Ultrahuman 01 - Ugly

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘Bem feito, gatinha. I see you have strength as well as the power of flight. I am Bobby Lee, a name you have probably never heard. Perhaps you recognise Zephyr instead.’

  ‘I…’ Penny frowned, the name seemed familiar. ‘Yes, I remember an Ultra named Zephyr. You haven’t been active in a while.’

  ‘I can fly, but I have no other powers. I took to training others to do what would surely get me killed. Utilising flight as part of your fighting skills requires techniques not taught by anyone else. This is why Red has brought you to me, but the question is, “why should I agree to teach you?”’

  ‘I can’t really give you a good reason…’

  ‘That’s not exactly selling yourself, gatinha.’

  ‘I’ve nothing to sell. I learned a little judo when I was younger. I was never that good, but I guess it proves I can be taught. I’ve got the strength, and the flying, and I seem to be at least knife-resistant so I probably can’t hurt myself too badly while training. I want to be trained because I think I’ll be better able to do some good if I can actually defend myself.’

  Bobby nodded. ‘Let me see what I have to work with. Follow me… if you can.’

  He lifted upward in a gust of wind, as though the air itself was gathering to lift him, flying up toward the aerial obstacle course he had built. Penny looked after him before bending down to take her sandals off.

  ‘This is so not a dress to be doing this in,’ she muttered.

  ‘Don’t keep him waiting,’ Red suggested.

  Penny gritted her teeth and launched herself upward. Bobby, who had been hanging in the air above them, turned and jetted off toward the nearest hoop. Penny followed, but he did not make it easy for her, darting from one hoop to the next, pulling tight turns around hanging poles, and the backwash from the wind driving him made life harder. After five minutes of missing turns and bumping into hoops, Penny’s temper was starting to boil. She dropped to the deck and walked over to where June and Red were waiting.

  ‘Okay, okay. I suck at this,’ Penny said as she started putting her sandals back on. ‘I’ll go back home and… and become a model.’

  Her long, blonde hair was thrown around by the wind as Bobby landed behind her. ‘A noble goal, gatinha, and one I would not discourage you from, but you had me as soon as you landed on the deck. I merely wanted to see how long it would be before you gave up.’

  Penny glowered at him. ‘Thanks,’ she said flatly.

  He grinned back. ‘Come downstairs with me and we will discuss a training schedule.’ He lifted back into the air and swept toward the hole in the floor. ‘Oh, you get to bring Red and your beautiful friend. Much as I’d love one of them in my arms, I don’t have that kind of strength.’

  ‘You’re forgetting, Bobby,’ Red called after him, ‘we both prefer women’s arms around us anyway.’

  ‘I was not forgetting. Pobre de mim.’

  ~~~

  ‘You’ve got a martial arts teacher,’ June said, ‘and I seem to have a semi-attached girlfriend. That’s not bad going for the first week of a new year.’

  Penny grinned at her as she chopped the vegetables for dinner. ‘You think you and Red are going to be a serious thing?’

  ‘I’m not absolutely sure yet, but she invited me to go to the club again on Friday. She said I made her feel young. She said, and I can’t believe she said it, that it was nice to know an old woman like her could still attract a “young beauty” like me.’

  ‘Well there must be fifteen years between you.’

  ‘A little more. She’s forty-one, but does she look it?’

  ‘No, not really. Except her eyes, maybe. Her eyes are… experienced. She’s seen a lot.’

  June nodded, her expression turning sad. ‘I think it’s her back. It bothers her more than she lets on, I think, and it hurts. I think that makes her feel old more than anything, but she’s a tiger in bed.’

  ‘I don’t really need to know that.’

  ‘Bobby wants in your panties.’

  ‘I don’t need to know that either. You think?’

  ‘It wasn’t obvious? I mean, who wouldn’t, but he definitely does.’

  ‘I wouldn’t say no if he asked.’

  ‘He’ll ask. Might take a little while though.’

  ‘He did seem to be being very gentlemanly. I don’t think he’s the kind to assume.’

  ‘No,’ June agreed, ‘he’ll drop a few hints and see how you take them, and then sweep you off to his love nest in the sky.’ She grinned. ‘Top floor of his house anyway.’

  Penny giggled. ‘I can cope with that. But what does “gatinha” mean anyway?’

  1st March.

  ‘I’m not sure what’s up with you, Penny,’ Mister Leighton said as she stood before his desk. ‘Lately you’ve been tired, distracted, really not your usual self.’

  Penny looked at her feet. She could hear the whispering growing louder and was trying to ignore it. ‘I’m sorry, sir.’

  ‘This isn’t anything to do with Sean Truscott is it?’

  ‘No, sir…’

  ‘People think I don’t know what’s going on in my company, but I’ve heard the whispers. I know he dumped you…’

  Penny looked up. ‘I dumped him, Mister Leighton. I caught him… with Tina Abbot before Christmas. He’s been telling everyone he dumped me to save face.’

  Leighton smiled. ‘And you haven’t felt it necessary to disabuse anyone of the fact?’

  ‘Why bother, sir? The girls all know what really happened, and the men didn’t really care about me before. I don’t really care what they think.’

  ‘That’s your problem, Penny. You need to take care of yourself better. Now, what’s bothering you? Something is distracting you from your work.’

  ‘I…’ She had worked out that stress tended to make the voices worse, and right now they were getting loud enough that hearing Leighton was getting difficult. ‘I’ve been getting headaches a lot recently,’ she forced out. ‘Quite bad ones.’

  ‘Have you seen a doctor?’ There was actually concern in his voice, but she should have expected it. Leighton ran his company in a ‘family firm’ sort of way.

  ‘I’m seeing… a specialist.’

  ‘Good. I hope they can do something for you.’

  ‘Yes, sir. I’m sure he can.’

  ~~~

  ‘I’m still not sure how this qualifies as training,’ Penny commented as she followed Bobby through the crowd in the Huntress’ Den.

  He did not answer her immediately, instead leading the way to the side of the dance floor where he stopped, located a table, and sat down. Penny frowned, and took another of the seats, close enough that they could chat.

  ‘First,’ Bobby said, ‘all work and no play will make us both cranky. Second, Red has been nagging me to get out of the house more since I took you on.’

  ‘Well, my boss did say I was looking tired… So we’re on a date?’

  ‘It would increase my reputation considerably if people thought so, gatinha. However, we are also here to observe and, perhaps, practise.’

  ‘Observe what? People getting drunk?’

  ‘The dancing, gatinha, the dancing. Capoeira was developed from dancing. Many martial arts have close associations with dancing. The Indian Kalaripayit employs similar movements to temple dancing. Watch the dancers, how they move, how they use their bodies.’

  Penny watched, though she was not entirely sure what she was supposed to learn from a group of Friday night club dancers. There were the couples, dancing closer together than the singles in groups. There were the men trying too hard to impress their latest potential conquest. There were the bored women ignoring the men who wanted to make them into conquests. And there were a few who seemed to know what they were doing. Some were dancing very close, bodies shifting against their partners as though they had some inner sense of where they should be and when. Some just moved more gracefully. Penny picked them out and watched them, wondering whether she would ever be able to
move like that.

  ‘Has he fed you the line about watching dancers use their bodies?’

  Penny blinked and looked up to see Red standing at their table. June was beside her, grinning. The brunette’s outfits for visiting the Den had been growing more adventurous over the last several weeks; tonight’s featured a pink fishnet top with black tape criss-crossed over her nipples beneath it.

  ‘It is not,’ Bobby countered, ‘a line. Senhorita June, you once again make me wish your tastes in partner were different.’

  June favoured him with a smile and a blush. ‘Thank you, Bobby. I try to please.’

  ‘You succeed.’

  ‘Hands off, Don Juan,’ Red said, grinning to show she did not really mean it.

  ‘My hands are not involved. Would that they were. However,’ he turned to look at Penny, ‘has our little exercise taught you anything, gatinha?’

  ‘Uh… there’s a lot of bad dancers around,’ Penny told him. ‘And there are some who seem to be a lot better at it.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘They… They seem to judge their moves against their partners. Like they’re feeling what’s happening more than watching.’

  ‘Very good. This is what you must learn. The grace of movement will, I think, come naturally, but you must also learn to anticipate the movements of your partner, your opponent. Feel them out and understand how they will move.’

  ‘Knowing your enemy is half the battle won,’ Red commented.

  ‘This we will work on,’ Bobby agreed. ‘But later, when they play the slow dances.’

  Penny’s eyebrows went up. She glanced at June, and got a knowing grin in reply.

  ~~~

  Penny was having a little trouble concentrating on moving her body in the required, rhythmic manner. That was mostly because Bobby’s muscular body was pressed up against hers in what she had decided was definitely a sensual way. She could not recall anyone ever dancing that way with her before, and if they had then her new body was responding to it in a way her old one had not.

  Her skin felt hot, her palms were starting to sweat, and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Bobby did not, it seemed, need superpowers to turn her into a teenager on a prom date.

  And Bobby just kept smiling at her. She was sure her cheeks were glowing red every time he looked at her.

  ‘Relax,’ he said, his voice a whisper in her ear. His breath on her neck was not relaxing. ‘Listen to the music. Let your body move with it.’

  Well, that might help. Penny closed her eyes and listened. She was not exactly sure how you moved with the music, so she just let herself follow Bobby as he moved smoothly around the floor. Though the lack of visual stimulus meant that…

  ‘Let yourself feel my body against yours,’ Bobby said softly.

  …she was really feeling his body move against hers. It was like having sex in public! He shifted again, his hips brushing hers and… Well, at least she was having the same effect on him, but…

  The song came to an end and Penny found herself standing at the bar.

  ‘A drink, perhaps?’ Red suggested. The woman was grinning far too knowingly.

  ‘Sure,’ Penny said. ‘Something with ice. A lot of ice.’

  2nd March.

  ‘I can’t believe he didn’t ask you back to his place after that dance,’ June said as she settled down beside a bespectacled Penny.

  ‘I’m starting to think my other self isn’t as seductive as we think she is,’ Penny replied.

  ‘She is.’

  ‘Then kindly explain why you rolled in at two in the afternoon after a night of constant bonking, while I did not.’

  June frowned. ‘Well, you’re seeing him this afternoon, right?’

  ‘Day off. He said I needed a break. Mister Leighton said I was looking tired, and I have been working pretty hard… I’m getting an early night.’

  ‘Bobby said you needed a break?’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘Hmm… When you were dancing, he was pretty close, right?’

  ‘Oh God yes,’ Penny moaned.

  ‘Was he hard?’

  ‘June!’

  ‘Well? Was he?’

  ‘Yes,’ Penny squeaked.

  ‘I think he needs a break from trying not to take you to bed. He’s a gentleman. A horny one, but still. Can’t be easy keeping all that testosterone in check.’

  ‘Right,’ Penny said. ‘Sure.’

  ‘You, Penny Worthington, need more self-confidence. You’re hot, in either form, and don’t you forget it.’

  Well, it was nice of her to say so, but maybe June needed therapy for this strange delusion. Considering calling a psychoanalyst, Penny turned on the TV to watch True Powers.

  5th March.

  ‘And I need these notes entered into the system by the end of today.’

  Penny looked up at the pile of random papers with handwriting on them, which looked like a chicken had crawled across the page, and then up at James Thorpe, the other senior partner. She nodded. ‘Of course, Mister Thorpe.’

  Thorpe gave her what could only be described as an icy stare, turned on his heel, and walked out. He was not exactly the perfect boss, and certainly did not view the business in any ‘family’ way. He did not give Penny work often, but when he did he was usually demanding something that was difficult, if not impossible. It was after three. It might take her two hours just to puzzle out his handwriting, never mind typing it up. She would be late for practice with Bobby and…

  The voices in her mind were suddenly loud, insistent, intense. She jammed her eyes closed, her hands tensing as she fought to push the sounds away. They were louder than she had ever heard them and she thought she could almost understand…

  And then they were gone and she was looking at the notes she had scattered across her desk. ‘Damn,’ she muttered, starting to sort them back into order. At least Thorpe numbered his pages. She looked at the page she was holding in her right hand. Page nine, a note made at a meeting in North Beach, according to the heading. It was just an ordinary note, something about money transfers. The odd thing was the little doodle in the corner of the page, which looked like a badly drawn eagle, its wings pinned out to the sides by a pair of arrows. Weird. Also disgusting.

  Frowning, Penny got to her feet, went to the door, and locked it. Then she began to take off her clothes. Other Penny could type faster than Normal Penny, and she would not be inclined to panic attacks or randomly scattering the pages again. She just had to hope no one else wanted to visit her.

  ~~~

  ‘Pen?’ Thankfully it was June’s voice on the other side of the door. ‘Why’s the door locked? Have you got a man in there?’

  Penny rushed over, unlocked the door, and dragged June inside before she could say another word. She turned the lock again immediately. ‘Hush. No, I haven’t got a man in here.’

  ‘No, but you’re naked.’

  ‘Well I don’t have clothes here that fit, do I?’

  ‘Okay, yes, but that doesn’t explain why you’re… that shape.’

  ‘I needed the extra typing speed. I’m thirty or so words a minute faster like this and I don’t need my glasses.’

  ‘Oh… Well, are you about done? It’s time to go home.’

  ‘Just about. Last page. Here,’ Penny handed June page nine, ‘what d’you make of that?’

  June looked at the page, her face screwing up into a grimace. ‘Eww! It’s like… It’s like a totally twisted version of the National Emblem. You know how there’s a bunch of arrows in one claw?’

  ‘They’re Thorpe’s notes.’

  ‘Why can’t he use a tablet like everyone else? And why would he draw that?’

  Penny shrugged, sitting down to finish her typing. ‘I’ve got no idea. To either question.’

  9th March.

  Penny ducked low under Bobby’s kick, which unfortunately left her open for the knee strike which slammed right into her face sending her flying backward and onto the floor. H
e was on her in a second, straddling her hips, and pinning her wrists with his hands.

  ‘You’re getting much better,’ he said, grinning, ‘but you’ve got to plan ahead. Ducking makes your head vulnerable to low strikes. Now… I have you exactly where I want you.’

  Penny looked up at him. He was bare-chested, his skin bearing a sheen of sweat from their practice bouts. The weight of him over her pelvis felt far too good, but…

  ‘That would be true,’ she said, ‘if I wasn’t a lot stronger than you.’ Clenching her fists, she pushed upward, putting all the force she could into lifting his weight. It was easy, almost too easy; he really was no match for her in sheer power. It was his skill that let him beat her time after time, and when he let himself get into a grappling situation, he lost that advantage.

  Wind whipped at her hair and he lifted off her, swinging up and away before she could take advantage of his position. ‘You really are coming along well,’ he laughed. ‘Three weeks ago it would not have occurred to you to simply push.’

  Penny climbed to her feet and rose smoothly into the air until she was at his level. ‘Thanks. I have a good teacher. It’s not strictly your style, but you said to use whatever advantage I had.’

  ‘It is my style, gatinha. I teach that there is no such thing as a fair fight. Now, obstacle course. Go!’

  She bolted off toward the first hoop. She was getting better at his course though she was not sure whether that was skill or familiarity. Her combat skills were growing too, though she had noticed Bobby frown a few times when they fought, as though something he had noticed concerned him. He had said nothing, and she seemed to be progressing, so she had ignored it for now.

  ‘Concentrate,’ he ordered as she clipped a hoop. ‘Let yourself flow around the obstacles, but set your mind to the task, not to other things.’

  How he knew she was thinking about her performance she had no idea, but she blotted that from her mind and concentrated on the intricate dance her body was performing. She did not miss another turn.

  As she finished and landed smoothly on the mats he said, ‘Very good. I think that is enough for today. Take a shower, gatinha. You’ve earned it.’