was generating all of the light, everywhere, diffraction carrying it to where there should only be shadows beyond the mountain. Here, however, it was bright, almost too bright to look at. And it made no sense.
‘What’s that doing there?’ she asked of no one. ‘Shouldn’t she have destroyed all the light here?’
‘She can’t do that any more than you can destroy every hint of darkness,’ Twilight replied.
Andrea looked around to see her shadow on the ground behind her, not looking quite right. ‘No shadow without light?’
‘And how would you know what light was without the contrast of darkness.’
‘But I’m supposed to destroy–’
‘You’re supposed to stop her. Take control. She’s part of you, but you have to be the one in control. Get to the light, Andrea. You’re close now. She doesn’t know it, but you’re getting stronger. Keep her in the dark and you can beat her.’
Andrea smirked. ‘No pun intended.’
There was a giggle which seemed to echo into the distance. ‘It’s nice to see you smile,’ Twilight said, but she was leaving again and Andrea could barely hear the words.
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